The United States Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia, His Excellency, Mr. Michael A. McCarthy has extolled Prof., Dr. Josephus M. Gray, Dean of Liberia College, University of Liberia for the publication of his new book, titled: The Effect of Diplomacy, with the subtitle “Liberia, U.S., China’s Triangular Relations. Copies of the book have been donated to some high profile personalities including the Office of the President of Liberia, His Excellency Dr. George M. Weah; Her Excellency Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former President of Liberia; Prof., Dr. Julius J. S. Nelson, Jr., President of the University of Liberia; His Excellency Mr. Ren Yisheng, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China accredited to Liberia, University of Sierra Leone and Fourab Bay College in Freetown and Mrs. Medina Wesseh, Secretary-General of Mano River Union (MRU).
Other personalities include Mrs. Jewel Howard-Taylor, Vice President of Liberia; Prof., Dr. Ansu Sonii, Minister of Education; Honorable James Berney, Chairman, Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Senator of Maryland County, as well as His Excellency Mr. Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemaya, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In an email addressed to Dr. Gray dated Wednesday, June 30, 2021, Ambassador McCarthy said: “Professor Gray, I received your book yesterday and have already begun reading it. I would like to be in touch after I have finished it. Thank you again for thinking of the U.S. Embassy”.
The book, published by American Tech Giant-Amazon is rated 91 among 350,000 books published this year around the world. It has been peer reviewed and uniquely passed international book publishing companies’ quality test, and is widely on sale in 161 countries in bookstores and online by booksellers and publishing entities. Interestingly, the book has not gone unnoticed by international publishing entities and booksellers around the world including Amazon, Author House, Ebay, Blackwells UK, Powells. Water stones, FNAC, Noble’s online bookstore, Biblio, Library books.google, eCampus, Booktopia, Vital Source and Dymocks.
The book details include 680 pages with ISBN-10: 1665522550, ISBN-13: 978-1665522557 and weighed: 2.36 pounds with the dimensions of 5.98 x 1.44 x 9.02 inches. The book has been peer reviewed and uniquely passed quality test, and now stands as a “milestone”, and “result-oriented”, based on proven scholarly writings and a profound studied. The back cover of the book contains the Flag of Liberia which firstly establishes the identity of the book, and secondly, demonstrates the author’s patriotism and love for country. The publication contains 580 pages, 3,123 paragraphs, 202, 916 words and 2, 470, 268 characters both single and double spacing. The book further contains 9,750 punctuation marks, 855 in-text citations, and 16,265 lines and 590 references.
The UL Professor instructive book presented to the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia was accompanied with an official letter addressed to Ambassador McCarthy. In the communication,
Dr. Gray said: On behalf of Liberia College (College of Social Sciences and Humanities) of the University of Liberia, I would like to express my deep appreciation to you for the extraordinary support that the Embassy of the United States of America to the Republic of Liberia continued to provide to the people of Liberia especially the educational sector.
The letter continued: “I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you personally and the Government of United States of America in supporting the people of Liberia in other initiatives. I am deeply humbled by the generosity of the Government of United States. He added: On behalf of the faculty and staff, I would particularly like to present an author’s copy of my latest book titled: The Effect of Diplomacy, with the subtitle Liberia, U.S., China’s Triangular Relations. Once again thank you and we look forward to continued cordial working relations with the Government of United States through you, your Excellency”.
Meanwhile, Chapter One is the general introduction and presents the background of the publication, its focus, objectives, and significance of the entire book. Chapter Two traces the history and examines Liberia, U.S. and China’s engagement and presence in Africa. It also looks at the impacts of foreign aid in Africa. Chapter Three provides the methods employed during the research including the strategy and design, data collection and analysis, as well as sampling method, structure review and limitations of the study.
Chapter Four provides a vivid picture of Liberia, U.S. and China’s triangular relations with several illustrations and tangible benefits. Chapter Five evaluates the successes and challenges of Liberian foreign relations, diplomacy and international relations. This chapter delved into the last seven decades from one regime and to the other, specifically from the presidency of ex-president Joseph Jenkins Roberts to current.
