Samuel Downing is an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His research focuses on the role democracy promotion can play in bolstering the Western Hemisphere against inroads by authoritarian actors.
An expert in U.S.-Latin American relations, Downing served most recently as deputy director for Andean affairs at the U.S. Department of State, where he guided U.S. policy toward Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. He was previously a member of the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, where he advised on Western Hemisphere affairs.
A career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Downing’s overseas diplomatic assignments include service at U.S. embassies and consulates in Cambodia, Colombia and Brazil. As internal politics chief at U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Downings led U.S. efforts to ensure that Colombia delivered justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity as it implemented a peace accord to end a half century of armed conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). As the political-military officer at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Downings guided U.S. security strategy and oversaw U.S. efforts to clear landmines and explosive remnants of war. At the U.S. Consulate General in Sao Paulo, Downings promoted innovative approaches to advance the U.S. human rights and criminal justice agenda in Brazil. Domestically, he has served in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs; and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, where he spearheaded efforts toward accountability for the Maduro regime’s use of torture and extrajudicial killings in Venezuela.
His prior overseas experience includes a Fulbright Fellowship to Uruguay and a Boren Fellowship to Brazil. Prior to his diplomatic career Sam worked for the National Democratic Institute, a core institute of the National Endowment for Democracy, to advance freedom in Latin America and the Caribbean. He began his public service career as a legislative aide at the Metropolitan King County Council in his hometown of Seattle, Washington.
Downing is a graduate of Bowdoin College and completed his graduate studies at Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a foreign language and area studies fellow in Portuguese.