His Excellency Martin Palouš, was appointed Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States by Czech President Vaclav Havel in the summer of 2001. Mr. Palouš was one of the first signatories of Charter 77 and served as a spokesman for this dissident human rights group in 1986. A founding member of the Civic Forum, he was elected to the Federal Assembly in 1990 and became a member of its Foreign Affairs Committee. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia as an adviser to Minister Dienstbier and was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from October 1990 to October 1992.

Dr. Palouš has held a number of teaching positions at Charles University since 1990. He became a member of the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1994 and served for some time as the Faculty’s Vice-Dean. In 1993, he joined the Centre for Theoretical Studies and has lectured extensively in the United States. Until 1998, Mr. Palouš was also active in various non-governmental organizations (including his service as the Chairman of the Czech Helsinki Committee and Co-Chairman of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly). In October 1998, he became the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

Dr. Palouš is the author of numerous publications, including the chapter on the Czech Republic in the European Commission publication Democratization in Central and Eastern Europe, “Totalitarianism and Authoritarianism,” in the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict (1999), and “Between Idealism and Realism: Reflections on the Political Landscape of Post Communism,” in Between Past and Future: “The Revolutions of 1989 and their Aftermath” (2000).

He is the President of the Václav Havel Library Foundation in New York, Director of International Programs of the Václav Havel Library in Prague, and Senior Fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University in Miami.