Strobe Talbott

Strobe Talbott's nomination as Deputy Secretary of State was confirmed by the Senate on February 22, 1994. He was sworn in by Secretary of State Warren Christopher on February 23, 1994. He assumed that post after serving for a year as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State on the New Independent States (NIS).

Talbott entered government after 21 years as a journalist for "Time". His last position there was the magazine's Editor-at-Large and foreign affairs columnist. Prior to that, he was Washington Bureau Chief for five years. His earlier assignments for "Time" were Diplomatic Correspondent (1977-84), White House correspondent during the Ford Administration (1975-76), State Department correspondent when Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State (1974-75) and Eastern Europe correspondent for two years in the early 1970s.

Talbott is the author of several books on diplomacy and U.S.-Soviet relations. He translated and edited two volumes of Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, published in 1970 and 1974. He wrote a series of three books on U.S.-Soviet arms control: "Endgame: The Inside Story of SALT II" (1979); "Deadly Gambits: The Reagan Administration and the Stalemate in Nuclear Arms Control" (1984) and "Master of the Game: Paul Nitze and the Nuclear Peace" (1988). He is also the author of "The Russians and Reagan" (1984) and the co-author, with Michael Mandelbaum, of "Reagan and Gorbachev" (1987) and, with Michael R. Bechloss, "At The Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of The Cold War" (1993).

He twice won the Edward Weintal Prize for Distinguished Reporting on Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy in 1980 and 1985. His contributions were also cited in three Overseas Press Club Awards to "Time", in 1982, 1987 and 1989. As Deputy Secretary, he continued to write occasional articles for "The Economist", "The Financial Times", "Foreign Affairs", "Foreign Policy", "The New York Review of Books", "The New York Times", "Slate", "Time" and "The Washington Post."

Talbott served as a trustee of Yale University and the Hotchkiss School and as a director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Council on Foreign Relations and The Aspen Strategy Group. A native of Dayton, Ohio, he was educated at Hotchkiss and Yale, graduating in 1968. Following his graduation, he spent three years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Talbott is currently the president of the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. The Brookings Institution's mission is to to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy, foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system..