Fields of Interest
Biography
David J. Katz (BA, UW, 1971; PhD, UCLA) separated from the State Department, August 31, 2014. His final assignment was in the office which conducted the second Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Prior to that he served for two years as the State Department Advisor to the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There he participated in the revision of Army and Joint ‘stability’ doctrine (FM 3-07, JP 3-07). He also taught courses and lectured at the college and offered presentations to military units preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.
A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, U.S. Department of State, with the rank of counselor, his tenure at PKSOI followed an 18-month assignment as deputy (to a U.K. major general), Force Reintegration Cell, at ISAF Headquarters, Kabul, Afghanistan. Before that he served a two-year detail as a Professor in the Strategy and Policy Department and State Department Advisor at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.
He received his PhD in Anthropology (UCLA 1982) based in part on a dissertation that drew on two years of independent ethnographic research he conducted in Nuristan, eastern Afghanistan during the mid-70s.
After entering the Foreign Service in 1984, he had assignments in Iceland, Afghanistan (during the Soviet occupation), Yemen, Estonia, Pakistan, and Eritrea. He also served as a Civilian Observer with the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai, Egypt.
Over his career Dr. Katz had five assignments spanning more than seven years where he served in military organizations. He also deepened his regional experience during the more than 10 years that he dealt with Pakistan and Afghanistan, both in Washington and abroad. This included assignments as the Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate, Peshawar, Pakistan (1999-2002); Deputy Director, Office of Pakistan and Bangladesh, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (2004-6); and as the State Department representative which established a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan's Nuristan Province (2006-7).
He resides in Seattle, Washington and Tallinn, Estonia.