Director of Policy Planning

Director of Policy Planning
Director of Policy Planning
	File:U.S. Department of State official seal.svg Seal of the United States Department of State
	File:Counselor and Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State Michael Austin Needham.jpg Incumbent; Michael Needham; since September 15, 2025
Appointer	United States Secretary of State
Inaugural holder	George F. Kennan
Formation	1947
Website	Official website

The director of policy planning is the United States Department of State official in charge of the department's internal think tank, the policy planning staff, with a rank equivalent to assistant secretary.^[2]^[3] The position has traditionally been held by many members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. Former directors of policy planning include two national security advisors, a president of the World Bank, and several presidents of the Council on Foreign Relations.^{[citation needed]}

Directors of policy planning


No.	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President appointed by
1	George F. Kennan	1947	1949	Harry S. Truman
2	Paul Nitze	1950	1953	Harry S. Truman
3	Robert R. Bowie	1953	1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower
4	Gerard C. Smith	1957	1961	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5	George C. McGhee	1961	1961	John F. Kennedy
6	Walt Whitman Rostow	1961	1966	John F. Kennedy
7	Henry David Owen	1966	1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
8	William I. Cargo	1969	1973	Richard Nixon
9	James S. Sutterlin	1973	1973	Richard Nixon
10	Winston Lord	1973	1977	Gerald Ford
11	Anthony Lake	1977	1981	Jimmy Carter
12	Paul Wolfowitz	1981	1982	Ronald Reagan
13	Stephen W. Bosworth	1983	1984
14	Peter W. Rodman	1984	1986
15	Richard H. Solomon	1986	1989
16	Dennis B. Ross	1989	1992	George H. W. Bush
17	Samuel W. Lewis	1993	1994	Bill Clinton
18	James Steinberg	1994	1996
19	Gregory B. Craig	1997	1999
20	Morton Halperin^[4]	1998	2001
21	Richard N. Haass	2001	2003	George W. Bush
22	Mitchell Reiss	2003	2005
23	Stephen D. Krasner	2005	2007
24	David F. Gordon	2007	2009
25	Anne-Marie Slaughter	2009	2011	Barack Obama
26	Jake Sullivan	2011	2013
27	David McKean^[5]	2013	2015
28	Jonathan Finer	2015	2017
29	Brian Hook	2017	2018	Donald Trump
30	Kiron Skinner^[6]	2018	2019
31	Peter Berkowitz^[7]	2019	2021
32	Salman Ahmed	2021	2025	Joe Biden
33	Michael Anton	2025	2025	Donald Trump
34	Michael Needham	2025	Present	Donald Trump

References

^ https://www.state.gov/biographies/michael-a-needham/
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^ State Department profile for David McKean
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External links

Policy Planning Staff Homepage
List of Directors of Policy Planning
University of Oxford Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine

[1] ttps://www.state.gov/biographies/michael-a-needham/

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[5] State Department profile for David McKean

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v t e United States assistant secretaries of state (and equivalent ranks)
Reporting to the under secretary for political affairs	African Affairs East Asian and Pacific Affairs European and Eurasian Affairs International Organization Affairs Near Eastern Affairs South and Central Asian Affairs Western Hemisphere Affairs	United States Department of State Seal
Reporting to the under secretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment	Economic and Business Affairs Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Energy Resources Chief Economist of the Department
Reporting to the under secretary for arms control and international security	Arms Control and Nonproliferation Political-Military Affairs International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Coordinator for Counterterrorism
Reporting to the under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs	Educational and Cultural Affairs Global Public Affairs
Reporting to the under secretary for management	Administration Consular Affairs Diplomatic Security Chief Information Officer of the Department Chief Medical Officer and Designated Agency Safety and Health Official Comptroller of the Department and Director of Global Financial Services Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Global Talent Director of Budget and Planning Director of Overseas Buildings Operations Director, National Foreign Affairs Training Center Director, Office of Foreign Missions, with the rank of Ambassador Director, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions
Reporting to the under secretary for for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom	Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Population, Refugees, and Migration Global Health Security and Diplomacy Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking (Ambassador-at-Large) Global Criminal Justice (Ambassador-at-Large)
Reporting directly to the secretary	Intelligence and Research Legislative Affairs Special Assistant to the Secretary and Executive Secretary of the Department Inspector General Legal Adviser Director, Policy Planning Staff Director, Office of Foreign Assistance Director, Office of Civil Rights and Chief Diversity Officer Chief of Protocol of the United States, with the rank of Ambassador Global Women's Issues (Ambassador-at-Large) Coordinator of United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS Globally (Ambassador-at-Large)

Director of Policy Planning

Directors of policy planning

References

External links

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