Edward J. Perkins

Life and career

Training

Perkins was born in Sterlington, Louisiana, the son of Edward Joseph Perkins, Sr. and Estella Tiny Noble Holmes. He grew up in Arkansas at Pine Bluff. There he attended a racially separate, consisting only of two classrooms school for blacks. He graduated in 1947 at Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon, where he later grew up. In 1947, he joined the U.S. Army. He did his military service in the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. In total, he served three years in the U.S. Army and four years in the United States Marine Corps. He was stationed at that time, among other things, in which also separated according to race U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps in South Korea and Tokyo.

After the end of his military service, he enrolled in 1953 at Lewis & Clark College, a private college in Portland, one where he remained a year. In 1967 he earned a Bachelor of Arts at University College, University of Maryland. At the University of Southern California, he graduated in 1972 with a Master of Arts in Public Administration (Public Administration) from. In 1978, he earned a Ph.D. there (Doctor of Public Administration) of Science in public administration (Public Administration).

Career

Perkins ' professional career began with the U.S. Army. In 1958 he became head of personnel (Chief of Personnel ) at Army & Air Force Exchange Service in Taipei, Taiwan. In the period 1962-1966 he was first Deputy Director ( Deputy Chief ), later HR (Chief of Personnel and Administration ) at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in Okinawa. In 1967, he was Assistant General Services Officer at the U.S. Mission in Thailand ( U.S. Operations Mission to Thailand). There he first worked as a management analyst, and later as Deputy Assistant Director for Management ( Deputy Assistant Director for Management).

In 1972 he entered the diplomatic service. In the same year he was assigned to the Office of the Director-General of the United States Foreign Service as a staff assistant. From 1972 to 1974 he was the personnel office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( State Department 's Bureau of Personnel ) as Personnel Officer ( Personnel Officer ) assigned. From 1974 to 1975 he worked at the Office of Far Eastern and South Asian Affairs ( Bureau of Far East and South Asian Affairs ) and from 1975 to 1978 worked at the Office of Management Operations of the Foreign Ministry. In 1978 he moved to the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana as Counselor for Political Affairs ( Counselor for Political Affairs ). Perkins was founded in 1981 as Deputy Head of Mission ( Deputy Chief of Mission ) appointed by the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia and was from 1983 to 1985 director of the Office of West African Affairs ( Director of the Department of State 's Office of West African Affairs ) Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He was appointed in 1985 as ambassador to Liberia. His inauguration coincided with the presidency of Samuel K. Doe; this had increasingly begun since 1984 thus restricting freedom of expression and press freedom, introduce censorship and suppress the political opposition. Perkins saw says that it, its task in Liberia continue to secure an ally of the United States and to keep it operational within the meaning of U.S. foreign policy in West Africa, the country. Perkins served as U.S. ambassador on the one hand for the forcing of economic reforms and democratization in Liberia; on the other hand, he had to provide for the protection of significant strategic and technical equipment, who entertained the Americans there in Liberia. As Perkins and his staff arrived in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, was their main task, Samuel K. Doe to convince them not to stand in the elections in 1985 for the presidency. Perkins relied a financial pressure medium; he held out the prospect that - if Doe would be chosen - the U.S. and other countries would adjust their technical and military aid to the country, despite their interests in Liberia.

In 1986, he was Ambassador to South Africa, which he remained until 1989. In South Africa, he sat down in his capacity as Ambassador, in close consultation and collaboration with Ronald Reagan, for political change and for the abolition of apartheid. He met with representatives of the bourgeois opposition in black Soweto, with religious leaders in Mamelodi and political activists in the squatter camps of Cape Town. He organized art exhibitions in Pretoria, in which black and white artists exhibited together and were also invited together to the exhibition openings. Perkins was a staunch opponent of President Pieter Willem Botha; this Perkins had warned when he took office, not to interfere in the internal affairs of South Africa.

After his return he worked until 1992, again at the Foreign Ministry. From 1989 to 1992 he was Director -General of the United States Foreign Service (Director General of the Foreign Service ), the Foreign Service of the United States, and Supreme Head of Human Resources of the State Department of the United States (Director of Personnel in the Department of State ). He was appointed ambassador to the United Nations in 1992. In this capacity he was also representative of the United States in the UN Security Council. In May 1992, he called a meeting of the UN Security Council at the end of the outgoing of the Serbian government violence against Bosnia - Herzegovina, other former Yugoslav states, as well as its own civilian population. The Serbian aggression he denounced as a threat to world peace and a violation of the Helsinki Final Act, the Paris Charter and the Charter of the United Nations.

1993 Perkins was U.S. ambassador to Australia, where he remained until 1996. On the occasion of the appointment of Perkins received a permission of the then President Bill Clinton because he was already older than 65 years. He then went with the rank of Career Minister to the United States Foreign Service in retirement.

He taught at the University of Oklahoma, where he is Senior Vice Provost Emeritus of International Programs at the International Program Center and Professor Emeritus of the School of International and Area Studies. He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Honors

Perkins is the recipient of several honorary doctorates. He received honorary degrees as Doctor of Laws, among others, from Lewis and Clark College (1988 ), from St. John's University (1990) and from the University of Maryland ( 1990). He was awarded another honorary doctorates: as Doctor of Humanities from Beloit College ( 1990), as a Doctor of Humane Letters from the Winston -Salem State University (1990 ) and as a Doctor of Humane Laws from St. Augustine College ( 1991). He also has honorary Doctor of Bowie State University ( Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, 1993) and the University of Southern California (Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, 1995).

During his career in the diplomatic service, he received the Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Service Award, the Distinguished Honor and Superior Honor Award of the Foreign Ministry, the Una Chapman Cox Foundation Award for outstanding achievement in the Foreign Service ( Una Chapman Cox Foundation Award for Distinguished Foreign Service Work), the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Southern California, the Achievement Award from the Southern University, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity the Award for special achievements in the Foreign Service ( Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Award for Distinguished Diplomatic service ) and the Kappa Alpha Psi C. Rodger Wilson Leadership Conference Award, and the Kappa Alpha Psi Award for outstanding achievement in the Foreign Service ( Kappa Alpha Psi Award for outstanding Achievement in the Foreign Service ).

He was honored with the Statesman of the Year Award from the George Washington University in 1992.

He is an active member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated and is the recipient of the highest honor awarded by this, the Laurel Wreath Award, which he received in 1993. On 10 September 2001 he was awarded the Director General 's Cup, which is awarded by the U.S. Department of State. 2006 Perkins was honored as one of the Strong Men and Women of America Dominion Resource Services, Inc.

Family

He married on September 9, 1962 Lucy Liu Chen -mei. They have two daughters together.

Publications

• The seedlings of hope: U.S. policy in Africa, U.S. Department of State, 1989.
• The Middle East Peace Process: Vision Versus Reality ( Studies in peace politics in the Middle East), Sussex Academic Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1903900017 (Editor with Joseph Ginat )
• Palestinian Refugees: Traditional Positions and New Solutions, University of Oklahoma Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0806133935 (Editor with Joseph Ginat )
• The Palestinian Refugees: Old Problems - New Solutions ( Studies in peace politics in the Middle East), Sussex Academic Press, 2002 ( with Joseph Ginat ), ISBN 978-1902210872
• Mr. Ambassador, Warrior for Peace, The University of Oklahoma Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0806137674 ( memoir )