Carter Wilbur

Carter Wilbur is the Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD) to U.S. Special Operations Command-Europe (SOCEUR), having arrived in August 2025 Previously, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Political-Economic Section at the United States Embassy in Cyprus (2022-2025), covering macroeconomic issues, sanctions compliance and efforts to counter illicit finance. He led U.S. Embassy Cyprus’s efforts across several crises during this period, including evacuations and humanitarian relief efforts. He came to Cyprus from a position in Washington, D.C. in the State Department’s Office of Multilateral Trade Affairs in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (2020-2022), where he worked on securing America’s medical supply chains during the pandemic, the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, WTO Accessions, the OECD Trade Committee, and Anti-Corruption. Prior to that, he was the POLAD to U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) where he supported initial training and pre-deployment preparations for Marine Raiders (2018-2020). Other previous assignments with the State Department include Baku, Azerbaijan (Economic Chief, 2015-2018); Washington D.C. (covering Investment Affairs and on detail to the Asian Development Bank, 2011-2015); Kabul, Afghanistan (Economic Officer, 2010-2011); Lilongwe, Malawi (Management and Logistics Officer, 2009-2010); and Dhaka, Bangladesh (Economic and Consular Officer, 2006-2008). He reads and speaks Azerbaijani, French, Russian, and Bengali to varying degrees. Prior to joining the State Department, Carter served in the U.S. Army as an artillery officer, was admitted to the Bar and practiced law, and also ran a charter yacht clearinghouse on St. Thomas, in the Caribbean after serving as first mate on several sailboats. He is married with a son.