Symington, W. Stuart, 1952-

W. Stuart Symington IV (born 1952) is a retired American diplomat. He notably served as U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti (2006-2008), Rwanda (2008-2011), and Nigeria (2016-2019). Symington also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary and U.S. Special Representative for the Central African Republic (2014-2016).

A native of Missouri from a distinguished political family there, Symington received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and a Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School. He clerked for the chief judge of the Eastern District of Missouri, then litigated and practiced corporate law in New York, London, Paris, and Saint Joseph, Missouri, before becoming a Foreign Service officer in 1986.

After beginning his diplomatic career tracking protests and politics in Honduras, he moved to Spain and worked on economic issues before serving as the ambassador’s aide during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In Mexico, Symington cultivated the political opposition, worked on anti-drug issues, helped congressional visitors looking at NAFTA, and reported from Chiapas during the Zapatista revolt.

At the State Department, Symington worked for the Under Secretary for Political Affairs on Latin American and African issues, and served as his aide for Bosnia. During a yearlong Pearson Fellowship, he served on the staff of Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Missouri), studying U.S. military joint operations and education.

He later traveled to Sudan and North Korea on teams negotiating the freeing of American captives before finishing the year as an aide to Ambassador Bill Richardson, who was at the time the U.S. permanent representative to the UN. As a political officer in Ecuador, Symington joined efforts to end the century-old Peru/Ecuador border conflict, and helped negotiate the agreement establishing an anti-drug forward operating location.

From 2001 to 2003, Symington served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Niger, dealing with military mutinies, terrorist threats, and civil unrest. He then returned to the State Department as the Deputy Director of West African Affairs in the Africa Bureau. From October 2004 to February 2005, he worked for Ambassador Negroponte in Iraq on the election process and political issues, and has subsequently taught at National Defense University’s Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk.

From 2006 to 2008, Symington served as ambassador to Djibouti. He remained in Africa for his next posting, as ambassador to Rwanda. Symington returned to Washington in 2011 as foreign policy adviser to the commander of the North American Aerospace Command and U.S. Northern Command. In 2014, he was named special representative to the Central African Republic and worked on the humanitarian crisis caused by the fighting there. The following year, Symington was made Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Africa and African Security Affairs. Symington was sworn in as Ambassador to Nigeria on October 3, 2016 and served in that position until August 30, 2019.

Symington and his wife, Susan, have two children, Jane and Stuart. In addition to English, he speaks Spanish and French.