Ben Reames has been appointed as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM). His most recent position was Director for Asian Affairs in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations from 2022 to 2024. He also served as Executive Director on detail to ADST, a non-profit think tank focused on diplomatic tradecraft. Prior to that, he was Political Counselor and Acting DCM at the U.S. Mission to ASEAN in Jakarta, followed by a role as Senior Advisor in the East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP) Bureau.
From 2019 to 2020, Reames was the Foreign Service Fellow at Columbia University. Between 2018 and 2019, he worked as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs with responsibilities related to South and Central Asia, counterterrorism, diplomatic security, and political-military affairs.
His earlier assignments include serving as Political-Military Unit Chief for Afghanistan; Senior Program Officer for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) in Mexico City; two political and economic roles in Kabul; Deputy Political-Economic Chief in Mozambique; Political-Military Officer in Baghdad; and Consular and Political Officer in Manila.
Before joining the Foreign Service, Reames taught political science and consulted throughout Latin America. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University along with master's and bachelor's degrees from the University of Michigan. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Additionally, he has taught national security and international policy at George Washington University and Columbia University.