Ambassador Laura Kennedy is a foreign affairs expert who served for nearly 40 years with the U.S. Foreign Service. She was Ambassador to Turkmenistan (2001-3), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2004-5), taught and served as Deputy Commandant at the National War College (2007-9), and was appointed U.S. Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and Special Representative for Biological Weapons Convention Issues (2010-13). After retiring, she was recalled to active service in May 2014 to serve as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan in 2014 and then from 2014-15 as Charge at the U. S. Mission to the United Nations in Vienna and a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency until July 2015.
Ambassador Kennedy serves on the boards of the American Academy of Diplomacy, Foreign Policy for America, the Arms Control Association, the Advisory Council of the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, and the Deep Cuts Commission. She was appointed to Secretary Blinken’s International Security Advisory Board in 2022. Follow Ambassador Kennedy on X at @AmbKennedy_ret and on Mastodon at @AmbKennedy.mastodon.online.
Explore some of Ambassador Kennedy’s recent commentary:
- U.S.-Central Asia Relations After Biden’s Meeting With Region’s Presidents — RFE/RL, 9/24/23
- Authorize State Department Programs So We Can Truly Lead With Diplomacy — The Hill, 12/6/22
- With New START Extended, What Is Future of U.S.-Russian Arms Control? — By Amb. Laura Kennedy, Russia Matters, 2/5/21
- Getting State Back into Nuclear Arms Control and Nonproliferation — American Foreign Service Association, January/February 2021
- Trump Runs Dangerous and Chaotic Approach Toward Nuclear Weapons — The Hill, 12/3/19
- How Congress Can Prevent a Meltdown of Global Nuclear Arms Control — The National Interest, 8/24/19