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Valley native Ruggiero replaces Holbrooke as acting special envoy
AP
Photo
This undated handout photo provided by the State Department shows Frank Ruggiero.
YOUNGSTOWN
The State Department has appointed Frank Ruggiero, a Youngstown native and 1982 Ursuline High School graduate, as the acting U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Ruggiero succeeds Richard Holbrooke, special envoy to the two countries, who died Monday from complications from a torn aorta. Ruggiero was promoted Tuesday.
“Our community continues to produce America’s best and brightest,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th. “Frank Ruggiero is the most recent in a long line of successful natives.”
Ruggiero was named Holbrooke’s top deputy — specifically called senior deputy special representative and deputy assistant secretary for Afghanistan and Pakistan — in July.
His responsibilities included helping Holbrooke develop the United States’ policy for those two countries.
Before that appointment, Ruggiero spent a year as the United States’ “top civilian” in southern Afghanistan. The job had Ruggiero help oversee the “civilian uplift,” which saw a significant increase in the number of nonmilitary experts working on aid and reconstruction projects in the country and helping Afghan leaders deliver social services, according to an Aug. 29 article in The Vindicator.
Reuters calls Ruggiero an “Afghanistan expert” but adds that analysts say he has less experience with Pakistan and dealing with the U.S. federal bureaucracy than Holbrooke.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton created the special-representative job specifically for Holbrooke, according to Reuters.
Ruggiero has been a leading figure in the department on U.S. security strategy in the Middle East and South Asia, according to the State Department.
“Frank Ruggiero has spent his career successfully navigating the complex waters of international relations and as a result has been tapped to continue the exemplary work of his predecessor,” Ryan said. “Mr. Ruggiero is very deserving of this honor, and I wish him luck and in his new position.”