We have the sad news that Arnold Kanter, an American statesman, public servant, and Atlanticist died over the weekend.  This is truly a great loss to the Atlantic Council and the transatlantic community.

Atlantic Council president and CEO Frederick Kempe issued the following statement:

Arnold Kanter died at a too young age of 65 following a characteristically gracious and brave battle against cancer. Arnie was Under Secretary of State from 1991-1993, with responsibility for the day-to-day management of U.S. foreign policy.  Before that, he had served as Special Assistant to President George H.W. Bush while part of General Brent Scowcroft’s National Security Council staff. And prior to that, he served in a number of State Department jobs from 1977 to 1985.  He was a Principal and founding member of the Scowcroft group.

That and so much more you’ll find in his impressive biography of public service. However, we’ll remember him at the Atlantic Council as a brilliant, kind, provocative, incisive, humorous, demanding, helpful, irreverent thinker and actor. He was always generous and invariably thoughtful with his advice and support for the Atlantic Council and our important work. His colleagues on our board Brent Scowcroft, Ginny Mulberger and Eric Melby call him “a totally engaged, brilliant strategic thinker, one of the quiet but true national treasures and…the kindest and the most loyal of friends.”

We at the Atlantic Council will miss him. We also send our deepest condolences to his family, his friends and the many colleagues who held him in such high personal and professional regard.

An impressive biography indeed.  Here’s a short version from the Scowcroft Group website:

A Principal and founding member of The Scowcroft Group, Arnold Kanter provides strategic advice and direct assistance to companies in the aerospace, financial services, metals, transportation, chemical, and other industries. He also conducts risk assessments of market opportunities in East Asia and Russia.

Dr. Kanter served as Under Secretary of State from 1991 to 1993. As the third-ranking official in the State Department, he functioned as its “chief operating officer” with responsibility for the day-to-day management of United States foreign policy. Before assuming this position, he served on the White House Staff from 1989 to 1991 as Special Assistant to the President, and in a variety of capacities in the State Department from 1977 to 1985.

In addition to his government experience, Dr. Kanter was a program director at the RAND Corporation, a member of the research staff at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the faculty at Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, and his master and doctoral degrees from Yale University.

Previously a member of the Defense Policy Board and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Dr. Kanter serves as an adviser to the intelligence community. He also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (where he chairs the Congressional staff roundtable on national security), the Aspen Strategy Group, the Trilateral Commission and the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and is a director of the Atlantic Council.

Again, our deepest condolences to all who knew and loved Arnie.  

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