Nigel Purvis Joins Brookings Institution as Guest Scholar

Nigel Purvis, a senior State Department official responsible for environmental diplomacy, has joined the Brookings Institution as a guest scholar in the Foreign Policy Studies program.

While at Brookings, Purvis will conduct research on globalization and economic development policy. Purvis will help launch Brookings new Environment and Technology Program, which has as one major goal improving the transatlantic foreign policy dialogue on international environmental challenges. He will also begin an International Affairs Fellowship awarded to him by the Council on Foreign Relations to examine linkages between environmental and energy security.

Purvis served as deputy assistant secretary of State in the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs from January to November 2001. In that capacity, he oversaw U.S. environmental diplomacy regarding climate change, biological diversity, forests, toxic chemicals, coral reefs, and endangered species. Prior to that, Purvis served as senior adviser to the undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, advising on environmental and economic negotiations concerning multilateral trade and biotechnology. In both positions, Purvis led U.S. delegations to major diplomatic conferences and treaty negotiations on the environment, including the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

In addition to his expertise on international environmental policy, Purvis has significant experience on a broad range of foreign policy challenges, including globalization, economic development, international institutions, human rights, humanitarian affairs, U.S. law on foreign relations, and international law.

Early in his career, Purvis worked as an attorney with the State Department’s legal adviser and at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. He also taught graduate courses in government and law at Georgetown University. Purvis has published numerous works on foreign policy and law in various academic journals.

Nigel Purvis will be at the Brookings Institution through 2002.