Paul Dean

Paul Dean is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance.  By Presidential designation he serves concurrently as the U.S. Commissioner to the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Consultative Commission, the compliance and implementation body for the New START Treaty. Mr. Dean is a career member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service. Throughout his career Mr. Dean has handled complex, multi-stakeholder negotiations involving arms control, nonproliferation, international criminal justice, commercial arbitration, human rights, counterterrorism, sanctions, and State Department information controls. From 2018-21, Mr. Dean served as the Legal Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, where he represented the United States before consent-based international legal tribunals and managed the U.S. relationship with the International Criminal Court.  Mr. Dean was the head of the U.S. Treaty Office from 2011-14 and later led the Office of Nonproliferation and Arms Control and the Office of Management in the L Bureau.  In 2013 Mr. Dean appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of Bond v. United States.  In 2009-10 he served in Geneva as delegation legal adviser for negotiation of the New START Treaty with Russia, and later worked as the lead executive branch lawyer for the treaty’s ratification. Mr. Dean won the Burton Award for Public Service in the Government in 2017 and the Presidential Rank Award in 2016. He was a Service to America Medal finalist for National Security and International Affairs in 2011. His work has been recognized by several Superior Honor Awards as well as annual SES and SFS performance awards. Mr. Dean grew up in North Florida.

He studied classics at Florida State, where he graduated first in his class, and law at the University of Texas, where he served as an Articles Editor on the Texas Law Review. Prior to joining the State Department in 2003 he clerked for a federal judge in Texas and practiced law at Covington & Burling in Washington.  His languages are Spanish, French, German, Latin, and Ancient Greek.