The Honorable Richard H. Solomon
USCPF Boardmember
Richard H. Solomon served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 1989 to 1992. During his service in this role he negotiated the first UN "Permanent Five" peacemaking agreement for Cambodia, had a leading role in the dialogue on nuclear issues among the United States and South and North Korea, helped establish the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) initiative, and led U.S. negotiations with Japan, Mongolia, and Vietnam on important bilateral matters.
During 1992-93, Solomon served as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. In that capacity, he coordinated the closure of the U.S. naval bases and developed a new framework for bilateral and regional security cooperation.
Ambassador Solomon previously served as director of policy planning at the Department of State (1986-89) and senior staff member of the National Security Council (1971-76), where he was involved in the process of normalizing relations with the People's Republic of China. From 1976 to 1986, he was head of the social science department at the RAND Corporation. Ambassador Solomon has been president of the U.S. Institute of Peace since September 1993.
Ambassador Solomon has done research and consulting work for a variety of U.S. Government offices and served as a visiting professor at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington (1972-74). He was an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (1971) and served as a consultant to the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies (1978-80). He was a board member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). He has served on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel since 1984.
In 1995, Ambassador Solomon was awarded the State Department's Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, and he has received awards for policy initiatives from the governments of Korea and Thailand and from Cambodians in the United States.
Ambassador Solomon received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1966) where he specialized in political science and Chinese politics. He has contributed articles to a variety of professional journals, including Foreign Affairs and the China Quarterly, and has published five books--The Soviet Far East Military Buildup: Nuclear Dilemmas and Asian Security (1986), The China Factor (1981), Asian Security in the 1980's (1979), A Revolution is Not a Dinner Party (1976), and Mao's Revolution and Chinese Political Culture (1971).