Joseph Ralston

In September 2006, Ralston was assigned as Special Envoy for Countering the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) by the President of the United States George W. Bush. The PKK is a Kurdish armed militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union.

In October 2006, the Kurdish National Congress of North America issued a press release demanding "the immediate resignation" of General Joseph Ralston:

On October 1, 2006, the PKK announced a unilateral cease-fire in south-east Turkey, a move that the Turkish government has rejected:

Ralston is director of the Timken Company and the URS Corporation, is on the Board of Directors of Lockheed Martin and has been Vice Chairman of the Cohen Group, since March 2003. He also sits on the advisory board of the American Turkish Council, an American-Turkish lobby group.

In 1997, Ralston was the top candidate to succeed John M. Shalikashvili as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1997 when it became public that Ralston had an extramarital affair with a married civilian CIA employee during the 1980s. Ralston said he and his wife were separated at the time while his wife said that the affair continued afterwards and led to their divorce. Defense Secretary William Cohen declared that Ralston's relationship 13 years ago would not "automatically disqualify" him from becoming the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, resulting in accusations of a double standard for high-ranking military officers while lower ranks were punished. A month earlier, the first female B-52 pilot, First Lieutenant Kelly Flinn, had been forced to resign from the Air Force with a general discharge after having been charged with adultery. Ralston eventually withdrew his name from consideration.

Ralston became Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1996. He was favored to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1997. Following revelations of an extra-marital affair with a civilian employee of the Central Intelligence Agency in the 80s, he remained vice chairman until May 2000 when he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe. He retired in March 2003 and joined the Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Since the PKK insurgency began in 1983, 30,000 people have died and over 3,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed, often by U.S. supplied planes. Critics are concerned that hard line anti-PKK policies influenced by conflicting interests would compromise the prospects for longterm solution to the Kurdish-Turkish issue.

Ralston served in the United States Air Force from 1965 to 2003. He served in operational command at squadron, wing, numbered air force and major command, as well as various staff and management positions at every level of the United States Air Force.

General Joseph Wood Ralston (born November 4, 1943) is currently the United States Special Envoy for countering the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and holds senior positions in various defense related corporations. He was previously a career officer in the United States Air Force, and served as the fourth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1996–2000) as well as Supreme Allied Commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe (2000–2003).