William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. He co-chairs the America’s International Partners advisory council of America250, the executive arm of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission. It inspires and facilitates commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States in 1776.

In 2014, Ambassador Courtney joined RAND from Computer Sciences Corporation, where he was senior principal for federal policy strategy. From 1972 through 1999 he was a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State. He was ambassador to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the U.S.-Soviet Commission which implemented the Threshold Test Ban Treaty. He was special assistant to the president for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia; deputy negotiator in U.S.-Soviet Defense and Space Talks; deputy executive secretary of the NSC staff; and special assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He served abroad in Brasilia, Moscow, Geneva, Almaty, and Tbilisi.

Ambassador Courtney is chair-emeritus of the board of trustees of Eurasia Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and was a member of its board of directors. He belongs to the Council on Foreign Relations, where in 1977–78 he was an international affairs fellow. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University and a B.A. in economics from West Virginia University. He is married and has two adult children.