Ambassador Nicholas Burns Reflects on His Career, Education at Dean’s Speaker Series Conversation

For Ambassador Nicholas Burns ’80, returning to SAIS for a Dean’s Speaker Series event at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. on September 18, 2025, was a special kind of homecoming. The building on Pennsylvania Avenue was different from the school’s former home on Massachusetts Avenue, but the tradition of rigorous inquiry and the sense of community was as strong as ever.  

During the conversation with SAIS Dean James Steinberg, Burns, who concluded his tenure earlier this year as U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, shared thoughtful reflections on his decades of diplomatic service and the formative role that SAIS played in shaping his career. “I really owe a debt of gratitude to SAIS,” he told the audience, recalling how his graduate studies in international relations helped him build the intellectual foundation for a life in diplomacy. “This school gave me the knowledge and sound preparation I needed to serve the United States around the world.”  

Burns’ distinguished career in the U.S. Foreign Service spanned more than three decades, during which he served six presidents and nine secretaries of state. Among his multiple senior positions at the State Department was his tenure as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008. Earlier, as U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2001 to 2005, he helped guide the alliance through its first invocation of Article 5 after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent military missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Burns also served as U.S. ambassador to Greece (1997–2001), State Department spokesman (1995–1997), and on the National Security Council at the White House during the pivotal years that preceded and followed the end of the Cold War (1990-95) where he was Director for Soviet Affairs for President George H. W. Bush and Senior Director and Special Assistant to President Clinton for Russia and Ukraine. 

In his final diplomatic posting as U.S. ambassador to China (2021–2025), Burns oversaw one of America’s most complex bilateral relationships, managing teams from 48 U.S. government agencies. During his time in Beijing, he noted the presence of many fellow SAIS graduates among the U.S. diplomats serving in the country. “I was very proud that there were more SAIS alumni serving in the U.S. mission in China than from any other school,” he said, underscoring the global reach and influence of the SAIS community.  

Now the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Burns continues to mentor future generations of public servants. His visit to SAIS offered students and alumni alike a great opportunity to hear firsthand from one of America’s most experienced diplomats about the challenges and opportunities of geopolitics and international service.