Strobe Talbott is president of the Brookings Institution and a towering figure in the US foreign policy community. Before joining the Brookings Institution in July 2002, he was founding director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. He served in the State Department from 1993 to 2001, first as ambassador-at-large and special adviser to the Secretary of State for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union, then as Deputy Secretary of State for seven years. Before entering the government, Mr. Talbott had worked for twenty-one years with Time magazine. He covered Eastern Europe, the State Department, and the White House before becoming the Washington bureau chief, editor-at-large, and foreign affairs columnist. For his work, Mr. Talbott twice received the Edward Weintal Prize for distinguished diplomatic reporting.

Mr. Talbott has been a fellow of the Yale Corporation, a trustee of the Hotchkiss School and of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also has occupied various other positions, among them director of the Council on Foreign Relations, of the North American Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, and of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars. He was also a member of the participating faculty of the World Economic Forum, and is currently a member of the Aspen Strategy Group. From 2007 to 2008, he served as a member of the National Commission on War Powers.

His newest book, The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation, published in January 2008, combines historical and political analysis with personal reflection on efforts to forge a peaceful community of nations. His past books include: Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb; The Russia Hand; At the Highest Levels