
Dane Smith Adjunct Professor School of International Service
- Degrees
- PhD, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, BA, Harvard College (magna cum laude)
- Languages Spoken
- French, Arabic; read Spanish and Italian
- Bio
- Dane F. Smith, Jr. is adjunct professor in American University’s School of International Service and at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, and a senior fellow at the Joint Forces Staff College. He is a Senior Associate in the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington D.C. On behalf of BEFORE, an international conflict prevention NGO, he led a multinational team to Guinea in September 2008 which drafted a preliminary study on possible conflict prevention initiatives. In the 1960s, he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eritrea, then part of Ethiopia. He also studied at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. Dr. Smith was U.S. Ambassador to Guinea 1990-93, U.S. Ambassador to Senegal from 1996-99, from 1995-96 was Special Presidential Envoy for Liberia, and from 1999 to 2003, he was President of the National Peace Corps Association, the alumni group for former U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers.
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Research Interests
Dr. Smith’s research interests include peace-building in Africa, the organization of peace-building in the U.S. Government, democratization in Africa, Christian peace paradigms.
Professional Presentations
- “Recent Changes in U.S. Approaches to Stabilization and Reconstruction,” Presentation to Fragile State Lecture Series, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ottawa, Canada, August 21, 2009.
- "Recent Changes in U.S. Official Peace-Building,” Presentation at Center for Strategic & International Studies, May 26, 2009.
Executive Experience
- President, National Peace Corps Association, 1999-2003.
Selected Publications
- An Expanded Mandate for Peace Building: The State Department Role in Peace Diplomacy, Reconstruction, and Stabilization. Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.
- Foreign Assistance for Peace: The U.S. Agency for International Development. Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.
- “US-Guinea Relations during the Rise and Fall of Charles Taylor,” Journal of Modern African Studies, September 2006.
Congressional Testimony
- “A Peace Corps Charter for the 21st Century,” Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, June 25, 2002.