Dr. Naughton's Background

Dr. Naughton's Background

William A. Naughton, holds a multidisciplinary Ph.D. in Latin American Area Studies from American University, Washington, D.C., and has had over 40 years experience working on inter-American issues and problems. He lived in Latin America for 12 years, has traveled extensively in the region, worked closely with Latin Americans and served for 38 years as a Latin American specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense, producing and supervising research assessments on Latin America and advising a wide range of U.S. policymakers on Latin American perspectives and issues. During his last nine years in government, he served in the Senior Executive Service as a senior adviser to U.S. policymakers on Latin American issues. Over the years, he has worked exxtensively with other Latin American experts as well as with U.S. government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector and Latin Americans in strengthening inter-American understanding and cooperation.

In his many years of direct, personal experience, Dr. Naughton frequently found both North Americans and Latin Americans stymied in their relations by important differences in perspectives, values, interests and styles of doing things. Such differences often created barriers of misunderstanding and discord and prevented them from working as successfully together as they might have. At times, because of the subtle cultural basis for their differences, they didn't even recognize they had a problem until damage was done.

Such misunderstandings and mistaken approaches in dealing with divergent values and interests are a primary cause of government policies failing, business relations collapsing, and interpersonal ties becoming severely strained.

Dr. Naughton's extensive personal experience with Latin Americans and with U.S. officials dealing with Latin Americans convinced him that learning to recognize and deal effectively with differing perspectives and conflicting values and interests is the best--and perhaps only--means to avoid failure in inter-American relations and to achieve the trusting rapport and spirit of cooperation so essential to successful relations. This web site is built on that basic belief and is dedicated to helping both North Americans and Latin Americans achieve greater success in their relations.

Among his recent writings:

He also served as rapporteur and principal drafter for The Atlantic Council of the United States' 1996 policy paper, Defining a New Relationship: The Issue of U.S. Access to Facilities in Panama.


For more information, please sent an e-mail directly to Dr. William Naughton at WmNaughton@netscape.net:

You may also find the following of interest:

The Need for Greater Understanding in Inter-American Relations
Shared Interests in Inter-American Understandings
Conflicting Interests in Inter-American Understanding
Cultural Conflict in Inter-American Relations
Differing Styles and Business Practices in Inter-American Relations
Ten Mistakes to Avoid in Working With Latin Americans
Two Core Studies on Inter-American Understanding:


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