John Michael McConnell

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For other people of the same name, see Michael McConnell (disambiguation).

John Michael “Mike” McConnell
2nd Director of National Intelligence
In office 20 February 2007 – January 20, 2009
President	George W. Bush Barack Obama (temporary holdover)
Preceded by	John Negroponte
Succeeded by	Dennis Blair
13th Director of the National Security Agency
In office 1992–1996
President	George H.W. Bush Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Bill Studeman
Succeeded by	Kenneth Minihan
Born	July 26, 1943(1943-07-26) Greenville, South Carolina United States
Profession	Naval / Intelligence officer
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1967–1996
Rank	Vice Admiral

John Michael “Mike” McConnell (born July 26, 1943) is a former vice admiral in the United States Navy. During his naval career he served as Director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996. His civilian career includes serving as the United States Director of National Intelligence from 20 February 2007 to 27 January 2009 during the Bush and seven days of the Obama administration.

Contents [show] 1 Early life, education, and family 2 Military and intelligence career 3 Initiatives as DNI 3.1 100 Day Plan for Integration and Collaboration 3.2 500 Day Plan for Integration and Collaboration 3.3 Updating FISA 3.4 Analytic Outreach 3.5 Updating Executive Order 12333 3.6 Information Integration and Sharing 3.7 Integrated Planning, Programming and Budgeting System 4 Years After DNI 5 Career highlights 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early life, education, and family

McConnell was born and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina.^{[1] [2] [3]} He graduated from Wade Hampton High School, and first attended college at North Greenville Junior College, later earning a B.A. in Economics from Furman University. He holds an M.P.A. from George Washington University, and is a graduate of the National Defense University and the National Defense Intelligence College (Strategic Intelligence). He is married to Terry McConnell, and together they have four children and six grandchildren.

[edit] Military and intelligence career

McConnell as a Rear Admiral, 1990.

McConnell received his commission in the United States Navy in 1967. He worked as the Intelligence Officer (J2) for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the United States Secretary of Defense during Operation Desert Shield/Storm and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He developed approaches for improving information flow among intelligence agencies and combat forces in the Gulf War.
From 1992 to 1996, McConnell served as Director of the National Security Agency (NSA). He led NSA as it adapted to the multi-polar threats brought about by the end of the Cold War. Under his leadership, NSA routinely provided global intelligence and information security services to the White House, Cabinet officials, the United States Congress, and a broad array of military and civilian intelligence customers. He also served as a member of the Director of Central Intelligence senior leadership team to address major intelligence programmatic and substantive issues from 1992 until 1996.
In 1996, McConnell retired from the Navy as a vice admiral after 29 years of service – 26 as a career Intelligence Officer. In addition to many of the nation’s highest military awards for meritorious service, he holds the nation’s highest award for service in the Intelligence Community. He also served as the Chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.

McConnell is sworn-in as DNI, February 20, 2007.

McConnell is the second person to hold the position of Director of National Intelligence. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2007, and was sworn in at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. on February 20, 2007.^[4][5] McConnell’s appointment to the post was initially greeted with broad bipartisan support, although he has since attracted criticism for advocating some of the Bush administration’s more controversial policies.^[6][7]
Before his nomination as DNI, McConnell had served as a Senior Vice President with the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, focusing on the Intelligence and National Security areas.^[8] From 2005 until his confirmation as DNI in 2007, he was also chairman of the board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the “premier not-for-profit, nonpartisan, private sector professional organization providing a structure and interactive forum for thought leadership, the sharing of ideas, and networking within the intelligence and national security communities” whose members include leaders in industry, government, and academia.^[9]
On Tuesday, August 14, 2007, McConnell visited Texas with House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes to review border security^[10], and granted a wide-ranging interview to the El Paso Times newspaper, which surprised many in the intelligence community for its candor on sensitive topics such as the recent changes in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. At the end of the interview, McConnell cautioned reporter Chris Roberts that he should consider whether enemies of the U.S. could gain from the information he just shared, leaving it up to the paper to decide what to publish. The El Paso Times put the entire, unexpurgated interview on their website on August 22, with executive editor Dionicio Flores saying “I don’t believe it damaged national security or endangered any of our people.”^[11][12]
A resurgent Taliban is back in charge over parts of Afghanistan, McConnell told CNN on February 27, 2008 in an assessment that differed from the one made January 2008 by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.^[13]
On 24 January, it was announced that McConnell would return to Booz Allen as a Senior Vice President.^[14]

