Background

Jonathan S. Addleton was born on June 27, 1957, in Murree, Punjab, Pakistan, in the family of Baptist missionaries H. F. Addleton and Bettie Rose (Simmons) Addleton.

Education

Addleton attended the Murree Christian School, located near the Murree hills of Rawalpindi District, Punjab province. In 1979, he received his Master of Science degree from Northwestern University. Addleton later earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in 1984 and 1991 respectively.

Career

At the beginning of his career, Addleton worked for World Bank and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, both in Washington. Addleton served at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the position of a program director in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1985 to 1989, in Sanaa, Yemen, from 1989 to 1991, as well as in Pretoria, South Africa, from 1991 to 1993, in Almaty, Kazakstan, for three years from 1993, and in Amman, Jordan from 1997. Addleton was the United States Agency for International Development mission director in Mongolia for three years from 2001.

His mostly known working position was as the 8th United States Ambassador to Mongolia from 2009 to 2012. After that, he headed the USAID missions in Cambodia from 2004 till 2006, as well as in Pakistan for a year from 2006.

Addleton was the Counselor for International Development at the United States Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, when President Barack Obama nominated him to be ambassador to Mongolia.

In addition, he was a reporter at The Macon Telegraph.

After his retirement from the Foreign Service in January 2017, Addleton has served as an Adjunct in the Department of International and Global Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He also began to hold a part-time position as the United States-based Executive Director of the American Center for Mongolian Studies.

Addleton's writings include such titles as Some Far and Distant Place, Undermining the Centre: The Gulf Migration and Pakistan, and Mongolia and the United States: A Diplomatic History. His major work of creative writing Some Far and Distant Place is a memoir covering his growing-up years as the child of missionary parents from rural Georgia, who worked in a relatively remote area of Pakistan. He also published a book that analyzes the economic and political consequences of international migration. In addition, Addleton is a contributor to periodicals, including Asian Survey, Muslim World, Migration, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and Pakistan Manpower Review.

Achievements

• Addleton is best known for his work at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and for his serving as the 8th United States Ambassador to Mongolia from 2009 to 2012.
  
  Addleton is the winner of the Christian A. Herter Award for intellectual courage and constructive dissent from the American Foreign Service Association, and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Service Medal from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He also received the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal from the United States Department of Army, the Administrator's Distinguished Career Service Award, the Superior Honor Award and the Presidential Meritorious Service Award from USAID. Additionally, he was awarded Mongolia's highest civilian award Polar Star, from the President of Mongolia.
  
  In May 2017, Addleton was inducted into Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism "Hall of Achievement".

Works

More photos

• book

  • Mongolia and the United States

    (A Diplomatic History; Mongolia and the United States prov...)

    2013
  • Some Far and Distant Place

    (This clear-eyed, insightful memoir describes an experienc...)

    1997
  • Undermining the Centre

    (The Gulf Migration and Pakistan; This volume studies the ...)

    1992

Politics

Addleton worked at the United States Agency for International Development as a program officer in Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Pakistan and Yemen. He was also a counselor for International Development at the United States Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium.

Personality

Addleton speaks Urdu and Hindi and has studied French, Russian, Arabic and Mongolian.

Interests

• reading, travel

Connections

Addleton married Fiona Mary Riacy, a school teacher, on August 17, 1985. The couple produced three children - Iain Arthur, Cameron James and Catriona Ann.

Father:

H. F. Addleton

Mother:

Bettie Rose (Simmons) Addleton

child:

Iain Arthur Addleton

child:

Cameron James Addleton

child:

Catriona Ann Addleton

Wife:

Fiona Mary Riacy