Brady Kiesling

Who is Brady Kiesling?

John Brady Kiesling is a former US diplomat and the author of "Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower". He was the first of three U.S. foreign service officers to resign, on February 25, 2003, to protest the 2003 invasion of Iraq. His letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell was posted by the New York Times and circulated widely.

An archaeologist/ancient historian by training, Kiesling entered the foreign service in 1983. He served in Israel, Morocco, Greece, Washington, and Armenia, returning to Athens as chief of the political section of the U.S. Embassy in 2000.

After his resignation, Kiesling spent a year as a visiting fellow/lecturer at Princeton University, and then returned to Athens. Until May 2009, he wrote a monthly column called "Diplomat in the Ruins" in the "Athens News" in Greece. Kiesling supported the multilateralist foreign policy of former President George H.W. Bush and the limited purposes of the 1991 Gulf War.