Richard N Haass
The rules governing trade, alliances, and international stability that executives have relied on for decades were designed for a different world. Power is now distributed across dozens of actors – state and non-state – with no single authority able to impose order or enforce commitments. Organisations that continue to plan as though the post-war settlement still holds are carrying strategic risk they cannot see.
As the post-war international order fragments, Richard Haass – architect of the “nonpolarity” thesis and President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, which he led for twenty years – helps boards and senior leadership teams understand what the new structure of global power means for strategy, risk, and long-term positioning.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Richard Haass
- His “nonpolarity” framework – first published in Foreign Affairs and developed in A World in Disarray – gives leadership teams a structural vocabulary for geopolitical risk that goes beyond the U.S.-China binary and accounts for the dozens of state and non-state actors now shaping outcomes.
- He has not only analysed diplomatic crises – he has chaired them. His role as chair of the 2013 Northern Ireland multiparty negotiations, which provided the foundation for the 2014 Stormont House Agreement, gives him practitioner credibility that no purely academic or analytical peer can replicate.
- Twenty years at the head of the Council on Foreign Relations means organisations gain access to the framework that has shaped U.S. policy thinking across four administrations – not a commentary on that framework, but the source of it.
- He served inside U.S. foreign policy across four presidencies and both parties – at the Pentagon, State Department, and White House – and can translate the actual mechanics of how foreign policy decisions are made into the strategic implications for non-government actors operating across borders.
- His New York Times bestseller The Bill of Obligations demonstrates a capacity rare among foreign policy figures: the ability to make complex geopolitical argument legible and actionable for non-specialist audiences, including boards with no background in international relations.
Biography highlights
- President of the Council on Foreign Relations (2003–2023); now President Emeritus – twenty years leading the United States’ most influential foreign policy institution
- Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State; principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell
- Senate-confirmed Ambassador; U.S. Special Envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process; U.S. Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan
- Chaired the 2013 Northern Ireland multiparty negotiations, which formed the foundation for the 2014 Stormont House Agreement
- Presidential Citizens Medal; State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award; Tipperary International Peace Award; diplomatic decorations from South Korea and Japan
- Rhodes Scholar; DPhil, Oxford University; formerly on faculty at Harvard Kennedy School of Government
- Author or editor of sixteen books, including A World in Disarray, the New York Times bestseller The Bill of Obligations, and the originating Foreign Affairs article “The Age of Nonpolarity”
- Senior Counselor, Centerview Partners; Distinguished University Scholar, NYU School of Professional Studies
Biography
The post-war international order – the system of alliances, institutions, and rules that governed trade, security, and diplomacy for seven decades – is no longer doing what it was designed to do. For boards operating across borders, that is not an abstract observation. It changes what capital commitments are credible, which supply chains are secure, and which alliances will hold under pressure.
Richard Haass led the Council on Foreign Relations for twenty years, shaping U.S. foreign policy debate across the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. Before that, he was Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell. His government service spans four presidencies and both parties – beginning at the Pentagon under Carter, continuing at the State Department under Reagan, and reaching the National Security Council under George H.W. Bush, where he received the Presidential Citizens Medal for his contributions during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
His intellectual contribution is specific. In his Foreign Affairs article “The Age of Nonpolarity” and the book A World in Disarray, he argues that the current era is neither unipolar nor multipolar – it is nonpolar. Power is distributed across dozens of state and non-state actors, alliances are conditional rather than fixed, and the mechanisms that once imposed order are no longer sufficient. For organisations that have built strategy on the assumption of a rules-based international system, that argument has direct consequences for how risk is modelled and where long-term commitments are made.
His experience is not only analytical. In 2013, he chaired the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland that formed the foundation for the 2014 Stormont House Agreement – making him one of the few people in the world who has both theorised about diplomatic complexity and navigated it at the table. His most recent book, The Bill of Obligations, a New York Times bestseller, extends the argument into democratic governance: what the erosion of civic responsibility means for the political stability on which international order ultimately depends.
