Highlights
& Quotes
In an analysis for IRC's Foreign Policy in Focus, Ann-Louise Colgan wrote that Walter Kansteiner's nomination for the State Department's Africa policy post represented one in a line of cases where the Bush administration chose an ideologue over a better prepared alternative, in this case Johnny Carson.
Wrote Colgan: "Although some portray the State Department as a haven of moderates in contrast to Pentagon and White House hardliners, Kansteiner's appointment mirrors the appointments of Otto Reich for Latin American affairs at the State Department and of John Negroponte for the position of UN representative. With Kansteiner, Bush is appointing another right-wing ideologue to a key operational position dealing with regional issues. Interestingly, neither Kansteiner's official biography nor news stories to date highlight his ties with the far-right Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).
"The IRD (http://www.ird-renew.org/) was established in 1981 to counter the influence of mainline Christian organizations such as the National Council of Churches (NCC) and its international counterpart the World Council of Churches (WCC). It established special caucuses for attacking three of the largest national Protestant denominations: the Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Methodist churches. The Institute claims to be a centrist organization, committed to building and strengthening democracy and religious liberty in the U.S. and abroad. Its history, however, displays virulent opposition to social justice movements in the developing world. It has been especially critical of U.S. religious groups supporting liberation theology in Latin America and liberation movements in Africa.
"In the late 1980s, Kansteiner was appointed Director of Economic Studies at the IRD. This extreme right think-tank sponsored his early research on South Africa and published his 1988 book on South Africa entitled Revolution or Reconciliation?
"Kansteiner's book, published just two years before Nelson Mandela's release from prison, systematically attacks the African National Congress (ANC). Throughout the book, Kansteiner characterizes the ANC as a group of violent revolutionaries engaged in an "unjustified" and "Marxist" struggle against the government, without a mandate from the South African people. While criticizing the apartheid government, he repeatedly refers to the ANC as an "equally foreboding" option for leadership. He describes the ANC movement as illegitimate and undeserving of assistance, while urging each American to "resist the temptation to become (...) a romantic revolutionary supportive of violent revolutionary tactics." Only a few years before the ANC's victory in South Africa's first democratic elections, Kansteiner denounced it as "unrepresentative." There is no public record of his retracting that opinion in deference to the judgment of South African voters who gave the ANC nearly two-thirds of the public vote in the 1994 election (effectively ending political apartheid) and more than two-thirds in the 1999 elections following Mandela's retirement at the end of his term."
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Institutional
Affiliations
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (until late 2003)
Institute on Religion and Democracy: Former program director (4)
Council on Foreign Relations: Member (1)
Center for Strategic and International Studies: Former Senior Associate (2)
Center for Strategic and International Studies New Global Economy Project: Steering Committee and International Advisory Board Member (3)
The Forum for International Policy: Former Senior Associate (3)
Government Service
U.S. Department of State: Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Africa Specialist for Policy Planning Staff (until late 2003) (1)
National Security Council: Former Director of African Affairs (1)
U.S. Department of Defense Strategic Minerals Task Force: Member (1)
Corporate Connections/Business Interests
Scowcroft Group: Founding Principal Member (1)
Executive Vice President of a commodity trading and processing company, which specialized in tropical commodities (coffee, cocoa and sugar). (1)
Education
American University: Graduate degree in International Economics (1)
Virginia Theological Seminary: Graduate degree in Ethics (1)
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