Earl Anthony Wayne | |
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United States Ambassador to Argentina | |
In office November 6, 2006 – June 27, 2009 | |
President | George W. Bush Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Lino Gutiérrez |
Succeeded by | Vilma Socorro Martínez |
Personal details | |
Born | 1950 Sacramento, California |
Resting place | Coordinates: Missing latitude Invalid arguments have been passed to the {{#coordinates:}} function |
Nationality | American |
Earl Anthony Wayne (born in 1950) is an United States international policy maker and diplomat.
Life and career
Earl Anthony Wayne was born in Sacramento, California in 1950 and grew up in nearby Concord, where he graduated from High School in 1968. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (1972), Master's degrees in Political Science from Stanford University (1973) and Princeton University (1975), and a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University (1984). Known as Tony to friends and close acquaintances, he married and had a daughter and a son.[1]
A career diplomat since 1975, he was first posted overseas as a political officer in Rabat, Morocco, after serving as a China analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Depatment in Washington, DC. He was assigned to serve in the Executive Secretariat at the State Department under Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and then Secretary Edmund Muskie in 1980. He was asked to serve as Special Assistant to Secretaries of State Alexander Haig and George Shultz, from 1981 to 1983, and was named First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, 1984-87, where he followed French politics and encouraged counter-terrorism cooperation between the US and France.
Wayne then took a leave of absence and worked as the national security correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor for two years. He returned to Foreign Service as the Director for Regional Affairs for the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Counter-Terrorism, from 1989 to 1991, during the first Iraq War and the period when the US expanded CT cooperation with the countries of the former Warsaw Pact. He served as Director for Western European Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1991 until mid-1993, as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the European Union until 1996, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Canada (1996-97).[1]
His appointment as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European Affairs in 1997 gave Wayne influence in U.S. relations with the European Union, the OECD, the G-8, regional economic and global issues, and Nazi restitution issues. He played an important role in organizing the Stability Pact Summit for South West Euorpe in 1999. These experiences led to his appointment as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs (EB) from June 2000 until June 2006, during which he was promoted to Career Minister (2002).
In EB, he oversaw work on post-conflict economic assistance, economic sanctions, international debt, development and economic reform policies (including the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation), combating the financing of terrorism, international energy policy, trade, intellectual property and investment policies, international telecommunications policy, international transportation policies, support for U.S. businesses overseas, and efforts to end trade in "conflict diamonds". He also had a leading role in coordinating reconstruction assistance and pledges to countries hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami and to Pakistan, after the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.[1]
Wayne served as Interim Under Secretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs in 2005, during which he also served as U.S. Foreign Affairs "Sous-Sherpa," helping prepare the Gleneagles G8 Summit, in addition to his duties as Assistant Secretary. President George W. Bush nominated Earl Anthony Wayne Ambassador to Argentina, in 2006, and he presented his credentials as Ambassador to Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana on November 6, 2006.
Ambassador Wayne accepted the post during a period of tense relations between the center-left President of Argentina, Néstor Kirchner, and President Bush. He maintained a policy of close communication with the Argentine Government and of a more lively cultural involvement of embassy with its host country. He championed interaction between US musicians and other well known cultural figures with Argentine youth, as well as increased embassy outreach activities to needy Argentine communities and with worthwhile Argentine Non-Governmental Organizations. His public outreach events included a "voters day" during the 2008 US Presidential Election at the US embassy with music and American food for the several thousand U.S. nationals living in Buenos Aires who were eligible to vote via absentee ballot.
That year, he received the Paul Wellstone Anti-Slavery Ambassador of the Year Award for his work against trafficking in persons. Wayne had worked closely and successfully with several Argentine NGOs, Argentine legislators and officials to encourage stronger laws and practices go fight the trafficking in persons, especially women and children He has also received the Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award and Presidential Distinguished Service and Meritorious Service Awards.[1][2]
President Barack Obama nominated Vilma Socorro Martínez as the new U.S. Ambassador to Argentina in June 2009, upon which Ambassador Wayne accepted a humanitarian post in Afghanistan where his is coordinating all non-military US assistance to Afganistan.[3]