PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION OCTOBER 2019

FS AUTHORS: IN THEIR OWN WRITE WHAT DOES NORTH KOREA WANT?

BACK TO BRAZZAVILLE

FOREIGN SERVICE October 2019 Volume 96, No. 8

Focus on Foreign Service Authors

Cover Story 20 THEISPOT.COM/ROBERT NEUBECKER NEUBECKER THEISPOT.COM/ROBERT What Does 26 46 North Korea Want? It is hard to tell where the recent, In Their Own Write Of Related Interest unprecedented summitry will lead, We are pleased to present this year’s Here is a selection of recently but here are some guidelines by collection of books written by published books that relate to which to measure progress. Foreign Service members foreign policy, By Patrick McEachern and their families. and other topics of interest to Foreign Service readers.

Appreciation

52 The Perfect Professional: Lowell Bruce Laingen 1922-2019 By John Limbert

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 5 FOREIGN SERVICE

Perspectives

7 74 President’s Views Local Lens Departments We Are Career Professionals Côte d’Ivoire Serving Our Country By Corey A. Hancock 10 Talking Points By Eric Rubin 63 Books 9 Letter from the Editor Write By Shawn Dorman Marketplace 17 Speaking Out 65 FS Community There Is No “Complacent State” Businesses By Andrew Kelly 66 Classifieds 72 68 Real Estate Reflections Back to Brazzaville 70 Index to Advertisers By Dan Whitman

AFSA NEWS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION

55 AFSA and the Foreign Service Play Ball! 56 State VP Voice—Bidding Season Comes Around Again 57 Retiree VP Voice—Planning for the Foreign Service and AFSA Centennials 57 Announcing the 2019 AFSA Award Winners 58 AFSA On the Hill—The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 59 Russ Capps: A Life Well Lived 60 AFSA Announces National High School 59 Essay Contest Winners 60 The Foreign Service Journal Welcomes New Advertising Manager 61 AFSA Welcomes Newest Consular Fellows and 61 Foreign Commercial Service Classes 62 Inside the World of 62 Update Your Information for the 2020 AFSA Directory of Retired Members

Cover Image—THEISPOT.COM/Robert Neubecker

6 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL PRESIDENT’S VIEWS

We Are Career Professionals Serving Our Country

BY ERIC RUBIN

his is not an easy time to be We serve under difficult circum- Foreign Service, and we do so with pas- a member of the U.S. Foreign stances and take our families to tough sion and commitment. But we can only Service. Nor an easy time to be places. At times we risk our lives. What do this with your help. We welcome Tinvolved in efforts to advance do we ask in return? We ask to be and we need ideas and contributions our country’s interests and the primary treated with respect and to be recog- from our members. Please share your objectives of our profession: ensur- nized and valued for our dedication to suggestions and thoughts with us on ing America’s security and prosperity our country and for the sacrifices that our social media pages and, if you wish, and promoting peaceful resolution of we and our family members have made. through direct email communication disputes and the negotiated settlement Unfortunately, some of our col- to our board members. All of us can be of conflicts. leagues have not experienced that reached via the links on the AFSA web- Our new governing board at AFSA respect in recent months. The clear site (www.afsa.org). is determined to support our members politicization of the Bureau of Inter- While we certainly recognize the in the face of what is probably the most national Organization Affairs, as seriousness of current challenges, we significant set of challenges our Service documented by the State Department are pressing ahead with efforts to get and our institution have ever faced. Inspector General, is one glaring more positions established—or reestab- Let me start out with an appeal to all example. To date, there have been no lished—overseas; to ensure adequate Foreign Service members: Please stay. consequences for those responsible. funding for our agencies and opera- A significant percentage of our Service The lack of senior Foreign Service tions; and to support recruitment of a is eligible for immediate retirement. jobs is not just an issue for the Foreign diverse, representative workforce. Let’s Others may be debating whether they Service; it is an issue for American all keep working together to advance are able to stay under current circum- diplomacy. We currently have no active- these objectives. stances. My earnest request is that you duty Foreign Service officers serv- A special request to our colleagues stay if you can. The Foreign Service ing in any assistant secretary of State from the other foreign affairs agencies: needs you. Your country needs you. positions. This is an unprecedented please keep in touch with AFSA, and Just as the needs expe- situation with no equivalent since the share your suggestions and input. rienced professional air traffic control- Second World War. I look forward to hearing from you lers, food inspectors, forest rangers and And the number of career officers and working with you, and I thank you FBI agents, it needs experienced career serving as is at one of the for your commitment and dedication to diplomats. That means us. America’s lowest points since records have been serving our country and the ideals that role in the world remains pivotal. With- kept. This is not just about jobs for our it represents. Tough times require even out U.S. leadership, colleagues. It is about ensuring that our stronger commitment and engagement. almost everything country has experienced career profes- At this very difficult time, let’s demon- will be worse. I sionals serving in critical positions strate who we are and what we can do. believe that, sin- around the world. That is the meaning of the oath to the cerely. I hope you A word about AFSA. We have nearly Constitution that we all have taken. n do as well. 100 years of experience representing the

Ambassador Eric Rubin is the president of the American Foreign Service Association.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 7 FOREIGN SERVICE

Editor-in-Chief, Director of Publications Shawn Dorman: [email protected] www.afsa.org Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra: [email protected]

Managing Editor CONTACTS Kathryn Owens: [email protected] AFSA Headquarters: ADVOCACY Associate Editor (202) 338-4045; Fax (202) 338-6820 Director of Advocacy Cameron Woodworth: [email protected] State Department AFSA Office: Kim Greenplate: [email protected] (202) 647-8160; Fax (202) 647-0265 Publications Coordinator USAID AFSA Office: BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Dmitry Filipoff: [email protected] (202) 712-1941; Fax (202) 216-3710 Director of Finance and Facilities Business Development Manager— FCS AFSA Office: Femi Oshobukola: [email protected] Advertising and Circulation (202) 482-9088; Fax (202) 482-9087 Controller Molly Long: [email protected] Kalpna Srimal: [email protected] GOVERNING BOARD Controller, Accounts Payable and Art Director President Administration Caryn Suko Smith Hon. Eric S. Rubin: [email protected] Cory Nishi: [email protected] Editorial Board Secretary Administrative Assistant and Office Manager Alexis Ludwig, Chair Ken Kero-Mentz: [email protected] Ana Lopez: [email protected] Hon. Robert M. Beecroft Treasurer Daniel Crocker Virginia L. Bennett: [email protected] COMMUNICATIONS AND MEMBERSHIP Joel Ehrendreich State Vice President Director of Communications and Membership Harry Kopp Thomas Yazdgerdi: [email protected] Ásgeir Sigfússon: [email protected] Jess McTigue USAID Vice President Christopher Teal Senior Manager of Programs and Member Jason Singer: [email protected] Joe Tordella Engagement FCS Vice President Vivian Walker Christine Miele: [email protected] Hon. Laurence Wohlers Jay Carreiro: [email protected] Manager of Outreach and Internal Dinah Zeltser-Winant FAS Vice President Communications Michael Riedel: [email protected] Allan Saunders: [email protected] Retiree Vice President Online Communications Manager THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS John K. Naland: [email protected] Jeff Lau: [email protected] PROFESSIONALS State Representatives Coordinator of Member Relations and Events The Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), Joshua C. Archibald 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is Ashley Baine: [email protected] published monthly, with combined January-February Matthew Dolbow Coordinator of Member Recruitment and July-August issues, by the American Foreign Service Holly Kirking Loomis and Benefits Association (AFSA), a private, nonprofit organization. Kristin Michelle Roberts Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the Perri Green: [email protected] writers and does not necessarily represent the views of Tamir Waser Retirement Benefits Counselor the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries Lillian Wahl-Tuco Dolores Brown: [email protected] and submissions are invited, preferably by email. The USAID Representative Awards and Scholarships Coordinator Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, Lorraine Sherman photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. Theo Horn: [email protected] All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. FCS Alternate Representative AFSA reserves the right to reject advertising that is not Vacant LABOR MANAGEMENT in keeping with its standards and objectives. The appear- FAS Alternate Representative ance of advertisements herein does not imply endorse- General Counsel ment of goods or services offered. Opinions expressed in Mary Parrish Sharon Papp: [email protected] advertisements are the views of the advertisers and do USAGM Representative Deputy General Counsel not necessarily represent AFSA views or policy. Journal Steve Herman Raeka Safai: [email protected] subscription: AFSA member–$20, included in annual APHIS Representative dues; student–$30; others–$50; Single issue–$4.50. Senior Staff Attorneys For foreign surface mail, add $18 per year; foreign airmail, Jeffery Austin Zlatana Badrich: [email protected] $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., Retiree Representatives Neera Parikh: [email protected] and at additional mailing offices. Indexed by the Public Mary Daly Labor Management Counselor Affairs Information Services (PAIS). Philip A. Shull Colleen Fallon-Lenaghan: Email: [email protected] [email protected] Phone: (202) 338-4045 STAFF Senior Labor Management Advisor Fax: (202) 338-8244 Chief Operating Officer James Yorke: [email protected] Web: www.afsa.org/fsj Vacant Labor Management Coordinator Executive Assistant © American Foreign Service Association, 2019 Patrick Bradley: [email protected] Richard Bruner: [email protected] Grievance Counselors PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Senior Adviser, Strategic Communications Heather Townsend: [email protected] Postmaster: Send address changes to Lynne Platt: [email protected] Pete Lyon: [email protected] AFSA, Attn: Address Change Office Coordinator Law Clerk 2101 E Street NW Therese Thomas: [email protected] Vacant Washington DC 20037-2990 Aleksandar Pavlovich: [email protected] PROFESSIONAL POLICY ISSUES Director of Professional Policy Issues Julie Nutter: [email protected]

8 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Diplomats Write

BY SHAWN DORMAN

elcome to the annual adviser because “It’s very easy, actually, celebration of books by to work with me. You know why it’s easy? members of the Foreign Because I make all the decisions—they WService community. It’s don’t have to work.” This would be amus- always a treat to see what our friends and ing if it weren’t so dangerous, reflecting colleagues write and publish; and it’s as it does the absence of a functional inspiring. This year we present 46 new foreign policy process. volumes by FS members. The author of No wonder so many U.S. diplomats one of the books, FSO Patrick McEach- today ask themselves whether to stay or ern, also contributes our cover story, go. Dozens of senior-level Foreign Ser- “What Does North Korea Want?” vice officers have left since 2016, many of With titles like Lions at the , them pushed out (directly or indirectly). Masters of Mayhem, Ideology and Col- So many of the mentors for the Service lapse, Egyptian Advice Columnists, The are gone. International agreements that Back Channel, Crossing the Sahara and diplomats spent months or years to nego- Drunk at the State Department, there’s tiate have been torn up, and relations surely something for everyone. The 17 with allies strained. memoirs illustrate the unique adventures We’ve seen the recent op-eds of diplomatic life. The title of one of those from two mid-level FSOs who chose captures it best: No Ordinary Life. to leave (see Talking Points). In this In addition, the Of Related Interest edition’s Speaking Out (“There Is No section features 24 recent books that ‘Complacent State’”), FSO Andrew Kelly are not by FS authors but cover relevant responds to the public resignations subjects, including China. In the mix, with a discussion of Foreign Service you’ll find Belt and Road, China’s Dream, professionalism. Visa Lottery Chronicles, Jerusalem and Ambassador Eric Rubin looks at the Washington, and The Sit Room, as well as situation today in his President’s Views a murder mystery with an FSO protago- column and offers an appeal to the For- nist, and a primer on Russia. eign Service to “please stay.” The Foreign We hope these selections offer an Service, the country, “needs you.” enlightening and comforting break from The United States must continue to the sometimes surreal realities of Foreign engage with the world, regardless of the Service work today. To put it bluntly, we actions and policies of any one adminis- are in an era of anti- tration. And we need U.S. diplomats and diplomacy. The U.S. development professionals out in the president tells us it’ll field to do that. be no problem get- Thank you for serving. Please keep in ting a new, a fourth, touch with AFSA, and please keep the national security conversation going on these pages. n

Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 9 TALKING POINTS

Greenland: After learning of the prime minister’s opposition to routing a Russian natural- What’s the Deal? remarks, Mr. Trump announced on Twit- gas pipeline through Danish waters, our he Trump administration is planning ter that he was canceling an upcoming cooperation in the global fight against Tto open a U.S. in Green- visit to Denmark because Ms. Frederiksen terrorism, our attitude toward Russia and land for the first time in decades, the had “no interest in discussing the pur- China—and our common security and Associated Press reported Aug. 23. chase of Greenland.” environmental challenges in the Arctic In a letter to the Senate Foreign Rela- The incident left some members of region.” tions Committee, AP reported, the State the Foreign Service community aghast. Rasmussen added: “I consider Department said a consulate would be “Sometimes it is hard to believe that what Trump’s interest in Greenland as a sign “a critical component of our efforts to Trump is saying and doing on the world that his administration is taking a serious increase U.S. pres- interest in the Arctic and its future.” ence in the Arctic and would serve as FAO Suspended for an effective plat- White Nationalist Views form to advance U.S. he State Department placed Foreign interests in Green- TAffairs Officer Matthew Gebert on land.” administrative leave in August after the The State Depart- Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil ment already has a rights organization, revealed his involve- Greenlandic affairs ment with a white nationalist group. officer, who works SPLC’s Hatewatch, which monitors out of U.S. Embassy white nationalist movements, released Copenhagen, an extensive report Aug. 7 alleging according to AP, and that Gebert “oversaw the Washington, expects to open the D.C.-area chapter of a white nationalist consulate, with a organization, hosted white nationalists at staff of seven, in the his home and published white nationalist territory’s capital, propaganda online.” Nuuk, in 2020. White people should establish The news came “a country of our own, and we will retake on the heels of a this thing lickety split,” Gebert (using the diplomatic row over pseudonym “Coach Finstock”) said in a

President Donald COMMONS/NORMANEINSTEINWIKIMEDIA May 2018 episode of a white nationalist Trump’s expressed podcast, according to Hatewatch. “We interest in the United States purchasing stage is actually happening,” Nicholas need a country founded for white people Greenland from Denmark, which has Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO with a nuclear deterrent. And you watch dominion over the territory and its 55,000 and now with the Harvard Kennedy how the world trembles.” residents. “Strategically, for the United School, told Vanity Fair. “This is one of Gebert, 38, works for the State Depart- States, it would be very nice,” the presi- those days.” ment’s Bureau of Energy Resources. dent told reporters Aug. 18. “Essentially, Commenting on the abrupt cancella- “It is inconceivable he got security it’s a large real-estate deal.” tion on The Atlantic website on Aug. 29, clearance twice,” Amos Hochstein, who “Greenland is not for sale,” Denmark’s former Prime Minister of Denmark and served as special and coordinator Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told General Secretary of NATO Anders Fogh for the State Department’s international reporters the next day. “Thankfully, the Rasmussen said simply, “What a pity.” energy affairs office from 2014 to 2017 time where you buy and sell other coun- The trip would have provided, he said, and was Gebert’s boss, told Politico. “If tries and populations is over.” “an opportunity to discuss our shared Gebert was Muslim or a person of color,

10 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL it would have been caught. Neo-Nazis are not all shaved heads and tattoos, they are hiding in plain sight. I’m horrified Gebert Contemporary Quote worked for me at the State Department.” Before we sat down at the table it was already clear that these “White supremacy and all forms of were surrender talks, and it is the Afghan government and bigotry or racism are completely unac- the Afghan people that are going to pay the price. … ceptable and do not belong in our We need a right-sized force, which I think we have had now, and government,” a spokesperson for the top a long-term commitment. It’s not a high price to pay, neither in blood Republican on the House Foreign Affairs nor in treasure. I would see it as a pretty good insurance policy against a Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, told return of 9/11 to maintain that insurance policy as long as we need to. … CNN. “Lead Republican McCaul would That is the key security point in all of this. expect the State Department to hold The Taliban is no kinder or gentler than they were prior to 9/11, when accountable any employee determined they ran that country. They seek to run it again. So when they come back, to engage in that type of reprehensible it’s a pretty safe bet al-Qaida will come back with them. We’ve seen this behavior.” movie before, and to set the stage for what we saw on 9/11 to me is Gebert’s brother, Michael Gebert, told incomprehensible and indefensible. … CNN Aug. 15 that SPLC’s report was accu- Our military certainly didn’t lose the war. The politicians just got tired rate, and that he reported his sibling to of it and said, ‘Let it go.’ And that’s what we’re doing. We’ll pay the the FBI in July because he was concerned price for that down the road, as will the Afghans. about his hateful views. —Ambassador (ret.) Ryan Crocker, interviewed on “The Department of State cannot com- PRI’s The World radio program, Sept. 5. ment on personnel issues but is commit- ted to providing an inclusive workplace,” a department spokesperson told reporters. wrong. Your federal bureaucracy under as a consular officer. In an Aug. 26 this president? Call it ‘The Complacent New York Times column, she wrote: Resigning in Protest State’ instead.” “When a joins the State Depart- ormer Foreign Service officers Chuck Three years since President Trump’s ment, she sits through two presentations FPark and Bethany Milton both made election, he said, he has not seen orga- toward the end of her weekslong orienta- waves when they resigned from the State nized resistance from within. “To the con- tion class. One is an afternoon session Department and publicized their deci- trary, two senior Foreign Service officers about the State Department’s storied sions in columns in admonished me for risking my career Dissent Channel, which lets employees and The New York Times, respectively. when I signed an internal dissent cable speak out internally about foreign policy Park, a member of the 157th A-100 against the ban on travelers from several decisions free from the fear of retalia- class, joined the Foreign Service in 2010. majority-Muslim countries in January tion. How to use it, when to use it, what “I was 26, newly married and more than 2017,” he wrote. it means. a little idealistic when I set off for my first “I’m ashamed of how long it took me “The other is a much shorter presenta- diplomatic assignment almost a decade to make this decision,” Park concluded. tion, one that lasts all of 15 seconds: ‘The ago,” he wrote in an Aug. 8 Washington “My excuse might be disappointing, if day you can no longer publicly support Post column. familiar to many of my colleagues: I let your administration’s policies is the day “According to a certain type of right- career perks silence my conscience. I let you need to resign,’” Milton continued. leaning conspiracy theorist, that would free housing, the countdown to a pension “I publicly supported this administration make me part of ‘The Deep State’—a and the prestige of representing a power- longer than some and for less time than shadowy government within the govern- ful nation overseas distract me from others, and there are no easy answers to ment that puts its own interests above the ideals that once seemed so clear to me. I these questions. expressed wishes of the electorate,” he can’t do that anymore.” “Every individual has his or her own continued. But, he wrote, “they have it all Milton, meanwhile, spent 11 years commitments, own beliefs and own red

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 11 lines; there is no inherent shame or honor Because of their relatively limited range launched cruise missile with a range of in choosing to work for this administra- but fast speed, this class of missiles was more than 500 kilometers, the first such tion or not, so long as it is a conscious considered especially volatile during cri- test since the United States withdrew choice,” she wrote. “Some of the most ses: they could be used to launch nuclear from the treaty. It would have been non- noble work is being done by those who attacks allowing barely any time to react. compliant under the INF. have chosen to stay in the State Depart- As a result of the treaty, both the United In response to the test, Russian Presi- ment, advocating sensible policies or States and the Soviet Union destroyed dent Vladimir Putin on Aug. 23 ordered simply keeping the important bureau- more than 2,000 missiles by the time the the Russian Ministry of Defense to “take cracy of our lead foreign affairs agency treaty went into force on June 1, 1991. comprehensive measures to prepare a running. “Russia is solely responsible for the symmetrical answer.” “When you’re a Foreign Service officer, treaty’s demise,” Secretary of State Mike your job is to support the administration. Pompeo said in an Aug. 2 statement. OIG: Politically Without exception. Despite my per- The United States alleges that during the Motivated Harassment sonal views, I spent more than two years mid-2000s Russia developed and fielded at State working to carry out the administration’s multiple battalions of a noncompliant n Office of the Inspector General immigration and foreign policy priorities. missile, the SSC-8 ground-launched Areport, released in August, found I continued to do so until the very minute cruise missile. evidence of the mistreatment of career I handed in my badge and headed to the Washington first spelled out its con- employees in the Bureau of International airport,” she concluded. cerns with Russia over the missile in 2013, Organization Affairs (IO). “But on Friday, I cleared immigration and went on to raise the subject of the “These inappropriate practices and officially returned to life as a private violation in more than 30 engagements, included disrespectful and hostile treat- citizen. And today I have a new challenge: including at the highest levels. But, ment of employees, accusations against putting my time and energy into helping according to the State Department, “we and harassment of career employees pre- elect new leadership that serves the true were met only with obfuscation, false- mised on claims that they were ‘disloyal’ interests of all Americans, regardless of hoods and denials.” based on their perceived political views, where they were born.” China’s burgeoning military develop- and retaliation associated with conflicts (See Speaking Out, on p. 17, for a ment may also have influenced the U.S. of interest,” the report stated. response to the Chuck Park resignation decision to withdraw from the treaty. “If The Washington Post on Aug. 15 called from FSO Andrew Kelly.) Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it the report “a sweeping condemnation” and we’re adhering to the agreement, of political appointee Ambassador Kevin U.S., Russia Scrap that’s unacceptable,” President Trump Moley—assistant secretary for interna- INF Treaty said at a campaign rally last year. China tional affairs and former ambassador to he United States officially with- was never a signatory to the INF Treaty, the U.S. Mission to International Organi- Tdrew from the Intermediate-Range allowing it to build up a significant inven- zations in Geneva—and his former senior Nuclear Forces Treaty on Aug. 2. Presi- tory of missiles. adviser, Mari Stull. dent Trump had announced the admin- About 95 percent of China’s missile Ms. Stull, a former lobbyist and istration’s intention to exit the treaty in force falls within the intermediate-range blogger known online as Vino Vixen, October 2018. category, according to Admiral Harry is no longer with the department. But The INF Treaty was signed by Presi- Harris, then-commander of the U.S. Pacific while serving, she vetted the social media dent and Soviet General Command and current U.S. ambassador to accounts of senior-level Foreign Service Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Decem- South Korea. However, most Chinese mis- members in search of “signs of ideologi- ber 1987. It prohibited either party from siles are conventional; the United States cal deviation,” Foreign Policy reported in fielding conventional or nuclear ground- and Russia possess more than 90 percent June 2018. launched ballistic and cruise missiles of global nuclear weapons. The OIG found that Amb. Moley and with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, The Pentagon announced Aug. 19 Ms. Stull “frequently berated employ- eliminating an entire category of weapons. that it had tested a conventional ground- ees, raised their voices, and generally

