CGA Team
Philip Kosnett,
Senior Advisor
Ambassador Philip S. Kosnett (Ret.) represented the United States in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia during a Foreign Service career focused on security cooperation, governance, and organizational development, leading interagency and multinational teams in conditions of peace and war. Now he brings his decades of experience at the intersection of diplomacy, defense, and development to Cambridge Global Advisors.
As a diplomat, Kosnett’s executive assignments included Ambassador to Kosovo; Chargé d’Affaires (acting ambassador) in Turkey and Iceland; and Deputy Chief of Mission (deputy ambassador/embassy chief operating officer) in Turkey, Iceland, and Uzbekistan. In these positions, he led missions of up to 1,100 people, strengthening international security and trade cooperation, and overseeing military, rule-of-law, development, and humanitarian assistance programs.
Kosnett honed his political-military knowledge and organizational development skills as a provincial administrator in Iraq and as a senior political-military officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, building operational ties among U.S. civilian agencies, American and coalition militaries, and host country governments. Earlier, he held portfolios in political economy, counterterrorism, law enforcement, and environmental diplomacy in Japan and the Netherlands. In Washington, he served in roles in policy development, crisis management, and intelligence analysis.
After leaving federal service in 2021, Ambassador Kosnett established the consultancy Kosnett Associates LLC with his wife, Alison Kosnett, a specialist in economic development, to apply their experience for domestic and international clients. Kosnett lectures and writes as a Fellow of the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis, National Defense University’s Joint Forces Staff College, and the Global and National Security Institute of the University of South Florida.
Kosnett edited the book Boots and Suits: Historical Cases and Contemporary Lessons in Military Diplomacy (Marine Corps University Press, 2023). He has written on issues in global security for online and print publications, including CEPA’s Europe’s Edge, the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, and National Defense Magazine. Kosnett has also re-embraced his first calling, from student days, as a wargame designer, and writes science fiction.
A Harvard graduate with a degree in Government, Kosnett has studied Turkish, Japanese, Dutch, and Russian. He holds numerous State Department awards, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service, the Department of the Army Medal for Outstanding Civilian Service, and the Republic of Kosovo Order of Dr. Ibrahim Rugova. Kosnett is an elected member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and an advisor to the humanitarian organization AfghanEvac.