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Herman Jay Cohen

American diplomat (1932-)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ15454662
Source-derived summary

Herman Jay "Hank" Cohen (born February 10, 1932) is an American diplomat who served as United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1989 to 1993.

Career

Herman Jay Cohen, born in New York City on February 10, 1932, received a BA in political science from the City College of New York in 1953. He then joined the United States Army, serving until 1955. He received an MA in international relations from American University in 1962. He served in the Foreign Service as a consular officer, attaché, and political counselor until his appointment to the post of United States Ambassador to Gambia and Senegal in 1977, serving until 1980. He later served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research from 1980-1984, a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Africa on the U.S. National Security Council from 1987-1989, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1989-1993.

After leaving government, Cohen served as a senior advisor to the Global Coalition for Africa before becoming a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies for twelve years. Currently he is president and CEO of Cohen and Woods International. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Hyperdynamics Oil and Gas and as a consultant for ContourGlobal.

Bibliography

The Mind of the African Strongman.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Herman Jay Cohen” is american diplomat (1932-). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Herman, Cohen and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1932, 1989, 1993, 1953—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1932-02-10. For this dossier, Herman, Cohen and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american diplomat (1932-)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15454662. VIAF identifies the subject as 64187186. The Library of Congress control number is no90013236. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 1989, 1993 and 1953.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Herman Jay Cohen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Herman Jay Cohen primary sources, Herman Jay Cohen archive and Herman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Herman Jay Cohen”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Herman Jay Cohen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.