12 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 50 Years Ago

Communication and Controversy: The Future of Foreign Service Reporting uring the past two years we require a basic change of philosophy Dhave had at least three signifi- in the Foreign Service, particularly in AFSPA cant opportunities to evaluate the its approach to reporting. afspa.org functions of the Foreign Service of The basis of this philosophy the United States. … It may be must be the recognition Clements Worldwide time to make an inquiry into of the fact that Foreign clements.com the very purpose and nature Service reporting cannot of Foreign Service reporting, be comprehensive, and Chambers Theory to ask if the function itself is that it need not be com- ChambersTheory.com as vital as we have assumed prehensive. … it to be, and to ask if the A corollary is that the Hirshorn Foreign Service traditional approach to Foreign Service must recog- (BMT) reporting is relevant to our nize that its primary duty is foreignservice.bmtc.com times. In the process, we have to face not simply to report information, but some questions about the nature of to make judgments and recommen- Patriot’s Colony the Foreign Service. … dations [emphasis in original]. … riversideonline.com/ There are a number of factors at We must also break away from patriotscolony work which may reduce the relevance our fixation on the cleared written of the “traditional” style of Foreign document in its never-changing Property Specialists, Inc. Service reporting. Most important formats. … propertyspecialistsinc.com is the information explosion and its Foreign Service officers are often associated effects. … Another factor exhorted to be daring, original, and Richey Property is the changing milieu in which we live aggressive, but the system contin- Management and operate. This is not the relatively ues to discourage those who are. richeypm.com static world of the assumed positions The only way we can have old, bold and hierarchial [sic] relationships of Foreign Service officers is to institute WJD Management wjdpm.com the colonial era, the cold war, or “Pax rewards for courage and perceptive- Americana.” … A closely related factor ness. … One approach is to upgrade is the spread of controversy itself, of the process of evaluating report- challenges to various establishments ing, and to link it to the personnel and ways of thinking. … The Foreign system. … Service is now recruiting among a The future of the Service depends generation of young people who have on our staking out new purposes, grown up in this milieu of contro- in addition to the old, and focusing versy. … on the essential and discarding the It is a reasonable lesson of history unimportant. that an organization confronted by —FSO Michael A.G. Michaud, changes of this magnitude should excerpted from his article by the not resist them, but should exploit same title in the October 1969 them to its own advantage. This will Foreign Service Journal.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 13 Site of the Month: what3words.com The report is the first of two from OIG that investigates allegations that Trump aking the rounds in some administration political appointees retali- MForeign Service circles is a ated against State Department employ- geocoding system that could save ees, Politico reported, adding that the your life. What3words calls its service second report is still being drafted. “the simplest way to communicate Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who chairs precise location,” and emergency the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and government services from South soap” that means the same thing. called the findings “offensive” and said Africa to Mongolia have begun to FSOs on the popular FS Facebook that Amb. Moley should “resign or be use it. group Trailing Houses report that fired,” according to Politico. What3words has divided the some security officers overseas Amb. Moley, in a response to the OIG entire world into squares, each three recommend the free service. But findings included as an appendix to the meters square in size. The service it’s important to determine if report, said the misconduct attributed to assigns a unique set of three words emergency services where you are him “does not represent the person I am to each of the 57 trillion squares. You located are using it yet. or have ever been.” can download the smartphone app Beyond public safety, What- “I will be the first to admit the failure to use the service anywhere, or go to 3words can be helpful to family on my part to have done more to address the What3words website. members or friends trying to find the situation,” Deputy Secretary of State For example, type in the AFSA each other at the mall, sports arena John Sullivan told IO employees at an headquarters address, 2101 E St NW or other public place in the United Aug. 29 town hall meeting, according in Washington, D.C., and the front States or abroad. Using the app, to Foreign Policy. Under Secretary for entrance comes up as “bells.hidden. you can send someone your precise Political Affairs David Hale, also at the reveal.” Put in Department of State, location, or open your address in town hall, encouraged IO employees who and the 21st Street entrance to State another mapping service such as were hurt by political retaliation to come is “larger.shift.issues.” Google Maps. What3words is avail- to him to seek remedies, Foreign Policy The three-word addresses are able in more than 35 languages. reported. “There’s absolutely no doubt easy to say and share, and are as What3words notes that its map- that what was going on was completely accurate as GPS coordinates, the ping service is two-dimensional, unacceptable,” Hale is quoted as saying. company notes. For instance, they however, so if you want someone to “Misconduct is a soft word, frankly, to use note that the GPS coordinates know your location when you are in for what has occurred.” for their headquarters in Lon- a high-rise building, you will have to don—51.520847, -0.19552100—are give your three-word coordinates plus Denies Entry a mouthful to say compared to the which floor you are on and your apart- to U.S. Codel three-word phrase “filled.count. ment or room number. srael’s Prime Minister Benjamin INetanyahu banned U.S. Representa- tives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida engaged in unprofessional behavior Moley took over leadership of the bureau, Tlaib (D-Mich.) from visiting Israel on toward staff.” They also reportedly retali- according to the OIG report, and almost Aug. 15, hours after President Trump, in ated against employees who had held all of them cited poor leadership as one a tweet, said that allowing them to visit their jobs during the Obama administra- reason that they left the bureau. “would show great weakness.” tion. Ms. Stull, the report said, referred The State Department’s response was In July, Israeli Ambassador to the to some employees as “Obama hold- included in the report. Accepting the United States Ron Dermer had said overs” or “traitors.” OIG recommendations, State indicated it that the two congresswomen would be Nearly 50 out of 300 domestic IO would submit a “corrective action plan” allowed to visit Israel “out of respect for employees have departed since Amb. within 60 days. the U.S. Congress and the great alliance

14 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL between Israel and America,” The Wash- ington Post reported Aug. 15. In announcing the ban, Prime Min- ister Netanyahu said that all members of Congress are welcome to visit, with the exception of those who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions move- ment against Israel over its alleged failure to uphold international law vis-à-vis the Palestinians. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Fried- man supported the move. “The United States supports and respects the decision of the Government of Israel to deny entry to the Tlaib/Omar Delegation,” he said in an Aug. 15 statement. “Like the United States, Israel is a nation of laws. We support Israel’s application of its laws in this case.” Reaction in the U.S. Congress was swift. “The decision of the Israeli govern- ment to deny entry to Israel by two Mem- bers of Congress is outrageous, regardless of their itinerary or their views,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress, said in an Aug. 15 statement. “I call on the Prime Minister to reconsider this decision and ensure that all Members of Congress who wish to visit Israel and/or the West Bank will be received with the proper respect and recognition they are due.” Democrats were outraged by the president’s tweet and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision, and some analysts argued that the Trump and Netanyahu administrations were turning the U.S.- Israeli relationship into a wedge issue in American politics. “What a bulldozer to drive through the bipartisan consensus on Israel. What a gift to the BDS movement, which until now, most Americans had never heard of,” former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro wrote in an Aug. 15 article for The Atlantic website. “What a self-own.”

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 15 Former FSO Sentenced The administration has said that it will the Department of State: Plan to purchase to 40 Years remain in the UPU if certain changes are crucial supplies early so that your deliver- ormer FSO Steven Hadley Hassan, adopted. Because countries are required ies reach you before mid-October. F52, of Frederick, Maryland, was to give one year’s notice before with- sentenced to 40 years in federal prison drawal, the United States could leave the Hiring Freeze Hurt U.S. for sexually abusing minors overseas to postal union as early as mid-October. Diplomacy, OIG Finds produce child pornography and for trans- Should the United States go through he federal hiring freeze imposed by porting these images to the United States, with the withdrawal, the Diplomatic Tthe Trump administration beginning the Department of Justice reported in an Post Office (known by DPO) will experi- in January 2017 had devastating effects on Aug. 13 press release. Hassan has been ence—at best—significant interruption, if the State Department, which did not lift detained since his arrest in June 2018. not outright elimination while the United the freeze even after it was lifted on other In his guilty plea, Hassan admitted to States would have to negotiate new bilat- agencies in April 2017, according to an sexually abusing young girls from 2010 eral postal service agreements with other August report by the State Department’s to 2013 in U.S. government–provided countries. Office of the Inspector General. housing in the Philippines and South While pouch deliveries will not be “Several bureaus charged with pro- Africa, where he was posted by the State affected, DPO deliveries for any For- tecting security, health and life safety Department. From 2014 to 2018, Hassan, eign Service personnel at U.S. missions reported to [the inspector general] that under a number of aliases, shared thou- overseas will be affected. The potential the hiring freeze had significant detri- sands of images of the girls to an online ramifications are obvious to all members mental effects,” said the report, which was file-sharing network. of the Foreign Service, particularly when ordered by Congress. “Steven Hassan preyed on vulnerable it comes to delivery of medical supplies According to the OIG, 96 percent of young girls, including foreign nationals, and medications. 151 embassies and surveyed while representing the United States,” AFSA has raised the possible harmful and 95 percent of 38 domestic bureaus said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. “This effects of withdrawal on Foreign Service said the hiring freeze “had a somewhat sentence demonstrates that we will find families with senior officials in State’s negative or very negative effect on overall and bring to justice those who victimize Bureau of Human Resources and has operations.” children.” been working with the Military Officers Ninety-seven percent of overseas posts Association of America, as APO services and 100 percent of domestic offices told Diplomats’ Mail at Risk If may be affected as well. OIG that the hiring freeze had a signifi- U.S. Leaves Postal Union While the legal authority to withdraw cantly negative effect on employee morale he Trump administration from the UPU lies with the executive and welfare. Tannounced a year ago, on Oct. 17, branch, AFSA is also warning Congress of The hiring freeze at State was not lifted 2018, that the United States was starting the negative implications DPO interrup- until Secretary of State Mike Pompeo the one-year withdrawal process from the tion or elimination would have for our resumed hiring in May 2018. The freeze Universal Postal Union, a 145-year-old diplomats. primarily affected eligible family mem- United Nations organization that regu- The State Department’s Bureau of bers (who experienced a 20.7 percent lates global mail delivery. Administration is well aware of this prob- decrease in employment during the As of press time, the UPU is scheduled lem and has been working to mitigate hiring freeze) and Civil Service employees to meet in late September to consider possible challenges and seek alternative (who faced a 7.1 percent decrease), the changes to the organization’s rules and solutions. AFSA advises all members to OIG found. Foreign Service employment rate structures, in particular a Trump read the recent ALDAC on this issue (19 levels decreased by 1 percent over the administration proposal to normalize STATE 76584), as well as any embassy- period. n rates on packages sent to the United issued management notices. States from heavy net exporting countries AFSA will keep following the issue and This edition of Talking Points was that have been kept artificially low for will update members as needed. In the compiled by Cameron Woodworth, decades. meantime, please heed the guidance from Dmitry Filipoff and Susan B. Maitra.

16 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL SPEAKING OUT

There Is No “Complacent State”

BY ANDREW KELLY

n Aug. 8 The Washington Post of politics. This is not complacency. It is the career Foreign Service really does ran a letter from former For- professionalism. place duty above partisan consider- eign Service Officer Chuck ations is made more difficult by former OPark explaining why he The Decision to Serve … officers who feel the need to publicly resigned from the Service and referring or Not justify their private decision to resign. to those who remain as the “complacent I was glad to see The Washington Don’t get me wrong. It’s a free coun- state.” Post publish Ambassador Dennis Hays’ try. Former FSOs have a right to go on Chuck and I joined the U.S. Foreign succinct rebuttal to Chuck’s letter. network news to speak about why they Service together and were part of the However, there is a danger that much of resigned. Whether they should do so is same A-100 class, the five-week crash the public will think many, if not most, another matter. course in diplomacy given to all newly FSOs feel the same as Chuck. commissioned Foreign Service officers. Unfortunately, few Americans even Understanding the FS One of the first things impressed upon know that the U.S. Foreign Service It is essential that the American us was that American diplomats serve exists, at least not until a former FSO public understand the Foreign Service their country by implementing the pops up on the news. I suspect that and its vital work for the country. I’m a foreign policy of the president of the when many people hear that an FSO former Army officer, and suggest that United States; and in the event we could has resigned, they imagine a pinstripe- when a Chuck Park resignation, or some not do that, it was incumbent on us to suited cookie-pusher in Paris or some other news item, causes Americans to resign. bureaucrat in D.C. handing off a stack ask, “What is an FSO anyway?” we as a Chuck is right to leave the Service of papers to a colleague. As FSJ readers service stand to benefit by explaining given that he is no longer comfortable know, that couldn’t be further from the our similarity to another better-known representing the U.S. government. Since truth. service, the U.S. military. 2017 a number of FSOs have made The work we do as Foreign Service Few Americans outside the D.C. similar decisions, either resigning or officers, both abroad and back home, Beltway know an FSO, but most people retiring from the Foreign Service. Some is incredibly important. If we don’t do know someone who served in uniform. have shared their reasons for leaving in it, it doesn’t get done. And while every Americans understand and trust the op-eds, cable news interviews and even FSO must answer his or her conscience military out of a general appreciation an appearance on a comedy program. when it comes to deciding to serve, the of its mission and a respect for the In this regard, Chuck’s op-ed is unique decision is not, as Chuck implies, as professionalism and competence of our only in the harshness of his assessment simple as weighing one’s political con- servicemen and women. of those of us who remain. victions against “perks and a pension.” The fact is that the armed services However, he is wrong in supposing For most of us, there is also the question and the U.S. Foreign Service are similar, that the career Foreign Service is com- of duty. especially when it comes to our officer placent in anything. Foreign Service Convincing the American people corps. Both swear exactly the same oath officers have an obligation to stay out and politically appointed officials that to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Most people who enter Andrew Kelly joined the Foreign Service in 2010. He is currently the political- armed or foreign service, and nearly all economic section chief in U.S. Consulate General Surabaya. He previously who make it a career, do so at least partly served in Manila and Sofia. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he served out of patriotism. two tours in Iraq as an Army officer in the 82nd Airborne Division. His Drawn from several federal agencies, “Reforming Entry-Level Assignments” appeared in the July-August 2016 FSJ. but primarily the Department of State,

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 17 Convincing the American people and politically tions, began working the phones in a appointed officials that the career Foreign foreign language. Within minutes I was Service really does place duty above partisan talking to a woman sheltering in one of the bombed churches. Within half an considerations is made more difficult by hour I was able to give the department former officers who feel the need to publicly a “good enough” appraisal of what was justify their private decision to resign. going on. In the days and weeks that followed, it was cables researched and drafted by my team that provided State and FSOs are the commissioned members The Work We Do other agencies a steady flow of infor- of the U.S. Foreign Service, America’s In the same way that “every Marine is mation and analysis pertaining to the . Required by Congress a rifleman,” every FSO is responsible for attacks. to spend the bulk of our career overseas, representing the United States govern- Recently a colleague and I, both we serve in U.S. embassies and - ment in an official capacity. As in the Army veterans who served in Iraq, cried ates around the world, and at head- military, our officer corps is divided as he recounted searching through quarters in Washington, D.C. Contrary into specialties whose everyday duties hospitals and morgues for a young to popular belief, a majority of U.S. can range from the prosaic to the rivet- American who was wounded during an are career FSOs who rose ing—and, more often than not, those even more devastating attack. My friend through the ranks. duties have little or nothing to do with found this young woman, paralyzed and While we don’t wear uniforms, the a particular administration’s policies or intubated, tucked away in the corner of modern Foreign Service follows an politics. an overwhelmed emergency room. “up or out” promotion system nearly Take me, for example. In my job, the Separated from her traveling identical to the U.S. military. We share first thing I do every day is go through companions during the attack, she similar institutional cultures, similar the rigorous, but not particularly awe- had been alone for many hours while missions and an equivalent system of inspiring, steps of unlocking a remote doctors worked around her, her identity rank-in-person. If that weren’t enough, U.S. diplomatic facility so the rest of the unknown. She wept tears of relief when military veterans make up about a fifth staff can report to work. Then I check my friend found her, gripped her hand, of Foreign Service personnel. whatever requests came in from the asked her to confirm her name and Our perks and compensation are State Department overnight and decide whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry. The similar to the military, and we also sac- how much of my to-do list must be ambassador knows where you are, and rifice. Everywhere the military goes, we sacrificed to addressing these new tasks. we’re going to get you home.” go—but we also go, and live, where the If I’m lucky, during the afternoon I will Sadly, American citizens were killed military does not. Many of our postings have time to meet with a local official or in that attack. It was career FSOs who are to places where you can’t drink the finish some of my required reports. helped the grieving families get their water. Just under a fifth are to places so There are also times when what I do loved ones home. We are also often dangerous that we are not allowed to is deadly serious—like when coordi- the only people visiting Americans bring our families. nated suicide attacks ripped through imprisoned overseas and those who Foreign Service officers and special- churches a short way from the consulate have found themselves unexpectedly ists are targets for assassination and and my family’s apartment. Washington hospitalized or in other dire straits. And have been killed in terrorist attacks and needed answers immediately. Who was it is critical insights from FSOs scattered while serving in war zones. Others have being targeted? Were any Americans across the globe that make up most of perished in plane crashes, shipwrecks, injured? Had police neutralized the the classified foreign affairs briefing natural disasters and from tropical threat, or were attackers still at large? material presented to our elected lead- disease—all occupational hazards in our My colleagues and I, the only Ameri- ers. line of work. cans equipped to answer those ques-

18 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Speaking Out is the Journal’s opinion forum, a place for lively discussion of issues affecting the U.S. Foreign Service and American diplomacy. The views expressed are those of the author; their publication here does not imply endorsement by the American Foreign Service Association. Responses are welcome; send to [email protected].

The Question of Duty Career diplomacy is a vocation, and we accept the challenges of that vocation alongside the rewards. Voca- tions don’t end at retirement. Retired diplomats, like retired soldiers, can and should continue to contribute in their fields. However, they should also consider that with their emeritus status comes an obligation to respect and strengthen the foundation on which the Foreign Service institution is built. An American president and the State Department officials he appoints to implement his foreign policy should be able to trust the discretion, loyalty and good faith of a career FSO, regard- less of that FSO’s personal politics or worldview. Partisan opinion pieces from those headed out the door undermine that trust, to the detriment of the entire Foreign Service. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 19 COVER STORY What Does North Korea Want? It is hard to tell where the recent, unprecedented summitry will lead, ver the past year, U.S. Presi- but here are some guidelines dent Donald Trump and North by which to measure progress. Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un have held three unprecedented BY PATRICK Mc EACHERN summits—in Singapore in June 2018, in Hanoi in February 2019, and in Panmunjom along the community over the assumed content of the conversations and H DMZ in June 2019. Where the wisdom of engaging the North Korean leader at all, so it is useful current process of engagement to bring several basic aspects surrounding the dialogue into will lead is difficult to foretell, but the basic contours of the dis- clearer focus—namely, North Korea’s fundamental concern for Ocussion are more predictable. national security and the issue of specific economic sanctions Each of the three summits sparked a flurry of interest from relief. all walks of life, with press outlets meticulously documenting Diplomats will also appreciate the importance of sequenc- the personal drama and idiosyncrasies of the leaders and their ing in a negotiation, and this article explains the Democratic encounters, including their hotel and transportation selections. People’s Republic of Korea’s preferred ordering of transactional The summits also sparked a lively debate in the foreign affairs discussions as seen from the past three summits. Chairman Kim has highlighted economic benefits through sanctions relief as his FSO Patrick McEachern previously served as a early priority, offering some movement on the nuclear issue in North Korean analyst in the State Department’s exchange. But his government has also noted publicly that later Bureau of Intelligence and Research and as North stages of negotiations will require the United States to address Korea watcher at Embassy . He is the author of North Korea’s own security concerns in the region to elicit more three books on North Korea, including North Korea: substantial and far-reaching nuclear concessions. What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2019). He currently serves as the unit chief for Nepal, and Ban- North Korea’s Two Broad Goals gladesh in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. The views A great deal has been written about what the United States expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. government expects from the negotiations. Experts have dissected the term or the Department of State. “denuclearization” to expose different interpretations of what

20 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL the United States seeks—or should seek—and what the North Koreans might be willing to give in return. Some administration advisers demand a complete end not only to the DPRK’s nuclear program but also to its chemical and biological weapons programs and its missile programs. Others add the need to see an end to North Korea’s dire human rights record, conventional threats to its neighbors and a range of illegal activity from smuggling to counterfeiting. Still others present a more targeted agenda of incrementally rolling back North Korea’s nuclear program first before turning to the fuller range of U.S. objectives. These debates center on foreign policy toward this difficult country on issues vital to U.S. national security rather than on Pyongyang’s own strate- gic ambitions and near-term goals. In this article I zero in on a basic ques- tion: What does North Korea want? In ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/FILO my recent book, North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know, United Nations Security Council sanctions that applied to gen- I tackle this question from a variety of viewpoints that explore eral economic activity. The administration decided in Hanoi that the country’s history, society, politics, economics and regional North Korea’s offer related to its Yongbyon nuclear complex was relations. My purpose here, however, is more limited. I focus insufficient to merit this level of sanctions relief. only on what North Korea wants from the United States in rela- The distinction between all sanctions and the specific sanc- tion to the diplomacy underway. tions relief Kim sought, as well as the value of nuclear conces- It is easy to impute motives to the North Koreans. Few have sions focused only on Yongbyon, require some explanation. direct interaction with DPRK leaders, leaving analysts free to speculate on what the Kim Jong Un government seeks. However, Near-term Demand: Targeted Sanctions Relief Kim has been fairly clear on both his strategic aims and near- The United States has imposed sanctions on North Korea term diplomatic asks as a matter of public record. By evaluating unilaterally since the country’s inception, but the U.N. Security what the North Koreans have said repeatedly in public to both Council sanctions that Chairman Kim referenced are much their domestic and international audiences, as well as public more recent. His grandfather, Kim Il Sung, was instrumental comments by American officials following the summits, one in declaring the establishment of the DPRK in 1948. Two years can identify two broad North Korean goals: national security later, he invaded U.S.-backed South Korea, initiating the Korean and specific economic relief. The North Koreans have noted War. Not surprisingly, the U.S. government did not look fondly that security is the country’s larger concern, but its near-term on American companies doing business with the enemy, and demand relates to its economy. North Korea’s invasion triggered sanctions through the Trading Immediately following the most recent U.S.-DPRK with the Enemy Act. in Hanoi, President Donald Trump told reporters that Kim Jong Cold War–era politics brought the addition of sanctions Un “wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety.” The president’s related to North Korea’s status as a communist and socialist senior officials, most notably Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, state. Its egregious human rights record and its history of state- clarified that Kim had wanted an end to those provisions of sanctioned drug smuggling and terrorism, counterfeiting of U.S.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 21 clude what would otherwise be considered legitimate trade in an economically significant sector: minerals and coal.

