Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings Institute May 22, 2008

Strobe Talbott will speak about his new book “The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation,” which combines historical and political analysis with personal reflection on efforts to forge a peaceful community of nations.

Prior to assuming presidency of Brookings in 2002, Talbott was founding director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Before that, he served in the State Department from 1993 to 2001, first as Ambassador-at-large and special adviser to the Secretary of State for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union, then as Deputy Secretary of State for seven years.

Talbott entered government service after 21 years with Time magazine. As a reporter, he covered Eastern Europe, the State Department, and the White House, and then was Washington bureau chief, editor-at-large and foreign affairs columnist.

Talbott’s past books include: “Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb;” “At the Highest Levels” (with Michael Beschloss); “The Master of the Game;” “Reagan and Gorbachev” (with Michael Mandelbaum); “Deadly Gambits;” and “Endgame.” He translated and edited two volumes of Nikita Khrushchev’s memoirs in the early 1970s. He has also written for Foreign Affairs, The New Yorker, Foreign Policy, International Security, The Economist, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post and Slate.

Talbott has been a fellow of the Yale Corporation, trustee of Hotchkiss School and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, director of the Council on Foreign Relations, North American Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, and American Association of Rhodes Scholars, a member of the participating faculty of the World Economic Forum, and is currently a member of the Aspen Strategy Group. He has been awarded state orders by the presidents of Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and the king of Sweden.

Official Website: http://www.cityclub.org/content/speakers/SpeakerDetail.aspx?spkID=5578