As the Cold War faded, Ambassador Hank Cohen, President George Bush's Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, engaged in aggressive diplomatic intervention in Africa's civil wars. In this revealing book Cohen tells how he and his Africa Bureau team operated in seven countries in crisis: Angola, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan. He candidly characterizes key personalities and events and provides a treasure trove of lessons learned and basic principles for practitioners of conflict resolution within states.

'I knew Hank Cohen best when he was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs - and a superb Assistant Secretary he was. He had a profound understanding of Africa, with all its variety, promise, and problems. This book desmonstates that he has lost none of his skill or wisdom. It demonstates, as well, that he is a writer who can reduce complicated issues to understandable prose. This is a good book - worthy of study by scholars and amateurs alike.' - Lawsrence S. Eagleburger, former US Secretary of State 'Here are wisdom and insight (and adventure) from some of the best years of US Africa policy by the man who made it...[R]equired reading for anyone interested in knowing how foreign relations should be practiced and the difficulty of doing so, not just in Africa but anywhere in the world. Indeed it is required reading for the next administration and for an informed citizen constituency on African policy.' - Professor I. William Zartman, Director, African Studies and Conflict Management Programns, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies 'This engrossing account of peacemaking in Africa during the immediate post-Cold War transition shows vividly what can be accomplished when US power and credibility are used skillfully by a seasoned professional like Hank Cohen. His seven detailed cases of African civil wars powerfully illustrate the high costs of timidity, tardiness, and obsessive concern with negotiating and getting signatures on peace deals - as well as the often indispensable role of good timing, good luck, and a top-level mandate. These cases highlight Cohen's style - direct, cards-on-the-table dealing, dispensing with procedural niceties, a pragmatic approach that includes all voices. In Intervening in Africa, Cohen reveals a reare candor among memoir writers in assessing the successes and failures of his period of service.' - Chester A. Crocker, Chairman, United States Institute of Peace, and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

HERMAN J. COHEN, a retired United States ambassador and career diplomat, is President of Cohen and Woods International, strategic consultants to African governments and to multinational corporations doing business in Africa. He has contributed chapters in several books, including African Conflict Resolution: The U.S. Role in Peacemaking (edited by David R. Smock and Chester A. Crocker) and Out of Conflict: From War to Peace in Africa (edited by Gunnar M. Sarbo and Peter Vale.