Graduate, Yale University and Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; PhD in American History, American University. 1984-88, with US State Department, including: with Policy Planning Staff; Principal Speechwriter, Secretary of State George P Shultz; Deputy, Policy, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs. Current member, Secretary of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Contributing columnist, Washington Post. Author: The World America Made (2012), The Return of History and the End of Dreams (2008); Dangerous Nation: America's Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the 20th Century (2006), Of Paradise and Power (2003). Repeatedly named one of the world's Top 100 Global Thinkers, Foreign Policy magazine.