Chester Crocker

Chester A. Crocker (b. 29 Oct. 1941) is a long-time senior US diplomat influential mostly on African affairs, a faculty at Georgetown Univ., and member of several influential think tanks. Crocker was credited with the "constructive engagement" US policy towards apartheid South Africa, and determining the terms of Namibian independence. He has been heavily involved at the United States Institute for Peace where he was involved in developing US post-Cold War policy.

Career

1989: Faculty at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University; He holds the recently created James R. Schlesinger Chair in Strategic Studies and serves as an Associate in the School's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

1981 to 1989: Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. He developed the strategy and led the diplomacy that produced the treaties signed by Angola, Cuba, and South Africa in New York in December 1988. These agreements resulted in Namibia's independence (March 1990) and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Namibia and Angola. As Assistant Secretary, he managed a regional bureau responsible for relations with 46 nations, supervising a budget of $116 million, 44 embassies and a U.S. and foreign staff of 3,400.

1976 - 1989: Center for Strategic and International Studies -- director of African studies

1972-1980: Georgetown University as director of its Master of Science in Foreign Service program, serving concurrently as associate professor of international relations

1970-1972: (staff officer at the where he worked on Middle East, Indian Ocean, and African issues.

1968-1969: news editor of Africa Report magazine

Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

1965: M.A. Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

1963: B.A. degree from Ohio State University

Source

Affiliations

• ASA Ltd – Board member (a NYSE-listed, closed-end fund focused on gold mining)
• Center for Strategic and International Studies – former director of Africa program
• Corporate Council on Africa – founding member and director
• Henri Dunant Center for Humanitarian Dialogue – Council
• Minorco, S.A. (Luxembourg) – Board member (a natural resources group)
• Modern Africa Growth and Investment Company, LLC – Board member
• National Defense University (Washington) – Board of Visitors
• National Security Council
• United States Institute of Peace – Chairman of the Board

Resources, References and Contact

Contact

Phone 202-687-5074

Fax 202-687-2315

Email: crockerc@georgetown.edu

Web: explore.georgetown.edu/people/crockerc

Publications

• Chester A. Crocker, Leashing the Dogs of War, United States Institute of Peace, 2006.
• Editors: Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, Pamela Aal, Grasping the Nettle: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict, United States Institute of Peace,U.S., 2005.
• Chester Crocker, Taming Intractable Conflicts: Mediation in the Hardest Cases (2004)
• Editors: Chester Crocker, Fen O. Hampson and Pamela Aall, Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict, 1996.
• Editors: David R. Smock and Chester A. Crocker, African Conflict Resolution: The US Role in Peacemaking, United States Institute of Peace, 1995.
• Chester Crocker, High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighborhood, Norton, 1993.

Resources

• J. E. Davies, Constructive Engagement?: Chester Crocker and American Policy in South Africa, Namibia and Angola, 1981-8, James Currey Ltd, 2007.