Michael McKinley

Peter Michael McKinley (born January 1954) is an American diplomat. A career Foreign Service Officer, McKinley served as U.S. Ambassador to Peru (2007–2010), Colombia (2010–2013), Afghanistan (2015–2016), and Brazil (2017–2018), and then as Senior Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State (2018–2019).

Mike McKinley
United States Ambassador to Brazil
In office January 20, 2017 – November 3, 2018
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Preceded by	Liliana Ayalde
Succeeded by	Todd C. Chapman
United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
In office January 6, 2015 – December 18, 2016
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	James Cunningham
Succeeded by	John R. Bass
United States Ambassador to Colombia
In office September 14, 2010 – September 1, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	William Brownfield
Succeeded by	Kevin Whitaker
United States Ambassador to Peru
In office August 27, 2007 – July 14, 2010
President	George W. Bush Barack Obama
Preceded by	Curtis Struble
Succeeded by	Rose Likins
United States Ambassador to the European Union Acting
In office June 18, 2005 – January 20, 2006
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Rockwell A. Schnabel
Succeeded by	C. Boyden Gray
United States Ambassador to Mozambique Acting
In office July 20, 1996 – December 3, 1997
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Dennis Jett
Succeeded by	Brian Curran
Personal details
Born	Peter Michael McKinley January 1954 (age 66–67) Maracaibo, Venezuela
Spouse(s)	Fatima Salces Arce
Education	University of Southampton (BA) Linacre College, Oxford (MPhil, PhD)

Early life and education

McKinley was born in Venezuela, and grew up in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and the United States.[1] McKinley earned a B.A. from Southampton University and an M.Phil. and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford.[2] He was a member of Linacre College, Oxford.[3]

Career

McKinley joined the Foreign Service in 1982. He was based in Bolivia from 1983 until 1985 and had three tours of duty at the State Department's headquarters in Washington from 1985 until 1990. He then served in the U.S. Embassy in London from 1990 until 1994 and as deputy chief of mission and chargé d'affaires at U.S. Embassies in Mozambique, Uganda, and Belgium from 1994 until 2001.[1] He was chargé d'affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique from July 1996 to December 1997.[4]

From 2001 until 2004, McKinley served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. He then was deputy chief of mission and chargé d' affaires at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels from 2004 to 2007.[1]

McKinley served as the U.S. Ambassador to Peru from 2007 to 2010 and United States Ambassador to Colombia from 2010 to 2013.[4] The United States Senate confirmed McKinley's nomination to both posts by voice vote.[5][6] As ambassador to Colombia, McKinley demanded the release of an American man who had been abducted by the militant group FARC;[7] the man was later released.[8] McKinley was U.S. Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014.[1]

On December 9, 2014, the Senate confirmed McKinley to be the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan by voice vote.[9] He presented his credentials in Kabul on January 6, 2015.[4] During a tense period of political instability in 2016, McKinley met nearly daily between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his coalition partner, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah; McKinley acted as a mediator and engaged in shuttle diplomacy to try to preserve the fragile national coalition government and stymie an upsurge in Taliban activity in Afghanistan.[10] As U.S. Ambassador, McKinley called upon the Afghan government to conduct a full, transparent investigation into the allegations of Ahmad Ishchi of Jowzjan Province, who in 2016 accused General Abdul Rashid Dostum of abducting and torturing him.[11]

McKinley served as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan until December 18, 2016, upon being appointed U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.[4] On September 8, 2016 the Senate confirmed McKinley to be the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil by a vote of 92–0.[12][13] He presented his credentials on January 20, 2017 and served until November 3, 2018, when he took up the post of Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State.[4][14]

On October 10, 2019, McKinley resigned from the State Department in protest of the failure of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to support department employees, including U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, in connection with the Trump–Ukraine scandal.[15][16][17][18] On October 16, 2019, McKinley gave deposition testimony to the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[19][20] McKinley's testimony was publicly released on November 4, 2019.[20] McKinley testified that his resignation was prompted in part by the Trump administration's attempted use of U.S. diplomatic missions "to procure negative political information for domestic purposes, combined with the failure I saw in the building to provide support for our professional cadre in a particularly trying time."[20] McKinley testified: "I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents."[17] McKinley testified that another senior official, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George P. Kent, had told him that he felt bullied by the department, that the department's legal advisor was seeking to "shut him up," and that State Department leadership was failing to timely provide document requests from Congress to him.[21] Kent provided a memo to McKinley detailing his concerns, which McKinley forwarded to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale, acting legal adviser Marik String, and Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan, but received no response.[21] McKinley's testimony, and that of other high-ranking U.S. diplomats, revealed deep discontent among the U.S. diplomatic corps with Pompeo's leadership.[22]

