Daniel Fried (born 1952) is an American diplomat, who served as

assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs The Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs is a position within the United States Department of State that leads the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs charged with implementing American foreign policy in Europe and Eu ...

from 2005 to 2009 and

United States ambassador to Poland The history of ambassadors of the United States to Poland began in 1919. Until the end of World War I, Poland had been partitioned between Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. After the war and the collapse of the empires, Poland became an inde ...

from 1997 to 2000.Appointment of Ambassador Daniel Fried
''state.gov'', 2009-03-12 He also served as special envoy for Guantanamo closure and co-ordinator for

United States embargoes United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

. Fried retired from the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

in February 2017 after forty years of service.

Education

Daniel Fried was born in New York City to Gerald Fried and Judith Pines Fried. He, his sister and two brothers went to Beverly Hill High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1974 and a Master of Arts from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in 1977.

Career

Foreign Service

After earning his graduate degree, Fried entered the

Foreign Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

. He was employed in the Economic Bureau of the

from 1977 to 1979; at the U.S.

Consulate General A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

in then-

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

from 1980 to 1981; as political officer in the U.S.

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

from 1982 to 1985; and in the Office of

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Affairs at the State Department from 1985 to 1987.

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Fried was Polish desk officer at the State Department from 1987 to 1989 as

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

returned to Poland and

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

. He served as political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

from 1990 to 1993. Between 1993 and 1997 he was on the staff of the National Security Council, ultimately serving as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton. While working at the White House, Fried played a peripheral role in implementing U.S. policy on Euro-Atlantic security, including

NATO enlargement NATO is a military alliance of Member states of NATO, twenty-eight European and two North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic ...

and the Russia–NATO relationship. He was Ambassador to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

from November 1997 until May 2000. Between May 2000 and January 2001, Fried was principal deputy special adviser to the secretary of state for the

New Independent States The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

. From January 2001 to May 2005, Fried served in an advisory capacity to U.S. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

as special assistant to president and also a member of the staff of the

United States National Security Council The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Execu ...

. From the time of his

Senate confirmation Advice and consent is an English phrase frequently used in enacting formulae of bills and in other legal or constitutional contexts. It describes either of two situations: where a weak executive branch of a government enacts something previo ...

in April 2005 until early-2009, Fried served as the top U.S. diplomat responsible for Europe, with the official title

.National Academy of Public Administratio
''Prunes on Line: A Guide to Presidential Appointments''
accessed 2009-07-30 In that post, Fried helped build and maintain essential relationships with European nations and international organizations such as the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

and the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

Special envoy for Guantanamo closure

Fried served as special envoy for closure of the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

starting on May 15, 2009. As special envoy, Fried sat on an inter-agency committee chaired by Attorney General

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African America ...

that was to review the remaining captives' cases. His particular mandate was to persuade European countries as well as Yemen to accept for resettlement some of the more than 200 detainees.Rosenberg, Caro
"Fried named as Guantanamo Closure Czar"
, "The State'', May 13, 2009'' Fried's position was with the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

and he held a rank equivalent to that of an ambassador, but it has been dubbed "Guantanamo Bay

Czar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the t ...

" and "Guantanamo Closure Czar" by the certain media outlets and by public officials such as Republican House Minority Whip

Eric Cantor Eric Ivan Cantor (born June 6, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who represented Virginia's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2014. A Republican, Cantor served as House Minority ...

of Virginia who oppose the closure of the detention camp.Cantor, Eri
Cantor on Democrats' Votes to Close Guantanamo Bay
, 2009-06-18Cantor, Eri

"washingtonpost.com", 2009-07-30 Fried's job had been described as the most difficult and thankless job in Washington, due in large part to the virtual ban by Congress on resettling the prisoners on U.S. soil.Crowley, Michae
Prisoner's Dilemma
''TheNewRepublic.com'', 2009-06-17 However, in June 2009, Fried expressed confidence that the facility could be closed by January 23, 2010. However, he conceded in November 2009 that the deadline would be pushed back. According to

Michelle Shephard Michelle Shephard (born 1972) is an independent investigative reporter (previously with the ''Toronto Star'' newspaper), author and filmmaker. She has been awarded the Michener Award for public service journalism and won Canada's top newspaper pri ...

