The Sahel region or Sahelian acacia savanna is a biogeographic region in Africa. It is the transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a hot steppe climate and stretches across the southernmost latitudes of North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. Although geographically located in the tropics,the Sahel doesn't have a tropical climate.
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is an American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation from September 2018 to October 2021. Khailzad was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations,serving in the role from 2007 to 2009. Khalilzad was the highest ranking Muslim-American in government at the time he left the position. Prior to this,Khalilzad served in the Bush administration as Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007.
The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs,favoring Atlanticism,founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosperity. It is headquartered in Washington,D.C. It is a member of the Atlantic Treaty Association.
Elliott Abrams is an American politician and lawyer,who has served in foreign policy positions for presidents Ronald Reagan,George W. Bush,and Donald Trump. Abrams is considered to be a neoconservative. He is currently a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela from 2019 to 2021 and as the U.S. Special Representative for Iran from 2020 to 2021.
Paula Jon Dobriansky is an American diplomat,public official,and foreign policy expert who served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2001–2009) and the President's Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007–2009). A specialist in Central/East European affairs and the former Soviet Union,trans-Atlantic relations,and political-military affairs,Dobriansky held key senior roles in the administrations of five U.S. presidents.
Cheikh Tidiane Gadio is a Pan African political figure and diplomat who has held prominent positions on the African continent over the last two decades. He served as a special envoy on matters of conflict prevention and resolution in Africa,including Special Envoy of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) to Mali,Special Envoy for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for the Central African Republique,and Special Representative for Africa for the Secretary General of OIC.
Howard Eliot Wolpe was an American politician who served as a seven-term U.S. Representative from Michigan and Presidential Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes Region in the Clinton Administration,where he led the United States delegation to the Arusha and Lusaka peace talks,which aimed to end civil wars in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He returned to the State Department as Special Advisor to the Secretary for Africa's Great Lakes Region. Previously,he served as Director of the Africa Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,and of the Center's Project on Leadership and Building State Capacity. While at the Center,Wolpe directed post-conflict leadership training programs in Burundi,the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia.
Richard Nathan Haass is an American diplomat. He was president of the Council on Foreign Relations from July 2003 to June 2023,prior to which he was director of policy planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. In October 2022,Haass announced he would be departing from his position at CFR in June 2023. He was succeeded by former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman.
Jendayi Elizabeth Frazer is the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs,heading the Bureau of African Affairs. She was a Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and Department of Social and Decision Sciences.
David Maclain Hale is an American diplomat and career ambassador,who previously served as the United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He is currently a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow at the Wilson Center,on detail from the Department of State.
Donald E. Booth is an American diplomat who is serving as the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan. Between August 2013 and January 2017,he was the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan. Prior to his appointments as special envoy,Mr. Booth served as the Ambassador of the United States to Liberia,Zambia,and Ethiopia.
Daniel Benjamin "Dan" Shapiro is an American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Israel from 2011 to 2017. He was nominated by President Barack Obama on March 29,2011,and confirmed by the Senate on May 29. He was sworn in as ambassador by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on July 8,2011. Previously,he was the senior director for the Middle East and North Africa on the United States National Security Council. As an Obama administration political appointee,Shapiro was ordered on January 5,2017,to resign upon the inauguration of President Donald Trump. On August 30,2021,President Joe Biden appointed Shapiro as a special liaison to Israel on Iran.
Kurt Douglas Volker is an American diplomat who served as George W. Bush's last U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Later he served as executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership and in a volunteer capacity as Donald J. Trump's U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine until his resignation on September 27,2019.
Philip H. Gordon is an American diplomat and foreign policy professional. Since March 21,2022,he has served as Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States,Kamala Harris. Earlier in his career,he was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2009–2011) and Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East,North Africa,and the Persian Gulf Region (2013–2015) during the presidency of Barack Obama.
South Sudan–United States relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of South Sudan and the United States of America.
Michael A. Hammer is an American diplomat who is serving as the United States Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa as of 2022. A career member of the United States Foreign Service,Hammer previously served as the United States ambassador to Chile from 2014 to 2016 and the United States ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2018 to 2022.
Brett H. McGurk is an American diplomat,attorney,and academic who served in senior national security positions under presidents George W. Bush,Barack Obama,and Donald Trump,and is currently the Deputy Assistant to President Joe Biden and the National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa,in the Biden administration.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is an American diplomat who is the United States ambassador to the United Nations under President Joe Biden. She served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017. Thomas-Greenfield then worked in the private sector as a senior vice president at business strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington,D.C.
Amos J. Hochstein is a U.S. businessman,diplomat,and lobbyist. Currently the Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security under US President Joe Biden,he has worked in the U.S. Congress,has testified before congressional panels and has served in the Barack Obama administration under Secretaries of State Clinton and Kerry. He was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in 2011 and as Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs. In 2015,President Barack Obama nominated Hochstein to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources but the Senate did not act on the nomination.
David Melech Friedman is an American bankruptcy lawyer and the former United States Ambassador to Israel. He joined the law firm Kasowitz,Benson,Torres &Friedman in 1994,where he met and represented Donald Trump,then chairman and president of The Trump Organization.
