Ambassador Robert Hunter is Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), in Washington, DC. Previously, he was Director of the Center for Transatlantic Security Studies at the National Defense University. From 1998-2011, he was Senior Advisor at the RAND Corporation; and he was Senior International Consultant to Lockheed Martin Overseas Corporation and Chairman of the Council for a Community of Democracies. He serves on the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board.
From 1993-1998, Robert Hunter was U.S. Ambassador to NATO and represented the U.S. to the Western European Union. He was principal architect and US negotiator of the “New NATO,” including Partnership for Peace and NATO-EU relations, and he negotiated the air-strike decisions that ended the Bosnia War. From 1981-1993, he was at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Throughout the Carter Administration, he served on the National Security Council staff, with lead responsibility for West European and then Middle East Affairs, including West Bank/Gaza autonomy negotiations. He created the Carter Doctrine for the Persian Gulf. Earlier, he was Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy, Senior Fellow at the Overseas Development Council, Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and domestic and foreign policy advisor to Vice President Hubert Humphrey. He served on the LBJ White House domestic staff (education) and in the Navy Department (Polaris Project). He has played a senior national policy role in 9 presidential campaigns and written speeches/articles for more major candidates for president than anyone else in US history (including 3 Presidents and 4 Vice Presidents.)
Ambassador Hunter was educated at Wesleyan University and the London School of Economics (PhD in International Relations; Fulbright Scholar). He has taught at 5 universities and has more than 1000 publications. He was twice decorated with the Defense Department’s highest civilian honor and by eight foreign governments, including the French Légion d’honneur.