Negotiating Security, Power Sharing and Natural Resources

Cavanaugh had a Foreign Service career centered on peace efforts and humanitarian issues. This included diplomatic postings in Berlin, Moscow, Tbilisi, Rome and Bern, and domestic assignments in the State Department, the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill. In 1992, he led the team that established the American Embassy to the new Republic of Georgia. Under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Cavanaugh spearheaded or helped advance peace initiatives involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Tajikistan and Turkey. The US Senate confirmed him in 2000 as Ambassador/ Special Negotiator responsible for Eurasian conflicts and US Co-Chair of OSCE’s Minsk Group (tasked with assisting peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict). In 2006, Cavanaugh became full professor at the University of Kentucky and director of its Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. He led this 60- year old masters degree program for a decade before taking sabbatical in Europe as visiting fellow at Cambridge University (Clare College) and as an executive-in-residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. His teaching ranges from conflict mediation and ethics to US-Russian relations and the diplomacy surrounding nuclear weapons. His research and policy writing focus primarily on diplomacy and peace efforts in the South Caucasus. Cavanaugh remains active in conflict resolution, consulting with governments — as well as the EU, OSCE and UN — and assisting peacebuilding NGOs with track-two diplomatic efforts and civil society initiatives. From 2014-2018, he served as a trustee of Conciliation Resources (London). In 2018, he became chairman of International Alert (London). Alert maintains offices in 19 countries, partnering with local organizations to support people and institutions to better anticipate and manage conflict without violence.