Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering former seven-time U.S. Ambassador, who has led missions in Jordan, Russia, India, El Salvador, Israel, Nigeria and the United Nations. He received an appointment as Career Ambassador to the United Nations.

Pickering played a critical role as Ambassador during the first Gulf War when he helped lead the United Nations Security Council’s response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Following his retirement, the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program was renamed the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship to honor Pickering’s service.  Recently, Pickering helped lead a State-Department-sponsored panel investigating the attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

He is currently a co-chair of the International Crisis Group, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Henry L. Stimson Center boards of directors. He is on the advisory boards of the Partnership for a Secure America, the Eurasia Group, and America Abroad Media. He also serves on the guiding coalition of the nonpartisan Project on National Security Reform.

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