B. Lynn Pascoe of the United States assumed the post of Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 1 March 2007. He was appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Pascoe was most recently the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia, from October 2004 to February 2007. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the State Department in Washington, D.C., following postings as U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia and U.S. Special Negotiator for Regional Conflicts in the former Soviet Union.

In 1996, Mr. Pascoe served at the United Nations as a Special Advisor to the U.S. Permanent Mission to the UN. From 1993 to 1996, he was Director of the American Institute in Taiwan. He also served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the East Asian and Pacific Bureau of the State Department, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State, and Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State.

In an almost forty-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Mr. Pascoe also held positions on the Soviet and China desks and has been posted to Moscow, Hong Kong and Bangkok, as well as to Beijing twice and to Kuala Lumpur. He speaks mandarin Chinese.

Born in the State of Missouri in 1943, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas and his Master of Arts from Columbia University. Mr. Pascoe and his wife, Diane, have two grown daughters and two grandchildren.