The Peace Corps isn't political and we are not allowed to engage in politics in the country. We do have a robust embassy here and Ambassador Norland came to welcome us to the country last week. WOW. Since I'm new to all this, I was just amazed to find a committed foreign service diplomat with such credentials, experience, and SUCCESS. Take a look at his credentials! Georgia in 1993 last time they had conflict, brokered Northen Ireland peace, Afghanistan, Ubekistan, ... ( emphasis added below). If our foreign service moto was like the Hippocratic oath, ( First, Do no harm) he would be leading the effort. WOW!
http://georgia.usembassy.gov/ambbio.html
Ambassador of the United States of America to Georgia
Ambassador Richard Norland was nominated
by President Obama, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and took up his duties as
U.S. Ambassador to Georgia upon presenting his credentials to President Saakashvili
on September 10, 2012. Before becoming Ambassador to Georgia, Ambassador
Norland was International Affairs Advisor/Deputy Commandant at the National War
College. He served as U.S. Ambassador to
Uzbekistan from September 2007 to July 2010. Prior to his tour as Ambassador, he served for
two years as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Kabul,
Afghanistan. He was also Deputy Chief of
Mission in Riga, Latvia, and served in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan as a
diplomat with the U.S. Army Civil Affairs team promoting political and economic
reconstruction.Ambassador Norland was Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council for two years during the Clinton and Bush administrations, focusing in particular on the Northern Ireland peace process, as well as on the Baltic States, OSCE, and a number of key European partners. He served as Political Counselor at the American Embassy in Dublin, Ireland during the negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Ambassador Norland served from 1988-1990 as Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, USSR during President Gorbachev's tenure and the period of glasnost and perestroika. He was detailed to the Pentagon's Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he worked on policy issues following the break-up of the Soviet Union. He served in 1993 as the U.S. representative and acting mission head on the CSCE Mission to Georgia, addressing conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and later visited Chechnya in a similar capacity.
