[2] Ambassador Blaney led successfully U.S. efforts to end Liberia's long civil war, including crossing no man's land in 2003 to negotiate an end to the fighting, which enabled the formal peace process in Ghana to conclude successfully the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Previous diplomatic assignments included Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa, Director for Southern African Affairs at the State Department, Presidential designation as the U.S. Deputy Representative to the ECOSOC of the United Nations, Minister-Counselor at U.S. Embassy Moscow (as the Soviet Union was disintegrating), and positions working on several nuclear arms control negotiations (including principal drafter and a negotiator of the U.S.-USSR Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers Agreement).

During the course of his career, Ambassador Blaney received many State Department honors as well as Presidential and foreign awards, including Liberia's Order of the Knight Great Band, and an honorary doctorate in Political Science.

He is the author/editor of Successor States to the USSR (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1995), and many journal articles including, "The Art of Strategy Creation for Complex Situations" (PRISM, 5-3, National Defense University, and elsewhere).

After retiring from public service, Blaney worked on Wall Street, and later became a senior advisor at Deloitte Consulting.