David C. Speedie

Founder and Former Director, U.S. Global Engagement Program

David Speedie is the founder and former director of the Council's program on U.S. Global Engagement. He is a founding member of The American Committee for East-West Accord.

In 2007–2008, Speedie was also a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Speedie worked at Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1992 to 2007. He joined the Corporation as a program officer in the cooperative security program and was appointed program chair in March 1993, a position he held for almost 12 years. In 2004, he was appointed to serve as special advisor to the president and director of the Corporation's project on Islam.

He was recruited from the W. Alton Jones Foundation where he was codirector of the secure society program and directed, over a five year period, programs in the arts, urban affairs, and the environment. In the 1980s, Speedie was a consultant to nonprofits in management, marketing, and fund-raising as well as director of cultural affairs for Mayor Bill Green in Philadelphia. He also served as the bicentennial liaison officer at the British Embassy in Washington.

For three years, Speedie was a professor of English and drama at the University of St Andrews in his native Scotland. Speedie holds an Honours M.A. [First Class] in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Studies and an M.Litt. from the University of St Andrews. He was a visiting research fellow as a Kennedy scholar at Harvard University from 1971–1973. He has been a book editor and writer for the National Endowment for the Arts' Community Vision, a freelance journalist on politics for The Scotsman, and most recently, a reviewer for the International Journal of Middle East Studies. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Featured Work

OCT 6, 2016 Podcast

Major Security Challenges for the Next President

Afghanistan, terrorism, U.S.-Russia relations: Col. McCausland gives an expert analysis of all these security challenges and more. Yet he concludes on a hopeful ...

SEP 13, 2016 Podcast

U.S. Elections & Brexit: Can Liberalism Survive?

Why are liberal values eroding across the world? Will this continue? Realist Stephen Walt says maybe not, if the U.S. can set a good ...

AUG 29, 2016 Podcast

Update from Ukraine

Dr. Petro discusses the violence in Crimea, and Ukraine's economic and political stalemate. For long-term stability, Ukraine has to reconcile with Russia, he says. "There's ...

CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/freestocks/27841264756/">freestocks.org</a> (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC</a>)

JUL 7, 2016 Article

Buyers' Remorse?

Internationalist and Scot David Speedie reflects on Brexit: what happened, how it happened, and what the ramifications will be for Britain and beyond. Is this ...

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/134562672@N08/27544317025">Julia Berezovska/Press office NBU</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">(CC)</a>

JUN 8, 2016 Podcast

Ukraine Update

David Speedie discusses with Dr. Nicolai Petro the situation in Ukraine--political, economic, and the growing civil conflict between East and West--two years into the Poroshenko ...

MAY 26, 2016 Podcast

Return to Cold War

Columbia's Robert Legvold argues that the United States and Russia are, indeed, in a new Cold War with plenty of blame for both sides. And ...

MAY 20, 2016 Podcast

Chuck Hagel on U.S. Challenges in Today's "Complicated, Interconnected World"

Drawing on decades of experience, Secretary Hagel gives a masterly and frank analysis of world events. He discusses current U.S. politics--he's confident that the ...

Fifth Moscow Conference on International Security

MAY 12, 2016 Article

The Fifth Annual Moscow Conference on International Security

David Speedie attended this important three-day conference and reports that "a global array of speakers articulated a corresponding range of country/area-specific concerns, much of ...

APR 19, 2016 Podcast

Eurasianism and the European Far Right: Book Launch and Update on Events in Europe

"Eurasianism and the European Far Right" is the culmination of an intensive two-year project spearheaded by the Council's U.S. Global Engagement Program. This expert ...

FEB 24, 2016 Podcast

Update on Ukraine

David Speedie discusses the situation in Ukraine with Nicolai Petro, including the political crisis for the governing party in Kiev, the situation in Eastern Ukraine, ...