Dr. Richard Ponzio is currently a Senior Strategy and Policy Officer in the State Department's Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization Operations, where he supports the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan on the New Silk Road regional economic cooperation initiative. From 1997-1999, he was a Visiting Fulbright Fellow at the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre in Islamabad. Over the next decade, Richard served in a variety of policy and strategic planning positions for the UN in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, and New York.

Richard has published widely in academic journals, edited volumes, newspapers, UN policy reports, and monographs including: Democratic Peacebuilding: Aiding Afghanistan and other Fragile States (OUP, 2011). While completing a doctoral dissertation on internationalengagement in Afghanistan at the University of Oxford, Richard served on the National Council for Democrats Abroad United Kingdom. He has also undertaken studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, The Graduate Institute for International Studies-Geneva, and Columbia University.