On September 20, 2021, Ethan A. Goldrich began service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, with responsibility for the Levant and Syria engagement.
Mr. Goldrich was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command from August 2018 to June 2021. In February 2021, he was dual hatted to also serve as the Office Director for Arabian Peninsula Affairs in the Department of State. In summer 2021 he provided coverage as Charge d’Affaires, first in Manama, Bahrain, and then in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Prior to his JSOC posting, he served as Director of the Office of Levant Affairs and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of State, where he had responsibility for Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates from August 2014 to July 2017, with responsibility for 43 sections and agencies and a staff of close to 1000 people in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
From 2012 to 2014, he served as Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, Belarus, where he led efforts to broaden U.S.-Belarusian relations. Before that, he was Director of the State Department’s Office of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts 2009-11. He served 2007-09 as the Deputy Director of the Office of UN Political Affairs, which has responsibility for the political agenda of the UN Security Council and the General Assembly.
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Between 2005 and 2007, Ethan served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, where he managed the post’s upgrade from U.S. Liaison Office to U.S. Embassy. Ethan served as Near East Watcher at the U.S. Embassy in London, England from 2001-05. He spent the summer of 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq, working on the Governance Team of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Between 1996 and 2000, Ethan was in charge of the Political Section at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. Ethan was also desk officer for Kuwait in the State Department’s Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs from 1992-94.
Ethan began his Foreign Service career as a Political/Consular rotational officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem (1989-91) and also served as Staff Assistant in the Bureau of Near East and South Asian Affairs (1991-92). Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ethan served as a Civil Servant in the State Department’s Office of Soviet Union Affairs (EUR/SOV).
Ethan received a bachelor’s degree in Government from Cornell University in 1988. In 2000-2001 he participated in the prestigious Weinberg Fellowship program at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public Policy and International Affairs. He was awarded a master’s degree in Public Policy at Princeton in June 2001.
Ethan’s languages are Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew. He received his Russian training (2011-12) and Arabic language training (1994-96) at the Foreign Service Institute.
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