Bios
Paul Goble
Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. While there, he launched the “Window on Eurasia” (http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/) series. Prior to joining the faculty there in 2004, he served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He writes frequently on ethnic and religious issues and has edited five volumes on ethnicity and religion in the former Soviet space. Trained at Miami University in Ohio and the University of Chicago, he has been decorated by the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for his work in promoting Baltic independence and the withdrawal of Russian forces from those formerly occupied lands.
David Kramer
David J. Kramer joined GMF in May 2009 as a Senior Transatlantic Fellow and works on issues related to Russia/Eurasia and Wider Europe as well as democracy and human rights. He came to GMF after more than eight years at the State Department in various capacities, most recently as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Before that, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, responsible for Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus affairs, as well as regional nonproliferation issues. He also served in the Office of Policy Planning and as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs. He also was Executive Director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy in Washington.
Before joining the government, David was a Senior Fellow at the Project for the New American Century, Associate Director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Assistant Director of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, all in Washington. Prior to moving to Washington, he was a Lecturer in Russian Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University. He also taught for five years in the Urban Scholars Program at UMASS/Boston.
Vlad Lupan
Vlad Lupan graduated from Moldovan State University and later in Romania, the National School of Political Studiesand Public Administration, in Bucharest. [From] 1996 – 2008 he [gathered] diplomatic experience with the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international institutions. He dealt with OSCE and NATO issues, [as well as] Transnistrian conflict resolution in Moldova. He was also involved in negotiations [on] the withdrawal of Russian troops and the CFE Treaty.[In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,] he headed the OSCE and NATO Division, was in charge of the issues related to the Human Dimension of the OSCE [and] was a member of three OSCE feild missions: Georgia/South Ossetia, Albania and Croatia. Between 1999-2001 he was a member of the Joint Control Commission for the security zone of the Transnistrian conflict, while between 2002-2004 he was one of the three official Moldovan negotiators in the five-sided format of political talks (now the 5+2 format).
He is currently the moderator for the “Euro-Atlantic Dictionary” talkshow, Radio Voice of Bassarabia, Coordinator “Report of the 19″ on Moldova-EU.
Bio taken from http://vlad-lupan.blogspot.com/2009/04/moldova-elections-street-and-party.html and http://www.pism.pl/zalaczniki/policy_recommendations.pdf.
Ambassador Steven Pifer
Steven Pifer is currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute where he focuses on issues in Ukraine and Russia. From 1998 to 2000, he served as the United States Ambassador to Ukraine. Pifer entered the Foreign Service in January, 1978. He was assigned from 1978 to 1980 to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw as a general services and consular officer. He returned to the State Department in 1980 as a staff assistant in the Bureau of European Affairs and then as a political-military officer in the Office of European Political and Security Affairs. During this time he also participated in the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces negotiations in Geneva. From 1984 to 1985 he was special assistant to Ambassador Paul Nitze, Special Advisor on Arms Control Matters to the President and Secretary of State. From 1986 to 1988 Mr. Pifer served as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He returned to the State Department for two years as Deputy Director for Multilateral and Security Affairs in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs. From 1990 to 1993 he was Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in London. He then returned to Washington as deputy to the Senior Coordinator for the New Independent States (the former Soviet Union). At the end of 1994 Mr. Pifer was detailed to the National Security Council staff as Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs. Mr. Pifer served from August, 1996 to August, 1997 as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council.
Mr. Pifer is a 1976 graduate of Stanford University with a B.A. in economics. He holds several Superior and Meritorious Honor awards from the State Department.
Bio taken from http://kiev.usembassy.gov/amb_pifer_eng.html
Ambassador John Todd Stewart
Bio taken from http://foundation.moldova.org/pages/eng/119/
Vlad Spanu
Vlad Spânu is the Moldova Foundation’s president and Member of its Board. He [was] a senior Moldovan diplomat in 1992-2001,holding the positions Head of Ministry of Foreign
Affairs’ Division for International Economic Cooperation (1992-1994, 1997-1998), Counselor (1994-1997), Minister counselor and Deputy chief of mission (1998-2001), Charge d’Affaires at the Moldovan embassy in Washington, DC. (1998) Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he worked in the private sector in Moldova for seven years (1983-1990). Currently, he consults the private sector and the World Bank on investment climate assessment and international trade issues. Vlad Spânu wrote articles and analysis related to Moldovan political, social and economic development (see list of publications). He holds a B.S. in economics from the State University of Moldova (1983), a M.A. in public administration from the Romanian National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest (1992), and a MPA degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (2003).
Bio taken from http://foundation.moldova.org/pages/eng/111/
Ambassador William Taylor
Ambassador William B. Taylor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine on May 26, 2006 and was sworn in on June 5, 2006.
Until February 2006 he was the U.S. Government’s representative to the Quartet’s effort to facilitate the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, led by Special Envoy James Wolfensohn in Jerusalem. The Quartet Special Envoy was responsible for the economic aspects of this disengagement. Prior to this assignment, he served in Baghdad as Director, Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (2004-2005), in Kabul as coordinator of USG and international assistance to Afghanistan (2002-2003) and in Washington with the rank of ambassador as coordinator of USG assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1992-2002).
He previously served in Brussels as deputy defense advisor at the U.S. Mission to NATO, in Washington on the staff of Senator Bill Bradley, at the National Defense University and in the U.S. Department of Energy and as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army, he served in Vietnam and Germany.
He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Bio taken from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/70367.htm
Damon Wilson
Damon Wilson is Director of the International Security Program at the Atlantic Council of the United States. Previously, he served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council. His other government positions have included Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq; Director for Central, Eastern and Northern European Affairs at the National Security Council; Deputy Director of the Private Office of NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson; and various positions at the Department of State dealing with European security and China. Mr. Wilson completed his graduate studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs during which he worked in the African Affairs Directorate at the National Security Council. Following his undergraduate studies at Duke University and the University of Grenoble, France, Mr. Wilson served in Rwanda with Save the Children’s Children and War Program.
We ask for your support
About
Click on the map to enlarge:
The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation announces the creation of a new interactive, Internet webcasting program service, AHA! Network. The AHA! Network will communicate information relating to the Baltic-Black-Caspian Region and its relevance to U.S. and European foreign policy interests. The AHA! Network will bring together organizations and experts specializing in the area. The Moldova Foundation and the U.S.-Baltic Foundation are helping to launch this webcasting program service. [read more]
THE SOVIET STORY DVD
(click below)
