Julianne Smith
23rd United States Ambassador to NATO
Assumed office
December 6, 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byKay Bailey Hutchison
Personal details
Children2
EducationXavier University (BA) (1991)
American University (MA) (1995)

Julianne Smith is an American foreign policy advisor and diplomat who serves as the United States Permanent Representative to NATO in the Biden administration. She previously served as deputy national security advisor to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama administration.

Education

Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in communications and French from Xavier University and a Master of Arts in international relations from American University. She also studied French at the University of Paris, Sorbonne for a year and German at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich for one year.[1]

Career

NGO experience

From 2000 to 2003, Smith worked as a program officer at the German Marshall Fund. She then joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies as a senior fellow,[2] where among other accomplishments in November 2006 she edited Transforming NATO (...again) - A Primer for the NATO Summit in Riga 2006,[3] and in 2008 she published The NATO-Russia Relationship: Defining Moment or Déjà Vu?.[4]

Obama administration

From 2009 to 2012, she served as the director of European and NATO policy at the United States Department of Defense, where she co-wrote the 2010 NATO Strategic Concept document,[5] under Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

From April 2012 to June 2013, she served as deputy national security advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden.[6]

Later NGO experience

From 2014 to 2018, she worked at the Center for a New American Security. She was also a fellow at the Robert Bosch Stiftung for one year. A senior advisor post at WestExec Advisors followed the consultancy's formation in 2017.

Smith co-founded the Leadership Council for Women in National Security,[7][8] which officially launched on 25 June 2019.[9]

She worked as an advisor to a German consultancy called Berlin Global Advisors and worked at the American Academy in Berlin,[10][11] while she penned such essays in foreign policy magazines as "NATO in the Age of Trump".[12]

A 2021 investigation in The American Prospect found that Smith, "who listed Boeing and SoftBank as clients, earned $34,000 as a WestExec consultant while holding down a full-time role at the think tank German Marshall Fund."[13]

Biden administration

In January 2021, Smith became a senior advisor to the United States secretary of state.[14]

Representative to NATO

On June 15, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Smith to serve as the United States permanent representative to NATO.[14] On September 15, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On October 19, 2021, her nomination was reported favorably out of committee.[15] Her nomination was confirmed by United States Senate on November 18, 2021 by voice vote.[16]

Punditry career

Smith has written op-ed columns for The New York Times, Lawfare, Washington Monthly, Foreign Affairs, and The National Interest.[17] She has also appeared on NPR programs, including 1A, All Things Considered, and Morning Edition.[18][19][20]

Personal life

Smith and her husband have two sons.[21] She speaks German and French.[14]

References

  1. "Julianne Smith". www.cnas.org. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  2. "Julie Smith Joins GMF as Director of Asia and Future of Geopolitics Programs". The German Marshall Fund of the United States. 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  3. Smith, Julianne (November 2006). "Transforming NATO (...again) - A Primer for the NATO Summit in Riga 2006" (PDF). CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES.
  4. Smith, Julianne, The NATO-Russia Relationship: Defining Moment or Déjà Vu? Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2008.
  5. Schifrin, Nick (29 June 2022). "U.S. ambassador to NATO discusses Europe's biggest security crisis in decades". PBS NewsHour. YouTube.
  6. "Biden Nominates Envoys To Israel And Mexico — And Hero Pilot To Aviation Post". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  7. Steven Erlanger. (27 January 2022). "A ‘NATO Nerd’ Thrown Into the Crisis Over Russia and Ukraine". New York Times website Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  8. LCWINS Alumni. Leadership Council for Women in National Security website Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  9. LCWINS About page
  10. White House. Department of State. (3 December 2021). " U.S Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization". U.S. Mission to NATO website Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  11. Staff biography. Center for a New American Security website Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  12. Smith, Julianne; Townsend, Jim (9 July 2018). "NATO in the Age of Trump". Foreign Affairs Published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
  13. GUYER, JONATHAN; GRIM, RYAN (6 July 2021). "Meet the Consulting Firm That's Staffing the Biden Administration". The American Prospect, Inc.
  14. 1 2 3 "President Biden Announces His Intent to Nominate Nine More Individuals to Serve as Ambassadors". The White House. 2021-06-15. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  15. "SFRC APPROVES 33 CRITICAL FOREIGN POLICY NOMINATIONS" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. October 19, 2021. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  16. "PN736 - Nomination of Julianne Smith for Department of State, 117th Congress (2021-2022)". www.congress.gov. 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  17. "Articles by Julianne Smith | The New York Times, Financial Times, Time Magazine Journalist | Muck Rack". muckrack.com. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  18. "U.S. Wants NATO to Step Up in Afghanistan". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  19. "Europe's "Existential Threat" : 1A". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  20. "Trump's Tough Talk On German Defense Spending Is Straining A Decades-Long Friendship". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  21. "Getting to know EMPA commencement speaker Julianne Smith". Hertie School. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
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