Alex WONG served in senior positions at the U.S. Department of State overseeing high-stakes negotiations and initiatives at the forefront of U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. Alex was nominated by the President and unanimously approved by the Senate Foreign … Continued
Alex WONG served in senior positions at the U.S. Department of State overseeing high-stakes negotiations and initiatives at the forefront of U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. Alex was nominated by the President and unanimously approved by the Senate Foreign … Continued
Alex WONG served in senior positions at the U.S. Department of State overseeing high-stakes negotiations and initiatives at the forefront of U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific region.
Alex was nominated by the President and unanimously approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be the Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations, with the responsibility for representing the United States on all matters before the U.N. Security Council.
As the Deputy Special Representative for North Korea, Alex oversaw all North Korea diplomatic and technical policy and was the No. 2 negotiator in denuclearization talks with the Kim regime. From Pyongyang to Stockholm to Hanoi to Washington, Alex led negotiating sessions and executed diplomatic missions in capitals around the world to galvanize international support for U.S. policy. He led strategy development for the two summits between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un and closely advised the Secretary of State during the two meetings.
Prior to his North Korea work, Alex led the State Department’s efforts to craft and implement the Free & Open Indo-Pacific Strategy as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional & Security Affairs in the State Department’s East Asia bureau. He established an economics-driven set of policies and programs to forge bilateral, multilateral, and private-sector partnerships to strategically expand high-standard infrastructure investment, diversify trade relationships and energy flows, and improve investment climates across South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific.
Prior to his time at the State Department, Alex was the Foreign Policy Advisor & General Counsel to Senator Tom Cotton (R- Ark.). He was the Senator’s chief advisor on all issues related to national security, international relations, trade policy, law enforcement, and intellectual property.
Alex also served as the Foreign & Legal Policy Director for the Romney-Ryan 2012 presidential campaign. He was the campaign’s chief official overseeing foreign, defense, intelligence, judicial, and law enforcement policy and closely advising the nominees on these matters.
Alex began his international career in Iraq policy. He served as Iraq Rule of Law Advisor for the State Department at the height of the military surge strategy that turned the tide of the war. He designed and managed the Department’s efforts to reconstruct and modernize Iraq’s judicial branch, anticorruption agencies, and criminal code.
Alex spent years in the private sector practicing law in the international trade, strategic risk, and white-collar departments of Covington & Burling LLP, counseling numerous Fortune 100 clients.
Alex clerked for the honorable Janice Rogers Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School where he was the Managing Editor of the Harvard Law Review and an editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelors degree in English literature and French.