Jon Purnell
Encyclopedia
United States Ambassador to Uzbekistan
This is a list of United States ambassadors to Uzbekistan.The United States recognized Uzbekistan on December 25, 1991, and established diplomatic relations on February 19, 1992.The embassy was opened by interim ambassador Michael Mozur on March 16, 1992....
.
Ambassador Purnell is a native of Norwood, Massachusetts
Norwood, Massachusetts
Norwood is a town and census-designated place in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,602. The community was named after Norwood, England...
. He graduated from Norwood High School in 1966. He continued his education at Brown University, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in European History in 1970. He earned a Master’s degree in Soviet Studies at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1973.
Purnell worked for the Massachusetts Audubon Society
Massachusetts Audubon Society
The Massachusetts Audubon Society, founded in 1896 by Harriet Hemenway and headquartered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Protecting the nature of Massachusetts." Mass Audubon is independent of the National Audubon Society, and in fact was founded...
as a specialist in environmental education. He maintains a strong interest in environmental issues.
He worked in Monrovia, Liberia from 1980 to 1981 and in Vienna, Austria from 1988 to 1989 as a member of the U.S. conventional arms control delegation.
Purnell's assignments in Washington have focused on Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. He first worked in Moscow from 1982-1984. He worked as special assistant to Ambassador Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
Jack Foust Matlock, Jr. is a former American ambassador, career Foreign Service Officer, a teacher, an historian, and a linguist. He was a specialist in Soviet affairs during some of the most tumultuous years of the Cold War, and served as U.S...
on the National Security Council
National Security Council
A National Security Council is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security...
in 1986.
From 1989-1992 he served as Deputy Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General at St. Petersburg, Russia.
From 1993-1996, he was the Director of the State Department's Office of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
.
Purnell’s overseas postings have included Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he was Deputy Chief of Mission from 1997-2000. He served as Deputy to the Secretary’s Acting Special Adviser for the Newly Independent States.
Between 2001-2002, he served as a Senior Inspector in the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General. He was Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Jon Purnell presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
on January 28, 2004. In the aftermath of 9/11, Uzbekistan had become an area of heightened importance to the US, owing to its border with Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, and a strategic ally in the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. His British counterpart, who had been there more than a year before him, was Craig Murray
Craig Murray
Craig John Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and former Rector of the University of Dundee....
, who writes about their encounters in his 2006 memoir Murder in Samarkand - A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror. One of the most serious events that Purnell had to deal with was the May 2005 Andijan massacre
Andijan massacre
The Andijan massacre occurred when Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops fired into a crowd of protesters in Andijan, Uzbekistan on 13 May 2005. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from between 187, the official count of the government, and 5,000 people, with most...
, in which the Uzbek government killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians. Calls from Western governments, including the US, for an international investigation prompted a major shift in Uzbek foreign policy favoring closer relations with Asian nations instead of with the West. In July of that year, the Uzbek government ordered the closing of the United States air base in Karshi-Khanabad
Karshi-Khanabad
Karshi-Khanabad is an air base in southeastern Uzbekistan, just east of Karshi. It is home to the 60th Separate Mixed Aviation Brigade of the Uzbek Air Force. A section of the base serves as a commercial airport, supporting a limited number of passenger flights.From 1954 to 1981, the 735th Fighter...
, which was accomplished by November.
Purnell departed post April 28, 2007.
Purnell has received the Department of State’s Superior Honor Award and Meritorious Honor Award. He has four children.