, writing in the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', Fried had a staff of just four: Tony Ricci, Mike Williams, Karen Sasahara and Brock Johnson. Ricci, his deputy, is a retired Colonel; Williams is a lawyer, Sasahara is another diplomat, and Johnson was an Obama campaign worker. During a trip to Europe in September 2009, Fried described Guantanamo detainees by saying "Some qualify as the worst of the worst, and we are going to put those on trial... if there's such a thing as an average Guanatamo detainee, it's someone who was a volunteer, a low-level trainee or a very low-level fighter in a very bad cause, but not a hardened terrorist, not an organizer - and it is those people who we are asking Europeans to take a look at."Manel, Jo
US envoy confident on Guantanamo closure
''BBC.com'', 2009-09-18 As of September 16, 2009, Hungary, France, Ireland and Portugal, Palau and Bermuda had formally agreed to take former Guantanamo detainees, and according to Fried, France, Spain, Italy and Belgium had detainees under consideration. On January 28, 2013

Charlie Savage Charles or Charlie Savage may refer to: Real people * Charles Savage (banker) (fl. 1740s), governor of the Bank of England, 1745–1747 * Charles Savage (beachcomber) (died 1813), sailor and beachcomber known for his exploits on the islands of Fi ...

, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reported that Fried would be reassigned, and wrote that according to: ''"...an internal personnel announcement ... no senior official in President Obama’s second term will succeed Mr. Fried."'' His duties would be added to those of the senior counsel in the State Department. Savage speculated that the termination of Fried's office was a sign that the Obama administration did not see closure of the prison as realistic. However, approximately five months later, the Obama administration appointed a new special envoy, Washington lawyer Clifford Sloan, to fill the chief diplomatic role, working in close coordination with a Pentagon-based counterpart, Paul Lewis. On February 8, 2018, Fried delivered the keynote address at the 21st

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Model United Nations Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...

Conference (JHUMUNC XXI).

Positions

Fried, who has admitted that "for eight years, first in the Bush administration, then in the Obama administration, I helped draft the U.S. government’s annual statements on that remembrance,"Daniel Fried
America’s Long Handwringing over the Armenian Genocide"
''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

'', April 24, 2021, accessed 2021-04-24 opposed the recognition of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

during the U. S. Congressional hearings in March 2007. He stated that the Congressional resolution "would undercut those voices emerging in Turkey who call for a truthful exploration of those events in pursuit of Turkey’s reconciliation with its own past, and with Armenia," and added, "Our fear is that passage of any such resolution would close minds and harden hearts."Kucera, Joshu
"Bush Administration Tries To Prevent Possible Rupture With Turkey"
''

EurasiaNet Eurasianet is a news organisation based at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, the United States, that provides news, information and analysis on countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus region, Russia and Southwest Asia. Launched in 2000 ...

'', 2007-03-16, accessed 2009-07-16 In mid-2008, reporter Helene Cooper of ''The New York Times'' wrote that an anonymous administration official described Fried as a foreign policy "hawk"Cooper, Helen
"U.S. Watched as a Squabble Turned Into a Showdown"
''

'', August 18, 2008. on the issue of whether the U.S. should give military aid to the nation of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in its territorial dispute with Russia.

References

External links

*Crowley, Michae
Prisoner's Dilemma
''The New Republic'', 2009-06-17. *Al Kame

''WashingtonPost.com'', 2008-03-28.(on the rivalry with Christopher Hill) *Brose, Christian
Dan Fried, real American hero
''ForeignPolicy.com'', 2009-06-01 (on the difficulty of relocating the prisoners) * , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Fried, Daniel 1952 births Living people Cornell University alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Poland Clinton administration personnel George W. Bush administration personnel Obama administration personnel Trump administration personnel Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd Class School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni United States Assistant Secretaries of State United States National Security Council staffers United States Special Envoys United States Foreign Service personnel