Meet Jack Nielsen, former Police Chief of Albany New York. These days, as Deputy Police Commissioner for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) he oversees over 1,300 police advisers and officers serving as peacekeepers, from over 40 countries. Jack is from Albany, New York, where he had a law enforcement career that spanned over 30 years. He had seen and done it all.
A specialist in both community policing and the administrative functions of a major police department, Jack is one of those great public servants who have taken their skills overseas. After retiring he offered his talent to UN missions and U.S. assistance projects in Haiti and in Liberia, where he has toiled since 2007.
Jack believes in the good work he is doing but there are frustrations… more »
About the Author: Melanne Verveer serves as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues.
Over the course of a decade and through the administrations of two presidents of different political parties, the United States has maintained a consistent commitment to support the women of Afghanistan through the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council (USAWC).
USAWC is a public-private partnership established by President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2002. Since its creation, representatives of the U.S. and Afghan governments, private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations have joined hands to develop and carry out initiatives in support of Afghan women and girls. Today the Council is housed at Georgetown University. I have the privilege to co-chair the council with GU's President, John J. DeGioia.
As Senegal today celebrates the 52nd anniversary of its independence, I just returned from the inauguration of the country's new president, Macky Sall. Last Thursday, I was honored to receive a call from the White House asking me, on behalf of President Obama, to lead the official U.S. delegation attending his inauguration. Ambassador Johnnie Carson, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and General Carter Ham, Commander of U.S. Africa Command, joined me on the delegation, which was rounded out on the ground by our U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, Lewis Lukens.
The delegation represented agencies which carry out the three… more »
About the Author: Alex McPhillips serves as Press Officer and Associate Director for Digital Media at the U.S. Mission to the UN in New York.
When Ambassador Susan Rice assumed the rotating monthly Presidency of the UN Security Council from the United Kingdom this week, she began by taking a question on Twitter.
"The world is shrinking," Ambassador Rice said recently. In a world of freely moving information, we also face rapidly evolving threats that can just as easily cross borders. As President, Ambassador Rice is using her agenda-setting power to focus the Council's attention on such 21st century challenges, from the proliferation of nuclear materials to illicit arms flows to humanitarian crises.
On Sunday, April 1, Burma held parliamentary by-elections. Many Burmese people took part in the campaign and election process for the first time. In this video, taken during a press availability at the Friends of the Syrian People meeting in Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton comments on the elections and congratulates the Burmese people who participated. This video, courtesy of the U.S. East Asia and Pacific Media Hub, also includes still images from Burma's election day. You can find additional photographs and resources on U.S. Embassy… more »
DipNote is the official blog of the U.S. Department of State —a place to share stories, discuss experiences, and inspire new ideas on the important foreign policy issues of the day. more »
Across the eastern Horn of Africa, more than 11 million people -- a number greater than the populations of Houston and New York City combined -- are now in need of emergency assistance to survive. Learn more about the current crisis, including how you can help.
May 23: The State Department, through its office of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support open governance and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa. more »
May 23: Today, Russia was invited to join the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) at a ceremony hosted by its parent body, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. ã more »
![Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Tori Holt speaks with U.S. civilian police officer Jack Nielson on board an airplane in Liberia, March 2012. Nielson, the former Police Chief of Albany, New York, serves as Deputy Police Commissioner of UNMIL, the UN Mission in Liberia. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0404_NielsonIO_m.jpg)
![Afghan girls react waiting for their teacher in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 5, 2011. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0404_afghan_girls_m.jpg)
![MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes, second from right, meets with members of Senegalese civil society, March 2012. [MCC photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0404_mcc_senegal_m.jpg)
![The United Nations Security Council holds a meeting on the situation in Syria, Jan. 31, 2012 at United Nations headquarters. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0404_unsc_m.jpg)
