|
Ambassador Feldman retired from the American Foreign Service after a career that spanned three decades and four continents. An East Asian specialist for most of his career, Mr. Feldman also served in the Balkans, as Ambassador to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and as Alternate U.S. Representative (with the rank of ambassador) to the United Nations.
In East Asia, Ambassador Feldman served repeated tours in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He was part of a special working group that prepared for President Nixon’s epoch-making first trip to China and later, as Director of the Office of Republic of China (Taiwan) Affairs. Later, as Director of the Office of Republic of China Affairs, he chaired the State Department task force which prepared the initial draft of the Taiwan Relations Act. The Act, which governs our relationship with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, established the American Institute in Taiwan, a nominally private organization, set up to carry out all the necessary functions of our former embassy in the island republic after the shift in relations to Beijing. It also provides for continuing supply of defense equipment and services to the island republic.
During his tenure at the United Nations, Ambassador Feldman served as a delegate to five General Assemblies, and represented the U.S. at the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Secretary General’s Special Committee on Refugees, the Trusteeship Council, and the Economic and Social Commission for East Asia. He several times led American delegations for conferences in Romania and Bulgaria (where he previously had been Charge d’Affaires) and was twice given awards for excellence by the Department of State.
Since retiring from the Foreign Service, Ambassador Feldman has taught international relations at New York University; served as Vice President of a think tank working on arms control and disarmament issues; was Director of International Relations for the American Jewish Committee; and served as Executive Director of the joint presidential-congressional committee which recommended establishing Radio Free Asia. Among his publications are two books – Taiwan in a Time of Transition, and Constitutional Reform and the Future of the Republic of China – as well as op-ed essays which have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Journal of Commerce, The New York Daily News, and other publications.
Since 1996 he has held the position of Senior Fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Asia Studies Center. He also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and is the Editor of their premier publication, The Journal of International Security Affairs. |
