A new book bearing the signature of the University of Liberia’s Professor and Dean of Prof. Amos Claudius Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities (formerly Liberia College), University of Liberia, Dr. Josephus M. Gray, has been donated to Mrs. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 2017, Azoulay was chosen as Director-General of UNESCO to succeed Mrs. Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO.
The book entitled: The Effect of Diplomacy: Liberia-U.S.-China’s Triangular Relations was on February 17, 2022, about 11: A.M presented to UNESCO Director-General Azoulay’s office on the 6th Floor of UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Republic of France Dr. Gray’s library contains works in various areas, especially international relations, government, and politics.
Fortunately, for the past one week, Dr. Gray’s book has been gaining ground swell, breaking through some cogent including additional dimensions with emphasis on highlighted advertisement on the United States tech Yahoo Company front page by the United States tech giant Amazon to accommodate a wide array of global views and to draw public attention that will benefit existing and prospective readers. Interestingly, the front and back covers of the instructive book were displayed with the front showing the map of Africa while the back displayed a Liberian National Flay with the photo of the author of the publication, Dr. Josephus M. Gray. The latest book is produced from Dr. Gray’s doctoral dissertation. This publication dispersed the myth that certain individuals in the society that University of Liberia professors are not writing to publish books and manuscripts.
Accordingly, the Yahoo company live stream coverage has an average of 6 million visitors each week, with about 225 million yahoo mail users.
The latest publication has uniquely passed the quality check and was peer-reviewed by the United States National Copyright Office in Washington, D.C., USA. As a result of the positive check, the Registrar and Director of the Library of Congress, Shira Perlmutter recently transmitted a Certificate of Registration in recognition of Dr. Gray’s new book with the assigned registered number TX-9-003-959, international Standard Number ISBN 9781665522557 and applicant’s tracking number 828851are assigned to Dr. Gray’s new book.
Details of the book include 680 pages with ISBN-10: 1665522550, ISBN-13: 978-1665522557, and a weight: 2.36 pounds with the dimensions of 5.98 x 1.44 x 9.02 inches. The publication contains 580-page, 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 Certificates reads: This Certificate is issued under the seal of the Copyright Office in accordance with title 17, United States Code, attest that the registration has been made for identification as indicated on the certificate issued by the US Copyright national Office, adding that the information on this certificate has been made part of the Copyright Office records.
During the February 17 official trip to UNESCO headquarters in Paris for the book’s presentation ceremony, Prof. Gray went through the usual security processes as required after which he was given an official Security Pass # 54 and was escorted to the sixth-floor where he was received and ushered in the office.
Receiving the donation on behalf of UNESCO Director-General, an official of the office extolled Prof. Gray for the donation. According to him, it was a great honor for the director-General’s office to receive such a wonderful book from an author and professor, adding that the donation will widen the enrichment of the UNESCO’s library.
Professor Gray is now the author of three books coupled with numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and about 300 articles that have been published. He has also written and published in several principal areas including international relations, politics, diplomacy, foreign policy, journalism, elections, online teaching, education, democracy, religion, and crisis.
It can be recalled that in 2013, Dr. Gray donated few copies of his first book: Liberia’s Emerging Democracy: The Role of the Media and Women to the former Director-General of UNESCO, Mrs. Irina Bokova. The former Assistant Director-General for Africa Development of UNESCO, Madam Lalla Aicha Ben Barka, on behalf of Mrs. Bokova, officially communicated with Dr. Gray to commend him for the publication which highlighted the non-violent role of Liberian women in the obtainment of peace in Liberia.
During the period of the publication, several diplomatic missions in the Republic of France which received copies of Dr. Gray’s inaugural publication praised him for the book (Liberia’s Emerging Democracy ), describing the publication as instructive and resourceful.
In particular, the then Nigerian Ambassador to France extolled Dr. Gray for the book which he described as an exceptional research that detailed Nigeria’s essential role in the obtainment of peace in Liberia.
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 tests 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.
Meanwhile, the new book has earned praises from several distinguished personalities including Africa’s First elected Female President and former President of Liberia, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf; United States Ambassador to Liberia, His Excellency, Mr. Michael A. McCarthy, Secretary-General of Mano River Union (MRU), Mrs. Medina Wesseh; Honorable James Berney, Chairman, Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Senator of Maryland County, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Abdual Kargno, and Rev. Oliver Harding, Senior Librarian of Faurah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.
Other personalities who lauded the publication include Prof. Dr. Souha Akiki, President of Paris Graduate School, and Mr. Mouloud Beghdad, Relations officer of CEDS Graduate School in Paris, Republic of France.
Each copy of the book has been donated to some high-profile personalities including the Office of the President of Liberia, His Excellency Dr. George M. Weah; Hon. Jewel Howard-Taylor, Vice President of Liberia; Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former President of Liberia; Mrs. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General; Hon. Bhofal chambers, Speaker, Natonal Legislature of Liberia; His Excellency, Mr. Michael A. McCarthy, United States Ambassador to Liberia, Mrs. Medina Wesseh, Secretary-General of Mano River Union (MRU), His Excellency Mr. Ren Yisheng, Chinese Ambassador to Liberia; His Excellency Mr. Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemaya, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable James Biney, Chairman, Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Senator of Maryland County and Hon. Legherhood Julius Renner, Minister of Information and Culture Affairs.
Other personalities and institutions are Prof., Dr. Julius J. S. Nelson, Jr., President of the University of Liberia; Prof. Dr. Souha Akiki, President of Paris Graduate School and Mr. Mouloud Beghdad, Relations officer of CEDS Graduate School in Paris; Bibliotheque Nationale de France; Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Abdual Kargno and Rev. Oliver Harding, Senior Librarian of Faurah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone; Cllr. Blama, Vice President for Legal Affairs, University of Liberia; Prof. Stephen Jubwe, Dean of Faculty and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Liberia; Mr. Charles Coffey, President of Press Union of Liberia and Mr. Philip N. Wesseh, Managing Editor of the Inquirer Newspaper in Monrovia.
Dr. Gray earned his a Ph.D. (degree registration number 7021), with high distinction in International Relations and Diplomacy in 2019 from CEDS University (Legal Authorization 0755314U) located at 10 rue Sextius, Michel, Paris, Republic of France after years of hard studies and the successful defense of a 560-page dissertation in the presence of 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.
The book presents the memoir of the author (Dr. Josephus M Gray), highlighting all the schools he successfully attended from kindergarten to obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). 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 who hails from the Southeastern village of Kayken, Barclayville District, Grand Kru County. Also briefly discussed in the memoir include Dr. Gray’s 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.
Also, he 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.
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) at the Graduate level. Acting Chair, Department of English and Language Studies, 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 65 master’s theses and two doctorate dissertations over the past four academic years. Besides, he has wildly written and published over 300 research articles on contemporary issues.
Dr. Gray’s peer-reviewed publications are often cited by graduates 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. With the greatest pride of intellectual salute, indeed, we’re moving in the rank and file of authors and publishers.