Kim’s empowering of his Offer Related to Yongbyon diplomats and technical North Korea could not export coal and other minerals, experts to meet their which were critical components of its foreign currency– earning exports. Subsequent resolutions would expand restric- American counterparts is tions on North Korean trade and foreign currency–earning the necessary next step. activities. The U.N. Security Council banner is important to urge other countries to cut off sanctioned trade with North Korea, but currency, proliferation of missile and nuclear technology, and the most important element was Chinese enforcement. As North a host of other offenses have led North Korea to be sanctioned Korea’s dominant economic partner that shares a land border, under multiple overlapping authorities. There is no near-term could then and can now undercut the sanctions’ pres- prospect for relief of U.S. sanctions that could spur bilateral sure entirely. However, the Chinese have largely held firm, which trade, and North Korea did not ask for this in Hanoi. has proven pivotal to preserving American leverage in nuclear Kim Jong Un’s sanctions relief demand was much more discussions with the North Koreans. targeted and has a shorter history. After North Korea’s first Public comments by senior administration officials suggest nuclear test in 2006, the U.N. Security Council began issuing a that Kim Jong Un’s opening demand in Hanoi sought to roll back series of resolutions with sharper and sharper teeth. During the this series of sanctions in place since 2016. This is a targeted and first decade after the inaugural nuclear test, these multilateral transactional request that would not transform North Korea eco- sanctions focused on denying North Korea the tools to build nomically. Removing the last three years’ worth of heightened a nuclear weapons program and moved into restrictions on sanctions would return North Korea to its early 2016 status. It luxury goods for the regime’s elite. Previous North Korean claims would not allow foreign investment to flow into North Korea; nor that its nuclear infrastructure was intended for nuclear energy would it recast the country’s economy or external relations. production had convinced few after the first nuclear crisis in the In exchange, as Secretary Pompeo explained after the Hanoi early 1990s, but North Korea’s public demonstration of its weap- summit, North Korea offered limitations on its Yongbyon nuclear ons ambitions with its first nuclear test allowed all veto-wielding complex. Yongbyon is North Korea’s most famous nuclear site. Security Council members—including Russia and China—to Foreign Service Journal readers are likely familiar with Yong- condemn and sanction the program. byon’s name because it has been the centerpiece of North Korea Nonetheless, North Korean nuclear tests and long-range crisis diplomacy for more than a quarter-century. However, missile launches continued. More countries, most notably it is no longer North Korea’s most significant fissile material Japan and the Republic of Korea, restricted their own trade production facility. Yongbyon’s plutonium reactor is limited to with North Korea further in the years after 2006. Even as the producing about a bomb’s worth of plutonium each year, and its fiercely nationalistic Kim regime continued to articulate a desire uranium enrichment facility is relatively small. for self-reliance and built an autarchic economy to support it, We have known from public sources for almost a decade the regime became increasingly reliant for foreign goods and that at least one other, much larger uranium enrichment plant economic inputs like oil on a single neighbor: China. China grew is located elsewhere in the country. North Korea’s enrichment to account for more than 90 percent of North Korean trade; yet program outside Yongbyon also has the capacity for substantial even Beijing could not rein in Pyongyang on the nuclear issue, growth in its production capability, while Yongbyon is relatively and Sino–North Korean relations deteriorated. static. As such, it is important but not the prize it once was. In 2016, Beijing assented to put greater pressure on North Reasonable people can disagree on whether it was in the U.S. Korea. Following the country’s fifth nuclear test, China voted in interest to accept North Korea’s offer, but Kim did not seem to favor of new U.N. Security Council sanctions that did not simply present a second offer to come off this initial demand. The Hanoi seek to limit North Korea’s ability to import nuclear-related summit showed Kim’s near-term ambition to achieve partial material or apply restrictions on North Korea’s elite like travel sanctions relief in exchange for limited nuclear dismantlement, bans or luxury goods import prohibitions. China agreed to pre- but he ultimately failed to achieve it.

22 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Strategic Aim: National Security North Korean leaders have stressed that the country’s nuclear program is targeted at what Pyongyang views as the American The U.N. Security Council existential threat to its existence. North Korea learned from the 1991 Persian Gulf War that numerical superiority of military banner is important to personnel would not prevail against superior American military urge other countries to cut technology. They likewise note that the 2003 Iraq War showed them that only an actual nuclear weapons capability can deter off sanctioned trade with the conventionally superior American military from pursuing North Korea, but the most regime change. important element was More recently, North Korean state media has stated explicitly that sanctions relief is the near-term ask, but national security Chinese enforcement. is the ultimate goal. From North Korea’s perspective, nuclear weapons do a good job of deterring a more technologically for a peace treaty to end the Korean War. Declassified records advanced military’s ability to oust the Kim regime. For more sub- from Kim Il Sung’s conversations with his socialist counterparts stantial North Korean denuclearization concessions beyond the as late as the 1970s show the North Koreans understood a peace initial offer, the United States would have to go beyond sanctions treaty as a pretext to end the permanent stationing of U.S. troops relief and address North Korea’s security fears in a tangible way. in South Korea. Amid the summit diplomacy the Trump administration has More recent Track 2 engagements (nongovernmental dis- made a significant concession to ease the country’s security cussions) provide contradictory interpretations of what Kim fears. North Korea has long complained about the semiannual Jong Un today may seek from a peace arrangement, and it is U.S.–South Korea military exercises, which they see as a security by no means clear whether he has envisioned a neatly laid out threat. The United States suspended these exercises twice since endgame. However, North Korea’s demand regarding military the first U.S.-DPRK summit in Singapore, though the administra- exercises during the U.S.-DPRK summitry shows that Kim Jong tion resumed the exercises in August. The North Koreans must Un considers that chipping away at U.S. Forces Korea’s capabili- utilize scarce resources like fuel to mobilize forces while height- ties in exchange for incremental limitations on its own nuclear ened U.S. military assets and personnel are in the region for the capabilities is part of the equation. exercises. If the United States were to launch a preemptive strike While it is possible to imagine Kim Jong Un wanting to on North Korea, they reason, a military exercise would be the achieve what his father and grandfather never could—removal perfect cover to plus-up for an invasion. of all foreign troops from Korean soil—it remains to be seen The United States and the ROK have repeatedly noted that whether such an arrangement would be ultimately achievable the exercises are defensive, meaning they allow the two mili- or desirable for U.S. interests in Korea and the region. In the taries to drill to respond more effectively to possible North context of long-standing U.S.-DPRK distrust, Kim Jong Un has Korean provocations or invasion. Suspending the exercises not prioritized a transformed relationship with the United States limits U.S.-ROK military readiness. It is not a cost-free move, where it counts most, among his top diplomatic demands. Presi- but alternative training arrangements can mitigate some of the dent Trump has fashioned himself a different type of American downside risk for the United States and South Korea. North leader, so one may reason that Pyongyang would be naturally Korea had refrained from long-range ballistic missile flight tests suspicious that any deal with him may not survive into the fol- and nuclear testing amid the exercise freeze, but predictably lowing administration—or his own second term. expanded shorter-range ballistic missile launches after the exer- cises resumed. The pause to create room for diplomacy had not Where Do We Go from Here? produced more tangible results in the intervening months. Kim’s offers to date suggest he is focused first and foremost on a While North Korea finds the U.S. military presence on the transactional deal to reduce immediate economic pain and make Korean Peninsula threatening, it is less clear exactly what it incremental security advances. In general terms, his demands are would require of the United States to feel secure enough to per- not that much different from those articulated by his father since manently dismantle the nuclear program. Pyongyang has called the early 1990s, and President Trump’s pursuit of a denuclearized

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 23 U.S.–North Korea Nuclear Negotiations: A Timeline

1985 n North Korea joins the Nuclear 2000 n October: North Korean Gen- 2006 n Oct. 9: North Korea conducts Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) under eral Jo Myong Rok meets with President its first nuclear test, which prompts Soviet pressure. Bill Clinton in Washington, and Secre- U.N. Security Council condemnations tary of State Madeleine Albright travels and trade sanctions. A low yield from 1991 n President George H.W. Bush to Pyongyang to discuss the country’s the test leaves question whether North announces that the United States has ballistic missile program. Korea could successfully detonate a removed all nuclear weapons from nuclear device. South Korea, a long-held North Korean 2002 n President George W. Bush demand to agree to denuclearize. challenges North Korea’s compliance 2007 n The six parties agree to two with the Agreed Framework and charac- action plans in February and October in 1992 n North Korea and South Korea terizes the country as part of an “axis of which North Korea commits to halting agree to denuclearize the peninsula. evil” with Iraq and in the State of the operations at Yongbyon and then start- Union Address. ing to disable the reactor in exchange 1993 n North Korea threatens to for a series of political, economic and withdraw from the NPT, but suspends 2002-2003 n The Agreed Frame- energy concessions from the United withdrawal following talks with U.S. work breaks down as the United States States and its allies. diplomats in New York. claims North Korea admitted to running a secret uranium-enrichment program, 2008 n Pyongyang declares 15 1994 n The United States and North and North Korea denies it. North Korea nuclear sites and 30 kilograms of plu- Korea sign the Agreed Framework, withdraws from the NPT. tonium in June; in exchange, President freezing Pyongyang’s nuclear program. George W. Bush rescinds some trade 2003 n Six-Party Talks (South and restrictions, waives some sanctions 1999 n North Korea suspends testing North Korea, China, Japan, Russia and and announces a plan to remove North of long-range missiles in exchange for the United States) open in August. Korea from the list of state sponsors U.S. easing of economic sanctions for of terrorism. The State Department the first time since the beginning of the 2005 n Sept. 19: Six-Party Talks pro- announces preliminary agreement with Korean War in 1950. duce a joint declaration in which North North Korea on verification, but discus- Korea commits to abandon its pursuit sions break down by December. 2000 n June: South Korean Presi- of nuclear weapons and implement dent Kim Dae-jung meets with DPRK International Atomic Energy Agency 2009 n Pyongyang rebuffs Obama President Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, the safeguards and the terms of the NPT in administration efforts to revive the first summit between Korean leaders in exchange for a U.S. assertion that it has Six-Party Talks, ejects monitors from five decades. no intention of attacking North Korea. its nuclear facilities and tests a second

North Korea is roughly similar to the objective of his last three pre- The main difference between the latest diplomacy and decessors. Technological advancement in North Korea’s nuclear previous rounds is the personal involvement of the two lead- program and reordering of priorities have updated each side’s top ers. There is no precedent for U.S.-DPRK summitry prior to the asks and suggested a different sequencing for negotiations, but the Trump-Kim meetings, and it has created new opportunities basic outlines of a deal to address each side’s core demands have and challenges. Contrary to prior rounds of diplomacy, there been present and explored in multiple rounds of high-stakes diplo- was no ambiguity about whether the Singapore Declaration macy for decades without completely resolving the fundamental reflected the position of the top leaders in both systems. At the issues at hand. This has led to understandable skepticism that any same time, however, Chairman Kim also did not unleash his deal is possible and begs the question of what is new this time. negotiators to lay out a series of quid-pro-quos that would pro-

24 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Resource List

Patrick McEachern, North Korea: nuclear device. That test is successful ton that President Trump has accepted What Everyone Needs to Know and erases ambiguity about whether an invitation to meet Kim Jong Un in (Oxford University Press, 2019) North Korea had fully crossed the nuclear Pyongyang. This follows diplomatic over- Anna Fifield, The Great Successor: threshold. First bilateral meetings take tures between North and South spurred The Divinely Perfect Destiny of place in December. by the Winter Olympic Games, hosted by Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un South Korea. (PublicAffairs, 2019) 2011 n Kim Jong Un takes power in Sandra Fahy, Dying for Rights: Pyongyang after the death of his father, 2018 n June 12: Kim and Trump hold a Putting North Korea’s Human Rights Kim Jong Il. historic meeting in Singapore, issuing a Abuses on the Record (Columbia joint declaration pledging to pursue last- University Press, 2019) 2012 n North Korean nuclear opera- ing peace and complete denuclearization Van Jackson, On the Brink: Trump, tions are briefly suspended in exchange of the Korean Peninsula. Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War for a pledge of tons of food aid after (Cambridge University Press, 2018) months of negotiations. The deal breaks 2019 n Feb. 27-28: Second Trump-Kim Stephan Haggard and Marcus down within weeks when North Korea summit ends early without an agreement Noland, Hard Target: Sanctions, launches a long-range rocket. when leaders disagree over the terms Inducements, and the Case of of a deal, including sanctions relief and North Korea ( 2013-2014 n Diplomacy stalls as Wash- denuclearization. Press, 2017) ington and its allies ratchet up sanctions. Byung-Yeon Kim, Unveiling the North Korea carries out nuclear tests and 2019 n June 30: President Trump North Korean Economy: Collapse increases testing of ballistic missiles. becomes the first sitting U.S. president and Transition (Cambridge University to set foot in North Korea when he steps Press, 2017) 2017 n President Donald Trump redesig- across the border at Panmunjom to meet Andrei Lankov, The Real North nates North Korea a state sponsor of Kim; the two agree to restart stalled Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed terrorism after Pyongyang conducts its nuclear negotiations. Stalinist Utopia (Oxford University sixth nuclear test. Pyongyang boasts it Press, 2013) can reach U.S. soil with nuclear-tipped Victor Cha, The Impossible State: intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the Sources: Council on Foreign Relations, North Korea, Past and Future (Ecco Press, 2012) Trump administration threatens a military “North Korean Nuclear Negotiations, strike. 1985–2019” and Arms Control Association, Justin Hastings, A Most Enterprising “Chronology of U.S.-North Korean Nuclear Country: North Korea in the Global Economy (Cornell University Press, 2018 n March: South Korea’s national and Missile Diplomacy.” 2016) security adviser announces in Washing-

vide a roadmap to a phased, transactional deal. He preferred counterparts is the necessary next step to tee up a deal on each instead to try to engage President Trump directly, which led to side’s core demands that the leaders could endorse. Yet another another two summits without an implementable agreement. It dramatic summit may do more to capture the headlines, but it appears Kim may have figured out that this tactical approach would almost certainly be for naught. The best hope for making will not produce the type of technical agreement needed to another summit productive is for teams of technical experts on address his concerns. both sides to sit down to iron out a phased approach to denucle- The next step to look for is far less dramatic than the world arization, sanctions relief and a structured response to North has seen over the past eighteen months. Kim’s empowering of Korea’s security concerns. That step alone would be far more his diplomats and technical experts to meet their American newsworthy. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 25 FOCUS ON FOREIGN SERVICE AUTHORS InIn TheirTheir OwnOwn WriteWrite

THEISPOT.COM/ROBERT NEUBECKER BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

Lincoln, Antietam and A Northern Lost Cause We are pleased to present this year’s Gene Schmiel, independently collection of books by Foreign Service published, 2019, $13.99/paperback, 202 pages. members and their families. What if, even after the Union had won the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclama- he Foreign Service Journal tion, slavery had remained legal in the is pleased to present our United States? 18th annual Foreign Ser- In this thought-provoking specula- vice authors roundup in tive history, written in a “you are there” style using the words of plenty of time for holiday the participants themselves, award-winning Civil War historian orders. Gene Schmiel shows exactly how such a tragic outcome could Our primary purpose have occurred. in compiling “In Their He takes as his starting point the Battle of Antietam (Sept. 17, Own Write” is to celebrate 1862), which was perceived as a victory for the Union—one that the wealth of literary talent within the Foreign emboldened President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipa- TService community, and to give our readers the tion Proclamation the following January. But had General Robert opportunity to support colleagues by sampling E. Lee made different tactical decisions and won that battle, their wares. Each entry contains full publication he could have created what Schmiel calls a “Civil War butterfly details along with a short commentary. As has been effect” that irrevocably changed American history. the case for more than a decade, a majority of the Schmiel reminds readers that Lincoln primarily intended the titles are self-published. Emancipation Proclamation as an incentive for the states of the Our annotated list of books—written, edited or Confederacy to rejoin the Union—even if they did not abolish translated by Foreign Service personnel and their slavery. So, as he lays out in this book, that dreadful institution family members in late 2018 and 2019—is not a might well have endured even after the war’s end. comprehensive or definitive record of works by FS Gene Schmiel retired from the Foreign Service in 2002, after a authors; we rely on the authors themselves to bring 24-year career that included tours as chargé d’affaires in Djibouti, their books to our attention. Bissau and Reykjavík, among many other assignments. Before This year we’re featuring 46 volumes—7 works joining the Service, he was an assistant professor of history at of history and biography, 8 books on policy and St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, and has taught at Mary- issues, 9 works of fiction and poetry, a potpourri of mount, Shenandoah and Penn State universities. 5 works on food, parenting and expat life—and no He has written and lectured about the Civil War since the 2014 fewer than 17 memoirs. As usual, we also include publication by Ohio University Press of his award-winning book, in this month’s focus a selection of recent books “of Citizen-General: Jacob Dolson Cox and the Civil War Era. related interest” to diplomats and their families that were not written by FS authors. Lions at the Legation For the few books that cannot be ordered & Other Tales: Two through Amazon or other online outlets, we have Centuries of American provided the necessary contact information. This Diplomatic Life in Tangier Gerald Loftus, illustrated by year’s roundup was assembled with the vital assis- Lawrence Mynott, Tangier tance of Publications Coordinator Dmitry Filipoff, American Legation, 2018, Contributing Editor Steven Alan Honley, Associ- $20/paperback, 54 pages. ate Editor Cameron Woodworth, Managing Editor Kathryn Owens and AFSA Intern Caroline Quinn. For two centuries, U.S. diplomacy in Morocco—the first nation —Susan Brady Maitra, Senior Editor to recognize American independence—focused on Tangier. In 1821, when the legation building was given to the United States,

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 27 it became the first American diplomatic property, earning the ultimately successful in securing Vatican support on interna- designation of being the only U.S. National Historic Landmark tional issues. outside the United States. Sarros concludes that U.S. diplomacy was largely successful Wonderfully illustrated and concisely organized, Lions at the during this period because it complemented the Vatican’s own Legation features key episodes in U.S.-Moroccan relations as international strategy of increasing its influence through sup- viewed from the perspective of the legation in Tangier. From sur- porting a global balance of power while also resisting the spread viving French bombardment in 1844 to hosting President Teddy of communism in Europe. Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet in the early 20th century, Lions at P. Peter Sarros is a retired senior Foreign Service officer whose the Legation captures an abundance of historical events. career spanned four decades. He served as chargé d’affaires and The title of the book refers to an “emoluments” dilemma that ambassador of the presidential mission at the Vatican from 1975 transpired in the 1830s, when consuls were presented with lions to 1980. He taught diplomacy at George Mason University and as gifts from the Moroccan sultan to the U.S. president. As a served as diplomat-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University’s distraught Consul Thomas Carr wrote to Secretary of State John School of Advanced International Studies. Forsyth on Sept. 3, 1839:“I have exerted myself to the utmost to prevent the presentation of any animals from the Emperor … Using Nature’s Shuttle: [but] they replied it was perfectly out of their power to prevent it, The Making of the First … that a Moorish agent who should thus refuse to convey a pres- Genetically Modified Plants ent to his master would very justly have his head cut off.” and the People Who Did It Judith M. Heimann, Wageningen Gerald Loftus, a Foreign Service officer from 1979 to 2002, Academic Publishers, 2018, served as director of the Tangier American Legation Institution $32/paperback, 194 pages. for Moroccan Studies from 2010 to 2014. He has written about the long history of Moroccan-American relations on permanent “Using Nature’s Shuttle is a delightful display at the institution’s museum at www.TALIMblog.org. account of the history of GMOs … [told] Lawrence Mynott is an English artist living in Tangier. through the eyes of the scientists working in Ghent, Belgium … on what is probably the U.S.-Vatican Relations, greatest advance in agricultural biotechnology since the invention of 1975-1980: A Diplomatic Study agriculture,” says biochemist and Nobel laureate Sir Richard Roberts. P. Peter Sarros, University of Notre Judith M. Heimann conducted intensive interviews with more Dame Press (ADST-DACOR Diplomats than two dozen of the individuals involved to present the story of and Diplomacy Book), 2019, a group of idealistic, young scientists at a public university in Bel- $50/hardcover, 496 pages. gium—often the first in their families to go to college—who made The U.S. relationship with the Holy history in the realms of plant microbiology and molecular biology See has often been turbulent, but by harnessing a particular strain of million-year-old soil bacterium especially so from 1975 to 1980 when that could genetically modify certain plants in a particular way. FSO P. Peter Sarros helped lead the They and their colleagues and rivals then figured out how to use U.S. mission at the Vatican as chargé that knowledge to genetically modify a variety of plants to make and ambassador. During this short period, U.S.-Vatican relations them safer and healthier for man, beast and the environment. The experienced two American presidential administrations, three modified plants were more affordable and simpler for farmers to presidential envoys and three separate popes. grow and helped improve people’s overall well-being, especially in Drawing on official documents as well as Sarros’ diaries and the developing world. notes, this unique book shows how the United States and the A former FSO and diplomat’s wife, Judith Heimann has spent Vatican often worked together behind the scenes to influence most of her life abroad, including more than 20 years as a diplomat major issues of the day. in Benelux countries. She is the author of Paying Calls in Shangri- Sarros sheds light on the Vatican’s response to the Iran La: Scenes from a Woman’s Life in American Diplomacy (2016), hostage crisis, the Helsinki process and Cold War rivalries. The Airmen and the Headhunters (2007) and The Most Offending Confidential consultations led by Sarros and U.S. envoys were Soul Alive (1999).

