PrintRichard H. Solomon
President, Member Ex-Officio of the Board of Directors
Contact
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.
Multimedia
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
Resources & Tools
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No technologies have been more powerful in reshaping the post-Cold War international system than those of the information revolution. Over the past two decades, nation-states and subnational groups, international businesses, and multinational organizations have struggled to incorporate the dramatic possibilities for their work of satellite communications, the Internet, inexpensive telephone and cell phone services, fax machines, and global computer networks. |
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Congressional Testimony by Richard H. Solomon, president of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Countries: United States
| Issue Areas: Peacebuilding, Political Systems and International Relations, Use of Force
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This report summarizes discussions at a conference of leading officials and specialists on January 17, 2001. The conference program was organized around five panel discussions covering two functional topics (organizing for national security and international conflict management) and three geographic regions of special concern to the United States (Russia, the Balkans, and Northeast Asia). Countries: Asia, Europe, Russian Federation, United States
| Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Security and Strategy
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This book recounts the diplomacy that brought an end to great power involvement in Indochina, including the negotiations for a UN peace process in Cambodia and construction of a “road map” for normalizing U.S.-Vietnam relations. |
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After two decades of hostile confrontation, China and the United States initiated negotiations in the early 1970s to normalize relations. Senior officials of the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations had little experience dealing with the Chinese, but they soon learned that their counterparts from the People’s Republic were skilled negotiators. |
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Issue Areas: Communications and Media, Science and Technology
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Events
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November 4, 2009
Thirty years to the day after the taking of the U.S. hostages in Iran, in the wake of their controversial June 2009 presidential election, the regime's ensuing crackdown against peaceful demonstrators, and recent news of U.S. funding cuts for Iran democracy programs, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) offered his views on how the U.S. should approach Iran on the issues of human rights and democracy. |
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June 22, 2009
From his first day in office, President Barack Obama has made Arab-Israeli peacemaking a top foreign policy priority. In recent weeks, he has consulted with a wide range of leaders from the region, including Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu Countries: Israel, Palestinian Territories, United States
| Issue Areas: Demographics, Governance, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Religion, Security and Strategy, Terrorism and Political Extremism, Use of Force, Weapons & Arms Control , Youth
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April 3, 2009
A USIP Congressional Newsmaker Series Event Countries: Afghanistan
| Issue Areas: Civil-Military Relations, Conflict Analysis, Economics and Development, Human Rights, Identity, Ethnicity, and Culture, Peacebuilding
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February 3, 2009
Distinguished panelists and citizen journalists around the world to discuss the role of media in public diplomacy. |
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October 7, 2008
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October 10, 2008
A public event co-sponsored with The International Security Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and The US Army Combined Arms Center (CAC) Countries: United States
| Issue Areas: Civil-Military Relations, Conflict Management and Resolution, Peacebuilding, Security and Strategy
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September 17, 2008
A public event jointly sponsored with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Countries: Africa
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis, Humanitarian Efforts, Identity, Ethnicity, and Culture, Peacebuilding, Terrorism and Political Extremism, Youth
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March 21, 2008
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March 6, 2008
A public event sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) |
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February 7, 2008
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October 16, 2007
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May 23, 2007
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October 19, 2006
Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Religion
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October 5, 2006
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October 4, 2006
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March 21, 2006
Countries: Liberia
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February 7, 2006
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September 28, 2005
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October 25, 2002
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September 5, 2002
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June 12, 2002
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May 6, 2002
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April 2, 2002
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February 14, 2002
Issue Areas: Conflict Management and Resolution, Humanitarian Efforts
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