Arvizu, Alexander A., 1958-

<p> A career Foreign Service officer, and avid baseball fan, Alexander A. Arvizu has served as U.S. ambassador to Albania since November 10, 2010. His posting to the small European country comes after spending most of his time handling U.S. foreign policy for Asia.</p>

<p>Born on a U.S. Army base in Japan, Arvizu is a first-generation American. His mother, from Kyoto, and his father, an American soldier originally from Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico, with Basque heritage, met during the U.S. occupation of Japan after World War II. The family settled in Colorado Springs, where Arvizu grew up.</p>

<p>He earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 1980, and the following year, Arizu joined the Foreign Service.</p>

<p>During his career, his overseas and domestic assignments have tended to cover East Asia and the Pacific. He worked as a staff officer in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat early in his career, then served two tours in South Korea and one in Osaka-Kobe, Japan.</p>

<p>He was deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Japanese Affairs, followed by the role of Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council during President Bill Clinton’s second term in office.</p>

<p>From 2000-2003, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He returned to the states to attend the 46th Senior Seminar, an executive leadership program, for one year. From 2004-2007, Arvizu served as deputy chief of mission in Bangkok, Thailand.</p>

<p>From 2007 to 2009, he was the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, In October 2007 he led a delegation to that met with North Korean officials in New York, and he was a leading participant in subsequent talks with the North Koreans when Barack Obama took over as president.</p>

<p>He was director of entry-level assignments in the Bureau of Human Resources before receiving his nomination as ambassador to Albania.</p>

<p>Arvizu has studied several Asian languages, including Japanese, Korean, Thai and Khmer.</p>

<p>Alexander A. Arvizu (born 1958) is an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Albania from July 1, 2010 to January 11, 2015.</p>

<p>Arvizu was born on U.S. Army base in Japan and is a first-generation American. His father is originally from Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico and mother was from Kyoto, Japan. Arvizu grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where his family settled after return to the United States. In 1980, he graduated with a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University. He has studied several Asian languages such as Japanese, Korean, Thai and Khmer.</p>

<p>Arvizu joined the United States Foreign Service in 1981. He held various State Department positions overseas and had been domestically assigned to positions related to U.S. foreign policy in East Asia and the Pacific. While in Washington, D.C., he served as Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Japanese Affairs and then Director for Asian Affairs in the United States National Security Council in the second Clinton Administration.</p>

<p>Among his overseas positions were Deputy Chief of Missions in US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2000-2003 and US Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand in 2004-2007. In addition to that, he served two tours in Seoul, South Korea and one tour in Osaka-Kobe, Japan. From 2003 through 2004, Ambassador Arvizu was a member of the 46th Senior Seminar, a leadership program for senior government officers.</p>

<p>After returning from Thailand, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in charge of Regional Security for Japan and Korea from 2007 through 2009. He then worked as the Director of Entry-Level Assignments in the Bureau of Human Resources.</p>

<p>On July 1, 2010 Arvizu was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Albania by President Barack Obama. He was sworn in as the Ambassador to Albania on November 10, 2010.</p>

<p>Ambassador Alexander Arvizu was a resident distinguished fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. Alex spent 36 years as a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, achieving the rank of Minister-Counselor. He advanced American interests with multiple countries in various stages of political transition, often against the backdrop of complex security environments.</p>

<p>As the longest-serving U.S. Ambassador to Albania, from 2010 until 2015, Alex championed initiatives designed to combat official corruption, promote media transparency and accountability, and strengthen grassroots participation in civil society. Earlier in his career, as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Thailand, Alex directed the multi-dimensional U.S. Government crisis response to the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami in late 2004. Alex held several challenging senior policymaking positions in Washington. While Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific 2007-2009, he strengthened coordination with key American allies Japan and South Korea in the face of threatening behavior from North Korea.</p>

<p>As Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement 2015-2017, Alex was responsible for overseeing multi-million dollar assistance programs for the Middle East and Africa focused on counterterrorism and criminal justice reform. Earlier in his career Alex served as Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, shepherding inputs from the Department of Treasury, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and other U.S. agencies in response to the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, which had devastated the economies of South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand.</p>

<p>Alex is a first-generation American. His mother was from Kyoto, Japan, and his father – an enlisted U.S Army infantryman with service spanning thirty years from the Second World War to Vietnam – was a native of Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico. The family settled in Colorado Springs, where Alex grew up. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. He has studied several languages, including Japanese, Korean, Thai and Khmer. Alex served as a mentor to the State Department chapter of the Asian American Foreign Affairs Association. Married with one daughter, he is a devoted Washington Nationals season ticketholder.</p>