28 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Masters of Mayhem: Lawrence close enough to the Earth to set off various catastrophes. of Arabia and the British Military The book also investigates other mysteries from ancient and Mission to the Hejaz modern history, including the origins of the Etruscans, strategies James Stejskal, Casemate, 2018, of the world wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the John F. Kennedy $32.95/hardcover, 304 pages. assassination and the run-up to the 9/11 attacks. T.E. Lawrence—Lawrence of Arabia— This book is primarily geared to historical and scientific was one of the earliest practitioners of detectives, but it is not just for them. Anyone who seeks a better modern unconventional warfare. The understanding of the past can find food for thought in it. tactics and strategies he developed Kenneth J. Dillon served as a Foreign Service officer, with an during the Arab Revolt, which took emphasis in intelligence analysis. He has a Ph.D. in history from place during World War I, were later Cornell University and has taught at several universities, tried his used by revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Nguyen Giap in hand at tech business and written books on history, science and their own wars of liberation. Both men kept Lawrence’s Seven medicine. A defender of orphan causes and targets of scientific Pillars of Wisdom close at hand. rejectionism, he lives in Washington, D.C. James Stejskal’s book explores how Lawrence and the British Military Mission supported unconventional warfare in the Hejaz Modern Panama: (the mountainous area of northwest Saudi Arabia that gave rise From Occupation to to early Islam and contains the sites of many holy places) during Crossroads of the Americas the Arab Revolt. To do this, they created the Hedgehog force and Michael L. Conniff and Gene E. Bigler, Cambridge University Press, 2019, formed armored car sections and other units. This culminated in $32.99/paperback, 364 pages. operations against the Ottoman Turkish Army that enabled Field Marshal Edmund Allenby to achieve victory in 1918. Although the 1977 Carter-Torrijos Trea- James Stejskal is a military historian and conflict archaeolo- ties set the stage for Panama finally to gist who specializes in the research and investigation of irregular control all of its own territory, includ- warfare. He is the author of numerous articles and two previous ing the Panama Canal, little has been books: Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations written about how the country has of the U.S. Army’s Elite, 1956-1960 (2016) and The Horns of the fared since then—both as the manager of a major waterway and Beast: The Swakop River Campaign and World War I in South- as a sovereign nation in a turbulent region. Modern Panama West Africa, 1914-15 (2014). seeks to fill this major gap in Latin American history. He is the husband of Ambassador Wanda Nesbitt, a Foreign Despite the country’s continued struggle with political cor- Service Career Minister who is currently dean of the FSI School ruption, Michael L. Conniff and Gene E. Bigler argue, changes of Language Studies. since the turnover of the Canal have been largely positive. Panama has become a stable, functioning democracy with a The Knowable Past growing economy and a higher standard of living. Kenneth J. Dillon, Scientia Press, 2018, Michael L. Conniff is a professor emeritus of history at $25/paperback, 320 pages. San Jose State University. He is the author of A New History of Approached from the right angle and with Modern Latin America (2017, with Lawrence Clayton and Susan a little luck, the past will, upon occasion, Gauss); Panama and the United States, 3rd ed. (2012) and Black reveal its secrets to us. Specifically, this Labor on a White Canal (1985). book spells out the theory that the Earth Gene E. Bigler is a retired Foreign Service officer who worked originated in the outer solar system, and on the transition of the Panama Canal from U.S. to Panama- argues that tidal forces during approaches nian ownership. He has also taught political science and public of Mars caused the great mass extinctions policy analysis at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced of our planet’s prehistory. International Studies, the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de The Knowable Past revises and enhances the Venus Theory of Administración in Caracas, Venezuela, and other institutions in Immanuel Velikovsky, which says that Mars has repeatedly come the United States and Latin America.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 29 POLICY AND ISSUES democracy during the uprisings, but two years later retreated from democracy promotion in those affected countries. What role democracy promotion should play in U.S. foreign Egyptian Advice Columnists: policy remains a hot topic, particularly with regard to the Middle Envisioning the Good Life East, and the case studies here bring much food for thought. The in an Era of Extremism author supplements his firsthand view of the Arab Spring as a Andrea B. Rugh, DIO Press Inc., 2019, U.S. diplomat in the region with a wide range of interviews with $32.95/paperback, 266 pages. policymakers in Washington. A few months after religious zealots “Boduszynski’s analysis is lively and engaging and offers valu- assassinated President Anwar Sadat able insights into both the individual predispositions and the in 1981, the Al-Ahram newspaper bureaucratic interests that led the United States to lean in at first, launched a column responding to but then ultimately back away from a robust policy of democracy letters from Egyptians caught up promotion,” says Michael Carpenter of the Penn Biden Center in the problems of daily living. The for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. “It also provides a com- columnist, Abdul Wahab al-Mutawa, a self-proclaimed human- pelling theoretical framework for understanding … how and ist, published complaints about government services and offered why the U.S. came up short in its response to the Arab Spring.” solutions to personal problems. Al-Ahram also presented advice Mieczyslaw Boduszynski teaches U.S. foreign policy at columns penned by religious sheikhs, most of them affiliated Pomona College. Before that, he worked for the State Depart- with Al-Azhar University, who sought to demonstrate Islam’s ment, with postings in Albania, Kosovo, Japan, , relevance to modern life. and Iraq. He is also a frequent op-ed contributor to publica- This book, part of the publisher’s Critical Pedagogies Series, tions such as The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs and is the first to draw on this rich material to examine the colum- The Los Angeles Times. nists’ prescriptions for leading a good life and their modeling of moderation. Ideology and Collapse: Andrea B. Rugh has been a technical adviser for USAID Risks of Climate Change projects on the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, and was a Dismissal William McPherson, independently research associate at Harvard University’s Institute of Interna- published, 2019, $9.95/paperback, tional Development from 1987 to 1994. She also worked for Save 254 pages. the Children and UNICEF in and , and has written 13 books on the cultures and societies of the Middle East. As the consequences of climate change Mrs. Rugh is the wife of Ambassador (ret.) William A. Rugh, a become more ominous, societ- 30-year Foreign Service veteran who served as chief of mission ies across the globe are threatened in Sana’a and Abu Dhabi. with collapse. Even so, the actions of individual governments thus far have US Democracy Promotion not proven effective in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. in the Arab World: While there are many reasons for this, the principal issue is an Beyond Interests vs. Ideals ideology that prioritizes economic growth and untrammeled Mieczyslaw P. Boduszynski, markets above all else, thereby preventing necessary actions to Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2019, head off disaster. $85/hardcover, 240 pages. This book examines the sources of this mindset, then dis- Former FSO Mieczyslaw Boduszynski cusses the specific reasons the Trump administration refuses to examines the role the promotion of recognize and deal with the effects of global climate change— democracy has played in American despite recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli- foreign policy since the Arab Spring mate Change and the U.S. government’s own National Climate uprisings in the early 2010s. The Assessment, which have all laid out the urgency of action in Obama administration, he notes, supported the promotion of unmistakable terms.

30 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The author also contributed three chapters to Climate Ms. Campi is the author of The Impact of China and Russia Abandoned: We’re on the Endangered Species List (2019), edited on United States-Mongolian Political Relations in the Twentieth by Jilly Cody. Covering the ideology of climate change denial, Century (2009). various myths and political failures, McPherson seeks to explain how the failure to act has often been encouraged through faulty North Korea: interpretations of science. What Everyone Needs to Know William McPherson spent 21 years in the Foreign Service, Patrick McEachern, Oxford University serving in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Switzerland and Press, 2019, $16.95/paperback, 244 pages. Washington, D.C., among other postings. In retirement, he has worked on international environmental issues and is an activist The largely ceremonial meetings with the Sierra Club on climate change and coal exports. He has between President Donald Trump and published three previous books: Ideology versus Science (2014), North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un, Climate, Weather and Ideology: Climate Change Denial (2015) and the unpredictability of both par- and Sabotaging the Planet: Denial and International Negotia- ties, have done little to quell concerns tions (2016). that the Korean Peninsula’s security situation is an intractable conflict. And that realization, in turn, Mongolia’s Foreign Policy: raises the question, “How did we get here?” Navigating a Changing World This primer by FSO Patrick McEachern unpacks the con- Alicia Campi, Lynne Rienner tentious and tangled relationship between the Koreas in an Publishers, 2019, $85/hardcover, approachable question-and-answer format. Among the many 349 pages. topics he addresses: Strategically located at the crossroads Why have the two Koreas developed politically and economi- of Central Asia, China and Rus- cally in such radically different ways? How have three genera- sia, Mongolia has long attracted the tions of the authoritarian Kim dictatorship shaped North Korea? attention of major world powers. How What is the history of North-South Korea relations? Why did the does this traditionally nomadic, but North Korean government develop nuclear weapons? How do resource-rich, country envision its place in the modern world? powers such as Japan, China and Russia fit into the mix? What is And as it prepares to mark its 30th year as an independent it like to live in North Korea and South Korea? democracy, what challenges does it face? Patrick McEachern has been an FSO for 16 years, serving in To answer these questions, Alicia Campi offers a multifaceted Seoul (where he was the chief political officer monitoring devel- examination of the context, formulation and execution of con- opments in North Korea), , Bratislava and Washington, temporary Mongolian foreign policy. She posits that Mongolia D.C., where he was a North Korea intelligence analyst for the operates in accordance with what she calls a “Wolf Strategy,” State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. whose goal is to ensure that the nation does not become eco- Currently the unit chief for Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh nomically or politically dependent on any single power. in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, he previously Robert Bedeski of the University of Victoria hails Mongolia’s served as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Foreign Policy as “a must-read” and “a superb study of the chal- Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. He is co-author lenges and responses of liberated and democratic Mongolia. of North Korea, Iran and the Challenge to International Order [In its pages] Campi gives voice to the dilemmas facing this stra- (2017) and author of Inside the Red Box: North Korea’s Post-total- tegically positioned nation.” itarian Politics (2010). A former State Department Foreign Service officer and FSJ He is the author of this month’s FSJ cover story, “What Does business manager, Alicia Campi is the longtime president of the North Korea Want?” (see p. 20). Mongolia Society and the U.S.-Mongolia Advisory Group. She also heads the Chinggis Khan Foundation and teaches at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and at the Foreign Service Institute.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 31 From War to Peace in the sion,” he writes, in this thoroughly revised 20th-anniversary Balkans, the Middle East edition, half of which is new material. and Ukraine The United Nations spends nearly $7 billion annually on Daniel Serwer, Palgrave Macmillan, 14 peacekeeping missions around the globe. Jett examines $31/hardcover, 145 pages. why the dramatic increase in peacekeeping has occurred, This open-access book focuses on the and how terrorism has affected both recent and long-standing origins, consequences and aftermath peacekeeping operations. He also assesses the prospects of of the 1995 and 1999 Western military peacekeeping at a time when the United States seems to be interventions that led to the end of the withdrawing from the world. most recent Balkan Wars, highlighting Jett argues that neither U.N. peacekeepers nor governmental the lessons that can be applied to the violence can prevent the conditions that lead to violent extrem- Middle East and Ukraine, where similar conflicts are threaten- ism and the need for peacekeeping forces. Unstable countries ing national sovereignty and territorial integrity. with weak economies and ineffective governance won’t act by Informed by the experience of a diplomatic practitioner, this themselves, he argues. The international community should book is an accessible treatment of what causes wars and how to apply strong and consistent economic and political pressure make peace. A volume in the Palgrave Critical Studies in Post- and sanctions to promote positive chances, he adds. Aid or Conflict Recovery series, it is ideal for all readers interested in trade with such countries should be tied to better governance, how violent international conflicts can be managed. For a full human rights and adherence to democratic norms. review of the book, see p. 63. Dennis Jett is a professor of international affairs at Penn State Daniel Serwer’s 21-year Foreign Service career culmi- University. His 28-year career in the Foreign Service included nated with assignments as and chargé service as ambassador to Peru and Mozambique, and assign- d’affaires in from 1990 to 1993, and special envoy and ments in Argentina, Israel, Malawi and Liberia. coordinator for the Bosnian Federation from 1994 to 1996. He is a professor and director of the Conflict Management Kissinger on Kissinger: Program in Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced Reflections on Diplomacy, International Studies. Grand Strategy, and Leadership In 2012, with David R. Smock, he co-authored Facilitating Winston Lord, St. Martin’s Press, 2019, $25.99/hardcover, Dialogue: USIP’s Work in Conflict Zones; the following year, 176 pages. Potomac Books published his book, Righting the Balance: How You Can Help Protect America. Last year, I.B. Tauris Foreign Service Journal readers cer- brought out his The Balkan Solution. tainly need no introduction to Henry Kissinger. But nearly a half-century Why Peacekeeping Fails, after he transformed America’s 20th Anniversary Edition approach to diplomacy with China Dennis C. Jett, Palgrave Macmillan, and Russia, laying the foundation for geopolitics as we know it 2019, $24.99/paperback, today, escalating tensions are threatening a swift return to the 326 pages. same diplomatic game of tug-of-war that Kissinger played so Since the first edition of Why Peace- masterfully. keeping Fails was published in Kissinger on Kissinger is a series of faithfully transcribed 1999, the number of United Nations interviews conducted by the elder statesman’s longtime associ- peacekeepers has risen from 15,000 ate, Winston Lord, which offer Kissinger’s thoughts on the to 100,000, and their missions have specific challenges that he faced during his tenure as national become more dangerous and more security adviser and Secretary of State, his general advice on complex, according to author Dennis C. Jett. Peacekeepers leadership and international relations, and stunning portraits of today are dying in record numbers and are engaged in missions the larger-than-life world leaders of the era. that are “virtually impossible to bring to a successful conclu- The result is a frank, informative overview of U.S. foreign

32 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL policy during the first half of the 1970s—essential reading for democracy are also covered. The book is based on the author’s anyone hoping to understand today’s global challenges. oral history as recorded by the Association for Diplomatic Winston Lord served in the U.S. Foreign Service and the Studies and Training. Defense Department early in his career before serving as Henry Kissinger’s special assistant at the National Security The Back Channel: Council during the Nixon administration. He later directed the A Memoir of American State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, served as ambassador Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal to China and as assistant secretary for the Bureau of East Asian William J. Burns, Random House, and Pacific Affairs. He is currently chairman emeritus of the 2019, $32/hardcover, 512 pages. International Rescue Committee. Revered in the Foreign Service com- munity, Ambassador William J. Burns MEMOIRS has written a powerful book that shows us why. “Far more than a memoir of Burns’ activities and experiences over- Active Diplomacy to Achieve seas and in Washington,” as Ambassador Bob Beecroft notes US Objectives 1960-1991, in his review in the September FSJ, “it is also a powerful and in Central America, timely advocacy piece for committed and informed diplomatic Washington, Panama, action in support of American interests and principles around and Argentina the world.” John A. Bushnell, XlibrisUS, 2018, In this book, Burns treats the reader to evocative, penetrat- $26.99/paperback, 720 pages. ing portraits of diplomatic counterparts and adversaries, from In this book, John A. Bushnell James Baker and Richard Murphy to Muammar Gaddafi and recounts more than 30 years as a Vladimir Putin; and he traces the ups and downs of U.S. foreign Foreign Service officer with a focus on relations through the Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and South and Central America. Obama administrations. Joining the Foreign Service in 1959, he served early on as In addition, the back of the book features a fascinating col- an economic officer in Bogotá, Santo Domingo and San José. lection of recently declassified cables and memos written by By 1977 he had risen through the ranks to deputy assistant Ambassador Burns on the critical issues of the day. secretary for inter-American affairs, and later to deputy chief of Burns’ remarkable career from 1981 to 2014 includes his mission in Buenos Aires. years as Deputy Secretary of State, under secretary for political In 1989, he was named chargé d’affaires in Panama, ahead affairs, executive secretary of the department, ambassador to of the U.S. invasion of Panama to restore the democratically Russia and Jordan, acting director of policy planning, and NSC elected government of Guillermo Endara and arrest dictator senior director for Near East and South Asia. He holds the high- Manuel Noriega. He received a Presidential Meritorious Service est rank in the Foreign Service as a career ambassador. He and Award from President George H.W. Bush in 1991. his wife, former FSO Lisa McCarty, have two daughters. “The culmination of my career was the use of the various skills I had acquired over 30 years in the management of the situation in Panama during the tricky period before the attack, [during] the attack, and getting the new government going thereafter,” Bushnell says of this experience. “In particular I am proud of getting the embassy relationships with our military right in this sensitive situation where the deficiencies in the civil-military relationships had been a problem for a long time.” Bushnell’s work to make the Kennedy Alliance for Progress more effective and his efforts to support Argentina’s return to

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 33 A Seat in the Front Row: experience and what that means. Throughout his retelling of Recollections of a Foreign these years, Coon celebrates all humanity in uplifting and engag- Service Officer in the Cold War ing prose. Wolfgang J. Lehmann, independently An insatiable curiosity and ambitious quest for answers drive published, 2019, $22.99/paperback, this memoir. Coon describes in vivid detail his “first 40 years”: 220 pages. an unconventional upbringing by adventuresome parents, his Taking readers from the Anzio beach- days in the Army during World War II and then life in postwar head in 1944 to the rooftop of the U.S. Germany, and his time at post in Syria, Morocco, India and Iran, embassy in 1975 Saigon, this expansive among other countries. memoir recounts the wide-ranging life From a young age, Carl Coon traveled around the world with of a Foreign Service officer who did his father, an accomplished anthropologist. He graduated from indeed occupy a front-row seat during the Cold War. Harvard University in 1949 with a degree in geography. From In its pages, Wolfgang J. Lehmann recounts his role in imple- 1949 to 1985, he served in the U.S. Foreign Service; his last post menting postwar refugee policy, and his years as political adviser was as ambassador to Nepal. In 2013, in recognition of his work to the Bureau for European Affairs, the North Atlantic Treaty with the American Humanist Association, he received its Life- Organization and U.S. European Command. He also served as time Achievement Award. deputy chief of mission at Embassy Saigon and played a crucial Carl Coon passed away on Dec. 3, 2018, at age 91, several role in the U.S. evacuation of Vietnam in April 1975, among months after contacting the Journal about the completion of this many other Foreign Service assignments. first volume of his autobiography. The second volume, People of Wolfgang J. Lehmann was a Foreign Service officer with the Earth: The Second Passage, containing essays by Carl Coon and Department of State from 1951 until 1983. He continued his pro- his second wife, Jane, an FSO, about their diplomatic careers and fessional activities for another 18 years after that as an indepen- life, was independently published in May 2019. dent national security and foreign affairs consultant, concentrat- ing primarily on political and military war-gaming. Beginning in Friendly Fires: Recollections 1983, he organized and chaired the international political teams of a Diplomatic Family, for the annual Naval War College Global War Game. He died in Vols. I & II 2018. Robert and Barbara Pringle, Piscataqua Press, 2018, $29.99/ Walter G. Lehmann, the author’s nephew, edited the manu- hardcover, 446 pages and script after his passing and contributed an introduction. An 442 pages, respectively. attorney and business consultant for more than 18 years, he is managing partner of the entertainment law firm Lehmann In this two-volume memoir, Robert and Strobel PC. Barbara Pringle relate decades worth of diplomatic work and life. People of Earth: The First Forty Whether meeting with local repre- Carl Coon, independently published, sentatives of political Islam in Indone- 2018, $20/paperback, $9.99/Kindle, sia or serving as the right-hand man to 393 pages. the director of the State Department’s A collection of vignettes, People of Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Earth attempts to answer, as Carl Coon Robert Pringle’s expansive diplomatic writes, the “big ‘why’ questions.” In career put him on the frontlines of “Preview,” the author plainly states his foreign policy decision-making, both in intention to make sense of his experi- Washington and abroad. ences in the hope they will lead to an Beside him through it all was - understanding of humanity. bara, a loving and understanding wife This desire is apparent—while he reminisces about a life who not only was supportive but at unusually led, Coon looks toward how it fits with the human times instrumental to effective diplomacy.

34 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A major objective of the authors is to highlight the role of a Drunk at the State Department modern spouse in a diplomatic career. Through their different William V.P. Newlin, Four Winds Press, skill sets and personalities, the Pringles were able to comple- 2019, $17/paperback, 288 pages. ment each other and manage the challenges of overseas living. In this candid memoir, which he mar- From flat plane landings and insects in hotel rooms to episodic kets as “Mad Men meets the Foreign malaria, Robert and Barbara were able to weather the tribula- Service,” William V.P. Newlin recounts tions of living abroad in hard places. his 25-year Foreign Service career as Robert Pringle retired after 37 years in the Foreign Service. an alcoholic who spent considerable His career included postings in Indonesia, Upper Volta (now energy hiding his drinking from his Burkina Faso), Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Africa wife, children and bosses. and Mali, where he served as ambassador. Pringle earned a Growing up in high-society Ph.D. in Southeast Asian history from Cornell University. Philadelphia and summering in Bar Harbor, Maine, Newlin was Barbara Pringle retired from her teaching career in 2003. surrounded by adults who made seem glamorous. At boarding school and Harvard, he developed a habit of secret Crossing the Sahara Desert drinking; he continued it at his first diplomatic posting in Paris, Paul Pometto, Word Association and all the way through a career that saw him become consul Publishers, 2018, $14.95/paperback, general in Nice in 1983. 66 pages. Newlin claims his Foreign Service career was “completely Having just completed a two-year pro- undistinguished,” largely because he was drunk most of the time. gram as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer But not once did a boss or colleague call him on the drinking. in West Africa in 1976, Paul Pometto “I don’t know how many others of me there were,” he says. decided to take the long way home. Newlin’s wife, Louisa, who writes the afterword, says Newlin After studying Michelin maps and wrote the book to “exorcise his demons,” and that he has been borrowed guidebooks, he crossed the sober for 30 years. While he still feels enormous guilt over his Sahara Desert, took a boat to Italy and drinking, she notes, “he did some fine work for State, and it is then flew back to Washington, D.C. time for him to stop beating himself up.” His monthlong journey brought him strong cross-cultural The couple recently celebrated their 63rd anniversary. friendships, physical exhaustion, priceless vistas and deep frus- William Newlin retired from the Foreign Service in 1986. Since then trations. Hospitalized overnight in a small clinic in Tamanrasset, he has written a book about lakes on Mount Desert Island, Maine; Algeria, he unhooked himself from an intravenous line to catch a mediated in the District of Columbia court system; and for his 80th bus that ran only once a week toward the Tunisian border. Most birthday, sailed across the Atlantic on a Norwegian tall ship. of the memoir is based on the author’s day-by-day recollection of the journey, with very few edits. Journey Across Time: Over a 42-year government career, Paul Pometto held posi- A Diplomatic Spouse tions at State as a civil servant, general services specialist and in South Asia management-coned Foreign Service officer. He spent most of his Susan Gillerman Boggs, Austin Macauley Publishers, career in Africa and Europe, serving as deputy chief of mission in 2019, $23.95/paperback, Praia, Djibouti and Paris, among many other postings. $4.95/e-book, 463 pages. Before retiring from the Senior Foreign Service in 2016 at the rank of Counselor, he served in Fort Lauderdale as director of For 14 years Susan Gillerman Boggs the State Department’s Florida Regional Center—a collaborative joined her Foreign Service officer effort involving more than 130 employees, 11 bureaus and two husband on five separate tours of duty U.S. Marine Security Guard companies. in South Asia. This memoir chronicles Mr. Pometto resides in San Diego but continues to travel the frustrations and delights of diplomatic life in a culturally widely. He has already visited 146 nations. fascinating part of the world. Drawn from hundreds of letters the author wrote home,

