Guide to Specialists

George F. Ward, Jr.
Director, Professional Training Program, June 2005

ARCHIVED SPECIALIST PROFILE

(Click image to download print quality photo.)

Project Focus
"The Role of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in the Peace Process of the 1990s"

Foreign Languages: German, Italian

Background

George F. Ward, Jr., directs the Institute's Professional Training Program. He joined the Institute in 1999 after a thirty-year career in the Foreign Service, which concluded with his appointment as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Namibia from 1996 to 1999. He has since returned to government service twice for special assignments. In October 2000, he chaired the U.S. delegation to the Conference on the Human Dimension of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe. From February to June 2003, he served as coordinator for humanitarian assistance in Iraq. As ambassador in Namibia, he managed a successful humanitarian demining program and initiated a campaign against gender violence. From 1992 to 1996, he was principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, helping formulate U.S. policy on peace operations and managing the policy process on UN political questions.

As deputy chief of mission in Germany from 1989 to 1992, Ward played a senior role in the negotiations that led to German unification. He received the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award for his service in Germany. During earlier Foreign Service assignments in Germany, Italy, and Washington, D.C., he worked extensively on European security questions. Prior to his Foreign Service career, Ward was an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in the United States and Vietnam. He holds a B.A. in history from the University of Rochester and an M.P.A. with an emphasis on systems analysis from Harvard University.

Available on usip.org

• Reforming the United Nations
• Institute Launches Major New Initiative on Iraq: Congressional appropriation aims to promote peace and stability
• Institute to Train Iraqi Security Officials
• On Track in Iraq?
• Prospects for Iraqi Economic and Political Reconstruction Are Better Than Anticipated
  USIPeace Briefing, August 6, 2003
• Humanitarian Responses to a War in Iraq
• Conducting Dialogues for Peace: A Symposium on Best Practices
• "Peace and Humanitarian Operations: The Evolving Role of the U.S. Military," in Guide to IGOs, NGOs, and the Military (USIP Press, 2000).

Other Publications

• "In Iraq, Things Really Aren't That Bad," The New York Times, June 13, 2003.
• "The U.S. in Iraq: So Far, So Good," International Herald Tribune, June 16, 2003.