ICAS Bulletin
Institute for Corean-American Studies, Inc.
The Honorable Thomas C Hubbard, Ambassador
ICAS Distinguished Fellow
Dear Friend:
We are pleased
to share with you that Ambassador Thomas C Hubbard has been named, ICAS Distingusihed
Fellow, effective immediately.
Ambassador Hubbard is Senior Advisor of Akin Gump
Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP of Washington DC and advises clients on matters pertaining
to Korea and other countries in Asia.
Before joining Akin Gump, Ambassador Hubbard
served from 2001 to 2004 as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea, completing
a 39-year career in the Foreign Service in which he focused primarily on economic,
political and military relations with key nations of East Asia. Immediately prior
to his appointment to Korea he was principal deputy assistant secretary of state
for East Asian and Pacific affairs, a position he also held from 1993 to 1996. Ambassador
Hubbard previously served concurrently as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and
to the Republic of Palau from August 1996 to August 2000.
After entering the Foreign
Service in 1965, Ambassador Hubbard was assigned as a political-economic officer
in the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He subsequently embarked
upon intensive Japanese language study, which prepared him for two assignments to
Japan totaling seven years and several assignments dealing with Japanese affairs
in Washington. His other overseas assignments included the U.S. Mission to the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, where he advised U.S. representatives
to the International Energy Agency, and the U.S. embassies in Kuala Lumpur and Manila,
where he was deputy chief of mission. Ambassador Hubbard also spent one year (1981-82)
as legislative assistant to Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa.
Occupying senior State
Department positions beginning in the mid-1980s, Ambassador Hubbard played a leading
role in policies toward Japan, the Korean Peninsula and the ASEAN nations of Southeast
Asia. As Philippines desk officer, country director for Japan and deputy assistant
secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, he helped manage security ties with
leading allies and addressed issues arising from trade with some of the world's
most successful economies. Increasingly involved in Korean Peninsula affairs in
the 1990s, Ambassador Hubbard was a principal negotiator of the 1994 Agreed Framework
aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program. He became the first senior
official to lead a U.S. government delegation to North Korea in 1994 when he was
dispatched by President Clinton to secure the release of a U.S. Army pilot captured
after his helicopter was shot down over North Korea. In addition to this successful
trouble-shooting mission, Ambassador Hubbard was tapped the same year as presidential
envoy to promote human rights and democracy in Burma.
Born in Kentucky in 1943,
Ambassador Hubbard was raised in Tennessee and South Carolina. He received his B.A.
in political science in 1965 from the University of Alabama, where he was selected
for Phi Beta Kappa. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of
Maryland and the University of Alabama. Ambassador Hubbard's professional awards
include the State Department's Superior Honor Award and the Secretary of Defense
Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service.
Sincerely,
Sang Joo Kim / signed
Sr. Fellow & Executive Vice President
ICAS
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