Carey Cavanaugh

Infobox Officeholder
name=Carey Cavanaugh

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imagesize=200px
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term_start=
term_end=
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office2= United States Ambassador
order2=
term_start2 = 1993
term_end2 = 2001
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birth_date= 1955
birth_place= Jacksonville, Florida
death_date=
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religion= Roman Catholic
profession= Diplomat and Professor
alma_mater=University of Florida
Notre Dame
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spouse= Laura Kokx
website=

Carey Cavanaugh (born 1955, Jacksonville, Florida) is a former U.S. Ambassador who now serves as Director of the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. For twenty-two years, he served as a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Department of State. In addition to Washington assignments in the State Department, Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Cavanaugh served in Berlin, Moscow, Tbilisi, Rome, and Bern. He joined the Patterson School in 2006, where he is also professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution.

Background

Cavanaugh grew up in the Jacksonville Beaches (primarily Atlantic Beach), but also lived for two years in Italy. He began studying Russian in ninth grade and, after briefly starting with nuclear engineering, majored in Russian at the University of Florida, where he was also a member of Delta Chi Fraternity. He went on to graduate study in government and international affairs at the University of Notre Dame and the U.S. Army Russian Institute in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Cavanaugh taught international affairs and Soviet and East European studies at Youngstown State University in Ohio and did research at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich. [ This included producing one of the first public reports on an increasingly free-thinking Soviet Politburo member, “Gorbachev and the Food Program: Weak Support for a Weak Policy,” RL 268/82, Radio Liberty Research Bulletin (Munich: Germany: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 2, 1982) ] .

Government Service

Entering the Foreign Service in 1984, Cavanaugh rose to the rank of Minister Counselor, with a career focused on conflict resolution, assistance, and humanitarian issues. His first tour of duty was at the U.S. Mission to Berlin (West) where he worked primarily on consular affairs and political reporting on Iran. This was followed by assignment to the Office of Soviet Affairs in Washington to handle bilateral relations and some arms control issues (in particular, implementation of the INF Treaty). Afterwards, as a political officer at the American Embassy in Moscow, he was responsible for Soviet relations towards Europe and arms control issues. In 1991-92, he was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, working with Senator Carl Levin of Michigan. [ Jeffrey R. Biggs, A Congress of Fellows: Fifty Years of the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program, 1953-2003, p. 195. ] When Eduard Shevardnadze became President of the Republic of Georgia in 1992, Cavanaugh was sent to Tbilisi as Chargé d'affaires, leading the team that established the U.S. embassy to that new state [ Margaret D. Tutweiler, "US Embassy Opens in Georgia," State Department Dispatch, May 4, 1992. * [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/com/10583.htm U.S. State Department Chiefs of Mission by Country, Georgia] ] . After Tbilisi, Cavanaugh was assigned to the US Embassy in Rome to cover the communist and socialist parties, as well as European policy issues. The State Department cut short this assignment to return him to Washington to help with the multi-billion dollar assistance program for the former Soviet Union and shortly after to support international and US efforts to advance peace in the Caucasus. He was a fellow in MIT’s Seminar XXI in 1994-95. [ web.mit.edu/semxxi/anniversary/1994_1995.html] .

Under the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Cavanaugh spearheaded or helped advance peace efforts involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Turkey. During his service as Acting Special Cyprus Coordinator, he received the Clement Dunn Award for Excellence for defusing the crisis that arose when Cyprus purchased a Russian missile system capable of striking Turkey. [US Department of State Daily Press Briefing, May 6, 1997. Also, CNN, “Cyprus to Delay Receipt of Missiles,” January 13, 1997.] He later dealt with the issues of Nazi gold and Holocaust-era assets, while serving as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland. In 2000, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador/Special Negotiator responsible for conflicts in Eurasia and to serve as Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group. ["President Names Carey Cavanaugh for the Rank of Ambassador," Office of the Press Secretary, the White House, February 2, 2000 and Office of the Historian, “History of the Department of State During the Clinton Presidency (1993-2001),” US Department of State. Appendix 4: Clinton Appointments (1993-2000): Rank of Ambassador. May 31, 2000] This assignment culminated in OSCE peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh with the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia at Harry S Truman's Little White House in Key West, Florida. ["Key West Peace Talks on Nagorno-Karabakh, Richard Boucher, Spokesman. Press Release, US Department of State, March 14 2001. See also Douglas Frantz, “Armenia and Azerbaijan Signal Progress in Talks on Enclave,” New York Times, February 20, 2001.]

Cavanaugh was president of the Department of State’s Senior Seminar in 2001-2002. Afterwards, he worked for three years as a senior inspector/team leader in State's Office of the Inspector General. Cavanaugh’s final official assignment was foreign policy/political advisor to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Mullen, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London) and the Council for Excellence in Government. He is a founding board member of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship, and works frequently with the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

Family

Cavanaugh married Laura Kokx of Hart, Michigan in 1981. They have two sons, Chase and Keith, and reside in Lexington, Kentucky.

References

External links

* [http://www.PattersonSchool.uky.edu/ Patterson School of Diplomacy Homepage]
* [http://www.henryclaycs.org/ Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship Homepage]