PrintRichard H. Solomon
President, Member Ex-Officio of the Board of Directors
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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:
- Confronting the Challenge of "Political Will" (with Lawrence Woocher)
Instability Warning and Genocide Prevention Symposium 2010, March 18, 2010 - 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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Informed by discussions and interviews with more than fifty seasoned foreign and American negotiators, this landmark study offers a rich and detailed portrait of the negotiating practices of American officials. Including contributions by eleven international experts, I assesses the multiple influences--cultural, institutional, historical, and political--that shape how American policymakers and diplomats approach negotiations with foreign counterparts and highlights behavioral patterns that transcend the actions of individual negotiators and administrations. Countries: France, India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Soviet Union (USSR), Turkey, United States
| Issue Areas: Negotiation and Diplomacy
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Since the Holocaust we have often heard the words "never again." Yet, too often the world has failed to mount serious action to prevent genocidal violence, making "never again" an empty slogan. |
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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
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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: Security Sector Reform/Governance
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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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Following two decades of rapid growth, social change, and industrialization, the countries of the East Asian region are experiencing their first regionwide economic crisis. The immediate economic causes of Asia's financial crisis--especially unsustainable short-term foreign debt incurred by the private sector and exposed by the sudden devaluation of overvalued local currencies--have been identified. The challenges for U.S. leadership in response to the region's current financial crisis are to contain the damage so that it does not cause a round of global economic deflation and domestic instability that could harm regional security and to sustain confidence in U.S. leadership to stimulate reform of the regulatory system for managing global capital flows. |
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Events
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May 12, 2010
This event celebrated the publication of “American Negotiating Behavior: Wheeler-Dealers, Legal Eagles, Bullies, and Preachers,“ by Richard H. Solomon and coauthor Nigel Quinney. Published by the U.S. Institute of Peace, this landmark study offers a rich and detailed portrait of the negotiating practices of American officials.
Countries: United States
| Issue Areas: Mediation and Facilitation, Negotiation and Diplomacy
| Programs: Grant Program
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April 1, 2010
Anwar Sadat, considered one of the great leaders whose efforts were indispensable in ending war between Egypt and Israel, inspired many. Almost three decades after his passing, a comprehensive resolution to the Middle East conflict remains elusive. Programs: Grant Program, Grants & Fellowships
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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. Countries: Iran
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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 |
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April 3, 2009
A USIP Congressional Newsmaker Series Event Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Economics and Conflict
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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) |
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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 |
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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
Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention
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May 23, 2007
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October 19, 2006
Issue Areas: Religion and Peacemaking
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October 5, 2006
Issue Areas: Religion and Peacemaking, Security Sector Reform/Governance
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October 4, 2006
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March 21, 2006
Countries: Liberia
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February 7, 2006
Countries: North Korea
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September 28, 2005
Countries: China, Japan, North Korea, Russian Federation, South Korea, United States
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Negotiation and Diplomacy
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October 25, 2002
Issue Areas: Security Sector Reform/Governance
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September 5, 2002
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June 12, 2002
Countries: North Korea
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May 6, 2002
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April 2, 2002
Countries: Philippines
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February 14, 2002
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