Richard Boucher

Richard Boucher   (diplomat)
Born	1951 Bethesda, Maryland
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Tufts University
US career diplomat  Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs In office February 21, 2006 - May 25, 2009  US/Ambassador/Cyprus  In office November 22, 1993 - June 12, 1996

Richard A. Boucher is an American diplomat who was deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2009 until 2013. He took up post on November 5, 2009. Prior to joining OECD, he was the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, a post he took up on February 21, 2006. The Bureau of South Asian Affairs was expanded to include the nations of Central Asia shortly before his confirmation.

He was active in the Pilgrims Society

Education

After school, Boucher began studying English and French literature at Tufts University, graduating in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA English & French Literature). He then worked for the Peace Corps in Senegal from 1973 to 1975 and then began postgraduate studies in economics at George Washington University before joining the US State Department's diplomatic service in 1977.

Career

Among other things, he was a consular officer at the Consulate General in Guangzhou between 1979 and 1980 and later from 1984 to 1986 Permanent Representative of the Consul General in Shanghai. In 1986 he returned to the State Department and was Senior Investigator at the Operations Center and then Deputy Head of the Office of European Security & Political Affairs from 1987 to 1989.

After serving as deputy spokesman from 1989 to 1992, Boucher served as spokesman for the State Department from 1992 to 1993. He then succeeded Robert E. Lamb as ambassador to Cyprus on November 22, 1993 and remained in this diplomatic post until June 12, 1996. He then succeeded Richard W. Mueller as Consul General in Hong Kong in August 1996 and held this position until July 1999.

After his return to the United States, Boucher was secretary for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) at the State Department from 1999 to 2000 and then took over the post of Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs on January 5, 2001, succeeding James Rubin. In that position, he served as both director of public relations and chief spokesman for the State Department until he was replaced by Sean McCormack on June 2, 2005.

Assistant Secretary of State

On February 21, 2006, Boucher became the new Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs and thus head of the newly created sub-department for South and Central Asia (Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs) of the State Department. He was in that capacity until May 25, 2009, and in that capacity was appointed Career Ambassador on June 6, 2008, the highest rank in the US Foreign Service. On June 2, 2009, he was succeeded by Robert O. Blake, Jr., who was previously Ambassador to Sri Lanka.

Donald Trump

In 2020, Boucher, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."

 

A Document by Richard Boucher

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Pilgrims Society Address 2002	speech	28 November 2002	Official narrative	Full of platitudes and the obligatory quotations from politicians past to bolster and confirm the essential righteousness of the Pilgrims present. Probably a fairly typical address to The London Pilgrims by a US Embassy Official, but hard to read without squirming at the delusional sanctimonious arrogance it exudes.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Brussels Forum/2012	23 March 2012	24 March 2012	Brussels Belgium	Yearly discreet get-together of huge amount of transatlantic politicians, media and military and corporations, under the auspices of the CIA-close German Marshall Fund.

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