Carl Gershman is the president of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Prior to assuming the position with the Endowment in 1984, Gershman was Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nations, in which capacity he served as the U.S. Representative to the U.N.’s Third Committee that deals with human rights issues, and also as Alternate Representative of the U.S. to the U.N. Security Council. While at the U.S. Mission to the U.N., Gershman was a lead consultant to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, and helped draft its final report.

Gershman has lectured extensively and written articles and reviews on foreign policy issues for such publications as: Commentary, The New Leader, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Democratization, The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Washington Quarterly, and the Journal of Democracy. He is the co-editor of Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East (Bantam, 1972) and the author of The Foreign Policy of the American Labor (Sage, 1975). Additionally, he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Council on Foreign Relations.

During his career, Gershman received numerous honors and awards including: the Order of the Knight’s Cross from Government of Poland; President’s Medal from George Washington University; the Distinguished Person for Advancing Democracy in China from the Chinese Education Democracy Foundation; International Campaign for Tibet’s 2005 Light of the Truth Award; Romania’s National Order of “Faithful Service”; Order of Diplomatic Service Merit (Heung-In Medal) of the Republic of Korea; Lithuanian Diplomacy Star from the Government of Lithuania; Leadership in International Relations Award from the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute; and The Freedom Award of the Atlantic Council, received on behalf of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Watch Gershman reflect on the genesis of the World Movement as a founding member and highlight the importance of international solidarity.