While Chapter Six provides insights of America and China’s foreign aid to Africa and also analyzed U.S. foreign aid assistance to African governments and states. This chapter compares the US foreign aid to China’s foreign aid to African government and states. Chapter Seven of the book provides details of the curse of rampant corruption and the scourge of bad governance by African leaders and governments. The publication also highlighted the role of corrupt African leaders, political bureaucracies, foreign capitalists and authoritarian officials about the abuse of resources, democracy and political power.
The two last chapters, eight and nine evaluated the significant role of contemporary Liberian media and its impact on democratic governance and national development. Going forward, these chapters argued in detailed the western media perception about Africa and how the global media have been able to dump negative news materials and information in Africa, largely information and stories broadcast about the continent have been negative. Deeply, Chapter Nine discusses Liberian political, social, and cultural system, democratic governance and rule of law in the context of strict adherence to constitutionalism.
The book, in its conclusion, also presents the memoir of the author (Dr. Josephus Moses Gray), highlighting all the schools he successfully attended from kindergarten to obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), also briefly discussed his service in both public and private sectors including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he worked as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Political Counsellor, Embassy of Liberia in Paris, France; Minister Counselor and Charge d’ Affaires, Liberia Permanent Mission to the Swiss Confederation and the United Nations in Genera, Switzerland, and Assistant Foreign Minister for Public Affairs, and a senior research fellow at the International Institute of Research for Strategic Studies in Paris, France.
After seven years (2012-2019) of hard studies and the successful defend of a 560-page dissertation, the author earned a Ph.D, with distinction-Summa Cum Laude, in International Relations and Foreign Policy Studies in November 2019 from CEDS University located at 37 Quai de Grenelle, 75015, Paris, Republic of France. The dissertation was meritoriously defended before an academic jury of five French professors. They are Prof. Dr. Faund Nohra, Associate Professor at Paris Dscartes University and Academic Director of CEDS University,(Dr. Nohra supervised Dr. Gray’s Ph.D. dissertation); Dr. Michael Strauss, Professor at CEDS University, Dr. Michael Lebedev, Professor at CEDS University and Diplomat, and prof., Dr. Souha Akiki, President of Paris Graduate School, Republic of France.
Besides, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Print Journalism and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Liberia Graduate Program in International Studies. Dr. Gray is a native born Liberian hails from the Southeastern village of Kayken, Barclayville District, Grand Kru County. He has achieved the highest level of academic mastery in his chosen field. He also holds post-graduate diplomas and certificates in Foreign Policy Studies, International Relations, Diplomacy, Journalism, Development Communication, Research Methodology, and Policy Studies from Paris, France; Genera, Switzerland; Beijing, China; Washington, D.C., USA; Cape Town, South Africa; Rabat, Morocco; Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal and Monrovia, Liberia.
Prof. Gray currently serves as Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Liberia Graduate Program in International Studies (IBB Graduate Studies), Acting Chair, Department of English and Language Studies, University of Liberia and Dean of Liberia College (College of Social Sciences and Humanities), University of Liberia.
Apart from his deanship, Dr. Gray also teaches research methodology and thesis writing courses including Comm 403 and English 431 at the undergraduate level, and POSC 613 (Seminar in Decision Making in International Politics) which is taught at the Graduate level. Previously, he taught POSC 512 (Government and Politics of Contemporary Africa), POSC 601(International Organizations and Administration) and POSC 507 (Survey of Comparative Politics).
He has supervised about 55 master’s theses and two doctorate dissertations over the past four academic years. Besides, he has wildly written and published over 200 research articles on contemporary issues. Dr. Gray’s peer-reviewed publications are often cited by graduate and doctorate graduates in their theses and dissertations. Similarly, his works are also referred and cited on the official homepage of some diplomatic missions and international research institutions. Always, he acknowledges individuals whose works are usually cited by him in his numerous publications.
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