Paul W. Jones, a career member of the State Department’s Senior Foreign Service, was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to the Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia on September 8, 2010.

 

Born in Yorktown Heights, New York, in 1960, Jones graduated from Cornell University and earned master’s degrees from the University of Virginia and the Naval War College, where he wrote a long paper in 2000 on how the newly independent country of Macedonia managed to survive its turbulent early years.

 

Jones has served in a variety of assignments in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Early postings included Colombia (1987-1989), Russia (1992-1994) and Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by such postings as Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Deputy Chief of Mission in Macedonia (1996-1999) during the refugee crisis resulting from the conflict in Kosovo. In Washington, he served twice on the staff of the Secretary of State, in the 24-hour Operations Center and as Director of the Secretariat Staff. He was also the Director of the European Bureau’s Balkans office.

 

More recently, Jones served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in the Philippines, from September 2005 to February 2009, and as Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and concurrently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan and Pakistan, from February 2009 to September 2010.

 

Jones speaks Spanish and Russian. An avid tennis player and fan since childhood, Jones participated in a celebrity tennis tournament in Malaysia, which benefitted local charities. He is married to Catherine Cheremeteff Jones, the daughter of retired American diplomat Brandon Grove, Jr., and a French-trained chef and author of food and health books. They have a daughter and a son.

- Matt Bewig

 

A Case of State Survival: Macedonia in the 1990s (by Paul W. Jones, United States Naval War College) (pdf)