Prior to his appointment, Blackwill was the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and taught foreign and defense policy and qualitative public policy analysis. A former Associate Dean of the Kennedy School, he was faculty chairman of the School’s Executive Program for U.S. Russian General Officers; of the School’s Chinese Security Studies Program; and of the Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative.

Blackwill is a retired U.S career diplomat. His previous assignments included Political Counselor in Embassy Tel Aviv; Director of West European Affairs on the National Security Council staff; Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs; Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs; Ambassador and Chief Negotiator at the negotiations with the Warsaw Pact on conventional forces in Europe; and Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to President George Bush, 1989-90. While at the White House, he was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to German Unification.

He is the author of many books and articles including co-editor of Conventional Arms Control and East-West Security (Duke University Press, 1989), and A Primer for the Nuclear Age (University Press of American, 1990). He also co-edited New Nuclear Nations (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1993) with Albert Carnesale, Damage Limitation or Crisis? Russia and the Outside World (Brassey’s Inc., 1994) with Sergei Karaganov, and Allies Divided: Transatlantic Policies for the Greater Middle East (MIT Press, 1997) with Michael Sturmer of German’s Research Institute for International Affairs. Other books include Engaging Russia (The Trilateral Commission, 1995) with Rodric Braithwaite and Akihiko Tananka, and Arms Control and the US-Russian Relationship (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1996). In 1999, the Council on Foreign Relations published his monograph, The Future of Transatlantic Relations. His latest book, America’s Asian Alliances, co-edited with Paul Dibb, was published in July 2000 by MIT Press.