Ronan Farrow, New Clinton Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues Now in a Committed Relationship

Image via WikipediaRonan Farrow who was officially appointed Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Global Youth Issues last June is apparently "in a committed relationship with Chef Boyardee" as he "ate microwaved StateDept convenience store food at desk after 10pm at least twice" last week.

Well, sure, I wanted to know what you ate for lunch at your desk every day of the week since you came back to Foggy Bottom but you never said/tweeted anything about having a committed relationship with Chef B or about the State Dept cafeteria food. And he did. And not just about any food either but our top US banker's food, too!

Ronan Farrow
Pretty sure if #China found out what the @StateDept cafeteria's passing off as Chinese food it'd cause a diplomatic incident.
19 Aug

Ronan Farrow whose real name according to the ever reliable Wikipedia is Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow is the son of film director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow.  He is also the grandson of director John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan. 

But that's not why you should know him. Prior to this appointment, he worked in the late SRAP Richard Holbrooke's Af/Pak shop. For those who might exclaim, "He's so young!" or "But that's Mia Farrow's son!" -- Mr. Farrow apparently has the chops.  He graduated from college at age 15 and was accepted at Yale Law at 16 but deferred his admission to work for Ambassador Holbrooke. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and a member of the New York bar.  He has a long list of accomplishments for one who is not even 25 years old.  He will feel right at home in an organization full of high achievers.  It's a good thing he has his own office; the oldies not always goldies at State would not know what to do with him had he started in A100.

Below is his official bio at state.gov:

Ronan Farrow
Special Adviser to the Secretary of State
Global Youth Issues
Term of Appointment: 06/30/2011 to present

Ronan Farrow is Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Global Youth Issues and director of the State Department’s Global Youth Issues office. With youth populations swelling and young people driving global events to an unprecedented extent, Special Adviser Farrow is responsible for implementing and amplifying youth policy and programming throughout the Department. The Office of Global Youth Issues, created by Secretary Clinton as a result of a Department-wide review of youth policy, oversees an historic effort to empower young people as economic and civic actors through US programs, encourage governments to respond to youth through US diplomacy, and directly engage young people around the world.

A lawyer and former human rights advocate and journalist, Special Adviser Farrow assumed his current role following two years as the State Department’s Special Adviser for Humanitarian and NGO Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, overseeing the U.S. Government’s relationships with civil society and non-governmental actors.

Prior to joining the State Department, he served as Spokesperson for Youth at UNICEF, working with youth groups on the AIDS epidemic in Nigeria, on post-war reconstruction efforts in Angola, and in the Darfur region of Sudan. His writings on humanitarian and human rights issues have appeared in publications including the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune and the Wall Street Journal, and he has appeared on MSNBC, ABC and CNN, among others, advocating for children associated with armed conflicts. He has heavily emphasized youth engagement in his advocacy efforts, working at the forefront of the student movement on Darfur and touring the country speaking at universities as a Representative for the Genocide Intervention Network.

In 2008, he was awarded Refugees International’s McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award for “extraordinary service to refugees and displaced people.” In 2009, he was named by New York Magazine as their “New Activist” of the year and included on their list of individuals “on the verge of changing their worlds.” In 2010, Harper’s Bazaar named him their “up-and-coming politician of the year.”

He is a graduate of Yale Law School and a member of the New York bar. During his time at Yale Law School, he practiced at New York-based law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. He has also served on the legal counsel team for the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, working on international human rights law issues.

Here he is at the UN during a meeting on youth at the General Assembly last month:

Full text of the speech is here.
 

State Department Seeks Advisors for South Sudan Armed Forces Transformation

Image via WikipediaThe State Department has recently posted a solicitation for a contractor to "Enhance capacity of the South Sudan Ministry of Defense by providing a team of advisors, facilitating planning conferences, and procuring equipment." The place of performance is Juba, South Sudan. The period of performance for the resulting contract will be "a base period of 12 months plus three (3) twelve (12) month option periods."

Below are more details excerpted from the Statement of Work posted at fbo.gov:

Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and Bureau of African Affairs
South Sudan Armed Forces Transformation
Ministry Advisory and Training Team (MATT)
Statement of Work

During the last eight years, Sudan has been the highest-priority country in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of the highest U.S. priorities worldwide. The United States Government played a major role in brokering the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the twenty-year civil war between the government in Khartoum (Government of Sudan) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), a southern Sudanese rebel movement. During his June 2005 visit to the United States, the SPLM Chairman John Garang appealed to administration and Congress for support to transform his guerrilla forces into a modern military.  Among other initiatives, the support outlined in this request for proposal addresses this appeal.

In January 2011, as stipulated in the CPA, citizens of Southern Sudan voted in a referendum for independence  from or unity with the North.  The overwhelming majority chose independence; on 9 July 2011, the South became the Republic of South Sudan (RoSS).  The Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan (USSES), with the Bureau of African Affairs (AF) at the U.S. Department of State, plans to continue assisting in the transformation of the South Sudan Armed Forces (SSAF) from a largely guerrilla force to a military force operating under the RoSS’ Ministry of Defense (MoD).

