Michael Pompeo: American Secretaries of State Project
An Interview with
Michael Pompeo, 70th Secretary of State
Panelists
Nicolas Burns
Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School
Faculty Chair, Future of Diplomacy Project
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Robert H. Mnookin
Williston Professor of Law, Emeritus
Executive Committee Member and Formar Chair, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
Meghan L. O’Sullivan
Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project
James K. Sebenius
Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Vice Chair for Practice-Focused Research, Program on Negotiation
Director, Harvard Negotiation Project
About The American Secretaries of State Project
The American Secretaries of State Project (SOSP) is a collaborative effort of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the Belfer Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School. SOSP illuminates and chronicles the negotiation experiences of former U.S. Secretaries of State. The Project is co-chaired by Professor Nicholas Burns, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor Emeritus Robert Mnookin, Harvard Law School; and Professor James Sebenius, Harvard Business School. The American Secretaries of State Project interviews all former U.S. Secretaries of State at Harvard University to examine—with faculty, students and experts—the most demanding and important negotiations they conducted while serving in the nation’s highest foreign policy office. This initiative will make a unique and substantial contribution to the teaching of negotiation and diplomacy across Harvard University and beyond, while serving as a resource for future generations of scholars and practitioners in international affairs.
Michael Richard Pompeo served as the 70th Secretary of State of the United States from April 26, 2018 to January 20, 2021. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Pompeo rose to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army before attending Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following a brief stint in corporate law, Pompeo moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he was co-founder and CEO of Thayer Aeronautics. From 2011 to 2017, he represented Kansas’s 4th district in the United States Congress. He then joined the administration of President Donald J. Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2017 to 2018. He married Susan Justice Mostrous in 2000 and the couple has one son, Nick Pompeo. Along with his roles in government and private industry, Pompeo was a deacon of Eastminster Church in Wichita, where he and Susan taught 5th grade Sunday School. He currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Hudson Institute and Of Counsel to Oberheiden, P.C.
PON interviewed Secretary Pompeo as part of the ongoing American Secretaries of State Project (SOSP) in May of 2025. In addition to this public session interview attended by students, faculty, and guests at Harvard Law School, there is an additional closed-door interview session video available via the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center.
