Michael Fuchs

Michael H. Fuchs is a Senior Fellow at American Progress, where his work focuses on U.S. foreign policy priorities and U.S. policy toward the Asia-Pacific. Fuchs also serves as a senior policy advisor at J Street.

From 2013 to 2016, Fuchs served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, directing U.S. policy on the South China Sea, regional security issues, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and managing the bureau’s foreign assistance budget of almost $800 million.

Fuchs was special advisor to the secretary of state for strategic dialogues from 2011 to 2013, leading planning and preparation for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s strategic dialogues with China, India, South Africa, and others. During this time, Fuchs also served as a member of the secretary’s policy planning staff, where he worked on a diverse set of issues and initiatives including the department’s response to the Arab Spring, cybersecurity, and the development of a U.S. government strategy to prevent and respond to mass atrocities. From 2009 to 2011, Fuchs was special assistant to Secretary Clinton, providing day-to-day and long-term policy advice on the full range of U.S. foreign policy issues.

Before joining the U.S. State Department, Fuchs served as deputy national security director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, where he helped run policy, outreach, and communications on all foreign policy and defense issues for the campaign.

Previously, Fuchs worked on foreign policy and energy and environment issues for American Progress, co-directed a project on democracy and U.S. foreign policy for The Century Foundation, and ran a human rights project in Afghanistan. He has also been a lecturer at George Washington University, where he taught courses on politics and policymaking.

Fuchs co-authored The Survival and the Success of Liberty: A Democracy Agenda for U.S. Foreign Policy with Morton H. Halperin. He is a graduate of Columbia University and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.