U.S. INTERESTS IN AFRICA: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

DISCUSSION WITH AMBASSADOR ROBERT G. HOUDEK

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Ambassador Houdek retired from the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in September 2007 and currently works as consultant on African affairs. From October 1997 to September 2006, he served as the National Intelligence Officer for Africa. 

 Before joining the NIC, the Ambassador served as an advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Agency for International Development (AID) on the President’s Greater Horn of Africa Initiative. During the first half of 1997, he was detailed to AID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), serving as the negotiator on a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in Eastern Zaire, working to separate legitimate Rwandan refugees from genocidaires and repatriate them to Rwanda.

 Ambassador Houdek was a Foreign Service Officer from 1962 to 1996. Among his many assignments, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Eritrea (1993-96), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1991-93), Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1988-91), Ambassador to Uganda (1985-88), Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya (1980-84) and Deputy Director of the Office of West African Affairs. He also served on the White House staff from 1969 to 1971 as a Special Assistant to then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. 

 In 1991, Ambassador Houdek was awarded the President’s Exceptional Service Medal for his role in evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the last days of the Ethiopian civil war. His honors include several Presidential Service and State Department Superior Honor Awards.