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Focus ON AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

20 / PAX AMERICANA: THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM The United States has everything it needs to be a hegemonic world power — everything, that is, except the will to be one. By Charles William Maynes Page 20 26 / AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AS FOREIGN POLICY Ever since 1776, Americans have seen their country as unique —the best in die world. COLUMNS Two hundred years later, we’re still basing foreign policy on diat remarkable notion. PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 By Walter LaFeber What This Journal is All About By Marshall P. Adair 34 / COURTING DISASTER The U.S. was a long-time advocate of an international SPEAKING OUT /17 court to try war criminals. So how did we wind up State and USIA: When Cultures Clash odd-man-out when the treaty was signed? by Dell Pendergrast By Ruth Wedgwood POSTCARD FROM ABROAD / 68 FEATURES Diplomacy as Crapshoot 42 / GUARDED PESSIMISM IN NORTHERN IRELAND By Steven Alan Honley Though thorny problems remain, Europe’s longest- running guerrilla war may finally be coming to a close. By Kurt Jacobsen D E P A R T M E N T S LETTERS/6 CLIPPINGS / 14 49 / BONN VOYAGE: THE LEAVETAKING BOOKS / 58 When the U.S. embassy moved to Berlin, it wasn’t just the end of a geopolitical era. For many, it meant bidding IN MEMORY / 60 farewell to “littie America” on die Rhine. INDEX TO ADVERTISERS / 66 By Richard Gilbert

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FOBEIGNNERVICE Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published _I_J o r it N A i. L/ monthly by the American Foreign Service Association, a private, non-profit organization. Material appearing here¬ Editor Editorial Board in represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent the views of the Journal, the Editorial BOB GULDIN EDWARD MARKS, Managing Editor CHAIRMAN Board or AFSA. Writer queries are invited. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - §9.50 included in annual dues; KATHLEEN CURRIE Associate Editor ELIZABETH SPIRO CLARK others - §40. For foreign surface mail, add §18 per year; foreign airmail, §36 per year. Periodical postage paid at STEVEN ALAN HONLEY MITCHELL A. COHN Manchester, N.H., and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Service Adj& Circulation Manager THEODORE CRAIG EDMlLTENBEHGKIF Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service AFSA NEWS Editor MAUREEN S. DUGAN RITA COLORITO AURELIUS FERNANDEZ (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries Art Director CAROL A. GIACOMO are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods CARYN J. SUKO CAROLINE MEIRS Editorial Intern offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: vuvvv.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: WAYNE MOLSTAD AM STOYANOVA (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service Association, 2000. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes Advertising Intern ARNOLD SCHIFFERDECKER ELIZABETH FISCH WILLIAM WANLUND to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990.

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Recently, there has been controver¬ for AFSA since the foreign affairs sy over some of the articles published The Journal practitioners who are criticized are in this Journal. We have tried to very likely to be our members. They answer some of the specific questions will sometimes have a stake in this magazine, and it and criticisms, but we also need to should not be a vehicle used to harm address the broader question of what spur controversy.; them. The Journal should also avoid this Journal should be. that S part becoming a spokesman for only one As Ed Marks and Bob Guldin point of view on any given issue; and pointed out last month in their of its job. it should in general refrain from polit¬ “Despatch,” the Journal is charged ical partisanship. with two responsibilities: Communi¬ To encourage creativity and origi¬ cating AFSA news and views to the nality, die Journal needs a measure of membership, and serving as a forum independence. While it is owned and for lively debate of relevant issues in supported by AFSA, it cannot be a foreign policy. Of the two, I believe the like the “Breaking the Cycle of the company magazine. For tins reason, second is by far die most important. 20th Century” (January 2000). the AFSA by-laws preserve the The Journal is a relatively small opera¬ Journal articles should not just Journal’s independence by establish¬ tion, and has a two-mondi lag between provide us witii information. They ing a separate Editorial Board to over¬ die time articles are written and when should seek to broaden our perspec¬ see Journal policy and operation. The they are published. That diminishes its tives and challenge our conventional AFSA Governing Board has issued value as a platform for current news. wisdom. Since the 1970s, at least, very broad guidelines for the Journal’s AFSANET and cables to die field are AFSA has tried hard to encourage operation, and has the option of levy¬ more effective in keeping people up to imagination and independent think¬ ing more specific requirements and date on current issues. ing among our diplomats, a group not restrictions, but it does not and should However, the Jou rnal is in a special always held up as a model for those not intervene in daily operations. position to promote constructive dis¬ traits. AFSA gives awards each year to Most publications, both for-profit and cussion of international issues. We individual officers in all levels of the non-profit, experience some disagree¬ would like it to be an accessible and service in recognition of “initiative, ment or tension between owner/pub¬ respected forum for debate on the integrity, intellectual courage and lisher and editor. AFSA has had its management and implementation of constructive dissent.” The Journal share in the past, and I expect will foreign policy. The Editorial Board tries to operate in that spirit. have more in the future. That is nat¬ tries to address issues that are of par¬ Providing a platform for dissenting ural and healthy ticular interest to die practitioners of views will certainly make us vulnera¬ We will continue to promote a diplomacy. These can range from spe¬ ble from time to time, and it is impor¬ Journal that can add something to our cific topics, such as the viability of the tant that we respect certain bound¬ perspective on foreign affairs. We will Foreign Service as a career aries. While we welcome considered try to be careful, particularly to protect (December 1999) to broader subjects, criticism of specific policies, and how individuals, but we should not avoid they are managed, the Journal should taking risks, and may not be able to Marshall P. Adair is the president of never become a tool for individuals to avoid future mistakes altogether. the American Foreign Service attack other individuals for personal Please let the Journal and the Association. reasons. This is particularly sensitive Governing Board know your views. ■

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5 LETTERS

Why I Didn’t Get Out agement repeatedly procured addi¬ have never regretted this decision. As a junior officer serving in the tional JOs and TDY workers to share On the contrary, I have developed consular section of our embassy in the heavy workload, and has been tremendous respect for many of the Mexico City, I would like to respond innovative in employing professional mid-level and senior managers here, to the article “Why We Got Out” associates, consular associates and and look to them as mentors and role (December ’99 Journal). While foreign language fellows to the same models. Such officers are struggling authors Nikolai Wenzel and Anthony end. During the heaviest visa load daily to improve the situation in Ieronimo raise some valid concerns, periods, the consular section chief, Mexico and to implement “best the overall tone of the article reflects deputy NIV section chief, and consul practices” that serve not only the more on the expectations of its general conducted visa interviews interests of CA and the State authors than on the actual situation almost daily to allow JOs to leave Department, but also JOs, FSNs, in Mexico City, or within the Foreign work at a reasonable hour. consular and professional associates Service in general. and, most importantly the public. One certainly cannot deny that They should be applauded for these JOs are often overworked and, one efforts and urged to continue pro¬ could argue, undercompensated. moting change, not criticized for Contrary to the authors’ implication, failing to achieve perfection. however, no one involved in manag¬ Rachel Schofer ing consular JOs in Mexico City has Junior Officer ever denied this reality. Indeed, in Embassy Mexico City my view, management has gone out of its way to recognize and, where A Wake-Up Call possible, to alleviate the difficulties In my opinion, Anthony Ieronimo of working at one of the busiest and Nikolai Wenzel should be embassies in the world. Senior applauded for their courage in writ¬ embassy officers routinely visit the ing “Why We Got Out,” which high¬ section and have scheduled special lighted how devastating to an organi¬ events to commend the hard work of zation poor managers can be, partic¬ both JOs and FSNs (many of whom ularly when some of those managers have been nominated for and engage in criminal conduct and are received meritorious honor awards allowed to remain in positions of over the past year). Consular man- Mexico City (despite its reputa¬ authority. Based on my observations, tion for long hours and difficult there are many others who share the The Foreign Service Journal welcomes work) was high on my bid list, par¬ views of Ieronimo and Wenzel, but your signed letters to the editor. Please tially because it is a country that I leave State without voicing their rea¬ mail letters to the Journal, 2101 E St., know and love, but also because, as a sons for departing. NW, Washington, D.C., 20037; fax to consular-coned officer, I realized Such articles should be a wake-up (202) 338-8244; or send via e-mail to such a post provided an excellent call for the secretary of State, who [email protected]. Letters, which are opportunity to observe and experi¬ should be concerned that die culture ■subject to editing should include full ence the widest possible range of of the Foreign Service is viewed by name, title and post, address and day¬ consular work and management. I many members as dysfunctional. This time telephone number. have not been disappointed, and belief exists largely because State is

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known for rewarding sycophantic grant visa crowd (make it go away), raise questions. This article, and oth¬ behavior while too often ignoring deal with the immigrant visa crowd ers in the “You call this a career?” managerial misdeeds and ineptitude. (ditto), and, as you can, and as issue, as well as the official “reac¬ Equally damaging to State is the quickly as possible, issue U.S. pass¬ tions” to them, cover many of the widespread notion that ambassadors ports and resolve citizens’ sendees issues that have helped me decide to are above accountability. problems. Keep your head down, leave the FS after 20 years, too. This view of State causes many keep the crowds and the paper mov¬ Gail T. Roberts highly capable and dedicated people ing, oh, and “best practices,” Consul to end their careers early, feeling at “accountability,” “consular manage¬ New Delhi odds with States managers. States ment” all that, too. negative image also fosters the dis¬ I can’t comment on the allega¬ Accusations Not Credible dain felt by some members of tions of misconduct in Mexico City, The accusations that disgruntled Congress, the White House, DOD, but I was assigned there for my first former FSOs Ieronimo and Wenzel and the Washington media. tour and found that the crushing make in their article are not credi¬ R. Peter Rice visa workload forced compromises ble. Whatever problems the Foreign State Department, retired on everyone. I had a good tour, like Service may have, “old boy net¬ Sarasota, Fla. other Mexico City officers who are work,” “currying favor,” and “kiss up, also now weighing in, but can’t kick down” do not remotely reflect Two Punk JOs recall anything beyond the occasion¬ its personnel or promotion systems. The J ournal calls itself “The al “Attaboy” from consular man¬ The article’s authors do not name Magazine for Foreign Affairs agers who didn’t then, and don’t the officials against whom they vent Professionals.” Evidently, its not now, make the choices necessary to their frustrations, but it is not diffi¬ published by professionals. I resign tailor the workload to the resources cult to guess the identity of many of my subscription in disgust over the available. As long as there are con¬ them. What kind of cross-checking article by former JOs in the sular officers willing to do the did the Journal do to determine December issue. I have worked in unending work and long (uncom¬ whether Ieronimo’s and Wenzel’s Mexico for the last year and a half pensated) hours to get through the charges are truthful or slanderous? with some of the individuals day’s crisis, the visa mills keep on AFSA has an obligation to ensure maligned in the article and knew the grinding. the Jou rnal complies with basic stan¬ two punk JOs. How could you? Pressure to process visas has also dards of journalistic ethics. Jane Gray swept away many of our antifraud Paco Scanlan Principal Officer programs, but in that area I’ve con¬ Principal Officer U. S. Consulate Nogales cluded that although “fraud busting” Consulate General Krakow can be fun it is often ineffectual Visa Mills Keep Grinding unless we can uncover and prose¬ Some Unrepresented FSOs I remember previous “why I left” cute a whole network. And who has Congratulations on the excellent articles from former FSOs, and the the time/resources/authority for collection of articles in the critical comments that poured in that? So a decreased emphasis on December issue on tire question of afterward. From the stern words on fraud that we can’t control anyway the Foreign Service as a career. “professional courtesy” in a recent doesn’t trouble me but our refusal to Each piece offered much material cable to the field, it appears that the control the workload factors that we for thought and, hopefully, should sendee is again closing ranks against can manage, dumping the load on stimulate more conscientious atten¬ criticism. Before we get in an consular officers who pride them¬ tions to the points raised. uproar, I’d like to note that I’m a selves on pitching in and getting the As for the positive aspects of the consular officer with more years of job done, does represent a failure of service, I agree with everything visa experience than I care to consular management. Phyllis Oakley said in her article (“I remember, and I found the com¬ Nobody’s looking for a perfect Would Do It All Again”). It made me ments in “Why We Got Out” were world, in the FS or in life, but a con¬ think, however, that there may be nothing extreme. In visa mills all fident system like ours should be one “constituency” whose views over the world visa demand dictates able to have a “dialogue” about com¬ were not polled. It does not seem workload, and consular priorities mon problems without losing per¬ surprising that those who rise to the are simple: deal with the nonimmi¬ spective or discrediting officers who top of the sendee would find the

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career attractive. What I would like likely to continue to suffer from has been corrected for good. to read, however, is a thoughtful weaknesses in management as busy I was struck by the thought that piece by an FSO-1 who was not for¬ supervisors give priority to “policy” these young men of great potential tunate enough to make it over the over personnel. were lost to the service, largely senior threshold. Probably we all Charles O. Cecil because no one with a longer per¬ know many excellent officers who FSO, Examiner spective took the time to listen to did not clear this hurdle. Would they Board of Examiners their concerns and talk to them “do it all again,” too? State Department about how the Service works. Their It was disheartening to read ‘Why phrase (in regard to personnel We Got Out.” One might hope that How Assignments Really Work assignments) “little more than a anyone good enough to get into the The authors of “Why We Got spoils system,” begs for someone to service would have given it more Out” are to be commended for tak¬ buy them a cup of coffee and say, than one try before opting out, but I ing the time to enumerate the fac¬ “Well, look, if 1,000 FSO generalists wouldn’t want my opinion to be tors which impelled them to separa¬ in four cones change jobs every year, taken as an attempt to excuse weak¬ tion from the Foreign Service. and you confine your search to jobs nesses in management. I suspect, Members of my class (March 1985) in your cone, you’re looking at 250 however, that until our leaders are told me of Embassy Mexico’s policy possibilities. Throw out the ones able to convince the Congress to of requiring junior officers to work you’re not interested in and you’re give us the resources required to overtime, then pressuring them not down to 10 or 20. Throw out repeats reverse the recent history of under- to submit requests to be paid for of what you’ve just done, and you’re funding and under-staffing, and to their work. The practice was wrong under 10. Now, where do you want redouble our training efforts, we are then, and it’s wrong today. I hope it to go and what do you want to do?

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10 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/M ARC H 2000 LET T E n s Education that makes

“Tell your CDO and find out who a difference. in the target bureau will be weigh¬ ing in. E-mail them and tell why you should be their choice. Do the same widi your prospective ambassador. You don’t need an old boys’ network Most young people respond to to get an assignment, but you have to be able to explain why you have challenge, and at The Delphian the right stuff to do your dream job. School™ they get plenty of it. “First tours are tough, adjusting to new personalities, new job Whether an honor student demands, a new culture. You are or someone not operating learning a lot in such an environ¬ ment, even if you don’t realize it at at his or her highest the time. How do you stay focused on results under stressful, distract¬ tial, we’ve learned how to ing conditions? How do you build really make a difference in relationships with a difficult col¬ league or supervisor? How quickly a young person’s life. Our can you master the visible structure, as well as the invisible one, in order program provokes intellec¬ to make the system function for tual query, demands hands- you? You’ll need to know these tilings, wherever you go.” on application, and results in Ieronimo and Wenzel had a great deal to say about their Foreign competence. Beyond academ¬ Service experiences — some of it ics, our students learn about funny, some astute. They obviously cared enough about the service to leadership, integrity, and take the time to write their article. With their observational and writing responsibility so when they skills they might have become graduate, they are really pre¬ change agents, had they hung around for another tour. pared—not just for college, Dwight Rhoades Administrative Officer but for life. Embassy Tirana

Right Outta Georgetown I shared the experiences of Ieronimo and Wenzel, having myself been posted as a first-tour JO in Mexico City in 1993-94. It was tough! It was, in fact, a baptism of 20950 SW Rock Creek Rd fire. But management had the good • K - 12th Grade sense to rotate us to another Sheridan, Oregon 97378 embassy section after one year on 800-626-6610 ■ Boarding & Day School “the line.” My own supervisor, Kay Anske, always seemed to appear at www.delphian.org * Individualized Program my side at the veiy moment I was © 2000 Delphi Schools Inc. All Rights Reserved. - Summer Session most exasperated, most discour-

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 11 LETTERS

aged. She would offer help — even down, they were treated like any when the Foreign Service is sorely in handle the problem for me, if neces¬ other American who wanted a need of more officers. sary -— and expect me to carry on. Foreign Service career. The Foreign Service examination And all eight of her JOs did just that. Irwin Rubenstein system is supposed to be egalitarian, At times we felt she was pushing us FSO, retired but it works very poorly. It must be too har’d. At times we complained Plantation, Fla. disturbing for the average officer to among ourselves. But none of us consider that the system which takes quit. Alternative Exam Benefits so much intellectual rigor to negoti¬ I think of my time on the line in Your article “Dumbing Down ate might also produce results as Mexico City as I think of my time in Entry to the Foreign Service” absurd as this. the delivery room when my kids (September FSJ) is as revealing for Finally there is the small matter were bom. Yes, it was awful. But yes, what it doesn’t say as for what it of career advancement. The AEP it was worth it, for the experiences does. As a member of the minuscule group would deepen the pool of per¬ gained, lessons learned, and ordeals minority who have taken and passed ceived talent, not dilute it. Few survived. both die traditional written exam would consider an elite for leader¬ Ieronimo and Wenzel were mem¬ and the Alternative Examination ship if that group was less than effec¬ bers of what I call the ROG (Right Program, I would like to put forward tive going in, costly to train and sus¬ Outta Georgetown) crowd. Maybe a few observations. picious of non-initiates. this traditional source of FSOs is not The interests of FSOs are those Foreign Service officers are not the best source of recruiting by the of an established group of people taken seriously because of the selec¬ State Department after all. who have collective concerns over tion process. By mixing in the AEP Linda Eichblatt benefits and career advancement. group which provides an element of Consul Not unlike a union at the advent of skill and experience, existing Vilnius new technologies, they are faced Foreign Service officers might be with obsolescence. taken more seriously by the Senate Jewish FSOs: No Breaks Domestic policy now asserts that at confirmation hearings. Upon reading the December issue job applicants in depressed areas of David Casavis of the Journal, I noted the articles the country should possess certain Regional Technician about how difficult it has been for skills in order to be “job ready.” U. S. Department of women, Hispanics and others to get This is also advice State gives to Commerce into, or get ahead in, the Foreign Third World countries with work New York City Service. No one wrote an article on forces whose levels of training are another group that had difficulty not sufficient for a modern econo¬ Misunderstanding USIA breaking in. So I’ll fill the void: Up my. Yet “job readiness” among I feel compelled to answer a cou¬ through World War II, there were vir¬ State inductees has been arbitrary ple of the assertions that Peter tually no Jews in the Foreign Service, for decades simply because the Galbraith made in his own defense or for that matter, in any other branch selection process does not test for in the January issue of the Journal. It of the Department of State. There it. This problem is not unique to is apparent that Ambassador was substantial anti-Semitism in the State. Galbraith and/or his PAO didn’t country and tire doors were just shut; Nor does your article address know how to use Worldnet in the it was very simple. training costs. Few officers have most effective manner. Sometime after WWII, things ever told me they were proficient in At the posts where I was PAO — changed and, little by little, the any of the contemporary software Canberra, Caracas and Lima — doors were opened and Jewish can¬ packages. Knowledge of Excel or Worldnet was never seen as a low- didates took advantage of the new databases is all but unknown. budget version of “Good Morning opportunities. There were, however, The immutable fact is that there America,” competing with the com¬ no special scores. There were no is no money. State is going through mercial networks on breaking news affirmative action programs. They what many other agencies have gone such as U.S. election coverage. came in on merit. Some made it, and through over tire past 25 years — Rather, we utilized targeted had outstanding careers; some did¬ streamlining through deprivation. Worldnet to deliver U.S. foreign n’t. But once the barriers were let Regrettably, this comes at a time policy messages to high-level policy-

12 FOREIGN SERVICE JO URNAL!MARCH 2000 LETTERS Web Certificates in Educational Technology Intensive Masters makers, thereby accomplishing mis¬ Programs in Technology sion and USIS country program objectives at relatively low cost. Eam a certificate in educational technology, solely on the Web, or an Especially in Canberra, so far from M.A. degree by attending courses for 2 or 3 July sessions in New York. Washington, Worldnet was an Credits earned in the Certificate programs may be applieSfd tjie M.A. degree. absolutely essential weapon in our Concentrate in: public diplomacy arsenal. Multimedia Design I also object to Galbraiths per¬ Technology Leadership sonal attack against former USIA Teaching and Learning With Technology Director Charlie Wick. While it is Telecommunications and Networking true that we had to deal with Wick’s many idiosyncracies, it is equally For more information contact: true that he had a direct line to The Center for Technology and School Change President Reagan and the White email: [email protected] Reference # DLP4A Or: ! . r • - House — the land of access not The Distance Learning Project enjoyed by any USIA director since Phone: 888-633-6933 Fax: 212-678-8417 Edward R. Murrow. Perhaps that’s why tlie budget for public diploma¬ http://dlp.tc.columbia.edu cy increased under Wick’s leader¬ Approval for Certificate of Advanced Standing pending New York State Education Department review ship while the overall foreign affairs TEACHERS COLLEGE budget declined. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY As to Galbraith’s hope that State “will do better by its people than did USIA,” good luck! What I’m hearing from my former colleagues (some in They’re your pride and joy. State) tells a much different, and very dismal, story about the first few Your And they can save you up to months of life in the field under the $500 each, subtracted off your ill-advised State/USIA merger. children federal income tax. The Child Tax Guy W. Farmer Credit is an important benefit FSO (USIA), retired are a real of the Taxpayer Relief Act. Carson City, Nev. ■ Who qualifies? Each dependent child, or descendant, stepchild credit or foster child under 17 as of to you. 12/31/99. Must be a U.S. citizen or resident. Query: Missionaries’ Children $Soo each Credit is reduced when your Jung Pak, a graduate student in modified Adjusted Gross Income American history at Columbia exceeds certain limits. Special University, is gathering materials rules apply for three or more for a possible Ph.D. dissertation children. on missionaries’ children who For full details, see your became involved in U.S. foreign 1999 tax booklet. Or check the policy-making during the World IRS Web site: vvvvw.irs.gov War II era. If you can provide names or suggestions, please write to Ms. Pak at 231 West 96th St., The Internal Revenue Service Working to put service first Apt. 6C, New York, NY 10025 or m e-mail at [email protected].

