Rob Pyott
In his 27-year foreign service career, Rob Pyott kept in mind his Peace Corps teaching assignment in Morocco – where effective policies depended on an understanding of distinctive aspects of the host society. In an early Foreign Service assignment, he helped design a regional cease-fire, in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, during that country’s civil war – sparing countless innocent lives. Later, during the peak of the global fight against terrorism, Rob was one of the few official interlocutors to engage radical Islamist leaders and thinkers, providing direct material that helped shape our understanding of the movements. Subsequently, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rob identified shifts in the ethnic-dominated political party landscapes that presented opportunities for improved governance and greater prosperity and stability.
Rob’s interest in how foreign policy structures – the people, the programs, and the decision processes – can improve policy outcomes grew. Pivotal assignments were Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commander of Special Operations Command, Central; and trade director for the Caribbean, Ecuador, and Bolivia at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. In both assignments, he helped harness concrete policy tools in service of key U.S. policy aims. Back at State, in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, he led the Africa team in the design of tailored negotiation support, election monitoring, de-radicalization advising, and other tools for specific regional situations. He then took an assignment – his current position – as a senior-level Career Development Officer, helping match the workforce to policy priorities.
Rob recognizes though that American power – military, economic, and institutional – is not limitless. Priorities must be set, and strategies must be built upon tested assumptions. A foreign policy focused on core interests will call for institutional discipline, making possible high levels of achievement.
Rob hails from Illinois and earned a MS degree in National Security Studies from the National War College in 2013.