The United States Department of State (DOS),or simply the State Department,is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nations,its primary duties are advising the U.S. president on international relations,administering diplomatic missions,negotiating international treaties and agreements,and representing the U.S. at the United Nations. The department is headquartered in the Harry S Truman Building,a few blocks from the White House,in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington,D.C.;"Foggy Bottom" is thus sometimes used as a metonym.
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world.
William Anthony Kirsopp Lake is an American diplomat and political advisor who served as the 17th United States National Security Advisor from 1993 to 1997 and as the sixth Executive Director of UNICEF from 2010 to 2017.
Paula Jon Dobriansky is an American diplomat,public official,and foreign policy expert who served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2001–2009) and the President's Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007–2009). A specialist in Central/East European affairs and the former Soviet Union,trans-Atlantic relations,and political-military affairs,Dobriansky held key senior roles in the administrations of five U.S. presidents.
Edward Peter Djerejian is a former United States diplomat who served in eight administrations from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton (1962–94.) He served as the United States Ambassador to Syria (1988–91) and Israel (1993–94),Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Press Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1985–1986),and was Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (1991–1993.) He was the founding director of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy (1994-2022) He is a senior fellow at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs,a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is a Proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum. Djerejian was elected chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation's board of directors (2013–2015). Djerejian is the author of the book Danger and Opportunity:An American Ambassador's Journey Through the Middle East
Robert Nicholas Burns is an American diplomat and international relations scholar who has been serving as the United States ambassador to China since 2022.
Katherine Hubay Smith Peterson Canavan served as a United States diplomat and career foreign service officer for 35 years. She retired in November 2011 and has since supported a number of military courses and exercises as a Subject Matter Expert and role player,particularly when they involve an Ambassador,Country Team and the Interagency. She serves on the board of trustees for the Una Chapman Cox Foundation and is on the board of the American Academy of Diplomacy.
James Franklin Collins is a former United States Ambassador to Russia. A career Foreign Service Officer in the State Department,he is a Russian specialist.
Alan Philip Larson is a diplomat and a former United States Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1990–93. From 1996 to 1999,he served as U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs. In 1999 to 2005,he also served as US Undersecretary of State for Economic,Business,and Agricultural Affairs,OECD. He is a United States Career Ambassador,and a recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award.
Farah Pandith is an American academic of Indian descent. She was appointed the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities in June 2009 by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The position was made specifically for her after she briefed Secretary Clinton about her work in the Bush administration. She had the rare distinction of being a political appointee for two Republican presidents and President Obama. When she was the Special Representative she traveled to almost 100 countries. After serving under both Secretaries Clinton and John Kerry,she left government. She said she came to Washington after 9/11 again and wanted to serve –she left after more than a decade in public service. She worked at USAID and then went to the National Security Council and then the U.S. Department of State. When she left in 2014,she returned to her home state of Massachusetts.
Earl Anthony Wayne is an American diplomat. Formerly Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs,Ambassador to Argentina and Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan,Wayne served nearly four years as Ambassador to Mexico. He was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in August,2011. He departed Mexico City for Washington July 31,2015 and retired from the State Department on September 30,2015. Wayne attained the highest rank in the U.S. diplomatic service:Career Ambassador. He is currently a Professorial Lecturer and Distinguished Diplomat in Residence at American University's School of International Service where he teaches courses related to diplomacy and US foreign policy. Wayne also works with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,the Atlantic Council,the Center for Strategic and International Studies,. Wayne is co-chair of the Mexico Institute's Advisory Board at the Wilson Center. He is also on the board of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Public Diplomacy Council of America. Wayne is an independent consultant,speaker and writer and works with several not-for-profit professional associations. He was an adviser for HSBC Latin America on improving management of financial crime risk from 2015 until 2019 and served on the board of the American Foreign Service Association from 2017 to 2019.
Lee Andrew Feinstein is an American policy-scholar,and former diplomat and senior official at the US Departments of State and Defense. Feinstein held senior positions on leading Democratic presidential campaigns in 2008. He served as the United States Ambassador to Poland from 2009 to 2012,appointed by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. Feinstein was the inaugural dean at Indiana University's Lee H. Hamilton and Richard G. Lugar School of Global and International Studies. His nonpartisan scholarship has been recognized by leading Republicans and Democrats.
The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) is a study by the United States Department of State,conducted beginning in 2009 and intended to be done every four years,that analyzes the short-,medium-,and long-term blueprint for the United States' diplomatic and development efforts abroad. It seeks to plan on a longer-term basis than the usual year-to-year,appropriations-based practice,and to integrate diplomacy and development missions. It similarly seeks to correlate the department’s missions with its capacities and identify shortfalls in resourcing. Finally,it is a precursor to core institutional reforms and corrective changes. The first review was completed by the end of 2010. A second review began during 2014 and was released in April 2015. No further reviews have taken place.
Shamila N. Chaudhary is an American foreign policy expert and academic who is the Senior South Asia Fellow at New America and senior advisor to Dean Vali Nasr at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She specializes in U.S. counterterrorism and national security issues,U.S.-Pakistan relations,Pakistan internal politics,and regional issues in South Asia.
Andrew J. Shapiro is an American attorney and diplomat who served as the 17th Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs from 2009 to 2013. Shapiro is currently a managing director at Beacon Global Strategies LLC,which he founded with partners Jeremy Bash and Philippe Reines in 2013.
The Special Advisor for Children's Issues is a foreign policy position created by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and announced on July 1,2010. Susan S. Jacobs is the first person to fill the newly created role of Special Advisor for Children's Issues. Working with the Office of Children's Issues,the Special Advisor actively engages with foreign government officials to protect the welfare and interests of children.
Evan Maureen Ryan is an American public servant,serving as White House cabinet secretary in the administration of Joe Biden. She previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) in the Obama administration (2013–2017) and was assistant for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison for then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Mary Burce Warlick is an Australian-born,American diplomat who was appointed Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency in May 2021. A former United States career diplomat,she served as the United States Ambassador to Serbia from January 2010 to September 2012,as the U.S. Consul General in Melbourne,Australia from October 2012 to July 2014,as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Energy Resources at the Department of State from August 2014 to September 2017,and as Acting Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs from January to September 2017.
Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan is an American attorney serving since 2021 as the U.S. National Security Advisor. He previously served as Director of Policy to President Barack Obama,National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Biden and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State. Sullivan also served as senior advisor to the U.S. federal government at the Iran nuclear negotiations and senior policy advisor to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign,as well as visiting professor at Yale Law School. On November 23,2020,President-elect Biden announced that Sullivan would be appointed the United States National Security Advisor. He took office on January 20,2021.
Atul Keshap is a retired American diplomat and career United States Foreign Service Officer from Virginia who serves at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the President of the U.S.- India Business Council since January 2022. He also serves as Senior Vice President for South Asia and as President of the U.S.-Bangladesh Business Council. Previously,he served as the Chargéd'affaires of the United States mission to India in 2021. He formerly served as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the United States Department of State. In 2022,Ambassador Keshap was elected into membership of the American Academy of Diplomacy. In May 2023,Keshap was named one of Washington's most influential foreign policy influencers for his work to shape U.S. relations with India.
