Appointments and Resignations

U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan: Who Is Robert Cekuta?

Since 2011, Cekuta has been deputy assistant secretary of state in the Energy Resources Bureau. As such, he has acted as a point man for the State Department’s views on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring tar sands oil from Canada into the United States. That experience will come in handy in Azerbaijan, a major oil producer. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru: Who Is Judith Cefkin?

She was sent to Sarajevo in 2006 as deputy chief of mission to the U.S. Embassy to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cefkin came back to Washington in 2009 to serve as an assessor on the State Department’s Board of Examiners. She returned to Manila in 2010 as the deputy chief of mission. Since 2013, Cefkin has been senior advisor for Burma (Myanmar). read more

Tajikistan’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Farhod Salim?

Salim's father, Abdulmajid Dostiyev, is a former member of the Tajikistan parliament and was more recently an ambassador to Russia. In 2009, Salim was named to lead the Department of European and American Countries. Salim came to Washington in 2011 as deputy chief of mission at the Tajik Embassy, serving as chargé d’affaires for a time in 2012, and has been there since. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro: Who Is Margaret Uyehara?

Uyehara was sent to Frankfurt, Germany in 2008 as director of the Regional Support Center at the U.S. Consulate. In 2010, she was named management counselor for the Department of State at the U.S. Tri-Missions in Vienna, Austria. Her most recent assignment was as executive director of the Bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs and International Organization Affairs in the Department of State in Washington. read more

Germany’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Peter Wittig?

Wittig was named Germany’s ambassador to the U.N. in 2009. He successfully campaigned to win Germany a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council, speaking to 190 of 191 representatives in the process. Germany won a seat in 2010, but the campaign, while wound down, didn’t completely cease as the nation made noises about being given a permanent seat on the Security Council. read more

Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Serdar Kılıç?

Kılıç’s first ambassadorial post came in 2008 when he was named envoy to Lebanon. He was brought home in 2010 to be secretary general of MGK, Turkey’s National Security Council. He was sent to Tokyo as ambassador in 2012, a post he held until being named to Washington. Since coming to the United States, Kılıç has had to deal with various groups’ recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 100 years ago, in which the Ottoman government killed about 1.5 million ethnic Armenians. read more

Honduras’ Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Jorge Milla Reyes?

Since taking over his country’s mission, much of his time has been spent protecting the interests of the immigrants, both children and adults, who have come to the United States from Honduras. He has traveled to South Texas and spoken with many Hondurans who have made the trip north. In June 2014, he implied that U.S. treatment of Hondurans who fled their country for the United States had violated “some norms reflected in international treaties.” read more

Benin’s Ambassador to the United States: Who Is Omar Arouna?

Arouna moved to Goodworks International Consulting, a firm partly founded by former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, in January 2007. Goodworks is a lobbying firm, many of whose clients have interests in the oil industry. Arouna represented the nation of Cameroon. He was promoted to executive vice president in January 2013. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda: Who Is Erica Barks-Ruggles?

In 2005, Barks-Ruggles was named deputy assistant Secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. While in that post, she focused on Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel and Palestinian affairs, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. In 2008, Barks-Ruggles was asked by her superiors to tone down a report on human rights in North Korea, removing words such as “repressive” and “regime.” read more

U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia: Who Is Brent Hartley?

In 2010 he was made director for European Security and Political Affairs and in 2012 Hartley was named deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibility for Nordic, Baltic and Central European countries. Some of his duties there have entailed testifying to Congress on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Hungarian anti-Semitism and anti-Romani trends. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau: Who Is James P. Zumwalt?

Zumwalt went back to Tokyo in 2008 as deputy chief of mission, serving as chargé d’affaires for a time during 2009. While there, he wrote a blog for the embassy website focusing on Japanese culture and other issues. In 2012, Zumwalt was back in Washington as deputy assistant secretary of state for Japan and Korea, a post he held until his nomination to be ambassador. read more

U.S. Ambassador to Botswana: Who Is Earl R. Miller?

Miller went overseas again in 2000 as a regional security officer (RSO) at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2003 he took on a similar post in Jakarta, Indonesia. While there, he helped investigate an August 31, 2002, terrorist ambush in Papua province that killed two U.S. schoolteachers and wounded eight other U.S. citizens, an investigation that lasted almost four years and culminated in the arrest of 12 terrorists. In 2007, Miller was sent to Baghdad as RSO read more

U.S. Ambassador to Cabo Verde: Who Is Donald Heflin?

Heflin returned to Washington in 2004 as deputy director in the Office of African Regional and Security Affairs and in 2006 was deputy director in the Office of West African Affairs and served as acting director for a time. He returned to Mexico in 2009 as the principal officer and consul general in the border town of Nuevo Laredo. In 2012, Heflin was brought back to Washington as managing director of the Consular Affairs Visa Office. read more

Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy: Who Is Michael Botticelli?

Botticelli ran afoul of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) during a Congressional subcommittee hearing. Blumenauer, who is hoping to change marijuana’s status as a Schedule I narcotic, asked Botticelli which is more dangerous, marijuana or methamphetamine. Botticelli wouldn’t give a straight answer and Blumenauer chastised him, "If the deputy director of the office of drug policy can't answer that question how do you expect high school kids to take you seriously?” read more

Commander, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center: Who Is Robert Brown?

He returned to Iraq in 2008 as deputy commanding general for support of the 25th Infantry Division. Brown went to Germany in 2010 as chief of staff of the United States Army in Europe and deputy commander, U.S. Army NATO. After that, he was named commander of the Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning in Georgia. His most recent assignment was as commanding general of I Corps and aenior Army commander for Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington. read more

Commander of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation: Who Is Keith Anthony?

Much of Anthony’s career has been spent in Latin America. One posting had him serving as special forces and counter-narcotics advisor along the Ecuador-Colombia border. While there, he served as a liaison for an Air Force medical team performing plastic surgery on Ecuadorans with deformities such as cleft palate and burn scars. He was also Army section chief in Guatemala and his last assignment was as the commander of the U.S. Military Group in Nicaragua. read more