The purpose of this Statement of Work (SoW) is to outline the requirements for advisors embedded in the South Sudan Minstry of Defense (MoD).  The advisors will be managed by the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs, Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, and the U.S. Embassy in Juba. The purpose of the advisors is to provide support to the Minstry in the areas of policy planning, human resources, financial management, acquisition and procurement, military production, inspections, public affairs, and veterans affairs, or other functions as necessary, to enhance the Ministry’s ability to effectively manage the transformation of the South Sudan Armed Forces from a largely guerrilla force to a regular military operating under the MoD as the civilian authority within the RoSS.  As part of this assistance, the U.S. Department of State will support the Management Advisory and Training Team (MATT) in Juba, South Sudan to provide training and mentorship to MoD management staff and leadership.  The MATT will support the Ministry leadership, but will not be directly involved in the day to day decision making activities of the MoD.  Advisors will assist MoD senior management and staff at all levels, in their role as mentors and trainers, to perform key functions at appropriate standards.

The USG will work with Ministry of Defense to identify counterparts for each of the advisors listed in this Statement of Work. Contractors will report to the Minister or their ministry counterparts, but might also work with other South Sudan civilian agencies as required.

The overarching purpose of this initiative is to support the MoD with advisors in nine areas; 1) Defense Policy,  2) Human Resources (2); 3) Military Production; 4) Civil-Military and Public Affairs; 5) Inspections; 6) Finance and Budget; 7) Acquisition, Procurement and Logistics, and 8) Veterans Affairs. [Note that support to Human Resources will include two positions; one to focus on personnel readiness and management, and the second to focus on force planning and resource allocation.] To that end, this program will focus on enhancing the overall effectiveness of the MoD staff and leadership by addressing fundamental weaknesses in existing MoD staff procedures and planning efforts, and strengthening the MoD staff and leadership to effectively manage the transitioning guerilla force into a regular military through supporting effective staff policies and procedures.

Not only has the State Department got itself a new private army in Iraq, we now will also be training and mentoring the Ministry of Defense of the world's newest country.

I'm sure we're all relieved to learn about this. 

Related articles

• Wrestlers fight to unite world's newest nation (cnn.com)
• UN urges probe into alleged Sudan war crimes (ctv.ca)
• South Sudan offers Somalia troops (bbc.co.uk)

 

 

 

 

Officially In: Sung Y. Kim to Seoul

Map from CIA World Factbook

On June 24, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Sung Y. Kim to be Ambassador to the Republic of Korea. The WH released the following brief bio:

Sung Y. Kim became the Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks in July 2008 and was accorded the rank of Ambassador. A career Foreign Service Officer, Ambassador Kim headed the Office of Korean Affairs from 2006 to 2008. Previously, he was the Political-Military Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2002 to 2006. From 1999 to 2002, Ambassador Kim served as a Political Officer in Tokyo. Other overseas assignments include Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. In Washington, Ambassador Kim worked in the Office of Chinese Affairs and served as Staff Assistant in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Kim worked as a public prosecutor in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. He earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and received a J.D. from Loyola University Law School as well as an LL.M. from the London School of Economics.

If confirmed, Ambassador Kim would be the first U.S. ambassador of Korean descent to serve in Seoul since diplomatic relations were established in 1883. He would succeed career diplomat Kathleen Stephens who was appointed to Seoul in 2008. Ambassador Kim's nomination, was of course, big news in that part of the world even before it was officially announced.

Korea JoongAng Daily reports that Ambassador Kim was in seventh grade when he moved to the U.S. and acquired U.S. citizenship in 1980. Also:

"He migrated to the U.S. with his family in the mid-1970s when his father left his job as a public servant.  Ambassador Kim’s father, according to this report, was the South Korean ambassador to Japan before he moved his family to the U.S. He had also been kidnapped by North Koreans and taken across the border after boarding a Korean National Airlines flight in 1958. KNA was South Korea’s first commercial cargo and passenger air carrier. Kim’s father was released 20 days later across the border through Panmunjom."

Read more here: U.S. picks new ambassador Korean-American would replace Stephens at position in Seoul

NK News | Sung Kim to become first U.S. ambassador of Korean descent

Sung Kim tapped as US ambassador to Seoul

The Chosun Ilbo reports that "After Obama's appointment of Chinese-American Gary Locke as ambassador to China drew a positive response, U.S. officials began to consider Kim as envoy to South Korea." 

One going to Beijing is a politician, and the other intended for Seoul is a career diplomat, same difference, huh?!  Read more here: U.S. Nuclear Envoy Tipped as Ambassador to Seoul

But perhaps the more striking piece I've seen about this nomination is an editorial in Korea Times entitled "New US ambassador | Substance is more important than symbolism." Quick excerpt below:

His Korean heritage is both an asset and a liability. His appointment gives a sense of pride to Korean-Americans. He symbolizes the U.S. multiculturalism where talent, not racial background, is the key factor for success. He proved his talent as his career has been on fast-track even during the conservative Bush administration.

He will give Koreans a sense of comfort and ease, and sets a new milestone in the 129-year bilateral ties.

He has many issues to overcome during his service in Korea and so questions arise. The first is whether he has an easy access to the White House for sensitive and critical Korean issues. The next is how to manage the high Korean expectation that the American will better represent Korean interest. (italics added)

There is, of course, the South Korean Ambassador in Washington to represent Korean interests.

Ambassador Sung Y. Kim, a career U.S. diplomat has been nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea. If confirmed, he will served at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to represent American interests in that country. To expect otherwise is crazy bad unrealistic.



