James B. Cunningham

James Blair Cunningham (born 1952) is an American diplomat and the former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan. Cunningham has served in various diplomat positions since graduating from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1974. Positions that he has previously held include Chief of Staff to NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner (1989-1990), Deputy Advisor for Political Affairs at the United States Mission to the United Nations (1990-1992), Director of the State Department's Office of European Security and Political Affairs (1993-1995), Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the United States in Rome (1996-2001), Acting United States Ambassador to the United Nations (2001), Consul General of the United States to Hong Kong and Macau (2005-2008) and the United States Ambassador to Israel (2008-2011).