Jonathan Benton

Tyler Jonathan Benton completed a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service in 2010. From 2011-2015, he completed a dozen temporary assignments for the Department of State as a reemployed annuitant: senior Washington positions in the Office of Russian Affairs, the Office of Eastern European Affairs, the Office of the Coordinator of Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, and the Office of Conflict and Stabilization Operations. He also served as a conflict prevention officer in Kyrgyzstan’s Fergana Valley, as Charge d’affairs in Minsk, Belarus and in Chisinau, Moldova, and assistance coordinator in Kyiv, Ukraine. In the same period he has worked extensively as a civil-military trainer (for the U.S. Army) and consultant to public and private organizations and, in 2015, was Director of the Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Governance at the USAID Mission in Amman, Jordan. In 2016, he became a senior advisor in the State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia, as a contractor. In his current position, Mr. Benton focuses on the challenges of PRC influence and activity in Europe and Central Asia, on oversight of U.S. Government assistance to Ukraine, and on professional and organizational development for the office.

During his Foreign Service career, Mr. Benton’s numerous Washington tours included service as Deputy Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization and Deputy Office Director in both Balkan affairs and Central Asian/Caucasus affairs. His earlier assignments included service on the NATO desk, the Albania desk, in the Executive Secretariat, as Special Assistant to the Secretary, and as senior legislative assistant in the U.S. Senate. His overseas tours included Deputy Chief of Mission in Dublin, Ireland, and embassy officer in Moscow, Oslo, and Bucharest.

Mr. Benton has a Master of Science degree in Strategic Studies from the National Defense University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Originally from upstate New York, Mr. Benton has been living for many years in northern Virginia when not traveling and working overseas. He is married to Anne Simmons-Benton of Dallas, Texas. The couple has three
grown children.