Bush names Dobriansky undersecretary of state (03/18/01)

Bush names Dobriansky undersecretary of state

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush has named Paula J. Dobriansky as his choice to be undersecretary of state for global affairs.

The White House announced the president's intent on March 12. If the Senate confirms the nomination, she will become the most senior American of Ukrainian descent to serve in any U.S. administration.

Currently the vice-president and director of the Washington office of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Dobriansky has served in several important government positions over the past 20 years. She served in the Office of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council from 1980 to 1987; she was deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs from 1987 to 1990; and associate director of the Bureau of Policy and Programs at the U.S. Information Agency from 1990 to 1993.

In 1985 she was an advisor to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, and in 1990 she was deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). In October 1997 she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as a commissioner to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.

Dr. Dobriansky also served as senior international affairs and trade advisor at the law firm of Hunton & Williams, co-chaired the International TV Council at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and serves on the boards of several funds, endowments and councils.

Dr. Dobriansky received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude in international politics from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University. She is a Fulbright-Hays scholar, a Ford and Rotary Foundation fellow, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a recipient of various awards.

She has lectured and published articles and book chapters on U.S. human rights policy, East European foreign and defense policies, public diplomacy, democracy promotion strategies and on Russia and Ukraine.

The Office of the Undersecretary for Global Affairs, which she is nominated to head, coordinates U.S. foreign relations on a variety of global issues, including democracy, human rights and labor; environment, oceans and science; narcotics control and law enforcement; population, refugees and migration; and women's issues.

Dr. Dobriansky's father, Lev Dobriansky, who was president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America for more than 30 years, served as the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas during the Reagan administration.

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