Washington, DC — Princeton Lyman, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria, has been selected by the Council on Foreign Relations as the first holder of the Ralph Bunche chair in Africa Policy Studies.
The Council, a non-governmental organization whose membership includes top current and former foreign policy officials and prominent private sector leaders, currently hosts fellows working on Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as on national security, peace and conflict and science and technology.
"I am both delighted that the council has established this position and deeply honored to have been selected for it," Lyman said in an interview.
The new post is the first endowed chair in Africa Policy Studies at any American think tank or public policy school, the group said. "The new chair shows the Council's commitment to addressing African issues and represents a clear statement by the Council's Board and members that Africa should be and will be a top priority for US foreign policy," said Les Gelb, the Council president.
The chair is named for the late Ralph Bunche, who served as under secretary general of the United Nations and, in 1950, receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African American to win the prestigious award. The Council has received $3.2 million to date for the endowment from donors including the Hurford Foundation, Coca-Cola, the Starr Foundation, ChevronTexaco, and a number of private individuals.
Lyman served in Nigeria in the late 1980s and in South Africa from 1992 to 1995 during the end of apartheid and the country's first non-racial elections, which were won by Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress. He also held senior positions in the refugee and Africa bureaus at the State Department and directed the U.S. Aid Mission in Ethiopia. His last position before retirement in 2000 was assistant secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.
Since then, he has headed the Global Interdependence Initiative at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. After he takes up the Council position next month, he will continue to direct the Aspen program, a ten-year effort intended to promote American public support for U.S. engagement abroad.
Jean Herskovits, research professor of history at the State University of New York (Purchase) and a leading Africanist scholar, values Lyman's first-hand experience. "The fact that he has lived for some years in two of Africa's most important countries makes him an excellent choice," she said.
Lyman recently authored an account of his experience in South Africa, Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa's Transition to Democracy. Reviewing the book in the current issue of the Council's quarterly, Foreign Affairs, historian Gail Gerhart says, "Lyman found ways to help both sides mobilize international backing, dissuade spoilers, and marshal resources for a successful transitional election in 1994." But she argues that Lyman "does himself and history a disservice by puffing the southern Africa policies of the Reagan administration as correct, albeit 'misunderstood'." U.S. policies during that period, Gerhart says, gave the white government in Pretoria "carte blanche to slaughter thousands and impoverish millions" in the region in an attempt to defeat the African National Congress.
According to Peggy Dulany, a member of the Council board and the founder of Synergos, a non-governmental organization devoted to linking grassroots leaders to networks of resources, Lyman demonstrated during his time as ambassador "a commitment to ending apartheid and to the new Africa." She said she hoped and expected that the Council's decision to establish the fellowship "will greatly increase the focus on Africa."
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The Council has not had a full-time Africa policy director since the departure of Salih Booker three years ago. Gwendolyn Mikell, professor of anthropology at Georgetown University and director of Africa Studies Program at the School of Foreign Service there, has been a part-time senior fellow. Lyman said he sees his new role as "an opportunity to advance issues of Africa policy of concern to the United States and to Africa."
Like Lyman, most senior officials at the Council held top foreign policy positions in previous administrations. Gelb, who served in the Defense and State Departments and was diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, is retiring as the organization's president in June. A search committee is in the process of selecting his successor.
