Henry Haggard

Senior Advisor

Former Minister Counselor for Political Affairs, U.S. Embassy Seoul, and Director for UK and the Eastern Mediterranean, National Security Council

Henry Haggard is the KF-VUB Korea Chair (CSDS) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and member of the Korea Chair, and a non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute, Rice University.  In 2024, he completed a 25-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, retiring as a member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Counselor.  From 2021-23 he served as the top advisor on Korean politics and managed our bilateral security relationship at the U.S. Embassy in South Korea. Prior to that, he served as director at the National Security Council under both the Trump and Biden administration, coordinating our policy engagement with Turkey and the UK.  Henry most recently served as the Director for Energy Diplomacy responsible for our energy policy related to Asia and the Middle East where he built U.S.-Japan-Korea trilateral energy cooperation in furtherance of the Camp David Summit goals.

Henry’s previous assignments include Acting Political Minister Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the EU, Chief of Staff to the Secretary’s Special Representative for Syria Engagement, Deputy Principal Officer in Erbil, Iraq, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, three tours in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat, a tour in Baghdad, and one stint at Embassy Paris.

He speaks fluent Korean and French and received a BA in International Relations from Brown University and a Masters of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. He is a partner with Seekonk LLC, a global strategy group, and founder of The 25 Year Apprenticeship, a diplomatic tradecraft resource.