Michael Hayden Armacost (born April 15, 1937) is a retired American

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internat ...

and a fellow at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

's Freeman Spogli Institute. He was acting

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's ...

during the early days of the administration of President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; p ...

, before Secretary

James Baker James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...

was confirmed by the Senate. Armacost also served as United States Ambassador to Japan and the president of the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

from 1995 to 2002.

Diplomatic career

In the 1960s, Armacost taught international relations and foreign policy at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it becam ...

. In January 1977 Armacost was selected as a member of the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

to handle

East Asian East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

affairs under the

Carter administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican Presiden ...

until July 1978, when he was replaced by

Nicholas Platt Nicholas Platt (born March 10, 1936) is an American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Pakistan, Philippines, Zambia, and as a high level diplomat in Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. He is the former p ...

. Years later he was appointed to be the

United States Ambassador to Japan The is the ambassador from the United States of America to Japan. History Since the opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, in 1854, the U.S. has maintained diplomatic relations with Japan, except for the ten-year period between the ...

from 1989 to 1993,

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs The Under Secretary for Political Affairs is currently the fourth-ranking position in the United States Department of State, after the secretary, the deputy secretary, and the deputy secretary of state for management and resources. The current un ...

from 1984 to 1989, and

United States Ambassador to the Philippines The ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Sugo ng Estados Unidos sa Pilipinas) was established on July 4, 1946, after the Philippines gained its independence from the United States. The ambassador t ...

from 1982 to 1984, during a critical period of political upheaval during the

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martia ...

presidency. He served as Acting Secretary of State from January 20, 1989, to January 25, 1989. In the interval between 1995 and 2002, Armacost served as president of Washington D.C's

, the nation's oldest think tank and a leader in research on politics, government, international affairs, economics, and public policy. He has received the President's Distinguished Service Award, the Defense Department's Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and the Secretary of State's Distinguished Services Award. Armacost is the author of three books, the most recent of which, ''Friends or Rivals?'', was published in 1996 and draws on his tenure as ambassador. He also co-edited, with Daniel Okimoto, ''The Future of America's Alliances in Northeast Asia'', published in 2004 by Shorenstein APARC. Armacost has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards, including TRW,

AFLAC Aflac Inc. (American Family Life Assurance Company) is an American insurance company and is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia. In the U.S., A ...

Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and s ...

, USEC, Inc.,

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated, is a Privately held company, privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privatel ...

, Inc, Carleton College, and

The Asia Foundation The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to "improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia". The Asia Foundation (TAF) was established in 1954 to undertake cultural and educational activities on be ...

. Armacost received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the Scientific method, scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities betwe ...

from Carleton College in 1958, an honorary degree in 1989, where he was chairman of the board of trustees from 2004 to 2008, and earned his Ph.D. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1965. He was also an international fellow of the

School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (SIPA) is the international affairs and public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. ...

in 1961.

Honors

* Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon, 2007 (Japan).Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)
2007 Autumn Conferment of Decorations on Foreign Nationals, p. 1.
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References

External links

The Mismatch between Northeast Asian Change and American Distractions
by Michael H. Armacost, ''NBR Analysis'', January 2007 *
Forging Even Closer Japan-US Ties , Nippon.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armacost, Michael H 1937 births Living people 20th-century American diplomats Place of birth missing (living people) Acting United States Secretaries of State Ambassadors of the United States to Japan Ambassadors of the United States to the Philippines Brookings Institution people Carleton College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun National Bureau of Asian Research Pomona College faculty Stanford University fellows Under Secretaries of State for Political Affairs United States National Security Council staffers White House Fellows