James Rubin
Boards and executive teams are being asked to price political risk that now moves faster than their planning cycles. Wars, sanctions, information operations and shifting alliances are no longer background noise. They reshape supply chains, capital flows and reputational exposure inside a single quarter, and most leadership teams lack a direct line to people who have sat in the room when those decisions were taken.
James Rubin is a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and most recently the State Department’s Special Envoy coordinating the U.S. response to Russian and Chinese information warfare, who helps leadership teams read how Washington, Moscow and Beijing actually make decisions.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with James Rubin
- He has been the public face of U.S. foreign policy in two administrations, from the Kosovo war under Clinton to the Ukraine war under Biden, and can speak to how the machinery of American power actually operates when pressure is on.
- From November 2022 to December 2024 he ran the U.S. Global Engagement Center, coordinating the federal response to Russian and Chinese disinformation, including the intelligence-led exposure of Kremlin operations in Latin America and Africa.
- He was senior adviser and spokesman to Madeleine Albright at both the United Nations and the State Department, giving him a rare continuous view of how Washington handles allies, adversaries and crisis communications.
- He has reported the same terrain from the other side of the camera as anchor of Sky News’ World News Tonight and as a Sunday Times foreign affairs columnist, which lets him translate Washington for non-U.S. audiences without jargon.
- As Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Chair of International Policy and Strategy at Ballard Partners, he has worked on the business side of geopolitical risk, not only the policy side.
Biography highlights
- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and State Department Spokesman, 1997 to 2000, under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
- Special Envoy and Coordinator, U.S. State Department Global Engagement Center, November 2022 to December 2024, leading U.S. efforts against Russian and Chinese information warfare.
- Recipient of the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award, 2000.
- Anchor, Sky News World News Tonight, 2005 to 2006; weekly foreign affairs columnist, The Sunday Times of London.
- Visiting Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; adjunct professor, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; Scholar in Residence, Oxford University Rothermere American Institute.
- Senior national security adviser to John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and chief foreign policy spokesman for General Wesley Clark’s 2004 campaign.
Biography
U.S. foreign policy is rarely decided in the rooms people assume. It is shaped in briefings, in coalition calls, in the narrow space between what a Secretary of State can say in public and what the intelligence picture actually shows. Rubin has worked that space for three decades, first as spokesman and senior adviser to Madeleine Albright at the United Nations and the State Department, and most recently as the Biden administration’s point person on Russian and Chinese information warfare.
The Clinton-era role is the one he is best known for. As Assistant Secretary of State and State Department Spokesman from 1997 to 2000, he was the daily voice of U.S. policy during the Kosovo war and served as a special negotiator on the demobilisation of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The State Department gave him its Distinguished Service Award in 2000.
Between 2022 and 2024 he ran the Global Engagement Center, coordinating the U.S. government’s response to Kremlin and Chinese propaganda. Under his watch, the Center worked with the intelligence community to publicly expose Russian disinformation operations in Latin America and Africa, a different register of foreign policy work from the podium briefings of the 1990s and closer to the information battlefields that now sit on corporate risk registers.
Outside government he has anchored Sky News’ World News Tonight, written a weekly foreign affairs column for The Sunday Times of London, taught at the London School of Economics and Columbia, and held a scholar in residence post at Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute. He has also served as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and now chairs international policy and strategy at Ballard Partners in Washington, working directly on how policy reaches business.
Key speaking topics
- U.S. foreign policy and presidential decision-making
- Great-power competition with Russia and China
- Information warfare and state-backed disinformation
- Transatlantic relations and the war in Ukraine
- Diplomacy, national security and crisis communications
- Middle East policy and the post-October 7 landscape
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees pricing geopolitical risk into strategy, capital allocation or expansion decisions
- Chief Communications Officers, Chief Risk Officers and General Counsel preparing for disinformation, sanctions exposure or state-linked information operations
- Investor, client and leadership summits where a senior U.S. foreign policy principal is required
- Government affairs, policy and ESG teams navigating U.S.-Europe-China alignment
Audience outcomes
- A sharper read on how Washington is likely to act on Russia, China, the Middle East and Europe over the next phase of U.S. policy
- A working mental model for how state-backed disinformation is produced, amplified and exposed, drawn from the person who most recently ran the U.S. counter-effort
- A clearer view of where corporate exposure to political risk is concentrated and what early indicators to watch
- A direct, on-the-record sense of how senior U.S. policymakers weigh allies, adversaries and public opinion in real time