[edit] Initiatives as DNI

[edit] 100 Day Plan for Integration and Collaboration

DNI Seal

Two months after taking office, McConnell created a series of initiatives designed to build the foundation for increased cooperation and reform of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). His plan, dubbed “100 Day Plan for Integration and Collaboration” focused on efforts to enable the IC to act as a unified enterprise in a collaborative manner.^[15] It focused on six enterprise integration priorities:

1. Create a Culture of Collaboration
2. Foster Collection and Analytic Transformation
3. Build Acquisition Excellence and Technology Leadership
4. Modernize Business Practices
5. Accelerate Information Sharing
6. Clarify and Align DNI’s Authorities

The 100 Day Plan accomplished the launch of a civilian joint duty program, improved security clearance processing times, increased diversity in the intelligence workforce and more information sharing across the community. A 500 Day Plan is being designed to sustain the momentum with an expanded set of initiatives and a greater level of participation. It is set to deepen integration of the Community’s people, processes, and technologies.^[15][16] The plan will address a new performance management framework that entail six performance elements that all agencies must entail.^[17]

[edit] 500 Day Plan for Integration and Collaboration

The 100 Day Plan was meant to “jump start” a series of initiatives based on a deliberate planning process with specific deadlines and measures to ensure that needed reforms were implemented. The 500 Day Plan, which started in August 2007, was designed to accelerate and sustain this momentum with an expanded set of initiatives and broader IC participation. It contains 10 “core” initiatives which will be tracked by the senior leadership in the Intelligence Community, and 33 “enabling” initiatives. The initiatives are based on the same six focus areas described in the 100 Day Plan.
The top initiatives are:

1. Treat Diversity as a Strategic Mission Imperative
2. Implement Civilian IC Joint Duty Program
3. Enhance Information Sharing Policies, Processes, and Procedures
4. Create Collaborataive Environment for All Analysts
5. Establish National Intelligence Coordination Center
6. Implement Acquisition Improvement Plan
7. Modernize the Security Clearance Process
8. Align Strategy, Budget, and Capabilities through a Strategic Enterprise Management System
9. Update Policy Documents Clarifying and Aligning IC Authorities

Director McConnell ended office near the 400th day of his 500 day plan.^[18]

[edit] Updating FISA

McConnell approached Congress in early August 2007 on the need to “modernize FISA,” claiming two changes were needed (initial efforts began in April – see the factsheet for more). First, the Intelligence Community should not be required, because of technology changes since 1978, to obtain court orders to effectively collect foreign intelligence from “foreign targets” located overseas. He also argued that telecoms being sued for violating the nation’s wiretapping laws must be protected from liability—regardless of the veracity of the charges.^[19] Shortly thereafter, McConnell took an active role ^[20] on Capitol Hill for legislation being drafted by Congress. On August 3, McConnell announced that he “strongly oppose[d]” the House’s proposal because it wasn’t strong enough.^[21] After heated debate, Congress updated FISA by passing the Protect America Act of 2007.
In September 10, 2007 testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, McConnell asserted that the recently passed Protect America Act of 2007 which eased restrictions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act had helped foil a major terror plot in Germany. U.S. intelligence-community officials questioned the accuracy of McConnell’s testimony and urged his office to correct it, which he did in a statement issued September 12, 2007. Critics cited the incident as an example of the Bush administration’s exaggerated claims and contradictory statements about surveillance activities. Counterterrorism officials familiar with the background of McConnell’s testimony said they did not believe he made inaccurate statements intentionally as part of any strategy by the administration to persuade Congress to make the new eavesdropping law permanent. Those officials said they believed McConnell gave the wrong answer because he was overwhelmed with information and merely mixed up his facts.^[22]
In that same testimony, McConnell blamed the death of a kidnapped American soldier in Iraq on the requirements of FISA and the slowness of the courts. However, a timeline later released showed that the delays were mostly inside the NSA, casting doubt again on McConnell’s truthfulness. ^[23]
McConnell, speaking to a Congressional panel in defense of the Protect America Act, said that the Russian and Chinese foreign intelligence services are nearly as active as during the Cold War.^[24] In other September 18, 2007 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, McConnell addressed the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, saying that that agency had conducted no telephone surveillance of Americans without obtaining a warrant in advance since he became Director of National Intelligence in February, 2007.^[25] McConnell called FISA a “foundational law” with “important legacy of protecting the rights of Americans,” which was passed in the era of Watergate and in the aftermath of the Church and Pike investigations. He stressed that changes should honor that legacy for privacy and against foreign threats.^[26]

