Hugh Dugan - Biography
Hugh T. Dugan is an international affairs practitioner and scholar having served in the diplomatic corps, senior executive service, academia, and media for 38 years.
Dugan served in the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Organization Affairs in 2020. He advised on US foreign policy interests and the United States’ stewardship and participation in activities throughout the United Nations System, regional entities, and thematic topics such as human rights and humanitarian affairs. In 2019 Mr. Dugan served as Acting Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs managing US diplomatic engagements in that sensitive operational sphere. His leadership in that all-of-Government effort produced an unprecedented momentum of recoveries, a strengthening of US policy and capacity, and improved methods of work with hostages’ families, US Congress, and various associated actors.
Mr. Dugan is an international affairs scholar and an expert on United States participation in the United Nations Organization. He served in the US Diplomatic Corps from 1983 to 2015, including twenty-six years as US Delegate to the United Nations and senior adviser to eleven US Permanent Representatives to the United Nations. There he managed a broad range of matters enabling effective, strategic US participation at the United Nations within evolving North-South and East-West relations during that historic timeframe, including all principal organs and the UN Peacebuilding Commission. In 2002 he was detailed as senior fellow to US Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member on the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations. Prior postings included the State Department’s Bureau for Economic and Business Affairs, the American Consulate General in Bermuda, and the American Embassy in Mexico City.
He serves as Fellow to the Center for United Nations and Global Governance Studies at the School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University. He provides expert commentary for a variety of electronic and print outlets. As Visiting Scholar on United Nations Studies at Seton Hall University from 2015 through 2018, Mr. Dugan taught graduate courses on the UN Security Council and UN Reforms. The International Olympic Committee recognized his key role in reviving the ancient Olympic Truce for our times. He oversaw production of the six-volume Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dance (Oxford University Press). He has supported or performed board service for the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Fletcher School Alumni Clubs of DC and NYC, SOS Children’s Villages-USA, the UN Association of Trenton/Princeton, and the YMCA of Greater New York.
Mr. Dugan earned degrees and honors from the School of Foreign Service at
Georgetown University (BSFS), the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (MALD), the Wharton School of Business (MBA); and the International Olympic Academy (Olympia, Greece).