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 13 CLIPPINGS

INSECURITY AT STATE: Completed this past September (before a Russian intelligence operative LAXNESS TOLERATED was caught monitoring a listening device A front-page article in the Jan. 17 planted inside a seventh-floor confer¬ Washington Post summarizes a report by ence room at Main State) but kept con¬ the State Department’s Inspector fidential until now, tire report so upset General documenting massive security Congress that it froze some funds ear¬ breaches in Foggy Bottom and pointing marked for the Bureau of Intelligence to a bureaucratic culture that tolerates and Research (INR), the section respon¬ them. In 1998 alone, the IG found, there sible for safeguarding top-secret docu¬ were 1,673 incidents in which State ments. To obtain the money, department “Q: If you Department employees mishandled clas¬ officials had to submit a plan for improv¬ sified documents. Although 218 people ing security by Jan. 31. weren Y in were disciplined for committing at least Officials at the FBI and State were four offenses each — the threshold for not immediately available for comment, disciplinary action — none were fired. though a senior official in the politics, what Between 1995 and 1998, State did Diplomatic Security Bureau noted that refer 53 cases in which employees were at least 50 to 100 additional employees field would you suspected of mishandling classified infor¬ would be needed to implement the mation to the Federal Bureau of report’s recommendations. In a like to be in Investigation. Yet even though some response attached to the report, INR department employees admitted when officials downplayed the significance interviewed by FBI agents “the inappro¬ of the leaks. “Of the (nearly) 1,700 right no icy priate and deliberate release of classified infractions, only six involved (highly- information to unauthorized individuals,” sensitive) material.” They also noted not a single person was ever prosecuted. that the bureau’s security director was The study also details the loss by State promptly rotated to another job follow¬ officials of nearly 240 highly classified ing the release of the investigation’s A: Foreign documents, concluding that most of the results. losses were the result of loose controls rr • yy oervice. over who looked at the documents. “Basically, what we are saying in this WHY ARE THERE report is that State Department intelli¬ — Six. Join McCtix. gence officials are not adhering to the STILL NUCLEAR ARMS? R-AIIIZ., standards governing the handling of clas¬ Jonathan Schell, the author of the I'HOM tv ixniiiii:n ix sified information,” said one official from best-selling 1982 anti-nuclear tract The the inspector generals office. While Fate of the Earth, raises some interest¬ THEJA X. 3 auditors will be following up to ensure ing questions about the history and WALL STREET JOURNAL the implementation of the inspector current status of nuclear weapons in generals recommendations for improv¬ the January issue of Harper’s ing controls over the documents, the IG Magazine. had no plans to issue another report on The Cold War and the nuclear age how many, if any, of the documents were were intimately intertwined in their ori¬ recovered. gins, Schell notes. In particular, the

14 FOREIGN SERVICE J O URN AL/M ARCH 2000 CLIPPINGS

totalitarianism of Soviet communism WE NEED helped to justify what otherwise might “IT” — have seemed repugnant — the threat to So WE GET “IT” exterminate whole cities and popula¬ Writing in the Dec. 27 Federal Times, tions: “Reliance on nuclear arms was Stephen Trimble reports that Uncle Sam widely considered an extraordinary, pro¬ is facing a dire shortage of information visional response to an extraordinary, technology workers. Nearly half the fed¬ provisional emergency: the threat, as eral government’s 67,000 IT employees many people in the West believed, to the are projected to leave by 2006; in all, the YEARS AGO freedom of the entire world by the Office of Personnel Management’s Chief Soviet Union.” Information Officers Council estimates But since the Soviet Union collapsed that the government will have to hire in 1991 — and with it the Cold War — 37,000 new information technology “My suggestion is nuclear weapons have not disappeared. workers to replace retiring employees that a large number What has disappeared, Schell complains, and fill new positions. is popular awareness of them. “A whole A year ago, however, one agency of the personnel so generation came of age lacking even began aggressively pursuing its own strat¬ busily engaged in rudimentary information regarding egy to boost pay for IT workers: the State nuclear arms and nuclear peril.” Citizens Department. Specifically, State is offer¬ reforming the oper¬ “were given little indication that some ing retention bonuses of between 5 and ations of the Foreign 31,000 nuclear weapons remained in the 15 percent of base pay for current world, or that 6,000 of them were target¬ employees and up to 25 percent for new Service should be ed at the United States.” recruits who earn professional certifica¬ returned to produc¬ A result of this obliviousness, Schell tion in various computer systems. As Pat tive effort in private writes, is that “the web of arms-control Popovich, State s deputy chief informa¬ agreements that had been painstakingly tion officer for management, observes: life or be introduced woven during the last half century of the “We’re 25 percent under [private sector to [it] if, which Cold War was coming apart.” salary levels], so now we’re at least on die He cites as examples the recent same page as the private sector.” seems more likely, Senate rejection of the Comprehensive For exactly that reason, however, they have never had Test Ban Treaty, U.S. moves toward a other federal agencies fear that State will the privilege of national missile defense and Russian lure talent away from their own IT stalling in START negotiations. departments. To address those concerns, engaging in it." Schell argues earnestly that such OPM is considering a directive govern¬ complacency is foolish — and he cites ing such bonuses, though specific guide¬ various world leaders and strategists, lines have not yet been formally intro¬ — WILL Aim L. including Cold War hawks like Paul duced at the Chief Information Officers BEAU. IC. LETTER TO Nitze, who say nuclear weapons can Council. and should he abolished. Unless the In the meantime, since Februaiy THE EDITOR, IV THE nuclear powers take advantage of the 1999, State has cut its information tech- ,M iuni 1950 FOREIGN present moment, Schell says, the new nology job vacancies in half to just 10 century is likely to see “many inter¬ percent and has also improved the qual¬ SERVICE JOURNAL locking nuclear arms races in many ity of its IT applicants through the bonus parts of the globe.” program.

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 15 CLIPPINGS

ISLAND NATIONS: and higher ocean temperatures that disrupt “True strengthCD fishing. Other threats include economic restrains itself; PARADISES LOST? marginalization and a whole range of envi¬ Many of us long to visit tropical islands, ronmental hazards: oil spills, marine pollu¬ true greatness especially in tire depths of winter. Writing tion, depleted fisheries and transport of sets its own in the fall 1999 issue of the nuclear materials through territorial waters. InterDependent magazine, however, inter¬ All those problems were discussed at limits.» national environmental law attorney Gail the U.N. General Assembly’s September V. Karlsson explains that island nations all 1999 special session, the latest in a series of around the world face multiple crises conferences dedicated to island nations. — CHARLES-MAUIUCE which in some cases threaten their very Karlsson concludes: “Because such existence. communities are remote and sparsely pop¬ DE TALLEVRAKD- Probably tire best known of these sys¬ ulated, most of us will never see the dam¬ PER/GOM) temic problems are those posed by global age. But once tire damage is done, some¬ warming: rising sea levels, more frequent thing very valuable will have been lost, and devastating hurricanes and typhoons, perhaps forever.” ■

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16 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN A L! M ARC H 2000 SPEAKING OUT State and USIA: Blending a Dysfunctional Family

BY DELL PENDERGRAST

Shuttle buses now roll regularly tion technologies are changing the between Main State and SA-44, the State has always world today as much as the invention building in southwest Washington of movable type revolutionized that USIA once called home. Today, been uneasy with Renaissance Europe. In a world a shiny new plaque decorates the where instant communication takes government fagade at the old USIA advocacy groups, place across oceans and state bor¬ headquarters at 301 4th Street, whom they regard ders, governments cannot manipu¬ announcing that it now houses the late public policy and public opin¬ Department of State. Still, these as irritants and ion. There is too much information symbols don’t really address the elu¬ clogging the electronic superhigh¬ sive objective of putting public obstacles to be way lor that. But the State diplomacy, as Secretary of State avoided or Department continues to think that Madeleine Albright has promised, the world has not undergone a revo¬ “at the core of American foreign preempted. lution. This type of “old-think,” a policy.” It will take more than style of diplomacy that assumes that plaques, shuttle buses and policy public opinion can be controlled, is statements to make this a reality. embodied in the venerable daily Political and organizational cos¬ State Department press briefing and metic changes are not enough. the ritual of preparing press guid¬ Finding a place for public diploma¬ transformed by new technologies ance every morning for the press cy inside the State Department will such as the Internet and by almost- office. Neither practice takes into require an overhaul of traditional instant access to news, and that, account the global communications diplomatic culture. Foreign policy is because of this revolution, non-gov¬ revolution, which has produced so no longer the monopoly of diplo¬ ernmental organizations must be many other sources of information mats working secretly in foreign engaged in the conduct of American with faster, more direct and more ministries and embassies. The world diplomacy. The State Department, persuasive public impact that these has changed dramatically, opening absorbed in the conventional busi¬ institutions seem like the Pony up international relations to a new, ness of government-to-government Express in the era of the Internet. large cast of players who operate in relations, lagged behind. The merg¬ In the increasingly decentralized the cacophonous bazaar of the glob¬ er of the two agencies provokes a international environment, the State al information revolution. serious concern about USIA’s more Department retains its old hierar¬ Separated physically and psycho¬ open, technologically advanced, chical patterns of rigid, top-down logically from Foggy Bottom, USIA publicly-oriented style of diplomacy management, inadequate technolo¬ adapted more rapidly to the chang¬ disappearing inside a larger, domi¬ gy and preference for diplomat-to- ing contours of the new global envi¬ nant culture less hospitable to orga¬ diplomat communication. Major ronment. The agency recognized nizational innovation. studies last year by the Henry L. that international relations had Two fault lines separate the two Stimson Center and CSIS stressed become an interactive process, cultures. First, public diplomacy the urgent need for major change in assumes a broader context for inter¬ the way that State does business in Dell Pendergrast, a retired USIA national relations. Second, its inter¬ the 21st century. These recommen¬ FSO, is executive director of the nal values are different from those of dations have been ignored, a pattern Public Diplomacy Foundation. traditional diplomacy. New informa¬ established in the past with internal

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 17 SPEAKING OUT Perfect Location, Starting at Perfect Comfort, $58 Based on a 30 day Perfect Price. minimum slay State Department management studies that recommended reform. Not only are we just minutes from USIA professionals and their orga¬ National Airport, the National nizational culture may not be Foreign Affairs Training Center, received any better. most government buildings, and Today, non-governmental orga¬ Metro-well surprise you with just nizations are more active in interna¬ how much you get for so little. tional relations. In the last decades, ♦ Spacious suites with more than 15,000 NGOs in the full kitchens U nited States have had some role in ♦ Pool, sundeck, saunas and foreign policy. For many years, exercise facilities USIA pioneered working with ♦ Free Cable TV with HBO NGOs, particularly as partners in 4 Free on-site parking reaching overseas audiences and 4 Free local phone calls institutions outside the halls of gov¬ 4 Complimentary Continental ernment. The State Department 1500 Arlington Blvd, Arlington, VA 22209 has been always a little uneasy with Breakfast on weekdays 703-522-9600 • 800-275-2866 4 Free shuttle to NFATC Fax 703-525-4462 advocacy groups, particularly those weekdays at 7:30am, E-mail: [email protected] that support unorthodox or opposi¬ returning at 4:30pm World Wide Web: vrow.virginiansnites.com tion views, whom they regard as irritants and obstacles to be avoided or preempted. Sometimes State will summon NGOs for briefings, but an authentic commitment to partner¬ ship and open dialogue is still miss¬ An ing. These organizations often have INVITATION access, capabilities and grassroots for influence that the State Department should welcome and cultivate. The USIA experience SUMMER with NGOs, which has been more of an open exchange and partner¬ FICTION ship, should serve as a useful model The Foreign Service Journal is seeking works of for a reformed State culture. fiction of up to 3,000 words for its annual summer fiction If the USIA-State merger is to issue. Stories should have an overseas setting. Story lines or have any impact on the State Department, a culture that values characters involving the Foreign Service are preferred, but secrecy and the final products of not required. The Journal’s Editorial Board will select up to six diplomacy must be addressed. The stories in May for simultaneous publication in the July/August issue State Department restricts e-mail and on the Journal’s Web site. All stories must be previously unpublished. communication and other Internet Submissions should be unsigned and accompanied by a cover sheet with the access to State offices in authors name, address, telephone numbers and e-mail address. Washington, D.C. and overseas missions. This collides with a 21st Deadline for submissions is May 1,2000. No Exceptions. century world characterized by openness and the free flow of infor¬ Please send stories to the attention of Kathleen Currie, Managing Editor, mation. While no one would dis¬ Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20 037. pute that some elements of foreign Submissions will also be accepted by e-mail at [email protected] affairs — particularly confidential and by fax at (202) 338-8244. exchanges among governments — must be protected, the technology

18 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/M ARC H 200(1 a former senior USIA officer now The cultural working in the State Department, told an audience at an AFSA confer¬ changes needed ence on Nov. 17 that no one is prac¬ ticing public diplomacy in Foggy to assimilate USIA’s Bottom. The only public diplomacy public diplomacy being practiced is overseas, he said. Inside State, the tradition-bound function into hierarchy prevents public diploma¬ Do you want to read Jospin's cy priorities and initiatives from latest speech in French? State are percolating up to senior manage¬ Or enjoy that great Spanish novel barely visible. ment. Speaking at the same confer¬ you've heard so much about? ence, Evelyn Lieberman, the new Well, now you can! With one stroke under secretary of State for public of the Ouicktionary™ pen, you will exists that would both open the diplomacy and public affairs and a instantly understand what you are State Department and protect its former high-ranking official in the reading. No longer must you be appropriately secret communica¬ Clinton White House, described weighed down by a dictionary. Just tions. It is time to discard the old herself as a “missionary” to State, scan a word, and in a second, you will notion that the State Department because many colleagues, she see its translation, as well as its definition. It's as easy as using a must speak in guarded, confidential admitted, do not understand public highlighter! whispers about the treasures of for¬ diplomacy or value USIA profes¬ eign policy. The world just doesn’t sionals’ expertise. Use your Ouicktionary at the office, work that way anymore. The problem, however, goes in the car, on a plane, even on the Diplomats have also been too beyond improved understanding metro. It’s so light and portable, it fits right in your pocket or briefcase. preoccupied with the final byprod¬ between former USIA employees ucts of diplomacy: a final commu¬ and State Department personnel. • Automatically displays translations nique, a signed treaty or a brokered The State Department organization¬ and definitions of scanned words government-to-government agree¬ al culture must change and restruc¬ • Recognizes over 480,000 words and ment. But a world awash in foreign ture itself not only to absorb new expressions affairs information and peopled by colleagues from USIA, but also to • Switches instantly between native and foreign languages (for Latin many players outside the govern¬ meet the challenges of conducting languages) ment cannot wait until diplomats foreign policy in the next century. • Logs the 75 most recent words have dropped every bracket and This will require bold departures scanned so you can refer back to inked every' document. For diplo¬ from traditional recruiting and train¬ them macy to be effective, the tools of ing methods and changes in how the • Take it with you wherever you go! public diplomacy must be used State Department thinks about and Language pairs include: English and...: throughout the process to explain communicates with foreign and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), what is going on, why it is being domestic publics. Dutch, Finnish, French, German, done and how it is proceeding. On die occasion of U SIAs formal Sreek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Waiting until the ink is dry on a pol¬ merger with die State Department on Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, icy statement or treaty and then try¬ Oct. 1, 1999, Madeleine Albright Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. ing to sell the result is not effective. declared, “In our era public diploma¬ So far, all that has happened to cy is not simply nice to have. It must Available at the State Department integrate USIA with State is that the be a core element in our foreign poli¬ Sift Store (Room 2928) and at the organizational chart has been cy.” USIA professionals welcomed Sift Shop in the Foreign Service redrawn, lines of authority have and applauded die secretary’s words. Language Institute. been established and new letter¬ But we still wait for evidence that die WizCom Technologies, Inc. head has been printed. The cultural State Department is prepared to 257 Sreat Rd., Acton, MA 01720 USA changes needed to assimilate USIA’s make the fundamental organizational Website: http://www.wizcomtech.com public diplomacy function into State changes that public diplomacy Toll Free: 1-888-777-0552 are, however, barely visible. Indeed, requires in todays world. ■

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 19 Focus ON AMERIC AN E X C E P TI O N A L I S M

PAX AMERICANA: THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

THE UNITED STATES HAS EVERYTHING IT NEEDS TO BE A WORLD HEGEMON—

EXCEPT THE WILL TO BE ONE.

BY CHARLES WILLIAM MAYNES

I ATOs successful 78-day war against the regime in Belgrade last spring has revived debates about Americas future global role. The staggering display of technological prowess encouraged some and alarmed others. Some call for America to seize the moment to attempt a global hegemony. Others urge Washington to understand its own limits. Did the war represent an irrefutable display of America’s extraordinary position of power, or did the fact that tiny Serbia held out for 78 days only undermine it? Can Washington now rule the world, if it wishes, or did the war reveal that even tire most powerful face limits? Two sharply opposed views on the consequences of the war against Serbia have developed. The first school sees

20 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MARCH 2000 Focus

the war as a proof of American preeminence, a victory norms of decency on others with very little risk to itself. so stunning that it serves as a harbinger of future policy There are some, however, who do not see the war as initiatives, even global hegemony. Others see the war as a victory at all. Ironically, one of them is Robert Hunter, a setback or worse. As one leading Republican con¬ former U.S. ambassador to NATO under Clinton. He gressman declared, “If this is victory, what then is contends that the war, in fact, marked a historic setback defeat?” for Washington. The hope, in his view, was that NATO President Clinton, understandably, takes tire first could be converted from a Western alliance binding the view. In speaking before NATO troops in Macedonia in United States to the fate of its European allies into the late June 1999, he said, “Whether you live in Africa or security organization in Europe, one that would deny all Central Europe or any other place, if somebody comes non-members of NATO any decisive voice in European after innocent civilians and tries to kill them en masse security policy. But, fearing the cost of a ground war, he because of their race, their ethnic background or their contends, Washington was impelled to turn to Moscow religion and it is within our power to stop it, we will stop to bring the war to a close. it.” Others in the alliance are clearly not comfortable In support of Hunters views is the fact that once the with this view. As the war was reaching its denouement, bombing stopped, the Serbian army proceeded to leave German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder attempted to Kosovo with little evidence of severe damage to its put the Kosovo decision into a quite different perspec¬ troops or equipment. Regarding the Russian role in tive. “Human rights should be inviolable, but we have to bringing the conflict to a halt, the leading British gener¬ look at issues very closely and in fact differentiate al in the war is on record as stating that the key to end¬ between different situations.” In die future, he added, ing the war was the Russian decision to help NATO action should be confined to its own territory. Washington persuade Belgrade to surrender. But it is Some key U.S. officials share the German chancel¬ precisely this Russian involvement that troubles lors caution. On June 28, 1999, in a speech in New York Hunter. He contends that permitting Moscow to gain City, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright noted, any significant role in the resolution of the conflict in “Some hope, and others fear, that Kosovo will be a effect ended the pretense that NATO, led by the United precedent for similar interventions around the globe. I States, could become the only arbiter of European would caution against any such sweeping conclusions. security. Every circumstance is unique. Decisions on the use of Hunters views merit special attention because as the force will be made by any president on a case-by-case recent U.S. ambassador to NATO, he was the very man basis after weighing a host of factors. Moreover, the who worked to transform NATO into the kind of orga¬ response to Milosevic would not have been possible nization that could launch the war against Belgrade in without NATO, and NATO is a European and Atlantic, the first place. Through die new strategic doctrine, not a global, institution.” which he helped craft, no longer would NATO restrict Caution from chancellors and U.S. Cabinet officials its concern to defense of the territorial integrity of its notwithstanding, there is no question that many see the member states. It would adopt a new proactive strategy intervention in Kosovo as the announcement of a new designed to cany democratic order beyond NATOs strategic mission for the United States and its allies. existing frontiers to the rest of Europe, by force if nec¬ The outcome of the war is viewed as proof that in a essary. But if this is the goal, then as Hunter notes, “A post-Cold War world, the United States can impose Russia asked to rescue NATO from its own limitation is also a Russia better able to challenge NATO’s ambition Charles William Maynes is president of the Eurasia to be the key arbiter of European security for the 21st Foundation and is the former editor of Foreign Policy century.” magazine. A Foreign Service officer from 1962 to 1971, What land of institution NATO is capable of evolving he served in the Bu reau of International Organization into over the next century would seem to be a subject of Affairs, and in Embassies Vientiane and Moscow. interest only to security specialists. But in fact, if NATO From 1977 to 1980 he was assistant secretary of State cannot be Europe’s arbiter, profound consequences for international organization affairs. flow for any effort to create a Pax Americana in Europe

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 21 Focus

or elsewhere. The American people are profoundly or persuade more often than they coerce. They are attached to the concept of burden sharing. They will not reluctant to dissipate their military power in fruitless permit Washington to embark on prolonged military adventures. No matter how much one state may tower adventures unless the American government can gain over others, even a superpower cannot risk being every¬ two tilings that only its Western allies can bestow: legit¬ where at once. To preserve its influence and maintain imacy and resources. To put the issue another way, no its control, it needs the other components of power: dis¬ administration can long sustain public support for a pro¬ posable finances and diplomatic presence. longed military engagement unless Americas allies Here the United States is progressively rendering bless the effort and help to finance it. If they refuse itself less and less capable of imposing on the world a either or both, the United States is unlikely to stay the Pax Americana. For reasons related primarily to domes¬ course. Any bid for hegemony then becomes folly. tic politics, tlie United States is unable to play the role it could because its political system will not deliver the What Hegemony Takes financial resources necessary to play in any sustained With these differences in views as background, what manner the role of hegemon. In recent years, the can we say about the arguments of those who urge the United States has been closing consulates and shutting United States to seize its “unipolar moment” to impose down aid missions. Its embassies look increasingly some form of hegemony on the world? What does it threadbare. Its aid budget has been repeatedly slashed take to become the dominant power of this or any other until the United States is now at the bottom of OECD age? There are four characteristics of a hegemonic countries in terms of its per capita commitment. Its power: resources, will, strategy and model. foreign assistance budget now stands at less than First, military resources are critical. No dominant one-twentieth of its defense budget. And much of the state in history has been militarily weaker than its neigh¬ foreign assistance it provides is for strategic purposes bors. Rome was stronger than Carthage, China more related to the Middle East peace process — it should powerful than its neighbors. The France of Louis XIV not really be classified as development assistance at all. and Napoleon was more populous and better armed In effect, the defense budget remains at Cold War lev¬ than other European nations. Germany could make two els while the funds needed for die other elements of bids for world supremacy because its military machine power melt away like a snow bank in the hot sun. was unmatched among the great powers. From this per¬ These developments force an excessive U.S. reliance spective, those concerned about the rise of a Pax on the military instrument. This reliance is suggested Americana should calm themselves — because the not only by the number of aircraft and tanks it deploys United States is very unlikely to muster the resources but also by the number of military missions it has estab¬ needed for world hegemony. lished in recent years. For example, the number of True, one lesson from the Yugoslav war was the Special Operation Forces deployed abroad has swelled American military machine could act with extraordinary from 38,000 in 92 countries at a cost of $2.4 billion in power and precision. The United States now commands 1991 to 47,000 in 143 countries at a cost of $3.4 billion a military establishment that other powers could not in 1997. Soldiers are in effect replacing diplomats and match even if they banded together against the United development specialists. States. But even those who call for a policy of hegemo¬ For a Pax Americana to develop and endure, the ny, like the editors of the conservative Weekly Standard United States must play the role not only of the worlds magazine, understand that such a policy would require sheriff but also of the international systems steward. It even more resources. They call for the military budget must not only order others to behave but also attempt to increase by another $80 billion. How likely is that to to create the political and economic conditions that will happen? persuade them to behave. And there is another point: The resources a hege¬ monic power must have at its command cannot be mil¬ The Will to Lead itary alone. A dominant state must choose its battles Second, a dominant state must manifest a will to carefully. Successful hegemonic powers probably bribe lead. A state may have the capacity to lead but not the

22 FOREIGN SERVICE ] OURN AL/MARCH 2000 Focus

will. Both Japan and Europe in recent Now that the national security and that a U.S. inter¬ decades are examples of this phenom¬ vention was therefore an act of self- enon. Each has the capability to play U.S. faces no major defense justified under Article 51 of a much larger role in the internation¬ the charter. The United States, for al system, but the will is absent. security threat, example, used Article 51 to justify its As suggested, American leader¬ interventions in Grenada and ship groups are divided on the issue how can we justify the Panama. of Pax Americana and the price it With the end of the Cold War, would entail. At the end of the Bush use of force abroad? however, the question of what legiti¬ administration, the Department of mates the use of military force Defense prepared a policy statement acquires a new character. Now that calling for the United States to exploit the disappear¬ the United States faces no major international security ance of the Soviet Union to impose a U.S.-dominated threat, what justifies the use of force? The answer to world order on others. Once leaked, the paper was that question is not clear, yet it is vital to American repudiated as un-American. Our people simply do not administrations to secure that legitimacy. The support see themselves as world hegemons. A world leader, yes; of tlie U.N. Security Council, of course, lends signifi¬ the world’s boss, no. cant legitimacy to a military action. But, given the veto This attitude can be explained partly by national tra¬ power of the council’s permanent members, such sup¬ ditions but also by recent history. The military historian port is unlikely to materialize in some cases in which the John Keegan has written of the First World War that the United States wishes to act (including, of course, battle of “the Somme marked the end of an age of vital Kosovo). In some regions, such as Africa or Latin optimism in British life that has never been recovered.” America, the sanction of a broadly based regional orga¬ Unlike the British, Americans were never eager imperi¬ nization like the Organization of American States can alists but to the degree they ever were, Vietnam had an help to convey legitimacy. In Europe, no such organiza¬ impact on American optimism similar to that of the bat¬ tion exists. Thus, during the war against Belgrade, the tle of the Somme on British optimism. The words of all NATO allies were forced to improvise. The secretary recent administrations suggest that the “Vietnam general of NATO, when asked in a public meeting to Syndrome” is dead; their actions suggest othenvise. cite the source of legality for NATO’s decision to attack This is the primary reason to doubt that the American another country, replied that 19 democratic countries actions in the Balkans will ever guide U.S. or NATO had endorsed the military action. He went on to suggest policy for any sustained period. Although the president that NATO had legitimacy to act anywhere on the globe seemed to promise that NATO would act elsewhere to provided all of its democratic members agreed, though prevent the kind of human rights abuses that were tak¬ he conceded that such agreement was unlikely. It is ing place in the Balkans, one suspects that the chances doubtful that most NATO members or a majority of of a NATO operation in the Sudan to end the civil war Americans would agree with that definition of legitima¬ there or in the Caucasus to resolve the bitter conflict cy. Yet unless the United States could find some way to between the Azeris and the Armenians are close to zero. gain legitimacy for any bid for hegemony, it is doubtful The problem of summoning the will to intervene that any administration would be able to muster sus¬ abroad is made more difficult by the troubling question tained public support for its policy. of legitimacy. The American people tend to fight best when they feel they have legitimacy for their cause. A Sense of Strategy During the Cold War, both the West and the Soviet bloc Third, the establishment of a Pax Americana would sought legitimacy in Article 51 of the UN Charter—the require a clear sense of strategy on the part of American right of nations to self-defense. Because in the Cold policy-makers. There is no evidence that such a strate¬ War, all international politics seemed to be a zero sum gy exists. Since the end of the Cold War, the United game, it seemed plausible for policy-makers to contend States has announced sequentially a number of “strate¬ that a conflict virtually anywhere affected American gies”: the development of a New World Order, assertive

