In 1981, U.S. president Ronald Reagan nominated Fairbanks as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Affairs.
In 1984, the Senate confirmed Fairbanks as an Ambassador-at-Large, with the task of developing Pacific Basin cooperative efforts for the U.S.[3] Fairbanks left government service and resumed the practice of law in September 1985, becoming a partner at the Washington, D.C., office of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.
From 1988 to 1991, he also served on the Investment Policy Advisory Committee of the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
From 1994 to 1999, he was CSIS's managing director for Domestic and International Issues and from May 1999 through March 2000, he was the president and CEO, after which he became one of the center's counsellors.
He was also the founder and chairman of Layalina Productions, a non-profit corporation that develops and produces Arabic language programming for licensing to television networks in the Middle East and North Africa.