Peter Mulrean spent much of his diplomatic career working to make foreign policy and foreign assistance mutually reinforcing. During 29 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, he was Ambassador to Haiti and the U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. He also coordinated civilian assistance operations in Afghanistan and ran a regional office promoting political and economic reform in the Middle East. After leaving the State Department in 2017, Mulrean was Director of the New York office of UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestine refugees, until the end of 2019.