Morton I. Abramowitz

Morton I. Abramowitz during his time as United States Ambassador to Thailand

Morton Isaac Abramowitz (born 1933) is an American diplomat and former State Department official.

Biography

Abramowitz was born in Lakewood Township, New Jersey on January 20, 1933. He was educated at Stanford University, receiving a B.A. in 1953.^[1] He then attended Harvard University, earning an M.A. in 1955. He spent the next year studying at American University.

In 1956, Abramowitz joined the United States Department of Labor, first as a management intern, then as a labor economist from 1957-58. In 1959, he joined the United States Department of State as a program analyst posted in Taipei. From 1960 to 1962, he was Consular-Economic Officer in Taipei. He was then posted as a political officer in Hong Kong from 1963 to 1966. He returned to the United States in 1966, becoming a State Department international economist. From 1968 to 1971, he served as a Special Assistant in the Office of the Under Secretary of State. He was a State Department foreign affairs analyst 1971-73. From 1974 to 1968, he was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

In 1978, President of the United States Jimmy Carter named Abramowitz United States Ambassador to Thailand, and he held this post from August 9, 1978 until July 31, 1981.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan named Abramowitz U.S. Ambassador to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions talks in Vienna.

President Reagan nominated Abramowitz as Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research in 1985, and Abramowitz held this office from February 1, 1985 through May 19, 1989 (with the name of the office changing to Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research in 1986).

In 1989, President George H. W. Bush named Abramowitz United States Ambassador to Turkey, a post he held until 1991. In 1990, he was awarded the rank of Career Ambassador.^[2]

Abramowitz retired from government service in 1991, becoming president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995.^[3] He retired from that position in 1997. Since then, he has been a Senior Fellow of The Century Foundation and a director of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Books by Morton I. Abramowitz

• Remaking China Policy (1972)
• Moving the Glacier: The Two Koreas and the Powers (1972)
• East Asian Actors and Issues (1991)
• China: Can We Have A Policy? (1997)
• Turkey's Transformation and American Policy (2000, essays, ed.)
• with James T. Laney, Testing North Korea: The Next Stage in U.S. and Rok Policy (2001)
• with Stephen W. Bosworth, Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East Asian Policy Since 1992 (2006)

References

1. ^ "Nomination of Morton Isaac Abramowitz To Be United States Ambassador to Turkey", American Presidency Project, April 19, 1989. Accessed February 9, 2011. "Ambassador Abramowitz was born January 20, 1933, in Lakewood, NJ. He graduated from Stanford University (B.A., 1953) and Harvard University (M.A., 1955)."
2. ^ Ann Devroy; John E. Yang; Kenneth J. Cooper (15 May1990). "Two Named Career Ambassadors". Washington Post: p. a.21. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73703440.html?dids=73703440:73703440&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+15,+1990&author=Ann+Devroy;+John+E.+Yang;+Kenneth+J.+Cooper&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Two+Named+Career+Ambassadors&pqatl=google. Retrieved 22 December 2010. 
3. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf. Retrieved 20 March 2011. 

• from History Commons
• Profile from the Century Foundation

External Links

• NNDB profile

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Charles S. Whitehouse	United States Ambassador to Thailand August 9, 1978 – July 31, 1981	Succeeded by John Gunther Dean
Government offices
Preceded by Hugh Montgomery	Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research February 1, 1985 – May 19, 1989	Succeeded by Douglas P. Mulholland
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Robert Strausz-Hupé	United States Ambassador to Turkey 1989 – 1991	Succeeded by Richard Clark Barkley

Persondata
Name	Abramowitz, Morton I.
Alternative names
Short description	Diplomat
Date of birth	January 20, 1933
Place of birth	Lakewood Township, New Jersey
Date of death
Place of death