David McKean is a former United States Ambassador to Luxembourg. From 2013-2016, he served as the director of policy planning in the Department of State. In 2012, he served as director of the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. He is the recipient of the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award and Superior Honor Award.

McKean spent two decades working in the United States Congress: serving as chief of staff to Senator John Kerry (1999-2008) and chief of staff to Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II (1993-1994). He served as staff director for the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2009-2010, and minority staff director for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (1998- 1999).

McKean is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Duke University Law School, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

He has contributed articles to a number of publications, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Barrons, The Washington Post, and Politico. He is also the author of six books, including Partners of First Resort: America, Europe and the Future of the West (Brookings Press, March 2021), and Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors and the Rise of Adolf Hitler (November 2021, St. Martins Press).