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

Hon. Thomas M. Countryman

Diplomat

United States

The Honorable Thomas M. Countryman is the chairman of the board of the Arms Control Association, a think tank dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 35 years, achieving the rank of minister-counselor and holding the positions of acting undersecretary for arms control and international security and assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation before retiring in 2017. From 2008 to 2009, Countryman was a foreign policy advisor to the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps General James Conway. He has received several awards for his work, including the Presidential Meritorious Service award in 2007.

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

Rear Adm. (ret.) John Gower, CB OBE

Military Commander

United Kingdom

Rear Admiral John Gower, CB OBE served as assistant chief of defence staff (Nuclear, Chemical, Biological) in the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence until his retirement from active service in December 2014. He was an active member of the Royal Navy for 36 years, spending half of those at sea and eventually commanding first the HMS Unicorn and the HMS Trafalgar. During his years of service on land, Gower mostly worked in the ministry of defense in London specializing in nuclear weapon and counter-Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear policy. He also spent time in Washington, D.C. as the assistant naval attaché at the U.K. Defence Academy. Gower held a key role the U.K. contribution t to counter the threat of Syria’s chemical weapons program from 2011 to 2014.  He also represented the U.K. in senior NATO nuclear and counter-weapons of mass destruction committees. Gower currently writes on his specialist issues and is a consulting member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

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

Łukasz Kulesa

National Security Expert

Poland

Łukasz Kulesa is research director at the European Leadership Network. His interests include non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Russian security policy, NATO, nuclear and conventional deterrence, the role of missile defence, and the future of arms control. Previously, he worked as the head of the non-proliferation and arms control project at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), and as deputy director of the Strategic Analyses Department at the National Security Bureau, a body providing aid and support to the President of the Republic of Poland in executing security and defence tasks.

Kulesa’s publications include: Towards a New Equilibrium: Minimising the risks of NATO and Russia’s new military posture, Dangerous Brinkmanship: Close Military Encounters Between Russia and the West in 2014, and Careful What You Wish For: Nuclear Reductions and Conventional Deterrence in Europe after Crimea.