[edit] Analytic Outreach

July 2008, Director McConnell issued what many regard as a bold directive (ICD 205)for analysts to build relationships with outside experts on topics of concern to the intelligence community—a recommendation highlighted in the WMD Commission Report.^[27]

[edit] Updating Executive Order 12333

Director McConnell worked with the White House to overhaul Executive Order 12333, which outlines fundamental guidance to intelligence agencies. McConnell believes the update is necessary to incorporate the intelligence community’s new organizations and new technologies and methods. The redo is expected to help the sixteen intelligence agences work together, and to reflect the post 9/11 threat environment.^[28][29][30]
In July 2008, President Bush issued Executive Order 13470, which amended 12333.^[31]

[edit] Information Integration and Sharing

As one of McConnell’s last acts as DNI, he signed ICD501 “DISCOVERY AND DISSEMINATION OR RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION WITHIN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY”to dramatically increase access to several databases held by various agencies in the community. The policy establishes rules to govern disputes when access is not granted, with the DNI as the final adjudicator to resolve disputes between organizations.He also established the Intelligence Information Integration Program (I2P) under the leadership of then-CIO Patrick Gorman and then NSA-CIO Dr. Prescott Winter. The goal of I2P was to create a shared infrastructure and family of shared services as a means to increase information access, sharing and collaboration throughout the US Intelligence Community.^[32][33]

[edit] Integrated Planning, Programming and Budgeting System

Director McConnell led the effort to create an integrated planning, programming, and budgeting system to more fully integrate and optimize the capabilities of the Intelligence Community. Previously, each agency’s budget was developed independently and aggregrated for Congress. After the issurance of ICD106 Strategic Enterprise Management, the Intellignece Community budget was more closely aligned to strategic goals and objectives, requirements, and performance criteria.

[edit] Years After DNI

In early April 2010, Admiral McConnell called for expanding the powers of the DNI by giving him tenure and creating a Department of Intelligence for the DNI to oversee and fully control to settle the continued fighting amongst agencies within various departments.^[34]

[edit] Career highlights

• USS Colleton APB 36, Mekong Delta, 1967–1968
• Naval Investigative Service, Japan, 1968–1970
• Commander of Middle East Force Operations, 1971–1974
• Executive assistant to Director of Naval Intelligence, 1986–1987
• Chief of Naval Forces Division at National Security Agency, 1987–1988
• Director of Intelligence (N2) Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, 1989–1990
• Intelligence director for Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1990–1992
• Director of NSA, 1992–1996
• Senior Vice President Booz Allen Hamilton, 1996–2006
• Director of National Intelligence, 2007–2009
• Senior Vice President Booz Allen Hamilton, 2009–Present^[35]

John Negroponte

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John Dimitri Negroponte
1st United States Director of National Intelligence
In office April 21, 2005 – February 13, 2007
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	none; newly created office
Succeeded by	John Michael McConnell
23rd United States Deputy Secretary of State
In office February 13, 2007 – January 20, 2009
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Robert Zoellick
Succeeded by	Jim Steinberg Jacob Lew
United States Ambassador to Iraq
In office May 6, 2004 – 2005
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	L. Paul Bremer (as Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance)
Succeeded by	Zalmay Khalilzad
23rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office 2001–2004
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Richard Holbrooke James B. Cunningham (acting)
Succeeded by	John Danforth
Deputy National Security Advisor
In office 1987–1989
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Colin Powell
Succeeded by	Robert Gates
United States Ambassador to the Philippines
In office 1993–1996
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Richard H. Solomon
Succeeded by	Thomas C. Hubbard
United States Ambassador to Mexico
In office 1989–1993
Preceded by	Charles J. Pilliod, Jr.
Succeeded by	James Robert Jones
President	George H.W. Bush
United States Ambassador to Honduras
In office 1981–1985
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Jack R. Binns
Succeeded by	John Arthur Ferch
Born	July 21, 1939 (1939-07-21) (age 71) London, United Kingdom
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Diana Villiers Negroponte
Children	Marina, Alexandra, John, George, Sophia
Alma mater	Yale University
Profession	Diplomat

