9/19/16: Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering
Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering holds the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was U.S. ambassador to Israel, the Russian Federation, India, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan. From 1989 to 1992, he was Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, where he led the U.S. effort to build a coalition in the UN Security Council during and after the first Gulf War. He then served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the third highest post in the U.S. State Department. Earlier in his career, he was Special Assistant to Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Henry Kissinger. He also served in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserves. He speaks French, Spanish and Swahili fluently and also Arabic, Hebrew and Russian.
Ambassador Pickering is in Nashville thanks to the Tennessee World Affairs Council, Belmont University and The Iran Project, a non-partisan educational organization that works to build understanding of global issues in the community. Belmont University hosts the Council on its campus through a partnership with the Center for International Business in the College of Business Administration.