Biography
My path to life-saving advocacy for refugees was indirect. After 25 years with The Wall Street Journal as a reporter, editor and columnist and six years as the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs and Pentagon spokesman, I became president of Refugees International in 2001. My interest in assisting refugees began during efforts to bring peace and stability to the Balkans. The 1999 Kosovo crisis showed how well the world could handle a massive flow of refugees before, during and after NATO's successful campaign to end ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. It was an impressive demonstration of how the world can solve humanitarian problems when it mobilizes. But the world often fails to end atrocities and the forced displacement they cause. The genocides in Rwanda in 1994 and Darfur today are two examples.
Refugees International works every day to highlight the plight of some of the world's most vulnerable people--33 million refugees and internally displaced people--and to generate the political will and economic resources to protect them. Refugees International attracted me because it promotes life-saving action. Most importantly, it pushes governments and the United Nations to overcome the "commitment gap" that prevents the world from ending genocide, human rights abuses, wars, and other causes of displacement. The agency is completely independent and accepts no government or UN funds. As president of RI, I also co-chair the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping serve on the board of InterAction, the umbrella group for international relief, development and advocacy agencies. I also serve on the boards of The American University in Cairo and Population Action International, and I am an emeritus trustee of Amherst College, my alma mater, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. I am member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. While at Refugees International, I have published articles and op-ed pieces on humanitarian issues in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Newsday, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and World Policy Journal and appeared frequently on radio and television, including CNN, the BBC and National Public Radio, to discuss refugees and displacement. |
