Dear Friend:

We are pleased to share with you that The Hon Robert C O'Brien will address the ICAS Fall Symposium Veritas on "The Korean Peninsula Issues and US National Security" on October 4, 2023.

The Hon Robert O'Brien is Co-founder and Chairman of American Global Strategies LLC. He was the 27th United States National Security Advisor from 2019 – 2021. Robert served as the President’s principal advisor on all aspects of American foreign policy and national security affairs.

He brought a renewed focus to defense and industrial base issues to the NSC. A long-time advocate of a sea power and a 355 ship Navy, Robert visited leading shipyards during his tenure. He also spent time at defense plants and with our troops at bases around the world.

During O’Brien’s time as National Security Advisor, the United States orchestrated the historic Abraham Accords in the Middle East, brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, achieved significant defense spending increases among our NATO allies and increased cooperation with America’s allies across the Indo-Pacific.

Prior to serving as NSA, Robert was the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs with the personal rank of Ambassador. He was directly involved in the return of over 25 detainees and hostages to the United States. Ambassador O’Brien previously served as Co-Chairman of the US Department of State Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan under both Secretaries of State Rice and Clinton.

Robert was also a presidentially-appointed member of the US Cultural Property Advisory Committee from 2008-2011. In 2005, he was nominated by President George W Bush and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate to serve as a US Representative to the 60th session of the UN General Assembly. Earlier in his career, Robert served as a Senior Legal Officer for the UN Security Council commission that decided claims against Iraq arising out of the first Gulf War. He was a Major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve.

Ambassador O’Brien is partner emeritus at Larson LLP in Los Angeles, a nationally recognized litigation boutique that he co-founded in 2016. Over his career, he has served as counsel and arbitrator in dozens of International proceedings.

Robert is the recipient of the National Security Medal, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the National Defense Medal, the Legion d’honneur (chevalier), the Republic of China (Taiwan) Order of the Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon and the Kosovo Presidential Medal of Merits.

The National Museum of the Surface Navy named him the recipient of the 2021 Freedom of the Seas Award. That same year, Robert and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were awarded the Richard Nixon Foundation’s Architect of Peace Award for their work on the Abraham Accords and other initiatives while in office. Following the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, a tree was planted on behalf of the State of Israel at the John F Kennedy Memorial Forest in the Hills of Jerusalem in honor of Ambassador O’Brien. In 2019, Robert received the Dr Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Award for the Defense of America and Israel. The UC Berkeley School of Law presented Ambassador O’Brien with the Stefan A. Riesenfeld Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the field of international law in 2011.

In July 2022, Robert was elected as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation. He also serves as co-chair with Secretary Pompeo of The Nixon Seminar on Conservative Realism and National Security.

Robert holds a JD from the UC Berkeley School of Law. He received his BA degree in political science, cum laude, from UCLA.

Thank you.