Brown, Gordon S. 1936–

PERSONAL: Born February 24, 1936, in Rome, Italy; son of G. Stewart (a journalist and executive) and Helen (Meyer) Brown; married Olivia Collins; children: Marian Brown Sprague, Louise Brown Ingold, Stewart. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Stanford University, B.A. (with honors), 1957.

ADDRESSES: Home—6225 32nd Pl. N.W., Washington, DC 20015. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, foreign service officer, 1961–96, including assignments in Lebanon, 1962–63, Iraq, 1963–66, Egypt, 1966–69, in Office of Fuels and Energy, 1971–73, in Paris, France, 1973–76, and Saudi Arabia, 1976–78, as director of Office of International Commodities, 1979–80, director of U.N. economic affairs, 1980–82, director of maritime affairs, 1982–84, director of Office of Arab Peninsula Affairs, 1984–86, deputy chief of mission at U.S. Embassy in Tunis, 1986–89, and ambassador to Mauritania, 1991–94. U.S.-Qatar Business Council, president, 1997–2000; Joint Forces Staff College, senior fellow, 2001–. Habitat for Humanity of the District of Columbia, board member, 2000–. Military service: U.S. Army, served for three years prior to 1961.

AWARDS, HONORS: Superior Honor Award, U.S. Department of State; Distinguished Civilian Service Award, U.S. Secretary of Defense.

WRITINGS:

Coalition, Coercion, and Compromise: Diplomacy of Gulf Crisis, 1990–1991, Georgetown University (Washington, DC), 1997.

The Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily, McFarland and Co. (Jefferson, NC), 2004.

Toussaint's Clause, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Gordon S. Brown told CA: "A lifetime interest in history led me from my previous career as a diplomat into writing—first about history I had experienced (the 1991 Gulf War), then history I had learned from my travels (the Normans in the south of Europe), then to more basic political-diplomatic history (Toussaint's Clause is about early U.S.-Haiti relations). I am now working on an article the early history of Washington, DC. I enjoy the research and the occasional 'eureka' moments as much as the writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Middle East Policy, June, 1998, Phebe Marr, review of Coalition, Coercion, and Compromise: Diplomacy of Gulf Crisis, 1990–1991, p. 167.