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 23 Focus

multilateralism, the enlargement of the The more the It is seen as die capitalist democratic zone of democracy and free markets, the power par excellence. Its economy is the establishment of more predictable and American model is envy of the world, its politics inspire oth¬ fruitful relations among the major pow¬ ers to copy its practices for good and ill, ers, and now humanitarian intervention seen as hegemonic, and its higher education system attracts to prevent ethnic wars. hundreds of thousands of foreign stu¬ The United States has gone from one the more resistance dents anxious to study at what is regard¬ doctrine to another because no adminis¬ ed as the fount of modernity. tration has been able to develop a strat¬ to it grows. At die same time, the more the model egy to build public support for any of the is seen as hegemonic, die more resistance various doctrines announced. And the grows. Thus, American pressure on oth¬ reason is clear: All of them were designed to maintain a ers to open dieir economies to global forces is encoun¬ global role in the post-Cold War world that the tering opposition — witness the recent turmoil in Seatde American people are uncomfortable with. The elec¬ — as otiiers learn that globalization can lead to econom¬ torate does not want to pay die price in dollars or blood ic instability as well as growtii. American demands for of establishing a New World Order or pressing die political change in areas like human rights also seem to norms of democracy into countries they scarcely know outpace local patterns of change. And in the cultural exist. They are not opposed to more fruitful relations field, as a Polish cabinet minister once contended to the among the major powers, but they are also unwilling to author, Poland did not get its independence only in order moderate criticism of key powers like China. They are to become a carbon copy of some other society. In his appalled by the barbarism evident in many conflicts view, the world “may not need more walls, but it does around the world, but naively think die U.N. ought to need more fences,” by which he meant that Poland be able to put a stop to such practices widiout the full wished to be open to the outside world without being support of Washington in the form of paid-up dues and submerged by it. Most nations feel the same way. a willingness to participate in U.N. peacekeeping or To sum up, then: foreign fears of a hegemonic peacemaking operations. These are not the attitudes of America imposing its will on others are misplaced. The a power that is going to carry out a sustained policy of U.S may have the raw militaiy power to attempt such a Pax Americana. role and some influential Americans call for it but the country has not developed the necessary will, tempera¬ A Model for the World ment or strategy to succeed as a hegemon. It spends a Finally, a successful hegemonic power must offer a great deal on international affairs, but does not allocate model to others that they will want to emulate. Often its resources wisely. It is overcommitted in the military diis aspect of power is underestimated, but it seems field and undercommitted in the diplomatic field. It fairly clear that Napoleonic France, Victorian Britain proclaims strategic doctrines that are designed more to and postwar liberal internationalist America all derived win the next election than to secure international part of their power from the fact that key groups in support. Its leadership groups enjoy the aura of world other societies admired what they had accomplished. leadership, but they are unwilling to make any sacrifices Each was able to secure allies within die domestic poli¬ themselves in pursuit of leadership. Any quest to tics of other countries — allies who worked to promote establish a Pax Americana that involves sacrifice will the kinds of policies that the admired country wished to therefore lack legitimacy. It wall be deprived of the see put into effect. For a while, even Nazi Germany political and moral underpinning that makes a sustained enjoyed its foreign admirers, until it became clear that effort at global hegemony possible. the kind of Germany Hitler wanted to build could pros¬ The danger in fact lies elsewhere. The world is per only by destroying them rather than cooperating unlikely to see a Pax Americana but, depending on with diem. political fortunes, it might see an effort to attempt one. Clearly, America does offer to many an attractive The effort would fail — but with it would also die the model, which is an important source of its current power. commitment to internationalism that is a prerequisite

24 FOREIGN SERVICE J O V RNAL! M ARC H 2000 Focus

for American leadership. And no one America doesn’t allocate in that beleaguered country. The should be in doubt that the loss of Canadians thereupon ceased and that leadership would be extremely resources wisely: desisted. When Japan attempted to harmful. organize a financial rescue package One can point to a number of We’re overcommitted for the hard-pressed Asian states, tire examples of tire current, very prob¬ U.S. Treasury saw a potential rival to lematical American approach to militarily and its international financial leadership. world leadership. In the negotiations It told the Japanese to quit the field. to create an international criminal undercommitted They did. Both decisions were mis¬ court, the United States insisted that takes. They were examples of negative its citizens be exempt from any possi¬ diplomatically. leadership — the power to say no. bility of prosecution. Unexpectedly, What the world needs is an the rest of the world rejected the U.S. America that can be more than a position — and Washington then declared that it would negative hegemon, that can do more than just say no. It work to destroy the newly established court. It remains to needs an America that can say yes to important interna¬ be seen whether others have the spirit to stand up to tional initiatives that require money and sustained polit¬ American pressure. ical commitment. The challenge for the next adminis¬ During the genocide in Rwanda, U.S. officials made it tration will be to develop the domestic base for this clear' to Canada that they did not look favorably on country to offer the positive leadership the world Canadian efforts to organize a rescue force to intervene requires. ■ Alexandria Suites Hotel Participant in FARA Housing Program Room & Ride Program: Studio Suite and Intermediate Size Car within your Per Diem

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MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 25 Focus ON AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONAL™ ABROAD: A BRIEF HISTORY

EVER SINCE 1776, AMERICANS HAVE SEEN THEIR COUNTRY AS SPECIAL. RECENTLY WE’VE INSISTED THAT ALL OTHER NATIONS SHOULD BE SPECIAL, TOO.

BY WALTER LAFEBER

n mid-1941, the founder of the Time-Life publishing empire, Henry Luce, coined tire term the American Century. Noting that Americans were not yet formally in the war, Luce right¬ ly assumed they were in fact already deeply involved on the side of the British and Russians. Since the United States would replace a virtually bankrupt British Empire as the “senior partner” in an Anglo-Saxon alliance, he emphasized that “America and only America can effectively state the war aims of this war.” Thus the birth of the American Century. Thus also the reappearance of an American exceptionalism that shaped U.S. foreign policy well before 1941. Arguing that Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal had utterly failed to restore the economy on a “narrow” national

26 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN ALIM ARC H 2000 Focus

basis, Luce proclaimed that “our only choice” was to “A Citty Upon a Hill” create a globally based economy and, as a necessary American exceptionalism’s original and still classic part of it, an international “moral order.” He wanted no statement is the sermon of John Winthrop to the part of the national-interest argument later made Protestant immigrants aboard the Arbella in 1630 just famous by George Kennan and Henry' Kissinger: “We before they established a settlement in Massachusetts. are not in a war to defend American territory. We are “Wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill,” Winthrop in a war to defend and even to promote, encourage and declared as he outlined why they had to be a settlement incite so-called democratic principles throughout the of saints. Especially since 1900, when America initially world.” became a major global power, Winthrops words have Americans would join the war effort, Luce said, as been quoted by U.S. leaders, most notably and effec¬ “the most powerful and vital” people on the globe so tively by President Ronald Reagan. their nation could be “the dynamic center of ever- The meaning of American exeeptionalism, however, widening spheres of influence ..., the training center of has by no means been consistent since Winthrop spoke. the skillful servants of mankind ... , the Good Two changes are notable: the change from an emphasis Samaritan.” Such altruism did not mean, Luce noted, on the collective to an emphasis on individualism, and imposing democracy “on all mankind including the an expansion in application from the North American Dalai Lama and the good shepherds of Tibet.” Actually, continent to the world. it turned out, Luce did pretty7 much mean exactly that. Winthrop laid down the marker for the first change For he stressed that the entire “world environment” when he told his fellow passengers they had to be knit had to be made congenial to U.S. principles. Indeed, in social unity, much as all true Christians, he added, “It must be an internationalism of the people, by the were part of one body in Christ. To enforce the collec¬ people and for the people.” tive, the Massachusetts Ray elders tried to regulate No wonder Luce’s 1941 editorials (later collected in landed settlement and such business practices as usury. a book entitled The American Century) provided the The elders never had a chance. Within a few years, label for the present era. He identified and brought Anne Hutchinson challenged them by arguing that together elements that especially shaped our age: a God worked directly through redeemed individuals, traditional belief that the United States is a uniquely not collectives. Within another generation Roger virtuous nation with immense economic and military Williams weakened Winthrop s hope for a Christian power set apart from the usual run of history. Luce was collective by demanding separation of church and not merely arguing that the United States was differ¬ state. The endless opportunities of a vast landed fron¬ ent. (After all, each nation is somehow different from tier finished what Hutchinson and Williams began. If all others.) The publisher was instead picking up the the new individualism required repeated wars against belief long held by Americans that they are different Indians, it seemed a small price. because, having been forced out or voluntarily migrat¬ By 1776, Winthrops collective on the hill had ed from older, corrupted societies, they have been become Benjamin Franklins Poor Richard who laid out peculiarly blessed by a Christian God to exploit a the fundamentals for successful entrepreneurs in a virgin continent, develop a democratic system based frontier society. The success of the American on individual worth and potential, and then lead other Revolution seemed to validate Franklins version. In peoples to self-government, individualism, and Common Sense, the pamphlet that had the most pro¬ prosperity. found effect on the debate over independence in 1776, Thomas Paine declared that Americans had the responsibility and power to break free, for “the cause of Walter LaFeber teaches history at Cornell University. America is in a great measure the cause of all He is the author of many works on U.S. diplomatic his¬ mankind.” Several months later, Thomas Jefferson tory, including The American Age: United States explored the universal implications of this “cause” by Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad Since 1750 (2nd using John Lockes political theory and the frontier edition, Norton, 1994). experience to conclude, “All men are created equal.”

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 27 Focus

Another part of Common Sense, however, generated tory of American diplomacy: tire Monroe Doctrine and more controversy. In discussing the implications of his Manifest Destiny. Primarily shaped by Secretary of argument for foreign policy, Paine believed that conti¬ State John Quincy Adams, President Monroe’s 1823 nental Europeans so badly needed American products message to Congress told Europeans not to try to (at least “while eating is the custom of Europe”) that no expand further their systems in the New World. In political price would have to be paid for their support. return, the United States would not take part in Paine was quickly proven wrong. To save themselves European struggles — as long as, Monroe carefully and their “cause,” Americans had to form a costly added, those struggles did not involve U.S. interests. alliance with the French. Adams soon applied the principle. When die question The treaty with France proved traumatic: It nearly arose in cabinet whether Monroe’s government should sucked the United States fully into the wars engen¬ help Greece in its struggle against Turkish control, dered by the French Revolution. But that revolution, Adams convinced his colleagues to stay out. The with its guillotine, class warfare, and Napoleonic results American example was sufficient, he argued. Americans instead turned out to reinforce Americans’ belief that were not to come down from tiieir city on a hill. their revolution — which endured none of those prob¬ But it had become a vast hill. It now took in a conti¬ lems — indeed proved their uniqueness. “None but nent after Adams asserted the first U.S. claims to the Englishmen and their Descendants know how to make Pacific coast in 1819. It was “a settled geographical ele¬ a Revolution,” British Foreign Minister Lord Grenville ment,” he noted, “that the United States and North opined in 1798. The belief that Americans had pio¬ America are identical,” and attempts to convince the neered the preferred form of revolution not only set world that Americans were not “ambitious -will have no the United States apart, but thereafter became a cen¬ other effect than to convince them that we add to our tral assumption of the nation’s diplomacy. Those ambition hypocrisy.” The ambition was driven in part Americans who attempted to explain why, if they were by exceptionalism. The Spanish colonial system that an exceptional people, their revolution could be repli¬ shaped much of the hemisphere did not promote either cated by others less blessed, solved the dilemma by “freedom or order.” Instead, Adams warned, “arbitrary arguing that American individualism and democracy power, military and ecclesiastical, was stamped upon” could become universal once certain impediments — these regions. On the other hand, the success of the such as European colonialism, economic barriers, or American system led Adams to warn the British minis¬ feudal class systems — were destroyed. ter in 1821 there would be no point in arguing “with us about territory on this North American continent.” Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny When the minister asked whether this included As historian Richard Hofstadter remarked, the Canada, Adams reluctantly replied, “Keep what is United States was the only nation that began with per¬ yours, but leave the rest of this continent to us” — fection and aspired to progress. In this sense progress including those parts controlled by “Russia and Spain.” meant expanding American exceptionalism across a The 1840s and ’50s saw the nation deeply divided continent, then the world. This expansionism is often over whether slavery would be extended to new terri¬ used interchangeably with an American “mission” of tories acquired by the United States — the dark side of “civilizing” Indians or, in 1898, President William Manifest Destiny. American exceptionalism in the McKinley’s stated intention of “uplifting” the newly 1840s mutated into a form best defined by John L. annexed Filipinos. Mission, however, has the connota¬ O’Sullivan — a New York newspaper editor — as “the tion of philanthropy, and in their 400 years of expan¬ fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the sionism Americans have been propelled by a feeling of continent allotted by Providence for the free develop¬ exceptionalism that had the cutting edge of self-inter¬ ment of our yearly multiplying millions.” est rather than the mission of philanthropy. Acting on such sentiments, President James K. Polk Examples of how this exceptionalism became wed¬ oversaw the annexation of Texas, acquisition of the ded to self-interested expansionism include two of the Oregon Territory, and the conquest of a vast south¬ most famous and influential phrases from the early his¬ western territory with the U.S. victory in the Mexican

28 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/M ARC H 2000 Focus

War. In a short span, Manifest The United States was was for whites who had no slaves. Destiny added 50 percent more terri¬ Purged of slavery, and in control tory to the nation and threatened to the only nation that of a continent, Americans by 1900 move into the Caribbean-Central were the globes greatest economic American region during the 1850s. In began with perfection power. American exceptionalism had his memoirs, Ulvsses S. Grant cor- long possessed global pretensions, as rectly argued that the Mexican War and aspired to Paine s words exemplified. But in the made the Civil War inevitable. No 1890s this exceptionalism became one could find a formula for govern¬ progress. united with the competitiveness of ing the newly acquired land that Pittsburgh steel mills, cheap wheat would satisfy both northern anti-slave and corn of newly mechanized advocates and southern slave-holders. Exceptionalism Midwestern farms, and the power of the Great White had created problems it could not solve. Fleet, the taproot of tire modern U.S. Navy. President Lincoln and the new Republican Party cut the knot. William McKinley employed these results of the indus¬ Pie believed Americans indeed had a continental des¬ trial revolution (whose incredible success in the United tiny, but drey had no business trying to impose their States gave the sense of exceptionalism a new dimen¬ values overseas (as the Illinois lawyer made clear when sion) to defeat Spain in the War of 1898, bring Cuba eloquently rejecting the Hungarian Revolution s pleas under U.S. control, obtain the Philippines so he could for help against Russia in 1851-1852). Nor could slave project U.S. power from Manila into the Asian main¬ expansion be tolerated. For Lincoln, Manifest Destiny land, and, in 1900, dispatch 5,000 troops into Peking,

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MARCH 2000/FORE IGN SERVICE JOURNAL 29 Focus

where Western missionaries and diplomats were of God I couldn’t carry on.” Wilson said directly that he besieged by the Boxers. hoped to spread the principles of the Monroe Doctrine The Presbyterian Banner caught the publics views: to the world, and that such non-interventionism by the Annexing the Philippines was “a duty to the interest of great powers would lead to a system of nations ruled by human freedom and Christian progress.” It later self-determination. It turned out, however, that the added: “We have been morally compelled to become Latin American, Spanish, Russian, and British view of an Asiatic power .... America and Great Britain will the Monroe Doctrine was quite different from the see to it that China is not Russianized.” Americans American exceptionalist interpretation. And while could do well while doing good. There were, as always, Wilson’s version of self-determination was in the excep¬ dissenters. In the 1840s Adams and Herman Melville, tionalist tradition, his own secretary of State, Robert whose views of human nature did not distinguish Lansing, sounded somewhat like John Quincy Adams Americans from other people, had opposed Manifest on the question of how well American principles fit a Destiny. In 1900, an Anti-Imperialist League world in revolution, in this case upheavals sometimes bankrolled by Andrew Carnegie and loudly supported inspired by Bolsheviks. Self-determination would by Mark Twain attacked the trans-Pacific manifest des¬ “breed discontent, disorder, and rebellion,” Lansing tiny made possible by the industrial revolution. As some warned. “The phrase is simply loaded with dynamite. It 4,000 Americans and 200,000 Filipinos died in the will raise hopes which can never be realized. It will, I Philippine rebellion against U.S. control, Twain asked, fear, cost thousands of lives.” “Shall we go on conferring our civilization upon the Wilson failed to impose his vision on the Versailles peoples that sit in darkness, or shall we give those poor peace, and despite efforts that climaxed with a debili¬ things a rest?” tating stroke, he failed to convince Americans they had to accept a deeply flawed peace pact and League of Woodrow Wilson: “Instrument of God” Nations to “make good” the Americans’ “redemption of As a political scientist, Woodrow Wilson had written the world.” The United States, however, did not entire¬ much on both the uniqueness of the American experi¬ ly retreat from the world in the 1920s. Instead it tried ment and the new' foreign policy world the nation cre¬ to devise a different means for spreading the principles ated for itself in the War of 1898. As president, Wilson of exceptionalism. In the two critical interwar negotia¬ concluded that American interests required not giving tions, the Washington Conference of 1922 that “those poor things a rest,” especially if these people attempted to stabilize the naval balance in the Pacific were searching for new forms of government amidst and the Dawes conference of 1924 that attempted to the Mexican Revolution or the break-up of the Austro- rebuild Germany, Americans tried to use Paines eco¬ Hungarian Empire. He pledged to teach Latin nomic tools, now vastly enhanced, instead of Wilson’s Americans to “elect good men,” then drove home the political approach. Those tools only worked until 1929 point by ordering more military interventions in that when the financial crash took down with it the U.S. region than any other chief executive. Wilson anticipat¬ diplomacy of the 1920s. ed Luce by arguing that a functioning U.S. economy During the 1930s, American exceptionalism largely required an international arena. In his Fourteen Points stayed home. But tire horrors produced by the decade speech of 1918, he outlined a vision for the post-war would convince U.S. officials after 1941 that Luce was world revolving around tire long-held American belief right: The American system could function only on an in self-determination and open-door economic policies international basis and, further, by the end of World — two principles that in China, Latin America, and War II the United States at last had the power and will Africa had already proven to be contradictory. Wilson to make it so function. President Harry Truman put it introduced his plan by saying, “The program of the precisely in early 1947: “We must not go through the world’s peace ... is our program, and that program [is] ’30s again.” In mid-1945, Truman had believed the only possible program.” Americans could obtain “85 percent” of what they He traveled to the Paris Peace Conference believing wanted in reconstructing tire postwar world. By 1947, that “if I didn’t feel that I was the personal instrument the Cold War had begun and exceptionalism had a nar-

30 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O V RN Ah! MARC H 2000 Focus

rower theater for action. But it In recent decades, their inability to apply this insight to retained its power and, when com¬ distinguish between Central Europe pared with communist systems, even distinguished scholars and Southeast Asia. Consequendy, in acquired fresh justification and sup¬ the 1950s and early 1960s, they sup¬ port. have argued that ported a U.S. military commitment in President Dwight D. Eisenhower Soudi Vietnam.) expressed one form of it: “America is America was not all During the Cold War, many prin¬ the mightiest power which God has ciples of exceptionalism as expressed yet seen fit to put upon his footstool. that different from in U.S. foreign policy helped rebuild America is great because she is Western Europe and Japan good.” But the dominant American other imperial powers. (although, as John Dower has shown philosopher of the mid-20th centuiy, in his history of post-war Japan, that Reinhold Niebuhr, had a different nation carefully chose which of the view. Niebuhr warned that Americans, in all their principles were to be discarded after U.S. occupation power and righteousness, were little different from all pressures lifted). In other parts of the world, excep¬ other humans who could never satisfy what he called tionalism was too often used to disguise unexceptional their will-to-power. Americans, consequently, became power politics, most notably in coming to terms with a more insecure as they became more powerful. He series of right-wing regimes, ranging from Franco’s termed this “the irony of American history.” (The irony Spain, to the Shah’s Iran in the 1970s, to apartheid of Niebuhr and many of his followers turned out to be South Africa.

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MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 31 An INVITATION for SUMMER FICTION

The Foreign Service Journal is seeking works of fiction of up to 3,000 words for its annual summer fiction issue. Stories should have an overseas ^ setting. Story lines or characters involving the Foreign Service are preferred, but not required. The Journals editorial board will select up to six stories in May for simultaneous publication in the July/August issue and on the Journals web site. All stories must be previously unpublished. Submissions should be unsigned and accompanied by a cover sheet with the authors name, address, telephone numbers and email address.

Deadline for submissions is May 1,2000. No Exceptions.

Please send stories to the attention of Kathleen Currie, Managing Editor, Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037 Submissions will also be accepted by email at [email protected] and by fax at (202) 338-8244

FOREIGN SE RV1CE J O U RN AL/MARC H 2000 Focus

In the 1980s and early 1990s, some distinguished the mass public, many policy-makers or much of the scholars tried to cut through the rhetoric and myth of media of its case. exceptionalism by arguing that Americans were not all Critic Irving Howe was correct when he wrote that that different from other peoples who had built “to recognize the power of the American myth of a empires over the past half-millennium. Without com¬ Covenant blessing the new land is simply to recognize a ing to terms with the limitations of their system, these crucial fact in our history.” That power has been scholars warned, the American empire would enhanced, moreover, by the successes of the American inevitably follow the decline seemingly built into impe¬ Century. Howe was wrong, however, when he wrote of rial cycles. a single “myth.” There have been several, and they have Meanwhile, social and cultural historians attacked changed with the nations needs. Winthrops collective the veiy idea of a superior American history. These “Citty on a Hill” was quite different from O’Sullivans scholars often had their own cause: To raise the visibili¬ wildly individualistic Manifest Destiny, or from Wilsons ty of minorities that had long been excluded from the and Reagan’s conviction that exceptionalism was a triumphal stoiy of exceptionalism. Such a political agen¬ democratic-based individualism destined for global da was hardly new. From Paine to Eisenhower and application. beyond, advocates of exceptionalism used it to rational¬ American exceptionalism had thus by the 21st centu¬ ize, and at times disguise, their own political causes. A ry become a phenomenon that was no longer to be central question about the recent scholarship is whether exemplified in a city, a collective, or a continent. It had it is honest and well done. Widi few exceptions, it is. It become a formula for making the world over, in also, however, has made small progress in convincing America’s exceptional image. ■

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MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 33 Focus ON AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

THE U.S. TAKES A STAND

ETY-THREE COUNTRIES HAVE SIGNED OFF ON THE ICC. WHY ISN’T THE U.S. ONE OF THEM?