Related item:
June 24, 2011 | President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

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• Seoul: N. Korea may have nuke warhead technology (cbsnews.com)

 

 

 

Another Week, Another Resignation: Middle East Envoy George Mitchell Resigns Effective May 20

                               Image via WikipediaFrom Middle East Envoy George Mitchell's resignation letter addressed to President Obama dated April 6, 2011:

Dear Mr. President:

When I accepted your request to serve as U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace my intention was to serve for two years. More than two years having passed I hereby resign, effective May 20, 2011. I trust this will provide sufficient time for an effective transition.

I strongly support your vision of comprehensive peace in the Middle East and thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of your administration. It has been an honor for me to again serve our country.

The Mitchell resignation letter was posted on the White House website, as well as the statements of appreciation from President Obama and Secretary Clinton:

President Obama:

George told me when he took this job that he would put in a couple of years, and I’m so glad he did. He is – by any measure – one of the finest public servants that our nation has ever had. Even though he already had an extraordinary legacy – serving the people of Maine, leading the Senate, and bringing peace to Northern Ireland – he took on the toughest job imaginable and worked grueling hours to advance the interests of the United States and the cause of peace.

As he returns to his family, George leaves behind a proud legacy of dedicated public service and the country owes him a debt of gratitude for his extraordinary commitment.

Secretary Clinton:

It has been an honor to work alongside Senator Mitchell over the past two years.  He represents the best traditions of American diplomacy.  Throughout George’s distinguished career he has taken on the hardest challenges with determination, talent and old fashioned Maine common sense.  From the Senate to Northern Ireland to the State Department, his work has brought peace and increasing prosperity to millions of people around the world and made our own country stronger and more secure.

Read the full statement here.

Related articles

• George Mitchell to step down as Middle East peace envoy (thehill.com)
• George Mitchell to Resign (thepage.time.com)
• US Middle East envoy George Mitchell resigns (telegraph.co.uk)

Officially Moved: Amb. Carlos Pascual to be Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs

On May 6, 2011, Secretary Clinton appointed Ambassador Carlos Pascual as the Department of State Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs. Ambassador Pascual will assume his duties on May 18. According to the media note:

He will advise the Secretary on implementing international energy policy. One of his first tasks will be to design and establish a new Bureau for Energy Resources that will elevate and unify energy diplomacy within the Department of State.

Most recently, Ambassador Pascual served as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. As both a diplomat and former vice president of the Brookings Institution, he has more than two decades of diplomatic, public policy, and academic experience in addressing the centrality of energy issues to our national interests and the conduct of U.S. foreign policy.

Special envoys do not need Senate confirmations, so he should be off and running as soon as he gets back to the mother ship.

He would succeed David L. Goldwyn, the Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs from August 2009 to January 2011.

Mr. Goldwyn was appointed by Secretary Clinton and was sworn in on August 17, 2009. On August 30, 2010, Secretary Clinton announced that Mr. Goldwyn will carry the concurrent titles of Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs.  Prior to his appointment, Mr. Goldwyn was President of Goldwyn International Strategies LLC (GIS), an international energy consulting firm from 2001-2009.

Upstreamonline.com reported in late April that Mr. Goldwyn has joined ex-head of the UK’s secret intelligence service MI6, Sir John McLeod Scarlett and Hassan Marican, former boss of Malaysia’s Petronas in Statoil's newly created Strategic Advisory Committee, that will advise the Norwegian state oil company's ventures in the international arena.

Related articles

• US Ambassador to Mexico sets date to depart (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• U.S. ambassador to Mexico resigns after public spat (reuters.com)
• Ambassador to Mexico quits in Wikileaks spat (msnbc.msn.com)

Officially In: Derek Mitchell as Special Representative for Burma

On April 14, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Derek Mitchell to be the Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma, with the rank of Ambassador. The WH released the following brief bio:

Derek Mitchell is currently Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs at the Department of Defense (DOD). Until April 2009, Mr. Mitchell served as senior fellow and director for Asia in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), having joined the Center in January 2001. Beginning in January 2008, he concurrently served as director of CSIS’s Southeast Asia Initiative. Mr. Mitchell was special assistant for Asian and Pacific affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1997 to 2001, when he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Exceptional Public Service.  He was the principal author of the Department of Defense 1998 East Asia Strategy Report. Prior to joining DOD, Mr. Mitchell served as senior program officer for Asia and the former Soviet Union at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, D.C.  In 1989, Mr. Mitchell worked as an editor and reporter at the China Post (Taiwan). From 1986 to 1988, Mr. Mitchell served as assistant to the senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Mr. Mitchell received an M.A. in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1991, and a B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1986.

Related item:
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

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• U.S. to Appoint Envoy to Press Reform in Burma (foxnews.com)
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President Obama Appoints Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman as U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan

Photo from state.gov

On March 31, President Obama announced his appointment of Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman as the new U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan. Announcement below:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman as the new U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan.  With a lifetime of experience working on some of Africa’s most pressing challenges, Ambassador Lyman is uniquely qualified to sustain our efforts in support of a peaceful and prosperous future for the Sudanese people. I also want to thank my friend Scott Gration for his tireless and effective work as my previous Special Envoy. As the State Department’s Senior Advisor on Sudan North-South Negotiations since last August, Ambassador Lyman worked closely with General Gration, as part of the American diplomatic effort that led to an historic and peaceful independence referendum for South Sudan.

