Ambassador Mark Lagon to return to Georgetown University
[caption id=”” align=”alignleft” width=”153" caption=”Ambassador Mark P. Lagon”]
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The Master of Science in Foreign Service Program (MSFS) at Georgetown University is excited to announce that Ambassador Mark P. Lagon will be joining MSFS as Visiting Professor and Concentration Chair for International Relations and Security, effective August, 2010.
Dr. Lagon brings to MSFS a wealth of experience from both the public and nonprofit worlds of international affairs. Prior to coming to MSFS, Ambassador Lagon served as the Executive Director and CEO of Polaris Project, a leading anti-human trafficking nonprofit organization from 2009–2010. From May 2007 to January 2009, he served as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large and Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State. In this capacity, he was Chair of the Senior Policy Operating Group, coordinating U.S. agencies domestic and global anti-trafficking policy.
From 2004 to 2007, Dr. Lagon served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. In this position, he had lead responsibility for UN-related human rights and humanitarian issues, UN administration and reform, and the IO Bureau’s public diplomacy and outreach programs.
Dr. Lagon previously served as a Member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, where he focused on the UN and other international organizations, democracy and human rights, and public diplomacy (2002–2004). From 1999 to 2002, he was a senior staff member of the Republican staff at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with particular responsibility for the State Department authorization bill, international organizations, economic sanctions, human rights, and broadcasting and public diplomacy. Previous foreign affairs positions include: Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow at the Project for the New American Century, specializing in China (1998–1999); Deputy Staff Director of the House Republican Policy Committee (1997–1998) and Senior Analyst House Republican Policy Committee (1995–1998).
Before working on Capitol Hill, Dr. Lagon was the principal aide to the Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. He has been an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics and Georgetown University. Dr. Lagon is the author of numerous publications, including The Reagan Doctrine: Sources of American Conduct in the Cold War’s Last Chapter. He also served as associate editor of the journal Perspectives on Political Science. He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 2008, Georgetown University was especially honored to have Dr. Lagon deliver the William V. O’Brien Lecture in International Law and Morality on “Combating Trafficking in Persons.” (The video for the lecture is embedded below.)
Dr. Lagon earned his Ph.D., with Distinction, and his M.A. from Georgetown University, where he studied with Professor Robert J. Lieber and Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard University.
In addition to his administrative responsibilities as Concentration Chair, Dr. Lagon will be teaching three courses for MSFS, including a course this Fall on the Politics of the United Nations System.
Please join me in welcoming my dear friend, Mark Lagon, to the MSFS community!
