David Holmes, a career Senior Foreign Service Officer, is a Diplomatic Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. A senior diplomat at the U.S. Department of State for nearly a quarter century, he has advised Presidents, Secretaries of State, and senior national security officials on strategic planning, crisis management, high-stakes negotiations, strategic communications, and principled advocacy. David served most recently as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at Embassy Budapest, Hungary, where he led a 300-person operation to advance U.S. interests and values by strengthening Transatlantic security and unity on NATO’s eastern flank at a time of war in Europe. Previously, as the member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff responsible for Eastern Europe, he played a lead role in the development of the U.S. interagency response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This followed overseas tours as Political Counselor at U.S. Embassy Kyiv, Ukraine, and consecutively as the Senior Energy Officer and Deputy Political Counselor U.S. Embassy Moscow, Russia. In Washington, he served on the National Security Council staff as Director for Afghanistan and as Special Assistant for South and Central Asia to then-Under Secretary of State Bill Burns. His earlier overseas assignments include New Delhi, India; Kabul, Afghanistan; Bogotá, Colombia; and Pristina, Kosovo. He is the recipient of ten State Department Superior Honor awards and the American Foreign Service Association’s 2014 Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent. He holds a bachelors degree in philosophy from Pomona College and masters degrees in international affairs from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) and Princeton University’s
School of Public and International Affairs.