I was proud to nominate General Gration as our next ambassador to Kenya, and I am grateful that Ambassador Lyman has agreed to take on this new assignment and sustain the progress that has been made.  In his new capacity, Ambassador Lyman will oversee our support for full implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, reduced tensions between north and south over the status of Abyei, the birth of an independent South Sudan on July 9, 2011, and a definitive end to the conflict in Darfur.  In those efforts, he has my full support and confidence.

Just as the United States depended on his diplomatic skills to help support the peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy when he was U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, I am confident that Ambassador Lyman’s deep knowledge of the African continent will advance U.S. interests and the aspirations of the Sudanese people during this time of transformative change in Sudan.

Secretary Clinton also made a statement during the announcement of the new Special Envoy for Sudan. Ambassador Lyman's statement on his appointment is here.

Related articles

• U.S. special envoy departs for meetings on Sudan (reuters.com)
• Darfur Dispatch - Obama's Sudan envoy on key trip (politico.com)
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• Obama names retired ambassador as new Sudan envoy (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

US Embassy Kabul: SRAP Marc Grossman Holds Town Hall Meeting

Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman holds a Town Hall meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, March 5, 2011.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Photo from US Embassy Kabul/Flickr

SRAP Grossman was in Pakistan yesterday and held meetings with President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He reportedly also made a call on Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. According to dawn.com, President Zardari Zardari told SRAP Grossman that the two countries should not be “swayed by misperceptions and some isolated incidents that may be used by some to increase tensions and mistrust”. Prime Minister Gilani reportedly said during his meeting with the SRAP that Pakistan’s stance on the Davis issue is based on principles and there can be no negotiations around it.

Related articles

• New U.S. envoy visits Pakistan amid tensions (ctv.ca)
• Analysis: New US envoy wades into Afghanistan, Pakistan tangle - Reuters (news.google.com)
• Hillary Clinton names Marc Grossman as successor to Richard Holbrooke (telegraph.co.uk)
• Marc Grossman Inherits the Worst Job in the World (thedailybeast.com)
• Pakistan president tells US envoy ties stay strong (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Officially Back: Marc Grossman, Our New Man in Af/Pak

Image via WikipediaAs expected, Secretary Clinton, during the launch of the Asia Society's Series of Richard C. Holbrooke Memorial Addresses made an official announcement on the new Special Representative for Af/Pak. No other than the much rumored Marc Grossman, a retired American diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the State Department.  Ambassador Grossman was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (2001-2005), Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1997-2000) and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (1994-1997)


Until this appointment, he was also the Vice Chairman of The Cohen Group (TCG), a group put together by former SecDef William Cohen "to provide enterprises large and small the help they need to compete and succeed in the global market place.”


Below an excerpt from his TCG bio: Read the full entry here. Try not to blink when you see the names of other members of TCG team:

A native of Los Angeles, California, Ambassador Grossman graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and later received an MSc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. As a result of his outstanding service to his country, Ambassador Grossman is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. He attained the Foreign Service’s highest rank in 2004 when the President appointed him to the rank of Career Ambassador; he received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award the following year.

Here is Secretary Clinton during the launch of the Asia Society's Series of Richard C. Holbrooke Memorial Addresses in New York on February 18, 2011:

As promised, we are launching a diplomatic surge to move this conflict toward a political outcome that shatters the alliance between the Taliban and al-Qaida, ends the insurgency, and helps to produce not only a more stable Afghanistan but a more stable region.

Now, of course, we had always envisioned Richard Holbrooke leading this effort. He was an architect of our integrated military-civilian-diplomatic strategy, and we feel his loss so keenly.

But Richard left us a solid foundation. Over the past two years, he built an exceptional team and a strong working relationships with our allies and regional partners.

And today, I am pleased to announce that the President and I have called back to service Ambassador Marc Grossman, a veteran diplomat and one of Richard’s most esteemed colleagues, as our new Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Grossman’s first tour in the Foreign Service was in Pakistan. He knows our allies and understands how to mobilize common action to meet shared challenges. He played a crucial role in the Dayton talks, and Richard described him in a memorable book that Richard wrote as “one of the most outstanding career diplomats.” Ambassador Grossman has followed in Richard’s shoes before when he served as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs in the ‘90s, and I am absolutely confident in his ability to hit the ground running.

Now, Ambassador Grossman and the rest of his interagency team will marshal the full range of our policy resources to support responsible, Afghan-led reconciliation that brings the conflict to a peaceful conclusion, and to actively engage with states in the region and the international community to advance that process.

As I said, important groundwork has already been laid, both by Richard and his team, and by the Afghans themselves.

Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty has an interesting item on this appointment:

Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute who specializes in national security and defense issues, says the administration first and foremost wanted someone with established diplomatic credentials.
[...]
"I’m not going to suggest that he's the last choice they wanted to make either, but he is perhaps the fourth or fifth person they tried," O'Hanlon adds. "And what that suggests is they wanted someone of a certain stature. All the names that we've seen floated were people who had been undersecretary or deputy secretary -- not so much sort of the young, workhorse regional expert, but more the established, silver-haired diplomat -- and that's the personality type they went for."

Senior administration officials confirmed to "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times" that among the candidates considered were Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state for political affairs under President George W. Bush; Strobe Talbott, former deputy assistant secretary of state under President Bill Clinton;  former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner; and former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta.

