Nina Hachigian

Guest Author

Nina Hachigian (@NinaHachigian) is the first Deputy Mayor of International Affairs for Los Angeles. Prior to this, from 2014 to 2017, Ambassador Hachigian served as the second U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During her tenure, the United States established a strategic partnership with ASEAN, held the first Leaders’ Summit in the United States, launched a Presidential initiative on economic cooperation, established the U.S.-ASEAN Women’s Leadership Academy and grew the youth program to over 100,000 members. She was awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for her service. She is also a founder of WASA, Women Ambassadors Serving America, a group of some 200 current and former Ambassadors.

Earlier, Ambassador Hachigian was a Senior Fellow and a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress focused on Asia policy and U.S.-China relations. In 2012, she was the co-director of Asia policy for the Obama campaign. Prior to that, Ambassador Hachigian was the director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy for four years. Ambassador Hachigian served on the staff of the National Security Council in the Clinton White House from 1998- 1999. She is the editor of Debating China: The U.S. – China Relationship in Ten Conversations (Oxford University Press, 2014) and co-author of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise (Simon & Schuster, 2008).

Ambassador Hachigian was a founding Board member of the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board. She is a Board Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Hachigian received her B.S. from Yale University, magna cum laude, and her J.D. from Stanford Law School, with distinction. She lives in the great City of Los Angeles with her husband and children.‍