Published works

McKinley's Pre-revolutionary Caracas: Politics, Economy and Society 1777-1811 (1985),[23] a history of colonial Venezuela, was published by Cambridge University Press and also appeared in a Spanish edition.[1] A 1988 book review in the American Historical Review described it as "the first English-language monograph to appear on colonial Venezuela in over ten years and ... the first in language to provide a broad synthesis of the late colonial period."[23]

Personal life

He is married to Fatima Salces Arce; they have three children.[24] In addition to English, McKinley speaks Spanish, French, and Portuguese.[24]

See also

• List of current ambassadors of the United States
• Trump–Ukraine scandal

References

1. "P. Michael McKinley". United States Department of State. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
2. President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, White House Office of the Press Secretary (August 28, 2014).
3. The Grapevine, Linacre News (Autumn 2016, Issue 50), p. 16.
4. Peter Michael McKinley (1954–), Office of the Historian, United States Department of State.
5. PN426 — Peter Michael McKinley — Department of State, 110th Congress (2007-2008), Congress.gov.
6. PN1764 — Peter Michael McKinley — Department of State, 111th Congress (2009-2010), Congress.gov.
7. William Neuman, Colombian Rebels Holding an American, New York Times (July 20, 2013).
8. Mary Murray & Daniel Arkin, Colombian rebels free kidnapped former US Marine Kevin Scott Sutay, NBC News (October 27, 2013).
9. PN1992 — Peter Michael McKinley — Department of State, 113th Congress (2013-2014), Congress.gov.
10. Mujib Mashal, Senators, Visiting Afghanistan, Warn Trump Over Diplomatic Vacancies, New York Times (July 4, 2017).
11. Mujib Mashal & Jawad Sukhanyar, Afghanistan to Investigate Vice President on Charges of Assaulting a Rival, New York Times (December 27, 2016).
12. "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 114th Congress - 2nd Session". www.senate.gov. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
13. PN1500 — Peter Michael McKinley — Department of State, 114th Congress (2015-2016), Congress.gov.
14. "Farewell Message by Ambassador McKinley: Partners for a better tomorrow". US Embassy and Consulates. November 5, 2018.
15. Aaron Blake & Amber Phillips, 7 takeaways from Marie Yovanovitch's and Michael McKinley's Ukraine testimony, Washington Post (November 4, 2019).
16. DeYoung, Karen (October 10, 2019). "Senior adviser to Pompeo resigns". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
17. Fandos, Nicholas; Barnes, Julian E.; Shear, Michael D. (October 16, 2019). "Former Top State Dept. Aide Tells Impeachment Investigators He Quit Over Ukraine". The New York Times.
18. Raju, Manu; Herb, Jeremy (October 16, 2019). "Former State adviser says Pompeo was silent on Yovanovitch ouster". CNN.
19. Desiderio, Andrew; Cheney, Kyle (October 16, 2019). "Ex-Pompeo adviser tells Congress he resigned over Trump's attacks on Yovanovitch". Politico.
20. READ: Ex-State Department Adviser Michael McKinley's Testimony To Congress, NPR (November 4, 2019).
21. Michael Warren, Ex-Pompeo adviser tells lawmakers State's top Eurasia official felt 'bullied' by department, CNN (November 4, 2019).
22. Carol Morello, Testimony exposes deepening discontent with Pompeo at State Department, Washington Post (October 16, 2019).
23. Kathy Waldron, Review of McKinley, P. Michael. Pre-Revolutionary Caracas: Politics, Economy, and Society, 1777–1811 (Cambridge Latin American Studies, number 56.) New York: Cambridge University Press. 1985, in American Historical Review, Vol. 93, Issue 1, February 1988, pp. 262–263.
24. Hannah Stone, Obama nominates new ambassador to Colombia, Colombia Reports (May 7, 2010).

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• "P. Michael McKinley". www.state.gov. United States Department of State. Retrieved October 15, 2019.