Ambassador Larry Butler joined the Foreign Service in 1976, and became a member of the Senior Foreign Service in 1997, retiring in 2013. He served as Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council staff at the White House from 1997 to 1999 where he coordinated the Presidential effort that resulted in Northern Ireland’s historic Good Friday Peace Accord in 1998.
As Ambassador in Skopje, he worked with the European Union Special Representative, as well as with the OSCE, NATO and other international organization representatives, to implement the 2001 Ohrid Framework Agreement that ended Macedonia’s insurgency. He was selected by Lord Ashdown to serve as Principal High Deputy Representative at the Office of High Representative and European Union Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving in Sarajevo from March 2005 to January 2007.
Larry returned to the State Department in January 2007 to be the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, as part of the New Way Forward policy implementation team that diminished violence and improved governance in Iraq.
Ambassador Butler would go on to serve distinguished tours as POLAD to NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander at Mons, Belgium, as POLAD to the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and finally as the Civilian Deputy and POLAD to the Commander of the United States European Command, Patch Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. After retirement, he served as a Senior Inspector with State’s OIG and as the Department’s Senior Coordinator for Knowledge management until 2016.
Ambassador Butler has diverse and unparalleled skills in diplomatic affairs, military affairs, inter-agency operations and international affairs. As a Stellar Advisor, Larry will be serving as a U.S. Inter-Agency subject matter expert and senior leader role player in U.S. European Command’s Austere Challenge large-scale, joint exercise.
Security Clearance: TS/SCI and NATO Secret
U.S. Department of State bio: available here
