U.S. Foreign Service Burns entered the
Foreign Service in 1982 and served as deputy secretary of state from 2011 to 2014. He had served as
under secretary for political affairs from 2008 to 2011. He was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to
Jordan from 1998 to 2001. He had also been
Executive Secretary of the State Department and special assistant to secretaries of state
Warren Christopher and
Madeleine Albright, minister-counselor for political affairs at the
U.S. Embassy in Moscow, acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department's
Policy Planning Staff, as well as special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the
United States National Security Council. A
leaked diplomatic cable that Burns signed as ambassador to Russia in August 2006 provided a detailed eyewitness account of the lavish wedding organized in
Makhachkala by Russian
State Duma member and Dagestan Oil Company chief Gadzhi Makhachev for his son. The wedding lasted for two days; its attendees included Chechnya's
Ramzan Kadyrov. An
FSB colonel sitting next to the cable's authors tried to add "cognac" to their wine until an FSB general told him to stop. In 2015, Burns told
Gideon Rachman of the
Financial Times that the cable had been "largely written by his colleagues," with Rachman remarking that the telegram had gained a reputation of "a minor classic of comic writing, its tone very much not what one might expect of a diplomatic cable." In June 2013,
Andrew Kuchins remarked about Burns's stint in Moscow, "It was a period when
the relationship was deteriorating very significantly, but he was personally respected by Russian authorities as a consummate professional diplomat." In 2013, Burns and
Jake Sullivan led the secret bilateral channel with Iran that led to the
interim agreement between Iran and the
P5+1 and ultimately the
Iran nuclear deal. Burns was reported to be "in the driver's seat" of the American negotiating team for the interim agreement. Burns had met secretly with Iranian officials as early as 2008, when President
George W. Bush dispatched him to do so. In a piece published in
The Atlantic in April 2013,
Nicholas Kralev praised him as the "secret diplomatic weapon" deployed against "some of the thorniest foreign policy challenges of the US." Burns retired from the
Foreign Service in 2014, later becoming president of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency On January 11, 2021,
Joe Biden announced he planned to nominate Burns as
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, saying Burns shared his belief "that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect". On February 24, his nomination was well received in the confirmation hearing in the Senate. On March 2, the
Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously approved Burns' nomination, setting him up for a final floor vote. On March 18, Burns was confirmed to the role with unanimous consent after
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) lifted his hold on the nomination. He was officially sworn in as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on March 19. He said
China was working to "methodically strengthen its capabilities to steal intellectual property, repress its own people, bully its neighbors, expand its global reach and build influence in American society." , Harris, and the
U.S. national security team, August 18, 2021 In April 2021, Biden announced his intention to
withdraw all regular U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 2021. Burns told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on April 14, 2021, that "[t]here is a significant risk once the U.S. military and the coalition militaries withdraw" but added that the U.S. would retain "a suite of capabilities." On August 23, 2021, Burns held a secret meeting in Kabul with
Taliban leader
Abdul Ghani Baradar, who returned to
Afghanistan from
exile in Qatar, to discuss the August 31 deadline for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. In early November 2021, Burns flew to Moscow, notifying
Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Putin's security council, that the United States believed Putin was considering a
full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Burns warned that if Putin were to invade Ukraine, the West would respond in a way that would have severe consequences for Russia. John Sullivan, at the time the American ambassador to Russia, recounted that Patrushev was undeterred by Burns' warnings. Upon his return to Washington, Burns informed Biden that Putin had all but made up his mind to take over Ukraine and that the Russians had absolute confidence victory would come swiftly. On March 31, 2022, Burns tested positive for
COVID-19, a day after meeting with President Biden during a
socially distanced meeting at the White House. In April 2022, Burns warned that
Vladimir Putin's "desperation" over Russia's failures in
Ukraine could lead to the use of
tactical nuclear weapons or "low-yield nuclear weapons." That same month, Burns traveled to
Saudi Arabia to meet with the crown prince and asked him to increase the country's
oil production. They also discussed Saudi weapons purchases from
China. On July 31, 2022, he oversaw the operation that
killed the terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. In May 2023, Burns made a secret visit to China to ease tensions with the country. After the beginning of the
Gaza war, Burns pushed for a deal with
Hamas to secure the release of Israeli hostages. ==Publications==