Richard N. Gardner completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Spain on July 12, 1997 in order to resume his post as professor of law and international organization at Columbia University, and to become counsel to the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

Richard Gardner arrived in Madrid on October 7, 1993 to assume his post as Ambassador of the United States to Spain. In appointing him, President Clinton described Ambassador Gardner as “an internationally recognized authority on international law, international economic problems, and U.S.-European relations” and added: “He will serve our country well as Ambassador to this important ally and trading partner.”

Previously, Ambassador Gardner served as U.S. Ambassador to Italy in the Carter Administration and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

The Ambassador helda B.A. degree in Economics from Harvard College, a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Yale Law School, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. His Oxford thesis, published by the Oxford University Press as Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, has been described as the “classic” study of Anglo-American economic collaboration in the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions and GATT.

Ambassador Gardner is the author of three other books on international affairs including In Pursuit of World Order: U.S. Foreign Policy and International Organization and of numerous articles in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. The Council on Foreign Relations recently published his booklet entitled Negotiating Survival: Four Priorities After Rio. He has been a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Board of Directors of Freedom House, the International League for Human Rights and the National Democratic Institute.

As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Affairs, he received the Arthur S. Flemming award as one of the ten outstanding young men in the Federal Government for his contributions to U.N. peacekeeping, trade and development, outer space negotiations and human rights. Ambassador Gardner was a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly 1961-67. He served as Special Advisor to the United Nations at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, as he did at the 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment.

The Ambassador served from 1982-1993 as Co-Chairman of the Aspen Institute Program on the United States and the World Economy. He also served as Chairman of the U.S. group in a joint Russian-American program on the United Nations and collective security established under the auspices of the U.S. and Russian U.N. Associations.

Ambassador Gardner was an early member of President Clinton’s foreign policy advisory team during the 1992 Presidential campaign. In 1988 he was a foreign policy advisor to then Senator Al Gore in his bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Ambassador Gardner was married to the former Danielle Almeida Luzzatto, whose family is from Venice, Italy, and came to the United States during the Second World War. Mrs. Gardner was a correspondent in New York for Italian print and television media.

Ambassador Gardner passed away on February 15, 2019 at the age of 91.