Daniel Brooks Baer (born January 6, 1977) is an American politician and former diplomat from

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

currently serving as Senior Vice President for Policy Research at the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

. Baer served in the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

, first as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs (DRL) is a bureau within the United States Department of State. The bureau is under the purview of the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. History ...

from 2009 to 2013, and then as United States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe from 2013 to 2017. In 2018, Governor

John Hickenlooper John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. ( ; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician, geologist, and businessman serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Colorado since 2021. A mem ...

appointed Baer as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

Early life and education

Baer is a native of

. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

with a BA in social studies and

African American studies Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...

and was then a Marshall Scholar at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, where he earned a MPhil and DPhil in

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

.Daniel Brooks Baer
U.S. Department of State Archive.

Consulting, academic, and diplomatic career

From 2004 to 2007, Baer worked at the

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the "Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three" (or MBB, the world's three large ...

as project leader. He was then an Assistant Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

. He then joined the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

, where he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the

from November 23, 2009 to September 10, 2013. From 2013 to 2017, Baer was the United States Ambassador for the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

Colorado politics

In July 2017, Baer announced that he was running in the Democratic primary for the U.S. House seat for Colorado's 7th congressional district, held by Democrat Ed Perlmutter, who initially did not file to run for re-election in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. The district covers portions of Jefferson and Adams counties. Baer withdrew from the race after Perlmutter announced that he would seek reelection. From 2017 to 2018, Baer was a diplomat-in-residence at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

's Josef Korbel School of International Affairs. In May 2018 Baer was appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper to serve as Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. In April 2019, Baer announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

seat held by

Cory Gardner Cory Scott Gardner (born August 22, 1974) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Colorado from 2015 to 2021. A Republican, he was the U.S. representative for Colorado's 4th congressional district from ...

in the 2020 election. Baer entered the primary with a field of nine Democratic candidates seeking the party's nomination, running against John F. Walsh, Andrew Romanoff, Mike Johnston, Ellen Burnes, Alice Madden, and others. In September 2019, Baer dropped out of the primary and endorsed John Hickenlooper, who entered the race after ending his 2020 U.S. presidential bid.

Personal life

Baer is openly gay; in August 2014, he married his longtime partner Brian Walsh.

Publications

Articles

* Democracies Must Empower a Biotech Future for All, ''

Lawfare Lawfare is the use of legal systems and institutions to affect foreign or domestic affairs, as a more peaceful and rational alternative, or as a less benign adjunct, to warfare. Detractors have alternately begun to define the phrase as, "An att ...

'', November 20, 2022 (co-authored with Megan Palmer, Andrew Imbrie, and Anna B. Puglisi) * Privacy Is Power, ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

'', January 19, 2022 (co-authored with Andrew Imbrie, Anna B. Puglisi, Andrew Trask, Erik Brattberg, and Helen Toner)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baer, Dan 1977 births Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford State cabinet secretaries of Colorado Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe McDonough School of Business faculty Harvard College alumni Gay diplomats American gay men Living people LGBTQ ambassadors of the United States LGBTQ people from Colorado Marshall Scholars Colorado Democrats Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century Colorado politicians Candidates in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections