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Hugh Dugan
President
Hugh T. Dugan, President of MAA, is a seasoned diplomat and scholar with over 40 years of experience in U.S. foreign policy and the United Nations. He now leads Multilateral Accountability Associates, advocating UN reforms and providing expert commentary on international affairs.
The Honorable Hugh T. Dugan is President of MAA, an international affairs practitioner, scholar, and media presence, having served in the diplomatic corps, senior executive service, and academia for more than forty years. Mr. Dugan is an authority on United States participation in the United Nations Organization. He served in the White House on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Organization Affairs in the first Trump Administration. There he advised on United States foreign policy interests relating to the United Nations System, other multilateral entities and many cross-cutting issue areas. His service in the United States Diplomatic Corps from 1983 included postings as United States Delegate to the United Nations and Senior Adviser to eleven United States Permanent Representatives to the United Nations from 1989 through 2015. He enabled effective, strategic United States participation at the United Nations while securing consensus on thousands of resolutions ranging from human rights to peacebuilding. The timeframe encompassed the Soviet demise, Iraqi aggressions, African bloodshed, meltdown in the Balkans, the shatterings of 9/11, nation-building gone astray, and a China growing into its UN skin. For several years he quarterbacked UN reforms for clearing $1 billion of back dues as stipulated by Helms-Biden Legislation (1999), the most significant reforms to date. He continued as Senior Fellow for the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations the following year.
After a visiting professorship at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Mr. Dugan served as Acting Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs facilitating the recovery of an unprecedented number of Americans held overseas. Building on his Newsmax.com column “The UN and Beyond”, Mr. Dugan has advocated for heightened scrutiny over UN administrative inefficiencies. As president of Multilateral Accountability Associates, he is launching a series on the selection process of the UN Secretary-General. Mr. Dugan provides expert commentary for a variety of electronic and print outlets. He 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).