BY RUTH WEDGWOOD

■ he United States may be the “indispensable nation” — in Madeleine Albrights famous phrase — the balance wheel in Asia and Europe, and strategic guarantor of global security. Still it’s hard for most odier countries to admit that their decorated armies aren’t world-class contenders, or that regional neighbors might be wary of their plans. They grumble about Americas extraordinary position and power, and chafe at our claim to an exceptional role. Too often, Washingtons failure to explain what it needs to serve the security community leads to a dismissal of American leadership as the whim of a superpower. A recent example of our embarrassed diplomacy is the snarled attempt to create an international criminal court. The idea of a standing tribunal to try crimes of ethnic hatred — genocide, war crimes, and crimes against

34 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/M ARC H 2000 DELAVAN FOUNDATION CONTINUES SUPPORT This Issue in Brief: AFSA Establishes Award for Specialists DELAVAN FOUNDATION CONTINUES SUPPORT 1 Thanks to the generous support of dom-bestowed Distinguished Honor GRIEVANCE AND the Nelson B. Delavan Award for this same work. In the early DISCIPLINE CASES 1 Foundation, AFSA recendy estab¬ 1970s, Harris served as AFSA Vice AFSA NFWSRRIFF .2 lished the F. Allen ‘Tex’ Harris Award President and worked to unionize the for Foreign Service Specialists. The association. He later served as AFSA PREPARE FOR A CELEBRATION ■t $2500 award will be conferred annually President from 1993 to 1997. LETTER TO THE EDITOR 4 on a specialist “who has exhibited extra¬ Harrop calls FS specialists NEW SYSTEM BEGINS 4 ordinary accomplishment involv¬ the “backbone of the A CAREER OUT OF BALANCE S diplomatic structure. ing initiative, integrity, intel¬ THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY fi lectual courage and con They have as much structive dissent,” the opportunity for same criteria used for moral courage as do GRIEVANCE AND DISCIPLINE CASES the existing Herter, the officers,” he says. Rivkin and Harriman Harrop’s distin¬ Authorization awards for officers. guished Foreign Service Act Imposes “AFSA has offered career began in 1954. In 1975, he awards for extraordinary became ambassador to Guinea. New Rules performance, independent thinking From 1980 to 1983, he served concur¬ The recently enacted Foreign and constructive dissent to Foreign rently as ambassador to Kenya and the Affairs Authorization Act for FY Service officers for years,” says AFSA Seychelles. Harrop next served as 2000 and 2001 contains provi¬ President Marshall Adair. “For too inspector general of State from 1983 to sions that will have a significant impact long we neglected the many other 1986, and as ambassador to Zaire from on Foreign Service grievance, discipline Foreign Service specialists who con¬ 1987 to 1991. His last post was as and separation for cause cases. The tribute to our national interest, and ambassador to Israel from 1991 to 1993. most significant changes are the length¬ AFSA appreciates the Delavan Elizabeth Garney Delavan, Ann ening of the time records of more seri¬ Foundation’s help in closing the gap.” Harrop’s mother, started the Delavan ous disciplinary actions remain in an Former Ambassador William Foundation in 1983 to honor her employee’s official performance file Harrop and his wife Ann serve as deceased husband Nelson. The founda¬ (OPF), the elimination of prescriptive executors of the Delavan Foundation. tion first became involved with AFSA (or interim) relief for employees rec¬ Ambassador Harrop said they chose to in 1984. It soon funded AFSA’s $2,500 ommended for separation for cause, honor Harris in naming the award Delavan Award for Office and the shortening of the statute of lim¬ because Harris devoted so much of his Management Specialists. In addition to itations for filing certain types of griev¬ life to AFSA and the Foreign Service. the Delavan and Harris awards, the ances. Fortunately, AFSA was able to From 1963 to 1999, Harris served as an foundation has generously funded convince Congress to scale back earlier FSO, and was well known for challeng¬ AFSA’s outreach activities, including versions of the act, which would have ing the system. He received the Rivkin the Speakers Bureau and the recent curtailed employees’ rights more Award in 1984 for exposing human 75th anniversary activities. sharply. rights violations in Argentina. Many For more information contact Section 327 provides that “any years later Harris received State’s sel¬ Lauren McCuen at (202) 944-5506. Continued on page 3 AFSANEWSBRIEF E

AFSA Web Site Membership HFRICA* FOREIGN SFR VICE ASSOCIATION Updated Drive Under Way AFSA recently updated its web site, Every spring, AFSA sends a recruitment letter to all www.afsa.org, ■j^Tvmgn . ’ Service puuic iatoums active duty non-members. AFSA needs your help in to better serve its a recruiting them. There are currently 6,619 active duty members and the members of AFSA. That means approximately 35 general public with • In the News percent of your colleagues have not joined the only finding the informa¬ professional association and union dedicated to tion they need on the raws protecting their interests. If you can encourage even association and the Foreign Service. The new web site, designed one person to join our voice would be that much for easier navigation, includes a members only section; an online stronger when we speak to management, congress, membership directory to help you locate colleagues and update and the administration. For additional information, your record; and constituency pages with current information on see AFSA’s newly renovated web site at www.afsa.org. AFSA and agency actions and undertakings.

New Commercial Service Director General Named On January 10, 2000, Commerce Department Secretary William M. Daley announced the appointment of Marjory E. Searing as acting assistant secretary and director general of the U.S. Commercial Service. “I’m honored that the secretary selected me for this post,” said Searing, “These are exciting times in global commerce, and the Commercial Service’s emphasis on innovation, customer service and E-Commerce is a winning formula for helping U.S. businesses— and the U.S. economy—prosper.” From July 1998 to January 2000, Searing served as the department’s deputy assistant secretary for Asia and the Pacific. Searing previously served as acting assistant secretary and director general of the Commercial Service from April 1997 to July 1998. During this assignment, she integrated more closely the domestic and international operations in order to provide even higher levels of client service. She also initiated a program to enhance information technology systems in the international field.

In 1900, the State Department had 91 employees in Washington, DC and a budgett (of $141,000. By 1940 State had 1,128 employees and a budget of $2.8 million, according to State’ste’s Historian’s Office. Today,Tor State has 18,065 full-time employees, 10,000 of which are Foreign Service (USAID employs 3,000, l,3wof which are FS) and the agency’s budget for FY2000 has been appropriated at roughly $4 billion. Please note, dollar figures have not been adjusted for inflation.

AFSA News Editor Rita Colorito Governing Board: Staff: President: Marshall P. Adair Executive Director. Susan Reardon * (202) 338-4045 x 503 Business Department State Vice President: John Naland Controller. Kalpna Srimal H Internet Addresses: USAID Vice President: Frank Miller Accounting Assistant: Jenifer O’Neal Labor Management g [email protected] (Association) CS Vice President Peter Frederick General Counsel: Sharon Papp CJ [email protected] (President) FAS Vice President Evans Browne Labor Management Attorney: Zlatana Badrich Specialist: James Yorke 2 [email protected] (FSJ) Retiree Vice President: Willard De Pree Labor Relations Specialist: Carol Lutz 3 AFSA Headquarters: Secretary: Aurelius Fernandez Grievance Attorneys: Harry Sizer, Tracy Smith Treasurer Thomas Tieman Law Clerk: Richard Bernstein i; (202)338-4045 FAX: (202) 338-6820 Office Managers: Karen Batchelder, Naida Harrington State Representatives: Marilyn Bruno, Daniel Geisler, Member Services State Department Office: Stephen J. Klein, Lauren May, David Robinson, J. Riley Director Janet Hedrick Representative: Christine Spaulding (202) 647-8160 FAX: (202) 647-0265 Sever, Adviser Bruce Byers Administrative Assistant: Thomasina Johnson USAID Representative: James Dempsey Retiree Liaison: Ward Thompson USAID Office: Professional Programs Retiree Representatives: Harry Cahill, Garber Davidson, (202) 712-1941 FAX: (202) 216-3710 Professional Issues Coordinator David Rybak George Jones, Robert Lamb Congressional Affairs Director Ken Nakamura Communications Coordinator Lauren McCuen SA-44 Office: FAS Representative: Ed Porter Scholarship Administrator. Lori Dec (202) 401-6405 FAX: (202) 401-6410 CS Representative: Eric Sletten Corporate Relations: Barbara Bowie-Whitman

2 AFSA NEWS • MARCH 2000 CS ■ BY PETER FREDERICK Prepare for a Celebration

The Foreign Commercial Service maybe consid¬ ered the “Generation X” of the foreign affairs agencies: It is relatively “young”; has a some¬ what unique mission; and is often accused of devel¬ oping a new style of diplomacy. On April 1,2000, the FCS will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Given its mav¬ erick and youthful nature, I suggest readers with offices near the Commercial section steel themselves for a raucous celebration. record of disciplinary action that FCS has come a long way in 20 years. As the old includes a suspension of more than spiritual says, “I’m not as good as I could be, but I’m better than I was.” While five days,” including any correction of basically adhering to the FAM for oper¬ that record by the Foreign Service ational guidance, FCS has developed its Grievance Board, shall remain in an own core programs and personnel sys¬ employee’s OPF until the member is tems. Functionally the mission is to help tenured or next promoted. The new On April 1, 2000, American companies profit from inter¬ provision will apply to all disciplinary national trade. Over 20 years the mission actions initiated on or after Nov. 30, the FCS will celebrate has not changed, only the process, pro¬ 1999 (the date of enactment). AFSA its 20th anniversary. gram and tools. FCS has successfully and State are in the process of dis¬ assisted tens of thousands of companies, cussing the new provisions with the who have formed a constituency of loyal goal of revising the applicable Foreign supporters. Affairs Manual provisions. However, the diverse nature of com¬ Section 328 inquires foreign affairs mercial assignments, be they in an embassy, domestic export assistance center, agencies to place FS employees pro¬ multilateral bank or a trade center, has made the development of the FCS per¬ posed for separation for cause (i.e., sonnel system more difficult. Throughout its existence, FCS officers have had for misconduct) on leave without pay concerns about the assignment system, evaluations, promotions and various pending final resolution by the griev¬ other human resources related activities. As a small part of a large bureaucracy, ance board. Prior to the amendment, which needs to adhere in part to two different personnel systems, FCS has had certain groups of employees proposed problems. AFSA has officially represented FCS officers since December 1996 for separation for cause were kept in a dealing with four different directors general. The fact that problems exist is not paid status until the grievance board the result of a lack of effort by FCS management or AFSA but rather is indica¬ decided whether State had met its tive of the demands placed on the organization. burden of proof to separate the I hasten to point out that all the founding fathers moved to Commerce from employee. Under the amendment, all State. Over its 20-year history FCS has benefited from numerous State TDY’s employees proposed for separation and other “defections” after the A-100 course. Appropriately, FCS officers have for cause will be placed in a leave been detailed to State assignments and we are proud to have an ambassador, without pay status pending the former DCMs and consuls general among the ranks of commercial officers. board’s decision. If the proposed sep¬ Commercial officers are driven by profit—fortunately not their profit but aration is not upheld, the employee that of American exporters. As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, “Everyone will be awarded back pay. fives by selling something.” Traditionally we think of exchanging money for Section 330 revised the statute of goods or services; however “ideas” can be sold as well. All of us in the Foreign limitations for filing non-EEO-based Service engage in selling, be it goods, services or ideas. Negotiating a peace treaty (Equal Employment Opportunity) requires the same elements of salesmanship. grievances. The change will go into Thanks to the men and women who have been in FCS for the past 20 years, effect 180 days from Nov. 30,1999 (on we begin our next 20 years armed with more than a shoeshine and a smile. I ask or about May 28). The amendment all the salesmen and saleswomen in the Foreign Service to celebrate with us as creates a general two-year statute of FCS looks back with pride and forward with excitement. Continued on page 5

MARCH 2000 • AFSA NEWS 3 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Automotive Discounts Public Employees: Talk about deja-vu (Jan. 2000 AFSA News)-. It’s almost amusing in a way, but Working for America sad, too, to see that the Department (and Celebrate Public Service AFSA) are still dancing a minuet around Recognition Week the subject of allowing its employees to May 1 to 7 On the National Mall take advantage of the same rights ordinary Exhibits from More Than 100 Agencies citizens enjoy in acquiring and disposing Federal Jobs Information of personal property. This latest exercise in Live Jazz and Barbershop Music breast beating and soul searching with Marching Bands respect to whether employees are fully Free Posters entitled to discounts being offered by Activities for the Whole Family automobile dealers brings back memories of the turmoil surrounding this general Sponsored by the Public Employees Roundtable (of which AFSA is a member) and the President’s topic that we witnessed back in the ’70s. Interagency Council on Administrative Management Robert Dwelley FSSO retired For more information contact the Public Employees Roundtable at Brunswick, Me. (202) 401-4344 or go to www.theroundtable.org/programs.htm

dMEllBlIHfr USAID ■ BY FRANK MILLER Eight priority vacancies are in the deficit backstop categories of New System Begins health/family planning, contracts, T he first cycle of assignments for the year 2000 under the controller and private sector. (The revised system was completed in mid-January. From my latter two backstops are deficit viewpoint as the AFSA representative who attended all areas as a result of tire RIF in 1996.) the assignment board meetings, the new process worked very Moreover, many of the priority well. There was a healthy amount of collaboration among the vacancies are in countries with Office of Human Resources, the various bureau management limited schooling and/or difficult offices, Global Bureau technical staff and AFSA. family environments, which make them hard to fill. The first step involved identifying priority positions to be Human Resources is working closely with other offices to filled first. Bureaus were tasked with identifying the top third of implement an AFSA proposal to offer non-eligible bidders in all vacant positions based on developmental, foreign policy, deficit backstops who are serving in non-priority positions the and other important variables as determined by each bureau. opportunity to bid out of cycle on vacant positions. The intent This step identified 107 positions of which only 30 were in is to offer FS-02s more senior priority positions and fill their AIDW. Priority was placed where it should be — in field posi¬ vacancies with promising FS-03s; new entrants or GS/FS con¬ tions. versions would fill FS-03 vacancies. This option could provide Eligible bidders were asked to bid on at least one priority career growth opportunities for FS-02s and enable the agency position. Many employees bid on several priority positions, to meet some of its staffing needs. thereby increasing their chances of getting one of their top The member input I received on the original assignment choices. Indeed, approximately 75 percent of bidders were system proposal by agency management last September was assigned to one of their top three choices. one of the reasons this new system worked well. The second step involved matching bidders with positions. AFSA plans to meet with Human Resources and the The various entities involved worked hard to balance employ¬ bureaus to review lessons learned from the implementation of ee and family needs with the needs of the agency. Contrary to this new system. One area that needs improvement is the devel¬ the fears of many officers, no eligible bidders were forced opment of a common definition for priority positions. A few placed. Of the 107 priority positions, only 14 priority vacancies positions fisted in the first cycle appeared to be “hard to fill” were not immediately filled by the assignment board. Six of the positions in priority clothing. priority vacancies are being discussed with eligible or non-eli- Please send me your views on this new system. Help me gible bidders, mid-level new entrants and GS/FS conversions. make a difference! I can be reached at [email protected].

4 AFSA NEWS • MARCH 2000 1999 Annual REPORT ACTION A Message from the President: regime that will permit the majority of employees to have

Marshall P. Adair . longer careers and higher pensions. We convinced State to cre¬ ate a long-term counseling position for employees facing career In 1999, the American Foreign Service celebrated its 75th difficulty. We negotiated new precepts that require State’s anniversary. To commemorate it, AFSA promoted a num¬ Tenure Board to provide increased feedback to employees ber of events to better educate Americans about the impor¬ whose tenure decision is deferred; and we increased sharply the tance of the Foreign Service to our nation. We organized sym¬ two-way information flow between AFSA Washington and our posiums around the country, and assembled two photographic members in the field. exhibits on the Foreign Service to display in U.S. presidential AFSA worked hard to ensure that the USLA-State consolida¬ libraries. AFSA also inaugurated a national high-school essay tion went as smoothly as possible, and that the best practices of contest and brought the winners to Washington for the 75th the USIA are integrated into State management. At Commerce, anniversary gala dinner on May 24, 1999, where they received the AFSA Vice President for the Foreign Commercial Service their awards from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The was established as a quasi full-time assignment, expanding dinner, hosted by Secretary Albright, included 250 distin¬ AFSA’s services to members there and its role as a conscience to guished guests, including past and present FS leaders, members management. of Congress, the Clinton administration and the media. On Capitol Hill, AFSA presented testimony on several issues In 1999, AFSA worked with Admiral William J. Crowe and and worked tirelessly to preserve FS employees’ rights in griev¬ others and succeeded in more than doubling the administra¬ ances and discipline cases from severe cutbacks proposed by the tion’s original proposal to Congress on security spending for Senate Foreign Relations Committee majority. We promoted the FY 2000 budget. However, the amount appropriated was the inclusion of a tax bill provision that would exclude the time still far below what is needed. AFSA continued to argue for a spent abroad by FS personnel from being counted in a 5-year larger foreign affairs budget, and the appropriation for embassy look-back period. This period is used to determine whether suf¬ security of the full amount recommended by the Accountability ficient occupancy requirements were met for a capital gains Review Board. Current indications are the administration’s exclusion on the sale of a principal residence. While President proposal for FY 2001 will be substantially better. Clinton vetoed the bill, there is now general acceptance in Throughout the year, AFSA redoubled its efforts as the Congress of the need for such a provision. employees’ advocate. We proposed three benefits packages that AFSA also achieved a FS inclusion for the recent D.C. resulted in such bread-and-butter advances as a 40 percent College Access Act, which gives District residents access to increase in the miscellaneous expense portion of the Home Virginia and Maryland colleges and universities at in-state rates. Service Transfer Allowance. We helped hundreds of members In September, the House passed a resolution commemorating with inquiries/problems concerning such things as allowances, the 75th anniversary of the Foreign Service. Finally, AFSA com¬ assignments and transportation. We assisted more than 200 pleted a four-year effort to amend the Virginia constitution so members with grievances or discipline cases (our records show that Foreign Service personnel stationed abroad can vote as that about 55 percent of the members we assist win full or par¬ absentees in state and local elections. tial relief). Late in the year, we submitted important proposals In 2000, AFSA is working to expand these accomplishments. seeking reform of the home leave system and accommodations The presidential race promises an exciting political environ¬ for unmarried domestic partners of overseas employees. ment and we will do our best to take advantage of tlje opportu¬ AFSA also negotiated a new time-in-service, time-in-class nities it offers. AFSA in Ad iON IS Year in Review

January Negotiations open on a new TIC/TIS regime for State (USIA) generalists and 75th anniversary celebration of the U.S. specialists. Foreign Service and AFSA begins. President Dan Geisler addresses Changes secured to regulations imple¬ Arizona retirees. menting Law Enforcement Availability Foreign Service High School Essay Pay for DS agents. Bill passes Virginia legislature amend¬ Contest. (Pictured) ing the Virginia Constitution to allow Guidance on overtime issues released. those in the FS to vote absentee in state Foreign Service Day features Secretary and local elections. Albright’s dedication of East African $116,000 in financial aid granted to 62 bombing victims’ names on AESA students thanks to contributions from House passes “Federal Retirement Plaque. AFSA members, DACOR and AAFSW. Coverage Correction Act,” with FS inclusion provision. Package of proposals to improve over¬ February seas medical services submitted to Questions on security in AID submit¬ State. AFSA participates in NARFE legislative ted to House Appropriations conference laying groundwork for fed¬ Subcommittee on Foreign Operations AFSA proposes extending the defini¬ eral employee/retiree long-term care for USAID Administrator Brian tion of eligible family members to insurance. Atwood. include grandparents and seeks a change in the 51 percent financially AFSA meets with State concerning : April I ‘ dependent rule. assignments to critical threat posts. Dialogue with congressional staff Foreign Service Journal publishes com¬ 8th floor reception for U.S. business in (SFRC) begins, which succeeds in pre¬ memorative 75th anniversary issue. honor of 75th anniversary. venting major reductions in the statute of limitations for grievances. Revitalized Speakers Bureau launched with funding from the Delavan A package of proposals to reverse the AFSA awards ceremony honors con¬ Foundation. erosion of allowances and differentials structive dissent, and contributions to submitted to State. diplomacy and the FS community. 75th anniversary banners distributed to every post. California retirees conduct Elderhostel Agreement reached on a new Language course in San Diego. Incentive Pay program.

AFSA supports Rep. Connie Morelia’s Improvements secured in the regula¬ bill, H.R. 208, which provides for tions for telecommuting. immediate participation in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), passes House and AFSA prods State to find alternative to is sent to the Senate. failed Foreign Affairs Reserve Corps.

U.S. Ambassador to Poland Daniel $23,200 in AFSA/AAFSW Academic Fried addresses AFSA corporate mem¬ and Art Merit Awards to 30 FS high bers at monthly meeting. THE FOREIGN SERVICE school seniors.

OF THE UNITED STATES

lirtiHMHMHi AFSA turns 75. New AFSA Board takes office. AFSA President Dan Geisler testifies Secretary Albright hosts gala 75th AFSA writes Congress expressing con¬ before Congress (HIRC) concerning anniversary dinner and presents first cern about proposals to lengthen hard¬ embassy security. place award to winner of the first ship tours.

2 AFSA IN ACTION AFSA in ACTION Year in Review

AFSA writes State concerning mistakes service rules that generally afford personal effects, vouchers and claims. and irregularities in the entry process longer careers and larger pensions. for newly recruited employees. AFSA writes to State seeking improved Proposal submitted to reform the diplomatic immunity for DS personnel AFSA contacts House and Senate CJS home leave system. at consulates. Subcommittees opposing Senate report language on lengthening FS assign¬ Grievance filed to overturn a tightening State VP John Naland visits members ments without further study. of eligibility for educational allowances in Mexico City. for kindergartners. Testimony submitted to House Govern¬ November MKMHi ment Reform Committee regarding AFSA proposes to State the minimum corruption in the Foreign Service. wait between promotions for grades AFSA writes State urging swift imple¬ FS-03 to FS-01 be reduced by one year. mentation of most of the recommen¬ : L,av,:-^a*»|ysa«pa dations of the Overseas Presence AFSA proposes State institute Metro- Advisory Panel. State convinced to create a long-term chek (public transportation assistance) counseling position to proactively for Washington-based employees. President Marshall Adair’s op-ed on counsel employees in career difficulty. embassy security published in Federal Retiree VP Bill De Pree addresses New Times. TIC extensions negotiated for USIA England retirees. employees who completed hard lan¬ Senate passes S. 1232, “Federal guage training. House unanimously passes H. Res. 168 Erroneous Retirement Coverage “Recognizing the Foreign Service of the Corrections Act,” containing Foreign Senate passes S. 886, State authoriza¬ United States on the Occasion of Its Service inclusion provision. tion bill containing many AFSA posi¬ 75th Anniversary.” tions and AFSA-negotiated provisions Two new perpetual scholarships are on discipline and grievance procedures. Presentation to Senate staff that established in memory of William Foreign Service should be included in Leonhart and William E. and Elizabeth Congress clears conference report to the “D.C. College Access Act,” S.856 M. Cole. H.R. 2488 containing the FS provision /I for an amendment to current law Vs r -sHHIHHiH! .. regarding the capital gains exclusion on the sale of a principal residence. AFSA writes State proposing measures to ameliorate the inequitable treatment AFSA meets with staff of Senate of unmarried domestic partners over¬ Subcommittee on Transportation and seas, and meets with Senate Foreign Infrastructure to discuss security con¬ Relations Committee staff on this issue. cerns at the Ronald Reagan building. 24th Elderhostel week conducted, AFSA submits proposal to Commerce 1,000th student honored. (Pictured) to modify the commissioning and tenure policy for CS. Institutional grievances filed against Commerce and the Foreign Agriculture President Marshall Adair addresses Service for failure to follow assignment Florida retirees. procedures. Foreign Service Journal concludes a year sary of the embassy bombings in AFSA works to ensure that the USIA- of superb coverage of the Foreign Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. State consolidation go as smoothly as Service and a record-breaking year of possible. advertising revenue.

AFSA submits to State management AFSA welcomes 625 new members Agreement reached with State (USIA) a package of 31 recommendations who attended a record 17 recruitment on the new time-in-class and time-in- concerning travel, transportation of lunches in 1999.

