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Name: LeBaron, Joseph
Current Position: Former Ambassador
Joseph Evan LeBaron has served as the United States Ambassador to Qatar since July 18, 2008. LeBaron studied Arabic and Middle Eastern Affairs at the American University of Beirut and was a Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Khartoum. He is a graduate of Portland State University in Oregon and an alumnus of MIT’s Seminar XXI on International Relations. He also earned his PhD in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University in 1980, and joined the US Foreign Service shortly thereafter. He is a career member of the United States diplomatic corps.
LeBaron’s first assignment was as vice-consul at the US Embassy in Doha. Later postings included Amman, Ankara, and Istanbul before he returned to Washington to become Lebanon desk officer at the Department of State.
In 1989, the State Department detailed LeBaron to the US Senate to serve on the national security and foreign affairs staff of Majority Leader George J. Mitchell. To prepare for an assignment as consul general at the US Consulate General in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, LeBaron studied Persian. He was also detailed briefly to northern Iraq at the end of Gulf War to work with Operation Provide Comfort.
Other assignments included deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Manama, Bahrain and deputy director of the Office of Iran and Iraq in the State Department’s Near East Bureau. His last Washington assignment was as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
In 2001-2003, he was a part time member of the graduate faculty of the Elliott School for International Affairs at George Washington University in Washington, DC.
He wrote the book For God or Country, which investigates the relationship between economic development and political evolution in Sudan during the 20th century. He speaks Arabic and Turkish.