Nina Hachigian appointed U.S. envoy to Association of SE Asian Nations

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ethnic Armenian Nina Hachigian was appointed as the United States’ ambassador to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Hachigian, 47, of Los Angeles, will represent the United States in dealings with the economically powerful group of 10 Southeast Asian countries based in Jakarta, Indonesia, which will be her new home.

Hachigian was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a position she held since 2008. From 2007 to 2008, she was Senior Vice President and Director for California at the Center. She worked as Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation from 2005 to 2006, and as Director at the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy from 2001 to 2005. Prior to that, Hachigian was an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations at the Pacific Council on International Policy. From 1998 to 1999, she served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy National Security Advisor in the White House, and before that she worked as an advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Hachigian was an associate at O'Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles from 1995 to 1997, and formerly a Judicial Clerk to Judge Harry Pregerson at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

She is the author of several books related to foreign policy and is a member of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Hachigian received a B.S. from Yale University and a J.D. from Stanford University Law School.