Daniel R. Russel (born December 12, 1953) is an American diplomat who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2013 to 2017.

[3] Russel is currently Vice President for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.

[citation needed] Daniel Russel served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and is a Senior Foreign Service career member.

Prior to joining the NSC in January 2009, he served as Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs and had assignments as U.S. Consul General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan (2005-2008); Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands (2002-2005); Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus (1999-2002); Chief of Staff to then Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering (1997–99); Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1995–96); Political Section Unit Chief at U.S. Embassy Seoul, Republic of Korea (1992–95); Political Advisor to the Permanent Representative to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Pickering (1989–92); Vice Consul in Osaka and Branch Office Manager in Nagoya, Japan (1987–89); and Assistant to the Ambassador to Japan, former Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (1985–87).

[5] In 1996, Russel was awarded the State Department's Una Chapman Cox Fellowship sabbatical[6] and wrote America’s Place in the World, a book published by Georgetown University.