Midcoast Forum on Foreign Relations

Greg Thielmann

Monday, January 27, 2014

Topic: The Iran Nuclear Negotiations: What's a Realistic Outcome?

Greg Thielmann has served more than three decades in the executive and legislative branches of government, specializing in political-military and intelligence issues.  Before joining the Arms Control Association (ACA) as a senior fellow in 2009, he worked for four years as a senior professional staffer of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). He was previously a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for 25 years, last serving as Director of the Strategic, Proliferation and Military Affairs Office in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. His foreign posts include Deputy Political Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil; Political-Military Affairs Officer in Moscow, USSR; and Political-Military Affairs Officer in Bonn, Germany. Thielmann also served as Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of German, Austrian and Swiss Affairs; Special Assistant to Ambassador Paul Nitze (then Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State on Arms Control Matters); and State Department advisor to the U.S. Delegation at the Geneva INF arms control negotiations. His July 2003 appearance at an ACA press briefing on faulty intelligence assessments regarding Iraq’s WMD capabilities led to a CBS News 60 Minutes II segment titled “The Man Who Knew,” which won an Emmy Award for reporter Scott Pelley.  Greg is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He lives in Arlington, Virginia, is married, and has a daughter living in Portland, Maine.