President Barack Obama President Barack Obama Appointed by Barack Obama Preceded by Bill Burns Succeeded by Wendy Sherman | President Barack Obama Name Thomas Shannon, Preceded by Heather Higginbottom Preceded by Clifford Sobel | |
 | ||
Education University of Oxford, College of William & Mary Similar People Barack Obama, Charles Rivkin, Rose Gottemoeller, Stephen Rapp, William Joseph Burns | ||
Thomas Alfred "Tom" Shannon Jr. (born 1958) is an American diplomat who is currently serving as the acting Deputy Secretary of State of the United States and the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Shannon served as acting United States Secretary of State for 2 weeks, until the confirmation of U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee, Rex Tillerson.
Contents
Shannon has worked in the United States Foreign Service since 1984, and has served in embassies around the world. From 2005 to 2009, he was the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and from 2010 to 2013 he was the United States Ambassador to Brazil. From 2013 to 2016, he served as a Counselor of the United States Department of State, and was also the acting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs for a period in 2011.
Early life and education
Shannon graduated from the College of William & Mary with a B.A. with high honors in government and politics in 1980. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society during his time at the college. He went on to the University of Oxford, where he completed an M.Phil. in 1982, and a D.Phil. in 1983, both in politics.
Career
Shannon subsequently joined the United States Foreign Service as a Foreign Service Officer. He was the Consular/Political Rotational Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, Guatemala from 1984 to 1986; Country Officer for Cameroon, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe from 1987 to 1989; and the Special Assistant to the Ambassador at the US Embassy in Brasília, Brazil from 1989 to 1992.
He served as the Regional Labor Attaché at the US Consulate-General in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1992 to 1996; as Political Counselor at the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, from 1996 to 1999; and as the Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) from 1999 to 2000.
Shannon was appointed as US Deputy Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) from 2000 to 2001, serving under Luis J. Lauredo. From 2001 to 2002, Shannon was the Director of Andean Affairs at the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Department of State. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2002 to 2003.
Shannon then served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the NSC from 2003 to 2005. In October 2005, he became Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and served in that role until November 2009, when he was replaced by Arturo Valenzuela. He was appointed as United State Ambassador to Brazil in February 2010 and served there until September 2013. For a period from July 2011 to September 2011, he was concurrently the acting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the Department of State. In 2012, the Senate granted Shannon the rank of Career Ambassador in the US Foreign Service.
In December 2013, Shannon was appointed as a Counselor of the United States Department of State, only the second Foreign Service Officer ever appointed to that role. He remained there until February 12, 2016, when he was appointed as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs for the last year of Barack Obama's presidency.
Acting Secretary of State
Shannon became the acting United States Secretary of State on January 20, 2017, after the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. He remained in this role until the Senate voted to confirm Trump's nominee, Rex Tillerson, as Secretary of State.
During his time acting as Secretary, Shannon presided in a clearing of the upper echelons of the State Department, resulting in the firing or forced resignations of over a dozen career diplomats, leaving a majority of senior career positions at the Department vacant. Most notably, Thomas Countryman, acting Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security, was on his way to Rome for an international meeting on nuclear weapons when he discovered that he had been summarily removed from his position. Without leaving the airport, he turned around and got on the first flight back to Washington.
Another major problem that Shannon had to deal with was the fallout over President Trump's "Temporary Immigration Ban," leading to among other things, an internal dissent memo protesting the action, which was signed by nearly a thousand diplomats and other State Department employees.