Ambassador Gautam Rana is the Deputy Commandant of the National War College and served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic from September 2022 to January 2026. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister Counselor, Ambassador Rana previously served as long-term Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassies in Algeria and Slovenia.
His prior assignments include Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the National Security Council; Deputy Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India; Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, with responsibility for South and Central Asia, the Middle East, and counterterrorism; and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs. Ambassador Rana also served as Political Advisor to the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, Iraq, and Khost, Afghanistan, and was posted to Peshawar, Pakistan, and Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Ambassador Rana has Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, a law degree from Vanderbilt University, and a Master of Arts in Strategic Security Studies from the National Defense University. He speaks Hindi, Gujarati, and Spanish, and has studied French, Slovenian, Slovak, Arabic, and Pashto. He is married, with two children.