O'Hanlon says Grossman has "probably as many [attributes for the job] as you're going to find in any one person" and says his deep knowledge of how the State Department works is going to come in handy as he tries to integrate the various government bureaucracies that come into play in the White House's Af-Pak strategy.
[...]
So why does he think Grossman said yes when others said no? "It's exciting to be engaged in some of the most challenging and yet some of the most important foreign policy issues we face today, to be in a position of leadership on those issues," he says.

"Given all the negatives, professionals like Grossman believe that they can make a positive difference and they’re willing to give it a shot."

Grossman will get his shot as soon as the State Department finishes its background check.

Read the whole thing here.


It'll be interesting to see who follows Ambassador Grossman to the Af/Pak interagency team.  When the late Richard Holbrooke put together his group, the then DCM at the US Embassy in Manila, Paul Jones (now US Ambassador to KL) was pulled into Af/Pak and became his number #2 and other guy at the SCA bureau. Ambassador Grossman had nearly 30 years with the State Department.  He worked with a good number of folks. Ambassador Ricciardone who is on a recess appointment in Ankara was previously Grossman's DCM there. Another old Turkey hand, Scott Kilner, now Consul General in Istanbul was Grossman's Econ Counselor in Ankara.

I'm sure we'll see some new faces in that interagency team.


 
Related Post:

• What? No senior Department of State officer resigned in protest? | Oct 10, 2010
• ePRT Iraq: Hope and Do No Harm, Poor Planning Methods | Oct 19, 2010
• A new personnel specialty: the "expeditionary diplomat"? |Oct 19, 2010
• Former WHA PDAS Craig Kelly Joins Top Heavy Cohen Group | Oct 15, 2010

   

Related articles

• Hillary Clinton names Marc Grossman as successor to Richard Holbrooke (telegraph.co.uk)
• Clinton to Name AfPak Liaison to Replace Holbrooke (foxnews.com)
• Hillary Gets Her Man (online.wsj.com)
• Obama's New Afghan Envoy: Grossman, a Deferent Diplomat (swampland.blogs.time.com)
• US to name Afghan-Pakistan envoy (bbc.co.uk)

Officially In: Scott Gration to Nairobi

Image via WikipediaOn February 10, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Scott Gration  to be Ambassador to the Republic of Kenya. The WH released the following brief bio:

Major General Scott Gration, USAF (Ret) is currently the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan.  He was appointed to the position on March 18, 2009. Previously he was at the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel.  General Gration served in the United States Air Force from 1974 to 2006. After retiring, General Gration served as the CEO of Millennium Villages, an organization dedicated to reducing extreme poverty. He then joined the Safe Water Network where he helped to provide potable water to vulnerable populations in India, Bangladesh, and Ghana.  His staff positions in the Air Force included tours in the Pentagon, NATO, and a White House Fellowship. From June 2004 to October 2006, he served as Director of the Strategy, Plans, and Policy Directorate of United States European Command. In August 2003, he was appointed Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs. From January to June 2003, he commanded Joint Task Force-West during Operation Iraqi Freedom. From 2000-2002, General Gration served at the Pentagon, first as the Joint Staff Deputy Director for Operations and then as Director of Regional Affairs for the Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs. During his early years in the Air Force, General Gration served as an F-5 and F-16 instructor pilot, including a two-year assignment with the Kenyan Air Force.

General Gration speaks Swahili and has an M.A. from Georgetown University in National Security Studies and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University.

* * *

It is not often that you see political appointees at the US Mission in Kenya. If confirmed, General Gration would be the 7th political ambassador and 15th chief of mission to Nairobi.  He would replaced career diplomat, Michael Ranneberger who has been in Nairobi since June 28, 2006.

The USG has appointed fourteen ambassadors to Kenya since it established an embassy in Nairobi on December 12, 1963. Of that, six had been political appointees with journalist and author, Smith Hempstone, as the most recent one, appointed ambassador by George H. W. Bush in 1989.

Former ambassadors to the US Embassy in Nairobi include Johnnie Carson, the current Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs, and  Prudence Bushnell, who was the chief of mission during the embassy bombing in 1998.
     

Related item:
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts | February 10, 2011


Related posts:
Special Envoy Gration Makes Splash on Sudan | Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Officially In: J. Scott Gration, US Special Envoy for Sudan | Mar 20, 2009

Related articles

• On to Kenya - Gration gets new assignment (politico.com)
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January 14: Secretary Clinton at Richard Holbrooke's Memorial

"There are few people in any time, but certainly in our time, who can say, I stopped a war. I made peace. I saved lives. I helped countries heal. Richard Holbrooke did these things. He believed that great men and women could change history. And he did. He wanted to be a great man so he could change history. He was, and he did."

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC | January 14, 2011
Transcript

Related articles

• 'Close to heaven' - Clinton speaks of 'a great man' (politico.com)
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Quickie: Reinvent, Don't Replace, the Special Envoy

Andrew Exum in FP's Argument column  pens 5 Ways to Win the War in Afghanistan (FP | December 15, 2010).  Item #3 caught our attention:

3. Reinvent, Don't Replace, the Special Envoy

Trying to replace a diplomatic giant like the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke is a fool's errand. The president should not even try. But he will still need officials responsible for coordinating U.S. policy between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The comparatively low-key acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Frank Ruggiero, should keep Holbrooke's team in place to do just that.

As far as the regional "super envoy" job that Holbrooke attempted to fill (with mixed success, it must be said), it might be best left to a respected United Nations diplomat -- such as Lakhdar Brahimi, who had earlier successes enlisting the support of Afghanistan's neighbors. State Department officials and CENTCOM commander James Mattis, along with envoys in Kabul and Islamabad, could then be used to properly allocate diplomatic and military resources between the two countries.

