John W. Blaney Papers

John William Blaney was born in 1948 in Santa Monica, California. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Syracuse University in 1970, before joining the military that same year. Blaney was a United States Army Officer from 1970-1972, ultimately teaching at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

From 1973-1976, Blaney attended Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. He earned a Masters of Science in Foreign Service, which enabled him to join the United States Foreign Service in 1975.

Blaney wore many titles while building his career in the Foreign Service, including financial economist, international economist, and economic and commercial officer at the United States Treasury and State Department from 1975-1984. Blaney served with the Office of Development Finance (ODF), the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, and the Africa Bureau, among others.

He then became Legislative Assistant to the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Les Aspin, in the United States Congress from 1984-1985, and an aide to Senator Paul Simon in 1985.

Blaney was assigned to Moscow in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) with a series of titles over the course of 1985-1991: Political-Military Affairs Officer, Counselor for Economic Affairs, and Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs. He authored the initial US-USSR Nuclear Risk Reduction Center Agreement and played a key role in connecting and fostering relationships among American economic advisors with Soviet officials.

Immediately following his time in the Soviet Union working for the United States State Department, Blaney joined the Senior Seminar professional development program in 1992 and was the chairman for the Successor States to the USSR course at the Foreign Service Institute from 1992-1993.

In 1993, Blaney was appointed as the United States Deputy Representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, where he served until 1995.

Blaney became the Director for Southern Africa in 1995 until 1999, when he was appointed Charge d’Affaires (Deputy Chief of Mission) at the United States Embassy South Africa. Blaney worked in this capacity until 2002.

John Blaney is most known for his role as the United States Ambassador to Liberia, which he held from 2002-2005. Blaney oversaw United States interests and relations in Liberia throughout the Second Liberian Civil War and the subsequent peace talks, himself instrumental in achieving them by crossing through “No man’s land” in the active war zone to initiate negotiations. He received multiple awards for successfully facilitating the peace agreement, including the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the Order of Redemption Knight Great Band from the government of Liberia, and an honorary doctorate from African Methodist Episcopal University in Liberia. Blaney retired from the Foreign Service in 2005.

In his post-State Department career, Blaney worked as a consultant for Wall Street Access, Inc, from 2006-2009 and as a Senior Advisor for both BearPoint Inc (2007-2009) and Deloitte Consulting (2009-2016). Presently, he is the CEO of an entertainment company called Bridge of Gold Entertainment.

Blaney is the author of several publications, including “The Art of Strategy Creation for Complex Situations” (2015), “Wider Lessons for Peacebuilding: Security Sector Reform in Liberia” (2010), “Lessons from Liberia’s Success, Thoughts on Leadership, the Process of Peace, Security, and Justice” (2010), “Lessons from the Failure of Perestroika” (1993), and Successor States to the USSR (1995).

He is married to Robin Suppe-Blaney, whom he met during their time in Georgetown University's Master of Foreign Service program, and has two children.