Stephen J. Solarz is a former United States Congressional Representative from New York. Solarz was both a vociferous critic of President Ronald Reagan's deployment of Marines to Lebanon in 1982 and a co-sponsor of the 1991 Gulf War Authorization Act during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush. Born in New York City, September 12, 1940, Solarz attended public schools in New York City and later received a B.A. from Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass. in 1962 and an M.A. in public law and government from Columbia University in 1967. Solarz taught political science at Brooklyn (N.Y.) College, 1967-1968. He served in the New York State assembly from 1969-1974. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Mid-term Convention in 1974.
Solarz was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat to the Ninety-fourth and to the eight succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1975-January 3, 1993). In 1992 he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination to the One Hundred Third Congress. Thereafter he was appointed by President Clinton as chairman of the Central Asian-American Enterprise Fund and served from 1993-1998.
Since then he has remained active with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He is also a member of the Intellibridge Expert Network and Vice-Chairman of International Crisis Group. Solarz is also co-chairman of the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus, along with Zbigniew Brzezinski and Alexander Haig.
