Letter to Senator Mitch McConnell in Support of Bathsheba Crocker's Confirmation to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.
Letter to Senator Mitch McConnell in Support of Bathsheba Crocker's Confirmation to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.
Letter to Senator Mitch McConnell in Support of Bathsheba Crocker's Confirmation to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.
Letter to Senator Mitch McConnell in Support of Bathsheba Crocker's Confirmation to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.
*Affiliations are for identification purposes only, and do not represent any institutional endorsement by the affiliated organizations.
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader United States Senate S-230 The Capitol Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator McConnell,
We are writing to urge you to act swiftly on the nomination of Bathsheba Crocker to be Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. We are writing as a bipartisan group of individuals with significant service and experience in American foreign policy because we believe that Ms. Crockers nomination is an urgent national security priority.*
The United States currently faces a startling array of consequential issues that are playing out in various international organizations, particularly the United Nations. The crisis in Crimea and Ukraine, the civil war in Syria, and the efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear program and defend Israel in international institutions, to name just a few, all require vigorous U.S. diplomacy at international organizations around the world. If we are to effectively represent U.S. positions at the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council, and the IAEA, among others, and to push forward our UN reform agenda, we need to have in place the senior U.S. diplomat responsible for organizing our efforts for developing U.S. diplomatic strategy across the range of international organizations.
We recognize that the confirmation process is difficult. But there is no known opposition to Ms. Crockers confirmation. She has been endorsed by senior Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate and was voted unanimously out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because of her varied and impressive experience, including work in the private sector with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leadership inside the UN on peace building and humanitarian response issues, and multiple previous positions of responsibility in the State Department, Ms. Crocker is extremely well positioned to advance U.S. priorities within international organizations.
Her nomination has been pending for over six months, and her quick confirmation would send a strong message that the U.S. Senate is serious about ensuring the United States remains a strong force for democracy and freedom around the world.
The position of Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs has been vacant since June 2013. Leaving it empty handicaps our diplomacy in crucial areas. We urge you to act as soon possible to fill this important position.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Morton Abramowitz Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation
Nazanin Ash Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
Alyssa Ayres Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
John B. Bellinger III Former Legal Adviser, Department of State
Daniel Benjamin Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Department of State
Samuel R. (Sandy) Berger Former National Security Advisor
Nancy Birdsall President, Center for Global Development
Thomas Carothers Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Craig Cohen Executive Vice President, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Christopher S. Chivvis Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation
Isobel Coleman Senior Fellow, The Council on Foreign Relations
Paula J. Dobriansky Former Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs
Stuart E. Eizenstat Former Ambassador to the European Union; Former Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs
Johanna Mendelson Forman Scholar-in-Residence, American University; Senior Associate, CSIS
Michele Flournoy Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
David Gordon Chairman, Eurasia Group
Morton H. Halperin Former Director of Policy Planning
Amy Hawthorne Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
Kathleen H. Hicks Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Duncan B. Hollis Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Temple University School of Law Helen-Louise Hunter, Esq. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
Heather Hurlburt Senior Adviser for National Security, Human Rights First
Bruce Jones Senior Fellow and Director, Project on International Order and Strategy, The Brookings Institution
Brian Katulis Senior Fellow, Center for America Progress
David Kaye UC Irvine School of Law
Dalia Dassa Kaye Director, Center for Middle East Public Policy, The RAND Corporation
Mark Lagon Chair, Global Politics and Security, Georgetown University
Louis Lauter Director of Congressional Affairs, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Princeton N. Lyman Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.
Peter Mandaville Professor of Government & Politics, George Mason University
Matteo Mecacci President, International Campaign for Tibet
J. Stephen Morrison Senior Vice President, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Todd Moss Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
John Negroponte Former Deputy Secretary of State; Former Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Michael OHanlon Director of Research and Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Thomas Pickering Former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs; Former Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Eric P. Schwartz Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration
Jeremy Shapiro Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Anne-Marie Slaughter Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
Julianne Smith Senior Fellow and Director of the Strategy and Statecraft Program, Center for New American Security
James B. Steinberg Former Deputy Secretary of State
Mona Sutphen Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff
Ashley J. Tellis Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Richard Verma Former Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
Andrew S. Weiss Former Director, Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs, National Security Council
Frank Wisner Foreign Affairs Advisor, Patton Boggs
Tamara Wittes Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
Peter Yeo Executive Director, Better World Campaign
Casimir Yost Senior Associate, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University