In Afghanistan, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry is likely headed home soon. The president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should spend more time searching for his replacement than trying to replace Holbrooke. I'm sure Gen. Petraeus would appreciate an attempt to lure former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker out of semi-retirement and back to the region.

This is, of course, not the first time we've heard of Ambassador Eikenberry's eventual departure.  In fact, in early December, somebody was making the case on teevee that the ambassador should go "because his relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai had been irreparably damaged by leaks." 

Also, last week, David Rothkopf blogged about All Obama's personnel issues resolved on one napkin and floated a name for Richard Holbrooke's successor:

Want to replace Holbrooke with someone who will dive into the issues with abandon and courage? How about Bill Richardson? He's a bit of an unmade bed, but he gets results and is great on the personal diplomacy front. 

I'm sure we'll see more names floated around before long.

Related articles

• Frank Ruggiero replaces Richard Holbrooke as acting envoy (telegraph.co.uk)
• Taliban Intentionally target civilians: Eikenberry (nation.com.pk)
• Steve Clemons: Holbrooke Not a Bulldozer and Had Six Relationships with Karzai (huffingtonpost.com)
• New Afghan policy for US predicted (guardian.co.uk)

Goodbye Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (1941-2010)

Via the NYT:

Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2009 and a diplomatic troubleshooter in Asia, Europe and the Middle East who worked for every Democratic president since the late 1960s, died on Monday evening at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
[...]
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was born in Manhattan on April 24, 1941, to Dr. Dan Holbrooke, a physician, and the former Trudi Moos. He attended Scarsdale High School, where his best friend was David Rusk, son of Dean Rusk, the future secretary of state. Richard’s father died when he was 15, and he drew closer to the Rusk family.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke
with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi visit the Shah Rukn-e-Alam shrine
in Multan, Pakistan, on September 16, 2010.
[State Department photo/ Public Domain]

At Brown University, he majored in history and was editor of the student newspaper. He intended to become a journalist, but after graduating in 1962 he was turned down by The Times and joined the State Department as a foreign service officer.
[....]
Foreign policy was his life. Even during Republican administrations, when he was not in government, he was deeply engaged, undertaking missions as a private citizen traveling through the war-weary Balkans and the backwaters of Africa and Asia to see firsthand the damage and devastating human costs of genocide, civil wars and H.I.V. and AIDS epidemics.

[...]

When President Clinton took office in 1993, Mr. Holbrooke was named ambassador to Germany. He helped found the American Academy in Berlin as a cultural exchange center.

He returned to Washington in 1994 as assistant secretary of state for European affairs. His top priority soon became the horrendous civil war in the former Yugoslavia, a conflict precipitated by the secession of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia. Massacres, mass rapes and displaced populations, among other atrocities, were part of campaigns of “ethnic cleansing” against Muslims.

After months of shuttle diplomacy, Mr. Holbrooke in 1995 achieved a breakthrough cease-fire and a framework for dividing Bosnia into two entities, one of Bosnian Serbs and another of Croatians and Muslims. The endgame negotiations, involving the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, unfolded in Dayton, Ohio, where a peace agreement was reached after months of hard bargaining led by Mr. Holbrooke.


Read more here.

From the State Department:

Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke passed away this evening, surrounded by his wife, Kati, his sons David and Anthony, his step-children Elizabeth and Chris Jennings, his daughter-in-law Sarah, and the rest of their family.

---

Secretary Clinton released the following statement on his passing:

Tonight America has lost one of its fiercest champions and most dedicated public servants. Richard Holbrooke served the country he loved for nearly half a century, representing the United States in far-flung war-zones and high-level peace talks, always with distinctive brilliance and unmatched determination. He was one of a kind -- a true statesman -- and that makes his passing all the more painful.

From his early days in Vietnam to his historic role bringing peace to the Balkans to his last mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard helped shape our history, manage our perilous present, and secure our future. He was the consummate diplomat, able to stare down dictators and stand up for America's interests and values even under the most difficult circumstances. He served at every level of the Foreign Service and beyond, helping mentor generations of talented officers and future ambassadors. Few people have ever left a larger mark on the State Department or our country. From Southeast Asia to post-Cold War Europe and around the globe, people have a better chance of a peaceful future because of Richard’s lifetime of service.
I had the privilege to know Richard for many years and to call him a friend, colleague and confidante. As Secretary of State, I have counted on his advice and relied on his leadership. This is a sad day for me, for the State Department and for the United States of America.

True to form, Richard was a fighter to the end. His doctors marveled at his strength and his willpower, but to his friends, that was just Richard being Richard. I am grateful for the tireless efforts of all the medical staff, and to everyone who sat by his side or wished him well in these final days.

Tonight my thoughts and prayers are with Richard's beloved wife Kati, his sons David and Anthony, his step-children Elizabeth and Chris Jennings, his daughter-in-law Sarah, and all of his countless friends and colleagues.

Lots of things have been written since his passing.

