Ambassador Marc Grossman named Kissinger Senior Fellow

January 17. New Haven, CT—Ambassador Marc Grossman, who recently stepped down as the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will come to Yale as a Kissinger Senior Fellow, according to an announcement by the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy.

Grossman will interact with students during three visits to the Yale campus this spring, and will teach a course at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs next fall.

The Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy is a program of the Jackson Institute in collaboration with International Security Studies and the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy. The center brings prominent statesmen and academics to campus as Kissinger Senior Fellows and Kissinger Visiting Scholars; it also hosts an annual conference and a variety of other events relating to international affairs. The Johnson Center was made possible by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s recent donation of his papers to Yale and a gift from Charles B. Johnson ’54 and Nicholas F. Brady ’52.

“I am honored to serve as a Kissinger Senior Fellow and to teach at Yale,” said Grossman, who is a vice chair of The Cohen Group, a global business consulting firm in Washington, D.C, headed by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. “I look forward to contributing to Yale’s terrific programs and working with Yale’s remarkable students.”

“I am delighted that Ambassador Marc Grossman will serve as a Kissinger Senior Fellow,” said James Levinsohn, director of the Jackson Institute and the Charles W. Goodyear Professor in Global Affairs. “Marc’s extraordinary diplomatic career will serve as a powerful inspiration for our students, who will benefit immensely from his foreign policy expertise.”

“Marc Grossman is an outstanding diplomat and one of the very best that the U.S. Foreign Service has to offer,” remarked Kissinger. “It is wonderful that Ambassador Grossman will teach at Yale following his distinguished career in service to the United States.”

Grossman served for nearly 29 years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, beginning with his first assignment as a junior officer in Pakistan, where he served 1977–1979, and ending as the department’s third-ranking official, the under secretary of state for political affairs, a position he held 2001–2005.

Following his retirement from the U.S. Department of State in 2005, Grossman was a vice chair of the Cohen Group before being called back into service by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2011. In that role, Grossman shaped and supported American diplomatic, military, and economic policy toward those critical countries across the entire U.S. government and with allies, friends, and partners around the world.

During his Foreign Service career, Grossman served as the director general of the Foreign Service and director of human resources 2000–2001, and as assistant secretary of state for European affairs 1997–2000. He was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey 1994–1997, and previously served there as the embassy’s deputy chief of mission 1989–1992.

Grossman was the executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to the secretary of state from 1993 to 1994. He also served as the deputy director of the private office of Lord Carrington, the NATO secretary-general, 1983–1986.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Grossman graduated from the University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara, and later received an MSc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. From 2006 to 2010, he was a professorial lecturer at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

The ambassador has received numerous honors and awards. He attained the Foreign Service’s highest rank in 2004, when President George W. Bush appointed him to the rank of career ambassador; he received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award the following year.

“Ambassador Grossman’s life experience will be invaluable to the Yale community,” said John Gaddis, director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and the Robert A. Lovell Professor of Military and Naval History. “This is just one example of how the Johnson Center can dramatically expand Yale’s teaching of statecraft and diplomacy.”

The Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, which houses the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy, is a centerpiece of Yale’s efforts to internationalize its teaching curriculum, to attract the most talented students and scholars to Yale from around the world, and to deepen the University’s engagement abroad. Established in April 2009 with a gift from John W. and Susan G. Jackson, the institute administers Yale’s international relations master’s program as well as the global affairs undergraduate major. The Jackson Institute also provides career counseling and placement assistance to students wishing to pursue a career in public service.

Contact Information:

Marilyn Wilkes

The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale

(203) 432-3413