AFSA IN ACTION 3 AFSA in ACTION IS AFSA Staff Finance and Foreign Administration Service Journal ■ Accounting ■ Editing ■^Financial ■ Writing Management ■ Design ■ Staff Recruitment ■ Advertising & Supervision ■ Subscriptions ■ Building ■ Newsstand Administration Sales ■ Board & From left: Controller Kalpna Srimal, Acting From left: Editor Bob Guldin, Advertising & Committee Accounting Assistant Thomasina Johnson, Executive Circulation Manager Ed Miltenberger, Art Director Support Director Susan Reardon, not pictured is Accounting Caryn Suko, Associate Editor Steve Honley; seated Assistant Jenifer O’Neal from left: AFSA News Editor Rita Colorito, Managing Editor Kathleen Currie Labor Management ■ Negotiations ■ Protecting Benefits ■ Grievance Counseling ■ OIG & DS Investigations ■ Member Inquiries ■ Informing the Field From left: Law Clerk Richard Bernstein, Specialist James Yorke, Grievance Attorney Tracy Smith, Labor Management Attorney Zlatana Badrich, General From left: Congressional Affairs Director Ken Nakamura, Retiree Liaison Ward Counsel Sharon Papp, Grievance Attorney Harry Sizer, Thompson, Executive Assistant Lauren McCuen, not pictured are Corporate Office Manager Karen Batchelder, not pictured are Relations Director Barbara Bowie-Whitman and Coordinator for Professional Senior Ixibor Management Representative Carol Lutz Issues Richard Thompson and Office Manager Naida Harrington Congressional Outreach ■ Lobbying P Speakers Bureau ■ Tracking Legislation Member Services ■ Elderhostel ■ Hill Testimony ■ Member ■ Memorial Plaque ■ Grassroots Campaigns Recruitment ■ Foreign Service Day ■ Post Reps ■ Diplomats Online Retiree ■ Insurance ■ AFSA Awards ■ Member Inquiries Programs ■ Putting a Face on ■ Retiree Newsletter ■ Address Changes the Foreign Service ■ Retiree Directory ■ AFSANET ■ AFSA Web Site

From left: Membership Director Janet Hedrick, 75th Anniversary Membership Representative Chrissy Spaulding, Celebration Administrative Assistant Ana Lopez

Essay Contest Director Perri Green and Director Louise Scholarships Eaton in front of one of the ■ Financial Aid 250 commemorative banners distributed to overseas ports. ■ Merit Awards ■ Art Merit Awards ■ Committee on Education Scholarship Administrator Jj>ri Dec

4 AFSA IN ACTION Grievance and Discipline • Continued from page 3 STATE ■ BY JOHN NALAND limitations for filing grievances (other than those based on discrimination) A Career Out of Balance with a special provision for certain types of grievance. Section 330 states Increasingly, the Foreign Service is a career out of that “in the case of a grievance with balance. Years of lean budgets, expanding com¬ respect to the grievant’s rater or mitments, and poor management have resulted in reviewer” the grievance must be filed under-staffed offices, over-worked employees, and “one year after the date on which the rising stress levels. This house of cards would have grievant ceased to be subject to rating collapsed long ago were it not for our own individual or review by that person, but in no case dedication to duty and can-do attitudes. When State management leaves a position vacant for months, we reflexively step in to shoulder the If the grievance is with respect burden. Even in “fully staffed” offices, many of us to an employee’s performance routinely work long hours. We rush from assignment to assignment, often at the cost of forgone training or shortened vacations. To borrow a phrase from appraisal, the employee must Alcoholics Anonymous, we are “enablers” whose accommodating actions per¬ file the grievance within one mit State to avoid facing up to its problems. Why do we exhibit such dedication? Each of us has a personal answer involv¬ year of the date he or she is no ing some combination of material and emotional rewards. However, as AFSA President Marshall P. Adair detailed in December’s Foreign Service Journal, longer supervised by the many of the rewards of service are eroding while some of the burdens are rater or reviewer. increasing. Moreover, this is happening at a time when the national unemploy¬ ment rate is at a 30-year low — making the substantial material rewards of pri¬ vate sector employment both more attractive and more attainable. less than two years after the occurrence Last year’s “War for Talent” study by McKinsey & giving rise to the grievance.” AFSA Co. predicted that State will find it increasingly diffi¬ interprets this to mean the following: Maybe we should cult in the coming years to attract and retain top tal¬ employees must file grievances within not routinely ent. This is obviously true today for individual posts two years of the event giving rise to the and offices, as shown by the approximately 850 posi¬ grievance. However, if the grievance is agree to do tions on the initial “Hard to Fill Vacancy” list of the with respect to an employee’s perfor¬ “more with less.” current bidding cycle. mance appraisal, the employee must AFSA sees this as an opportunity to press State file the grievance within one year of the management to bolster the rewards of service and date he or she is no longer supervised ameliorate the burdens. Toward that end, we have sent forward a large number by the rater or reviewer. of bread-and-butter proposals in recent months. We also continue to urge ade¬ For a fuller explanation please see 99 quate funding for overseas security as well as implementation of many of the State 238669 or go to AFSA’s website at big-picture reforms proposed by last November’s Overseas Presence Advisory www.afsa.org. Employees with specific Panel. State’s response to those issues will give employees a clear signal as to questions regarding the changes caused management’s interest in winning its war for talent. by the Authorization Act should con¬ Individual employees, too, should weigh the implications of this “buyer’s tact Sharon Papp, AFSA General market.” Maybe we should not routinely agree to do “more with less.” Maybe Counsel at [email protected], 202-647- we should structure our workday to permit ourselves to go home at a reason¬ 8160 (phone) or 202-647-0265 (fax). able hour. Maybe we should hold out for that six-week home leave about which our family has been dreaming. Maybe we should insist on being allowed Let Us Know to take that course that would strengthen our skills set. Maybe we should not Do you have news about a recent let our leave accrue to “use or lose” proportions. Maybe employees eligible for accomplishment of an AFSA overtime pay (everyone except tenured FSOs) should inform their AFSA rep¬ member or news of an event of resentative if local management refuses to pay it. Maybe we should learn to interest to the FS community? “just say no.” Fax it to (202) 338-8244 or e-mail: As always, I welcome member input. Contact me at [email protected] or [email protected] by fax at 202-647-0265.

MARCH 2000 • AFSA NEWS 5 PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ■ BY RILEY SEVER weren’t available on SA-44’s computer network. Then, I dis¬ covered that we couldn’t send bid cables from SA-44. With Through A Glass Darkly the help of colleagues I managed to locate copies of most of the cables. For those of you overseas, the atmosphere in SA-44 The integration of USIA into State brought several shocks. was like the scene in “Gone with the Wind,” when all Atianta The first was the sight of workmen prying the USIA fought to see the casualty lists from Gettysburg. emblem off the entrance to the building on Sept. 29, After faxing my bids to a dedicated personnel officer who got 1999. The second was learning that our building would be them into the system, I sat back to await notification of my known as State Annex 44, a “hand-me-down” name from a assignment. I began to worry as I detected a feeding frenzy in the building in Rosslyn, Va. At least it wasn’t SA-666, which corridors of Main State. I overheard snatches of conversations apparendy is being reserved for AID. But the biggest shock where people and positions were being bartered as if they were was bidding in State’s Personnel Assignment System. goods on sale at the Cairo bazaar. Rumors flew of jobs filled. I had been prepared for something different by guest lec¬ Updated lists of vacant positions poured out of the building but turers and the “USIA Readers’ Guide” to the State Bid not a single announcement of any officers being assigned. Package, so I was sure I could successfully navigate the State friends explained that by next summer State process. That wasn’t the case. The process of getting a job Magazine would print all the assignments. Until then, we reminded me of experiences in a Third World tour, where should compare all the personnel cables to decipher which everyone went to the “Meet Market” to display their “wares,” positions were no longer listed, and determine if our “one true charm “customers” and make a “sale.” bid” was still there. If not, we would need to start the bidding The first warning signal was when State colleagues process all over again. explained that you must bid on five jobs you couldn’t possibly I complained to a colleague at State that this didn’t seem to get and only one you really want. They advised me to forget be good personnel management, much less career develop¬ the “high, medium and low” preference since “nobody pays ment. I was stopped mid-sentence by his comment, “Oh, we any attention to it anyway.” Over lunch, a State “mole” know it’s terrible. The bidding is transparent but the assign¬ slipped me a list of “Fair Share” hardship posts on which to ment process is Byzantine and it’s not going to change.” bid without worrying about being assigned. It seemed that I That officer’s honesty and cynicism was my biggest shock had the system figured out, or so I thought. of the entire bidding process. But then there may be a worse The next sign of trouble was that the assignment cables shock to come; I’m still waiting on my assignment! AFSACLASSIFIEDS TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPLETE TAX & ACCOUNTING SERVICE: Specialize in Foreign Service ROLAND S. HEARD, CPA 1091 Chaddwyck Dr., ATTORNEY, FORMER FOREIGN and overseas contractor situations. SERVICE OFFICER: Extensive experi¬ Virginia M. Test, CPA 2595 Chandler Athens, GA 30606 ence w/ tax problems peculiar to the Ave. # 18, Las Vegas, NV 89120, (702) Tel/Fax (706) 769-8976 Foreign Service. Available for consultation, 795-3648, FAX (702) 433-9191, E-mail: E-mail: [email protected] tax planning, and preparation of returns: [email protected] • U.S. income tax services M. Bruce Hirshorn, Boring & Pilger • Many FS & contractor clients AFSA TAX COUNSEL: Problems of Suite D, 307 Maple Ave, West Vienna, VA • Practiced before the IRS tax & finance. Never a charge to AFSA 22180 (703) 281-2161 Fax: (703) 281- • Financial planning 9464 E-mail [email protected] members for telephone guidance. Bob Dussell at tax work both within and without • American Institute of CPAs, Member IRS since '37. Now solely in practice to FIRST CONSULTATION FREE assist FS employees and their families. FREE TAX CONSULTATION: For over¬ Bob Dussell (804) 550-3439, fax (804) TAX PREPARATION: CPA SPECIAL¬ seas personnel. We process returns as 550-2269. 9058 Edgewater Circle, IST in offshore U.S. taxpayer issues. 40+ received, without delay. Preparation and Mechanicsville, VA 23116. years as a tax professional. 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Nightfall Ave., Tucson, AZ www.taxbeacon.com/ffi E-mail: FIN- 522-3828, Fax (703) 522-5726, E-mail: 85748 Tel. (520) 721-7718, Fax (520) [email protected] [email protected] 721-1758. E-mail: [email protected]

6 AFSA NEWS • MARCH 2000 AFSACLASSIFIEDS

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MARCH 2000 • AFSA NEWS 7 SHORT - TERM RENTALS SECLUDED ST. LUCIA PROPERTY: 32 agricultural acres.Great views of FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATES has HISTORIC CAPITOL HILL TOWN- Atlantic. 81' waterfall. No utilities. North of fully furnished apartments at River Place just HOUSE: Fully furnished 3 bedrooms, 2 Dennery. Contact former FSO Warren 5 minutes from NFATC and one block from baths, eat-in kitchen, fenced in patio/gar¬ Putman, HC67 Box197, West Union, WV Rosslyn Metro. Efficiencies, 1 and 2 bed¬ den. Central A/C; cable TV. Minutes from 26456 (304)758-0010. E-mail: rooms have fully furnished with kitchens, Metro, stores, restaurants, movies. [email protected] cable TV, telephone, linens, and all utilities References from previous FSO family. included. Call: or Fax (703) 527-0279, FLORIDA Available May to September. Exact dates or E-mail: [email protected] website at: GOLF/BEACH PARADISE! Why not negotiable. $1,500/mo. + utils. 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8 AFSA NEWS • MARCH 2000 Focus

humanity — was touted by the White House from 1994 ing an international court began in the 1950s. It marked onward as the centerpiece to a foreign policy seeking to time for three decades while international lawyers stem bloody ethnic wars. debated a “Code on Crimes Against die Peace and In June 1998, after four years of discussions on a draft Security of Mankind” — an attempt to define aggression treaty, the United States went to Rome for a final con¬ that was bound to fail in the hot days of the Cold War ference, and left five weeks later in stumbling disarray. and decolonization. Serious work on the court revived in The mood and temper of the final days of Rome recalled the late 1980s, when Caribbean countries challenged the mid-1970s, when the U.N. General Assembly pro¬ the extension of long-arm extraterritorial jurisdiction in posed a “new world order” limiting free trade and press die war on drugs. The Caricom countries questioned die freedom, and the G-7 were forced to hold their ground. use of a wide-ranging offshore national police power and Only this time, Europe joined the fray against the at the same time doubted their own ability to resist United States. Ironically, the United States could sup¬ semi-sovereign drug lords. An international court to try port much in the Rome treaty that achieved die creation large-scale international drug cases was a beguiling of a permanent criminal court ready for work in The alternative. Hague, with 18 independent judges and a professional The project was soon overtaken by more pressing prosecutor elected by the treaty parties. The U.S. took events, with the collapse of Yugoslavia and the violence pride in assuring tiiat die court could address civil and of ethnic warfare in Bosnia and Croatia. In 1993, with ethnic conflicts by expanding the reach of traditional American support, die Security Council resorted to its humanitarian law and highlighting the responsibility of Chapter VII powers to assemble an ad hoc criminal tri¬ military commanders and the scourge of sexual crimes bunal in The Hague investigating the outrages of the in those conflicts. Balkan conflict. Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter allows Yet in the final vote at Rome, on July 17, 1998, the die council to take measures against threats to interna¬ United States found itself isolated and in troublesome tional peace and security, and creation of a court was company. One hundred twenty countries, and all other rationalized as necessary to deter further violations of members of NATO, supported the Rome treaty. The humanitarian law in the fighting, and to restore post-war United States, Israel, and China voted against the court, stability. Negotiation of a treaty-based war crimes court together with four other countries variously identified for the Balkans seemed too slow in the emergency, and by observers of the unrecorded electronic vote as the regions heedless belligerents were unlikely to sign Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, or Yemen. up voluntarily. Twenty-one countries abstained. In 1994, in die face of the Rwandan genocide, the How this happened may tell us some disturbing council authorized another ad hoc tribunal — placing things about Americas current position in the world, the Hutu massacres in die portfolio of the same United and the state of our multilateral diplomacy. The fracture Nations prosecutor, a doubling-up which has led to the between the United States and its NATO allies over the relative neglect of Rwandan affairs. These ad hoc cre¬ criminal court could be chalked up to misunderstand¬ ations were seen by some as testing the limits of Security ing. But at times it ran closer to disdain for Americas Council power, and it was doubted that such improvisa¬ role in international security and its attendant burdens. tion could continue forever. In 1994, the International The work at Rome sought a permanent architecture Law Commission of the General Assembly — a respect¬ for the trial of serious war crimes. The project of creat- ed group of 34 international law experts — completed its long-standing study of a permanent criminal court Ruth Wedgwood is a professor of law at Yale University and, with the concurrence of the American member, and senior felloiv for International Organizations and proposed a wide jurisdiction over narcotics, terrorism, Law at the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1998-1999, and the crimes of war. The genocide in Rwanda and die she served as the Stockton professor of International Law massacre at Srebrenica made clear that international at the U.S. Naval War College She is a member of the justice had real problems to address. National Security Study Group of the Hart-Rudman The United States took part in indecisive preparato¬ Commission on Security in the 21st Century. ry work over the next four years, and agreed to convene

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 35 Focus

in Rome in June 1998 to attempt to finish the treaty text. er put it. Britain was not a member of the like-minded, But core issues were still undecided, and the timing was but Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Wilsonian embrace of problematic. It could be called a Y2K problem — for the an “ethical” foreign policy made it difficult for Britain to Rome conference began in a millenarian mood. An oppose like-minded positions. unfettered court with the broadest possible powers was Chunneled Britain, ambitious France, and a self- the only acceptable alternative to many states and non¬ conscious Gennany were eager for European leader¬ governmental organizations, and these supporters insist¬ ship, with NATO loyalties likely to fray. Europe’s long ed diat the treaty had to be finished, ready or not, before frustration in Bosnia also moved the post-Maastricht the millennium closed. It was, at best, to be a breathless community to show it could act widiout the United run through 1700 bracketed items bordering politically States. And like-minded governments were still delicate fields. beguiled by the notion that law alone, without support¬ The precedent of the Ottawa negotiations on a land¬ ing force, might stop adversaries. (Europe’s famous mines ban was also on negotiators’ minds — scattering blunder of December 16, 1991 — prematurely recog¬ pixy dust in the political air. In 1997, Canada invited nizing the breakaway Yugoslav republics — evidenced states who were deemed “like-minded” to sidestep the the same wistful belief in law’s self-executing force.) complicated talks of the Geneva committee on disarma¬ A third storm warning escaped notice in Washington ment, in favor of a come-as-you-are meeting in Ottawa — the stalled debate on Security Council reform. FDR’s to ratify a flat ban on anti-personnel land mines. The Four Policemen (together with France) remain as tire absence at Ottawa of many of the worlds major military framemakers of security in the U.N. council, exercising actors was not seen as disabling. The Ottawa process was the veto power of permanent membership. The council hailed as a new method of lawmaking — agreement by was enlarged in 1963 from 11 members to 15 members the enlightened, leaving the laggards behind. The nec¬ through a charter amendment; but since that time essary balance between aspiration and state practice — another 77 countries have joined the United Nations. and the place of consensus in seeking a workable norm Proposals to expand the council and render it more — were obscured for the moment by the belief that civil “democratic” were mooted throughout tire 1990s in society could create irresistible pressure to join. slow-drifting working group debates, with some coun¬ At Ottawa and after, many NGOs believed their own tries opposed even to preserving existing permanent press, spinning for reporters, able to advise country del¬ seats and veto power. The talkfest got nowhere because egations, lending experts to represent smaller countries regional rivals could not agree on who might fill new that could not field their own diplomatic teams. (At permanent seats. (Archaically, in a world of cyberspace Rome, a surprising number of state delegations ended and capital flows, the U.N. still fives and breathes by up with funding by western NGOs, including George regions.) The rivalries of India, Pakistan, and Indonesia, Soros and the Open Society Institute.) Ottawa also saw or the friendly competition of Brazil, Argentina and a truculent unwillingness to credit U.S. military con¬ Mexico, were not easy to resolve. cerns about the value of landmines in defense of South Council expansion has become a political project of Korea, despite the Korean peninsula’s unsteady posture. tire United States as well, with U.S. support for growth Allies committed to the joint defense of Europe did not from 15 members to 20 or 21 in order to gain permanent credit U.S. tactical assessments in other theaters of seats for Germany and Japan. America has also support¬ operation. ed attempts to open council procedures to wider view So, too, the rhythm of continental politics might have — by briefing regional groups and troop-donating coun¬ cautioned American diplomats approaching Rome. The tries, and structuring informal council consultations “like-minded states” have continued as a rump foreign with NGOs and even opposition groups. policy caucus, headed by Canada and Noiway, pursuing Nonetheless, the stalemate on expansion has left the a “humanitarian” foreign policy. The caucus included 29 Security Council with few champions. The Rome con¬ states at the time of the Rome conference, including ference summarily dismissed any major role for the many of our NATO allies, and has “benefited from the Security Council in the operations of the permanent coordination of the ... Canadian mission,” as one observ¬ criminal court. The council will not have exclusive

36 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/M ARC H 2000 Focus

authority to refer cases. The council lacks any power to and this published rule helped to deter local toughs defer prosecutions that might interfere with delicate from challenging U.S. forces. In the Persian Gulf Tanker peace negotiations — except where it can muster die War, we escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Straits concurring votes of Britain, France, Russia and China, of Hormuz and enforced a maritime exclusion zone to together with the United States. Thus, America lost any protect our transiting vessels. Foreign aircraft and ves¬ veto over the imprudent use of the courts docket. (One sels were warned to stand off at a certain range, lest their can argue that the U.S. really threw in the towel in 1994, intentions be mistaken. This is not a traditional power of when die International Law Commission’s consensus maritime law, but we judged in the circumstances that it draft liberally allowed criminal complaints to be brought was necessary to avoid dangerous confrontations. by individual state parties, even without Security These rules of engagement may not gain the agree¬ Council approval.) ment of all the worlds governments. They can properly Disdain for die Security Council is unrealistic, to be be debated in military working groups, political assem¬ sure. The council is the only organ authorized to enforce blies, and even church pulpits. But we must face the fact the international courts orders against uncooperative that adversaries will seek to exploit the dramatic setting states. But many of the like-minded states and NGOs of a criminal courtroom to oppose military actions that engaged at Rome seemed to prefer a papier-mache represent good faith applications of humanitarian law court to muscle and moxie. and just war principles. Criminal sanctions are designed Military facts of life complete the story of Americas for deliberate humanitarian violations of the worst kind, isolation in the Rome process. American forward not principled interpretations of working doctrines. It is deployment of 230,000 troops in Europe, the Middle no comfort to an American G.I. to suppose that he can East, and Asia means tiiat American forces will be uniquely exposed to the arrest powers of an internation¬ al tribunal. Negotiated agreements with host countries — popularly known as Status of Forces Agreements or You’ve worked SOFAs — currently protect overseas American troops hard for what you have. You’ve earned the from local arrest for official acts. But the extension of lifestyle you enjoy SOFAs to international arrest warrants is uncharted. today. Don’t let taxes, The United States must also be realistic about its inflation or an outdated investment plan operational responsibilities and their perils. America has threaten your hard- the laboring oar in missions such as counter-terrorism, earned dollars. deterrence against weapons of mass destruction, and At Raymond James, we understand peace enforcement, as well as freedom of navigation the importance of exercises. In hazardous conditions we use forward-lean¬ diversifying and safeguarding our ing “rules of engagement” to ward off trouble before it clients’ assets. It is our happens. The casualties suffered in die Marine barracks primary goal to protect in Lebanon and Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, and their principal and its buying power while recollections of the USS Stark, damaged by Iraqi mis¬ working to enhance siles in the Persian Gulf, make it hard to quarrel with a Patrick J. Nichols their portfolios vigilant attitude. Financial Advisor through tailored investment and Even in peacekeeping, U.S. niles of engagement del¬ RAYMOND JAMES financial planning. egate wide discretion to unit commanders to use force S. ABSOa/VTES, 11X10. Put our experience to work for you. Please in self-defense and mission accomplishment, sometimes 1825 Eye Street N.W. contact us today for in ways that our allies may not like. In the Somalia Washington, D.C. 20006 strategies on how to peacekeeping operation, for example, we announced 202-872-5963 ❖ 800-982-3035 protect your assets and Fax: 202-872-5949 your lifestyle for the that any truck-mounted automatic weapons brandished [email protected] future. in downtown Mogadishu would be deemed hostile — Committed to your financial future.

