Ambassador David Litt

Former U.S. Ambassador; Adjunct Professor, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

Ambassador David C. Litt is currently Adjunct Professor in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, NC. He retired in August 2022 as Executive Director of the Center for Stabilization and Economic the US Foreign Service in 2008, Ambassador Litt served for 34 years as a career U.S. diplomat, specializing in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

In 2005-2006 he was the third-ranking officer at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, with the title of Political-Military Counselor, providing policy advice to the U.S. Ambassador, and serving as liaison between the Embassy and the Multi-National Forces – Iraq. His final assignment as a Foreign Service Officer was as the Associate Director for International Liaison at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Ambassador Litt served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1995-1998) and as Consul General in Dubai ten years prior. Ambassador Litt was the State Department’s Political Advisor to U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida (1998-2004). He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Niamey, Niger, from 1990-93. While at the Department of State, Ambassador Litt served as the Director of the Office of Northern Gulf Affairs (Iran and Iraq), and as Desk Officer for Saudi Arabia. In addition to a tour as economic/commercial officer in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the late 1970s, he served twice as political officer in Damascus, Syria..

Among several other languages, he speaks Italian, French, Arabic, and Afghan Persian (Dari). Ambassador Litt was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and grew up in Miami, FL. He received a bachelor’s degree with majors in history and French from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971, and a master’s degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. in 1973. He is married to the former Beatrice Ilardi, and has two children, Barbara, and Giorgio..