President and CEO
The Center for the Study of the Presidency
Ambassador David M. Abshire is president and CEO of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, D.C. Abshire is co-founder, former chief executive, and current vice chairman of the board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. He is also president of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation in New York, which gives grants in the fields of science and education.
A 1951 graduate of West Point, Abshire was decorated during the Korean War as a company commander. He was assistant secretary of state for congressional relations from 1970 to 1973, and became the first chairman of the Board for International Broadcasting in 1974. He was a member of the Murphy Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and the President's Task Force on U.S. Government International Broadcasting. During the 1980 presidential transition, Abshire was asked by President-elect Reagan to head his National Security Group, which included the Departments of State and Defense, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Naval War College and on the Executive Panel of the Chief of Naval Operations.
From 1983 to 1987, Abshire was ambassador to NATO, where he presided over the transition away from a reliance on nuclear weapons by initiating a new conventional defense improvement effort. As a result, Abshire was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian award given by the Department of Defense.
In 2002, Abshire led in the establishment of the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy at CSIS. In 2003, he served on the congressionally mandated Advisory Group for Public Diplomacy. In 2005, he chaired a panel for the Homeland Security Advisory Board for developing for the maritime domain, a layered defense against weapons of mass effect. He recently served as one of the four co-conveners of the 2006 congressionally mandated Iraq Study Group.
Abshire is a vice chair of the Council of American Ambassadors, a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Public Service at St. Albans School, a trustee of the George C. Marshall Foundation, and a member of the Council on Competitiveness, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Fondation Paul-Henri Spaak (Brussels), and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London). He is the co-convener and a founding member of the Trinity National Leadership Roundtable.
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