Appointment of Stephen E. Palmer, Jr., as State Department Member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

The President today announced his intention to appoint Stephen E. Palmer, Jr., to be the Department of State member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He would succeed Patricia M. Derian.

Mr. Palmer is currently Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Rights. He entered the Foreign Service in 1951. Mr. Palmer served as vice consul in Nicosia, as political officer in Belgrade, consul in Sarajevo, chief of political section in Tel Aviv, political officer for Middle Eastern and North African Affairs in London, political counselor in Rawalpindi/Islamabad, and as consul general in South India, at Madras. In 1959-63 he was in the Department of State's Office of United Nations Political Affairs. He was a fellow of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University during the 1973-74 academic year. In 1974-78 Mr. Palmer was the Director of Regional Affairs for the Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Bureau. He served concurrently as Staff Director of the National Security Council's Interdepartmental Group for that area. In 1979 he was assigned to the U.S. Mission in Geneva as Minister-Counselor for Humanitarian Affairs.

He graduated from Princeton University (B.A.) and Columbia University (M.A.). He is married, has three children, and resides in Washington, D.C. He was born July 31, 1923, in Superior, Wis.