The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is more formally known as the "Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and Representative of the United States of America in the Security Council of the United Nations"; it is also known as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. There is also a deputy ambassador who assumes the duties of the ambassador in his or her absence. Like all United States ambassadors, the ambassador to the UN and the deputy ambassador are nominated by the U.S. president and confirmed by the Senate. The ambassador serves at the pleasure of the president.
The U.S. permanent representative is charged with representing the United States on the U.N. Security Council and during almost all plenary meetings of the General Assembly, except in the rare situation in which a more senior officer of the United States (such as the U.S. secretary of state or the president of the United States) is present.
Jonathan Cohen, the deputy permanent representative since June 8, 2018, a career diplomat, became the acting U.S. ambassador on January 1, 2019, after the resignation of Nikki Haley came into effect. On December 7, 2018, President Donald Trump named Heather Nauert to become the permanent ambassador, subject to Senate confirmation. [1] [2] On February 16, 2019, after a lengthy period where Nauert had retreated from the public gaze, it was announced that she had withdrawn her name from consideration. [3] [4] On February 22, 2019, President Trump nominated Kelly Knight Craft to become the ambassador. [5] The Senate confirmed her nomination on July 31, 2019. [6]
Cabinet status
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a leading moderate Republican who lost his seat in the United States Senate to John F. Kennedy in the 1952 elections, was appointed ambassador to the United Nations in 1953 by Dwight D. Eisenhower in gratitude for the defeated senator's role in the new president's defeat of conservative leader Robert A. Taft for the 1952 Republican nomination and subsequent service as his campaign manager in the general election; Eisenhower raised the ambassadorship to cabinet rank in order to give Lodge direct access to him without having to go through the State Department. [7]
The ambassadorship continued to hold this status through the Reagan administration but was removed from cabinet rank by George H. W. Bush, who had previously held the position himself. It was restored under the Clinton administration. It was not a cabinet-level position under the George W. Bush administration (from 2001 to 2009), [8] [9] but was once again elevated under the Obama administration, and retained as such by the Trump administration. [10]
Former UN ambassador and national security advisor John R. Bolton has publicly opposed the granting of cabinet-level status to the office, stating "One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy, second, you shouldn't have two secretaries in the same department".
In December 2018, it was reported by several news organizations that along with the nomination of Heather Nauert to replace Nikki Haley, the Trump administration would once again downgrade the position to non-Cabinet rank. [11]
The Cabinet of the United States is part of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. The members of the Cabinet are the vice president and the secretary of state and other heads of the federal executive departments, all of whom — if eligible — are in the presidential line of succession.
Daniel Ray Coats is an American politician and former diplomat. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017. He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989. Coats served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while in the U.S. Senate.
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is an Afghan-American diplomat, who has served as the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation at the State Department since September 2018. Previously, he served as a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the president of Gryphon Partners and Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm, based in Washington, D.C.
John Robert Bolton is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant and political commentator who served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006 and as the 27th United States National Security Advisor from 2018 to 2019.
Pierre-Richard Prosper is an American lawyer, prosecutor and former government official. He served as the second United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.
Dina Powell McCormick is an American financial executive, philanthropist, and political advisor, best known for having been the United States Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy to President Donald Trump.
Susan Elizabeth Rice is an American diplomat, academic, Democratic policy advisor, and former public official who served as the 27th United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and as the 24th United States national security advisor from 2013 to 2017.
Samantha Jane Power is an Irish-American academic, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who served as the 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
NimrataNikkiHaley is an American politician, diplomat, businesswoman, and author who served as the 116th Governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and as the 29th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, Haley was the first female governor of South Carolina and the first female Indian-American governor elected in the United States.
Heather Ann Nauert is an American broadcast journalist and former government official who served as Spokesperson for the United States Department of State from 2017 to 2019. She is currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Richard Allen Grenell is an American diplomat, civil servant and media consultant. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 and briefly as Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the Trump Cabinet in 2020. Grenell further serves as the Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations.
The United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) serves as the United States' delegation to the United Nations. USUN is responsible for carrying out the nation’s participation in the world body. In 1947 the United States Mission was created by an act of Congress to assist the President and the Department of State in conducting United States policy at the United Nations. Since that time, USUN has served a vital role as the Department of State’s UN branch. Today, USUN has approximately 150 people on staff who serve to represent the United States’ political, economic and social, legal, military, public diplomacy and management interests at the United Nations.
South Sudan–United States relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of South Sudan and the United States of America.
Joseph Estey Macmanus is an American diplomat who served as Executive Secretary of the United States Department of State from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna from 2012 to 2014, as well as interim coordinator for efforts to implement President Barack Obama's Iran Nuclear Deal in 2015. He was President Donald Trump's nominee to become United States Ambassador to Colombia. This nomination was reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in May 2018, but was returned to the President at the close of the 115th Congress without consideration by the full Senate. In May 2019, it was announced that Philip Goldberg would replace Macmanus as nominee to be the next United States Ambassador to Colombia.
This article lists the members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet. Trump assumed office on January 20, 2017 and the President has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Kelly Dawn Craft is an American diplomat who currently serves as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Craft previously served as the United States ambassador to Canada, being the first woman to hold the office. She was appointed by President George W. Bush as a U.S. alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2007, where her focus included U.S. engagement in Africa. She was a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Kentucky. She headed Kelly G. Knight LLC, a business advisory firm based in Lexington, Kentucky.
Kelley Eckels Currie is an American lawyer and government official who currently serves as the Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. She served as the Acting Deputy Representative of the U.S. to the U.N., after it was vacated by Michele Sison. Prior to assuming her current role, she was a senior fellow with the Project 2049 Institute, a think tank focused on security issues and public policy in Central-Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. She previously held senior public policy positions with the United States Department of State and several international and non-governmental human rights and humanitarian organizations. Currie also served as foreign operations appropriations associate and staff director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus for Representative John Porter.
Jonathan Raphael Cohen is an American diplomat serving as the United States Ambassador to Egypt and as the United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations. He previously served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, from August 2016 to June 2018. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in early 2018 to become United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on May 24, 2018. On January 1, 2019, Cohen assumed acting duties of Ambassador to the United Nations following the resignation of Nikki Haley the previous day; with the installation of her successor in September, he relinquished those duties.
John Edward James is an American politician, businessman, and veteran. He was the Republican candidate for the 2018 United States Senate election in Michigan but lost to the incumbent Democrat, Debbie Stabenow. James is a candidate for the Senate again in 2020.
