Lecturer in Public Policy and Director,
Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs
Princeton University, New Jersey
Ambassador Barbara K. Bodine is lecturer in public policy at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs where she teaches courses on the Iraq War and on US diplomacy in the Middle East as it relates to the Persian Gulf region and Southwest Asia, and also serves as Director of the School’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, an innovative intern and fellowship program for students pursuing careers in federal service.
Ms. Bodine’s over 30 years in the US Foreign Service were spent primarily on Arabian Peninsula and greater Persian Gulf issues, specifically US bilateral and regional policy, strategic security issues, counterterrorism, and governance and reform. Her tour as Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen 1997-2001, saw enhanced support for democratization and increased security and counterterrorism cooperation, the establishment of a coast guard, resumption of Fulbright scholarships for Yemeni students, initiation of a $40 million/year economic assistance and development program, and an indigenous landmine awareness and demining program. Ms. Bodine also served in Baghdad as Deputy Principal Officer during the Iran-Iraq War, Kuwait as Deputy Chief of Mission during the Iraqi invasion and occupation of 1990-1991, and again, seconded to the Department of Defense, in Iraq in 2003 as the senior State Department official and the first coalition coordinator for reconstruction in Baghdad and the central governorates.
In addition to several assignments in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, she was Associate Coordinator for Counterterrorism Operations and subsequently acting overall Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Director of East African Affairs, Dean of the School of Professional Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, and Senior Advisor for International Security Negotiations and Agreements in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
Since leaving the government, Ambassador Bodine has been Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Governance Initiative in the Middle East at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Fellow at the School’s Center for Public Leadership and its Institute of Politics, and the Robert Wilhelm Fellow at MITÂ’s Center for International Studies. She has also taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara and lectures at universities and civic groups across the country and abroad. She is the President of the Mine Awareness Group, America, a global NGO that provides technical expertise for the removal of remnants of conflict worldwide, a member of the Washington Institute for Foreign Affairs. As a member of the American Academy of American Diplomacy, she coordinates a project on diplomacy and democratization in cooperation with the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute.
Ambassador Bodine is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Secretary’s Award for Valor for her work in Occupied Kuwait, Distinguished Service Award and the Secretary’s Career Achievement Award and recognized for her work by other U.S. Government agencies.
Ms. Bodine is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. A recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from UC Santa Barbara, she is a former President of the UCSB Alumni Association, Vice President of the Alumni Associations of UC and Regent Emerita University of California. She resides in Alexandria, VA.