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. 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.
Directors of policy planning
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!No.
!Name
!Assumed office
!Left office
!President appointed by
|-
|1
|George F. Kennan
|1947
|1949
| rowspan="2" |Harry S. Truman
|-
|2
|Paul Nitze
|1950
|1953
|-
|3
|Robert R. Bowie
|1953
|1957
| rowspan="2" |Dwight D. Eisenhower
|-
|4
|Gerard C. Smith
|1957
|1961
|-
|5
|George C. McGhee
|1961
|1961
| rowspan="2" |John F. Kennedy
|-
|6
|Walt Whitman Rostow
|1961
|1966
|-
|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
| rowspan="4" |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
| rowspan="4" |Bill Clinton
|-
|18
|James Steinberg
|1994
|1996
|-
|19
|Gregory B. Craig
|1997
|1999
|-
|20
|Morton Halperin
|1998
|2001
|-
|21
|Richard N. Haass
|2001
|2003
| rowspan="4" |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
| rowspan="4" |Barack Obama
|-
|26
|Jake Sullivan
|2011
|2013
|-
|27
|David McKean
|2013
|2016
|-
|28
|Jonathan Finer
|2016
|2017
|-
|29
|Brian Hook
|2017
|2018
| rowspan="3" |Donald Trump
|-
|30
|Kiron Skinner
|2018
|2019
|-
|31
|Peter Berkowitz
|2019
|2021
|-
|32
|Salman Ahmed
|2021
|2025
|Joe Biden
|-
|33
|Michael Anton
|2025
|2025
|rowspan="2" |Donald Trump
|-
|34
|Michael Needham
|2025
|Present
|}
References
External links
- Policy Planning Staff Homepage
- List of Directors of Policy Planning
- University of Oxford