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 35 Journey Across Time takes readers through eventful times as the sessions that led to the Gulf War in 1991. He served as a senior author witnessed massive floods, bomb blasts and the aftermath adviser to Ronald H. Brown, the first African American Secretary of politically motivated violence. She describes the view from of Commerce. overseas of Y2K and 9/11. Kennedy discusses his “Chorus of Angels,” people in his life Journey Across Time features the vibrant festivals and the who guided him through an unlikely career during which he notoriously chaotic driving of South Asia. These journeys to experienced great heights of success, as well as disappointing remote places evoked a sense of thankfulness and appreciation setbacks. He talks about how life is ultimately about choices, and as Boggs came to realize how so many things Americans often how people should bring their best possible judgment to the take for granted are hard-earned in the developing world. choices they make. The author had the opportunity to meet many unusual individuals along the way, from kings, artists and movie stars to Muddy Roads Blue Skies: Mother Teresa, maharajas and politicians. She portrays them all My Journey to the Foreign in lively and compassionate prose. Service, From the Rural South to Tanzania and Beyond Susan Boggs is a singer, artist and author who served on the Vella Mbenna, Muddy Roads Press, boards of the American Women’s Association in New Delhi and 2019, $16.99/paperback, 228 pages. Colombo as vice president for programs. She also served on the board of the Women’s International Club in New Delhi as the As a child, Vella Mbenna loved to gaze newsletter editor. at the clouds and dream of exploring Journey Across Time is available from the publisher: the world beyond the back roads of her austinmacauley.com. rural Georgia hometown. But after a failed marriage left her jobless, broke Cotton Fields to Summits: and with a young child to care for on her own, Mbenna moved The View From Contested back in with her parents. Desperate to make a better life for her- Ground self and her son, she accepted a job in the U.S. Foreign Service. George Kennedy, SETAF Publishing, Though she had never dreamed she would become a diplomat, 2017, $20/paperback, 426 pages. she went on to enjoy a 26-year career as an information manage- Cotton Fields to Summits tells the ment officer. story of author George Kennedy’s Along the way, Mbenna was forced to battle sexism, prejudice journey from the cotton fields of South and numerous professional setbacks. But she refused to give up. Carolina as a child to the heights of She advanced through the ranks from an FS-9 to an FS-1. She international diplomacy in the 1990s, earned a heroism award for her actions after the 1998 bomb- when he served as consul general in ing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania (her efforts were central to Toronto during the implementation of the North American Free restoring essential communications with Washington). She also Trade Agreement. received an Equal Employment Opportunity Award in 2015 for Throughout his military and Foreign Service career, her EEO work at Embassy Tunisia during her last assignment Kennedy participated in or witnessed numerous historic events. before retiring. He was on military duty in northern Italy when the Berlin Wall Mbenna’s message is that wherever you are in life right now, was erected in 1961, and he saw close-up the impact of President you can still go further and reach your highest calling. The book John F. Kennedy’s assassination on the German people while is part motivational memoir and part how-to guide to success. assigned to Embassy Bonn. He watched the buildup to the U.S. Each chapter focuses on a theme, ranging from dreams and involvement in Vietnam in 1965 during a tour in the Philippines perseverance to forgiveness and gratitude. and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s in Rome to try to end the Vietnam War in 1973. As deputy assistant secretary, he witnessed Nelson Man- dela’s history-making visit to the State Department in 1990 and represented the State Department during White House planning

36 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Finding My Mother: ington, D.C. August of that year will upend their life together, The Red Box however. They will wed and then leave friends and family for Marion Naifeh, independently Cape Town, where Patrick is on assignment for two years. published, 2019, free/online. All too soon she will be forced to reconcile the pastoral South In Finding My Mother, published Africa she knows from the film Out of Africa with the South Africa and available at the author’s website she meets under apartheid. Life will not be as she imagined. (marionnaifeh.com), Marion Naifeh Deftly melding personal narrative with political history, Mary channels a deep sense of loss into an writes here of her and Patrick’s time in Cape Town with sensitivity active search for belonging. Having and maturity. experienced her mother’s passing at Indeed, within the first pages of No Ordinary Life, on seeing a very young age, Naifeh laments not army tanks rolling through the downtown she grasps the gravity knowing much about Carolyn March Lanphear—until the arrival of her new situation. This will not be an adventure of her own of a hand-me-down, a red box. making but a “political pressure cooker” that tests her mettle. In it are her mother’s letters, artifacts, photographs and draw- Mary’s relationships with colleagues and her husband will face ings from a decade spent in China, working as a missionary along- tremendous stress in these two turbulent and historic years cul- side her husband, B.W. By way of this unique collection of objects, minating in Nelson Mandela’s election as president—years that Carolyn comes to life, and so do Chinese culture and history. bring about her own “awakening.” Carolyn’s China was a politically fragmented country on the Raised in , Mary Ann Byron has worked in public brink of civil war, and Naifeh smartly shares her father’s grounded relations around the world. In Cape Town she was a commu- reflections with the reader to fill in the current events, which only nity liaison officer and USAID project coordinator at the U.S. enhance Carolyn’s perceptive descriptions of life there. embassy. She and her husband, Patrick, live in Colorado. By the last chapter, the reader—and most important, Naifeh— is comfortably familiar with Carolyn March Lanphear and her Fragments From a Mobile Life journey to the heart of early 20th-century China. Margaret Sullivan, Red Mountain Marion Naifeh has spent most of her life abroad, teaching Press, 2018, $25.95/paperback, 342 pages. English and English literature for nearly six decades at such institutions as the University of Benghazi, Paul H. Nitze School of Foreign Service spouse Margaret Sul- Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and livan, a columnist for the Huffington Beijing’s Second Foreign Language Institute. Post whose work has appeared several She and her late husband, FSO George Naifeh, were posted times in The Foreign Service Journal, in Iran, Iraq, Libya, , Pakistan, Jordan and China. She is has assembled a rich collection of more also the author of The Last Missionary in China (2003) and an than six dozen essays about life in 10 autobiography, Foreign Service (2016). She lives in Aiken, South countries, in 29 homes, with four kids Carolina. and more than 60 years of marriage to a career diplomat. Sullivan’s travels took her around the equator, including No Ordinary Life: Awakenings Burma, India, Malaya, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sierra in the Final Days of Apartheid Leone and Singapore. Her experiences span changes in the post- Mary Ann Byron with Lori Windsor colonial world and women’s lives over several decades. Mohr, Mountain High Publishing, 2018, She learned early on that on top of raising kids and hosting $16/paperback, 310 pages. representational events, she needed “portable pursuits” in the In 1992 Mary is climbing America’s days before Foreign Service wives were allowed to be employed. corporate ladder for luxury hotel In Sierra Leone, she and a female photographer traveled all over management, while her soon-to-be- the country to write a book, meeting with people who made husband, Patrick, is handling sensi- everyday things such as baskets, hand weavings and fish nets. tive security matters as a Diplomatic While the book was never published, the collection of items they Security Service special agent in Wash- gathered made its way to the Smithsonian.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 37 When a tsunami devastated Sumatra in 2004, the United Two Lifetimes As One: States Indonesia Society asked Sullivan to help rebuild the Ele and Me and the Foreign Service educational system that had been destroyed by the disaster. The Irving Tragen, BookPatch, 2019, result was the University of Syiah Kuala Laboratory School, a $36.95/hardcover, 763 pages. high school that admitted its first class in 2007. Born in China to American parents, Sullivan is also the author In this touching autobiography that of Can Survive, La: Cottage Industries in High-Rise covers decades of marriage and service Singapore (1993) and a children’s book, The Philippines: Pacific abroad, Irving Tragen tells the story of Crossroads (1993). a diplomat who could not have carried out his difficult assignments without Reaching Across Borders: the support of his loving wife, the late How We Became American Eleanor “Ele” Dodson. Cultural Ambassadors and Irving, who suffered severe hearing loss from the aftereffects How You Can, Too of scarlet fever, recounts their odyssey from their first meeting Jeffrey Kealing, William Charles and marriage in 1947 through a dozen assignments in the U.S. Press, 2019, $13/paperback, Foreign Service and the Organization of American States. $5.99/Kindle, 240 pages. Irving worked in all 33 Latin American and Caribbean coun- In this memoir, former FSO Jeffrey tries during a career that spanned nearly 60 years, with a focus Kealing retraces the three decades on diplomacy, development and the fight against drug traffick- he and his wife and fellow FSO, Shelly, ing. In Two Lifetimes As One, Irving details those assignments, spent working around the world to what he learned and how Ele made all the difference. make a plea for forming a common connection with people Irving Tragen served as a Foreign Service officer for 35 years, of many nations as globalization draws them closer than ever including senior posts in Latin America and the Caribbean. He before. lives in retirement in San Diego, where he remains engaged in Reaching Across Borders takes readers on adventures through building friendship and understanding between the United Romania, Thailand and Japan. Witness the world through the States and Latin America. eyes of a couple taking on a variety of interesting assignments This book is part of the Association for Diplomatic Studies whether it be serving as an election monitor in Bucharest, and Training’s Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series. publishing for Japanese businesses or working in a community liaison office in Bangkok. All throughout their experiences they Bridge Between Worlds: learned the particulars of various cultures, discovering how to A Lebanese-Arab American bond and succeed no matter the context. Woman’s Journey Hala Lababidi Buck, Scarith/ The experience taught them the value of being cultural New Academia Publishers, 2019, ambassadors for America. Motivated in part by growing hostil- $32/paperback, 356 pages. ity toward globalization and the related political retrenchment today, the author harkens back to the immediate postwar A professional artist, integrative thera- institutions and sentiments that helped create a more connected pist and diplomatic spouse, Hala Laba- world, and aims to show how cultural acuity and respect are bidi Buck embarks on a voyage to her becoming ever more necessary and fundamental to the human birth country to rediscover her roots in experience. Lebanon, a nation that is itself a bridge Jeffrey Kealing has worked as a diplomat, a professor, reporter between East and West. A personal story of searching for home and editor. He holds a Ph.D. in international education from the and connecting with heritage, Bridge Between Worlds is a multi- University of Southern California in Los Angeles. faceted memoir of personal discovery and cultural exploration. Through poetry, storytelling and art therapy, the author canvasses the transient life that took her across numerous Arab countries. As she discovers what it means to be a multicultural

38 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL individual embracing Muslim and Christian identities, she Service Association. He served as president of Meridian Interna- searches for life’s meaning and purpose. tional Center from 1989 to 2006. Hala Buck grew up in Lebanon and earned a B.A. in art education from the American University of Beirut. She has trav- eled to 14 Arab countries and accompanied her Foreign Service FICTION AND POETRY officer husband, Steve, in seven. Her watercolors have been exhibited internationally, and she has worked as a State Depart- ment interior designer. Hala earned an M.A. and taught at Bowie Baobab State and George Washington University, and is a board-certified Larry Hill, First Edition Design counselor and licensed clinical professional counselor. Publishing, 2019, $14.95/paperback, Her memoir is a volume in the Association for Diplomatic 326 pages. Studies and Training’s Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series. Larry Hill certainly captures the reader’s attention on the very first page Wandering the World: of his second novel, Baobab: Personal Recollections “Doctor Michael Eisenstat knew of a Life in Diplomacy he’d have to fight falling asleep as the Walter Cutler, 2017, independently ambassador entered the room for his published, $14.99/Kindle, 326 pages. country team meeting. He often dozed, In this engrossing memoir, career as there was rarely anything of interest for him at these regular diplomat and former ambassador Tuesday morning confabs. Walter Cutler takes readers into highly “‘Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got 72 hours to leave the charged diplomatic scenes around the country,’ Holden Fairchild III, representative of the president of world. the United States of America to Zinani, declared unexpectedly. Among his many diplomatic Eisenstat’s concern about nodding off vanished.” endeavors, Cutler recalls working diligently on the Paris Peace As we find out in flashbacks, the good doctor had only Accords, studiously analyzing intelligence reports and propa- recently closed his thriving private practice in Beverly Hills and ganda coming out of Hanoi and working with senior leadership joined the Foreign Service in search of adventure. His first post- at State on crafting negotiation strategy—until he, and virtually ing is Zinani, a landlocked West African nation controlled by a everyone else at State, learned that the real negotiations were ruthless dictator—at least for the moment. being carried out in secret between Le Duc Tho and Henry Larry Hill, M.D., is a retired internist who spent 18 years in Kissinger. private practice in rural California and then joined the Foreign Cutler twice served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the Service as a regional medical officer. He served in Mali, Bangla- late 1980s, helping manage an often-difficult relationship amid desh, the Philippines, South Africa and China before retiring, intense regional conflict; as ambassador to Tunisia and Zaire and now teaches medical students at his alma mater, the Univer- (now Democratic Republic of the Congo); and as ambassador- sity of California at San Francisco. designate to the Islamic Republic of Iran before diplomatic rela- His previous novel, Philanthropist (2015), was a thriller about tions were broken in 1980. crime and aging. He opened the first American post in Yaoundé, served as political officer in Algiers just after Algeria’s independence, and as political-military officer in Seoul at the time of North Korea’s capture of the USS Pueblo, among many other assignments. The episodes captured in this lively anecdotal history are at once enlightening, humorous and contemplative. Walter Cutler currently resides in Washington with his wife, Isabel, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Diplomacy and the American Foreign

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 39 The Black Forest Mara Rutherford began her writing career as a journalist but H.K. Deeb, Kindle Direct quickly discovered she far preferred fantasy to reality. Originally Publications, 2019, $10.99/ from California, she has lived all over the world alongside her paperback, $3.99/Kindle, Marine-turned-diplomat husband. Crown of Coral and Pearl is 205 pages. her first novel. Inspired by the paintings of Léon Spilliaert and the works of Patricia Crosshairs Highsmith, The Black Forest ushers George Kennedy, SETAF Publishing, in a plethora of secrets and riddles as 2018, $20/paperback, 393 pages. mysterious as the characters examin- ing them. This gritty novel, set mainly dur- Barbara is a German police officer on an assignment well ing the second half of the George below her paygrade. Eben, a student from Kansas, exudes ideal- W. Bush administration, traces the ism. Bill is an American professor with a checkered past. historic rise of a little-known African Their narratives come together in Freiburg, a German American political strategist, Regi- university town near the legendary Black Forest, where a local nald Branson, to the White House. woman’s sudden disappearance suggests much more is at play. Narrated by Alfred Turner, a FSO Hadi K. Deeb is currently posted in Tashkent, and has Senior Foreign Service officer who is Branson’s best friend, the served in Baku, Manila, City and Moscow. He spent story of the first black president’s rise to power is replete with two years in Freiburg prior to joining the State Department. fist-pumping highs and mind-numbing lows. There is a sense The Black Forest is his third novel; he is also the author of of magical realism about Branson’s total devotion to his wife, A Banker’s Tale (2018) and The Haven (2017). Josephine, and the power of their partnership to transform lofty and improbable dreams into reality. Crown of Coral and Pearl George Kennedy is a retired Senior Foreign Service offi- Mara Rutherford, Inkyard Press, cer whose diplomatic career took him to seven countries and 2019, $18.99/hardcover, culminated in his appointment as consul general in Toronto. He 384 pages. has kept busy after retirement as a political adviser to several For generations, the princes of Ilara elected officials, an adviser to small- to medium-sized enter- have married the most beautiful maid- prises regarding opportunities in overseas markets and an ens from the ocean village of Varenia. independent business owner. But though every girl longs to be Kennedy’s previous book, the memoir Cotton Fields to chosen as the next princess, the cost Summits: The View from Contested Ground (SETAF Publishing, of becoming royalty is higher than any 2018), is featured on p. 36. of them could ever imagine. Nor, this young adult novel’s intrepid heroine, once dreamed Death in Delmarva of seeing the wondrous wealth and beauty of Ilara, the kingdom Caroline Taylor, Black Rose Writing, that’s ruled her village for as long as anyone can remember. After 2019, $18.95/paperback, a childhood accident leaves her with a permanent scar, however, 219 pages. that honor was set to go to her identical twin sister, Zadie—while Daphne Dunn works as a lowly stock- Nor remained behind in Varenia, never to set foot on land. room clerk in her cousin’s Foggy Bot- Then Zadie is gravely injured, and Nor is sent to Ilara in her tom grocery store. She’s also required place. To Nor’s dismay, her future husband, Prince Ceren, is to play bill collector to customers who forbidding and cold. As she grows closer to Ceren’s brother, the aren’t paying for their food, includ- charming Prince Talin, Nor uncovers startling truths about a ing pregnant Beatriz Cabeza de Vaca, failing royal bloodline, a murdered queen and a plot to destroy who used to keep house for Daphne’s the home she was once so eager to leave. family in better times.

40 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL When Beatriz is stabbed to death outside her apartment, Regrets Daphne learns the baby has survived and she sets out to find its Juan M. Bracete, Dorrance Publishing Company, 2019, $15/paperback, missing father. She gets sidetracked when a friend facing life- 176 pages. threatening surgery asks Daphne to locate his sister, Charlie. Except for her lip ring and a nasty drug habit, Charlie could be We never learn the surname of Daphne’s twin. Albert, the protagonist of Regrets, The search for both people leads Daphne to the Delmarva but we get to know virtually every- Peninsula and a woman so desperate to cover up her crimes thing else about him. As the novel’s that she is willing to kill anyone in her way. But in the pursuit of title implies, Albert strives to build a justice, a girl’s gotta cut a few corners… fulfilling life despite childhood sexual Caroline Taylor is the author of four mystery novels and trauma, which interferes with his a nonfiction book. She also published a collection of short ability to establish stable emotional relationships. No matter stories, Enough! Thirty Stories of Fielding Life’s Curve Balls, where his travels take him around the world, he remains lonely in 2018; her entire output of short stories is available at and frustrated. www.carolinestories.com. A member of the Foreign Service Juan M. Bracete was born and raised in Puerto Rico and pres- from 1969 to 1972, Ms. Taylor served in Tel Aviv and Quito. ently resides in Miami, Florida. After practicing law for several years, he entered the Foreign Service and served in Latin America for a stretch of four years. He left the Foreign Service to relocate to El Salvador in 2004, working as a special adviser on public interna- tional law to the minister of governance and public security

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 41 in El Salvador. Mr. Bracete retired from the Social Security Admin- to her death. Might it be suicide, or might it be something else? istration in 2017 after having served for seven years as an attorney- Rook and his friend NYPD Detective Archie Lin look to find out adviser at various disability adjudication offices. and open a case. The author hopes that this book will resonate with readers Rook’s leads keep going dry, and frustration starts to build. who may be trying to pick up the pieces of their own lives. Even But then another gruesome death lands even closer to home. though we all have regrets, he notes, there is always hope that This time it’s a murder in the backyard of Rook’s own detective the loneliness and solitude will end. agency. The Ross Detective Agency is known for taking on those more personal cases where animosity boils and emotions run Coconuts on Mars high. Might a brutal murderer be on the loose, or are things get- Indran Amirthanayagam, Poetrywala, ting more personal? 2019, $12/paperback, 64 pages. A stumbling romance, a prying roommate and a greedy This whimsically titled volume is the gangster add to Rook’s problems. Will he sacrifice his own well- poet’s 14th collection of verse to date. being to stop another death, or will he finally be overwhelmed by While it is slender in size, it peers mounting personal troubles? bravely into the future even as it looks Delia C. Pitts served for 11 years in the Foreign Service, with back to the remembered mists of overseas postings to Nigeria, Mauritania and Mexico. She went Indran Amirthanayagam’s Sri Lankan on to spend 20 years as a university administrator. She and her childhood. husband live in central New Jersey and have twin adult sons. As was true of his previous verse, the poet once again embraces love in many languages; crosses all sorts Alcestis in the Underworld: of borders—geographic, linguistic and political; and champions Poems freedom of expression wherever he goes. Nina Murray, Circling Rivers, 2019, $14.99/paperback, Indran Amirthanayagam is a Sri Lankan American poet-diplo- 80 pages. mat, essayist and translator in English, Spanish, French, Portu- guese and Haitian Creole. He joined the U.S. Information Agency Greek myths continue to captivate as a Foreign Service officer in 1993, serving in Buenos Aires and the modern imagination by offering Brussels before joining the State Department as a fundamental truths about human officer in 1996. With State he has served in Abidjan, , nature. In this book of poems by Nina Chennai, Monterrey, Vancouver, Lima and Port-au-Prince, and is Murray, the myth of Alcestis’ journey currently a member of the Freedom of Information Act team. to the underworld finds new salience. Two more of his books will be published later this year: Paolo 9, Murray navigates the shifting landscapes of 21st-century liv- a bilingual collection that describes the odyssey of Peruvian soccer ing, where the divide between poetry and prose blurs together star Paolo Guerrero before the recent World Cup, and En busca de and where foreign policy meets personal passion. This collection posada, which addresses immigration and the search for a refuge. radiates lucid personal tribulations and captivates as well as it informs. The poetry also elucidates the author’s unique experi- Black and Blue in Harlem: ence—working in Moscow as an American diplomat after having A Ross Agency Mystery grown up in Soviet-era Ukraine. Delia C. Pitts, FriesenPress, 2019, Nina Murray is a Foreign Service officer, who has served in $16.99/hardcover, $7.99/paperback, Lithuania, Canada and Russia. Her poetry has appeared in sev- 144 pages. eral journals, including Ekphrasis and The Harpoon Review. Her Private investigator SJ Rook arrives from Russian and Ukrainian include Peter Alesh- home one day during a deadly cold kovsky’s Stargorod (2013) and the award-winning The Museum night in Harlem to find his own apart- of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko (2012). She grew up ment building is now a crime scene in Lviv in Western Ukraine. because his unassuming neighbor, Nomie George, took a 15-story plunge

42 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL POTPOURRI

Extraordinary Experiences: Tales of Special Needs Abroad Edited by Kathi Silva, Patricia Linderman, Nicole Schaeffer- McDaniel, Francesca Kelly and Jennifer Dinoia, Tales from a Small Planet, 2019, $10.99/paperback, 220 pages.

Experiencing another culture is meant to be fun, adventurous and mind- opening. But what happens when you mix the joys of living or traveling abroad with the struggles of having a physical, intellectual, medical or other special need? In this new book, Foreign Service spouses, a number of whom have been published previously in the Journal, share their tales as expats with unique challenges. This is not a how-to book; it is a book of real-life stories, where you will find inspiration, guidance and insights from ordinary people who have made extraordinary adjustments to their experiences far from home. It is especially timely con- sidering recent intense discussion of special needs issues and policies at the State Department. The book’s publisher, Tales from a Small Planet (www .talesmag.com), is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to share uncensored and honest information about the joys and chal- lenges of living abroad. For more than 15 years, Talesmag has helped thousands of internationally employed people, includ- ing those on diplomatic, corporate, NGO and educational assignments, evaluate potential postings with perspectives from people who “tell it like it is.”

The Adventurers Club By Julianne Price, illustrated by Marie Wiscombe, 2018, $8.99/paperback, 22 pages.

