President Biden appoints Dr. Mendis to US National Security Education Board

President Joe Biden has appointed Dr. Patrick Mendis—a Sri Lanka-born American diplomat—as an advisor to the prestigious U.S. National Security Education Board (NSEB), according to a press release by the White House.

The 14-member National Security Education Board consists of eight Cabinet secretaries including defence, education, energy, homeland security, state, and the director of National Intelligence as well as six distinguished American citizens of global prominence. The Board is chaired by the U.S. Secretary of Defence.

Dr. Patrick Mendis, a Harvard and Minnesota educated former military professor at NATO and the Indo-Pacific Command, is currently a distinguished visiting professor of transatlantic relations at the University of Warsaw and the inaugural Taiwan chair and distinguished visiting professor of international relations at the Jagiellonian University—famously known as the university of the Pope John Paul II and Nicolaus Copernicus—in Krakow, Poland. Prior to this, he served as a Taiwan fellow of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a distinguished visiting professor of global affairs at the National Chengchi University in Taipei and a distinguished visiting professor of Sino-American relations at the Yenching Academy of Peking University in China.

The presidential appointment of Dr. Mendis is a great honour not only for the renowned international relations scholar and the former U.S. diplomat in the Clinton, Bush, Obama administrations, but also for the United States, Poland, and Taiwan in their critical engagement in world affairs and global security.

Supporting her former constituent while teaching at the University of Minnesota, Rep. Betty McCollum, the top Democrat in the House Appropriations Defence Subcommittee in U.S. Congress wrote to the White House that “Patrick’s vast experience at a senior level in US government service and academia” is an asset to the Biden-Harris administration.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota also endorsed his candidacy to the Biden White House, writing that “Dr. Mendis is a respected leader and award-winning public servant, teacher, and diplomat.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen described his friend and former professor of the University of Maryland: “Patrick has contributed years of dedicated service to our country and has been recognized for his academic achievement, outstanding government career, and important philanthropic work.”

His former colleague and friend in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff during the Reagan administration, Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, characterized Dr. Patrick Mendis as a “highly respected foreign policy scholar, an award-winning public servant, and American diplomat.”

Recommending him to the White House, Sen. Tim Kaine wrote that the former distinguished senior fellow and affiliate professor at George Mason University in Virginia “has all the attributes and skills needed to thrive in these national security and foreign affairs positions. He consistently demonstrates a strong work ethic, leadership, and personal integrity.”

Having these recommendations by congressional leaders and two former Deputy Secretaries of State – Amb. Brian Atwood and Amb. Thomas Nides – the White House concluded that Dr. Patrick Mendis, a former commissioner to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO at the State Department, has “many talents and experience,” which “will be of great service to the Board, and by extension, the American people.”