Amb. Avis Bohlen

Avis T. Bohlen served for 25 years as a career Foreign Service Officer with the US State Department, 30 years with the US government. Positions included: Assistant Secretary for Arms Control (1999-2002), Ambassador to Bulgaria (1996-1999), Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Paris (1991-1995). Before that, numerous assignments in the State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe in charge of security issues. Also worked on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff. Over the years, involved in policy on a wide range of issues relating to U.S.-European relations, European security issues, arms control and Soviet affairs. Retired from the U.S. State Department in May 2002. Before joining the Foreign Service in 1979, worked for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. M.A. from Columbia University (1965). B.A. from Radcliffe College (1961). Bohlen’s father, Chip Bohlen, was a Russia expert in the American Foreign Service during and after World War II. He served at the U.S. embassy in Moscow with George Kennan in the 1940s and later succeeded Kennan as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1953.