John Dimitri Negroponte (born July 21, 1939 in London, England, United Kingdom) (pronounced /ˌnɛɡroʊˈpɒnti/) is an American diplomat. He is currently a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University’s MacMillan Center. Prior to this appointment, he served as the United States Deputy Secretary of State and as the first ever Director of National Intelligence.

Negroponte served in the United States Foreign Service from 1960 to 1997. From 1981 to 1996, he had tours of duty as United States ambassador in Honduras, Mexico, and the Philippines. After leaving the Foreign Service, he subsequently served in the Bush Administration as U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations from 2001 to 2004, and was ambassador to Iraq from June 2004 to April 2005.

Contents [show] 1 Background 2 Ambassador to Honduras (1981–1985) 3 Ambassador to the UN (2001–2004) 4 Ambassador to Iraq (2004–2005) 5 Director of National Intelligence (2005–2007) 6 Awards received 7 See also 8 References 9 External links 9.1 Favorable commentary 9.2 Criticism

[edit] Background

Negroponte was born in London to Greek parents Dimitri John and Catherine Coumantaros Negroponte. His father was a Greek shipping magnate. Negroponte attended the Allen-Stevenson School in New York City and Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1956, and Yale University in 1960. He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, alongside William H.T. Bush, the uncle of President George W. Bush, and Porter Goss, who served as Director of Central Intelligence and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under Negroponte from 2005 to 2006.^[1]

After less than a semester at Harvard Law School, Negroponte joined the Foreign Service.^[2] He later served at eight different Foreign Service posts in Asia (including the US Embassy, Saigon^[3]), Europe and Latin America; and he also held important positions at the State Department and the White House. In 1981, he became the U.S. ambassador to Honduras. From 1985 to 1987, Negroponte held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Subsequently, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, from 1987 to 1989; Ambassador to Mexico, from 1989 to 1993; and Ambassador to the Philippines from 1993 to 1996. As Deputy National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan, he was involved in the campaign to remove from power General Manuel Noriega in Panama. From 1997 until his appointment as ambassador to the UN, Negroponte was an executive with McGraw-Hill.

Negroponte speaks five languages (English, French, Greek, Spanish, and Vietnamese). He is the elder brother of Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology‘s Media Lab and of the One Laptop per Child project. His brother Michel Negroponte is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, and his other brother, George Negroponte, is an artist and was President of the Drawing Center from 2002-2007. Negroponte and his wife, the former Diana Mary Villiers (b. 14 August 1947), have five children: Marina, Alexandra, John, George and Sophia. They were married on December 14, 1976.

Mikheil Saakashvili

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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2009)

Mikheil Saakashvili მიხეილ სააკაშვილი
President of Georgia
Incumbent
Assumed office  20 January 2008
Prime Minister	Lado Gurgenidze Grigol Mgaloblishvili Nikoloz Gilauri
Preceded by	Nino Burjanadze (Acting)
In office 25 January 2004 – 25 November 2007
Prime Minister	Zurab Zhvania Zurab Noghaideli Lado Gurgenidze
Preceded by	Nino Burjanadze (Acting)
Succeeded by	Nino Burjanadze (Acting)
Minister of Justice
In office 12 October 2000 – 5 September 2001
President	Eduard Shevardnadze
Prime Minister	Avtandil Jorbenadze
Born	21 December 1967 (age 42)[1] Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union (now Georgia)[1]
Nationality	Georgian
Political party	United National Movement
Spouse(s)	Sandra Roelofs
Children	Eduard Saakashvili Nikoloz Saakashvili
Residence	Tbilisi, Georgia
Alma mater	Kiev State University Columbia University George Washington University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Georgian Orthodox
Signature

