Former Congressman Jim Marshall to head USIP
Former Congressman Jim Marshall will be the next president of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the organization is set to announce today. “It is with great pleasure and strong confidence that we appoint Jim Marshall to be the fourth president of the United States Institute of Peace,” said J. Robinson West, chairman of ...
Former Congressman Jim Marshall will be the next president of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the organization is set to announce today.
Former Congressman Jim Marshall will be the next president of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the organization is set to announce today.
“It is with great pleasure and strong confidence that we appoint Jim Marshall to be the fourth president of the United States Institute of Peace,” said J. Robinson West, chairman of the board of directors, in a Monday press release, obtained in advance by The Cable. “Jim brings a rich, diverse background to the Institute that the Board found very attractive. As a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, Jim has experienced firsthand the dire consequences of violent conflict. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he carefully navigated a course through the choppy waters of partisanship to build a solid record of bi-partisanship.”
Marshall, a Democrat, represented Georgia’s 8th district from 2002-2011. A son and grandson of Army generals, he was a highly decorated Army Ranger in the Vietnam war. In Congress, he was a member of the “Blue Dog” group of fiscally conservative Democrats.
West said that Marshall will also be able to call upon his time as a professor at Mercer University and lecturer at Princeton in his new role, which will include leading USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding.
“I am humbled, honored and pleased to join a talented and committed team whose mission is critically important to the United States and the world,” Marshall said in the release. “My thanks to the Institute’s board for this opportunity. And my thanks to the Institute’s great staff for all they have done in the past and what we will do together in the future.”
Marshall takes over for Richard Solomon, who has been USIP president for 19 years. Board Vice Chairman George Moose led the search for the new president.
“I am extremely pleased that the Institute’s Board of Directors has selected former Congressman Jim Marshall as the next president of the United States Institute of Peace,” said Solomon. “He has an impressive record of public service at several levels of government, including four terms in Congress, as well as an outstanding record of service in the U.S. Army. He has the experience and vision to build on the Institute’s foundations of three decades of programmatic work in international conflict management and peacebuilding.”
Solomon also alluded to Marshall’s main challenge as president, defending USIP’s federally funded budget from efforts to slash it by the GOP in Congress.
“These activities are a recognized contribution to the national security needs of our country, especially in building civilian capacity for conflict management and developing partnerships that are so critical, especially in constrained economic times,” Solomon said.
Marshall begins his first 3-year renewable term role Sept. 14.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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