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Jeffrey Davidow

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Jeffrey Davidow
United States Ambassador to Mexico
In office
August 5, 1998 – September 14, 2002
PresidentBill Clinton
George W. Bush
Preceded byJames R. Jones
Succeeded byTony Garza
United States Ambassador to Zambia
In office
July 11, 1988 – March 31, 1990
PresidentRonald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Preceded byPaul Julian Hare
Succeeded byGordon L. Streeb
United States Ambassador to Venezuela
In office
October 1, 1993 – May 16, 1996
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byMichael Martin Skol
Succeeded byJohn F. Keane
26th Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs
In office
August 7, 1996 – July 6, 1998
Preceded byAlexander Watson
Succeeded byPeter F. Romero
Personal details
Born (1944-01-26) January 26, 1944 (age 80)
Boston, Massachusetts
Political partyDemocratic

Jeffrey S. Davidow (born January 26, 1944) is a career foreign service officer from the U.S. state of Virginia. Davidow has served as a member of the Senior Foreign Service, as well as having been the U.S. Ambassador to Zambia,[1] Venezuela,[1] and Mexico.[2]

Upon completion of 34 years of service, he retired as the highest ranking U.S. diplomat. Davidow was one of the few people to hold the rank of Career Ambassador.[3][4]

Early life

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Davidow was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts in 1965 and an MA from the University of Minnesota in 1967. He also did postgraduate work in India 1968 on a Fulbright travel grant.

Career

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Davidow joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1969 and began his career as a junior officer at the American Embassy in Guatemala City, Guatemala, from 1970 to 1972. From 1972 to 1974, he was a U.S. political observer in Santiago, Chile (involved in the case of Charles Horman), and held the same position in Cape Town, South Africa, from 1974 to 1976. He returned to Washington, D.C. in 1976 to take a position as a desk officer in the Office of Southern African Affairs,[5] and he went on to be a Congressional fellow from 1978 to 1979.

He later became the head of the liaison office at the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 1979 to 1982. He returned shortly thereafter to pursue a fellowship at Harvard University, as well as to take-over as Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs in 1985.

On May 5, 1988, President Ronald Reagan nominated Davidow to be U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, a position he held until 1990.[6]

After his ambassadorship to Zambia, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state.[7]

In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Davidow to be U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela. Davidow remained ambassador until 1996.

From 1996 to 1998, he was the State Department's chief policy maker for the Western Hemisphere, serving in the position of Assistant Secretary of State.

Clinton again nominated Davidow in 1998, this time as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Davidow held this post from August 5, 1998, until September 14, 2002.[8]

After leaving Mexico in September 2002, he returned to Harvard to become a visiting fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. During the 2002–03 academic year, he worked extensively with undergraduate and graduate students and wrote a book on U.S.–Mexican relations. The US and Mexico: The Bear and the Porcupine[9] was first published in Spanish in Mexico by Casa Editorial Grijalbo and in English by Markus Weiner Publishers in April 2004.

Davidow assumed the presidency of the Institute of the Americas on June 1, 2003. The Institute of the Americas, founded in 1983, is an independent, non-profit institution at the University of California, San Diego. Its mission is to be a catalyst for promoting development and integration as a means to improve the economic, political, and social well-being of the people of the Americas.

In 2004, Davidow was among 27 retired diplomats and military commanders called Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change who publicly said the administration of President George W. Bush did not understand the world and was unable to handle "in either style or substance" the responsibilities of global leadership.[10] On June 16, 2004 the former senior diplomats and military commanders issued a statement against the Iraq War.[11]

He has also served as adviser to President Barack Obama for the Summit of the Americas.[12] He is also a member of the advisory board for the Mexico Institute.

Personal life

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Davidow and his wife, Joan, reside in La Jolla, California. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds some of his papers.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Clinton Is Near a Selection for Mexico Post". The New York Times. January 7, 1998. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  2. ^ Bob Deans (January 7, 1998). "Clinton's pick for Mexican envoy praised". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  3. ^ "Career Ambassadors". United States Department of State. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
  4. ^ "A Head of State should not solicit hatred and resentment". El Universal (Caracas). August 10, 2009. Archived from the original on August 17, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  5. ^ "The Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JEFFREY DAVIDOW" (PDF). Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. March 3, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  6. ^ "Nomination of Jeffrey Davidow To Be United States Ambassador to Zambia". Archived from the original on September 28, 2012. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  7. ^ "Unita to leave captured towns". The Independent. December 21, 1992. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  8. ^ "Changing the guard: U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow heads home. (Spotlight)". Business Mexico. October 1, 2002. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  9. ^ Starr, Alexandra (August 17, 2004). "Migrant Headaches". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  10. ^ Brownstein, Ronald (June 13, 2004). "Retired Officials Say Bush Must Go". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  11. ^ Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change Official Statement Archived October 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (June 16, 2004)
  12. ^ "Fidel Castro Meets With 3 U.S. Lawmakers". CBS News. April 7, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
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Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Zambia
1988–1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Venezuela
October 1, 1993 – May 16, 1996 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Mexico
1998–2001 		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs
August 7, 1996 – 1998 		Succeeded by
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