Originally from Oklahoma City, Moon graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1972. He later earned a Master of Arts degree in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He served as an officer in the Air Force for six years, and then joined the Foreign Service in 1979.

 

Moon served as vice consul in Beirut, Lebanon, from 1979 to 1981. His next assignment was as the administrative officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), until 1983. For the next three years, Moon was a politico-military affairs officer in the State Department’s Office of European Security and Political Affairs. In this assignment, he dealt with issues related to the deployment of U.S. intermediate-range missiles to Europe. In addition, he served during this period as an advisor on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Negotiating Group in Geneva for two sessions.

 

From 1986 to 1988, he was the executive secretary of the U.S. Negotiating Group for Strategic Nuclear Arms Negotiations (START) in Geneva. In 1989, Moon was assigned to the U.S. delegation to the negotiations on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) in Vienna. He participated in the negotiation of the CFE Treaty and was a U.S. co-chairman of the Joint Consultative Group, which was created to facilitate implementation of the CFE Treaty.

 

From 1992 to 1995, Moon served at the U.S. Mission to NATO, where he was responsible for issues related to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), the Partnership for Peace (PFP), peacekeeping and nonproliferation.

 

Returning to Washington, he served as the deputy director of the Office of UN Political Affairs in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs until 1997. After this assignment he served as a special assistant to the under secretary for political affairs, Thomas Pickering, covering Russia, UN, NATO and G-8 issues.

 

From 1998 to 2000, Moon was the deputy director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs in the European Bureau.

 

Moon was the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Zagreb, Croatia, from 2001 to 2004. In this position, he was the ambassador’s “chief of staff” for a staff of 300 people.

 

From 2004-2006, he was office director for Afghanistan in the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs, where he played a role in developing and implementing U.S. policies including annual multi-billion dollar security and assistance programs.

 

He served as the office director for Austria, Germany and Switzerland prior to becoming the coordinator for Afghanistan beginning in January 2008. From June 2008 to March 2009, he was concurrently the deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan.

 

In March 2009, Moon was appointed as the principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, a position he held at the time of his ambassadorial appointment.

 

Moon and his wife, Danuta, have three daughters. His foreign languages are French, Russian and Croatian.

 

Offical Biography (State Department)

Patrick Moon’s Bosnia Blog