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MARCH 2 000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 37 Focus

be vindicated after a long and tortuous court proceed¬ will be immune from complaints of aggression. But the ing. treaty does not require a Security Council finding before Mission-level decisions are tire other source of con¬ an indictment — despite the council’s traditional cern. A president sometimes can’t wait for the Security Chapter VII role in declaring what is a tiireat to die Council before embarking on military operations — peace. The United States will again have lost an effec¬ Desert Storm notwithstanding. Article 51 of the U.N. tive veto. Other countries also face this problem, but the Charter protects tire right of unilateral and collective exceptional nature of U.S. security tasks warrants military action in self-defense against an armed attack. uneasiness about the court’s control and docket. But there is no consensus among international lawyers Military power is a delicate issue in die politics of on the permissible limits of self-defense — for example, Europe, with its memory of destructive wars. Japan’s anticipatory action before an adversary has mobilized, or constitution still bars any use of force except in territor¬ using force against terrorist groups that operate in the ial homeland defense. A narrow reading of die U.N. territory of a third party country. And there are cases Charter — and die suggestion diat the charter exhausts that don’t fit any ordinary model of interstate self- all legal justifications for the strategic use of force — is defense — for example, NATO’s humanitarian interven¬ comfortable for European and Asian international tion in Kosovo. Using force to stem ethnic cleansing was lawyers and civilian leaders who do not conceive of secu¬ not in mind when the U.N. Charter was drafted in 1945. rity in global terms. Belgrade’s lawyers trooped across Europe to The The effect of diis on international lawmaking is strik¬ Hague to oppose NATO’s 1999 air campaign, even while ing and clear. The use of force to deter disruptive states the conflict proceeded, complaining of “aggression” and has been an American engagement, stemming from the “war crimes.” The International Court of Justice, which U.S. role in the regional balance of power over die last hears state-to-state civil complaints, dismissed the 50 years. American investment in military logistics, air¬ actions against Britain and America on jurisdictional lift, and intelligence, as well as a blue water navy and grounds. But the matter is still pending on the docket strategic air command, has created an operational against other NATO members. Judge Weeremantry of capacity sustained by no other state. In U.N. peace Sri Lanka, as acting president of tire tribunal, conspicu¬ enforcement operations in Korea and die Persian Gulf, ously noted that the case presents “serious issues of die United States has been the keystone. Germany’s international law.” Unlike the proposed criminal court, new constitutional capacity to commit its military forces the ICJ has no public prosecutor and thus cannot sum¬ outside die traditional NATO theater of operations, and marily reject factually frivolous complaints at the outset proposals for a European rapid reaction force, do not — individual states move forward on their own steam. change this specialization of function. With the fiscal But die Yugoslav example is a caution nonetheless. If die limits of its new monetary union, Western Europe Rome parties took a strict constructionist view of die defense outlays are unlikely to grow any time soon. U.N. Charter — and said, hypodietically, that any use of The mismatch between economic capacity and his¬ force without Security Council audiorization is aggres¬ torical past prevents any easy substitution for American sion, except for self-defense — dien NATO would be power. The United States had a 25 percent share of vulnerable to legal action for its humanitarian mission in world GDP in 1998; Japan had 17.5 percent, and Kosovo, good motives notwithstanding. Some countries Germany had 9.4 percent. (Britain, France, and Italy wi 11 not agree with U.S. decisions on the use of force, each had under 7 percent. Each of these nations main¬ and will seek to exploit the criminal court to make their tains relatively small anned forces.) point. For Germany and Japan, the matter of recollected The package announced at Rome on die hurried final history looms large. The U.N. Charter drafted in 1945 day met some of these concerns. The crime of “aggres¬ originally labeled Germany, Japan, and Italy as “enemy sion” is placed within the court’s jurisdiction only with states” — archaic language not yet removed despite the the proviso that no case can be brought before treaty admission of these post-war allies to full U.N. member¬ members agree by majority vote on how to define die ship decades ago. The irksome reference is a reminder, crime. Any treaty party' diat dissents from the definition though, that the development of power projection capa-

38 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL! M ARC H 2000 Focus

bility by many countries would call up troublesome ly. The first 1977 Protocol to Geneva proposes to do so, memories. One European political observer recently but the United States has not ratified it. The difficulties noted that his country’s admiration for the work of of air warfare — shooting at targets from 30,000 or even German peacekeepers in Kosovo did not prevent a visi¬ 5,000 feet — complicate the operational issues of pro¬ ble chill when Chancellor Schroeder praised the spirit of portionality. Field personnel may not wish to debate “deutschen Soldaten.” Indeed, one of the reasons for these questions in a criminal courtroom. Many of tire supporting Security Council membership for both choices in dual-use targeting depend on understanding Germany and Japan is to find a way to make their a warfighting plan and frustrating the adversary’s strate¬ defense identity acceptable to their own publics and gy. NATO’s destruction of Danube river bridges in the their neighbors. Regional identity does not easily substi¬ Yugoslav campaign forced Milosevic to gamble where to tute — it is hard for co-equal powers to agree on mili¬ place his armor, though it also inflicted hardship on Serb tary action where die United States is not available to civilians. (If Milosevic sent tanks south to Kosovo, push the proposal. Belgrade would be exposed to an invasion from The allied worlds peculiar mismatch between eco¬ Hungary or Croatia, with no easy method of reinforce¬ nomic capacity and defense capability will thus persist ment.) The experience of civilian judges in reviewing for die foreseeable future, and the United States is like¬ war-fighting plans is limited, and the reluctance of a mil¬ ly to feel uniquely exposed in peace enforcement mea¬ itary to submit to a court’s second opinion is fathomable. sures. This asymmetry has an unhappy consequence in A more general future challenge of Rome is the development of international law, for it means that addressed to American diplomacy — learning how to the United States has few supporters in die full range of cope with a new style of multilateral negotiations. The its tasks. International law is most easily changed where Rome treaty was designed to create a working judicial there is widespread consensus. Where the United States institution. A bottom line assessment could not easily be acts alone, it may find itself on a lonely legal ledge. made when isolated parts of the treaty were mooted in There is a third feature that makes the United States, the scattered anterooms of the Rome precincts. Deal¬ as a deployed and operational military power, more self- breaking issues going into Rome included the court’s conscious of the difficulties of a criminal court. This is scope of jurisdiction, how complaints would be initiated, die question of justiciability — whether certain ques¬ how the court should draw upon the differing traditions tions belong in a court at all. Much of the law of war has of adversarial and inquisitorial legal systems, and much been crafted to change how militaries conceive and plan else. A text with so many degrees of freedom spelled their missions. Training and indoctrination, role-playing trouble. and the deployment of lawyers to the field to advise Many delegations were unable to follow the proceed¬ commanders, are metiiods used by responsible democ¬ ings firsthand, as Rome drafting chairman Cherif ratic militaries to operationalize the law of war and meet Bassiouni has noted, because there was no time to trans¬ the requirements of proportionality and protection of late proposed texts into any other working language civilian sites. The criminal framework of the 1949 besides English, and numerous working groups met Geneva Conventions — permitting universal jurisdic¬ simultaneously. Much of the informational work was left tion and trial in any country which gains custody of an to NGOs, which offered their own interpretations along offender — is confined to the crime of deliberate mis¬ with texts and headcounts. Conference governance is treatment of protected persons — prisoners of war, often crucial, and in this case, a skilled and respected wounded and shipwrecked personnel, and civilians Canadian legal adviser, Ambassador Philippe Kirche, under occupation. was called in at the last moment to substitute for an ail¬ Other parts of the law of war include the rules on ing Dutch conference chairman. In light of tins, Canada proportionality set out at the Hague Peace Conferences resigned as co-chair of the like-minded caucus in favor in 1899 and 1907. These involve a sometimes subtle of Australia, at the outset of the conference. But the weighing of military advantage against damage to civil¬ exertions of Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy ians. They have not carried an automatic device for in pressing for a treaty by the end of the hurried five- criminal enforcement, either nationally or international¬ week session could not go unnoticed.

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 39 Focus

A take-it-or-leave-it chairman’s package — forbid¬ reservations should no longer be allowed, and that coun¬ ding any treaty reservations — was announced to the tries such as the United States should be put to die all- attending states on the last day of the conference. There or-nothing decision of joining a whole regime or lan¬ had been no prior votes on parts of the package. Rather guishing outside. The like-minded caucus is a continu¬ the conference “bureau” saw its role as taking the tem¬ ing voice that may shape negotiations, pulling away perature of the debates, and putting together a portfolio European allies from political coordination through that would attract the necessary countries. For example, NATO. Hence, it is crucial diat die United States learn France was won over at the last minute by a seven year how to shape multilateral negotiations before die grand “transition period” allowing it to accept only part of the (or inglorious) finale is announced. courts full jurisdiction. Russia was won over by a provi¬ Where to go from here is the question. The Rome sion limiting the ability of the court to investigate inter¬ statute has been signed by 93 countries, and ratified by nal conflicts in states that have not yet ratified the treaty. six. Senegal was die first state party-, followed by- The Arab states were won over by a provision varying Trinidad and Tobago, San Marino, Italy, Fiji and Ghana. the language of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the The treaty will come into force only after 60 state parties settlement of occupied areas. U.S. concerns about the are on board, and there must be several financially capa¬ legal exposure of its soldiers in international operations ble countries among diem to support an international if we have not joined the treaty were rebuffed by tire courts daunting budget. The criminal court will have bureau. jurisdiction over future crimes only, including war The ability of the United States to talk with friends crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity — wait¬ and amend the package was limited by the frenzied fin¬ ing in a gloomy posture for die next bloody civil war. But ish. The delegations had a few hours to read over the even preparatory work will be expensive. The ad hoc draft, which was released at 2 a.m. and subjected to a tribunal for the fonner Yugoslavia spent $71 million in first and final vote on the evening of tire same day. The its first few years of work, and now costs over $90 mil¬ U.S. asked for open debate on the new and surprising lion per year. provisions concerning the jurisdictional liability of non- Joining die court will require constitutional changes party states. (In international military actions, the court in a number of countries. France has altered its immu¬ can apparendy indict even where the defendants state nity for heads of state, and Germany is amending the has stayed outside die treaty.) The U.S. request was rule that forbids the transfer of German citizens to other blocked by a “no action” resolution sponsored by jurisdictions. The court s strongest backers do not expect Norway, though 16 other countries supported die U.S. the court to become operational before 2002 or 2003. procedural request and 25 countries abstained. (The Even as a non-signatory, the United States has taken popular contention that there was no sympadiy for the part in post-Rome work sessions to pin down rules of U.S. position at Rome must be tempered with diis more procedure and evidence (due to be finished by June complicated, if distressing procedural history.) An 2000) and to specify the “elements” of chargeable extension of the conference by several days was not pos¬ crimes. Our rationale for doing so is that even if we sible, the U.S. was informed in a droll humor, because remain outside die treaty, it pays to have a well-func¬ hotel rooms could not be booked. tioning court that will not be tempted to make rash judg¬ This is not a favorable setting in which to conduct ments about legitimate military operations. A calmer great power diplomacy, unless die major issues have mood and better understanding of U.S. security con¬ been anticipated and worked through national capitals cerns may even persuade our friends to clarify the treaty well in advance. The White House gave no guidance to in ways that could permit signature. (There are other the U.S. delegation until the fourth week of the five- equities at stake as well. The U.S. can be helpful to the week conference, and by then, it was too late to accom¬ court by sending cases from the Security Council, con¬ plish any real change in view. The style of diplomacy and tributing financially or in kind, or lending diplomatic conference governance seen at Rome is likely to assistance.) become more rather than less common. There is a Altering the treaty text to “fix” U.S. concerns is not strong view in the human rights community diat treaty considered realistic in die aftermath of Rome. But bind-

40 FOREIGN SERVICE ] OU RN AU M ARC H 2000 Focus

ing “interpretive statements” to pin down treaty provi¬ claimed over American soldiers for acts committed in sions could be adopted — recommended by the the course of their duties. preparatory commission to the assembly of states parties It is anyone’s guess if such a fix is possible. Many — or could be enshrined as conditions in any coopera¬ countries still demand a court with unfettered powers, tion agreement with the court. (A state can pledge to despite the delicate politics of cases such as Chile’s cooperate with the court even without joining.) General Pinochet and Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah An acceptable package would require a standard of Ocalan. Many countries are skeptical that the United judicial deference to good faith military judgments with¬ States will support or sign the Rome treaty no matter out any disclosure of classified information. It would what concessions are made. The early enthusiasm of the respect bilateral Status of Forces Agreements — which White House for tire criminal court has faded, and drere currendy bar local arrest of U.S. troops abroad for offi¬ is little inclination to push tire Pentagon on the issue. cial duties — and recognize that SOFAs also bar arrest But at heart, the anxiety is broader than the court — it on international warrants as well. (Any question con¬ concerns support for Americas role in international cerning U.S. military policy should be addressed to security. Politically skillful governments may keep silent Washington.) In addition, we need the assurance diat when the United States takes unilateral enforcement complaints of “aggression” cannot be brought against action or hammers together a multilateral coalition of dissenting states, including non-parties to tire treaty, the willing. But acquiescence is different from embrace. unless there is Security Council agreement. And there The impasse on the court may reflect a deeper unwill¬ must be assurance that while the U.S. remains outside ingness to accept the legitimacy of American military the treaty, no third-party jurisdiction will be sought or power and its necessary tasks in the post-war world. ■

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MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 41 GUARDED PESSIMISM IN NORTHERN IRELAND

THE SKY IS ALWAYS FALLING IN NORTHERN IRELAND, BUT EUROPE’S

LONGEST RUNNING GUERRILLA WAR REALLY HAS WOUND DOWN.

BY KURT JACOBSEN

uring a grueling 11-week period this end of Januaiy — would have insured a collapse of the peace D past autumn, former U.S. Senator process. At tire last minute on Feb. 11 tire IRA issued a state¬ George Mitchell mediated among three ment agreeing for the first time in principle with the goal of governments (the U.K., the Irish putting weapons “beyond use,” thereby serving firm notice Republic and — at diplomatic arms that it would not disarm according to the Unionists’s sched¬ length — the U.S.) and six local political ule. Unionists regarded this as too little too late. Negotiations parties to revive tire moribund peace process in Northern continue behind tire scenes and tire Northern Irish Assembly Ireland. On Nov. 15, 1999, those negotiations produced a could be up and running again once a new, fragile deal is mutually satisfactory “review” of the stalled 1998 Good sealed. Friday agreement, vindicating Mitchells assessment in his Before Feb. 11, despite paramilitary “punishment beat¬ memoir Making Peace that the accord was a credible politi¬ ings” and occasional atrocities, Northern Ireland had blos¬ cal path to a nonviolent future in the troubled province. That somed into a highly energetic and exhilarating place since tire wobbly consensus, in turn, clears tire way for loyalists (those first Irish Republican Army cease-fire in August 1994. The who prefer Northern Ireland to remain part of the United barricades, barbed wire and checkpoints are mostly gone; the Kingdom) and republicans (those who want the “Six incessant searches, patrols, tire detentions, tire riots — except Counties” to unite with the Republic of Ireland) to take tire during tire summer “marching season” when provocative next precarious steps in tire peace process. Protestant parades occur throughout Ulster — all seem Despite the Feb. 11 suspension of tire Northern Irish things of the past. Citizens are breathing easier, the economy Assembly and the subsequent pullout of tire Provisional IRA is booming and unemployment has fallen to the lowest point from talks with the International Commission on since the “troubles” erupted in the 1960s. Decommissioning, there is no imminent prospect of a return Even the two great outrages of 1998 helped to quell the to war. Both events are unhappy ones, but arguably they can very7 furies that perpetrated them. A firebomb that killed serve to concentrate minds on tire task of not fumbling away three children in July 1998 ended escalating conflict between an opportunity for a political solution. In resorting to suspen¬ loyalist marchers and republican residents in Portadown, sion of tire assembly, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter while the “Real IRA” (a small breakaway group of IRA dissi¬ Mandelson averted the resignation of Ulster Unionist Party dents intent on carrying on the war) bomb in Omagh the next leader Peter Trimble. Trimble’s resignation — which he had month that killed 29 people and injured many more led to a promised if tire IRA did not begin an arms handover by tire complete cease-fire by all republican splinter groups. Still, it is unwise to give way either to celebration or despair Kurt Jacobsen is a research associate in the Political about tire latest stage in these long and tortuous negotiations Science Department at the University of Chicago. He is toward a peaceful accommodation. A lot of squabbling will the author, among other books, of Chasing Progress in the still go on in Northern Ireland for years to come, some of it Irish Republic, writes regularly on Irish politics for pro¬ accompanied by acts of violence — albeit much less bloodily fessional and popular periodicals, and divides his time than before. But it nonetheless seems clear that Europe’s among Chicago, London and Ireland. longest guerrilla war really is winding down.

42 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/M ARC H 2 000 A Time Of Troubles becoming increasingly reliant on Unionist During the so-called “troubles,” votes to preserve its slim majority in parlia¬ between 1969 and the mid-1990s, the resi¬ Despite occasional ment and thus was not in a position to dents of Northern Ireland endured nearly move boldly. 3,300 deaths (equivalent in terms of popu¬ acts of violence, For its part, Sinn Fein had long ago rec¬ lation to 100,000 casualties in Great ognized that the Irish Republican Army Britain), 38,600 violence-related injuries Northern Ireland could not drive out the Brirish by military and 10,000 bomb blasts. More than means. As early as 1989 Gerry Adams 100,000 people emigrated, many to the has blossomed into began stressing the need for all sides to U.S. Unemployment rose from 6 percent “take political risks” to acliieve peace; that in 1968 to 12 percent in 1978 and went still a highly energetic same year Britain’s Northern Ireland higher in the 1980s before finally falling to Secretary, Peter Brooke, conceded that it single digits today. and exhilarating place. was “difficult to envisage a military defeat Catholics bore the brunt of joblessness of the IRA” because the tactics required (and still do) with rates double those of would only breed more republican Protestants. Few working class families recruits. Indeed, the IRA stressed its will¬ escaped systematic intimidation and surveillance in a small ingness to engage in “a negotiated settlement, not an imme¬ society of about one and a half million souls in an area the diate withdrawal” so long as the British were willing to put size of Connecticut. The security bill exceeded health and everything on the table. education spending and the North drew a net surplus over revenue of four billion pounds annually from the U.K. In The U.S. Steps In addition, the IRA bombing campaign struck London The Conservative Party’s ill-advised cooperation with the extremely hard in the 1990s, and Ulster-related killings Bush reelection campaign in 1992 diminished Britain’s were committed as far away as Gibraltar and Germany. influence in Washington, leaving an opening for the U.S. to For 25 years every peace feeler and initiative crumbled. enter the peace process. In the fall of 1993, an ad hoc dele¬ John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labor Party was gation led by former congressman and Clinton confidante vilified in 1988 just for inaugurating talks with Sinn Fein, Bruce Morrison conducted informal shuttle diplomacy. But the IRA’s political wing. A few years before that, Margaret the real catalyst for American involvement came when Thatcher had scolded U.S. Speaker of the House Tip President Clinton — over the objections of his CIA Chief, O’Neill for having the temerity to suggest that Britain secretary of State and ambassador in London — reversed “bears heavy' responsibility for the failures in recent years on long-standing policy to grant Gerry Adams a U.S. visa in the political front.” 1994 despite Adams’s ties to the IRA. Well aware that John So what changed to enable the beginning of even a fitful Majors government was conducting its own secret talks peace process in Northern Ireland? The end of the Cold widi the IRA, Clinton shrugged off the ensuing British War and the settlements in the Middle East and South protests. Africa helped set the stage. But no less important was sheer Next to President Clinton himself, the most potent sym¬ war weariness in Northern Ireland among all the parties to bol of American commitment to the process has been Sen. the conflict, which was shaipened by a general realization Mitchell, who joined the process in February 1995. After that no one could win militarily. serving as special adviser to President Clinton on Northern BY the mid-1990s, most loyalists were coming to realize Ireland (in which role he credited his aide, Foreign Service that their verv peculiar brand of “loyalty ” was not recipro¬ officer David Pozorski, for his local savvy), he eventually cated in mainland Britain, where two-thirds of the popula¬ became chairman of negotiations, gradually gaining the tion favor options other than keeping Ulster. trust of his interlocutors. But even with his involvement, the The British, who assert that they no longer have a “self¬ negotiations have been anything but smooth. ish, economic or strategic interest” in Northern Ireland, Throughout the peace process, politicians in Northern were bring of diplomatic embarrassments over alleged Ireland have faced die delicate task of persuading their “shoot-to-ldll” policies, the wrongful jailing of Irish prison¬ hard-liners to agree to the kind of terms that enable mod¬ ers and the erosion of civil liberties both in Northern erates in other groups to soothe their own hard-liners. The Ireland and on the mainland. But at the same time, the resulting outpourings of double-talk (or triple-talk) do Conservative Party under Prime Minister John Major was not exactly constitute duplicitous behavior (although

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 43 some ethicists may disagree), since their opposition, in May 1998 the all the parties are operating under agreement (including a provision the same constraints. In fact, sea¬ The sky in Ulster relinquishing the Irish republics con¬ soned hands realize that episodes of stitutional claim on Northern political expediency are bound to is forever falling and Ireland) was approved in national ref- occur over the long haul, and tacitly erendums by 95 percent in the Irish acknowledge the internal pressures optimists are thin on the Republic and by 71 percent in on their negotiating partners and the Northern Ireland — though barely short-term concessions they will be sectarian ground half of the loyalist community there pressed to make. At the same time, voted “yea,” the necessary minimum any exposure of secret deals, sudden beneath it. to bring die accord into effect. switches or lies undermines trust In the agreement, the British and and puts further progress at risk. Irish governments pledged that they Still, at the end of the day, all would abide by the peaceful democ¬ sides are keenly aware that loyalists The Good Friday Agreement ratic decision of the majority of the cannot be forced into a united Fortunately, the landslide victory Northern Irish population as to its Ireland; the British cannot cut and of the British Labor Party in May constitutional status. The accord run; and the IRA cannot turn in its 1997 reinvigorated the talks. The also promotes affirmative action and arsenal prior to implementation of IRA renewed its cease-fire on July other policies to achieve a fair civil all the Good Friday governing pro¬ 20, 1997, paving the way for (more service, judiciary and police force. visions. Each opponent likewise or less) good faith talks from (A commission on police reform understands that exceeding these September 1997 through April headed by former Hong Kong gov¬ parameters wall sabotage the cease¬ 1998. A final burst of around-the- ernor Chris Patten recommended fire and that whoever destroys the clock negotiations chaired by Sen. 175 changes, such as the renaming peace process stands to pay a high Mitchell led to the Good Friday of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.) It price. agreement of April 10, 1998. also creates a power-sharing execu¬ The U.S. became the honest bro¬ Most of the major players in tive and an elected assembly which ker of the peace process in Ireland Northern Ireland signed the accord: will require approval by majorities largely because it alone could assure the Irish and British governments; in both communities to pass sensi¬ republicans that Britain would not the Social Democratic and Labor tive legislation. Finally, there will be dismiss peace overtures as signs of Party, the largest nationalist party, a bill of rights, reduction of emer¬ IRA weakness or be tempted to led by John Hume; Sinn Fein, the gency powers and demilitarization renege. But the Clinton administra¬ political wing of the Irish consistent with the nature of the tion did commit one major miscue Republican Army, led by Gerry security situation. in December 1995, when it report¬ Adams; the Ulster Unionist Party, The agreement also establishes a edly began leaning too heavily on the largest loyalist party, led by new North-South Ministerial the IRA to disarm prior to establish¬ David Trimble; the small and non¬ Council and a British-Irish confed¬ ing new political institutions. It thus sectarian Alliance Party; and two eral assembly. The council is seen by seemed to be opting out of the “pan- small Protestant parties, the nationalists as the embryonic institu¬ Nationalist front” (comprising Progressive Unionist Party and tion of a federal Ireland (after trust Northern Irish republicans, the Ulster Democratic Party, which cru¬ has been built) while the confederal Irish Republic and Irish-Americans) cially are affiliated with the two institution provides loyalists with a on which Gerry Adams and other largest loyalist paramilitary groups. permanent link to the U.K. The Sinn Fein peacemakers counted to In stark contrast, the Reverend beauty of this “double protection reassure their own hard-liners that Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist model,” as Professor Brendan this was a practical path to gaining Party, second largest of the loyalist O’Leary of the London School of acceptable terms for a permanent parties, and three tiny Unionist Economics observes, “is that it eases peace. Without that reassurance, groups fiercely opposed the agree¬ the pain for whoever gets it wrong the IRA had no motivation to main¬ ment (and the November 1999 about the future. The model ensures tain the cease-fire and the peace accord) as did, on the republican side, that both national communities will process temporarily collapsed in the Irish National Liberation Army (a remain linked, come what may, to February 1996. 1970s offshoot of the IRA). Despite their preferred nation-states.”