Here is David Rothkopf | Foreign Policy:
"And of course, as is always the case, while the focus of the eulogies will be the great achievements, what breaks the heart are the tiny fragments of the man that continue to shine on in our memories. Incongruous and unexpected bits and pieces of a life.  Mischievousness and warmth. Bursts of irresistible enthusiasm. insights so sharp you could cut yourself on them. Those things don't translate so well. They're a bit too personal. But with a guy who touched as many lives as did Holbrooke, they are the reason today that so many eulogies will be written or spoken or just quietly considered. Some tinged with regret, some with the phantom pain of old wounds.  Some with glittering memories or gratitude. But all with an unmistakable sense of the loss of a great, wise man who will be sorely missed and who by departing with uncharacteristically bad timing has made the work of the world more than a little bit harder."

And James Fallows | The Atlantic:
"Everyone who knows him will find tactful ways of saying that Dick Holbrooke could be an outrageous, scheming, quintuple-chess-game-playing, highly self-regarding figure. But he was also unquestionably talented enough, public spirited enough, dedicated enough, and passionate enough to have people willingly embrace the whole package of his room-filling self."

The one that we like the most, Nicholas Kristof | in NYT: 
"The news reports say that his aorta gave out, but don’t believe that. His heart couldn’t possibly have failed him. This was a man, larger than life, with brain and energy and vast ability, yes, but above all this was a man of heart."

A priest in Mexico once told William T. Vollman in A Good Death that "the best way to die well is to die living."  We'd like to think that Richard Holbrooke died, living full.

But we can't help thinking, he left too soon. 




Related post:
Richard Holbrooke: Our AfPak Man and Diplomatic H-bomb | Feb 09, 2009

Sept 22 SFRC Hearings: Steinberg, Lindborg, Mikulak

At the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations:

Presiding: Senator Menendez
Date: Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Nominees:

Donald Steinberg, of California
to be Deputy Administrator of USAID

Nancy Lindborg, of the District of Columbia,
to be USAID Assistant Administrator (Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance)

Robert P. Mikulak, of Virginia
to be United States Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons


Watch the video and read the prepared testimonies here.

SRAP Holbrooke Visits IDP Camp in Pakistan

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke visits Makli Cricket Stadium Army IDP Camp in Thatta. Ambassador Holbrooke meets Army Brigadier Mehmood accompanied by Karachi’s Consul General William Martin.

Photo from US Embassy Islamabad

Sky News Online reports that Richard Holbrooke said that the country needed to make sure it was getting enough revenue from its citizens amid criticism of the way Pakistan's rich traditionally pay little tax on income and property.

Mr Holbrooke said: "I don't want to withhold money, but I think we have to be clear that the US Congress is going to be reluctant to give money if the money is filling in a gap because people are not paying taxes."

Uh-oh!



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SFRC Hearings: Holbrooke and Crocker on Afghanistan

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is holding a hearing on Governance and the Civilian Strategy in Afghanistan and has invited S/RAP Richard Holbrooke and former Ambassador Ryan Crocker to the Hill this Wednesday. Prepared testimonies and video of the hearing can be viewed here once they are available (usually on the day of the hearing with live stream video).

Presiding: Senator Kerry
Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Time: 02:00 PM
Location: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Panel I

      The Honorable Richard Holbrooke
      Department of State
      Washington, DC

Panel II

      The Honorable Ryan C. Crocker
      Dean and Executive Professor George Bush School of Government and Public Service
      Texas A&M University
      College Station, TX 

 

Related item:
Dreams of Babylon | Ryan Crocker | nationalinterest.org | June 22, 2010

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• The Consequences Of Disengagement? (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
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Officially In: Paul W. Jones to Kuala Lumpur

Image via Wikipedia

On July 1, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Paul W. Jones to be Ambassador to Malaysia. The WH released the following brief bio:

Paul W. Jones is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. He is currently the Deputy to the Special Representative and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr. Jones previously served as the Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires in the Philippines. Prior assignments include Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Deputy Chief of Mission in Macedonia. Other overseas posts include Colombia and Russia. In Washington, he has served as Director of the Executive Secretariat Staff and Director of the European Bureau's Balkans office.

Mr. Jones graduated from Cornell University and received Master's degrees from the University of Virginia and the Naval War College.



Related Items:
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 7/1/10

http://malaysia.usembassy.gov/

Quickie: The Runaway General's PR, Bombs

,Image via Wikipedia

Michael Hastings' article is doing the rounds inside the beltway right now. In case you've missed it, that's the one in Rolling Stone entitled, The Runaway General ...."Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House."

You can understand why this would be an interesting and perhaps even painful read in civilian and military circles.  SFRC's John Kerry has spoken and has thrown his public support to General M. urging that folks stay cool and calm and think about the mission.

Quick excerpts below:

On being sharper and ballsier than anyone else:

"The general prides himself on being sharper and ballsier than anyone else, but his brashness comes with a price: Although McChrystal has been in charge of the war for only a year, in that short time he has managed to piss off almost everyone with a stake in the conflict. Last fall, during the question-and-answer session following a speech he gave in London, McChrystal dismissed the counterterrorism strategy being advocated by Vice President Joe Biden as "shortsighted," saying it would lead to a state of "Chaos-istan." The remarks earned him a smackdown from the president himself, who summoned the general to a terse private meeting aboard Air Force One. The message to McChrystal seemed clear: Shut the fuck up, and keep a lower profile."

About Joe:

"Now, flipping through printout cards of his speech in Paris, McChrystal wonders aloud what Biden question he might get today, and how he should respond. "I never know what's going to pop out until I'm up there, that's the problem," he says. Then, unable to help themselves, he and his staff imagine the general dismissing the vice president with a good one-liner."

