GYP’s Global Minds: A Current Events Debrief

Richard Sindelar is a nonresident scholar in global diplomacy at the Baker Institute. His interests center on U.S. foreign policy issues, international security and the policymaking process. His current research is focused on Ukraine, international law, the “responsibility to protect” doctrine and war crimes.

Sindelar previously served as director of the Center for International Studies (CIS) at the University of St. Thomas, where he taught courses on diplomacy and strategic affairs, U.S. foreign policy, international security, international law and the Middle East and North Africa region.

Sindelar is a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who served more than 22 years with the U.S. State Department, from the Richard Nixon administration to that of Bill Clinton. His overseas posts included Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and the then-Sinai Field Mission, as well as Montreal and Monterrey.

In Washington, he served three tours in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), including a tour as deputy director of Middle East/South Asia analysis (1991-1994) during the Oslo Accords and the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm.

Ambassador Michael Pelletier was appointed as the founding Executive Director of the Aspire Initiative Endowed Institute for Global Engagement at the University of Houston on August 1, 2021.

Previously, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Madagascar and the Union of the Comoros from January 2019 through June 2021. Ambassador Pelletier retired as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of MinisterCounselor, having served as an American diplomat from 1987-2021. Ambassador Pelletier oversaw professional tradecraft, orientation, and area studies training as Dean of the School of Professional and Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State. He also served at eight U.S. Missions overseas and in senior leadership positions at the U.S. Department of State, including as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India, and Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs.