AMBASSADOR JAMES F. DOBBINS

Director, International Security and Defense Policy Center

Ambassador Dobbins directs RAND’s International Security and Defense Policy Center.  He has held State Department and White House posts including Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Special Assistant to the President for the Western Hemisphere, Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State for the Balkans, and Ambassador to the European Community. He has handled a variety of crisis management assignments as the Clinton Administration’s special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and the Bush Administration’s first special envoy for Afghanistan. He is lead author of the three volume RAND History of Nation Building and The Beginner’s Guide to Nation Building.

In the wake of Sept 11, 2001, Dobbins was designated as the Bush Administration’s representative to the Afghan opposition. Dobbins helped organize and then represented the United States at the Bonn Conference where a new Afghan government was formed. On Dec. 16, 2001, he raised the flag over the newly reopened US Embassy.

Dobbins graduated from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and served 3 years in the U.S. Navy.  He is married to Toril Kleivdal, and has two sons.

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