Ambassador Feinstein Presents Credentials to President Kaczyński

21 October 2009

Ambassador Feinstein at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. Photo courtesy of the President's Chancellery.

On October 20, 2009, Lee A. Feinstein, the new U.S. Ambassador to Poland, presented his credentials to the President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, during an official ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. As part of the credentialing ceremony, Ambassador Feinstein laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. Ambassador Feinstein is the 25th U.S. Ambassador to Poland.  Upon arrival, he said, “It is an honor to represent America in Poland, one of our closest allies and a country with whom we share both vital interests and common values.”  Ambassador Feinstein arrived ahead of two significant visits from the United States: a delegation of the High Level Defense Group led by Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow, and a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.  Ambassador Feinstein was nominated by President Obama on July 20, 2009 and was confirmed by unanimous consent by the U.S. Senate on September 22, 2009.  He was sworn in on September 28, 2009 (text - PDF 77.67 Kb and video of his Senate testimony). Upon his confirmation, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, “I worked closely with Lee Feinstein during my years in government and expect that he will make a superb ambassador to our close allies in Warsaw.  Ambassador Feinstein is deeply knowledgeable about European affairs, strongly committed to the Trans-Atlantic partnership, and highly-respected by leaders on both sides of the Atlantic."

Ambassador Feinstein has worked in several senior capacities in the U.S. Departments of Defense and State, including as Principal Deputy Director of Policy Planning, where he advised on strategic goals and objectives in political-military affairs. Ambassador Feinstein was National Security Director to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign and an outside foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama during the general election.  He served on the Presidential Transition Team after the election and then as Senior Advisor to the Office of the Secretary of State.

As a Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution and Deputy Director of Studies and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Ambassador Feinstein wrote widely on U.S. national security, foreign policy, and international institutions. He advised Newt Gingrich and George Mitchell, who chaired a congressionally mandated Task Force on the United Nations and co-directed the non-partisan CFR Task Force on Enhancing U.S. Leadership at the United Nations.

Ambassador Feinstein served as senior advisor to Human Rights First and is an authority on the principle of the “Responsibility to Protect.”  He is the author of Darfur and Beyond: What is Needed to Prevent Mass Atrocities, which was featured in CFR’s Emmy Award-winning multimedia Crisis Guide-Darfur. With Tod Lindberg, he is also author of Means to an End: U.S. Interest in the International Criminal Court, published by the Brookings Institution Press earlier this month.

An international lawyer, Ambassador Feinstein holds a J.D. from Georgetown University, an M.A. in political science from the City University of New York, and an A.B. from Vassar College. He is married to Elaine Margaret Monaghan, a native of Scotland and a foreign correspondent, who has covered the Kosovo conflict, Northern Ireland peace talks, and the former Soviet bloc. They have two young children.