Hill, Christopher R – Republic of Serbia – November 2021

UNITED STATES SENATE

SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)

POST:                  Republic of Serbia

CANDIDATE:     Christopher R. Hill

Christopher R. Hill is the George Ball Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.  Before retiring from the Foreign Service in 2010, Hill served as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Korea, Poland and Macedonia, as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and as Head of the U.S. delegation to the 6 Party Talks on North Korea.

Earlier in his diplomatic career, Ambassador Hill was a member of the negotiating team whose efforts led to the Dayton Peace Agreement, ending the Bosnian war.  He served as an economic officer in Belgrade, then capital of Yugoslavia, in the late 1970’s, later returning to the region as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tirana, Albania and Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia.  His decades of senior-level diplomatic experience, and expertise in global politics, make him well-qualified to serve, for the fifth time, as a U.S. Ambassador.

For ten years following retirement from the Foreign Service, Ambassador Hill was dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and then Chief Advisor to the Chancellor for Global Engagement and Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy, at the University of Denver.  He earned a B.A. at Bowdoin College and an M.S. at the Naval War College.  The recipient of numerous honors, including the Robert S. Frasure Award for Peace Negotiations, the Secretary of Defense Medal of Meritorious Civilian Service, and (twice) the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Award, Ambassador Hill speaks Serbian, Polish, Macedonian and French.