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Name: Hoagland, Richard
Current Position: Former Ambassador
A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Richard E. Hoagland was sworn in as US Ambassador to Kazakhstan on September 10, 2008.
Hoagland completed his graduate degrees at the University of Virginia, and earned a certificate in French from the University of Grenoble, France.
Before joining the Foreign Service in 1985, Hoagland taught English as a foreign language in the then-Zaire (1974-1976) and African literature at the University of Virginia’s Carter-Woodson Institute of African and Afro-American Studies.
His foreign assignments have included Russia (where he was press spokesman for the US Embassy), Uzbekistan, and Pakistan twice. The first time (1986-1989), he worked with the Afghan Resistance during the Soviet-Afghan War. He also served in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research where he was the lead analyst for Afghanistan (1989-1991).
Hoagland served as Deputy Special Envoy for Afghanistan (1991-1992), and was a member of the Senior Foreign Service (Minister-Counselor). He has served as Director of the Office of Public Diplomacy in the South Asia Bureau of the State Department (1999-2001) where his additional portfolio was Special Adviser to the National Security Council for public diplomacy on Afghanistan.
After September 11, 2001, he initiated regular US-Russia consultations in response to the mandate by Presidents Bush and Putin that the two governments work together to increase their collaboration and transparency in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
From June 2001-July 2003, Hoagland was director of the Office of Caucasus and Central Asian Affairs in the Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs. He served as US Ambassador to Tajikistan 2003-2006 and recently served as Chargé d’affaires to Turkmenistan from July 2007-July 2008.
In 2007, Hoagland was nominated to be the US Ambassador to Armenia, but Armenian Groups found that 97% of Armenians were opposed to Hoagland’s nomination, in response to his denial of the Armenian Genocide by the Turks.
Ninety-Seven Percent of Armenian Americans Oppose Hoagland Nomination (Armenian National Committee of America)