John E. Herbst

On June 14, 2019, Herbst was appointed as the Honorary President of the Ukrainian-American Concordia University (WIUU).

On April 23–24, 2002, Ambassador Herbst attended an international conference in Moscow to gain international support of the Global Partnership Against the Proliferation of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. During the conference Ambassador Herbst delivered Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko a letter from Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton. The letter encouraged Ukraine to support the Global Partnership. The letter also discussed nonproliferation topics introduced at the 2002 G-8 Summit, a summit which led to the conference in Moscow discussing the Global Partnership.

Ambassador John E. Herbst was appointed Director of the National Defense University Center for Complex Operations in July 2010. As Director, Ambassador Herbst will use his 30 years of United States Foreign Service experience to benefit the careers of professionals who will become the next generation of national defense practitioners. As a stability expert, Ambassador Herbst will provide guidance to students and faculty at the National Defense University.

In October 2009 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the creation of the Australian Civilian Corps (ACC) at the East Asia Summit in Thailand. In order to collaborate and build capacity of S/CRS and the ACC, Ambassador Herbst coordinated the signing of a memorandum. The memorandum detailed how the two organizations would exchange lessons learned and performance measurement methodologies in order to arrive at conflict prevention and reconstruction and stabilization goals. The memorandum focuses on building sustainable peace through enhancing interoperability among civilian reconstruction and stabilization organizations and strengthening civilian capabilities across the globe. The memorandum is slated for review in 2013.

Ambassador Herbst assumed the position of Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization in the summer of 2006. During his tenure, Ambassador Herbst launched the Civilian Response Corps, grew its ranks to over 1,000, and oversaw their missions in countries that include Sudan, Chad, Haiti, Lebanon, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Under Ambassador Herbst's direction the Civilian Response Corps and the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization supported over 20 U.S. Embassies. His responsibilities included planning and coordinating to prevent conflict and deliver sustainable stabilization solutions to countries in danger of, emerging from or in conflict.

In 2005, Ambassador Herbst, serving as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, called the reputation of Mykola Bilokin, Minister of the Internal Affairs of Ukraine from 2003 to 2005, "unacceptable." Later in the month Ambassador Herbst worked with newly appointed Minister of the Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Yuri Lutsenko, to reform the ministry. The new ministry was restructured to meet the changing political and socio-economic environment in Ukraine. During the meeting Ambassador Herbst offered the support of American law enforcement officers and noted that the U.S. is willing to provide aid to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Following the Orange Revolution, Ambassador Herbst facilitated funding of objective sources of news in Ukraine. His efforts led to the United States Agency of International Development funding $2.4 million to be spent towards the development of mass media in the country. Ambassador Herbst implemented his strategy by focusing on readying trainers and educators in the communications discipline, including Ukraine's Center for Ukrainian Reform Education and Kiev non-governmental organization Telekritika. Ambassador Herbst oversaw tertiary funding including the Open Media Fund, sponsored by the International Renaissance Foundation and worked with his associates at the U.S. Embassy, including press attaché Brent Byers, to allocate $750,000 in 2005. Ambassador Herbst oversaw funding in support of independent media in Ukraine. Ambassador Herbst coordinated with the European Commission to Ukraine and effectively secured an additional 3.5 million Euros between 2003 and 2005.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Uzbekistan became an area of heightened importance to the US, owing to its border with Afghanistan, and a strategic ally in the War on Terror. One important feature of this during his tenure was the leasing of the Karshi-Khanabad airbase to support missions against al-Qaeda. His British counterpart from 2002 was Craig Murray, who writes about their encounters in his 2006 memoir Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror (US: Dirty Diplomacy).

Ambassador Herbst was nominated by President Bill Clinton in February to be the U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan. The Senate confirmed his nomination on September 8. Ambassador Herbst arrived in Tashkent on October 28, 2000 and presented his credentials to Uzbek President Islam Karimov on November 1, 2000. Ambassador Herbst, serving as U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan during the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom, helped arrange base access in the buildup stages.

Herbst joined the United States Foreign Service in 1979. He has worked as a political counselor at the U.S. embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel, Moscow, Russia, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has also worked as the Director of Regional Affairs in the Near East Bureau of the United States State Department, as Director of the Office of Independent States and Commonwealth Affairs, as Principal Deputy to the Ambassador-at-large for the Newly Independent States, and as U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem. He was appointed Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2000, and to Ukraine in 2003. In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appointed Ambassador Herbst as Coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization. He assumed the new position in the summer of that year.

Herbst received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1974 and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (Medford, MA) in 1978. He also attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy.

John Edward Herbst (born August 12, 1952) is a retired American diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2000 to 2003 and United States Ambassador to Ukraine from September 2003 to May 2006. Herbst was married to Nadezda Christoff Herbst and has five children.