Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies

The Roberta Buffett Visiting Professorship in International Studies, created through a gift from Roberta “Bertie” Buffett Elliott, brings to campus leading scholars from around the world to build international scholarly relationships and to provide educational opportunities for Northwestern students.

Ambassador Richard S. Williamson is the Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies in fall 2009 and winter 2010. A partner in the international law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, he has a wide range of government and academic experience. Ambassador Williamson recently completed an assignment as the President’s Special Envoy to Sudan. Earlier, he served in the Reagan White House as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy to the Chief of Staff and then on the White House senior staff as Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs. His many diplomatic posts have included serving as Ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna (including the International Atomic Energy Agency); Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs; a member of the President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control; and Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Ambassador Williamson has been an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware Law School and the Sharkey Visiting Scholar on United Nations Studies at the Whitehead School of International Relations, Seton Hall University. He is editor of three books and the author of over 180 articles and seven books, most recently American Primacy and Multilateral Cooperation. He received his AB from Princeton University and his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law where he served as Executive Editor of The Virginia Journal of International Law.