Mikheil Saakashvili (Georgian: მიხეილ სააკაშვილი, IPA: [mixɛil sɑɑkʼɑʃvili]; born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian politician, the third and current President of Georgia and leader of the United National Movement Party. Saakashvili became president on 25 January 2004 after President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in a November 2003 bloodless “Rose Revolution” led by Saakashvili and his political allies, Nino Burjanadze and Zurab Zhvania. Saakashvili was re-elected in the early Georgian presidential election of 5 January 2008. He is widely regarded as a pro-NATO and pro-USA leader who has spearheaded a series of political and economic reforms. He has been criticized for authoritarian tendencies and worsening human rights record in the country. Opposition parties have also accused him of rigging elections and using riot police to crush opposition rallies.^[2]
Some non-Georgian sources spell Saakashvili’s first name via the Russian (Михаил Саакашвили) as Mikhail. In Georgia, he is commonly known as “Misha,” a hypocorism for Mikheil.^[3]
He is married to Sandra E. Roelofs, of Dutch origin, and has two sons, Eduard and Nikoloz. Apart from his native Georgian, he speaks fluent English, French, Russian, and Ukrainian,^[4][5] and has some command of Ossetian and Spanish.^[6][7]

Contents [show]

[edit] Early life and career

Mikheil Saakashvili was born in Tbilisi,^[1] capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union, to a Georgian intelligentsia family. His father, Nikoloz Saakashvili, is a physician who practices medicine in Tbilisi and directs a local Balneological Center. His mother, Giuli Alasania, is a historian who lectures at Tbilisi State University.
During University, he served his shortened military service with the Soviet Border Troops in 1989/90. Saakashvili graduated from the Institute of International Relations (Department of International Law) of the Kiev State University (Ukraine) in 1992. He briefly worked as a human rights officer for the interim State Council of Georgia following the overthrow of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia before receiving a fellowship from the United States State Department (via the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program). He received an LL.M. from Columbia Law School in 1994 and took classes at The George Washington University Law School the following year. In 1995, he also received a diploma from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
After graduation, while on internship in the New York law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in early 1995, Saakashvili was approached by Zurab Zhvania, an old friend from Georgia who was working on behalf of President Eduard Shevardnadze to enter politics. He stood in the December 1995 elections along with Zhvania, and both men won seats in parliament, standing for the Union of Citizens of Georgia, Shevardnadze’s party.
Saakashvili was chairman of the parliamentary committee which was in charge of creating a new electoral system, an independent judiciary and a non-political police force. Opinion surveys recognised him to be the second most popular person in Georgia, behind Shevardnadze. He was named “man of the year”^{[dubious – discuss]} by a panel of journalists and human rights advocates in 1997. In January 2000, Saakashvili was appointed Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
On 12 October 2000, Saakashvili became Minister of Justice for the government of President Shevardnadze. He initiated major reforms in the Georgian criminal justice and prisons system. This earned praise^{[dubious – discuss]} from international observers and human rights activists^{[citation needed]}. But in mid-2001 he became involved in a major controversy with the Economics Minister Ivane Chkhartishvili, State Security Minister Vakhtang Kutateladze and Tbilisi police chief Ioseb Alavidze, accusing them of profiting from corrupt business deals.
Saakashvili resigned on 5 September 2001, saying that “I consider it immoral for me to remain as a member of Shevardnadze’s government.” He declared that corruption had penetrated to the very center of the Georgian government and that Shevardnadze lacked the will to deal with it, warning that “current developments in Georgia will turn the country into a criminal enclave in one or two years.”