New experiences are to be celebrated. This is the simple, yet important message this book conveys to children. As author Julianne Price, a Foreign Service family member, explains: “Moving has its fair share of challenges, but with the

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 43 right attitude, it can be a transformative journey. As geographi- Simply Delicious Recipes cally mobile parents of small children, we were disheartened Claire Zavrid Coleman, CookBook Publishers, 2019, $15/hardcover, by the lack of positive moving resources. So we set out to do 75 pages. something about it … helping children, parents and the occa- sional turtle find adventure in the midst of their own wander- What started as an ambition to col- ings.” lect old family recipes grew into a Julianne Price is an early childhood educator with 14 years full cookbook filled with original of experience in the American public school system, as well creations with all sorts of cuisines. as international and British schools worldwide. She has lived This diverse collection of recipes is in Scotland, Turkey, Spain and Japan, and currently resides inspired by childhood memories, in Austria. She dedicates the book to “my own adventurers, copious amounts of international Kathryn and Carolyn, and my always-supportive husband.” travel and a decades-long diplomatic career. Marie Wiscombe is a U.K.-based illustrator and designer From a hearty bolognese to stuffed dates, Simply Deli- with experience in publishing and toy design. cious Recipes promises great eating, whether in the form of a bountiful feast or the occasional crisp beverage. Included iCAN! A Young Woman’s are helpful tips on alternative ingredients, meal presentation Guide to Taking the Lead and wine pairing. And at the end of each recipe the author Holly Rodgers Wescott and often includes the occasional story to add a personal touch. Joanne Grady Huskey, Xlibris, 2018, But beyond excellent recipes and meal ideas, the book offers $19.99/paperback, 192 pages. essential information on food labeling and safety, as well The authors, who co-founded as guidelines for healthy weight loss and managing sodium iLive2Lead seven years ago, dedicate intake. this upbeat book “to young women Claire Zavrid Coleman served for more than 31 years in worldwide who are seeking to make the Foreign Service and retired in 2017. Her overseas postings their dreams a reality.” In its pages, included Germany, India, South Africa and Italy. She is cur- they explain how they developed their rently an executive assistant at the Carnegie Endowment for leadership training program, share some lessons learned along International Peace. the way and lay out how to actualize a full-fledged project. To acquire a copy of this book, please write to the author: Holly Rodgers Wescott lived overseas for many years before Claire Coleman, 10007 Cotton Farm Road, Fairfax VA 22032. returning to the United States, where she and Joanne Grady Huskey co-created their organization. Ms. Wescott is its execu- Los Superamigos tive director. Living and working in multiple cultures overseas de Centroamérica: quickly convinced her of the critical need to equip young Bilingual Edition Juan D. Cubillo, women with the skills and inspiration to change the trajectory independently published, of their lives. 2019, $9.95/paperback, Joanne Grady Huskey is vice president of iLive2Lead and a 24 pages. co-founder both of Global Adjustments (India), a cross-cultural training company, and the American International School of The “Superamigos de Cen- Chennai (India). She has lived and worked all over the world troamérica” are a team of alongside her FSO (now retired) husband, James Huskey, and seven young superheroes. received the Secretary of State’s Outstanding Volunteer Award Each representing a nation within Central America, they for East Asia and the Pacific for her work with disabled children work together to improve the region and better one another’s in China in 2014. countries. Her previous books are The Unofficial Diplomat (2010) A band of migrants is traveling through Mexico but is and Make It In India (2015). stopped at a border. The Superamigos fly to the scene to see what can be done. They help the migrants return home, but

44 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL recognize that “progress and prosperity won’t happen if they leave their countries alone.” Looking to improve the condi- tions that spurred migration, the Superamigos go on to build schools, save dying crops, fix homes and feed children. By working together as a team, they “achieved the Central Ameri- can dream.” Juan D. Cubillo was born in Costa Rica and immigrated to the United States when he was 5 years old. After earning an undergraduate degree, he joined the U.S. military, then toured the United States to promote literacy and education, and now serves as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Central America. His published works look to empower Latino youth and promote peace and prosperity in Central America. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 45 OF RELATED INTEREST

A Rope from the Sky: Belt and Road: The Making and Unmaking A Chinese World Order of the World’s Newest State Bruno Maçães, Hurst & Company, Zach Vertin, Pegasus Books, 2019, 2018, $28/hardcover, 288 pages. $29.95/hardcover, $11.23/Kindle, 490 pages. “This is a remarkably insightful and comprehensive review of China’s Belt A Rope from the Sky chronicles the and Road Initiative, with all its implica- complexities of South Sudan’s struggle tions for economic development, as well for independence, intertwining local as for the reshaping of the global order,” and global narratives. says Stephen Green, former chairman of HSBC Bank and chair “The still-unfolding tragedy of South Sudan is too little under- of ’s Asia House, of this book. “America and Europe: take stood and too little known, even among foreign policy experts. note! This is essential reading for us all.” Zach Vertin is a rare exception,” John Kerry, the 68th Secretary of Author Bruno Maçães analyzes the most ambitious geopo- State, said of this book. “He has spent his life not just explaining litical initiative of the age, focusing on the physical and politi- how the promise of this young nation, for which so many sacri- cal details of the Belt and Road and its impact on the world’s ficed, was broken so badly, but helping end the bloodshed for a economy and politics, as well as speculating on what the world people who have seen far too much of it.” will look like after its completion. Is the Belt and Road about Zach Vertin is a lecturer at Princeton University and a visiting more than power projection and profit? he asks. fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center. He served in Bruno Maçães is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and the Obama administration as a senior adviser to the U.S. Special senior adviser at Flint Global. He is Portugal’s former minister Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan. for Europe.

Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Building the Nation: Churchill, and the Road to War Missed Opportunities Tim Bouverie, Tim Duggan Books, 2019, in Iraq & Afghanistan $30/hardcover, 512 pages. Heather Selma Gregg, Potomac Books, 2018, $29.95/hardcover, 296 pages. offers a new perspective on Britain’s policy in the 1930s and the Building her argument from foreign policy lead-up to World War II by using diaries, reports and U.S. military officers’ inter- letters, speeches, news commentaries views, Heather Selma Gregg argues the and a plethora of other resources. The United States should pay more attention author focuses on British Cabinet politics, indecisiveness and to true nation-building, like creating a shared sense of identity failed diplomacy, which he claims enabled Hitler’s domination and purpose within a state’s border, in Iraq and Afghanistan. of Europe and determined Europe’s fate. While Bouverie’s book “In a time when the United States increasingly recognizes how is historical, it is an evergreen cautionary tale. Failure to stand up inadequate simple theories of state stabilization and state-build- to dictators and aggression can have catastrophic consequences. ing are, Heather Gregg offers a powerful new model for what Tim Bouverie reviews historical and political books for major to do after the shooting has stopped,” says Scott Guggenheim, news outlets and is a former political journalist for Channel 4 senior adviser to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. “We who live News in the . During his time at Channel 4 from and work in the center of the storm can only hope that her book 2013 to 2017, he covered major political events and interviewed gets studied carefully by the next generation of policymakers.” high-profile politicians. Heather Selma Gregg is an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Department of Defense Analysis.

46 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL China’s Dream: The Culture The Fixer: Visa Lottery Chronicles of Chinese Communism and Charles Piot with Kodjo Nicolas Batema, the Secret Sources of Its Power Duke University Press, 2019, Kerry Brown, Polity Press, 2018, $24.95/paperback, 224 pages. $69.95/hardcover, $24.95/paperback, The Fixer is an engaging and humanizing $13/Kindle, 240 pages. look at the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery, a Despite the collapse of similar systems program much disparaged by President elsewhere, the Chinese Communist Party Donald Trump and his supporters. In continues to endure as one of the great the past decade, the small West African political forces of modern times. Kerry Brown investigates the nation of Togo has seen more Diversity Visa Lottery applicants source of the party’s power as a cultural, ethical and ideological per capita than any other country (hundreds of thousands of entity. Brown also explains the history of the party and how Gen- Togolese enter each year). eral Secretary is leading a new “cultural revolution” to Author Charles Piot collaborates with Kodjo Nicolas Batema, achieve China’s dream: to become the superpower of the world. a Togolese visa broker and “fixer.” Batema helps his clients Brown, who previously served in Britain’s , navigate the process of applying for the lottery—and if they win, is the current director of the Lau Chinese Institute at King’s the even more challenging process of actually qualifying for the College in London. He holds a Ph.D. in Chinese politics and visa. Jumping through burdensome bureaucratic hoops requires language and is a renowned Chinese history specialist. sleight-of-hand and insider knowledge that only an expert like Batema can offer. Piot also looks at the disappointments and The Costs of Conversation successes of lottery winners who have made it to the United Oriana Skylar Mastro, Cornell States. University Press, 2019, $39.95/ Charles Piot is professor of cultural anthropology and African hardcover, 216 pages. and African American studies at Duke University. In this work, Oriana Skylar Mastro explores several questions: What factors Hope and History: influence the warring parties’ decisions A Memoir of Tumultuous Times about whether to talk to their enemy, William J. vanden Heuvel, Cornell and when may their position on wartime University Press, 2019, $28.95/ hardcover, 296 pages. diplomacy change? How do we get from fighting to talking? William J. vanden Heuvel, who served as According to Mastro, states are focused on two strategic costs President ’s U.S. ambassador of conversation: the enemy interpreting diplomacy as a sign of to the United Nations’ European offices weakness, and the enemy’s strategic mindset change to this so- and deputy U.S. permanent representa- called weakness. Therefore, the strategic cost of talking must be tive to the United Nations from 1977 to 1981, recounts his experi- lowered before peace talks with the enemy can begin. By exam- ences as a second-generation American, a soldier, a lawyer, a ining case studies, Mastro concludes that communication will political activist and a diplomat. only happen when a state believes it has demonstrated strength Compiling his work from more than eight decades and his and its enemy is unable to escalate the war. adventures with some of the most prominent Americans of his Oriana Skylar Mastro is an officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve time—men like Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and and an assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown Jimmy Carter—vanden Heuvel addresses issues from desegrega- University. tion in America to the Holocaust. He also gives a behind-the- scenes view on how individuals like himself have tackled and continue to address some of America’s most challenging issues with ingenuity and goodwill, concluding there is still room for optimism in public life despite the hatred and bigotry present in America.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 47 How China Sees the World: Leap of Faith: Han-Centrism and the Balance Hubris, Negligence, and America’s of Power in International Politics Greatest Foreign Policy Tragedy John M. Friend and Bradley A. Thayer, Michael J. Mazarr, PublicAffairs, 2019, Potomac Books, 2018, $30/hardcover, 528 pages. $27.95/hardcover, 192 pages. Leap of Faith is a deeply researched In this book, authors John M. Friend and insider account of how the United States Bradley A. Thayer dive into Han-centrism came to invade Iraq in 2003. The author and the threat China poses to the balance interviewed dozens of people involved in of power in international politics. A form of Chinese nationalism, deliberations to invade Iraq, and reviewed all documents so far Han-centrism proclaims that Han Chinese are superior to others declassified. He concludes that what he calls “America’s greatest and are entitled to advance Chinese interests, no matter the cost foreign policy tragedy” was the result of blunders, intellectual to other countries or groups. and moral arrogance, and toxic personality traits among political The idea of Han-centrism continues to become more popular and military leaders. throughout China, leading to a nation that believes it has a right Faulty assumptions by U.S. officials included assuming the to dominate international politics. Han nationalists’ main goal is United States could intervene in Iraq with a light footprint and to reclaim China’s prosperity, which they believe was stolen by failing to plan effectively for the aftermath of the war. To avoid foreign powers. another such calamity, he argues that we need prudent, careful John M. Friend is an assistant professor of political science government leaders and a well-informed populace. at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University. Bradley Michael J. Mazarr is a senior political scientist at the RAND A. Thayer is the author of several books and currently a visiting Corporation. He has been a faculty member and associate dean fellow at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. at the U.S. National War College.

Jerusalem and Washington: The Lessons of Tragedy: A Life in Politics and Diplomacy Statecraft and World Order Zalman Shoval, Rowman & Littlefield, Hal Brands and Charles Edel, 2018, $38/hardcover, 368 pages. Yale University Press, 2019, $25/hardcover, 216 pages. In this memoir, Ambassador Zalman Shoval takes readers inside closed doors in Jerusa- U.S. leaders’ memories of the tragic events lem and Washington, where world leaders that led to World War II helped build the have made major decisions about the Gulf postwar order and an era of long-term War, the Palestine Liberation Organization prosperity. But today, as Americans lose and Israel’s foreign relations. sight of the fact that the descent into war and violence has been Ambassador Shoval’s account is “essential reading for schol- a recurring theme in world history, the global order is under ars, diplomats and all who seek to understand America’s critical sharper threat than at any time in decades. role, past and future, in the Middle East,” says former National “Brands and Edel argue persuasively for a return to the Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. ‘tragic sensibility’ that spurred the creation of all previous An early ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Shoval international orders,” says former Deputy Secretary of Defense successfully navigated complicated relationships among Israel’s Robert Work. ministries and political parties. Far more turbulent and chal- Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger distinguished professor lenging was his posting in Washington, where Israel’s financial of global affairs in the School of Advanced International Studies dependence almost caused his expulsion. at Johns Hopkins University. Charles Edel is a senior fellow and Zalman Shoval is an Israeli politician who served as Israel’s visiting scholar at the United States Studies Centre at the Univer- ambassador to the United States during the George H.W. Bush sity of Sydney. presidency and during the Clinton administration. He resides in Tel Aviv and often visits the United States.

48 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Lincoln, Seward, and U.S. Foreign Nikita Khrushchev’s Relations in the Civil War Era Journey into America Joseph A. Fry, University Press Lawrence J. Nelson and of Kentucky, 2019, $60/hardcover, Matthew G. Schoenbachler, 256 pages. University Press of Kansas, 2019, $25/hardcover, 216 pages. The American Civil War was not only a tumultuous time for the country domesti- When Nikita Khrushchev became the cally, but also for its conduct of foreign first Russian leader to tour America in relations. In this illuminating account, 1959, he witnessed a country in the midst Joseph A. Fry describes how President Abraham Lincoln worked of unrivaled prosperity just as the possibility of Cold War–era with his Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, to manage the nuclear annihilation was permeating the public consciousness. uniquely difficult challenge of conducting the foreign affairs of a Nikita Khrushchev’s Journey into America looks to fully explore divided nation. the Russian leader’s visit as a critical moment in U.S. history, Deftly navigating rapacious European powers, Seward went arguing that it can be understood as one of the most democratic so far as to threaten war against any nation that intervened in the events in an era swept up in great power competition between Civil War, helping secure a conclusive Union victory. ideological foes. Joseph A. Fry is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus Matthew G. Schoenbachler is a professor of history at at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of Dixie the University of North Alabama and is the author of Murder Looks Abroad: The South and U.S. Foreign Relations, 1789–1973 and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy (2011). (2002); Debating Vietnam: Fulbright, Stennis, and Their Senate His co-author, the late Lawrence J. Nelson, was a professor Hearings (2006); and The American South and the Vietnam War: at the University of North Alabama and the author of King Belligerence, Protest, and Agony in Dixie (2015). Cotton’s Advocate: Oscar G. Johnston and the New Deal (1999).

Megaphone Bureaucracy Not for the Faint of Heart: Lessons Dennis C. Grube, Princeton University in Courage, Power, and Persistence Press, 2019, $29.95/hardcover, Wendy R. Sherman, PublicAffairs, 232 pages. 2018, $28/hardcover, 256 pages. Our bureaucratic leaders are increasingly On the forefront of some of the most having to govern under the scrutiny of a consequential negotiations in recent 24-hour news cycle, hyperpartisan politi- diplomatic history, Wendy R. Sherman cal oversight and a restless populace that has amassed a wealth of unique foreign is increasingly distrustful of the people policy experience as a high-level State who govern them. Department political appointee during the Clinton and Obama In this timely and incisive book, Dennis C. Grube draws on administrations. Her straightforward delivery makes this mem- in-depth interviews and compelling case studies to argue that a oir a heady and entertaining read. new style of bureaucratic leadership is emerging: one that marries From humble beginnings as a social worker, she rose to top the robust independence of Washington agency heads with the positions in the private and public sector, once quipping: “I prudent political neutrality of Westminster civil servants. These joke that I remain a community organizer. … My caseload just “Washminster” leaders do not avoid the public gaze, nor do they changed.” Sherman served as lead negotiator for the historic Iran overtly court political controversy. Rather, they use their increas- nuclear deal, as North Korea policy coordinator and as under ingly public pulpits to exert their own brand of persuasive power. secretary of State for political affairs, among other positions. Dennis C. Grube is a lecturer in public policy at the University Wendy R. Sherman is currently a professor of public lead- of Cambridge. A former political speechwriter, he is the author ership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the of Prime Ministers and Rhetorical Governance (2013) and At the Harvard Kennedy School, and senior counselor at the Albright Margins of Victorian Britain: Politics, Immorality and Britishness Stonebridge Group. in the Nineteenth Century (1961).

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 49 Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and Rooted Cosmopolitans: the End of the American Century Jews and Human Rights George Packer, Knopf, 2019, in the Twentieth Century $30/hardcover, 608 pages. James Loeffler, Yale University Press, 2018, $32.50/hardcover, 384 pages. Drawn from his diaries and papers, Our Man provides an intimate portrait 2018 marked the anniversaries of two of a legendary diplomat possessed by historic worldwide events: the birth of dogged determination and unshakable the state of Israel and the creation of the faith in American ideals who brokered the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dayton Accords that ended the wars in the Balkans in the after- By examining several Jewish founders of international human math of Yugoslavia’s breakup, and served as the Obama admin- rights groups throughout history, James Loeffler explores the istration’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. relationship between Zionism and the origins of international But Holbrooke’s swaggering personality and headstrong human rights. Loeffler’s book challenges the assumptions about approach often rubbed some the wrong way. As FSO Matthew the history of human rights and introduces a new angle on the Asada wrote in his review of Our Man in the July-August FSJ, Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Without the drama there was no Holbrooke, and without James Loeffler is a professor of Jewish history at the Univer- Holbrooke there would have been no action.” sity of Virginia. He is the author of The Law of Strangers: Jewish George Packer is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author Lawyers and International Law in the Twentieth Century (2019) of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (2014) and The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late and The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, a finalist for the Russian Empire (2013). 2006 Pulitzer Prize. Russia Quest for Status: Dmitri Trenin, Polity Press, 2019, Chinese and Russian $14.95/paperback, 200 pages. Foreign Policy Focusing on 1900 to the present, Dmitri Deborah Welch Larson and Trenin takes readers through Russia’s Alexei Shevchenko, Yale University revolutionary upheaval, the rise of the Press, 2019, $40/hardcover, Soviet Union, World War II and its dev- $27.95/Kindle, 352 pages. astating aftermath, mature socialism and To explain current Russian and Chinese its stagnation, democratic upheaval of foreign policy, Deborah Welch Larson the perestroika era and Putin’s stabilization of post-communist and Alexei Shevchenko adopt social identity theory to show how Russia. both countries “used various modes of emulation, competition Today, Trenin cautions, Russia stands at a critical juncture. and creativity to gain recognition from other countries and thus Following all the turbulent events of the past century, it will take validate their respective identities.” Larson and Shevchenko decades for the country to “rehabilitate itself, develop organi- argue that Chinese and Russian foreign policies are formulated cally, build trust and stimulate cooperation among its own based on the countries’ individual desires to become key play- people.” ers throughout the world, whether it is policy to participate in Jack Matlock, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, calls multinational organizations or to grow military strength, among Russia “a brilliant, concise interpretation of 120 years of Russian other things. history, plus an insightful look at the future. Essential reading for Deborah Welch Lawson is a political science professor at the all who are concerned about the dangerous—and unnecessary— University of California, Los Angeles. Alexei Shevchenko is a revival of Cold War tensions.” professor of political science at California State University, Dmitri Trenin has been director of the Carnegie Moscow Fullerton. Center since 2008.

50 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The Man in the Arena: White House Warriors: The Life and Times of How the National Security U.S. Senator Gale McGee Council Transformed the Rodger McDaniel, Potomac Books, American Way of War 2018, $36.95/hardcover, 416 pages. John Gans, Liveright, 2019, $28.95/hardcover, 272 pages. Gale McGee was elected as a senator from Wyoming in 1958 and would go Drawing from policymakers and more on to have an influential career in both than 10,000 documents from presiden- foreign policy and domestic politics. tial libraries and archives, John Gans This biography, a volume in the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and clarifies the purpose of the National Security Council, reveals Diplomacy Book Series, recalls an era of bipartisanship in how diversely the NSC has been used by presidents from John policymaking that helped transform the nation. F. Kennedy through Donald Trump, and offers a look behind Senator McGee played a major role in the 1960s liberal con- the curtain concerning foreign policy and security decisions in sensus that gave the country Medicare, the minimum wage, the Washington. right to collective bargaining and significant civil rights reforms. As former U.S. ambassador to NATO Ivo H. Daalder explains: He was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to serve as the U.S. “When it comes to U.S. national security policy, some of the ambassador to the Organization of American States during the most powerful and consequential people in Washington are successful approval of the 1978 Panama Canal Treaty. also the least well known. John Gans shines a bright light on Rodger McDaniel is a pastor, a former lawyer and served as a these National Security Council staffers and shows how they Wyoming state senator from 1977 to 1981. He also served in the have influenced presidential decisions on war for decades.” Wyoming state house from 1971 to 1977. Gans, who previously served as the chief speechwriter at the Pentagon, works as the director of communications and research The Sit Room: at the University of Pennsylvania’s global policy institute, In the Theater of War and Peace Perry World House. David Scheffer, Oxford University Press, 2018, $29.95/hardcover, 360 pages. Meditating Murder In this insider account of the White House Ann Saxton Reh, Prospect Street Press, Situation Room, David Scheffer reveals 2019, $12.99/paperback, 320 pages. the intense debates that decided Ameri- Meditating Murder is a good, old- ca’s response to the Balkans War. The Sit fashioned mystery, the first in a series Room features an impressive ensemble featuring diplomat sleuth David of characters, from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Markham, a Foreign Service officer. National Security Adviser Tony Lake to lead negotiator Richard Kassandra Fitzwilliam is on the Northern Holbrooke. California coast in the late 1980s, indulg- The book depicts authentic policymaking at the highest levels ing her passion for collecting South Asian antiquities and other of government, and recounts how differing views among diplo- people’s secrets. Her husband, Gerald, a retired ambassador, is mats, generals and the White House were ironed out within the worried when a group of houseguests come to prepare an exhibit policy process. of Kassandra’s collection because he is sure it contains stolen David Scheffer served on the Deputies Committee of the items that will discredit his career. He calls the only person he National Security Council during the early 1990s. Afterward he can count on, fellow diplomat David Markham, who soon finds became the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, himself looking for a murderer. serving from 1997 to 2001. A graduate of Oxford, Harvard and Ann Saxton Reh is a retired educator and military spouse with Georgetown universities, he is currently the Mayer Brown/ a penchant for adventure who has lived in six foreign countries Robert A. Helman Professor of Law at Northwestern University while raising a family. She is working on a prequel and sequel to Pritzker School of Law. the book, set in Saudi Arabia and India, respectively. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 51 APPRECIATION The Perfect Professional Lowell Bruce Laingen 1922-2019 BY JOHN LIMBERT

did not know Bruce Laingen before I had the honor and privilege of working for him as a political officer in , where he was chief of mission. I first met him there on Aug. 18, 1979. In my first days at post, I saw that Bruce Laingen represented the best of our Service. For him the Foreign IService meant: take care of your people; listen to your host country; report the truth; and carry out American policy with honor, humanity and principle. He told me, “You know what you need to do. Do it.” Then he added, “I’m jealous. I wish I was, like you, free to travel everywhere and talk to everyone.” His assignment in Tehran was to maintain COURTESY OF THE LAINGEN FAMILY some kind of orderly relationship with what- Ambassador Laingen at the White House following his return from Iran with Vice ever system was going to succeed the monar- President George H.W. Bush, First Lady Nancy Reagan and President Ronald Reagan, Jan. 27, 1981. chy. Despite the history of close U.S.-Pahlavi family relations, Washington could not abandon Iran after its oil, as a customer for U.S. exports and, most important, as a key revolution. Iran remained important to the United States for its part of an anti-Soviet alliance.

