Chester Crocker

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Crocker intensified his mediation efforts in successive years. In May 1988 he headed a U.S. mediation team which brought negotiators from Angola, Cuba and South Africa, and observers from the Soviet Union together in London. Intense diplomatic maneuvering characterized the next seven months so as to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 and secure Namibian independence. At the Reagan/Gorbachev summit in Moscow (May 29-June 1, 1988) it was decided that Cuban troops would be withdrawn from Angola, and Soviet military aid would cease, as soon as South Africa withdrew from Namibia. The Tripartite Accord, which gave effect to these decisions, were signed at UN headquarters in New York on December 22, 1988. [13] Crocker attended the signing ceremony along with George Shultz. UNSR Martti Ahtisaari took over from Crocker in April 1989 and began the implementation of UNSCR 435.

In May 1989 Crocker stepped down as Assistant Secretary of State and returned to academia at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Elections were held from the 7–11 November 1989 and Namibia finally achieved independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990. [14] [15]

Chas. W. Freeman Jr commented at the time that "the emergence of Namibia as a stable, decent society with a well-managed economy would inspire more rapid change away from apartheid in South Africa." [16] He later commented in a 1995 interview with Charles Stuart Kennedy for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training that "there is no doubt that the South African opening to the outside world, which Crocker's diplomacy ultimately brokered and which produced the Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola and the Namibian independence in 1989, was a fundamental factor in impelling P. W. Botha's successor, F. W. De Klerk, in the direction of releasing Mandela and opening the political process to black South African participation." [17]

Martti Ahtisaari was also of the opinion that the policy of constructive engagement acted as an undeniable catalyst for resolution. He remarked that "those of us close to the matter were aware that if nothing new was put forward we would remain in this situation for the rest of our lives. But we couldn't declare publicly that this was an excellent idea – although in the final analysis it was a bold and adroit move by Crocker." [18]

Notable positions held

Chester Crocker
Chester Crocker 2006.jpg
Crocker in 2006
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
In office
June 9, 1981 –April 21, 1989

From 1969 to 1970 Crocker was professional lecturer in African government and politics at the American University, before he left to join the National Security Council staff. He returned to academia in 1972, as director of the Master of Science in Foreign Service program at Georgetown University, a position he held until 1978. He held several other professorial roles, including director of African studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1976–80) and James R. Schlesinger Professor in the Practice of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University (1999–present).

Other notable positions held include service at the United States Institute of Peace, which supports research, education and training, as well as operating programs in conflict zones. He held the position of chairman of the board from 1992 to 2004, after which Crocker continued on as a board member until 2011.

He is also a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an independent, non-profit organisation which lends the expertise of established diplomats and world leaders to current governments. From May 2014 Crocker acted as a distinguished fellow with CIGI's Global Security & Politics Program, leading a project that examines Africa's regional conflict management strategy.

In addition to these, Crocker sits on the board of directors for the International Peace and Security Institute, which offers intensive education and training to young professionals from world leaders in an effort to promote peaceful diplomacy.

In 2020, Crocker, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him." [19]

Personal and family life

Crocker married the South African Saone Barren who had previously been the partner of Roger Jowell. [20] [ better source needed ]

Awards

In 1989, Ronald Reagan awarded Crocker with the Presidential Citizen's Medal.

In 1992, Crocker was awarded an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University. [21]

On September 18, 2008, Crocker was appointed to the World Bank's new Independent Advisory Board, (IAB), which will provide advice on anti-corruption measures. [22]

List of affiliations

List of published works

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Office of the Historian. "Chester A. Crocker". history.state.gov. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  2. ↑ "Episode 25 - Chester Crocker". United States Institute of Peace. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  3. ↑ Kaela, Laurent C.W. (1993). "The United States and the Decolonization of Namibia: The Reagan Years". Transafrican Journal of History. 22: 122–141. ISSN   0251-0391. JSTOR   24328640.
  4. ↑ Lindsay, Drew (November 2001). "71 People the President Should Listen To". Washingtonian.com. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  5. ↑ Who's Who in America (70th ed.). New Jersey: Marquis Who's Who. 2016. ISBN   978-0-8379-7062-2.
  6. ↑ Freeman Jr., Chas. W. (June 1989). "The Angola/Namibia Accords". Foreign Affairs. 68 (Summer 1989): 126–141. doi:10.2307/20044012. JSTOR   20044012 . Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  7. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (1993). For the sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports. Verso. p. 99. ISBN   0-86091-435-6.
  8. ↑ Merikallio, Katri; Ruokanen, Tapani (2015). The Mediator: A Biography of Martti Ahtisaari, trans. David Mitchell and Pamela Kaskinen. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 100. ISBN   978-1-84904-318-2.
  9. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (1993). For the sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports. Verso. p. 99. ISBN   0-86091-435-6.
  10. ↑ Andy DeRoche, Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), 186-196.
  11. ↑ Reagan administration's policy of "constructive engagement" and the arms embargo against South Africa Archived July 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Bervoets, Jeremy. "The Soviet Union in Angola Soviet and African Perspectives on the Failed Socialist Transformation". sras.org. Archived from the original on 2017-01-18. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  13. ↑ Agreement Among the People's Republic of Angola, the Republic of Cuba, and the Republic of South Africa Archived 2009-01-14 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ "AFRICAN ELECTIONS DATABASE". AfricanElections.tripod.com. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  15. ↑ United Nations report on Namibia's independence
  16. ↑ Freeman Jr., Chas. W. (June 1989). "The Angola/Namibia Accords". Foreign Affairs. 68 (Summer 1989): 126–141. doi:10.2307/20044012. JSTOR   20044012 . Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  17. ↑ "Interview with Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. Interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy" (PDF). ADST.org. 1 The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. April 14, 1995. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  18. ↑ Merikallio, Katri; Ruokanen, Tapani (2015). The Mediator: A Biography of Martti Ahtisaari, trans. David Mitchell and Pamela Kaskinen. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 103. ISBN   978-1-84904-318-2.
  19. ↑ "Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden". Defending Democracy Together. 20 August 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  20. ↑ Driver, C. J. (n.d.). Used to be Great Friends (Radical Jews in 1970s South Africa): http://nivat.f2s.com/cjdriver.doc
  21. ↑ "Rhodes University Honorary Doctorates". RU.ac.za. 4 March 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  22. ↑ Appointments to World Bank Anti-Corruption Board
  23. ↑ G3 Chester A. Crocker Archived January 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine , G3, 2 October 2012.

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