Reuben E. Brigety II (born September 7, 1973) is an American diplomat and academic who had served as the United States ambassador to South Africa.

[citation needed] Through the Thomas G. Pownall Scholarship awarded him from the Naval Academy Alumni Association, he spent two years at the University of Cambridge in England, where he obtained a Master of Philosophy in international relations.

From November 2008 to January 2009, he also served as a senior advisor for Development and Security to the U.S. Central Command Assessment Team in Washington and in Doha, Qatar.

[4] In August 2015, the George Washington University announced they had selected Ambassador Brigety for the dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs (“ESIA”).

[5] It was during his time at ESIA that he called President Donald Trump “a Nazi sympathizer.” [6] In an open letter published in Foreign Policy, Brigety called upon senior administration officials to “vigorously denounce the heinous views of the man they serve, resign in protest, or be forever linked to America’s first Nazi-supporting president.” Brigety is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a recipient of the council's International Affairs Fellowship.

In one of his first actions as vice-chancellor, Brigety proposed new enforcement measures which were more consistent with the university's drug policy, soon walked back after feedback from the community.

[13] On February 7, 2021, Brigety gave a speech in the campus chapel in which he described the alleged vandalism, adding, "The sanctity, the security and the dignity of my family are inviolate, and we are not leaving.

[24] On June 1, Politico reported that "The Biden administration is furious with its ambassador to South Africa and scrambling to salvage relations with the country after the envoy alleged that Pretoria sent a ship filled with weapons to Russia as it wages war on Ukraine.

He added that South Africa was engaging in "outrageous" anti-Americanism and questioned its claim to be neutral among the world powers..."[25] Brigety speaks Spanish, French, and Amharic.

[17] This article incorporates public domain material from the U.S. Department of State Media related to Reuben Brigety at Wikimedia Commons