The Foreign Service Journal, November 2006
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POLITICAL APPOINTEES HARD-WON WISDOM IN THEIR OWN WRITE $3.50 / NOVEMBER 2006 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS TO THE RESCUE? Helping Fragile and Failed States CONTENTS November 2006 Volume 83, No. 11 F OCUS ON F RAGILE S TATES F EATURE 22 / SEEKING A PATIENT PATH TO NATIONBUILDING IN THEIR OWN WRITE: BOOKS BY U.N. post-conflict planning should take into FOREIGN SERVICE AUTHORS / 57 account the resources needed to sustain and Once again we are pleased to feature a compilation of stabilize countries long after elections. recently published books by Foreign Service-affiliated By Robert McMahon authors. In addition to a variety of memoirs, this year’s selection is highlighted by a strong policy studies and 30 / SOMALILAND: A DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT issues section, a respectable offering of fiction and a Virtually on its own, this province of lively grouping of works on people and places. Somalia has established itself as a solid By Susan Maitra democracy in a very bad neighborhood. By Elizabeth Spiro Clark 39 / THE PACIFIC MICROSTATES AND U.S. SECURITY Though frequently overlooked, the many South Pacific island-states are uniquely relevant to U.S. national security. By Kevin D. Stringer C OLUMNS D EPARTMENTS 45 / HAITI’S NEW GOVERNMENT PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 LETTERS / 7 WRESTLES WITH ITS PAST Bad Faith and Business CYBERNOTES / 10 President Préval must use donors’ good will As Usual in FS Assignments MARKETPLACE / 12 for programs that improve conditions now while By J. Anthony Holmes BOOKS / 78 laying the groundwork for sustained progress. AFSA NEWS / 81 SPEAKING OUT / 14 INDEX TO By Robert M. Perito Political Appointees: ADVERTISERS / 98 51 / THE CASE AGAINST STATE’S NATIONBUILDING OFFICE A Cost-Benefit Analysis The argument that instability in itself represents a By William F. Davnie threat to America and that nationbuilding must FS KNOW-HOW / 17 be the cure is deeply flawed. What I Wish I Had Known By Justin Logan and Christopher Preble By Robin Holzhauer REFLECTIONS / 100 Fortuneteller By Joyce Barrett THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS OREIGN ERVICE Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published J O U R N A L F S monthly with a combined July/August issue by the American Foreign Service Association, a private, non-profit Editorial Board Editor organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent STEVEN ALAN HONLEY TED WILKINSON, the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, preferably by Senior Editor CHAIRMAN e-mail. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - $13 included in annual dues; others - $40. For foreign surface mail, SUSAN B. MAITRA add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mail- Associate Editor KENT C. BROKENSHIRE SHAWN DORMAN ing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. STEPHEN W. B UCK Ad & Circulation Manager 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited ED MILTENBERGER ANTHONY S. CHAN manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein Business Manager JOSH GLAZEROFF does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. ANDREW KIDD WILLIAM W. J ORDAN E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service Art Director LAURIE KASSMAN CARYN SUKO SMITH Association, 2006. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., KAY WEBB MAYFIELD Editorial Intern Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Printed on 50-percent recycled paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste. CRYSTAL K. MERIWETHER LAMIYA RAHMAN Advertising Intern JOYCE NAMDE FLORIAN HEINHOLD CHRISTOPHER L. TEAL Cover and inside illustrations by Clemente Botelho NOVEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Bad Faith and Business As Usual in FS Assignments BY J. ANTHONY HOLMES You know the drill. It’s Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia. The requires an advance “Certificate of decades-old and occurs multiple department recently banned Need” to justify the assignment, times every year: Well-qualified, tour-of-duty extensions in Eur- something the department did not do. in-cone, at-grade bidders are ope in part, it said, to open up Not a single one of the policy impera- denied a plum job. Word quick- jobs for those who had answer- tives or personal qualifications that led ly spreads that it’s been “wired” ed the call to such service. But us to decide not to appeal the for some under-grade 7th-floor despite the lure of a high pro- Baghdad DCM case are present in staffer or they never found out file, cutting-edge position in a the Brussels PD mess. This assign- about it in the first place. Business as comfortable European capital, the de- ment is an affront to the Foreign usual in FS assignments. partment would have us believe that it Service and to AFSA. Numerous employees have told could not find a single qualified Over and above the striking breach AFSA recently that in their eyes the lit- Foreign Service officer for the job. of faith with the Foreign Service, what mus test of the department’s serious- Go figure. I find so incomprehensible about this ness about its newly re-engineered We had gotten wind of this unlikely assignment is that it directly under- assignments system and related calls for deal months earlier and urged both HR mines the message Secretary Rice and increased service discipline will be the and the under secretary’s office to Director General Staples have been so degree to which the rules are applied to desist. But instead of being deterred, determined to send about the need for 7th-floor staffers. Will HR and the the process played out in a way that service discipline and their call for sac- regional bureaus stand up to the most minimized the number of SFS mem- rifice. I wrote to Sec. Rice in October senior appointees, both political and bers aware of this job. Only the most on this issue and assured her the career, and resist the pressure for spe- cursory steps were taken to conform to Foreign Service is indeed answering cial treatment and preferred onward the assignment rules. Not a single one that call. But I also stressed that the FS assignments for their favorites? Based of the normal procedures to find suit- expects this same discipline on the part on the first case to come to our atten- able candidates for priority jobs was fol- of State management in terms of fol- tion in this new, “expeditionary” envi- lowed. To those familiar with “business lowing its own rules. This assignment is ronment, the answer is a disappointing as usual,” the entire process looked devastating for morale and creates a “no.” awfully familiar. cynicism that only certain employees AFSA recently learned that a mid- Amazingly, State made this assign- are subject to Service discipline while level Civil Service officer on Under ment a mere two months after we had others can thumb their noses at it — Secretary Karen Hughes’ staff had told it that AFSA would set aside its and at them. been given the Senior Foreign Service serious concerns and reluctantly refrain AFSA has long cooperated with the PD “hub” director position in Brussels, from appealing the naming of a civil department to develop and operate two a newly-created job that is part of the servant as DCM in Baghdad — despite open, transparent programs in which Secretary’s “global repositioning” exer- the fact that a number of qualified, at- qualified Civil Service employees can cise at the heart of her transformational grade FSOs had bid on the position. serve overseas. But as I have said diplomacy initiative. This position We reminded the department’s senior before in this space, personal loyalty is might have been a perfect fit for a vet- leaders that, per the Foreign Service not a qualification for any job in the eran FSO coming out of an unaccom- Act and department regulations, such entire Foreign Service. The assign- panied post like Iraq, Afghanistan, assignments should occur only when ment rules apply throughout the there is no one in the FS able to do department and must be followed –- J. Anthony Holmes is the president of the the job and the outsider has unparal- and our leaders must have the disci- American Foreign Service Association. leled qualifications. Such a rare case pline to stick to them. 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