Kurt Campbell Sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Nathaniel Fick Appointed CEO of CNAS

Washington, D.C., June 30, 2009 - The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is proud to announce that Dr. Kurt M. Campbell, its former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Founder, was confirmed by the United States Senate last week and sworn in by the State Department this week as the new Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, a position formerly occupied by Christopher Hill. CNAS is pleased to announce that Nathaniel C. Fick, formerly CNAS Chief Operating Officer, has been appointed by the Board of Directors to succeed Campbell as the new CEO.

Richard Danzig, Chairman of the CNAS Board of Directors, said, "Kurt Campbell, one of our best public servants, is widely and rightly respected among military members and civilians for his qualities of character as well as mind. Kurt's extraordinary leadership and depth of commitment will be an asset for this country as the nation's top diplomat in Asia.” Danzig added, “I am deeply impressed with Nathaniel Fick.  Nate is leading the next generation of national security scholars – a true leader in every sense of the word and a veteran of our current wars who is prepared to solve current and future threats facing our nation."

Campbell co-founded CNAS in January 2007 with current Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy.  Campbell previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia and Pacific Affairs and held positions at the White House, Treasury Department, and Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He also served as a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Campbell has written widely on issues of national security and foreign policy and is the co-author of Difficult Transitions: Why Presidents Fail in Foreign Policy at the Outset of Power as well as numerous other books, scholarly articles, and opinion pieces. He is the recipient of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Commendation Medal, Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, Department of State Honor Award, and Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Before being appointed CEO, Nathaniel Fick served as the Chief Operating Officer at CNAS. Prior to joining CNAS, Fick served as a Marine Corps infantry officer. He took part in the earliest phases of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 and 2002 and led a reconnaissance unit during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2006, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and served in 2007 as a civilian instructor at the Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy in Kabul.

Fick is the author of the 2005 New York Times bestseller One Bullet Away (Houghton Mifflin, 2005), a book that has received numerous awards for its contributions to military history and international affairs. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Fick serves on the boards of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, dedicated to providing educational opportunities for the children of Marines killed in action, and the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College, which encourages graduates to embark on careers in public service.

Fick received an MPA in International Security Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was a Dean’s Fellow, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He holds an A.B. degree with high honors in classics and government from Dartmouth.