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 supported the U.S. response to a catastrophic earthquake in Venezuela. He was previously a member of the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, where he advised the department’s senior leadership on Western Hemisphere affairs.
A career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Sam’s overseas diplomatic assignments include Cambodia, Colombia, Brazil and temporary duty in Moldova. As internal politics chief at U.S. Embassy in Colombia, Sam 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). In Brazil, Sam promoted innovative approaches to advance the U.S. human rights and criminal justice agenda. In Cambodia, Sam guided U.S. security strategy and oversaw U.S. efforts to clear landmines and explosive remnants of war.
At State Department headquarters, he has served in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; in 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.
Downing has also lived, worked, and studied in Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. He was a Fulbright and Boren fellow. He later worked for a core institute of the National Endowment for Democracy to strengthen elections and democratic governance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Downing is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bowdoin College. He completed graduate studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Khmer.