Speaker Information

Global Issues 2013

Amb. Dennis Jett

Dr. Dennis Jett is a founding faculty member and professor of international affairs of the School of International Affairs at Pennsylvania State University. A former career diplomat, he served 28 years in the State Department in a wide range of positions including Ambassador to Peru, Ambassador to Mozambique, on the National Security Council, Deputy Chief of Mission in Malawi and Liberia, and in Argentina and Israel. From 2000 to 2008, he was Dean of the International Center at the University of Florida and on the faculty of the political science department.

He has a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. The author of two books, Why Peacekeeping Fails and Why American Foreign Policy Fails, he has been interviewed on the Jim Lehrer News Hour, CNN, NPR, BBC and other national and international news programs. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy, he has written over 100 opinion pieces for major newspapers, the more recent of which can be found on his blog on the Huffington Post.