John Ginkel has been serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy Belgrade since October 2021 and was the Charge d’Affaires before Ambassador Christopher R. Hill arrived in March 2022. Prior to his assignment in Belgrade, Mr. Ginkel served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (2019-2021) and before that as Director of the Office of Afghanistan Affairs at the Department of State in Washington, DC. He also served two previous assignments in Afghanistan. From 2013-2015, Mr. Ginkel was Deputy Director of the Office of Regional Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism.
Mr. Ginkel has served a number of assignments in Europe: Political Counselor in Kosovo; Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and assignments at the American Embassies in Riga, Latvia, and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Prior to joining the U.S. Foreign Service, Mr. Ginkel was a Peace Corps Volunteer and a Fulbright scholar in Latvia, where he conducted research for his dissertation. Mr. Ginkel holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis.