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屏幕快照 2016-07-13 下午4.19.12

Ambassador Derek J. Mitchell

Based in Washington D.C. USA

  • CEO, Shwe Strategies LLC
  • Senior Advisor, Albright Stonebridge Group
  • Senior Advisor, United States Institute of Peace
  • Former U.S. Ambassador to Burma (Myanmar), 2012-2016; Special Envoy to Burma, 2011-2012
  • Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (six months acting Assistant Secretary) overseeing Asia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2009-2011
  • Specialist in diplomacy and security policy with nearly 30 years of experience in Asian affairs and U.S.-Asia relations
  • President of the National Democratic Institute (NDI)
  • CEO, Shwe Strategies LLC
  • Senior Advisor, Albright Stonebridge Group
  • Senior Advisor, United States Institute of Peace
  • Former U.S. Ambassador to Burma (Myanmar), 2012-2016; Special Envoy to Burma, 2011-2012
  • Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (six months acting Assistant Secretary) overseeing Asia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2009-2011
  • Specialist in diplomacy and security policy with nearly 30 years of experience in Asian affairs and U.S.-Asia relations
  • President of the National Democratic Institute (NDI)

Ambassador Derek MITCHELL has nearly 30 years of experience in Asian affairs and U.S.-Asia relations.

From 2012-2016, Ambassador Mitchell served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma), the first in 22 years. In 2011, he was appointed as the U.S. Department of State’s first Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma, with the rank of ambassador. In those capacities, he organized and had a front-row seat to the landmark visits to the country of Secretary Clinton in 2011, and President Obama in 2012 and 2014, the first ever by a sitting U.S. president.

Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Mitchell served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (APSA), in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In that capacity, he spent six months as acting APSA Assistant Secretary of Defense, and was responsible for overseeing the Defense Department’s security policy in Northeast, Southeast, South, and Central Asia. For his service, he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Distinguished Public Service in August 2011.

From 2001 to 2009, Ambassador Mitchell served as Senior Fellow and Director of the Asia Division of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Among other achievements, Ambassador Mitchell founded the Center’s Southeast Asia Program.

From 1997 to 2001, he served as Special Assistant for Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In this role he served alternately as Senior Country Director for China, Taiwan Mongolia, and Hong Kong; Director for Regional Affairs; Country Director for Japan; and Senior Country Director for the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore. Ambassador Mitchell was the principal author of the Department of Defense’s 1998 East Asia Strategy Report, the last such report produced by DoD.

Prior to joining the Department, Ambassador Mitchell served as Senior Program Officer for Asia and the former Soviet Union at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Mitchell began his work in Washington as a foreign policy assistant in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) from 1986-88.

Ambassador Mitchell has authored numerous books, articles, policy reports, and opinion pieces on Asian security affairs. He is the coauthor of China: The Balance Sheet—What the World Needs to Know Now about the Emerging Superpower (2006), and China and the Developing World: Beijing’s Strategy for the 21st Century (2007).

Ambassador Mitchell received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Virginia. He speaks Mandarin Chinese proficiently.

His wife Min is a former television journalist. They live in Washington, D.C., with their dog Bernie.

  • Internal Dynamics of Burma/Myanmar in Transition
  • Role of Burma/Myanmar at Crossroads of Asia
  • U.S. Policy Towards Burma
  • U.S. and China in Asia
  • Future of U.S. Foreign Policy and Security Strategy in Asia
  • The Importance of Asia/Southeast Asia to the United States
  • Sample Speech Titles:
  • Historic Change at the Crossroads of Asia: Burma (Myanmar) in Transition
  • “The Beggar with a Golden Bowl”: Burma in Transition
  • The Lady and the Military: How Will Aung San Suu Kyi Navigate Burma’s Historic Moment

Books:

China: The Balance Sheet – What the World Needs to Know Now About the Emerging Superpower (co-authored with C. Fred Bergsten, Bates Gill, and Nicholas Lardy), 2006.
China: The Balance Sheet – What the World Needs to Know Now About the Emerging Superpower (co-authored with C. Fred Bergsten, Bates Gill, and Nicholas Lardy), 2006.
China’s Rise: Challenges and Opportunities (co-authored with C. Fred Bergsten, Nicholas Lardy, and Charles Freeman, Jr.), 2008. Authored chapters entitled “Why Does the United States Care About Taiwan?” “China’s Military Modernization,” and “China and the World.
China’s Rise: Challenges and Opportunities (co-authored with C. Fred Bergsten, Nicholas Lardy, and Charles Freeman, Jr.), 2008. Authored chapters entitled “Why Does the United States Care About Taiwan?” “China’s Military Modernization,” and “China and the World.
“Expanding the ‘Strategic Periphery’: A History of China’s Interaction with the Developing World,” from China and the Developing World: Beijing’s Strategy for the 21st Century. Josh Eisenman, Eric Heginbotham, and Derek Mitchell, editors.
“Expanding the ‘Strategic Periphery’: A History of China’s Interaction with the Developing World,” from China and the Developing World: Beijing’s Strategy for the 21st Century. Josh Eisenman, Eric Heginbotham, and Derek Mitchell, editors.
“Taiwan’s ‘Hsin Chu’ Program: Deterrence, ‘Abandonment’ and Honor,” from The Nuclear Tipping Point: Why States May Reconsider Their Nuclear Choices. Brookings Institution Press, 2004.
“Taiwan’s ‘Hsin Chu’ Program: Deterrence, ‘Abandonment’ and Honor,” from The Nuclear Tipping Point: Why States May Reconsider Their Nuclear Choices. Brookings Institution Press, 2004.

 

 

 

Articles/Chapters:

  • “Asia’s Forgotten Crisis: A New Approach to Burma” (with Michael Green), Foreign Affairs, November/December 2007. (Note: This article changed the public policy debate on Burma, served as the blueprint for the “Burma policy review” undertaken at the beginning of the Obama Administration, and foreshadowed Amb. Mitchell’s subsequent political-diplomatic engagement strategy as envoy and then ambassador.)
  • “Indonesia: Resentment, Suspicion, and Domestic Politics on the ‘Second Front’, from Balancing and Bandwagoning in the War Against Terror. CSIS. Daniel Benjamin, ed. 2005
  •  “U.S. Security Strategy for the Asia-Pacific Region,” Asian Affairs: An American Review. 2001.
  • “Regional Strategies: East Asia,” from To Prevail: An American Strategy for the Campaign Against Terrorism. CSIS Press, 2001

 

Reports:

  • “U.S. Alliances and Emerging Partnerships in Southeast Asia: Out of the Shadows.” A Report of the CSIS Southeast Asia Initiative, July 2009.
  • “Strategy and Sentiment: South Korean Views of the United States and the U.S.-ROK Alliance.” June 2004.
  • “Strengthening U.S-Japan-Korea Trilateral Relations.” September 2002
  • “Blueprint for U.S. Policy Toward a Unified Korea.” August 2002.