Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana

Arturo Sarukhan studied international relations at El Colegio de México and American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He entered Mexican diplomatic service and worked on inter-American affairs before joining the Washington embassy in 1993 as the ambassador's chief of staff during the congressional debate over NAFTA. In 1995, he took charge of the embassy's counternarcotics office. He subsequently directed foreign policy planning in Mexico City and served as consul general in New York. ¹

Sarukhan took leave from the foreign service in 2006 to advise Felipe Calderón's presidential campaign and transition. As ambassador in Washington from 2007 to 2013, he promoted closer economic and security cooperation while developing public outreach through social media. He used an official Twitter account to communicate directly with American audiences, an early example of the digital diplomacy he later taught and advocated. ¹

After leaving the embassy, Sarukhan established an international advisory practice and became affiliated with policy and academic institutions in the United States and Britain. In a 2014 essay based on his USC lecture, he argued that public perceptions of Mexico lagged behind changes in trade, migration, and bilateral cooperation. He urged diplomats to use social media to listen and respond to those perceptions, as well as distribute government messages. ^{1, 2}