Officially In: Philip Gordon to the EUR Bureau

EUR Bureau Map from state.gov

I almost missed this one. On March 6, 2009, President Obama announced his intention to nominate Philip H. Gordon, of the District of Columbia, to be Assistant Secretary of State for the European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR). He would be successor to career diplomat, Daniel Fried (the newly appointed Special Envoy on Gitmo).

The nomination was sent to the senate on March 11, 2009 but as far as I could tell, this is not in the SFRC calendar yet.

The announcement has the following details:

Dr. Philip Gordon is Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C., where he has worked since 2000. Prior to joining Brookings, Dr. Gordon was Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. At the NSC he played a key role in developing and coordinating NATO policy in the run-up to the Alliance's 50th Anniversary summit in Washington, D.C. He has held teaching and research posts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC; INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore; and the German Society for Foreign Affairs in Bonn.

Dr. Gordon has a Ph.D. and M.A. in European Studies and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and a B.A. in French and Philosophy from Ohio University. His working languages include French, German, Italian and some Spanish. He has published a number of books and articles on international relations and foreign policy and is a frequent contributor to major publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, and Financial Times. From 2007-08 he was a foreign policy advisor and leader of the Europe expert group for the Obama for America campaign.

He is currently on leave from the Brookings Institution; read more here. Related Item: President Obama Announces Key State Department Appointments 3/6/09