REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence – Foreign Service
POST: Kingdom of Morocco
CANDIDATE: Puneet Talwar
Puneet Talwar is an experienced policy professional who has held senior national security and foreign policy positions in the State Department, White House, and United States Senate. He is currently a Senior Advisor at the State Department. Previously, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at the National Security Council, and Senior Professional Staff Member at the Committee on Foreign Relations in the United States Senate. His extensive experience as a policymaker with deep knowledge of the Middle East and North Africa, his demonstrated leadership skills, and his proven ability to coordinate teams from across the government make him a well-qualified candidate to serve as Ambassador to Morocco.
Mr. Talwar’s public service also includes key roles in the U.S. House of Representatives and the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. In the non-governmental sector, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Penn Biden Center, a Counselor to the conflict resolution NGO Inter Mediate, and a Non-resident Scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. He has published articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest.
Mr. Talwar is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a native of Washington, DC. He earned his B.S. Degree in Engineering from Cornell University and his M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University