James Goodby

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Eugene Goodby (born 20 December 1929 in Providence, R.I.) is an author and former US diplomat.

He graduated from Harvard in 1951, and served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force during the Korean War.

He later served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, a position he filled in various roles until his retirement in 1989. Some highlights during this period include:

Negotiations with NATO alliance partners as part of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe to create the Helsinki Accords.
Served as the US Ambassador to Finland in 1980 and 1981.
Served as vice chairman of the U.S. Delegation to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START)

In 1993 he returned from retirement to become the Chief U.S. Negotiator for the Safe and Secure Dismantlement of Nuclear Weapons. During this time he negotiated agreements with several former Soviet Republics to dismantle former Sovient nuclear weapons and to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation. He later won the 1st Annual Heinz Award Recipient for this work.

He currently is a Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institute and a member of the Bipartisan Security Group.