About

Eric Rubin U.S. Department of State Mr. Rubin is a career foreign service officer. He has a B.A. in history from Yale University (1983). His non-degree training includes intensive language study in Thai, Spanish, Ukrainian and Russian at the State Department's Foreign Service. Mr. Rubin joined the State Department in 1985 following two years as a reporter trainee at the New York Times. He served as internal politics and human rights officer in Honduras from 1986 to 1988. He was a watch officer in the State Department Operations Center before joining the Office of Soviet Union Affairs in 1989 as internal politics and nationalities officer. From 1991 to 1993 he was regional and security affairs officer for Central and Eastern Europe and the Department's first desk officer for Slovenia. From 1994 through 1996, Mr. Rubin was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev as Deputy Political Counselor. Upon his return to Washington, he served as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs from 1996 to 1997. In 1997, he was appointed Assistant White House Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs and NSC Director for Public Affairs. He returned to the State Department in 1998 as special assistant to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering. Mr. Rubin was Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellow and a resident associate at ISD from 1999-2000 and a non-resident associate in 2000-2001. He taught an SFS seminar on U.S. foreign policy and the breakup of the Soviet Union in spring 2000 and spring 2001, and an MSFS seminar on Transnational Issues in Southeast Asia in spring 2006.He was U.S. Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 2001 to 2004, and returned to Washington in 2004 as Director of the Office of Policy Planning and Coordination of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. He is currently Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.