Senior Officials

For all other officials, please see: List of Bureaus and Offices.
You can also access a list of biographies by name or title.

Deputy Secretary -- Robert B. Zoellick The Deputy Secretary serves as the principal deputy, adviser, and alter ego to the Secretary of State; serves as Acting Secretary of State in the Secretary's absence; and assists the Secretary in the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy and in giving general supervision and direction to all elements of the Department. Specific duties and supervisory responsibilities have varied over time.

Under Secretary for Political Affairs -- R. Nicholas Burns The Under Secretary is the Department's third-ranking official and its senior career diplomat. He serves as the day-to-day manager of overall regional and bilateral policy issues, and oversees six geographically defined bureaus and two functional bureaus that report to the Under Secretary -- 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. [biography | remarks | travel | photos]

Under Secretary for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs -- Josette S. Shiner The Under Secretary serves as the senior economic official at the State Department; advises the Secretary of State on international economic policy; and leads the work of the Department on issues ranging from trade, agriculture, and aviation to bilateral relations with America's economic partners.

Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security -- Robert Joseph The Under Secretary leads the interagency policy process on nonproliferation and manages global U.S. security policy, principally in the areas of nonproliferation, arms control, regional security and defense relations, and arms transfers and security assistance.

Under Secretary for Management -- Henrietta H. Fore The Under Secretary for Management leads the bureaus of Administration, Consular Affairs, Diplomatic Security, Human Resources, Information Resource Management, and Overseas Buildings Operations, the Foreign Service Institute, the Office of Medical Services, the Office of Management Policy, the Office of Rightsizing the U.S. Government’s Overseas Presence, and the White House Liaison.

Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs -- Paula J. Dobriansky The Under Secretary coordinates U.S. foreign relations on a variety of global issues, including democracy, human rights, and labor; environment, oceans, and science; narcotics control and law enforcement; population, refugees, and migration; and women's issues.

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs -- Karen Hughes The Under Secretary helps ensure that public diplomacy (engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences) is practiced in harmony with public affairs (outreach to Americans) and traditional diplomacy to advance U.S. interests and security and to provide the moral basis for U.S. leadership in the world.

Counselor of the Department -- Philip D. Zelikow The Counselor is a principal officer who serves the Secretary as a special advisor and consultant on major problems of foreign policy and who provides guidance to the appropriate bureaus with respect to such matters.