David Sedney
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia
David Samuel Sedney is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. Mr. Sedney came to the Office of the Secretary of Defense from the United States Embassy in Beijing, China where he was Deputy Chief of Mission from 2004-2007. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan from July 2003 to June 2004 during which time he was Charge d’Affaires for an extended period. Mr. Sedney also served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Kabul in 2002 after the re-opening of the Embassy.
Mr. Sedney was Director for Afghanistan at the National Security Council (2003), Senior Advisor in the State Department’s Office of e-Diplomacy (2002), Senior Advisor to John Negroponte, United States Ambassador to the United Nations (2001-2002), Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs (1999-2001), and Special Assistant to Stephen Sestanovich, Ambassador-at-Large and Special Representative for the Newly Independent States (1997-1998).
Mr. Sedney was Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan (1995-1997), Political-Military Officer at the United States Embassy in Beijing, China (1991-1994) and served as a Political Officer, Refugee Officer and Consular Officer at the United States Embassy in Bucharest, Romania (1985-1987). He also served as a Watch Officer at the State Department’s Operations Center (1987-1988) and as a Duty Officer and Senior Duty Officer at the White House Situation Room (1988-1989).
Before joining the State Department, Mr. Sedney spent five years as a house-husband in Bern, Switzerland; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Williamstown, Massachusetts, caring for his wife Diana Sedney and their daughters Gwendolyn, Anna and Christina. Mr. Sedney also taught at Williams College and North Adams State College and worked for the United States Department Labor’s Wage and Hour Division after stints as a factory worker, truck driver and taxicab driver.
Mr. Sedney is a graduate of Princeton University (1975) and Suffolk University School of Law (1981). He attended Louisiana State University’s School of Law (1980-1981) where he studied Law of the Sea and International Law. Mr. Sedney is a distinguished graduate of the National War College (1998). He speaks Romanian, Chinese and Azerbaijani. Mr. Sedney has received the Department of State’s Superior Honor Award six times and the Meritorious Honor Award twice.
Mr. Sedney and his wife and daughters are residents of Falls Church, Virginia.