“Wishful Thinking: How the U.S. Approach to Russia Has Moved from Conversion to Convergence”
Ambassador Ian Kelly
Diplomat-in-Residence, Northwestern University
Ian Kelly is Ambassador (ret.) in Residence at Northwestern University in Evanston,
Illinois. He is a retired senior foreign service officer who last served as the United States
Ambassador to Georgia, from 2015 to 2018. He previously served as the U.S.
Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from
2010 to 2013. Prior to his ambassadorships, Kelly held a variety of high-level roles at
the U.S. State Department, including serving as the Department spokesman under
Secretary Hillary Clinton and as Director of the Office of Russian Affairs. Before joining
the State Department, he earned a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from
Columbia University.