Simons Center Welcomes New Director

The Simons Center for Interagency Cooperation, a program of the Command and General Staff College Foundation, has a new director effective Tuesday, August 14. Retired Ambassador Edward Marks assumes the duties as director of the Simons Center this month.

“I have known Ed Marks for 18 years,” said Bob Ulin, CEO of the CGSC Foundation, the parent organization of the Simons Center. “We were colleagues in a private think tank supporting headquarters U.S. Army Europe. Ed is an accomplished diplomat, scholar and persuasive advocate for improved governmental cooperation. I am very pleased he has accepted this important position.”

Retiring as a Senior Foreign Service Officer (Minister-Counselor) in 1995, Ambassador Marks has since engaged in consulting and writing, primarily on terrorism, interagency coordination, United Nations affairs, and complex international emergencies. Recalled to active duty in 2002-2005 he served as the Department of State’s advisor on terrorism to the United States Pacific Command. He was a member of the Simons Center’s advisory council from 2010 to 2011.

“I am honored for this opportunity to work with the Simons Center, especially now that the Center’s focus on interagency coordination is so central and important to American foreign policy and military strategy,” Marks said. “‘Whole-of-Government’ is not a pat phrase, but reflects the important contribution that the CGSC Foundation directly, and through the Simons Center, can make to the U.S. Government in general and the Command and General Staff College in particular.”

Marks has served as a Senior Advisor to the Project on National Security Reform (2008-2009), subject matter expert with Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, Senior Mentor to various military commands, a Senior Fellow at several think tanks, and consultant to United Nations organizations. He joined the Foreign Service in 1956 with early assignments primarily in Africa. His senior positions include Ambassador to the Republics of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, the Department of State’s Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Visiting Senior Fellow on terrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Deputy Chief of Mission in Sri Lanka, Deputy United States Representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York, and Senior Fellow at the National Defense University. He has been widely published and recently co-authored the book U.S. Government Counterterrorism: A Guide to Who Does What.