Robert L. Gallucci (born February 11, 1946) is an Italian American academic and diplomat, who currently works as President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He previously served as Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University from 1996 to June 2009. Before his appointment in 1996 he was employed for 21 years by various governmental and international agencies, including the Department of State and the United Nations.
Gallucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook for his undergraduate studies, later earning his master's degree and doctorate in politics from Brandeis University. After his post-graduate studies, he taught at Swarthmore College, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University. He has received fellowships from the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University, and the Brookings Institution.
Gallucci left the world of academia in 1974 and went on to hold various positions relating to international affairs. He first found employment at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Four years later, he became a division chief in the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Between 1979 to 1981, he was a member of the Secretary's policy planning staff. He then served as an office director in both the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for a year each.
Ten years after beginning his foreign affairs career, he left Washington, D.C., to serve as the Deputy Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers, the Sinai peacekeeping force headquartered in Rome. He returned in 1988 to join the faculty of the National War College, where he taught for three years. In April 1991 he moved to New York to take up an appointment as the Deputy Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) overseeing the disarmament of Iraq. He returned again to Washington in 1992 to join the Office of the Deputy Secretary as the Senior Coordinator responsible for nonproliferation and nuclear safety initiatives in the former Soviet Union. In July of the same year his appointment as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs was confirmed. During the North Korean nuclear crisis of 1994, Gallucci was the chief U.S. negotiator. He also has served as an Ambassador-at-Large with the Department of State since August 1994.
Gallucci returned to Georgetown University as Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service on May 1, 1996. In March 1998, the Department of State appointed him as Special Envoy to deal with the threat posed by the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction, a position which he held until January 2001. As a dean at Georgetown University, Gallucci recommended conservative Douglas J. Feith to a 2-year faculty position which Feith occupied in the fall of 2006, a move which generated protests from some liberal faculty and students.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard A. Clarke |
Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs July 13, 1992 – October 11, 1994 |
Succeeded by Thomas E. McNamara |