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MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 45 order for any decommissioning to for the last time. When they get to occur. the swinging door they turn around Sinn Fein responded that the Public opinion surveys and go back in and say ‘I just cannot IRA had already declared a cease¬ quite get there.’” fire and that only after power-shar¬ show that the vast Undiplomatic? Yes. An unfortu¬ ing institutions were securely estab¬ nate conjuring up of stereotypes? lished would they discuss the exact majority of Northern Absolutely. Did a lot of Irish private¬ details of the arms handover. As ly agree? Very much so. Gerry Adams plaintively explained, Ireland residents For Iris part, Mitchell was well decommissioning of IRA arms aware that decommissioning “wasn’t “comes with the symbolism of sur¬ support a an issue but a red herring that had render. You’re talking about a guer¬ even been used to prevent negotia¬ rilla army [the British] couldn’t cross-community tions from taking place.” As he wryly defeat in 25 years. Now they want added, “What is needed is decom¬ me to do what they couldn’t do.” political agreement. missioning of mindsets in Northern Republicans were also well aware Ireland.” Still, throughout the of a widespread loyalist Catch-22 extremely touchy negotiations of mentality that regards IRA military November 1999, Mitchell carefully power as a reason to refuse to nego¬ paign of violence” in Northern described both Gerry Adams and tiate with them and likewise regards Ireland. Between 1969 and 1989, loy¬ David Trimble as “sincere and acting any IRA concessions as a sign of alist paramilitaries inflicted 25 per¬ in good faith in seeking the full weakness and therefore an equally cent of all killings — and three-quar¬ implementation of the Good Friday sound reason to refuse to negotiate ters of the Catholics they killed were agreement. They want devolution widi them. Not surprisingly, repub¬ not paramilitaries. In fact, from 1991 and decommissioning. The problem, lican hard-liners draw from this atti¬ until the 1994 cease-fire, loyalist of course, is that there are differ¬ tude the realpolitik lesson that their squads actually racked up more vic¬ ences among the parties as to how guerrilla war was necessary to force tims than the IRA. In October 1999, a these objectives can be attained.” loyalists into negotiations, which police raid of an Orange Order (loyal¬ This may only have been a more tact¬ will continue only so long as the ist) hall disclosed British military doc¬ ful way of restating President IRA remains well-armed. uments detailing the identities of 300 Clinton’s earlier criticism, but it also In insisting on IRA decommis¬ suspected republicans who were tar¬ reflected an appreciation that at least sioning, the UUP hard-liners geted by loyalist paramilitaries. Given these two long-time antagonists were declared that they would not “con¬ that nine of 10 police officers •—• not finally addressing one another face to sort with murderers,” by which they to mention the locally recruited Royal face, an event deemed utterly meant Sinn Fein and the IRA. But Irish Regiment of the British Army - unthinkable just a few years ago. they customarily neglect to are local Protestants, the threat was Ulster Unionist Party dissidents acknowledge over 100,000 licensed clearly serious. continued threatening to split their weapons — including machine guns party, making any deal untenable, if “for hunting otters” — which were Back On Track it settled for less than a substantial in their possession even before the The UUP’s “no guns, no govern¬ handover of weapons before resum¬ “troubles” got under way in the late ment” stance created an impasse so ing negotiations. But partly due to 1960s (with many others presum¬ intractable that even President American urging, on Nov. 27, 1999, ably not registered). Indeed, during Clinton, who has garnered praise Trimble, who definitely is earning the 1970s Unionist leader David from friends and foes alike for his the Nobel Peace Prize he shared last Trimble (among others) launched steady efforts to bring peace to year with John Hume, eked out a 58 his political career in the Ulster Northern Ireland, finally let his exas¬ percent vote from his UUP council Vanguard Party, which had strong peration show at a press conference in favor of going ahead with a self- paramilitary links. this past October. While in Ottawa to rule government. As republican leader Martin meet with Canadian Prime Minister In turn, the IRA, as stipulated McGuinness, now minister of educa¬ Jean Chretien, Clinton compared under the Good Friday agreement, tion, has pointedly remarked, “The the Irish political leaders to “a couple quickly agreed to name a representa¬ IRA campaign is not the only cam- of drunks walking out the bar door tive to work with former Canadian

46 FOREIGN SERVICE ] OU RN AL/M ARCH 2000 general John de Chastelain’s ing by tire end of the month. At the International Commission on same time Northern Ireland Decommissioning to arrange for the “What is needed is Secretary Peter Mandelson floated destruction of their portion of the the possibility of the IRA rendering province’s huge paramilitary arsenal. decommissioning of its arms “permanently inaccessible” The November “yea” vote cleared (by sealing its arms dumps) rather the way for the immediate appoint¬ mindsets in Northern than handing over its entire arsenal ment of 10 ministers (equally appor¬ (which in any case, could not be veri¬ tioned between the communities), a Ireland.” fied) — an approach the IRA would functioning Northern Irish legisla¬ find easier to adopt. Trimble’s part)' is ture and installation of the North- — Sen. George Mitchell likely to express displeasure with South and British-Irish confederal whatever the IRA decides about the bodies. They were all in place within timing and quantities involved in a month. Lest one grow too opti¬ handing over its weapons, but what mistic, however, it is important to mollified. The IRA’s appointed rep¬ matters is whether it will be so upset remember that the UUP Council resentative, meanwhile, is participat¬ that it will risk destroying the peace was scheduled to meet again in ing in the International Commission process. February to determine if the condi¬ on Decommissioning, which was to tions of the IRA arms handover meet report on progress in February, and Next Steps their rather exacting criteria. is pressing for the wider demilitariza¬ A guarded pessimism always has Inasmuch as a sizable Unionist tion of Ulster’s official forces as well. its place in any analysis of develop¬ minority believes that nothing less In a White House meeting on Jan. ments in Northern Ireland. And who than abject surrender will do, the 12, President Clinton discreetly but can blame pessimists? British Ulster UUP Council is bound to be dissatis¬ firmly nudged Gerry Adams to reach for over a quarter of a century pre¬ fied and will somehow have to be a satisfactory deal on decommission¬ sented a perfect paradigm of irrec-

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MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 47 oncilable interests. The Provisional For all these reasons, it is certain IRA and splinter groups wanted a that there will be no “United British withdrawal and Irish unifica¬ If any party to Ireland” in the near future. Nor will tion; loyalists wanted to restore their there be a return of Northern supremacy; British governments, the agreement stops Ireland to local control except in reluctant to pressure a loyalist the context of a political settlement majority, wanted to rub out the IRA believing that peace acceptable to republicans. Instead, or, failing diat, keep the lid on at the best approach for now is to con¬ “acceptable levels” of costs; and the serves its interests, tinue to institute legal and political Irish Republic, fearful of spillovers, reforms, revive the economy and wanted to stay out of the line of fire. a return to violence introduce an “Irish dimension” As long as any side believed it bene¬ as the Good Friday agreement envi¬ fited more by fighting than by the will not be long sions. likely outcome of negotiations, the Meanwhile, peace slowly gener¬ war continued. Todays truce, while in coming. ates its own potent momentum, for real, is still fragile enough that if any which Americans receive due cred¬ party to the agreement stops believ¬ it. A Belfast solicitor, who is a mem¬ ing that peace serves its interests, a ber of John Hume’s Social return to violence will not be long in requires coordination, which can Democratic Labor Party, recently coming. appear to wary loyalists to be just explained why he never cared a fig Thus, the British, Irish and another conspiracy against them¬ what President Clinton got up to in American governments still face the selves. (At the same time, it should his private time. “I no longer have delicate task of allaying unionist be noted that not all Catholics in to look beneath my car every day to fears without alienating loyalists. Northern Ireland are eager to join check for bombs — and I owe that The inescapable paradox is that this the Republic right away.) to Clinton and the Yanks.” ■

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48 FOREIGN SERVICE ]OURNAL/MARCH 2000 BONN VOYAGE: BUMPS ALONG THE AUTOBAHN

THE MOVE TO BERLIN WASN’T JUST THE END OF A POLITICAL ERA. FOR MANY IT WAS A

SAD FAREWELL TO “LITTLE AMERICA” ON THE RHINE.

BY RICHARD GILBERT

oving vans pulling away from the The Rhine to the Spree M United States embassy in Bonn, The U.S. embassy was following Germany’s govern¬ Germany last summer carried ment and parliament back to Berlin, the culmination of a more heavy freight than just office years-long, inexorable process that began for both sides furniture and the paraphernalia of within weeks of the sudden collapse of the Wall in 1989. a large embassy in transition. Ten years later, a very different German government left The trucks were laden as much with symbolism as with small-town Bonn and headed for the cacophony of resur¬ files, desks and chairs. As they rumbled across the Rhine gent Berlin’s half-finished ministry buildings and swarm¬ and pointed north and east toward Berlin, an era of ing construction cranes. Gone were Germany’s familiar — American diplomacy in Bonn was coming to an end. At and, for Americans, comfortable — political faces of the the same time, with the move of the German government, postwar years. Their places in government had been taken a new, uncertain period in Europe’s history was beginning. by a new generation of so-called “68ers” — Social All of this rode with the trucks and — as a historic fillip — Democrats and Greens rooted in the political protests and on the cusp of a millennium too. cultural wars of the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The departure from Bonn concluded a decade of “think¬ Significantly, their worldviews have been shaped less by ing the unthinkable” by embassy managers and the State an appreciation of America’s postwar generosity and firm¬ Department in Washington. At issue was nothing less than ness in the face of communism and more by shared mem¬ shuttering one of Americas largest and most important ories of anti-NATO street protests, surging pan- diplomatic establishments in the world, a move that would Europeanism and determination to forge a “rightful” role carry many hundreds of employees and family members for a newly self-confident Germany in a new century. from Germany’s Rhineland to new jobs and homes in But if there were challenges in dealing with newly- Berlin and Frankfurt. The task was as unexpected as the fall elected German officials, a few of whom only recently of the Berlin Wall, and the results, at the cost of uncounted admitted to wearing neckties, they were kept hidden millions of dollars, were impressive: the successful return of behind diplomacy’s usual banalities. Less well disguised America’s embassy in Germany to Berlin. during 1998-1999 were the State Department’s problems There were bumps along the road to Berlin, of course. in building a suitable infrastructure to house the embassy Most of these resulted from debris scattered in the path workplace in Berlin and to replace somehow the quintes¬ of the move by various Bonn-Washington disputes rather sential “Little America” community left behind in the than from any flaws in execution or cracks in Germany’s Rhineland. usually smooth autobahns. Already in summer 1998 the State Department’s diffi¬ culties in gaining congressional funding for the construc¬ Richard Gilbert, a retired USIA FSO, served in Thailand, tion of a much-heralded new U.S. embassy office building Romania, Finland, Liberia and the USSR. A frequent at Pariser Platz, adjoining Berlin’s signature location, the contributor to the Journal, he accompanied his FSO Brandenburg Gate, were becoming more and more the spouse to Madrid, Bonn and Berlin, focus of German press attention. Then, just as the fund-

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49 ing logjam appeared ready to break, punches about the facts. “Frankly, came the terrorist attacks against Berlin housing, especially in the U.S. embassies in East Africa and News media hoping short term, may not be all that every¬ the “security waiver” granted the one desires,” it concluded. The Berlin embassy design evaporated. for a mass departure of newsletter was cleared by manage¬ Since that time, disagreements ment and was honest about the gen¬ between the U.S. and Berlin officials moving vans would be uine need for quick improvements. about how best to protect the pro¬ In the end, further tough negoti¬ posed new embassy building have disappointed — ations among FBO, tire embassy and become increasingly acrimonious the Germans resulted in the and embarrassingly public. In one the move teas almost embassy’s current plan to replace such controversial aside last fall, some of the U.S. government-owned Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen invisible. housing inventory in Berlin with a suggested that the U.S. install a number of new garden apartment McDonalds restaurant at Pariser units within the next few years. Platz, a comment that was reported Funds for some basic renovation and in The New York Times as a sarcastic to enlarge a few of the tiniest apart¬ commentary on the U.S. delay in the departure of the U.S. Berlin gar¬ ment units also materialized. beginning construction. A few days rison in 1994. Not only was much Several large villas and a limited after the Times story appeared, a Berlin housing in need of repair and leasing program — of which I am a Berlin newspaper claimed, on the replacement, but also units were lucky beneficiary — complete basis of videotape of the event, that concentrated in a leafy comer of the today’s Berlin housing profile. the mayor had been misquoted and city across town from the planned Whatever the future holds for that his actual words were far more location of the new embassy office employee housing, the decade-long benign. building and the “temporary” transition of the American Embassy Meanwhile, U.S. Embassy Berlin chancery. Few decision-makers in Germany from one city to another does business from four buildings seemed concerned then that cluster¬ is now an accomplished fact. widely scattered across town, a fact ing embassy Americans on the edge Considering the enormity of the of life unlikely to change very soon. of Berlin perpetuated a Bonn-style task, it is amazing that it could be separation, distanced most staff done at all, given constantly chang¬ A Small Matter of Housing from the day-to-day pulse at the ing conditions, priorities and person¬ On the eve of die move, however, heart of Europe’s most vibrant and alities, and bureaucratic false starts, Americans working at the embassy changing city and was oddly counter back-tracking and side-steps. in Bonn tended to be more con¬ to practice elsewhere in Europe, cerned about the state of the U.S. where Americans often live in leased Cold War Central government housing in Berlin than housing throughout the city. In the very darkest days of the about office buildings, present or In 1998, in an article for the first Cold War in 1951, following the des¬ future. issue of Mission Germany 2000, the ignation of Bonn as the capital of the Berlin housing was an old story embassy’s monthly newsletter to keep fledgling Federal Bepublic of within the State Department’s staff informed about the move, I Germany, U.S. High Commissioner Foreign Buildings Office, one that attempted to assuage concerns about John J. McCloy brought a staff of Americans living in the occupation- the quality of Berlin housing and put more than 1,000 Germans and era quarters in Berlin knew only too a positive spin on what was becoming Americans to the Bonn suburb of well. Essentially, in a real estate deal an increasingly important morale Bad Godesburg from their initial whose advantages for employees issue. “The quality of housing in postwar headquarters in Frankfurt. remain obscure, the Department of Berlin,” I wrote, “varies at present Marshall Plan aid supplied the funds State traded its Bonn housing to the from very good to below standard.” for construction of 458 housing German government for former The response was mixed. “Yeah,” units, office space and support facil¬ U.S. military housing in Berlin. The one wag commented, “we know who ities in Bonn and Bad Godesburg, Bonn housing was about to become gets the ‘very good’ and who gets the which took eight months to build. excess property and the Berlin units ‘below standard.’” That comment Moving offices, staff and families had reverted to the Germans with aside, the article didn’t pull many took less than 30 days.

50 FOREIGN SERVICE JO URNAL/MARCH 2000 From that beginning, the American presence in Bonn grew apace. The High Commission became an embassy in 1955 when Germany regained full sovereignty. Originally located on rough farm¬ land, the housing compound along the banks of the Rhine about 10 minutes down river from the chanceiy blossomed into a tree- shaded American apartment suburb with its own schools, supermarket, FARA Foreign Affairs Recreation Association shopping center, movie theater, FARA Housing Division, recreational facilities, and even a Managed by ECMC New England-style church with pic¬ 610 Bashford Lane, Alexandria, VA 22314 turesque spire and portico seeming¬ Ph: (703) 684-1825 Fax: (703) 739-9318 ly awaiting only the notice of Norman Rockwell. Staff came and We are proud to provide the best hotel values in the Washington, DC metropolitan area! You can choose from properties offering studios, went, and often returned for second one bedroom, 2-bedroom apartments, suites & hotel rooms. and third tours, raising families and storing up memories in the Bonn Our locations have unique proximity to FSI, State Department, the embassy’s “Little America,” as it Pentagon, NFATC, National Airport, Old Town , Alexandria, White House and Georgetown came quickly to be called. The embassy complex itself — six build¬ For m ore information call for features and rates of participating FARA hotels. ings originally intended to accom¬ modate 1,500 employees — grew over the next decades into Americas largest diplomatic facility in Europe and one of the largest in the world, as more and more staff and federal agencies were attracted to Bonn by the availability of cost-free housing and ample workspace. In those days, there was no deny¬ ing the importance of Americas embassy in Bonn. It was the vital center of U.S. policy in Europe. From it, and from consulates gener¬ al and America houses administered by USIS to promote American cul¬ ture throughout West Germany, American diplomats engaged the events and crises of Europe’s post¬ war history as both observers and participants. With their German and other European partners, they wi'ote a proud record of accomplish¬ ment in pursuit of democratic ideals during difficult and dangerous decades. Then, one November night in 1989, people pushed, and “The Wall”

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 51 No ROOM IN THE PLATZ An adequate security perimeter — or rather U.S. embassy must come from the sale of surplus U.S. lack of it — has delayed construction of the properties in Germany. This requirement spurred new U.S. embassy office building on embassy salesmanship and wrangling between the Berlin’s prestigious Pariser Platz, beside the executive and legislative branches over the true value Brandenburg Gate. The U.S., newly concerned of the properties and the accuracy of construction with security following the car-bombings of estimates. In 1998, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Kv.), embassies in East Africa, has asked Berlin s govern¬ chairman of State’s House Appropriations subcom¬ ing senate to provide a 30-meter “setback” — the mittee, was instrumental in providing $9.5 million distance from a building to the nearest vehicular from the sale of other embassy property to start traffic — from streets on two sides. In addition, design work on the Berlin chancery. other protections to control auto access will be Before tire August 1998 terrorist bombings of needed at the proposed buildings front entrance, U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam, the which faces the famous square. new Berlin building enjoyed a “security waiver” These requests pose sticky problems for Berlin from strict standards recommended by a mid-1980s authorities. Any effort to move or close streets or panel on embassy security headed by former restrict pedestxians would surely provoke civic Deputy Director of the CIA Adm. Bobby Inman. protests. At the same time, zoning restrictions on all After tire bombings, planning in Berlin stopped. buildings on the plaza and the small size of the 1.5- More space would be required to provide for the acre U.S. plot make architectural solutions costly. setback and also keep the building’s design. So, why doesn’t the U.S. just find another place Difficult traffic patterns around the to build its embassy? One answer is historic. The Brandenburg Gate added to the problems. In 1992, U.S., which has held title to the ground since 1931, to alleviate congestion, Berlin authorities decided to had to abandon it after declaring war on Germany extend a street “temporarily” across the foot of U.S. in 1941. The building, on the periphery of Hitler’s property, cutting the plot along its south side and government quarter, was badly damaged during isolating it from adjacent land. The temporary wartime bombing. After the war, the East German extension became permanent a year later. At the government cleared the site, and in 1961, the Berlin same time, a main roadway was rebuilt on the west Wall was built along its western edge, making it side of the U.S. property in front of the inaccessible — until Nov. 9, 1989. Brandenburg Gate, creating a U.S. site bordered by When the newly reunited German government two busy streets. In a final irony, the land south of decided to relocate to Berlin, the United States, the site, which under certain conditions might have encouraged by the German government, decided to been used for embassy expansion, is reserved for return to its historic location, too. In Washington, Germany’s yet-to-be-built Holocaust Memorial. the Berlin project enjoyed sufficient prestige to As a result, the U.S. and Germany are wrestling enable the State Department to announce the first with what constitutes reasonable security in a newly design competition for a new American embassy dangerous world. Meanwhile, Pariser Platz has abroad since Eero Saarinen’s design for U.S. been reborn, with new French and British Embassy London 40 years earlier. A California firm, embassies in their pre-war sites. Sadly, the issue Moore Ruble Yudell, in association with Gruen doesn’t seem close to resolution. And American Associates, won the contract with a design that met diplomats labor a few blocks away at the old East FBO guidelines to “display a public face that por¬ Berlin chancery, now called the “temporary” trays an open, accessible government while accom¬ chancery, where, because the building sits directly modating security measures in an unobtrusive man¬ on the street with no setback, they are protected by ner that does not detract from the architecture.” a closed street and a ring of barbed wire. ■ Congress decreed that the funding for the new —Richard Gilbert

52 FOREIGN SERVICE JO URNAL/MARCH 2000 came tumbling clown. Within days, and staffing involving U.S. missions Berlin began to reunite, and throughout Germany, the manage¬ Germans and Americans alike were 17. S. embassy Berlin does ment agenda was complex and over¬ confronted with an utterly changed whelming. Since the embassy’s other world. While staff in U.S. embassies business from four work never slackened, the move was in East Berlin and Bonn raced to a bit like remodeling an airplane in keep abreast of political events, buildings widely full flight. embassy administrators on both sides By the end of 1990 the treaty uni¬ of the former East-West divide con¬ scattered across town, fying Germany had been signed. templated die bewildering manage¬ The U.S. embassy in tire former East ment challenges brought on by the a fact of life unlikely to Berlin was out of business and a new collapse of the German Democratic entity, U.S. Embassy Office Berlin, Republic and imminent German change soon. combining elements of the former unity. Almost overnight, administra¬ embassy in the GDR and U.S. tive structures diat had supported the Mission Berlin, was in operation. most important U.S. diplomatic land¬ Then, after a hot debate, Germany scape in central Europe were ren¬ quent decision in 1991 to restore decided to move its government and dered obsolete. Accustomed to the Berlin as Germany’s capital as devel¬ parliament back to its historical cap¬ post-1945 world with its marked opments representing distinctly ital, Berlin, just a few miles from the financial advantages for occupying mixed administrative blessings. Oder River and the Polish border. powers, Department of State plan¬ Planning Begins The target date was set for 1999. ners, with one eye on the U.S. gov¬ From the twisted knot of proper¬ Meanwhile, the U.S. faced the end ernments deepening fiscal crisis, ty ownership — the U.S. owned few of the occupation. The U.S., Great could not be blamed if they regarded properties outright in Berlin — to Britain, France, Russia and German unification and the subse- complicated issues of organization Germany negotiated bilateral and

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MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 53 multilateral agreements to terminate in new locations. But, judging from “occupation rights” under which the the view from outside the Bonn four powers enjoyed the use of Long corridors once embassy building, things appeared numerous properties for occupation to be pretty much the same. duties. For the U.S., the agreements filled with the sounds of Inside, however, changes were signaled the moment when rents — instantly noticeable. Long corridors a dreaded concept — would fall due busy employees were once filled with the sounds of busy for Berlin properties used but not employees were now silent, lined owned by the U.S. To say the least, it now silent, lined with with empty offices. By 1998, U.S. must have been an unsettling time Embassy Bonn was hardly recogniz¬ for those responsible for budgets in empty offices. able by those who remembered its States European Bureau. To assume heyday. When I arrived as an the full financial burden for its oper¬ accompanying family member that ations in Germany and to undertake summer, the huge chancery was the move of one of its largest filled with bare rooms and more embassies, kit and caboodle, across military in Frankfurt. Within a year, offices were being vacated weekly. the country was one thing. To do so some offices had moved to The cafeteria, once a thriving restau¬ when the budget crunch was at its Frankfurt. The transition from Bonn rant with table service and private most painful and Congress was was under way. rooms for VIP luncheons, had been eager to recoup savings from reduc¬ reduced to serving little more than ing the U.S. diplomatic profile in The Final Move burgers and fries to a few score Germany was quite another. Early in 1998, a transition office patrons. The parking lot, formerly Yet, somehow, it was done. In was established in Bonn to carry out jammed to the edge of the vast prop¬ Berlin and Bonn, “Mission 2000” — the final stage of the embassy’s erty with employee vehicles, over¬ embassy shorthand for consolidat¬ move. Now it was time to coordi¬ flowed with empty parking spaces. ing, streamlining and making the nate the transfer of core State offices The American community’s shop¬ move to Berlin — began as early as and odier foreign affairs agencies to ping center, designated a “landmark” 1990. Plans and projections were Berlin. Actually, by this time, “the worthy of preservation by German made, remade and revised yet again final move” was well along. It was a officials, was scarcely more than a over the next few years. U.S. diplo¬ gradual process, much of it invisible scruffy, run-down strip mall. Half of macy in Germany was reconfigured to outsiders. The news media, bark¬ the housing compound, which had and reshaped. Huge staff cuts were ing after the 1951 model of a per¬ been returned to German ownership inevitable. Consulate Stuttgart was sonnel move en masse from earlier, now housed civil servants closed and a leaner Consulate Frankfurt to Bonn in special trains, and other foreign diplomats. The so- Leipzig was opened. Under terms of followed the wrong scent. There called “American Club,” once the the landmark and hard-fought 1994 were no long lines of moving vans hub of the community’s social life, property exchange agreement, the pulling up to the embassy or orga¬ survived thanks to its German mem¬ U.S. and Germany agreed to trade nized caravans evacuating scores of bership and a few hardy old-timers the properties in Bonn and Berlin. families from the American housing for whom it remained a home away By 1995, plans evolved to centralize area. Instead, jobs were transferred from home. most consular operations in to Frankfurt and Berlin over many Frankfurt. At die same time, a dis¬ months with incumbents departing A Human Dimension, Too tinction was made between U.S. Bonn and replacements arriving Right up until the final moving government activities with a strict seamlessly at the new location. In van left in 1999, embassy managers’ focus on bilateral relations with many cases, office furniture and principal focus was on a revised Germany and offices devoted to equipment were already pre-posi- staffing pattern. There was an enor¬ regional activities coincidentally tioned, eliminating the need for mous human dimension to the housed in Bonn’s ample space. The large-scale moving operations. Small move. Several years before, when former would move to Berlin, the loads of files and working papers Embassy East Berlin and U.S. latter to a new, large Regional were transferred day-to-day in Mission Berlin merged, the U.S. had Support Center to be created in embassy trucks with little notice. acted hastily and, many felt in retro¬ facilities being vacated by the U.S. Staff trickled gradually to new jobs spect, without careful planning and

54 FOREIGN SERVICE J O CRN ALIM ARC H 2000 respect for the rights of local refreshing when the newsletter employees. In the new embassy, addressed “sensitive” subjects like there would not be enough jobs for In the special FSN problems or the hous¬ all local employees. Embassy offi¬ ing worries of Americans living in cials tried valiantly to cany out a fair new embassy, Bonn and copy was not changed. and transparent personnel process The more information, the better: that would respect German labor there would That was my mandate. law and give all employees an equal Once under way, the move to opportunity to compete for jobs in not be enough jobs Berlin went surprisingly smoothly Berlin. It was a luckless, time-con¬ despite the need to ameliorate occa¬ suming task for management. For for all local sional disputes over space assign¬ employees hoping to transfer to ments when agreements made long Berlin, it was an extremely difficult employees. ago by forgotten staffers came to and stressful period. For some staff, roost on todays incumbents. Our though, the choice was easy. They biggest day-to-day headache in had no desire to leave the cozy Bonn was convincing sections to Rhineland for work in distant Berlin, impressed with embassy manage¬ move lean, since little of their accu¬ a life change nearly the equivalent of ment’s commitment to ensuring that mulated clutter would fit into moving from Charlottesville to embassy families had good informa¬ Berlin’s reduced workspace. Manhattan. Others left friends and tion about tire move and about pos¬ Watching over furniture and family behind, accepted new jobs, sible problems that awaited them in equipment departing the secure, packed up and trekked eastward. Berlin. In the transition newsletter, guarded part of Bonn embassy’s My brief life in embassy Bonn’s management tried to address various “core” for placement in secure areas transition office had its high points. aspects of the move and to deal with in the Berlin embassy was another Though habitually skeptical, I was employee concerns. I found it challenge. Shipments had to be

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MARCH 2000/F O RE IGN SERVICE JOURNAL 55 mmmsmmmm —Will IH II 'lllil

AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION Bonn-Berlin flights became familiar, TERMLIFE especially to senior LONG TERM CARE officers, who shuttled back and forth to attend Insurance for today- country team and tomorrow meetings.