Key speaking topics
- Nonpolarity and the fracture of the post-war international order
- U.S. foreign policy and geopolitical risk
- Diplomacy, conflict resolution, and negotiation
- Transatlantic relations and the future of alliances
- Russia-Ukraine and the reshaping of European security
- Middle East dynamics and regional instability
- American democracy, civic obligation, and domestic political risk
- Geopolitical implications for global business and investment
Ideal for
- Boards and C-suite teams with material exposure to geopolitical risk
- Financial services, asset management, and investment leadership requiring structured country and political risk assessment
- Global corporations navigating multi-market operations, trade exposure, or supply chain complexity
- Government affairs, public policy, and strategic foresight leadership
Audience outcomes
- A structural framework – “nonpolarity” – for understanding why the old geopolitical playbook is no longer reliable, and what the distributed power landscape actually looks like
- Clarity on the strategic implications of specific flashpoints – Russia-Ukraine, U.S.-China competition, Middle East instability – beyond event-by-event commentary
- Understanding of how U.S. foreign policy is made, where it is likely to go, and what that means for organisations operating across borders
- A clearer picture of how domestic political instability in democratic societies feeds into international risk and affects the conditions under which institutions and agreements hold
- Frameworks for scenario planning in a nonpolar environment, where alliances and trade rules are situational rather than fixed
Talks
Covers the origins of the conflict, military dynamics, Western policy responses, and what the war will and will not change about the 21st-century international order.
Key takeaways:
- How and why the conflict emerged, and what it revealed about the limits of the post-Cold War security architecture
- Assessment of U.S. and Western policy responses – military transfers, economic sanctions, NATO commitments – and their strategic coherence
- Likely trajectories on the ground, the shape of any eventual settlement, and the longer-term consequences for Russia, Europe, and the global order
Introduces the concept of nonpolarity – a world where power is held by dozens of state and non-state actors – and explains what it means for alliances, diplomacy, and strategic planning.
Key takeaways:
- Why “nonpolarity” is a more accurate and useful description of the current world than “multipolarity” – and why the distinction matters for decision-making
- How the growing influence of non-state actors – technology platforms, energy producers, terrorist organisations, foundations – complicates traditional risk assessment
- What the United States must do domestically and internationally to navigate a nonpolar world, and what that means for organisations operating within it
Examines the erosion of the post-WWII international framework and makes the case for an updated global operating system capable of managing 21st-century challenges.
Key takeaways:
- Historical context for why the post-war rules and institutions have run their course
- Analysis of why sovereignty alone cannot address the global challenges – climate, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, cyberspace – that now define the threat landscape
- What the United States and its partners must do to rebuild the foundations of a functioning international order
Argues that the primary threats to U.S. power and global stability are domestic, and outlines a strategy for restoring the foundations of American competitiveness and international leadership.
Key takeaways:
- How domestic factors – debt, infrastructure, political division, education – directly constrain the United States’ capacity to lead internationally
- A framework for recalibrating U.S. overseas engagement to reflect actual strategic priorities
- Why internal political resilience is a foreign policy variable, and what that means for how allies and adversaries are reading American power
A structured overview of global affairs designed to build geopolitical literacy – providing the essential history, regional context, and conceptual framework needed to understand current events and their strategic implications.
Key takeaways:
- Essential background on the major regions and the forces – historical, economic, demographic – shaping them
- A clear account of the challenges created by globalisation and its discontents
- The core analytical frameworks needed to assess international developments as they unfold
An assessment of the political and economic environment facing international business leaders, drawing on direct government experience and engagement with multinational organisations.
Key takeaways:
- The political risks most likely to affect global business – instability, trade backlash, regulatory divergence – and how to assess them
- How corporate social responsibility and climate considerations have become geopolitical variables, not merely reputational ones
- Practical lessons on identifying and managing risk while capturing opportunity in a transparent and contested global landscape