Nicholas Burns is the 2019 Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellow.

Nicholas Burns is Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, a former diplomat, and is a foreign policy advisor in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. He is the founder and Faculty Chair of the Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair of the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, is a Faculty Affiliate of the Middle East Initiative, and is a Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Prior to Harvard, Burns served for twenty-seven years in the US Foreign Service. He served as undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2005 to 2008, as US ambassador to NATO for President George W Bush and to Greece for President Bill Clinton, and as State Department spokesman for Secretaries Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright. He worked at the National Security Council from 1990 to 1995 on Soviet and then Russian affairs for Presidents George HW Bush and Clinton. 

Burns is Executive Director of the nonpartisan Aspen Strategy Group and serves on several other nonprofit boards.