Biography of Brian E. Carlson

Senior Liaison for Strategic Communication for the
Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

Ambassador Brian E. Carlson, an experienced public diplomacy specialist and a Career Minister in the Foreign Service, serves the State Department as senior liaison with the Department of Defense for strategic communication under the direction of the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

Carlson has served 36 years in the Foreign Service, including as the Ambassador to the Republic of Latvia 2001-2005. Other postings abroad took him to Spain, England, Norway, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Venezuela. Since returning to Washington in 2005, Ambassador Carlson has led inspection teams for the Inspector General of the Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors in the Middle East and Washington. He lectures on strategic communication and public diplomacy at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center and before public and civic groups.

Before going to Riga, and while managing worldwide operations for the Under Secretary of State, Ambassador Carlson co-produced President Clinton’s November 2000 “White House Conference on Culture and Diplomacy.” He has advanced nine overseas trips for U.S. presidents and managed press operations for international events.

During his years in Madrid, Carlson helped found the U.S.-Spain Council and develop a $4 million scholarship fund to send young Spaniards to American universities. In London, during the first Gulf war, he helped establish ties to emigre Arab newspapers to support U.S. policy. As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Carlson managed the opening of new U.S. public diplomacy operations in Eastern Europe, Russia and the new former-U.S.S.R. states. His Washington assignments include directing the State Department press office and managing public diplomacy programs in Eastern and Western Europe. He speaks Latvian, Spanish, Norwegian, Bulgarian and Serbian.