Under Secretary for Political Affairs

Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns

The Under Secretary for Political Affairs is the third ranking position in the United States Department of State, after the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary. The Under Secretary serves as the day-to-day manager of overall regional and bilateral policy issues, and oversees the bureaus for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South Asia, the Western Hemisphere, International Organizations, and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. The Under Secretary is advised by Assistant Secretaries of the geographic bureaus, who guide U.S. diplomatic missions within their regional jurisdiction. The current Under Secretary is R. Nicholas Burns, who was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in by the Secretary of State on March 17, 2005 after being appointed by the President.

The political bureaus were first overseen in 1949 by a Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs after Congress authorized three Deputy Under Secretary positions in the State Department Reorganization Act of August 5, 1955. Prior to the creation of the position of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in August 1959, the Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs assisted the Secretary and Under Secretary of State in the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy. After August 1959, the Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs served as a focal point for interdepartmental relations, especially those dealing with politico-military issues. During 1969, the Department discontinued the position and created a new Bureau for Politico-Military Affairs, which exists today as the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs under another Under Secretary.

List of Under Secretaries for Political Affairs

Name	State of Residency	Appointment	Entry on Duty!Termination of Appointment
Robert D. Murphy	Wisconsin	August 12, 1959	August 14, 1959	December 3, 1959
Livingston T. Merchant	District of Columbia	December 1, 1959	December 4, 1959	January 31, 1961
George C. McGhee	Texas	November 29, 1961	December 4, 1961	March 27, 1963
W. Averell Harriman	New York	April 4, 1963	April 4, 1963	March 17, 1965
Eugene V. Rostow	Connecticut	October 13, 1966	October 14, 1966	January 20, 1969
U. Alexis Johnson	California	February 7, 1969	February 7, 1969	February 1, 1973
William J. Porter	Massachusetts	February 2, 1973	February 2, 1973	February 18, 1974
Joseph John Sisco	Maryland	February 11, 1974	February 19, 1974	June 30, 1976
Philip C. Habib	California	June 16, 1976	July 1, 1976	April 1, 1978
David D. Newsom	California	April 13, 1978	April 19, 1978	February 27, 1981
Walter J. Stoessel, Jr.	California	February 27, 1981	February 28, 1981	January 26, 1982
Lawrence S. Eagleburger	Florida	February 11, 1982	February 12, 1982	May 1, 1984
Michael Hayden Armacost	Maryland	May 17, 1984	May 18, 1984	March 2, 1989
Robert Michael Kimmitt	Virginia	March 2, 1989	March 2, 1989	August 23, 1991
Arnold Lee Kanter	Virginia	October 4, 1991	October 4, 1991	January 20, 1993
Peter Tarnoff	New York	March 11, 1993	March 11, 1993	April 18, 1997
Thomas R. Pickering	New Jersey	May 27, 1997	May 27, 1997	December 31, 2000
Marc Isaiah Grossman	Virginia	March 23, 2001	March 26, 2001	-
R. Nicholas Burns	-	-	March 17, 2005	-

References

*The public domain official website of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs
*The official biography of R. Nicholas Burns
*History of the U.S. Department of State
*Office of the Historian's list of former Under Secretaries