John Limbert is a retired Foreign Service officer and academic. During a 34-year diplomatic career, he served mostly in the Middle East (includ- ing two tours in Iraq) and Islamic Africa, was ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and president of the American Foreign Service Association. He served with Ambassador Bruce Laingen at U.S. Embassy Tehran, where both were held hostage from 1979 to 1981.

52 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A Challenging Mission Bruce Laingen’s mission was, to put it mildly, challenging. When the Islamic Revolution failed to deliver the promised paradise to Iranians, America—and Bruce Laingen—was the scapegoat. First, we were still there, in our large compound and massively ugly buildings (“Hender- son High”) in downtown Tehran. Second, things were not going well. There were violent clashes in ethnic- minority regions. There were brawls between Islamist and leftist gangs in offices, schools and universities. Someone had to be responsible, so all

problems were attributed to “Ameri- COURTESY OF THE LAINGEN FAMILY can mercenaries.” The Laingen family gathered in front of their home after Ambassador Laingen’s return from Iran, Jan. 28, 1981. From left: Chip, Penne, Bruce, Bill and Jim. The Iranian media—under strong leftist influence—spouted ugly personal vitriol against him. But The second story involved Bruce Laingen’s meeting with he never gave up. In July 1979, in the clearest language, he had Mohammad Shirvani, a young Iranian filmmaker visiting warned Washington against admitting the Shah of Iran to the Washington in the summer of 2007. (In those less hysterical United States. His prophetic message said: “It may be the right days, such exchanges were still possible.) After a conversation thing to do, but not now, while Iran is still in chaos.” He pre- at Bruce and Penne’s Bethesda home, he invited Shirvani to dicted three results from admitting the shah: a July 4 neighborhood gathering and introduced him to the • The moderate provisional government of Mehdi Bazargan neighbors. To put it mildly, the residents were shocked to see will collapse. an Iranian filmmaker at their party. That July 4 conversation— • Any chance of normal U.S.-Iranian relations will disappear. in which Bruce says that, after 30 years of pointless estrange- • The U.S. embassy will be lost. ment, Iran and the United States must find a way to talk to He was right on all points, but in , when the U.S. each other—became the most moving section of Shirvani’s president agreed to admit the shah, Bruce Laingen’s wise and documentary 444 Days. prophetic advice was ignored. I remember two special stories. In 1980, while he, Regional The Perfect Professional Security Officer Mike Howland and Political Officer Victor Bruce never gave up seeking some way for Iranians and Tomseth were detained at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Swiss Americans to stop shouting at each other and begin talking. Ambassador Erik Lang delivered a diplomatic with blank He never carried a grudge, and saw the good in everyone. employee evaluation reports (EERs) for all embassy employees. When he was chairperson of AFSA’s awards committee, he once Bruce and his colleagues patiently wrote reports on everyone, suggested we consider Henry Kissinger for the association’s returned them to Ambassador Lang, who forwarded them to the “Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy” State Department via the Swiss embassy in Washington. award. He seemed surprised when the response from the group A few months later I read in a letter from home: “Congratula- ranged from embarrassed silence to “Over my dead body.” tions. You’ve been promoted.” I never knew how it happened Someone even pointed out to him that Kissinger was partly until we were freed, and I learned the story. It is the best EER I responsible for President Jimmy Carter’s disastrous decision ever received, and I had nothing to do with its composition. to admit the deposed Shah of Iran in 1979.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 53 A Lifetime of Contributions to American Diplomacy

n June 24, 2010, Ambassador Lowell Bruce Laingen received the American Foreign Service Association’s Ohighest award, the Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy, in recognition of his distinguished 38-year Foreign Service career and a lifetime of public service. Ambassador Laingen served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1949, and served in Germany, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Malta, where he was U.S. ambassador from 1977 to 1979. Later that year he returned to Tehran on a temporary basis as chargé d'affaires, but within months he was taken hostage when Iranian protestors overran the U.S. embassy and held him captive, with others, for 14 months. For his leader- ship and courage during that ordeal, he received the State Department’s Award for Valor and the Defense Depart- ment’s Medal for Distinguished Public Service. From 1981 to 1987, Ambassador Laingen served as

vice president of the National Defense University, a post AFSA Ambassador Bruce Laingen receives AFSA’s Award for traditionally held by a senior diplomat. He retired from the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy on June Foreign Service in 1987. 24, 2010. John Limbert, at left, presented the award; AFSA That year he was elected to AFSA’s Governing Board as a Executive Director Ian Houston and President Susan retiree representative and appointed chairman of the AFSA Johnson look on. Awards Committee (which later became the Awards and of diplomacy. He was honored with AAD’s Excellence in Plaques Committee). It was a post he would hold for two Diplomacy Award on retirement from that position. decades. In gratitude for his distinguished and dedicated In addition, Ambassador Laingen served as executive service, the association gave Ambassador Laingen a special director of the National Commission on the Public Service award of appreciation in 2006. As a Journal report on that (the Volcker Commission) from 1987 to 1990, and in 1998 ceremony noted: “During his tenure, he succeeded in held the Sol Linowitz Chair in International Relations at greatly improving the standing of the AFSA awards and Hamilton College in New York, where he taught a semi- consistently provided wise guidance.” The association nar on the . He continued to do public remains grateful for his generous assistance. speaking and served on the boards of A Presidential Class- From 1991 to 2006, Ambassador Laingen rendered simi- room for Young Americans, the Mercersburg Academy in larly exemplary service as president of the American Acad- Pennsylvania, No Greater Love and the National Defense emy of Diplomacy, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization University Foundation. dedicated to fostering the highest standards in the conduct —Susan B. Maitra

As was typical of him, Bruce just smiled and said, “Well, he all the fury and madness around him, he never stopped being an did some good things, too.” optimist and the perfect professional. It was sad that Bruce’s “mission impossible” in Tehran ended I am proud to have known him as a boss, a colleague and a so tragically with the attack on the embassy and prolonged friend. hostage crisis. What was so striking about Bruce was that, with As the Iranians say, Ruh-heshaan Shaad. May his spirit be joyful. n

54 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATIONAFSA NEWS

AFSA and the Foreign Service Play Ball! CALENDAR

October 1 AFSA Governing Board Retreat

October 2 4-5:30 p.m. Reception: Incoming USAID Class

October 3 11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Luncheon: 154th Specialist Class

October 9 12-1:30 p.m. Luncheon: 200th A-100 Class AFSA/CAMERON WOODWORTH AFSA/CAMERON Pictured on the field at Nationals Stadium (from left) are Spirit Award winners AFSA President Ambassador October 14 Eric Rubin, AFSA Director for PPI and retired FSO Julie Nutter, AFSA State VP Tom Yazdgerdi and his wife Columbus Day – Julia Reed, and FSO Kristin Roberts and her son, Elias. AFSA Offices Closed

On Sept. 13, AFSA and the October 16 Washington Nationals 12-2 p.m. teamed up for the fourth AFSA Governing Board Meeting annual Foreign Service Night at Nationals Park. October 16 More than 400 members 4-6 p.m. Annual AFSA of the Foreign Service and Awards Ceremony their families attended to catch up with friends and November 1 colleagues as the Washing- 12-1 p.m. Job Search Program ton Nationals played the Graduation Reception at FSI Atlanta Braves. Before the game, AFSA November 11 President Ambassador Eric Veterans Day –

AFSA/CAMERON WOODWORTH AFSA/CAMERON AFSA Offices Closed Rubin, AFSA State VP Tom Fans take in the Washington Nationals-Atlanta Braves game on Yazdgerdi and his wife Julia Foreign Service Night Sept. 13. November 19 Reed, AFSA Director for Pro- 12-2 p.m. fessional Policy Issues and ceremony, Ambassador of the real people of the “The Coordination of retired FSO Julie Nutter, and Rubin said he was thrilled Foreign Service, and their FEHB and Medicare” with Paula Jakub AFSA State Representative with the occasion. “I missed families, is priceless in terms Kristin Roberts and her son, the first three as I was in of getting people to under- November 20 Elias took to the field to be Bulgaria, but I am glad to stand the importance of 12-2 p.m. recognized with the Nation- be able to be here this year diplomacy. I can’t wait until AFSA Governing Board als’ Spirit Awards, while the because it’s just such a next year’s game!” Meeting park announcer talked about positive, all-American experi- The Nationals were shut November 28-29 America’s diplomats to the ence. Sharing with tens of out by the Braves, 5-0. Both Thanksgiving – AFSA 39,730 people in attendance. thousands of our fellow teams were expected to Offices Closed After the Spirit Awards Americans the experiences reach the playoffs. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 55 STATE VP VOICE | BY TOM YAZDGERDI AFSA NEWS

Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA State VP. Contact: [email protected] | (202) 647-8160

Bidding Season Comes Around Again

Well, it’s that time of year ment having ramped up the AFSA believes the department must again: bidding season. Not number of minimum months do a better job of helping families stay many folks I know enjoy of service in a high-differ- together while our diplomats do their going through it, especially ential post from 15 to 20 in having to expound on their 2007, and increasing the jobs of defending and protecting amazing, unique abilities and qualifying differential from 15 America around the world. qualities (and getting others to 20 percent in 2017. So, this to do so, as well!). is one less big bid list head- It’s just a necessary, if ache to have to deal with. their jobs of defending and industrialized country offers somewhat unpleasant, part Second, AFSA is pushing protecting America around its workers, AFSA also joined of Foreign Service life. As the back against the depart- the world. with other federal employee American newspaperman ment’s early drafts of the Third, after advocating groups in successfully urg- and short story writer Damon new Anti-Nepotism Review alongside the affinity group ing the House to adopt an Runyon said, “He who tooteth standard operating proce- Foreign Service Families amendment to the National not his own horn, the same dures, which appear to make with Disabilities Alliance for Defense Authorization Act. shall not be tooted.” it even more difficult for tan- more than two years, we can This will provide federal But this year there is dems to serve together. In a report that State is negotiat- employees with 12 weeks some welcome news. late-July call with key depart- ing in earnest many criti- of paid family leave for the First, the Fair Share ment personnel, we shared cal changes to the Special birth, adoption or foster bidding policy has been our substantial concerns on Needs Educational Allow- placement of a child; to scrapped. It just wasn’t doing the SOPs. The response was ance. recover from a serious health what it was intended to do, that the department’s goal is In June, the department condition; or to provide care as AFSA had pointed out to “get to yes.” issued “Round One” of guid- to a family member suffering frequently to the department While we are currently ance in a new Foreign Affairs from a serious health condi- over the last two years. Of awaiting the State Depart- Manual section, 3 FAM 3280 tion. all high-differential positions ment’s rewrite of these SOPs, – Special Needs Education The Senate version of open in 2018 cycles, only five this is a welcome develop- Allowance, which our Labor the NDAA does not contain percent of paneled jobs were ment. Serving as an office Management team helped a parallel provision, so a filled by Fair Share bidders. director years ago, I remem- craft. We then submitted House-Senate conference Indeed, instead of ber how difficult it was to comments to the inter- committee will decide encouraging Fair Share panel a stellar officer—a tan- agency Department of State whether to include that in bidders to serve in high- dem FSO whose partner was Standardized Regulations on the final version to be sent to differential assignments, the in another agency—into one SNEA, which should be final- the president. That decision policy more often resulted of our posts. It finally hap- ized by press time, along with is expected later this fall, and in these bidders serving in pened, but only after months the “Round Two” changes to AFSA will continue to press domestic jobs. Sixty-seven of wrangling, uncertainty and the new 3 FAM section. for this important issue. percent of Fair Share bidders great pain. We remain hopeful that Finally, a quick note: AFSA in 2018 assignment cycles There’s still more work to this new FAM section will Labor Management has were paneled to domestic be done, but this change will open up career opportunities moved! Our new office is at or low-differential assign- make an opaque and ineffec- for our members with special HST 2805 in a newly reno- ments (including the Priority tive process more transpar- needs kids and believe these vated part of the building at Service Posts, DCM/Princi- ent and responsive to the changes will yield real relief the northwest corner (near pal Officer, long-term training needs of our people. AFSA for those whose children the D St entrance, which and details, and the regular believes the department need a little extra help to is expected to reopen in cycle). must do a better job of help- thrive. November). Please come by And this comes against ing families stay together In advocating for a ben- and see us. n the backdrop of the depart- while our diplomats do efit that every other major

56 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL RETIREE VP VOICE | BY JOHN K. NALAND AFSA NEWS

Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA Retiree VP. Contact: [email protected]

Planning for the Foreign Service and AFSA Centennials

Although the anniversary is July established the Centen- For example, we plan to set their visiting exhibits still five years away, AFSA has nial Celebration Committee. ask the U.S. Postal Service to schedules several years in already started planning to I was appointed as its chair issue a U.S. Foreign Service advance, now is the time to celebrate the 100th anniver- (having served on the Gov- Centennial stamp. I played a begin investigating those sary of the founding in 1924 erning Board during the 75th role in getting stamps issued possibilities. of the U.S. Foreign Service anniversary celebration in honoring six U.S. career dip- There are many ways that and its professional associa- 1999). The other committee lomats in 2006. That process AFSA could mark the 100th tion, AFSA. members are AFSA Secretary began in 2002. So, our stamp anniversary of the Foreign Commemorating these Ken Kero-Mentz and Retiree proposal needs to be submit- Service. Other ideas include a centennials in 2024 will Representative Mary Daly. ted by next year. TV documentary, podcasts, a provide a unique opportunity The committee will seek We also plan to try to 50-state lecture tour, a book, to increase understand- to identify the best ideas for place displays telling the a gala dinner and a congres- ing among the American marking the centennial and history and impact of the For- sional resolution. people, Congress and the the steps required to imple- eign Service in heavily visited Our Centennial Celebra- media about the vital role ment them, including looking areas such as the lobby of a tion Committee will seek to the Foreign Service plays in for external sources of fund- U.S. Senate office building, identify the best ideas. We sustaining American global ing. We are starting already presidential libraries, and welcome your suggestions. leadership. because some potential perhaps even the National Send them to me at naland@ To begin planning, the elements of the celebration Museum of American History. afsa.org. n AFSA Governing Board in have long lead times. Because those organizations

ANNOUNCING THE 2019 AFSA AWARD WINNERS

Exemplary Performance Constructive Dissent Anna Boulos F. Allen “Tex” Harris William R. Rivkin Award for a Mid-Level Officer Award for Achievement and Contributions to the Association Timmy Davis William R. Rivkin Award for a Mid-Level Officer Katherine Elizabeth Koehler Nelson B. Delavan Award for an Moises Mendoza Office Management Specialist W. Averell Harriman Award for an Entry-Level Officer Laurent Charbonnet Avis Bohlen Award for an Eligible Family Member Runners-Up

Michelle Ross Robert Works (Palmer Award) M. Juanita Guess Award for a Community Liaison Officer Jonette Cahoon-Vaughan (Guess Award) Jennifer Allen (Guess Award) Christopher Gooch and Nora Brito Full coverage of the AFSA awards ceremony and profiles Mark Palmer Award for the Advancement of Democracy of the award recipients will appear in the December issue Lawrence Fields of The Foreign Service Journal. Please join us for the awards AFSA Post Representative of the Year Award ceremony at 4 p.m. on Oct. 16 in the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room at the Department of State. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 57 AFSA ON THE HILL | BY KIM GREENPLATE

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019: Opportunities and Implications

Despite the fact that the through 2027, that are not AFSA’s message to the Hill has been House and Senate are con- even enough to cover the and will continue to be that the 1 percent trolled by different parties, additional interest spending Congress reached a biparti- from this bill. of the federal budget the United States san budget deal this summer, Further, the deal was spends on development and diplomacy and the president signed it passed with no long-term is a cost-effective way to advance into law in early August. plan to lower the federal America’s interests. Under the Bipartisan deficit, and many say the new Budget Act of 2019, the new caps will recklessly increase discretionary defense and federal spending. non-defense caps for Fiscal Despite these concerns, Years 2020 and 2021 mark the 2019 budget agreement the committee and on the development and diplomacy an end to the sequestra- offers a brighter outlook floor this summer, at least funding on the Hill. tion threat that has plagued for the international affairs partly because there was It is important to remem- federal spending for most of budget over the next two fis- no budget deal in place to ber that the international this decade. cal years. While the FY2020 control spending. affairs budget is just a small Without this deal, auto- non-defense cap is $15 billion Even in the event of a portion of non-defense matic spending cuts would less than House Democrats continuing resolution to spending, competing for the have reduced discretionary initially sought, it still repre- fund all or part of the federal same dollars as veterans, spending by 10 percent in sents a boost of almost 4.5 government this fall, state- childhood development pro- 2020 through a mechanism percent above the compa- ments from members of grams, and other domestic put in place by the Budget rable FY2019 number. Congress suggest that the priorities. Control Act of 2011. In FY2019, non-defense final FY2020 appropriations While AFSA applauds the The 2019 budget deal Overseas Contingency Opera- package, whenever it may 2019 budget deal as a cata- allows for an increase of tions funding made up 14 pass, will reject the proposed lyst for Congress to move for- more than $100 billion in percent of the international cuts that have threatened the ward with appropriations on funding for non-defense affairs budget. AFSA was international affairs budget in a bipartisan basis, the inter- domestic priorities over the pleased to see OCO caps for FY2018, FY2019 and FY2020. national affairs budget must 2017 level (the non-defense FY2020 and FY2021 stay the Sen. Chris Van Hollen still be prioritized among the funding cap was $518.5 bil- same, at FY2019’s $8 billion. (D-Md.), a co-chair of the many competing priorities. lion in FY2017 and is $621.5 However, the Bipartisan Senate Foreign Service Cau- AFSA’s message to the Hill billion in FY2020). Specifi- Budget Act of 2019 is just cus, said at a FY2020 USAID has been and will continue to cally, the deal increased the the first step toward final budget request hearing be that the 1 percent of the FY2020 non-defense spend- FY2020 funding. earlier this year: “I just want federal budget the United ing cap by $24.5 billion over With caps in place for the to second the comments of States spends on develop- FY2019. next two fiscal years, there is the chairman [Sen. Lindsey ment and diplomacy is a But the increase for momentum in Congress to Graham, R-S.C.] with respect cost-effective way to advance non-defense spending is a finalize FY2020 appropria- to the budget that was sub- America’s interests. concern for some members tions that reject the adminis- mitted. It’s totally inadequate The Bipartisan Budget Act of Congress, as the deal tration’s proposed cuts to the to support important U.S. of 2019 presents Congress contains a limited number international affairs budget. foreign policy goals, and I’m with the opportunity of fiscal offsets, including Keep in mind that Repub- confident this committee will to showcase its unified sup- certain customs user fees lican House members voted address that.” port for the international and the extension of manda- against the chamber’s AFSA has worked to solid- affairs budget over the next tory spending sequestration appropriations bills in both ify this bipartisan support for two fiscal years. n

58 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS

Russ Capps: A Life Well Lived BY AFSA SECRETARY KEN KERO-MENTZ

AFSA suffered a great loss on He was also a Aug. 19, when our friend and longtime member of Russ Capps colleague Russ Capps—who the Gay Men’s Chorus had served as AFSA’s chief of Washington, D.C., operating officer since Decem- where he sang with ber 2017—passed away after one of that group’s suffering cardiac arrest while elite a cappella at work. He was 54. troupes, Potomac During his all-too-brief time Fever. He served on with us, Russ was responsible the organization’s for updating and enhancing board of directors for employment and budget poli- several years. Indeed, cies for AFSA. The expertise at the Sept. 7 memo- he brought was enriched by rial service for Russ the time he had served as at Foundry United

chair of finance and business Methodist Church in AFSA operations for the Professional Washington, D.C., his Council of the American Soci- chorus mates sang several Russ Capps ety of Association Executives uplifting songs in his memory. (right) with from 2016 to 2018. Russ and his husband, husband Ken Yazge Russ was in the early Ken Yazge, met on Labor Day and their stages of an ambitious project weekend 22 years ago and dogs. to review all of AFSA’s existing shared their home in Kensing- contract relationships with ton, Maryland, with their two the intention of conserving dogs. Russ enjoyed crossword the association’s financial puzzles and gardening. Ken resources. He also was devel- owns a local private fitness oping an option for student center and is also a fireman loan repayments for AFSA and EMT in Bethesda. They

staff, and everyone on the were married at Antietam KEN YAZGE staff knew his long-running Overlook Farm in Maryland in joke about his favorite future October 2013. all of our Governing Board years, and I can attest that infrastructure project—install- Russ was also a generous meetings and reported on key he will be deeply missed. As ing a machine in person, and an organ donor. issues. He was a steady hand during any challenging time, the office. Our sadness over his passing at our headquarters at 2101 E AFSA pulled together and Russ was born and raised is tempered by our knowl- Street NW across from Main kept the business of the asso- in Fairfax County, Virginia. He edge that Russ was able to State. AFSA is a close-knit ciation moving. His passing earned a bachelor’s degree provide a new lease on life to team of dedicated individuals was a reminder to all of us to in accounting from Radford those who benefited from his who work every day to help live each day to the fullest. University. He started his generosity. our members in the Foreign As his husband, Ken, career in public accounting, Russ’ passing has deeply Service. We are a family, and asked, please keep his but quickly moved to the affected our small community this loss hit many of us par- memory alive in everything nonprofit sector, working in of AFSA employees and Gov- ticularly hard. you do. That’s exactly what association management erning Board members, both I was lucky enough to those of us who knew Russ since 1991. past and present. He attended know Russ for more than 25 plan to do. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 59 AFSA NEWS