"Are you asking about Vice President Biden?" McChrystal says with a laugh. "Who's that?"

"Biden?" suggests a top adviser. "Did you say: Bite Me?"

About the General's Team America:

"The general's staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There's a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority."

About HRC and AfPak's Holbrooke:

"Only Hillary Clinton receives good reviews from McChrystal's inner circle. "Hillary had Stan's back during the strategic review," says an adviser. "She said, 'If Stan wants it, give him what he needs.' "

"McChrystal reserves special skepticism for Holbrooke, the official in charge of reintegrating the Taliban. "The Boss says he's like a wounded animal," says a member of the general's team. "Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous. He's a brilliant guy, but he just comes in, pulls on a lever, whatever he can grasp onto. But this is COIN, and you can't just have someone yanking on shit."

"At one point on his trip to Paris, McChrystal checks his BlackBerry. "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke," he groans. "I don't even want to open it." He clicks on the message and reads the salutation out loud, then stuffs the BlackBerry back in his pocket, not bothering to conceal his annoyance."

"Make sure you don't get any of that on your leg," an aide jokes, referring to the e-mail."

About US Embassy Kabul's Ambassador Eikenberry:

"The relationship was further strained in January, when a classified cable that Eikenberry wrote was leaked to The New York Times. The cable was as scathing as it was prescient. The ambassador offered a brutal critique of McChrystal's strategy, dismissed President Hamid Karzai as "not an adequate strategic partner," and cast doubt on whether the counterinsurgency plan would be "sufficient" to deal with Al Qaeda. "We will become more deeply engaged here with no way to extricate ourselves," Eikenberry warned, "short of allowing the country to descend again into lawlessness and chaos."

McChrystal and his team were blindsided by the cable. "I like Karl, I've known him for years, but they'd never said anything like that to us before," says McChrystal, who adds that he felt "betrayed" by the leak. "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so.' "

On the usurpation of diplomatic policy and shoring up Karzai's credibility:

"The most striking example of McChrystal's usurpation of diplomatic policy is his handling of Karzai. It is McChrystal, not diplomats like Eikenberry or Holbrooke, who enjoys the best relationship with the man America is relying on to lead Afghanistan. The doctrine of counterinsurgency requires a credible government, and since Karzai is not considered credible by his own people, McChrystal has worked hard to make him so. Over the past few months, he has accompanied the president on more than 10 trips around the country, standing beside him at political meetings, or shuras, in Kandahar. In February, the day before the doomed offensive in Marja, McChrystal even drove over to the president's palace to get him to sign off on what would be the largest military operation of the year. Karzai's staff, however, insisted that the president was sleeping off a cold and could not be disturbed. After several hours of haggling, McChrystal finally enlisted the aid of Afghanistan's defense minister, who persuaded Karzai's people to wake the president from his nap."

What if Eikenberry not McChrystal is right?

"This is one of the central flaws with McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy: The need to build a credible government puts us at the mercy of whatever tin-pot leader we've backed – a danger that Eikenberry explicitly warned about in his cable. Even Team McChrystal privately acknowledges that Karzai is a less-than-ideal partner. "He's been locked up in his palace the past year," laments one of the general's top advisers. At times, Karzai himself has actively undermined McChrystal's desire to put him in charge. During a recent visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Karzai met three U.S. soldiers who had been wounded in Uruzgan province. "General," he called out to McChrystal, "I didn't even know we were fighting in Uruzgan!"

Quotable Quotes:

McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team. "All these men," he tells me. "I'd die for them. And they'd die for me."

"The entire COIN strategy is a fraud perpetuated on the American people," says Douglas Macgregor, a retired colonel and leading critic of counterinsurgency who attended West Point with McChrystal. "The idea that we are going to spend a trillion dollars to reshape the culture of the Islamic world is utter nonsense.

"It's not going to look like a win, smell like a win or taste like a win," says Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville, who serves as chief of operations for McChrystal. "This is going to end in an argument."


Hastings end word:
"So far, counterinsurgency has succeeded only in creating a never-ending demand for the primary product supplied by the military: perpetual war. There is a reason that President Obama studiously avoids using the word "victory" when he talks about Afghanistan. Winning, it would seem, is not really possible. Not even with Stanley McChrystal in charge."

Read the whole article The Runaway General ....Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.

As you might imagine -- Secretary Gates over at the Pentagon is not happy. General McChrystal's PR man has now resigned. The General has also reportedly apologized for his WH criticisms and WaPo is asking if Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal is someone the president can afford to fire? With the U.S. war in Afghanistan in its ninth year and with U.S. forces scheduled to draw down in July 2011, the president may be stuck with General Stan and our tin-pot leader in Kabul.

But I do think this is a firing offense. Our top general in a war cannot be seen as publicly showing disrespect to our civilian authorities.  If President Obama fires General McChrystal, he would not be the first brilliant general fired in the middle of a war.  Of course, there is the mission to think about, as Senator Kerry has urged. But then again, we've been pouring money into Afghanistan, with the Taliban presumably funding their side with our money. Not just from cuts in a 2.2 billion haulage contract reported recently, but also from protection rackets in which Afghan subcontractors are paying protection money to local Taliban leaders to prevent their projects and employees from being targeted.

As General Mayville said in the article, "This is going to end in an argument." I'd rather that this Afghan argument end sooner than later. 

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