Jendayi Frazer

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Jendayi Frazer : biography

1961 –

Frazer’s tenure as Assistant Secretary of State was a controversial one: She was considered one of the most powerful and outspoken Assistant Secretaries in the Bush Administration. Yet, an August 2009 report by the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General reviewed 50 years of Africa policy and criticized the Africa Bureau describing it as low resourced and being hobbled by low morale, and a lack of qualified personnel and a "failed" public diplomacy program. The report focused on 50 years of the bureau’s history and not specifically Frazer’s tenure.US State Department Office of the Inspector General, , Report no. ISP-I-09-63, August 2009 Interestingly, the Inspector General’s office criticized the Africa Bureau while Africa policy under the Bush Administration was widely heralded as one of the Administration’s most successful foreign policy achievements.Bob Geldolf, "With Bush In Africa: A Journey Across A Continent and into the Soul of a President," Time (March 10, 2008); Kim Ghattas, "Countries that will miss George Bush," BBC News (January 16, 2009), p. 1-3 John Bolton, the Bush Administration’s Ambassador to the United Nations, accused Frazer of setting back his plans to end the U.N. Mission in Eritrea-Ethiopia that monitored and acted as an interposition force along the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea by unilaterally deciding that the 2002 decision of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Boundary Commission should be cast aside to favor Ethiopia’s position.John Bolton, "Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad," (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 347. Frazer disputed Bolton’s claim since U.S. policy continued to recognize the EEBC decision. Frazer has also been accused of quietly encouraging Ethiopia’s decision to militarily intervene in Somalia in late 2006; administration officials denied this and no credible documentary evidence exists to substantiate the claim mainly leveled by the Eritrean government.

Quotes

"This issue of insurgency is one that continues to trouble me and Africa as a whole. The way forward is development and legitimate opposition, not through picking up arms and insurgency, and it’s a message the A.U. needs to make much more loudly to its member states." – Secretary Jendayi Frazer in a press conference discussing instability in the horn of Africa.