Sutphen, Mona

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Sutphen, Mona

PERSONAL:

Education: Mount Holyoke College, B.A.; London School of Economics, M.Sc.

ADDRESSES:

Home—NY. Office—Stonebridge International, 875 3rd Ave., 25th Fl., New York, NY 10017. E-mail—msutphen@stonebridge-international.com.

CAREER:

Stonebridge International, LLC, New York, NY, managing director; advisor to U.S. presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama on foreign policy; previously served as a diplomat from 1991-2000, both as White House special assistant to U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger, and advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, Washington, DC; worked on the civilian provisions of the Dayton Peace Accords for Carl Bildt in Bosnia; U.S. Department of State Human Rights Bureau; U.S. Embassy, Bangkok, Thailand, covering the prodemocracy movement in Burma. Member of Council on Foreign Relations; Ron Brown Scholarship Program, advisory board, selection committee; Global Rights, board member; Women's Foreign Policy Group; International Human Rights Law Group, board member; Council on African American Affairs, board member.

WRITINGS:

(With Nina Hachigian) The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Graduating with a bachelor of arts degree from Mount Holyoke College and a master of science degree from the London School of Economics, Mona Sutphen has had a diverse career. She serves as managing director for the New York City office of the consulting firm Stonebridge International, LLC, and was also the foreign policy advisor to U.S. presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama. She has previously worked for the National Security Council in Washington, DC, where she was both White House special assistant to U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger and advisor to United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson.

The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise addresses recent changes to American foreign policy, and discusses ways in which the United States can take advantage of the new opportunities that have been created, both by altered policies and by shifts in the global arena. Sutphen and Nina Hachigian, both of whom have worked in Washington, DC, on the U.S. National Security Council while President Bill Clinton was in office, use their experiences and wealth of research materials, including reports, scholarly analysis, and various opinion polls for their book. Sutphen and Hachigian believe that the United States should consider ways in which to strategize with other nations it considers vital to the global economy and political situation both now and in the future. These nations include China, India, Japan, Russia, and the European Union. The authors also analyze what they consider to be potential threats to U.S. prosperity and security, and how the United States can address these issues in a proactive manner. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly declared that "synthesizing a vast amount of material while advancing their arguments, … [Sutphen and Hachigian] have produced a persuasive text." Booklist contributor Jay Freeman remarked that "their well-presented arguments are worthy of serious consideration."