REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)
POST: Kingdom of Bahrain
CANDIDATE: Steven C. Bondy
Steven C. Bondy, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister–Counselor, is a Senior Advisor for the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau of the State Department. From 2017-2020, he was the Charge d’Affaires a.i. and Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Previously, he was the Assistant Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Kabul, Afghanistan and prior to that, the Foreign Policy Advisor to the Joint Special Operations Command commander. He was the Director for Arabian Peninsula Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and served at U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq as the Ambassador’s Representative for Outreach and Reconciliation. He has amply demonstrated his ability to lead diverse interagency teams effectively and to provide strong leadership even in extreme security environments. These skills, coupled with his extensive Middle East experience, including in Bahrain, make him an excellent candidate to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Bondy was the Director for Economic Sanctions and Terrorism Finance Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs. He served overseas as Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs in Manama, Bahrain; Economic Officer in Cairo, Egypt and Amman, Jordan; and Vice Consul in Ankara, Turkey. In Washington, he served as the Lebanon Desk Officer and as an Operations Center Watch Officer.
Mr. Bondy earned his B.A. degree (1984) and M.A. degree (1986) from the University of Delaware. He is the recipient of numerous U.S. government awards including a Presidential Rank Award and multiple performance awards for his work in the Senior Foreign Service. He speaks Arabic, French, Farsi, Turkish and Spanish.