The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

C areer Ambassador Herman Jay Cohen (universally known simply as Hank) received the American Foreign Service Association’s 2019 Lifetime Contribu- tions to American Diplomacy Award at an Oct. 16 ceremony in the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the Department of State. (For coverage of the ceremony, see AFSA News, p. 62. ) He is the 25th recipient of the award, given annually in recognition of a distinguished practitioner’s career and enduring devotion to diplomacy. Past recipients of this award include George H.W. Bush, Thomas Pickering, Ruth Davis, George Shultz, Richard Lugar, Joan Clark, Ronald Neumann, Sam Nunn, Rozanne Ridgway, Nancy Powell and William Harrop. Hank Cohen was born in New York City, New York, on Feb. 10, 1932. He earned a B.A. in political science from the City College of New York in 1952, and an M.A. in international relations from American University in 1962. Mr. Cohen served in the United States Army as a second lieutenant infantry platoon leader in Germany from 1953 to 1955, receiving an officer’s commission via the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps. FOCUS Mr. Cohen joined the Foreign Service in 1955 and served as a consular officer in Paris for three years. In 1958 he returned to Washington, D.C., as the first Foreign Service officer to work in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchange. He remained there until 1961. Next came six months of labor training, followed by four consecutive assignments as a labor attaché (often with ancil- lary duties as a consular, economic or political officer) in Africa: Kampala, Uganda (1962-1963); Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe, 1963-1965); Lusaka, Zambia (1965-1966); and Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1966-1969). From 1969 to 1974, Mr. Cohen directed the State Department’s Office of Central African Affairs. After three years as political counselor in Paris (1974-1977), he was named ambassador to Senegal and The Gambia, based in Dakar, where he served from 1977 to 1980. Ambassador Cohen then returned to Washington to serve as principal deputy assistant secretary of State for intelligence and research (1980-1984) and principal deputy assistant secretary for personnel (1984-1987). In 1987, Amb. Cohen was appointed as special assistant to the president and senior AFSA AWARDS: HONORING EXCELLENCE AND CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT A CONVERSATION WITH AMBASSADOR HANK COHEN 2019 RECIPIENT OF THE AWARD FOR LIFETIME CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN DIPLOMACY FS INSTITUTION Builder ANDAFRICAHAND 24 DECEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL