The New Persian Empire: Iran’s Influence in the Middle East
Vangala Ram
Program Director, American Committees on Foreign Relations
Vangala Ram, is an intelligence and Foreign Service professional, recently retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service as a Senior FSO recently, after a distinguished twenty-seven career, earning several awards along the way, such as the Superior Honor Award (SHA).
Mr. Ram’s tours in the Foreign Service included nine overseas diplomatic assignments in Banjul, Amman, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tunis, Riyadh, Seoul, Cologne, Kabul, and Herat. Some of his key positions included Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Senior Civilian Representative (SCR), and Office Director for Regional Security and Arms Transfers in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM/RSAT).
Mr. Ram served as the Department of State Chair at the National Intelligence University (NIU) and later taught graduate school there for several years. Mr. Ram has served as a Senior Analyst (de facto DNIO), at the National Intelligence Council (NIC), and as a Cyber Subject Matter Expert (SME) at USCYBERCOM.
He is a native New Yorker, born in Queens, New York City. However, as the child of diplomats he spent his youth in Beirut from the age of four to fourteen. Following graduation from college, Mr. Ram went to Officer Candidate School (OCS) and served as a Military Intelligence (MI) officer in the U.S. Army. He is a combat veteran of Desert Storm. Mr. Ram’s foreign languages include Arabic, Russian, Persian-Farsi and German. He is married to a fellow Foreign Service Officer (FSO) in the Consular cone.
He is the new Program Director for the American Committees on Foreign Relations.