Lawrence E. Butler

Ambassador Lawrence E. Butler assumed the position of Deputy     Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in January 2007.  Ambassador Butler is charged with overseeing U.S. policy creation and implementation efforts in Iraq, as well as staffing, financing, and management issues related to the Department's presence in Iraq.  

Ambassador Butler served previously as the Principal Deputy High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from March 2005 to January 2006.  In this role, he worked as the second-in-command to High Representatives Dr. Schwarz-Schilling and Lord Ashdown, and was responsible for OHR management as well as direction of economic and rule of law departments.  From 2002-2005, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia, where he successfully implemented the Ohrid Peace Agreement ending that country's internal conflict as well as guiding it towards NATO and EU membership.

Ambassador Butler joined the U.S. Service in 1976.  From 1997-1999 he was at the White House on the National Security Council staff as Director for European Affairs where he was directly involved in achieving the "Good Friday" Northern Ireland peace agreement.  He also handled Presidential participation in the semi-annual U.S.-EU Summits, as well as handling relations with the Nordic states, UK, Ireland and Germany.

Ambassador Butler was Deputy Chief of Mission in Copenhagen where he contributed to national missile defense goals and Danish support for operations in Afghanistan in 2002.  He was also DCM in Dublin, Ireland where he supported the Northern Irish Peace Process and as well as the surge in American investment in Ireland, and earlier in Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro where he worked on the Bosnian peace process that culminated in the Dayton Accord in December 1995. As acting Chief of Mission for most of 1996, he dealt directly with Slobodan Milosevic in implementing the Dayton agreement and restarting Serbia's democratization process, as well as opening the first U.S. Office in Kosovo. In 1993, he was on special assignment with the OSCE mission to the former Yugoslavia, where he established the Pec, Kosovo branch office to mediate human rights complaints and forestall armed conflict. Other overseas postings include two tours in Helsinki dealing with economic and trade policy, a tour in Bulgaria, first as Economic/Commercial Officer and later as Political/Economic Chief where he distinguished himself in exposing and helping to end the Communist regime’s violent assimilation campaign against its Turkish minority, and Brasilia as an economic policy officer.  State Department Washington assignments include Deputy Director of the office responsible for EU Affairs, Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs and Senior Watch Officer in the Secretary's Operations Center.

Ambassador Butler earned his B.A. at Bowdoin College in 1975, attended the University of Michigan's MBA program, and did graduate work at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School.  He speaks Finnish, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Macedonian and is conversant in Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian, Swedish and Danish. He and his wife, Linda d'Obry Willemoes Butler, have one adult son.