Ambassador James I. Gadsden, a retired career US Foreign Service Officer, is currently Senior Counselor for International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey. From October to December of 2007, he was Senior Advisor for European Affairs at the US Mission to the United Nations in New York. From 2006 to 2007 he was Deputy Commandant and International Affairs Advisor at the National War College, in Washington, D.C. He joined the National War College faculty in August 2005, after completing three years as US Ambassador to Iceland. He served as Special Negotiator for Agricultural Biotechnology from September 2001 to June 2002. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from August 1997 through June 2001, with responsibility for U.S. bilateral relations with twenty-five European countries, including the major European powers. Previously, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Budapest (1994-97), Counselor for Economic Affairs at the US Embassy in Paris (1989-93), economic/political officer at the US Mission to the European Communities in Brussels (1985-89), and European Communities desk officer at the State Department (1981-84).

Ambassador Gadsden earned a BA degree in economics from Harvard University in 1970 and an MA degree in East Asian Studies (Chinese Studies) from Stanford University in 1972. He was a Mid-Career Fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he continued graduate studies in economics in 1984-’85. He is married to Sally Freeman Gadsden. They have two adult sons.