AMERICAN FOR MORE INFORMATION: AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE FOREIGN PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION “escorted” under the pretense that 1716 N STREET, NW an American with a security clear¬ SERVICE WASHINGTON, DC 20036-2902 ance traveling along somewhere in PROTECTIVE (202) 833-4910 - FAX: (202) 833-4918 E MAIL: afspa @ afspa.org the vicinity of trucks rolling toward ASSOCIATION WEB SITE: www.afspa.org Berlin would inhibit bad guys from planting bugs in a junior political officer’s chair. Finding talent to handle such low-paying escort duties was a never-ending task. SEVEN MINUTES TO STATE DEPARTMENT In Berlin, however, there were other, more prickly problems. In September 1998, the embassy had celebrated the beginning of the

56 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MARCH 2000 affairs be the order of the day to countries open the doors to shiny, demonstrate the “one embassy, two new Berlin embassy buildings with locations” concept. Video confer¬ gala celebrations and VIPs galore, encing was suddenly in vogue, the U.S. site sits silent. despite the State Departments In Berlin, die issue of security for primitive technology that often the U.S. embassy is a continuing reduced participants to blurred story often generated by leaks and shadows. Bonn-Berlin flights clouded by public misinformation. became familiar, especially to senior Often lost in the barrage of noise Mercedes-Benz officers, some resident in Bonn, has been the understanding that some in Berlin, who shuttled back security is a critical issue, not only and forth to attend country team for the United States and its meetings held in one city or another. employees, but also for the Even the employee newsletters at embassy’s neighbors and the Berlin Diplomacy the two posts merged into a single public. Regrettably, the Pariser Bonn-Berlin publication with a new Platz site, for all its powerful histor¬ name, Quadriga, from the statue ical resonance, has tragic flaws. (See has its atop the Brandenburg Gate. accompanying sidebar.) As the year waned, however, Berlin: The Vacant Lot there were signs that with Berlin’s rewards. The site of the proposed new 1999 municipal elections now over, U.S. Embassy Berlin is today an serious — and perhaps more fruitful At American Service Center, your empty plot. Few could have predict¬ — discussions could be undertaken. diplomatic or official passport* ed this in 1993, when, on a cold and Unless necessary goodwill and cre¬ will allow you to purchase a new sunny January day, Richard ativity can be recaptured by all par¬ Mercedes-Benz at dramatic Weizsacker, president of the ties, the U.S. and Berlin may be savings. Contact Erik Granholm, Federal Republic of Germany, forced to look beyond Pariser Platz our Diplomat and Tourist Sales Eberhard Diepgen, mayor of and seek solutions elsewhere in the Berlin, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, capital city. Manager. A native of Munich, Germany’s foreign minister and U. Germany, Erik has been S. Ambassador to Germany Robert Bonn’s Last Stand with ASC for 33 years. M. Kimmitt stood together on a The U.S. departure from Bonn podium in the historic heart of was a class act. President and Mrs. *Applies only while on official business Germany’s once and future capital. Clinton dropped by and officiated or diplomatic assignment. They had come, in the words etched at the donation of the American on a bronze plaque, to dedicate community church to the city of “The Once and Future Site of the Bonn. With heroic last-minute iencan U.S. Embassy Berlin.” To the efforts by staff, the embassy pub¬ accompaniment of tunes from a lished a glossy, dignified, coffee Service Center U.S. military band and with the table book entitled A Vision Mercedes. Just Mercedes. assistance of a U.S. Marine Corps Fulfilled containing historic photos color guard, speeches were given, and charming memoirs of America’s 585 N. Glebe Road, hands shaken and glasses raised. It years along the Rhine. The was a moment of euphoria. After a American community celebrated a Aldington, VA 22203 half century, America had reclaimed poignant last July 4th on 703.525.2100 the Pariser Platz site where its Ambassador Kornblum’s grassy embassy had stood briefly until lawn overlooking the Rhine River. Telefax: 703.284.2482 reduced to rubble by World War II. And then, a few more truckloads, Today, seven years later, the and the Americans were gone, leav¬ Mobile: 703.405.4018 plaque, still mounted on its ing behind a chapter in U.S. diplo¬ www.justmercedes.com pedestal, is abandoned and forlorn matic history written from Bonn at the edge of a vacant lot. As other across the face of Europe. ■

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 57 BOOKS

THE BIOWARFARE apace. Specifically, Alibek says that ed in 1989, they kept their knowl¬ Russia continues research on using edge quiet in return for on-site GENIE FILES the smallpox virus as a weapon at inspections. Alibeks descriptions of Vector Complex, a key biological the Western team inspecting Biohazard: The Chilling True research and development institute. Russian biological warfare research Story of the Largest Covert As proof of his claims, Alibek sites, which the Russians continued Biological Weapons Program in cites an article in Questions of to claim were used for medical the World Virology, a Russian publication, research, would make a good TV Ken Alibek with Stephen written in 1997 by Sergei Netyosov, comedy, if the stakes weren’t so high. Handelman, Random House, 1999, deputy director of the program, and Alibek also provides a fascinating, hardcover, $24.95, 319 pages. his team, in which they tell of though disturbing, glimpse into bio¬ research that mates genetic material logical arms control history. In 1973, BY TERRY CHIN JONES from the deadly ebola virus with only a year after the USSR signed the non-pathogenic smallpox virus. This biological warfare convention, the Think of 21st century New York, is the first step in developing a dead¬ Kremlin gave Biopreparat a mandate Tel Aviv or Mexico City falling victim ly smallpox virus, claims Alibek. to develop new biological warfare to a human-made Black Death. Though the United States is light agents and find ways to release them Imagine a rogue state with the abili¬ years ahead of Russia in genetic using weapons. In 1979, in ty to kill millions of people with engineering research, he warns that Sverdlovsk in the Urals an accident deadly viruses instead of bombs. Russia is ahead on production of resulted in the release of anthrax that Suppose a paranoid superpower deadly toxins. killed more than 100 people, but could rely on biology to combat Before he left Russia, Alibek Western intelligence had few of the superior conventional and nuclear (born Kanat Alibekov in 1950 in facts. The Soviet cover-up was so weapons. Kazakstan), was deputy head of successful that even as late as 1987 a For Ken Alibek, a microbiologist Biopreparat, the agency created to group of Soviet experts successfully who defected from the Russian bio¬ manufacture biological warfare misled a group from the National logical warfare program in 1992, agents in bulk. As a Soviet scientist, Academy of Sciences by blaming die these scenarios aren’t science fiction. Alibek understood that his program anthrax outbreak on bad meat. In clear, readable prose that even was hostage to Kremlin politics and Alibek claims diat Soviet diplomats the science-challenged can under¬ that it would be kept alive by a and Foreign Minister Eduard stand, he tells the gripping tale of steady stream of bureaucratic, self- Shevardnadze did not know about Soviet and Russian efforts to manu¬ justifying reports. The bureaucrats the biological weapons production facture anthrax and modernize of Biopreparat continue to win programs, but both former Soviet biowarfare. Alibek claims that approval from Russian leaders, President Mikhail Gorbachev and despite the 1972 Biological Weapons despite their official commitment to former Russian President Boris Convention signed by 160 countries strengthen biological warfare con¬ Yeltsin knew about and supported and the 1998 agreement between ventions, claims Alibek. Even after the efforts. the Clinton and Yeltsin administra¬ U.S. and British intelligence Alibek warns that diere could be tions to halt biological weapons pro¬ obtained evidence of this from a biological Chernobyl in Russia’s grams, the Russian effort to manu¬ Vladimir Pasenehik, a top Soviet bio¬ future. He is skeptical that treaties facture deadly viruses continues logical warfare scientist who defect¬ will be able to monitor biological

58 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MARCH 2000 BOOKS

weapons research because it closely her Arabic, she began the habit of received article criticizing the French resembles legitimate medical research writing her impressions in letters occupation of Syria and began plotting and is both sophisticated and portable. home. Anyone who has struggled with her return to the Middle East. The The collapse of the Soviet Union has a language can relate to her lament: allure of travel always outweighed the merely meant drat the technolog)' and “Your sentences, intended with just dilemma of separation from home. its researchers are spread farther tire shade of meaning you desire, “The beckoning comits and not the across die globe, he says, making pass¬ come out shorn of all accessories, clicking latch behind you,” she wrote. ing reference to the possibility of quite useless for anything except the Geniesse obviously likes her sub¬ transfer of technology to criminals and mere procuring of bread and butter.” ject, but does not quail from chroni¬ governments in countries such as She also established lifetime habits cling Starks insecurities about her con¬ Libya, Iran, Iraq and Cuba. on this trip. She lodged with local peo¬ flicting desire to setde down with the Since the biological warfare genie ple, and ate and drank whatever she right man; her disregard of regulations; isn’t going away soon, Alibeks chilling was offered. Frequent bouts of illness her tendency to take advantage of her tale will make thought-provoking from dysentery to malaria never friends’ generosity; and her intense reading for most FSOs, but is most diminished her resolve. In a letter rivalries and jealousies. While important for anyone working in arms from Damascus, she described the Geniesses psychological analyses are control, export control or military smelly room she had rented in an Arab occasionally a stretch — for example, intelligence. family’s house where the temperature wondering if Starks preference for tire inside was below freezing, household company of men was related to her Terry Chin Jones, a retired FSO, holds members wandered in at will and she attachment to her mother “who, after a PhD. in chemistry and served, as a became accustomed to the company all, was extremely masculine in her science and technology officer in of fleas. “I am trying to think I don’t aggressiveness” — on the whole she ACDA, INR, OES and in Ottawa. mind about cleanliness; if one could illuminates tire passions and needs that make oneself independent of these drove Starks complicated character. physical tilings, how easy it would be Freya Stark wrote 30 books, includ¬ FREYA’ EXCELLENT to travel,” she wrote. ing a four-volume autobiography. A s Stark flouted conventional wisdom skilled cartographer, she corrected tire ADVENTURE and disregarded political tensions. In maps of the regions she explored and 1927, Syria was seething with resent¬ became the darling of the Royal Passionate Nomad, ment against its French occupiers. Geographic Society. More than once, The Life of Freya Stark She set out by donkey to study the hapless British consular officers res¬ Jane Fletcher Geniesse, Random mysterious Druze sect, whom the cued her from precarious situations. House, 1999, $27.95, 362 pages. French had cordoned off in their own She repaid the favor during World War region following a failed rebellion. II, when her expertise helped tire BY WESLEY ANN GODARD The French authorities detained Stark British Ministry of Information gauge and her companions — a guide and the loyalties of tire Arab world. At the Passionate Nomad wall delight fans another English woman — but she age of 82 she was knighted. At 92 she of Freya Starks travel books and intro¬ charmed the commander into releas¬ published the last of her eight volumes duce the uninitiated to the fearless ing them and even providing them a of letters. As Geniesse writes, Stark English womans exploits. letter of introduction to the Druze “seized her life and made it a richer Despite an unorthodox childhood, high priest. As a result, she was able to adventure than any of those who pitied a domineering mother, little formal know the area as few Westerners had. her in her youth could ever have con¬ education and limited funds, Freya Arab culture and the desert mes¬ ceived.” Along the way she also Stark was determined to experience merized Stark. “I never imagined that changed the way the West looked at life. She read voraciously, studied my first sight of the desert would tire Middle East. Arabic, and on a shoestring took off come with such a shock of beauty and alone in 1927 at the age of 34 to enslave me right away. But I left it Wesley Ann Godard, an FS spouse, explore the Middle East. That first trip feeling that somehow, some time, I was first introduced to Freya Stark’s foreshadowed a lifetime of adventure. must see more of the great spaces.” writing in 1976 while serving in Pausing outside Beirut to polish Back in England, she wrote a well- Istanbul. ■

MARCH 2000/FORE1GN SERVICE JOURNAL 59 t

IN MEMORY

Philander Priestley Claxton Jr., member of the Presidents Princeton University from 1971 to 84, former State Department official, Commission on Population and 1972. During World War II, he served died Nov. 20, 1999 of cancer at his Family Planning in 1968. in the U.S. Navy. home in Bethesda, Md. Survivors include Iris wife, Mary He became an FSO in 1955, and Bom in Washington, Mr. Claxton Ann Claxton of Bethesda; a son, was first assigned to Naples and then earned a degree in English from tire Philander III, of Middleport, N.Y.; five to Maracaibo, Venezuela. He served University of Tennessee in 1934, daughters, Isabelle Claxton of as deputy principal officer in received a masters in politics from Philadelphia, Kathleen Claxton of Thessalonika, Greece, political offi¬ Princeton University, and graduated Fremont, Calif., Caroline Claxton of cer in Athens and desk officer for from the Yale Law School in 1938. Chattanooga, Argyle Read of North Greece in the State Department. He Mr. Claxton began his government Potomac, Md. and Ami Claxton of then served as a political counselor career working for the Justice Silver Spring, Md.; and eight grand¬ in Helsinki, as the officer in charge Departments antitrust division. He children. of Scandinavian affairs at State, and then served as a senior attorney for the as political counselor in Stockholm. Tennessee Valley Authority. During From 1976 to 1978 he served as con¬ World War II he served in the U.S. John J. Ewing, 84, a retired FSO sul general in Gothenburg, Sweden. Navy in Europe. with USIA, died on Oct. 12, 1999, in He was at the Northern European He joined the State Department in Eugene, Ore., of heart failure. Office of the State Department 1947, and served as special assistant in Mr. Ewing began his career over¬ before serving as consul general in various State offices until 1961. He seas as a grantee in the State Bermuda from 1980 to 1982. then served as special assistant to Department, serving as director of After retirement in 1983, Mr. Secretaries of State Dean Rusk, American Binational Cultural Centers Owens worked for 10 years as a con¬ William P. Rogers and Henry A. in Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and die sultant on U.S.-Soviet nuclear Kissinger. He received the State Dominican Republic. He later served issues. He also contributed to for¬ Departments Superior Honor and as an FSO in Brazil, Burma, Australia, eign policy journals and was a mem¬ John Jacob Rogers awards. He retired Indonesia and Venezuela. He retired ber of DACOR, AFSA, and the from State in 1974. in 1975. Society of the Protection of Greek Mr. Claxton spent the remainder of Survivors include his wife Bertha of Heritage. Iris career working on population con¬ Eugene, Ore. Survivors include his wife, Aneta; trol issues. He helped start tire U.N. his son, Brian of Stockholm; two World Population Conference held in grandsons, Sean and Julian; a sister, Bucharest, Romania, in 1974. He John Patrick Owens, 72, former Eileen Parker of Silver Spring, Md.; served as co-director of the consul general, died on Nov. 18,1999, and three brothers, Emmet Owens of International Population Conference, of complications following vascular Anacortes, Wash., Deimot Owens of chairman of die Interagency surgery. College Park, Md., and James Owens Committee on Population Matters Mr. Owens was bom in of Medford, Mass. His younger son, and deputy U.S. representative to the Washington, D.C., and lived tiiere Robert, was lolled in Morocco while U.N. Population Committee. From throughout most of his fife. He serving in the Peace Corps. Mr. 1978 to 1988, he was a consultant to received a bachelors in history from Owens was also the brother of die the Futures Group in Washington on American University and a masters in recendy deceased Maryland House projects invoking the U.S. Agency for history from Georgetown University. of Delegates member Joseph B. International Development. He was a He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Owens.

60 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/MARCH 2000 IN MEMORY

Fredrik Hansen Jr., 67, a retired Ms. McCusker was born in won several performance awards and FSO with USAID, died Oct. 30, Providence, R.I. She earned her promotions during her 1971-1975 1999, at his home in Weems, Va., of bachelor’s degree from Brown tenure. After transferring back to the cancer. University in 1930, her masters in Foreign Service in 1975 as an FSRO, Mr. Hansen was bom in Brooklyn, English and Greek literature in 1931 Mrs. Burke served as administrative N.Y., and served in the U.S. Navy and a Pli.D. in 1937, both from Bryn officer in Kaduna, Nigeria, went into from 1952 to 1956, including a tour of Mawr College. LWOP status during her husband’s duty in the Korean War. He received She began her career at tour as DCM/Charge in Port Louis, a degree in engineering from Georgia Providence Public Library, and then Mauritius and worked as an interna¬ Institute of Technology in 1959. He became curator of English literature tional conference officer in the 10 then worked in the aerospace indus¬ at Boston Public Library. She served Bureau from 1981 to 1985, when she try, and later joined the Navy Ship in die Navy from 1943 to 1945, sta¬ retired to accompany her husband in Research and Development Center tioned in Washington, D.C. After her a final overseas tour to Maseru, in Washington. discharge, Ms. McCusker served as Lesotho. They moved to Arizona In the early 1970s, Mr. Hansen director of library services for USIA after residing in San Rafael, Calif., participated in “Operation Break¬ in The Hague, Rome, Athens and from 1987 to 1992. through,” a Housing and Urban New Delhi. She became fluent in Survivors include her retired FSO Development program to use emerg¬ several languages. husband, Tom. ing engineering technologies for the She retired in 1972 and moved to construction of affordable housing. Damariscotta, Maine. She then While at USAID from 1975 to 1992, seived as a communicant of St. Robert Louis Kinney, 82, a he specialized in housing and urban Patricks Church, Newcasde, Me., retired FSO, died on Oct. 29, 1999, development problems in developing and on several committees there, and in Melbourne, Fla., of congestive countries. He spent time in volunteered at Miles Memorial heart failure. Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Nairobi. Hospital in Damariscotta. Mr. Kinney was born in He also served as deputy director of There are no survivors. Chillecothe, Mo., in 1917 and grew AIDs housing and urban develop¬ up in Charlottesville, Va. ment office in Washington. After working as a freelance After his retirement, Mr. Hansen Elizabeth Burke, 68, a retired writer, Mr. Kinney edited a weekly worked on urgent housing issues in FSRO, died Oct. 3, 1999, at the newspaper in Mobile, Ala. He joined Russia after the dissolution of the Tucson Medical Center in Tucson, the staff of the National CIO War Soviet Union. In his spare time he Ariz., of complications after surgery Relief Committee as head of Social enjoyed sailing and restoring wooden for lung cancer. Services in 1943. He then seived as boats. Mrs. Burke joined the Foreign labor adviser to tire National Urban Survivors include his wife, retired Service as a clerk in 1957. She served League in New York City in 1946. USAID FSO Kathleen of Weems; as a consular employee in Tokyo, From 1947 to 1951 he was associate two daughters from his first marriage, Belgrade and Manila before her mar¬ labor secretary of Community Chests Cheryl Jones of Chaneyville, Md., riage to FSO Tom Burke in 1964, and Councils of America. and Norah Hansen Murray of which under the regulations at diat His 20-year span with tire Foreign Portsmouth, N.H.; his father, Fredrik time required her to resign her FS Service began in the Philippines and A. Hansen Sr. of Port Washington, position. However, when she and her included posts in Indonesia, N.Y.; two sisters; a brother; and five husband arrived at the embassy in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Mission grandchildren. A son, Fredrik A. Addis Ababa, Mrs. Burke became a to the United Nations in New York, Hansen III, died in 1992. resident hire. Nigeria and Malaysia. On reassignment to Washington in He retired to Florida in 1973, 1970, Mrs. Burke accepted a Civil where he pursued his love of fishing Honor C. McCusker, 89, retired Service position in die Bureau of and boating. director of library services for the U.S. Consular Affairs, moving shortly Survivors include his wife Frances Information Agency, died in thereafter to the H Bureau as con¬ of Melbourne, Fla.; and his son November.. 1999 in Coves Edge, Me. gressional travel officer, where she Michael of San Francisco. ■

MARCH 2000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 61 REAL ESTATE

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MARCH 2 000/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 67 POSTCARD FROM ABROAD Diplomacy as Crapshoot

BY STEVEN ALAN HON LEY

When an FSO friend of mine And then there are the millions of recently married a former Peace bon vivants who come to savor die Corps volunteer, they chose that top-dight talent at Vegas’ casinos glitzy international hub, Las Vegas, and nightclubs or to plunk their for their nuptials. They were deter¬ money down at the blackjack tables. mined to make their nuptials fun, so It helps that they don’t have to know what better locale than Babylon on much English beyond “Dealer, hit the Mojave? me” to have a good time. The festivities began with a pool Vegas is a polyglot paradise, party and barbecue, for which where, not unlike FSOs on the visa friends of the happy couple had line, everyone from limo drivers to been instructed to “dress Elvis.” We 7-Eleven clerks speaks, or can at milled around in costumes reminis¬ least fake, several languages. During cent of the early Elvis: baggy surfer the several hours I spent playing “jams,” tight jeans and blouson shirts blackjack, I learned that the Chinese for the guys and beehive hairdos and word for “bust” (as in trying for 21, toreador pants for the gals. Well into but going over it) is pow. Any FSO the party, we all donned brightly- willing to make a field trip to Las colored sarongs woven especially for Vegas during language training the occasion in Sri Lanka, the might learn many useful words that couples meeting place and current miniskirts and disco attire for die FSI instructors are cursedlvJ loadie residence. women. to share, claiming that such words Later that evening, the King him¬ Early in my stay, I realized that are too crude for the ears of diplo¬ self — or more accurately, an Elvis Las Vegas could make a fair claim to mats. impersonator — officiated at the being the most international city in International harmony and coop¬ wedding ceremony in the lobby of the United States, maybe anywhere. eration abound in Las Vegas. die Holiday Inn. And, to the bewil¬ What other city boasts the Eiffel Chinese and Japanese businessmen derment of regular hotel guests, he Tower, the Brooklyn Bridge, the rub elbows stretching to place bets even serenaded die nuptial pair with Trevi Fountain and the treasures of at the card tables. Eurotrash high “Love Me Tender” and other famil¬ the lost city of Atlantis, all within rollers in Armani stand cheek by iar tunes from the Kings repertoire. walking distance of craps tables, jowl with American tourists outfitted For the reception that followed, sev¬ roulette wheels and one-armed by J.C. Penney, as they all stuff quar¬ eral enterprising guests changed bandits? ter after quarter into slot machines. outfits yet again. This time, the Statistics confirm that Vegas is a Yes, all who come to this city do their theme was Elvis’s mature period: city that attracts a worldwide clien¬ part to promote the brotherhood of white jump suits and gold medal¬ tele. More than three million people man, even as they build up their chip lions for the men and 1970s-era a year attend conventions there. piles. For they all know what most Some 100,000 couples fly there each State Department desk officers, Steven Alan Honley is associate year to be married, either by Elvis USAID team leaders and World editor of the Journal. The stamp is impei'sonators at the Graceland Bank resident representatives work courtesy of the AAFSW Bookfair Chapel or by unsung justices of the years to understand: You have to pay “Stamp Comer.” peace at dozens of wedding parlors. to play. ■

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