AFSA Announces National High School Essay Contest Winners • Albert Zhang – Gainesville, Florida The American Foreign • Emma Alexander – Sugar Hill, Georgia Service Association is • Vivian Sandifer – Huntington, West Virginia pleased to announce that • Annalia Lynch – St. Simon’s Island, Georgia Wilson King, a senior at • Will Martin – Little Rock, Arkansas Shepaug Valley School in • Cynthia Langkamp – Spring, Texas Washington, Connecticut, is • Vibhav Kanyadan – Marietta, Georgia the winner of its 2019 AFSA • Owen Young – Kittanning, Pennsylvania

National High School Essay SCHOOL VALLEY SHEPAUG • Madelyn Cramer – Elk River, Minnesota Contest. His essay was cho- Wilson King (left), winner of the • Ian Curry – Makati City, Philippines 2019 AFSA National High School sen from a pool of nearly Essay Contest, receives a plaque • Catherine George – Indianapolis, Indiana 700 submissions from 41 from Deputy Secretary of State • Ingrid Dornbirer – Marengo, Ohio states and five countries. John Sullivan. • Ainsley Anderson Fawcett – Sonoma, California In the essay, “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” Wilson • David Jordan – Fort Collins, Colorado King focuses on the importance of interagency cooperation • Sakshi Kolli – Milpitas, California in military interventions—primarily looking into the impact of • Dillon Bantatua – Anaheim, California American intervention against the Noriega regime in Panama • Malaina Kapoor – Redwood City, California in 1989 and in Somalia three years later. AFSA thanks all the students who took the time to do In recognition of his achievement and hard work, Wilson research and writing and become globally engaged citizens received a $2,500 cash prize, a fully paid Semester at Sea who care about diplomacy and development, as well as the educational voyage (for when he’s in college) and a trip to teachers who guided and supported them. Washington, D.C., to meet with Deputy Secretary of State This year’s contest was made possible through the sup- John Sullivan. While in Washington, he was also honored at a port of AFSA’s partners, the United States Institute of Peace, reception at the United States Institute of Peace. Semester at Sea and the National Student Leadership Con- Collin Wang was this year’s runner-up. He is a senior at ference. You can read the winning essay at www.afsa.org/essay. Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan. The For Journal readers, please share information about the runner-up prize is enrollment in the international diplomacy essay contest with the (non-Foreign Service) high school- program of the National Student Leadership Conference in ers you know and encourage them to consider submitting an Washington, D.C. Collin attended this past summer. essay for next year’s contest. The new prompt can be found on There were 17 honorable mentions: the AFSA website essay contest page. n

Institute, where she managed consulting firm. One daugh- The Foreign Service Journal advertising for the associa- ter is in her senior year of Welcomes New Advertising tion’s monthly publication, college, and the other is tak- Door Security & Safety, ing a gap year to pursue her Manager including all digital oppor- love of travel and adventure tunities, for nearly 17 years. before starting a career. AFSA is pleased to welcome Before DHI, she sold for a Molly, who earned a bach- Molly Long to The Foreign variety of other publications, elor’s degree from Ohio Service Journal and the mostly in the travel category. Wesleyan University, enjoys AFSA publications team Molly lives with her hot yoga, gardening and walk- as manager of advertising, husband and two daughters ing her dog. She grew up in circulation and business in Virginia, where they have the suburbs of New York City. development. resided for more than 20 She can be reached at Molly comes to us from years. Her husband owns a [email protected] or (202) 719- the Door and Hardware venture capital and business 9706. n

60 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS

AFSA Welcomes Newest Consular Fellows and Foreign Commercial Service Classes

On Aug. 13, AFSA welcomed 37 members of the 15th Consular Fellows class to its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Ambassador (ret.) Linda Thomas-Greenfield hosted the meal, while table hosts included AFSA Director of Professional Policy Issues Julie Nutter, State Overseas Building Operations Director for the Office of Facility Management Keith Hanigan and AFSA Governing Board Member Philip Shull. Seventy- eight percent of the attendees joined AFSA. On Aug. 8, AFSA welcomed 16 members of the latest For- eign Commercial Service class to its headquarters in Wash- ington, D.C. AFSA Director of Professional Policy Issues Julie Nutter hosted the luncheon, while AFSA FCS VP Jay Carreiro and retired FCS Officer James Fluker were on hand to speak with the new Foreign Service members and answer their questions about AFSA and the many ways the association can assist, protect and advocate for them. One hundred percent of the attendees joined AFSA. Welcome to the Foreign Service! n

AFSA Governing Board Member Philip Shull (left) talks with members of the 15th Consular Fellows class. AFSA/CAMERON WOODWORTH AFSA/CAMERON AFSA/DMITRY FILIPOFF AFSA/DMITRY Retired Foreign Commercial Service Officer James Fluker talks with members of the latest Foreign Commercial Service class.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 61 AFSA NEWS

Inside the World Update Your Information of Diplomacy for the 2020 AFSA Directory of Retired Members

It’s that time of year when we ask retiree members to make sure AFSA has your most up-to-date contact information— including address, telephone and email address—for inclu- sion in the 2020 AFSA Retiree Directory. If you have moved or changed any of your contact infor- mation in the last year, please email us at member@afsa. org. If no changes are required, there is no need to act. The deadline for all changes for the 2020 Retiree Directory is November 1, 2019. Please note that if you have previously requested that your name not be included in the directory, we have that information recorded and will ensure that it is not included. Additionally, if you have previously requested not to AFSA/CAMERON WOODWORTH AFSA/CAMERON receive a copy of the directory, we have that information On Aug. 15, AFSA hosted nearly 120 participants in the Smithsonian Associates program “Inside the World of Diplomacy.” Ambassador recorded. (ret.) Charles Ray (pictured) and AFSA Director of Professional Policy For new requests, please email AFSA. n Issues Julie Nutter, a retired member of the Senior Foreign Service, led the audience through an introduction to the U.S. Foreign Service and embassies, using their careers as examples of the many things diplomats do every day around the world. This was the fifth straight year AFSA has collaborated with Smithsonian Associates on this program.

AFSA Governing Board Meeting, Aug. 21, 2019

Passing of AFSA COO Russ Capps: AFSA President Eric Foreign Service Grievance Board: John Naland moved Rubin made remarks about the passing of AFSA Chief to nominate retired Diplomatic Security Officer Nace Operating Officer Russ Capps. He spoke about the grief Crawford to fill the open Foreign Service annuitant seat on people in the AFSA community feel over his loss and the Foreign Service Grievance Board. The board approved expressed gratitude for how people came together in a the motion. time of crisis. The Governing Board observed a moment AFSA Membership Committee: Joshua Archibald and of silence. Lorraine Sherman were appointed to serve on the AFSA President Job Description Change: Lillian Wahl-Tuco Membership Committee. moved to adopt changes to the job description of the Family/Medical Leave and Leave Donation Policy: John AFSA president as outlined in the Governing Board Naland moved to amend the AFSA Employee Handbook to . The board approved the motion. extend family and medical leave and leave donation policy Auditor’s Report: Ambassador Rubin called for a vote to benefits to AFSA employees, as detailed in the Governing adopt the auditor’s report. The board adopted the audi- Board packet. The board adopted the motion. n tor’s report.

62 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL BOOKS

Learning from the Balkans that might radicalize European Muslims, and ethnic nationalists on the verge of responding to U.S. domestic pressures— defeat should have the good fortune to From War to Peace in the Balkans, was sufficient to bring about diplomatic be hauled off to ‘Dayton,’” says Serwer. the Middle East and Ukraine and military intervention, first in Bosnia Daniel Serwer, Palgrave Macmillan, in 1995 and then in Kosovo in 1999. Lessons 2019, $31/hardcover, free as an open- It is no easy task for the writer or Lessons drawn from history come access e-book at Amazon and other the reader to follow events in the seven with a warning. Policies are complex, outlets. countries that emerged from Yugo- outcomes ambiguous and analo- Reviewed by Harry Kopp slavia in war and tumult gies imperfect. Looking (Bosnia-Herzegovina, backward, analysts and “Learn from history,” we are told, even Croatia, Kosovo, Macedo- policymakers can pick and as fewer and fewer students devote nia, Montenegro, Serbia, choose, indulging their themselves to the subject. The State Slovenia). Names and preconceptions. Hence, Department’s frequent promises places that dominated as Serwer says, “lessons “to produce timely lessons-learned the news 25 years ago are learned are often lessons analysis” remain largely aspirational. already unfamiliar. But preferred.” But there are les- The flower children of yore are now on repeating themes create sons, nonetheless. Medicare and Metamucil, but in matters a narrative, and the • Ethnic boundaries are of foreign policy, it still too often seems accumulation of facts nearly impossible to draw. that each day is the first day of the rest of leads to some surpris- In the Balkans, after years of our lives. ing conclusions. warfare and ethnic conflict, Daniel Serwer, a former Foreign The most borders remain Service officer and current professor at important of these Division was a path to power where they were in Johns Hopkins University’s School of is Serwer’s conten- Socialist Yugoslavia. for demagogic politicians. Advanced International Studies, rows tion, backed by solid “If you open the against this current. In his latest book, historic evidence, question of borders he gives us a close analysis of war, peace that “the [ethnic] intolerance required to in one country,” says Serwer, “you are and political evolution in the Balkans produce the wars of the 1990s [was] not bound to cause questioning of borders after the collapse of the Soviet Union indigenous, natural or ancient.” Ethnic in other countries in the region and pos- and Yugoslavia in 100 pages. In scarcely wars and ethnic cleansing were real, of sibly beyond.” 50 pages more, he draws lessons from course, but they were the product of poi- What was true in Bosnia and Kosovo the Balkan experience and considers sonous leadership, not poisoned hearts. is true in Iraq and Syria, and even in how they might apply in the Middle East Division was a path to power for dema- Iran, which Serwer points out is only and Ukraine. He is doing the work that gogic politicians, who insisted on “the 60 percent Persian. Once raised, the others call for, but rarely perform. classic Balkans question: Why should I Balkans question—Why should I live as American involvement in the Balkan live as a minority in your country when a minority in your country when you can mess came slowly and late. After all, you can live as a minority in mine?” live as a minority in mine?—has no clear Serwer writes, the Balkans “were small Serwer contends that the Dayton answer. places that did not threaten U.S. national accords that ended the war in Bosnia • “Neighborhoods matter,” Serwer security or offer significant economic in 1995 were largely a victory for the says. The pull of Europe—the European interests.” But the 1990s were a “unipo- most important ethnic demagogue, Serb Union and NATO—influenced Balkan lar moment,” when American power was leader Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic left behavior and continues to do so. The uncontested. In those circumstances, an Dayton with 49 percent of the territory Middle East, however, has no “nearby, accumulation of secondary interests— of Bosnia and Herzegovina, territory that attractive, pluralistic, democratic model, maintaining NATO’s credibility and had been controlled by his enemy, the current or historical. …The Middle East political unity, preventing refugee flows Bosnian-Croat Federation. “All armies needs a set of norms” to reduce the

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 63 sectarian fears that lead to constant con- reasons, the story in the Middle East and partition.” Better leadership in the flict. But there is no normative body—no and Ukraine has been quite different. United States is also essential. President Organization for Security and Coopera- The scale of the challenge is also entirely Donald Trump, Serwer writes, “disdains tion in Europe, no Association of South- different—Iraq and Afghanistan are international norms and views the world east Asian Nations—to which Middle each far larger than the seven Balkan as disordered, hostile and chaotic. That Eastern nations can refer or appeal. countries together. The total cost of U.S. is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” • And leaders matter. Milosevic and operations in the Balkans was less than Serwer offers no prediction here that his sponsorship of ethnic nationalism $30 billion, but on a local per capita better days lie ahead—only an assertion had parallels in Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki’s basis, the United States spent about 10 that, with clarity about objectives, better promotion of sectarian divisions and, times as much money, and deployed days are possible. Today, that seems later, in actions by Ukraine’s parliament about 100 times more troops, in the Bal- optimism enough. n to deny official status to the Russian kans than in Iraq and Afghanistan. language. When leaders teach that only Serwer concludes with an appeal for Harry Kopp is a frequent contributor to some of the people belong there, they leadership in the Balkans, the Middle The Foreign Service Journal and a mem- promote conflicts that can turn to war. East and Ukraine that will adopt “prin- ber of its editorial board. He is a friend American and European military and cipled commitments to move in the and Foreign Service colleague of Daniel diplomatic engagement was decisive in democratic and free-market direction” Serwer, whom he has known for more bringing peace to the Balkans. For many and “eschew ethno-sectarian appeals than 30 years.

64 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FS COMMUNITY BUSINESSES

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THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 67 REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

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70 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (required by 39 U.S.C. 3685)

1) Publication Title: The Foreign Service Journal 2) Publication No. 01463543 3) Filing Date: October 1, 2019 4) Issue Frequency: Monthly with January/February and July/August combined 5) Number of Issues Published Annually: 10 6) Annual Subscription Price: $50.00 7) Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 8) Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters of General Business Officer of Publisher: 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 9) Full Name and Complete Mailing Address of Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor: Publisher: American Foreign Service Association, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990; Editor: Shawn Dorman, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990; Managing Editor: Kathryn Owens, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 10) Owner: American Foreign Service Associa- tion, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 11) Known Bondholders, Mortgages, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities: None 12) For Completion by Nonprofit Organizations Authorized to Mail at Special Rates: The Purpose, Function and Nonprofit Status of this Organization and the Exempt Status for Federal Income Tax Purposes: (1) Has not changed during preceding 12 months 13) Publication’s Name: The Foreign Service Journal 14) Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: October 2019 16) Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average Number of Copies of Each Issue During Preceding 12 months: A. Total Number of Copies: 18,190 B. Paid and/or Requested Circulation: (1) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors and Counter Sales: 0 (2) Mail Subscription: 16,764 C. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 16,764 D. Free Distribution by Mail (Samples, Complimentary and Other Free): 769 E. Free Distribu- tion Outside the Mail: 381 F. Total Free Distribution: 1,150 G. Total Distribution: 17,914 H. Copies Not Distributed (1) Office Use, and Spoiled: 276 (2) Returns from News Agents: 0 I. Total: 18,190 J. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 94% Actual Number of Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: A. Total Number of Copies: 18,015 B. Paid and/or Requested Circulation: (1) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors and Counter Sales: 0 (2) Mail Subscription: 16,516 C. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 16,516 D. Free Distribution by Mail (Samples, Complimentary and Other Free): 691 E. Free Distribution Outside the Mail: 508 F. Total Free Distribution: 1,199 G. Total Distribution: 17,715 H. Copies Not Distributed: (1) Office Use, Leftover, Spoiled: 300 (2) Returns from News Agents: 0 Total: 18,015 Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 93%. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. (signed) Kathryn Owens, Managing Editor

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 71 REFLECTIONS

Back to Brazzaville

BY DAN WHITMAN

uly 19, 2018. It’s been 38 years since I’ve been to Brazzaville. Still three degrees south of the equa- tor, but now unrecognizable. This

J WHITMAN DAN OF COURTESY time there was air conditioning, isolation The author and his motorbike in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, from the outside, but also the loss of the 1980. The Congo River is visible in the far background. smells and rhythms from before. Gone, the sweetish smell of burning younger. Dressed in a simple, flowing I processed the moment. “Can you take garbage and the mangy thoroughbred local shirt and worn pants, frayed shoes, me there if I get a car? Maybe Saturday?” dogs left behind by French aid workers his African hair half-gray. “Avec plaisir,” Michel said. He was a and professors as they departed for their “When I saw you in the hallway last grounds manager at the embassy. summer vacations in France. Gone also, week,” he said, “I had the impression I’d the dirt thoroughfares and the banging seen you before. Is it possible you lived s of metal on metal: the developing world here in about 1980?” Back in 1980 I had lived in modest digs sounds of people fixing things. Now even Taken aback, I dropped my pen and in an academic ghetto, with an Iranian, poor people just replaced their old, bro- offered him a seat. I got up from behind Brits, French, an Italian, Soviets and a ken cooking pots with new, cheap ones, the desk and took the chair next to him. Laotian as my neighbors. All taught at the courtesy of the Chinese. “Were you at Marien Ngouabi Uni- university named after martyr Marien Not exactly Schliemann’s Troy, Braz- versity at that time?” he said. “You look Ngouabi, the president killed in 1977; he zaville didn’t have much underneath; familiar, though naturally a little changed.” had served as a national figure in a coun- the old buildings were now dust from “I was there, yes,” I said, a little suspi- try slighted by history in being given its decades of civil war and urban renewal. cious. “Are you saying you were one of my independence, rather than “winning” it. Before the changes, it had seemed more students back then?” Neighbors who’d been there longer a village than a city. “No, but I think I remember you from than I had disdainfully called the univer- the campus.” sity “le lycée,” since its standards were not, s “I haven’t found anything here I shall we say, up to the Grandes Écoles in I was drafting schedules and funding recognize from before,” I said as I tried to France. A Fulbright grant had me teach- requests in my embassy office. At first, I read his expression. “Do you know the ing English there, and I did my best at it. didn’t notice the stranger standing there, little neighborhood where the profs used After a year and a half, I took away but I looked up when he said something. to live?” lively memories. They come to me now as He didn’t seem like embassy staff, but “I do. Opposite the Marché Filbert tableaux vivants: security wouldn’t have let him in other- Bourou, off the Avenue Simon Kimb- • Sunsets over the river, in hand, wise. He was about my age, maybe a little angou.” as the sky darkened at dusk. A hundred thousand vampire bats filled the sky, Dan Whitman was a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Information Agency and Department lifting off from their day jobs on the Île du of State from 1985 through 2009, and now teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. Diable in the middle of the river, to the His postings included Denmark, Spain, South Africa, Haiti and Cameroon. He has published mainland where they would find cattle to books on Africa and Europe, and has written for The Foreign Service Journal. He is the author feed on at night. of Back to Brazzaville (New Academia Publishers, forthcoming). • Flan and coffee under the arcades of

72 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL a colonial French marketplace. A child It seemed the new Brazzaville had pulled up approaches and says, “J’ai faim.” I offer a its socks and was eager to join a wider world, spoon and a seat at my table; frightened, he runs away. held back only by airfare, visas and enough • Community security guard Gabriel reading material to meet its wishes. cooks maboke—or vegetables and savory fish slowly roasted in palm leaves over an It seemed the new Brazzaville had open-pit fire. pulled up its socks and was eager to join • Afternoon run; amazed children a wider world, held back only by airfare, laugh and point, “Moundêlê! Moundêlê visas and enough reading material to [weird foreigner]!” meet its wishes. Michel and I scoured • Shower out of a blue bucket. Two the city, discovering much that was new gallons, plenty. and nothing much from before. • Geckos stage acrobatics on the wall. Better than Cirque du Soleil. s • A tarantula, big as a freight car, In 38 years, the country had gone scuttles under my refrigerator to the cool through travails and traumas. Corrupting shadows below. oil deposits abetted factional and regional disputes. North-versus-south edginess s came to a head in 1992, with northerner Now, in 2018, I was working a tem- Denis Sassou-Nguesso displaced in elec-

porary job at the new U.S. embassy. The WHITMAN DAN OF COURTESY tions by southerner, anti-Marxist Pascal only building I recognized from before Embassy Brazzaville Locally Employed Lissouba. Lissouba quarreled with runner- Staff Member Lejuste Moukoubouka at was Blanche Gomez Maternity Clinic, a local French pastry shop in downtown up Bernard Kolélas, and fights broke out. built by the Chinese in the late 1970s, Brazzaville, 2018. Now I see that the new “Little” Congo when China’s per capita GDP was one- hovers like a sting ray over a murky past. third that of the Republic of the Congo. It seemed counterintuitive that this The civil war of 1997-1998, politically For lack of running water, the clinic was store could have a clientele in a poor inspired and with ethnic overtones, took never used, and still stood empty. country of four million (doubled from a steep toll. These days a teachers’ strike A new corniche led from Brazzaville’s the 1980s), but Congolese assured me it shuttered the university, as professors center to the Case de Gaulle, where the would. “When they have any money at went without pay for five months. As leader of the Free French had held the all, they spend it on clothes,” an embassy the market price of oil dropped, so did Brazzaville conference of 1944. It was driver told me. single-product Congolese exports and, now the French ambassador’s resi- with those, the local economy. Asked why dence. Built by the government of s teachers weren’t being paid, the govern- France, the corniche connected to a Michel, the stranger in my office, ment said it had “other priorities.” bridge to nowhere—aesthetically eye- took me out to the city that Saturday. We Congo-Brazzaville has a long road popping, donated by a newly prosper- saw the Brazzaville crafts market, where ahead before realizing its potential. ous China. you get no hassles, no pressure to buy, Connected, savvy and determined, its The dour Congolese from before and an open and relaxed atmosphere. youth and an emerging entrepreneurial seemed gone. Gracious, quick to laughter “Make an offer on anything in the class may carry it forward—and certainly and easy to deal with, the “new Congolese” store,” one stand owner said. out of the doldrums from four decades seemed to be on social media, able to “What I value most here is you,” I earlier—or, failing that, get out and live access some personal funds. Even a Brooks said. somewhere else. Brothers outlet opened with fanfare during “You can’t afford me—I eat too It’s best for all if they manage to make it the second week of July. much,” answered the stand owner. at home, and maybe they will. n

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 73 LOCAL LENS BY COREY A. HANCOCK n CÔTE D’IVOIRE

group of women colorfully dressed in local attire greet a delegation of U.S. Agency for International Development officers led by the chargé d’affaires near Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire, in 2017. Much song and dance welcome the visiting group as locals enthusiastically treat the Americans with warm hospital- Aity. USAID collaborates with the Ivoirians to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic, reduce the scourge of malaria, strengthen democracy in the country and improve the local economy. n

Corey A. Hancock is a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He currently serves as the supervisory program officer at Embassy Mexico City. His previous tours include Islamabad, Abidjan, Almaty and Lima.

Please submit your favorite recent photograph to be considered for Local Lens. Images must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi at 8” x 10”, or 1 MB or larger) and must not be in print elsewhere. Include a short description of the scene/event, as well as your name, brief biodata and the type of camera used. Send to [email protected].

74 OCTOBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL