Chris Ford Resigns

U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation Chris Ford is resigning to take a job at the Hudson Institute.

From: Ford, Christopher A
Sent: 22 August 2008 01:59
Subject: Ford is moving on . . . .
Importance: High

Dear Friends:

Most of you have regularly been getting mail from me on NPT issues for some time; others of you are new to this list as a result of my having the pleasure of making your acquaintance during the first months of 2008 as I continued to bounce around the world as U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation. Since taking up my current position at the U.S. State Department, I have used my contact list for this series of messages in order to try to keep friends and acquaintances abreast of developments in U.S. nonproliferation, arms control, and disarmament policy — particularly in connection with the 2007 and 2008 NPT Preparatory Committee meetings.

This current message, however, is of a somewhat more personal nature — and is likely to be my last contact with many of you on this e-mail account. After some five and a half years at the State Department, I shall very soon be leaving. Effective September 1, I will be joining the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C. “think-tank” (public policy research institution), as a Senior Fellow, to build a program for them on many of the same issues in the nonproliferation, arms control, and disarmament field — and, more generally, the impact of technology upon the global security environment — on which I have been working at the Department for some time.

I look forward to keeping in touch with many of you, particularly as the issues on which I will be working for Hudson are not dissimilar to those in connection with which I have made your acquaintance. My e-mail address at Hudson, they tell me, will be [deleted]@hudson.org. Until that gets up and running, however — and indeed thereafter, for personal correspondence — feel free to contact me at [deleted]@gmail.com. In my new capacity, I will no longer be able to claim any special authority as a spokesman for the United States on such issues, but you can be sure that I will not be shy about expressing my opinion (which will indeed be entirely my own now), that I will remain very interested in knowing as much as I can about your perspectives and concerns, and that I will continue to strive to be a constructive contributor to these important debates wherever and whenever possible. I have tried to make straightforward, thoughtful, and articulate engagement the hallmark of my tenure as Special Representative, and I look forward to continuing this approach with as many of you as possible as I work these issues, in my new private capacity, in the months and years ahead.

All my very best,

CAF

Dr. Christopher A. Ford
United States Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520
[deleted]@state.gov