Todd F. Buchwald served as Special Coordinator and Ambassador for the Department of State’s Office of Global Criminal Justice from December 2015 through July 2017. Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Buchwald served as a career lawyer in the Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, including as head of the office for United Nations Affairs during the Bush and Obama administrations, of the office of Political-Military Affairs during the Clinton and Bush administrations, and of the Office of European Affairs during the Bush and Clinton administrations. He also served as an attorney in the Office of White House Counsel under President Reagan, and has been the recipient of numerous Presidential Rank Awards, Superior Honor Awards, and State Department performance awards, as well as recipient of the Justice Tom C. Clark Award (outstanding attorney in the federal government).

Upon leaving the State Department, Mr. Buchwald has served as the inaugural Tom A. Bernstein Genocide Prevention Fellow at the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and as a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law and the chair of the Steering Committee for the Society’s Signature Topic initiative on The Role of International Law and Justice on Atrocity Prevention.  He currently is teaching at George Washington University Law School, is a Senior Peace Fellow with the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), and is co-chairing the Task Force commissioned by the American Society of International Law to make recommendations for the United States Executive branch and the United States Congress on policy options for United States engagement with the International Criminal Court.

Mr. Buchwald has published a variety of scholarly articles, including on the legality of use of force in Iraq, United States security assistance programs, and the crime of aggression. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Yale Law School.