The Third Annual

Ryan C. Crocker Global Citizen of the Year Award

Featuring Robin Wright, Journalist, Author, Political Analyst

Robin Wright is an award-winning journalist, author and foreign-policy analyst whose latest book, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World, has received rave reviews for its clarity in understanding the underpinnings of the Arab Spring. According to the New York Review of Books, “If there is such a thing as a pinnacle in the landscape of international journalism, Robin Wright surely stands atop it.” Her other books include The Iran Primer: Power, Politics and US Policy; Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East;and Flashpoints: Promise and Peril in a New World among others.

Ms. Wright is currently the Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center. She has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Sunday Times of London, CBS News and The Christian Science Monitor. She has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times magazine, TIME, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The International Herald Tribune and many others. Her foreign tours include five years in the Middle East, two years in Europe, seven years in Africa, and several years as a roving correspondent in Latin America and Asia. In addition, Wright has been a Fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Yale University, Duke University, Stanford University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Southern California.

Her book will be available for purchase and signing following the program.

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Prior to his current appointment, Ambassador Crocker served as Dean, Executive Professor and Edward and Howard Kruse Endowed Chair at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. He retired from the Foreign Service in April, 2009 after over 37 years but was asked to return to the Foreign Service as Ambassador to Afghanistan by President Obama in 2011. Ryan Crocker also served as ambassador to countries throughout the Middle East, including Iraq (2007-2009), Pakistan (2004-07), Syria (1998-2001), Kuwait (1994-97), and Lebanon (1990-93).  He also served assignments in Iran, Qatar,  and Egypt, as well being the first Director of Governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad in 2003 and re-opening our embassy in Afghanistan in 2002.