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Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies
Contact Info:
Phone: +1-202-509-8456
E-mail: krobinette@cfr.org
Location:
Washington, DC
Media downloads:
One-page bio (PDF, 55K)
Former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria and former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. Directed the Council–sponsored Independent Task Force that produced the report More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa.
Expertise:Sub-Saharan Africa; economic development; democratization and elections; civil reconstruction; conflict prevention; global governance; United Nations; HIV/AIDS.
Experience:Executive Director of the Global Interdependence Initiative, Aspen Institute (1999-2003); Senior Fellow, United States Institute of Peace (1999-2000); Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State (1996-98); Ambassador to South Africa, U.S. Department of State (1992-95); Director of Refugee Programs, U.S. Department of State (1989-92); Ambassador to Nigeria, U.S. Department of State (1986-89); Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa (1981-86); Director of the U.S. Aid Mission, U.S. Agency for International Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1976-78).
Languages:French (familiar).
Honors:Department of State Distinguished Honor Award (1998); President’s Distinguished Service Award (1986).
Selected Publications:"The War on Terrorism in Africa" (chapter in Africa in World Politics; reprinted with permission); Africa-China-U.S. Trilateral Dialogue (The Brenthurst Foundation, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation; December 2007); Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy (U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2002).
Current Research Projects
Past Research Projects
October 7, 2008
Podcast
Africa expert Princeton Lyman discusses current political upheaval in South Africa and the outlook for the country's economy.
See more in South Africa, Elections
June 10, 2008
Video
Watch Gareth Penny, managing director of De Beers, discuss economic development in Africa and how the private sector can faciliate sustained growth.
See more in Africa, Business & Foreign Policy, Economic Development
June 10, 2008
Audio
Listen to Gareth Penny, managing director of De Beers, discuss economic development in Africa and how the private sector can faciliate sustained growth.
See more in Africa, Business & Foreign Policy, Economic Development
November 19, 2007
Transcript
John Campbell and the Sultan of Sokoto discuss religion and politics in Nigeria.
See more in Pakistan
October 11, 2007
Audio
Listen to CFR fellows Michelle D. Gavin and Princeton N. Lyman discuss U.S. policy toward Africa with students as part of the CFR Academic Conference Call Series.
See more in Africa, U.S. Strategy and Politics
August 9, 2007
Op-Ed
The Washington Post
See more in Africa, Energy, Global Health, International Peace and Security, Terrorism
July 17, 2007
Testimony
See more in Africa, Democracy Promotion, Poverty, Foreign Aid
July 2007
Audio
Listen to Princeton N. Lyman, the Council's adjunct senior fellow for Africa policy studies, read from the newest CFR book, Beyond Humanitarianism, a compilation of Council work on Africa.
See more in Africa, Humanitarian Intervention
September 2007
Book
From Mugabe’s Zimbabwe to conflict in the Horn, Africa has moved off the back burner of U.S. foreign policy. To address the growing importance of this region, the Council on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs, the Council’s flagship magazine, present Beyond Humanitarianism, a citizen’s guide to deconstructing the complex issues and conflicts on the African continent and clarifying what’s at stake for the United States in Africa’s future.
See more in Africa, U.S. Strategy and Politics
May 17, 2007
Must Read
A group of Africa experts, including CFR's Princeton Lyman, released a joint statement on the Nigerian elections, which they call a "terrible setback for democracy."
See more in Nigeria, Elections
December 15, 2006
Transcript
Terrence Lyons, author of a new Council Special Report on conflict in the Horn of Africa, discusses the festering Somali and Ethiopian-Eritrean conflicts as they pertain to the security of the region.
See more in Horn of Africa, Eritrea, Ethiopia
October 26, 2006
Interview
Princeton N. Lyman says that despite calls for military intervention in Darfur, he does not believe that such an approach would be practical. He hopes the U.S. special envoy to Darfur will be able to get the parties back to the negotiating table.
See more in Sudan, Wars and Warfare, Peacekeeping, U.S. Strategy and Politics
September 14, 2006
Transcript
Note: Remarks as prepared for delivery
Paper for presentation to the Conference “Africa and Prospects for Hope,” University of Oklahoma, International Programs Center.
March 21, 2006
Audio
Listen to Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female head of state, speak about the challenges facing her country.
See more in Liberia
March 21, 2006
Transcript
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa, discusses her historic victory, the challenges her country faces emerging from years of civil war, and the place of women in government, in a conversation with Princeton Lyman at the 2005-2006 David Rockefeller Lecture.
See more in Liberia, Democracy and Human Rights
January 23, 2006
Audio
See more in Africa, Humanitarian Intervention
January 23, 2006
Transcript
See more in Africa, Humanitarian Intervention
January 23, 2006
Video
See more in Africa, Humanitarian Intervention
January 2006
Task Force Report No. 56
Task Force Report
This Council-sponsored Independent Task Force finds that Africa is of growing strategic importance to the United States in addition to being an important humanitarian concern. In a world where economic opportunity, security threats, disease, and even support for democracy transcend borders, a policy based on humanitarian concerns alone serves neither U.S. interests, nor Africa’s. Furthermore, the Task Force finds that critical humanitarian interests would be better served by a more comprehensive U.S. approach toward Africa; nor is it valid to treat Africa more as an object of charity than a diverse continent with partners the United States can work with to advance shared objectives.
See more in Africa, Humanitarian Intervention
January 2006
Academic Module
This Council-sponsored Independent Task Force Report argues that Africa is becoming steadily more central to the United States and to the rest of the world in ways that transcend humanitarian interests. The module supports the report's comprehensive policy recomendations with multimedia resources that explore in greater detail the most pressing issues facing Africa today.
See more in Africa, Humanitarian Intervention
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
Complete list of CFR Books.
In this report, CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi analyzes the potential use of deterrence in preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons and recommends a new approach to U.S. declaratory policy, as well as ways to improve U.S. capabilities to determine the sources of terrorist attacks.
In this report, Bruce W. MacDonald illuminates the strategic landscape of military space competition between the United States and China and highlights the dangers and opportunities the United States confronts in space.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
Gary Samore
Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1.212.434.9627
gsamore@cfr.org
Sebastian Mallaby
Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for
Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior
Fellow for International Economics
smallaby@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
+1.212.434.9753
jhill@cfr.org
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