Allan Gotlieb

Allan Gotlieb trained in history and law at Berkeley, Harvard, and Oxford before joining Canada’s Department of External Affairs in 1957. He worked on international law and disarmament, led the communications and immigration departments, and returned to External Affairs as its senior official in 1977. ^{1, 2}

As ambassador from 1981 to 1989, Gotlieb widened the embassy’s contacts beyond the State Department. He cultivated members of Congress, governors, journalists, and policy specialists, while he and Sondra Gotlieb used their home to bring influential Americans together. His approach sought support for Canadian objectives throughout Washington’s dispersed political system. After leaving government, he chaired the Canada Council from 1989 to 1994 and wrote about diplomacy and his Washington experience. ¹