James B. Steinberg, deputy secretary of state in the U.S. Department of State, will deliver the convocation address on Saturday, May 22, to the graduating class of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School Dean Robert Hutchings announced today.
The convocation, to be held in the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium at 11 a.m., marks the occasion of the first Master of Global Policy Studies graduating class, a program established under the leadership of Steinberg.
Steinberg, who has served in the highest levels of government, including deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, will return to LBJ School where he was dean from 2006 to his appointment by President Barack Obama in 2009. Prior to becoming LBJ School dean, Steinberg was the vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where he supervised a wide-ranging research program on U.S. foreign policy.
“I am delighted that my friend and predecessor, Jim Steinberg, has accepted our invitation to deliver our 2010 convocation address,” said Hutchings. “He is a distinguished public servant, brilliant policy thinker, and wonderful colleague — an exemplar of what we hope our graduates will become. I can think of no better way to celebrate the first graduating class under my own deanship than to welcome Deputy Secretary Steinberg back to the LBJ School as our convocation speaker.”
“It’s a great honor for me to have the chance to come back to the LBJ School and share this special occasion with our graduates as they begin the next stage of their careers in public service,” Steinberg said.
From 1996 to 2000, Steinberg was deputy national security adviser to President Bill Clinton. He was Clinton’s representative to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits. Prior to becoming deputy national security adviser, he was chief of staff of the U.S. State Department and director of the State Department’s policy planning staff, and deputy assistant secretary for analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Steinberg has also been a senior analyst at RAND in Santa Monica, Calif., and a senior fellow for U.S. Strategic Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He was Sen. Edward Kennedy’s principal aide for the Senate Armed Services Committee, minority counsel, U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and special assistant to the U.S. assistant attorney general.
Steinberg is the author of, and contributor to, numerous books and articles on foreign policy and national security topics, including “Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power,” “Protecting the Homeland 2006/2007” and “An Ever Closer Union: European Integration and Its Implications for the Future of U.S.-European Relations.”
Note: The LBJ School of Public Affairs is receiving inquiries about attending James Steinberg’s address. There will be an opportunity for the public to attend, and the LBJ School will make those details known as it gets closer to the time of the event. That information will be posted at www.utexas.edu/lbj/students and distributed as a separate press release when finalized.
