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New Atlanticist

Oct 10, 2020

Don’t abandon peace for Afghanistan

By James Cunningham, John Negroponte, Ronald Neumann, Hugo Llorens, Richard Olson, and Earl Anthony Wayne

An accelerated US withdrawal will effectively mean abandoning the fruits of two years of determined US diplomacy with the Taliban, Afghan partners in Kabul, our allies, and regional and international partners to get the Afghan parties to the negotiating table.

Afghanistan Conflict

New Atlanticist

May 1, 2020

How to make a bad situation much worse: Run from Afghanistan because of the virus

By James B Cunningham, Hugo Llorens, Richard Olson, Ronald E. Neumann, and Earl Anthony Wayne

Recent news reports suggest that US President Donald J. Trump is seriously considering withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan because of concerns relating to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). There are arguments for the United States to stay and to go, but this is a bad one on every count. Our troops will be exposed to COVID-19 wherever they are. In Afghanistan, our military presence is key to the strategy the Trump administration has been laboring to implement to foment peace.

Afghanistan Conflict

New Atlanticist

Sep 3, 2019

US-Taliban negotiations: How to avoid rushing to failure

By James Dobbins, Robert P. Finn, Ronald E. Neumann, William Wood, John Negroponte, E. Anthony Wayne, Ryan Crocker, James Cunningham, Hugo Llorens

A major troop withdrawal must be contingent on a final peace. The initial US drawdown should not go so far or so fast that the Taliban believe that they can achieve military victory. In that case, they will not make compromises for peace with other Afghan political forces.

Afghanistan Democratic Transitions

Earl Anthony Wayne is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. “Tony,” as he is known, is also a distinguished diplomat in residence and professorial lecturer at American University’s School of International Service and advisory board co-chair of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute.

A career US diplomat, Wayne was confirmed by the US Senate in 2010 as a career ambassador. He held a variety of diplomatic and policy positions during 40 years of public service.

From 2011 through July 2015, Wayne served as the US ambassador to Mexico. During his tenure, Mission Mexico helped establish the US-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue, the Mexico-US Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council, and new energy and environmental dialogues, while trade, investment, and tourism grew. Through the Merida Initiative and bilateral coordination efforts, law enforcement, security, defense, border, and consular cooperation improved. Wayne received Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle and the State Department’s Cobb Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development.

From 2009 to 2011, Wayne served in Kabul, Afghanistan, as coordinating director for development and economic affairs and then as deputy US ambassador. Wayne received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award, a Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, and the State Department’s Cordell Hull Award for Economic Achievement.

From 2006 to 2009, Wayne served as the US ambassador to Argentina, where he promoted US commercial interests, improved the US image in the face of strong anti-Americanism, and strengthened cooperation against terrorism and human and drug trafficking. He received the Paul Wellstone Anti-Slavery Ambassador of the Year Award.

From 2000 to 2006, Wayne worked for three Secretaries of State as assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs (EB). EB played a lead role in organizing major international donor and reconstruction conferences. Wayne and his team built international coalitions to block money flow to terrorists and to sanction terrorists and their financiers. His team helped steer negotiations of debt relief and economic reform and supported US companies in commercial disputes. The longest serving EB assistant secretary, he received a State Department Distinguished Honor Award and a Presidential Meritorious Service Award.

From 1996 to 2000, Wayne served as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs and as deputy assistant secretary for Europe and Canada. He promoted relations with the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He played a key role in building G8 consensus on the situation surrounding Kosovo and in organizing the 1999 Stability Pact Summit in Sarajevo, for which he received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award.

Wayne has an MPA from the JFK School of Government, Harvard University; an MA from Princeton University; an MA from Stanford University; and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Since leaving government, Wayne has written and spoken widely and worked as a consultant for several organizations, including HSBC and Kissinger Associates.  You can find his writings, interviews, and speeches here.