Member, Delphi Global Board of Advisors

William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at the nonpartisan, nonprofit RAND research organization, and a professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy.

In 2014, Ambassador Courtney joined RAND from Computer Sciences Corporation, where he was senior principal for federal policy strategy.  From 1972 through 1999 he was a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State.  He served as U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the U.S.-Soviet Commission to implement the Threshold Test Ban Treaty.  He was senior advisor to the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission), advisor on the integration of foreign affairs agencies, special assistant to the president for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, deputy negotiator in U.S.-Soviet Defense and Space Talks, deputy executive secretary of the NSC staff, and special assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He served abroad in Brasilia, Moscow, Geneva, Almaty, and Tbilisi.  He received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service.

Ambassador Courtney co-chaired the international advisory council of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission from 2021 through 2024.  He is chair-emeritus of the board of trustees of Eurasia Foundation.  He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Council on Foreign Relations, where in 1977–78 he was an international affairs fellow. He holds a B.A. from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University.