Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities
United States Africa Command

J. Anthony Holmes, a senior U.S. diplomat, is Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities (DCMA) of United States Africa Command. Among U.S. geographic commands, AFRICOM is unique in having two co-equal deputies -- a civilian deputy and a military deputy. The DCMA’s military counterpart is the Deputy to the Commander for Military Operations (DCMO).

As U.S. Africa Command’s DCMA, Ambassador Holmes directs the command’s plans and programs associated with health, humanitarian assistance and de-mining action, disaster response, security sector reform, and Peace Support Operations. He also directs Outreach, Strategic Communication and AFRICOM’s partner-building functions, as well as assuring that policy development and implementation are consistent with U.S. Foreign Policy.

Prior to his appointment as U.S. Africa Command’s DCMA, Ambassador Holmes was the Cyrus Vance Fellow in Diplomatic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he focused on Africa and directed the Roundtable Series on African Policy Issues. From 2005 to 2007, he was the elected president of the 13,700 member American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), which is the professional association and exclusive representative of the United States Foreign Service.

Ambassador Holmes served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Burkina Faso from 2002 to 2005. Recognizing the considerable misunderstanding that existed previously, he devoted himself to improving the U.S.-Burkina Faso bilateral relationship and reducing the gaps in how the two governments saw the region and its key issues. Through his leadership, the U.S.-Burkina Faso relationship focused on mutually beneficial areas of cooperation, including trade, development assistance, education, military relations, development of democracy and human rights, and the fights against HIV/AIDS and trafficking in children. He laid the groundwork for Burkina Faso’s accession to the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, as well as expanded cooperation on a wide range of issues.

Ambassador Holmes was director of the Africa Bureau’s Economic Policy Office from 1999 to 2002, where he worked on a wide array of economic and global issues, including helping the U.S. government and Africa come to grips with the devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic; implementing the African Growth and Opportunity Act; tailoring U.S. assistance efforts to take advantage of changing circumstances in both Washington and in Africa; and working on Africa debt policy.

Ambassador Holmes has spent over half of his thirty year Foreign Service career on African issues, including service as the economic/commercial section chief in Harare and in the economic section in Nairobi. Ambassador Holmes has worked as an economic and, occasionally, commercial officer in Egypt and in Syria. He also headed the economic sections in Singapore and in Sweden and served as the deputy director of the State Department’s office of sanctions policy.

Ambassador Holmes has a BA in Comparative Religion and an MA in Economic Geography from the University of Georgia, as well as an MBA from the Thunderbird School of International Management. He and his wife have two adult sons.