Appointment of Richard N. Haass as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

The President today announced the appointment of Dr. Richard N. Haass as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs.

Since 1985 Dr. Haass has been a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this he was Deputy in the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs (Policy) and Special Cyprus Coordinator, Department of State, 1982 - 1985; Director of the Office of Regional Security Affairs in the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, Department of State, 1981 - 1982; Special Assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary for Policy Review, Department of Defense, 1979 - 1980; research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, 1977 - 1979.

Dr. Haass was born in Brooklyn, NY, on July 28, 1951. A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Haass earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College, and he earned master and doctor of philosophy degrees from Oxford University. In addition to his doctoral thesis on U.S. foreign policy toward Southwest Asia between 1969 and 1976, Dr. Haass is the author of "Congressional Power: Implications for American Security Policy" (1979) and "Beyond the INF Treaty: Arms, Arms Control and the Atlantic Alliance" (1988). He is also coeditor of "Superpower Arms Control: Setting the Record Straight" (1987). Dr. Haass resides in Washington, DC.