Johnson earned a bachelor’s in economics from Emory University in 1976 and later attended Canada's National Defense College in 1989-1990. Before joining the Foreign Service in 1977, he was an assistant national trust examiner with the US Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

 

Johnson has worked in the State Department on European security issues and as desk officer for Berlin, Austria, and Switzerland; an economic officer at the US Embassy in Berlin; and a vice consul at the US Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez. He also served as a member of the US Delegation to the Vienna Follow-up Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe; deputy director of the State Department’s Operations Center; US Consul General in Vancouver; and as deputy spokesman at the State Department and director of the State Department Press Office.

 

Johnson was deputy press secretary for foreign affairs at the White House and spokesman for the National Security Council from 1995 to 1997. He served as US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from January 1998 until December 2001 and as the Afghan Coordinator for the United States from May 2002 to July 2003. In that capacity, he was responsible for all aspects of US policy toward Afghanistan. Johnson then served as deputy chief of mission for the US Embassy in London from August 2003 until July 2007.