Role Journalist | Name Strobe Talbott Political party Democratic Succeeded by Richard Armitage | |
Preceded by Clifton R. Wharton, Jr. Profession Journalist, translator, diplomat Books The Russia hand, Engaging India: Diplomac, The Great Experiment: The Story, Fast Forward: Ethics an, The Legacy of John Holt |
Walk the talk strobe talbott aired february 2004
Nelson Strobridge "Strobe" Talbott III (born April 25, 1946) is an American foreign policy analyst associated with Yale University and the Brookings Institution, a former journalist associated with Time magazine, and a diplomat who served as the Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 to 2001.
Contents
- Walk the talk strobe talbott aired february 2004
- Strobe talbott conversations from the sun valley writers conference on dialogue
- Early life
- Career
- Controversy
- Family
- Quotes
- Honors and awards
- References
Strobe talbott conversations from the sun valley writers conference on dialogue
Early life

Born in Dayton, Ohio, to Jo and Nelson Strobridge "Bud" Talbott II, Talbott attended the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut and graduated in 1968 from Yale University, where he had been chairman of the Yale Daily News, a position whose previous incumbents include Henry Luce, William F. Buckley, and Joe Lieberman. He was also a member of the Scholar of the House program in 1967–68, and belonged to a society of juniors and seniors called Saint Anthony Hall. He became friends with former President Bill Clinton when both were Rhodes Scholars at the University of Oxford; during his studies there he translated Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs into English.
Career
In 1972, Talbott, along with his friends Robert Reich (a fellow Rhodes Scholar) and David E. Kendall, rallied to his friends Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton to help them in their Texas campaign to elect George McGovern president of the United States. In the 1980s, he was Time's principal correspondent on Soviet-American relations, and his work for the magazine was cited in the three Overseas Press Club Awards won by Time in the 1980s. Talbott also wrote several books on disarmament.
Following Bill Clinton's election as president, Talbott was invited into government where he served at first managing the consequences of the Soviet breakup as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Adviser to the Secretary of State Warren Christopher on the New Independent States. After leaving government, he was for a period Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. He is currently the president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
At Brookings, he is responsible for formulating and setting policies, recommending projects, approving publications and selecting staff. He brings to Brookings the experience of his careers spanning journalism, government service and academe, and his expertise in US foreign policy with specialties on Europe, Russia, South Asia and nuclear arms control.
On January 31, 2017 Talbott announced his resignation from the Brookings Institution. The resignation was later retracted. . Talbott currently also sits on DC non-profit America Abroad Media's advisory board.
Controversy
The former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) operative Sergei Tretyakov said that SVR considered Talbott a source of intelligence information and classified him as "a special unofficial contact," even though "he was not a Russian spy." The allegations center on Talbott's relationship with Russia's ambassador to Canada, Georgiy Mamedov, who was a longtime SVR "co-optee," according to Treiakov. Mamedov called the allegations "blatant lies." Talbott also rejected the accusations, calling them "erroneous and/or misleading in several fundamental aspects..." and said that his meetings with Mamedov advanced US objectives, such as getting Russia to accept NATO enlargement and helping to end the Kosovo War.
Family
He married Brooke Shearer in 1971. Talbott had been her brother, Derek's, roommate. Brooke, who was Talbott's wife of 38 years, died on May 19, 2009.
Quotes
Honors and awards
Talbott is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.