Richard Haass to Step Down as Council on Foreign Relations Chief
NEW YORK — A prominent supporter of U.S. diplomacy, Richard Haass has announced he will step down from his post as the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations. He plans to step down early next year. Richard C. Haass, Jr., 67, told Foreign Policy on Wednesday that he will be stepping down as chief of the council’s Asian Studies department. Haass, who joined the council in 1978, was the council’s president for six years.
Richard Haass announced his resignation to a cheering audience at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday.
Haass, who first joined the Council’s board of directors in 1975, is scheduled to be honored at a luncheon on Oct. 7 with the Richard and Helen Friedman Prize for International Leadership. The Friedman Prize, named for his father, is a lifetime achievement award for a United States foreign policy leader. Haass, who has been on the council’s board for 22 years, has published a wide variety of books, including a collection of his father’s books of essays.
Haass has been the subject of numerous profiles in the media and has received numerous honors. In 2002, he was named one of Human Rights Watch’s Global 1000 for his work in global human rights, and in 2007 he was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year in the Americas for “his role in the American foreign policy that has made the world safer.”
He was also awarded the National Medal of Science in 2000.
On Tuesday, CNN’s “Crossfire” co-host, Ted Koppel, said that the Council on Foreign Relations, an “endless list of people,” was one of his favorite organizations or places.
“I mean, who are these people? They’re like the people who run the United Therapeutic Community,”