Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Amb. Richard Burt

Diplomat

United States

Ambassador Richard Burt is the U.S. chair of Global Zero. He is an accomplished U.S. diplomat with special expertise in the area of nuclear weapons. Burt successfully concluded a nuclear arms treaty as the U.S. chief negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks with the Soviet Union in 1991. Previously, he was U.S. ambassador to Germany.

From 1977 to 1980, Burt worked in Washington as a national security correspondent for The New York Times. He earned his bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University in 1969, and his master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1971.

Burt currently serves as managing director at McLarty Associates, which provides consulting for corporations and financial institutions worldwide on strategic planning, government issues, market access, mergers and acquisitions and political and economic risk.

Burt is co-chair of the Nuclear Crisis Group and the Global Zero NATO-Russia Commission and a member of the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction, the Global Zero U.S. Nuclear Policy Commission and the Global Zero Commission.

Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Gen. (ret.) James E. Cartwright

Military Commander

United States

Retired General James E. Cartwright served as commander of U.S. Strategic Command, before being nominated and appointed as the 8th vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s second highest military officer. In his role as vice chairman, Cartwright chaired the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, co-chaired the Defense Acquisition Board and served as a member of the National Security Council Deputies Committee, the Nuclear Weapons Council and the Missile Defense Executive Board.

Cartwright was the inaugural holder of the Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies for the Center for Strategic & International Studies. From 2011 to 2013, he was a member of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee that provides advice and counsel to the leadership of the Department on matters concerning defense policy.

Cartwright’s command assignments include: commander, United States Strategic Command (2004-2007); commanding general, First Marine Aircraft Wing (2000-2002); and deputy commanding general, Marine Forces Atlantic (1999-2000). He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in November 1971 and received his master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College and completed a fellowship with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cartwright is co-chair of the Nuclear Crisis Group and chair of the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction and the Global Zero U.S. Nuclear Policy Commission.

Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Vladimir Dvorkin

Military Commander

Russia

Retired Major General Vladimir Dvorkin is a senior advisor at the PIR Center, a prominent Russian think tank, and the Carnegie Moscow Center. He is also a chief researcher of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Earlier in his career, he served in the Strategic Rocket Forces. From 1993 to 2001, he was director of the Fourth Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense. He supported preparations for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) I and START II, and made a significant contribution to formulating Soviet and Russian positions at the negotiations on strategic offensive arms control and reduction.

Dvorkin is a member of the Nuclear Crisis Group and the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction.

Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Amb. Wolfgang Ischinger

Diplomat

Germany

Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger is a seasoned German diplomat and chair of the Munich Security Conference, which brings high-level political and military leaders together to discuss the central security issues of our time. From 1998 to 2000, Ischinger served as deputy foreign minister of Germany. From 2006 to 2008, he was the German ambassador to the United Kingdom and, before that, the German ambassador to the United States for almost five years. His long career in the German Foreign Service gave him specific expertise in international negotiating processes, having been involved with the Bosnia Peace Talks at Dayton, Ohio and negotiations on NATO enlargement and the Kosovo crisis.

Ischinger is co-chair of the Global Zero NATO-Russia Commision and a member of the Nuclear Crisis Group and the Global Zero Commission.

Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Gen. (ret.) Jehangir Karamat

Military Commander

Pakistan

General Jehangir Karamat is a retired Pakistani military officer and diplomat. He served in combat in the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars and eventually rose to the position of chairman of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee before retiring from the armed forces.

Karamat was the Pakistani ambassador to the United States from November 2004 to June 2006. After this ambassadorship, he founded a sociopolitical policy and analysis institute, Spearhead Research, which focuses on social, economic, military and political issues connected to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also served as a commissioner on the International Commission on Non-Proliferation and Disarmament from 2009 to 2010.

Karamat is a member of the Nuclear Crisis Group, the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction and the Global Zero Commission.

Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Gen. (ret.) Bernard Norlain

Military Commander

France

Retired General Bernard Norlain is the president of the Comité d’Études de la Défense Nationale and director of the Revue Défense Nationale. Norlain is the former air defense commander and air combat commander of the French Air Force and has logged more than 6,000 hours of flight as a fighter pilot. He served as military adviser to French Prime Ministers Jacques Chirac and Michel Rocard. He was director of the French Institute for National Defense Studies, vice-president of Deloitte & Touche and chairman of the Sofema group.

Norlain is a member of the Nuclear Crisis Group, the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction and the Global Zero NATO-Russia Commission.

Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Pan Zhenqiang

Military Commander

China

Retired Major General Pan Zhenqiang is deputy chairman of the China Foundation for International Studies and Academic Changes, director of research at the Institute for Strategy and Management of the Central University of Finance and Economics in China and senior adviser to the China Reform Forum. Pan is also the former director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at National Defence University of China in Beijing.

Pan is a member of the Nuclear Crisis Group and the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction.

Member of the Nuclear Crisis Group

Amb. Thomas Pickering

Diplomat

United States

Ambassador Thomas Pickering is a former U.S. diplomat who held the personal rank of career ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he served as U.S. ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan. From 1989 to 1992, he served as ambassador and representative to the United Nations in New York. He speaks French, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Pickering is currently vice chair of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on investment, trade and risk assessment issues abroad, particularly in emerging market economies. He retired in 2006 as senior vice president of international relations for Boeing.

Pickering is on the Global Zero Board of Directors. He is co-chair of the Nuclear Crisis Group and a member of the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction, Global Zero NATO-Russia Commission, Global Zero U.S. Nuclear Policy Commission and the Global Zero Commission.