R. Nicholas Burns

Robert Nicholas Burns (born January 28, 1956) is an American diplomat and academic who has served as the United States ambassador to China since 2022.

Burns has had a 25-year career in the State Department, and served as United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

Burns attended Wellesley High School, and studied abroad in Luxembourg in 1973 with the American Field Service Program.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, with a concentration in European history, from Boston College.

He also studied abroad at the University of Paris.

He received a master's degree from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1980 in international relations concentrating on international economics, American foreign policy, and Africa.

He speaks French, Arabic, Greek, and English.

Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Burns worked as program officer at A.T. International, a nonprofit organization specializing in economic assistance for Third World countries.

Burns began his Foreign Service career in Africa and the Middle East.

He was an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Vice Consul and Staff Assistant to the Ambassador in Cairo, Egypt, from 1983 to 1985, and then political officer at the American Consulate General in Jerusalem from 1985 to 1987, where his second daughter Elizabeth was born in 1986.

In this position, he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian population in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

He was a member of the Department's Transition Team in 1988, and served as Staff Officer in the Department's Operations Center and Secretariat in 1987–1988.

Burns served for five years (1990–1995) on the National Security Council staff at the White House.

He was special assistant to President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Affairs.

He had lead responsibility in the White House for advising the president on all aspects of U.S. relations with the fifteen countries of the former Soviet Union.

Under President George H. W. Bush, he was director for Soviet and then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian affairs.

During this time, he attended all U.S.–Soviet summits and numerous other international meetings and specialized on economic assistance issues, U.S. ties with Russia and Ukraine, and relations with the Baltic countries.

From 1995 to 1997, Burns was Spokesman of the Department of State and Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary Madeleine Albright.

In this position, he gave daily press conferences on U.S. foreign policy issues, accompanied both Secretaries of State on all their foreign trips and coordinated all of the department's public outreach programs.

From 1997 to 2001, Burns was the United States Ambassador to Greece.

During his tenure as Ambassador, the U.S. expanded its military and law enforcement cooperation with Greece, strengthened their partnership in the Balkans, and increased trade investment and people-to-people programs.

Burns supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Prior to his final assignment, Burns was the United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

As Ambassador to NATO, he headed the combined State-Defense Department U.S. Mission to NATO at a time when the Alliance committed to new missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war against terrorism, and accepted seven new members.

Appointed by President George W. Bush, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 17, 2005, and was sworn into office by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

As under secretary, he oversaw the bureaus responsible for U.S. policy in each region of the world and served in the senior career Foreign Service position at the department.

He retired on April 30, 2008.

He was a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in summer 2008.

Burns was a professor of diplomacy and international politics at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University and a member of the Board of Directors of the school's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

He was director of the Aspen Strategy Group, senior counselor at The Cohen Group, and serves on the board of directors of Entegris, Inc. He writes a bi-weekly column on foreign affairs for The Boston Globe and is a senior foreign affairs columnist for GlobalPost.

He also serves on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, Special Olympics, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, American Media Abroad, the Gennadius Library and the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

Burns is vice chairman of the American Ditchley Foundation and serves on the panel of senior advisors at Chatham House.

President Joe Biden nominated Burns to be Ambassador to China in August 2021.

He was confirmed by the Senate on December 16, 2021, by a vote of 75–18.

He presented his credentials on April 1, 2022.

Burns was born in Buffalo, New York, and raised in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

On January 18, 2008, Burns announced his retirement from the Foreign Service effective March 2008.

The reason cited was to go back to family concerns and to pursue other opportunities outside of government.

A White House press statement stated that Burns would continue to serve in an advisory capacity as the United States Special Envoy in finalizing the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act.

After leaving government service Burns started working for the Cohen Group, an international business consulting firm.