For Immediate Release: July 5, 2006
Contact: Jennifer Linker, +1 (202) 939-2372, jlinker@CarnegieEndowment.org

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace today announced that the respected foreign policy expert and lawyer, Mark Medish, would be joining Carnegie as Vice President for Studies–Russia, China, and Eurasia.

At the same time, Carnegie President Jessica Tuchman Mathews announced that the Director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project, Thomas Carothers, would be assuming the role of Vice President for Studies–International Politics and Governance.

The new appointments come as the Carnegie Endowment expands its China program in Beijing and prepares to open a new Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon, building on the work of its existing center in Moscow to create an international network of research and analysis.

Medish, formerly a senior director of the National Security Council and deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury, was most recently a partner in a public law and policy practice group, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. He and Carothers will join George Perkovich, now to be the Vice President for Studies–Global Security and Economic Development.

Welcoming the appointments, President Jessica T. Mathews said, “I am delighted that an expert of Mark Medish's distinction in international affairs will join our expanding studies team at the Carnegie Endowment. His wide-ranging and deep experience will add enormous value to our research programs in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing. Three vice presidents for studies greatly strengthens our senior management team and allows each of the three—all of them leading experts in their fields—to pursue his own research. Specifically, it will allow George Perkovich to become the permanent director of our internationally renowned nonproliferation program at such a crucial time in that arena.”

Medish said, “I am genuinely thrilled about the new post. This is a chance for me to follow more closely developments across Eurasia, including the ongoing transitions in Russia and China, which will have an enormous impact on international security and global dynamics. The expert team at the Carnegie Endowment is absolutely first rate. No international affairs institution has a higher reputation for rigorous, nonpartisan, policy-relevant analysis. Further, Carnegie is unique in having an active field presence, including our Moscow Center and the new program in Beijing.”

Notes to Editors:

1. Mark C. Medish was most recently a partner in the public law and policy practice group of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P. in Washington. Before joining Akin Gump, Medish served in the Clinton administration as special assistant to the president and senior director of the National Security Council (NSC), where he assisted the president and national security advisor Samuel R. Berger in forming and implementing U.S. foreign policy toward Russia and the New Independent States (NIS). Prior to joining the NSC, Medish served as deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury; his regional portfolio covered Central Europe, the NIS, the Middle East and South Asia. Previously, he was senior advisor to the administrator of the United Nations Development Program, and special assistant to the assistant administrator for Europe and the NIS at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Before entering public service, Medish was an attorney at Covington & Burling. He was educated at Harvard University and Law School, Merton College, Oxford University, and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

2. Thomas Carothers is a leading authority on democracy promotion and democratization worldwide as well as an expert on U.S. foreign policy generally. He is the founder and director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project which analyzes the state of democracy in the world and the efforts by the United States and other countries to promote democracy. In addition, he has broad experience in matters dealing with human rights, international law, foreign aid, rule of law, and civil society development. He is the author or editor of seven critically acclaimed books on democracy promotion as well as many articles in prominent journals and newspapers. He is a recurrent visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest and serves on the board of various organizations devoted to democracy promotion. Prior to joining the Endowment, Carothers practiced international and financial law at Arnold & Porter and served as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State.

3. George Perkovich is an expert on nuclear strategy and nonproliferation. He is the author of India's Nuclear Bomb, which Foreign Affairs called “an extraordinary and perhaps definitive account of 50 years of Indian nuclear policymaking,” and the Washington Times has called an “important… encyclopedic…antidote to many of the illusions of our age.” The book received the Herbert Feis Award from the American Historical Association, for outstanding work by an independent scholar, and the A.K. Coomaraswamy Prize from the Association for Asian Studies, as an outstanding book on South Asia. Perkovich recently coauthored a major Carnegie report, Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security, a new a blueprint for rethinking the international nuclear nonproliferation regime. The report offers a fresh approach to deal with states and terrorists, nuclear weapons, and missile materials to ensure global safety and security. Perkovich is also developing a project on fairness in the international system, drawing on his interests in trade and globalization. His article, “Giving Justice Its Due,” published in the July/August 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs, establishes the central theme of this project. From 1990 through 2001, Perkovich was director of the Secure World Program at the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a $400 million philanthropic institution located in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the time of the Foundation's division in 2001 he also served as Deputy Director for Programs. Perkovich served as a speechwriter and foreign policy advisor to Senator Joe Biden from 1989 to 1990. His personal research has focused on nuclear strategy and nonproliferation, with a focus on South Asia.

For further information about the Carnegie Endowment, its Centers, and Programs please visit our website at www.CarnegieEndowment.org.

For further information please contact:

Jennifer Linker, jlinker@CarnegieEndowment.org,(tel.) +1 202 939 2372 or

Emily Hancock, ehancock@CarnegieEndowment.org, (tel.) +1 202 939 2265