Barry Jacobs

Barry Jacobs is AJC's director of Strategic Studies in the Office of Government and International Affairs and associate director of AJC's Asia and Pacific Rim Institute. He was a senior Foreign Service officer with the United States Information Agency from 1968-1994, receiving its highest decorations on two occasions, and served in seven countries on four continents. His overseas assignments included Athens and Thessaloniki from 1966-1968, and as press attaché and assistant public affairs officer in Cyprus from 1968-1971. He also served in Venezuela from 1972-1976; in Israel from 1980-1984; in India from 1985-1988; and in El Salvador from 1988-1990. He has been decorated by the governments of Venezuela and El Salvador.

His domestic assignments included deputy director of the Washington Foreign Press Center, deputy program manger for USIA's WorldNet television service, and director of USIA's Latin American Wireless File. In 1976, he was a Pearson Fellow, on special assignment with the International Division of the Michigan Department of Commerce's Office of Trade Development, and received the governor's "Outstanding Achievement" award when he returned to the federal service. In addition to regional issues, he has worked in the areas of international trade and arms control.

In 1994, he joined the Discovery Channel as its first director, and later vice president, of International Media for its networks in Latin America and Asia. He has also been a consultant in international marketing and public affairs with several multinational corporations. He has degrees from the University of Michigan, the National War College, and George Washington University. Jacobs was a Salzburg Fellow and did graduate study as a Monroe Scholar at the London School of Economics. His wife is the former U.S. ambassador to Papua New Guinea and current deputy assistant secretary for Homeland Security. They have three children.