[edit] In the United National Movement

Further information: Rose Revolution

Having resigned from the government and quit the Shevardnadze-run Union of Citizens of Georgia party, Saakashvili founded the United National Movement (UNM) in October 2001, a right-of-center political party with a touch of nationalism, to provide a focus for part of the Georgian reformists leaders. In June 2002, he was elected as the Chairman of the Tbilisi Assembly (“Sakrebulo”) following an agreement between the United National Movement and the Georgian Labour Party. This gave him a powerful new platform from which to criticize the government.
Georgia held parliamentary elections on 2 November 2003 which were denounced by local and international observers as being grossly rigged. Saakashvilli claimed that he had won the elections (a claim supported by independent exit polls), and urged Georgians to demonstrate against Shevardnadze’s government and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience against the authorities. Saakashvili’s UNM and Burdjanadze-Democrats united to demand the ouster of Shevardnadze and the rerun of the elections.
Massive political demonstrations were held in Tbilisi in November, with over 100,000 people participating and listening to speeches by Saakashvili and other opposition figures. The Kmara (“Enough!”) youth organization (a Georgian counterpart of the Serbian “Otpor“) and several NGOs, like Liberty Institute, were active in all protest activities. After an increasingly tense two weeks of demonstrations, Shevardnadze resigned as President on 23 November, to be replaced on an interim basis by parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze. While the revolutionary leaders did their best to stay within the constitutional norms, many called the change of government a popular coup dubbed by Georgian media as the Rose Revolution.
Saakashvili’s “storming of Georgia’s parliament” in 2003 “put U.S. diplomats off guard. …. [Saakashvili] ousted a leader the U.S. had long backed, Eduard Shevardnadze.”^[8] Seeking support, Saakashvili went outside the U.S. State Department. He hired Randy Scheunemann, now Sen. John McCain’s top foreign-policy adviser, as a lobbyist and used Daniel Kunin of USAID and the NDI as a full-time adviser.^[8]
On 24 February 2004 the United National Movement and the United Democrats had amalgamated. The new political movement was named the National Movement – Democrats (NMD). The movement’s main political priorities include raising pensions and providing social services to the poor, its main base of support; fighting corruption; and increasing state revenue.

[edit] Presidency

[edit] First Term

Saakashvili’s inauguration as President of Georgia

On 4 January 2004 Mikheil Saakashvili won the presidential elections in Georgia with more than 96% of the votes cast, making him the youngest national president in Europe. Saakashvili ran on a platform of opposing corruption and improving pay and pensions. He has promised to improve relations with the outside world. Although he is strongly pro-Western and intends to seek Georgian membership of NATO and the European Union, he has also spoken of the importance of better relations with Russia. He faces major problems, however, particularly Georgia’s difficult economic situation and the still unresolved question of separatism in the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Abkhazia regards itself as independent of Georgia and did not take part in the elections, while South Ossetia favours union with its northern counterpart in Russia.
Saakashvili was sworn in as President in Tbilisi on 25 January 2004. Immediately after the ceremony he signed a decree establishing a new state flag. On 26 January, in a ceremony held at the Tbilisi Kashueti Church of Saint George, he promulgated a decree granting permission for the return of the body of the first President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, from Grozny (Chechen Republic) to Tbilisi and renaming a major road in the capital after Gamsakhurdia. He also released 32 Gamsakhurdia supporters (political prisoners) imprisoned by the Shevardnadze government in 1993-94.
In the first months of his presidency, Saakashvili faced a major political crisis in the southwestern Autonomous Republic of Adjara run by an authoritarian regional leader, Aslan Abashidze, who largely ignored the central Georgian government and was viewed by many as a pro-Russian politician. The crisis threatened to develop into an armed confrontation, but Saakashvili’s government managed to resolve the conflict peacefully, forcing Abashidze to resign on 6 May 2004. Success in Adjara encouraged the new president to intensify his efforts towards bringing the breakaway South Ossetia back under the Georgian jurisdiction. The separatist authorities responded with intense militarization in the region, that led to armed clashes in August 2004. A stalemate ensued, and despite a new peace plan proposed by the Georgian government in 2005, the conflict remains unresolved. Recently, in late July 2006, Saakashvili’s government managed to deal successfully with another major crisis, this time in Abkhazia’s Kodori Gorge where Georgia’s police forces disarmed a defiant militia led by a local warlord Emzar Kvitsiani.
Although the reforms initiated by President Saakashvili are considered to have mixed success, still the rate of corruption in the country has drastically reduced. According to the World Bank accounts, Georgia is named as the number one economic reformer in the world and the country ranks as 11 in term of ease of doing business, when most of the country’s neighbours’ are in the 100s of the World Bank’s rank.^[9]
In his foreign policy, Saakashvili maintains close ties with the U.S. leadership, as well as other NATO countries, and remains one of the leaders of the GUAM organization. The Saakashvili-led Rose Revolution has been described by the White House as one of the most powerful movements in the modern history^[10] that has inspired others to seek freedom.^[11].

