Professional Affiliation

Ethiopia Desk Officer, Office of East African Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Expert Bio

Eric Wong is a Foreign Affairs Officer with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs. As a Foreign Service Officer from 1997 to 2021, he focused on Africa, political-military, and security issues. His Africa experience includes serving in leadership positions at U.S. Embassies in Kigali, Rwanda; Djibouti; and Antananarivo, Madagascar. He also served as senior advisor for African Union peacekeeping in the Bureau of African Affairs, and as acting director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research’s Office of Analysis for Africa. From 2019 to 2020, he was detailed to the Department of Defense, serving as Foreign Policy Advisor for U.S. Africa Command’s Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. A graduate of Yale College, Mr. Wong holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a master’s degree in national security strategy from the National War College. Prior to joining the Department of State, he worked for the United Nations, in New York and Mogadishu, Somalia. Mr. Wong is from Los Angeles, California.