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
MAR 24, 2010 • Podcast
The Ethics of Exit from Afghanistan
Katherine Brown and Robert Diamond, Truman Fellows with first-hand experience in Afghanistan, discuss just how and when--both ethically and pragmatically--the U.S. can leave that ...
MAR 17, 2010 • Podcast
Rise of the Rest III: Climate Change, Energy, and Global Governance after the Financial Crisis
This panel focuses on global governance since the financial crisis, in particular on climate change, energy security, and issues of consensus, common ethics, and trust.
FEB 18, 2010 • Article
Good Neighbors? The Shanghai Cooperation Organization
The West has largely dismissed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as some kind of empty anti-U.S., anti-NATO rhetorical flourish, writes David Speedie. Yet in fact ...
DEC 16, 2009 • Article
U.S-Russia Relations and the Arctic
This set of two papers, one by a Canadian and one by a Russian, focuses on U.S.-Russian competition and cooperation in the Arctic ...
DEC 11, 2009 • Podcast
Prospects for Arms Control in the Obama Administration: An Interview with John Isaacs
John Isaacs, Executive Director of the Council for a Livable World, discusses nuclear weapons treaties and their relevance for U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics, ...
DEC 10, 2009 • Podcast
Prospects for Arms Control in the Obama Administration
John Isaacs discusses nuclear weapons treaties and their relevance for U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics, and the global arms control agenda.
NOV 6, 2009 • Podcast
Afghanistan Briefing
"Afghanistan makes Iraq look easy," says U.S. Army Colonel (Ret.) Senior Fellow Dr. McCausland. His comprehensive and evenhanded briefing analyzes the situation on the ...
NOV 2, 2009 • Podcast
Future Challenges: The UN and the UNA. David Speedie Interviews Ambassador Thomas Miller
President and CEO of the UN Association of the USA, Ambassador Miller discusses the U.S. role in the world and the power of grass ...
OCT 26, 2009 • Article
Hunting the Hare
"He that hunts two hares will catch neither," runs an old proverb. In the current unruly security environment, with challenges aplenty for the Obama administration, ...
OCT 20, 2009 • Podcast
David Speedie Interviews Baroness Shirley Williams: A View from the United Kingdom on Transatlantic Relations
In a wide-ranging conversation, Baroness Williams discusses the Obama administration's foreign policy; the situation in Afghanistan and in Iran; U.S. and British politics, including ...