September 26,
2002
Ambassador
Robert B. Oakley, Fellow,
Institute for National Strategic Studies, National
Defense University.
Ambassador
(Ret.) Robert B. Oakley has been a Fellow at the
Institute for National Strategic Studies, National
Defense University, since January 1995. He was Acting
Director from August 1999 until January 2000. He
retired from the United States Foreign Service in
September 1991, after 34 years, and became associated
with the United States Institute of Peace. In December
1992, he was named by President Bush as Special Envoy
to Somalia, serving there with Operation Restore Hope
until March 1993. In October 1993, he was again named
as Special Envoy to Somalia by President Clinton, and
served in this capacity until March 1994.
Born in Dallas,
Texas, Mr. Oakley was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana.
He graduated from South Kent School in South Kent,
Connecticut in 1948 and Princeton University in 1952,
with a BA degree in Philosophy and History. He served
as a U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer in Japan from
June 1953 until December 1955.
Robert Oakley joined the Foreign
Service in 1957 and was assigned to Khartoum, Sudan in
1958. He served in the Office of United Nations
Political Affairs, Department of State; U.S.
Embassies: Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Saigon, Vietnam;
Paris, France; Beirut, Lebanon; and the U.S. Mission
to the United Nations. In September 1974, he became
Senior Director for Middle East and South Asia on the
Staff of the National Security Council; and in
February 1977 was named Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State for East Asia and the Pacific. In November 1979,
he was confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Ambassador to
Zaire, and in August 1982, U.S. Ambassador to Somalia.
In September 1984, he was appointed Director of the
State Department Office of Terrorism. He again joined
the National Security Council Staff on January 1, 1987
as Assistant to the President for Middle East and
South Asia. He was appointed U.S. Ambassador to
Pakistan in August 1988.
During his
service with the State Department, Robert Oakley
received the State Department Meritorious Honor Award,
four Presidential Meritorious Service Awards, and the
State Department Distinguished Honor Award. For his
service as Special Envoy to Somalia, he received a
second State Department Distinguished Honor Award and
the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished
Public Service. On June 18, 1993, he received the
Diplomatic Award for Excellence of the American
Academy of Diplomacy.
He is a member
of the Naval Studies Board of the National Academy of
Science, the Council on Foreign Relations, the
Association of American Committees on Foreign
Relations, and the Board of Trustees of the
International Rescue Committee.
He is the
co-author of a book on his experiences in Somalia (Operation
Restore Hope, USIP, 1995), and a book on police
intervention in peacekeeping (Policing the New
World Disorder, NDU, 1998), as well as a number of
articles, speeches, etc.
Robert Oakley
married another Foreign Service Officer, Phyllis
Elliot, in Cairo, Egypt, in June 1958. The Oakleys
have two married children, four grandsons, and a
granddaughter.