[edit] Economic policy

Saakashvili is a popular supporter of free market and believes that less government regulation of business is a good idea.^{[citation needed]} Georgia has become involved in international market transactions to a small extent, and in 2007 Bank of Georgia sold bonds at premium, when $200m five-year bond was priced with a coupon of 9 per cent at par, or 100 per cent of face value, after initially being priced at 9.5 per cent and investors pushed orders up to $600m.^[12]

Mikhail Gorbachev

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“Gorbachev” redirects here. For other uses, see Gorbachev (disambiguation).

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Sergeyevich and the family name is Gorbachev.

Mikhail Gorbachev Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв
Gorbachev in 1987
President of the Soviet Union
In office 15 March 1990 – 25 December 1991
Prime Minister	Nikolai Ryzhkov Valentin Pavlov Ivan Silayev
Vice President	Gennady Yanayev
Preceded by	Andrei Gromyko
Succeeded by	Office abolished
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 11 March 1985 – 24 August 1991
Preceded by	Konstantin Chernenko
Succeeded by	Vladimir Ivashko (Acting)
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 1 October 1988 – 25 May 1989
Prime Minister	Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Ryzhkov
1st Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 25 May 1989 – 15 March 1990
Preceded by	Himself as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
Succeeded by	Anatoly Lukyanov as Parliament Speaker himself as Head of State as President of the Soviet Union
Member of Politburo
In office 1980–1991
Born	2 March 1931 (age 79) Privolnoye, Russian SFSR, USSR
Birth name	Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1950–1991) Social Democratic Party of Russia (2001–2004) Union of Social Democrats (2007–present) Independent Democratic Party of Russia (2008–present)
Spouse(s)	Raisa Gorbachyova (d. 1999)
Alma mater	Moscow State University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	None (formerly Russian Orthodoxy)
Signature
Website	The Gorbachev Foundation

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲeɪvʲɪtɕ ɡərbɐˈtɕof]  ( listen); born 2 March 1931) was the sixth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991.
He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October Revolution of 1917. In 1989, he became the first and only Soviet leader to visit China since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s.
Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a peasant Ukrainian–Russian family, and in his teens operated combine harvesters on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. While at university, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and soon became very active within it. In 1970, he was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Kraikom, First Secretary to the Supreme Soviet in 1974, and appointed a member of the Politburo in 1979. Within three years of the deaths of Soviet Leaders Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko, Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo in 1985. Already before he reached the post, he had occasionally been mentioned in western newspapers as a likely next leader and a man of the younger generation at the top level.
Gorbachev’s attempts at reform as well as summit conferences with United States President Ronald Reagan and his reorientation of Soviet strategic aims contributed to the end of the Cold War, ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
In September 2008, Gorbachev and billionaire Alexander Lebedev announced they would form the Independent Democratic Party of Russia,^[1] and in May 2009 Gorbachev announced that the launch was imminent.^[2] This was Gorbachev’s third attempt to establish a political party, after having started the Social Democratic Party of Russia in 2001 and the Union of Social-Democrats in 2007.^[3]

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[edit] Early life

This section requires expansion.

Gorbachev was born on 2 March 1931 in Stavropol, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union into a peasant mixed Russian–Ukrainian family,^{[citation needed]} and in his teens operated combine harvesters on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. While at university, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and soon became very active within it.

[edit] Marriage and family

Gorbachev met his future wife, Raisa Titarenko, at Moscow State University. They married in September 1953 and moved to Stavropol upon graduation. She gave birth to their only child, daughter Irina Mihailovna Virganskaya (Ири́на Миха́йловна Вирга́нская), in 1957. Raisa Gorbacheva died of Leukemia in 1999.^[4]

