Maxwell School’s International Relations Program names new chair

Maxwell School’s International Relations Program names new chairSeptember 02, 2008Jill Leonhardtjlleonha@maxwell.syr.edu

Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs has chosen Ambassador Donald Planty as the next leader of its International Relations Program. Planty, a native of Lowville, N.Y., assumed his new role in August.

Planty served in a variety of posts and in a range of geographic locations during his tenure with the U.S. State Department, including in the embassies in Chile, the Holy See in Rome, Mexico, Norway, Panama and Spain. In his final posting, he served from 1996-99 as U.S. ambassador to Guatemala. During that time, he helped Guatemala end its 36-year-long armed internal conflict by assisting both the government and the guerrillas to reach agreement on a permanent and lasting peace through a United Nations mediation process.

In recognition of his efforts, he received the Order of the Quetzal, Grand Cross, Guatemala’s highest civilian honor. He was also presented with the U.S. Army Civilian Service Award, the highest civilian award bestowed by that service. Since retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service, Planty has maintained a successful consulting business focused on Latin America.

“We are extremely pleased to have attracted a foreign policy practitioner of Ambassador Planty’s experience, competence and dedication,” says Maxwell School Dean Mitchel Wallerstein. “His substantial hands-on international experience, as well as his management expertise, prepares him well to lead the Maxwell IR Program to an even more prominent role in the field. He also will be an excellent role model and mentor for SU’s IR students, both graduate and undergraduate, as he applies his career experience to educating future leaders for the international sector.”

The Maxwell School’s graduate International Relations Program, which was recently named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the nation’s top 10 IR master’s degree programs, combines a broad academic experience with training aimed at preparing students for international positions in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. The program attracts students from around the world and draws its faculty from among the school’s departments of political science, economics, public administration, anthropology, history, geography and sociology.