Equilibrium International Consulting

Valuable, insightful analysis and guidance on foreign policy and security.

About

Equilibrium International Consulting helps create better understanding of the complex issues faced by societies, governments, institutions and people. In doing so, EIC helps bring people, institutions and businesses together.  EIC offers in-depth knowledge of, real-world experience in and deep expertise on the Middle East to analyze, offer guidance and advice, write and speak on the region as well as other parts of the world, foreign policy and national security affairs.

For entities wrestling with the complexities and uncertainties of volatile regions, EIC can bring sober, balanced and insightful perspectives that have genuine implications for decisions relating to partnerships, project development and design, new businesses, investments, and sales contracts. For institutions, the media and individuals seeking to understand the region’s many challenges and opportunities, EIC offers realistic, insightful and unvarnished analyses and assessments to make issues understandable and to provoke constructive dialog.

About Gary Grappo

Gary Grappo is CEO of Equilibrium International Consulting, LLC, having founded the company following a distinguished career in public and foreign policy and in the private sector.

Ambassador Grappo is a career American diplomat (retired). His diplomatic postings are marked by some of the late 20th and early 21st centuries most difficult foreign policy challenges, from Nicaragua and the “Contra” War to the fall of the Soviet Union and the many crises of the Middle East. The latter include:

  • Post-9/11 actions to combat Middle East terrorism.
  • Establishment of the State Department’s hallmark Mideast assistance program, the Middle East Partnership Initiative.
  • Re-building of US-Saudi ties after 9/11.
  • Negotiations to implement a Free Trade Agreement.
  • Leadership of the super-sized political affairs division at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
  • Coordination of efforts to help resolve the Mideast’s most enduring struggle, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An Arabic speaker, he served as:

  • US ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman.
  • Head of Mission of the Office of the Quartet Representative, the Honorable Tony Blair, in Jerusalem.
  • Minister Counselor for Political Affairs in Baghdad, Iraq.
  • Charge’ and Deputy Chief of Mission in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
  • Director of Regional Affairs of the Near East Bureau of the Department of State in Washington.

His postings included Nicaragua, Portugal, Jordan, Oman (twice), Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jerusalem and several in Washington, D.C.

Awards

Ambassador Grappo received numerous awards during his Foreign Service career:

  • The Secretary’s Career Achievement Award.
  • Senior Foreign Service Presidential Award for his ambassadorship in Oman.
  • State Department Superior Honor Awards for his leadership role in combating terrorism financing in the Middle East, his leadership in coordinating the Middle East North Africa Economic Summit in Amman, Jordan in 1995, and his guidance of food relief efforts in the former Soviet Union.

Following his retirement, Ambassador Grappo served as president and CEO of the Colorado-based public policy and mediation NGO, the Keystone Center. He was Visiting Senior Scholar at the Center for Global and Area Studies of the University of Wyoming, and has been a Distinguished Fellow in the Center for Middle East Studies of the Josef Korbel School for International Studies at the University of Denver since 2015. He is a former commissioned officer in the US Air Force and spent several years with Castle & Cooke (Dole Products) and Bank of America in its Latin America operations.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the US Air Force Academy, MS degree from Purdue University and MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is married to Rebecca Grappo.