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US Ambassador James Akins —Visionary and ‘Arabist’— Dies
James Akins, the ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s, died suddenly of a heart attack on July 15. He was 83.
Akins took over as ambassador in September 1973, just a month before the Arab oil embargo began in October in retaliation for US support of Israel.
While Director of the Office of Fuels and Energy at the State Department, he was one of the first to see the approaching energy crisis, said retired ambassador Quincey Lumsden, a colleague and former Petroleum Director at the International Energy Agency.
“The most significant thing that he did, leaving aside all the personal altercations with Henry Kissinger, was foreseeing the fundamental change in global energy consumption,” said Lumsden.
“He read reports that Foreign Service officers were sending in from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran in the very early 1970s and saw that two things were happening: The amount of petroleum that the US and the industrialized West was using was growing with quantum leaps; combined with the increasing determination of the oil producing states to take over total operations of the oil companies operating in their sovereign countries.”
In 1973, Akins wrote an article in Foreign Affairs Quarterly, entitled: ‘The Wolf is at the Door.’
“It came just months before Egypt attacked Israel; we rearmed Israel and the Arab oil embargo went into effect, and by autumn, American cars were lined up at gas stations throughout the US.
Shortly thereafter, Akins was named ambassador to Saudi Arabia. “He had terrific foresight on energy and economic issues,” said Lumsden
And, at times, this foresight led Akins to criticize the US for being pro-Israel enough to alienate Arabs, while still remaining dependent on their oil.
Akins told reporters he was doing his job of promoting US interests, which did not always coincide with those of Israel.
In 1975, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger fired Akin after a series of clashes between them.
One involved Akin’s assertion — dismissed as “absurd” by Kissinger — that a top foreign policy maker, perhaps Kissinger, was pondering a US takeover of Middle East oil fields.
Akins discovered he was fired when a newspaper reported the fact. “I presume that I have stepped on a few toes,” he told reporters.
“Our foreign policy was so pro-Israel that we alienated the Arabs,” he said in 1994, “yet our energy policy, such as it was, made us dependent on Arab oil.”
Many here remember him as a leader in Middle East affairs.
“James Akins was a true giant in American diplomacy. Not only was he an imposing figure — tall, imperious and possessed of Hollywood-ish looks and bearing — but he was smart, principled and a fierce fighter for what he knew to be right,” said Dr. James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute.
“He was one who didn’t suffer fools lightly and who believed in speaking truth to power.
There were partisan opponents those who dismissed James as an ‘Arabist’ — i.e. a diplomat who understood Arab culture and cared to advance US — Arab relations. While his critics treated that as a dirty word, he did not.”
Zogby said he “was a public servant who understood that as a diplomat serving in the Arab World his primary objective was to protect and advance American national security interests and that the best way to do that was to know and care about the people with whom he was working — to be able to criticize Arab behavior when it was important to do so, and to challenge bad American policy decisions when needed.”
“ There are too few James Akins in Washington and we and the world are poorer for it,” said Zogby.
Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir, who is traveling, emailed Arab News: “Ambassador Akins was a distinguished diplomat and an astute observer of the Middle East. He was also a friend and we mourn his loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.”
Barbara Ferguson
Arab News