Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1980, Huso was a Peace Corps volunteer in southern Senegal (1976-1978) where he worked in rural development. He subsequently worked for the US Agency for International Development’s Senegal mission.

 

His first State Department assignments were to the US embassies in Burkina Faso (1981-82), where he served as general services officer, and in Burundi (1982-85), where he worked as a political and economic reporting officer.

 

He returned to Washington where he was assigned to the Office of Philippine Affairs (1985-87) and then to the Office of Australia and New Zealand Affairs (1987-88). After a year of language training, Huso went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as deputy political counselor. He was the deputy chief of mission in Niamey, Niger (1993-96).

He served as the State Department’s deputy director and then director for Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam Affairs (1996-1999). From July 1999 to August 2000, he was a director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council.

 

He then served as deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand (2001-2004). and as foreign policy advisor to the commander of the US Pacific Command in Honolulu, Hawaii, from 2004-2007. 

 

Huso has commented on Laos’ decision to change from its Marxist-Leninist past, saying it was not political. Although Laos is still a one-party state, Huso has said this change “was intended to apply to the way the economy was run.”

 

He speaks fluent French and conversational Thai, Bahasa Malaysia and Italian.