Aaron P. Forsberg is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and entered the U.S. Department of State in 2001. He began duty as Director of the Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs in August 2023. Previously he was Minister Counselor for Economic and Scientific Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, where he worked to elevate U.S.-Japan economic relations to the level of strategic partnership to realize shared priorities across policy areas such as climate and energy, cybersecurity, investment, sanctions, and international trade.

Prior to Tokyo, he served as Deputy Director (from July 2017) and Director (from January 2019) of the Office of Aviation Negotiations also in Washington, DC. In those positions he led or oversaw negotiations that resulted in resolution of disputes over fair competition, new modern air transport agreements, and expansion of rights under existing ones. When the global Coronavirus pandemic hit, he devised the model for “commercial rescue” flights that enabled U.S. embassies overseas to work directly with U.S. and foreign carriers to bring home over 50,000 American citizens stranded overseas as borders closed.

Prior Washington assignments include Japan Desk Economic Unit Chief in the Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (August 2015 to July 2017), Executive Assistant in the Office of the Chief Economist (2013-2015), and country Desk Officer for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, formerly East Timor (2006-2008). Mr. Forsberg also served abroad in Baghdad, Iraq as Deputy Economic Counselor (2012- 2013); Tokyo, Japan as Economic Officer responsible for trade and investment (2009-2012); Bangkok, Thailand as Vice Consul and Economic Officer (2004-2006); and Doha, Qatar as Financial Management and Human Resources Officer (2001-2003). He speaks Japanese and French.

Before joining government, Mr. Forsberg conducted research on U.S.-Japan relations and published America and the Japanese Miracle (2000) on Japan’s post-1945 economic revival, also released in Japanese and reissued electronically. He worked at the Tokyo Office of the law firm White & Case LLP and taught history in the University of Maryland system. Mr. Forsberg graduated with a B.A. in History from Whitman College and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is married and has one adult daughter.