UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of
Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service
Act, Section 304(a)(4)
POST: Republic of South Africa
CANDIDATE: Reuben Earl Brigety, II
Reuben Brigety is leader, diplomat, policy maker and academic who served as the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of the South and as the Mayor of Sewanee, Tennessee. Dr. Brigety currently serves as an Adjunct Senior Fellow for African Peace and Security, Council on Foreign Relations, and a Member of the Board of Counselors of McLarty Associates, Washington, D.C. During the Obama Administration, Dr. Brigety served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, and then as U.S. Ambassador to the African Union and as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. His demonstrated record of leadership, his considerable experience as a diplomat and policy maker, and his extensive knowledge of African affairs makes him a well-qualified candidate to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa.
Earlier, Dr. Brigety was a Civil-Military Affairs consultant for the U.S. Central Command, the Director of the Sustainable Security Program for the Center for American Progress, and as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He was also Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, the largest school of international affairs in the United States.
Dr. Brigety earned a B.S. (with merit) in Political Science and was designated a Distinguished Midshipman Graduate from the U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. He holds an M.Phil in International Affairs, and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Cambridge in England. He is the author of numerous publications and speaks Spanish, French, and Amharic.