[edit] Rise in the Communist Party

Gorbachev visiting a pig farm in East Germany, 10 June 1966

Gorbachev attended the important twenty-second Party Congress in October 1961, where Nikita Khrushchev announced a plan to surpass the U.S. in per capita production within twenty years. At this point in his life, Gorbachev would rise in the Communist League hierarchy and worked his way up through territorial leagues of the party. He was promoted to Head of the Department of Party Organs in the Stavropol Agricultural Kraikom in 1963.^[5]
In 1970, he was appointed First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Kraikom, a body of the CPSU, becoming one of the youngest provincial party chiefs in the nation.^[5] In this position he helped reorganise the collective farms, improve workers’ living conditions, expand the size of their private plots, and gave them a greater voice in planning.^[5]
He was soon made a member of the Communist Party Central Committee in 1971. Three years later, in 1974, he was made a Representative to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Standing Commission on Youth Affairs. He was subsequently appointed to the Central Committee’s Secretariat for Agriculture in 1978, replacing Fyodor Kulakov, who had supported Gorbachev’s appointment, after Kulakov died of a heart attack.^[5][6] In 1979, Gorbachev was promoted to the Politburo, the highest authority in the country, and received full membership in 1980. Gorbachev owed his steady rise to power to the patronage of Mikhail Suslov, the powerful chief ideologist of the CPSU.^[7]
During Yuri Andropov‘s tenure as General Secretary (1982–1984), Gorbachev became one of the Politburo’s most visible and active members.^[7] With responsibility over personnel, working together with Andropov, 20 percent of the top echelon of government ministers and regional governors were replaced, often with younger men. During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Yegor Ligachev were elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Ligachev on personnel.^{[8][page needed]}
Gorbachev’s positions within the CPSU created more opportunities to travel abroad, and this would profoundly affect his political and social views in the future as leader of the country. In 1972, he headed a Soviet delegation to Belgium,^[5] and three years later he led a delegation to West Germany; in 1983 he headed a delegation to Canada to meet with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and members of the Commons and Senate. In 1984, he travelled to the United Kingdom, where he met British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Upon Andropov’s death in 1984, the aged Konstantin Chernenko took power; after his death the following year, it became clear to the party hierarchy that younger leadership was needed.^[9] Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on 11 March 1985, only three hours after Chernenko’s death. Upon his accession at age 54, he was the youngest member of the Politburo.^[7]

[edit] General Secretary of the CPSU

Mikhail Gorbachev was the Party’s first leader to have been born after the Revolution. As de facto ruler of the USSR, he tried to reform the stagnating Party and the state economy by introducing glasnost (“openness”), perestroika (“restructuring”), demokratizatsiya (“democratization”), and uskoreniye (“acceleration” of economic development), which were launched at the 27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986.

[edit] Domestic reforms

Gorbachev’s primary goal as General Secretary was to revive the Soviet economy after the stagnant Brezhnev years.^[7] In 1985, he announced that the Soviet economy was stalled and that reorganization was needed. Gorbachev proposed a “vague programme of reform”, which was adopted at the April Plenum of the Central Committee.^[6] He called for fast-paced technological modernization and increased industrial and agricultural productivity, and he attempted to reform the Soviet bureaucracy to be more efficient and prosperous.^[7]
Gorbachev soon realized that fixing the Soviet economy would be nearly impossible without reforming the political and social structure of the Communist nation.^[10] Gorbachev also initiated the concept of gospriyomka (state acceptance of production) during his time as leader,^[11] which represented state approval of goods in an effort to maintain quality control and combat inferior manufacturing.^[12]
He made a speech in May 1985 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) advocating widespread reforms. The reforms began in personnel changes; the most notable change was the replacement of Andrei Gromyko as Minister of Foreign Affairs with Eduard Shevardnadze. Gromyko, disparaged as “Mr Nyet” in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs and was considered an ‘old thinker’. Robert D. English notes that, despite Shevardnadze’s diplomatic inexperience, Gorbachev “shared with him an outlook” and experience in managing an agricultural region of the Soviet Union (Georgia), which meant that both had weak links to the powerful military-industrial complex.^[13]
A number of reformist ideas were discussed by Politburo members. One of the first reforms Gorbachev introduced was the anti-alcohol campaign, begun in May 1985, which was designed to fight widespread alcoholism in the Soviet Union. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised, and their sales were restricted. It was pursued vigorously and cut both alcohol sales and government revenue.^[14] It was a serious blow to the state budget—a loss of approximately 100 billion rubles according to Alexander Yakovlev—after alcohol production migrated to the black market economy. The program proved to be a useful symbol for change in the country, however.^[14]
The purpose of reform, however, was to prop up communism, not transition to market socialism. Speaking in late summer 1985 to the secretaries for economic affairs of the central committees of the East European communist parties, Gorbachev said: “Many of you see the solution to your problems in resorting to market mechanisms in place of direct planning. Some of you look at the market as a lifesaver for your economies. But, comrades, you should not think about lifesavers but about the ship, and the ship is socialism.”^[15]