Guide to Specialists

Richard H. Solomon
President, Executive Office

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Phone: (202) 429-3835

E-mail: Contact Public Affairs

Languages: Mandarin Chinese

Richard H. Solomon has been president of the United States Institute of Peace since 1993 and has overseen its growth into a center of international conflict management analysis and applied programs.

Prior to this assignment, Solomon was assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 1989 to 1992. He negotiated the Cambodia peace treaty, the first United Nations "Permanent Five" peacemaking agreement; had a leading role in the dialogue on nuclear issues between the United States and South and North Korea; helped establish the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation initiative; and led U.S. negotiations with Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam on important bilateral matters. In 1992-93, Solomon served as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. He coordinated the closure of the U.S. naval bases and developed a new framework for bilateral and regional security cooperation.

Solomon previously served as director of policy planning at the Department of State and as a senior staff member of the National Security Council. In 1995, Solomon was awarded the State Department's Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, and he has received awards for policy initiatives from the governments of Korea and Thailand. In 2005, he received the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey career award for “notable public service by a political scientist."

Solomon began his career as professor of political science at the University of Michigan, and also served as head of the Political Science Department at the RAND Corporation. Solomon holds a Ph.D. in political science, with a specialization in Chinese politics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Publications:

• Creating a Common Communications Culture: Interoperability in Crisis Management
  USIP Virtual Diplomacy Series 17, August 2005
• "Managing International Conflict in the Twenty-First Century" in Passing the Baton: Challenges of Statecraft for the New Administration
  Peaceworks, May 2001
• Exiting Indochina: U.S. Leadership of the Cambodia Settlement and Normalization with Vietnam (USIP Press, 2000).
• Chinese Negotiating Behavior: Pursuing Interests Through "Old Friends"
  (USIP Press, 1999).

Other:

• Managing the Great Asian Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities in U.S.-China Relations
  Keynote address at the U.S.-China Business Council Gala Dinner, June 2004
• Teaching Peace or War?
  Congressional Testimony, October 2003
• In Memoriam of John Wallach: A Sower of Seeds of Peace
  Peace Watch, August 2002