The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020
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PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION NOVEMBER 2020 GEORGE SHULTZ “ON TRUST” IN THEIR OWN WRITE BLACK WOMEN DIPLOMATS SPEAK OUT FOREIGN SERVICE November 2020 Volume 97, No. 9 Cover Story Focus on Foreign Service Authors 30 In Their Own Write We are pleased to present this year’s collection of books 26 by members of the Foreign Service community. On Trust A distinguished statesman shares 43 his thoughts on the path ahead, starting with the importance of Of Related Interest Here are recent books of interest to the foreign affairs community rebuilding trust. that were not written by members of the Foreign Service. By George P. Shultz FS Heritage Feature 66 72 America’s Slaughter South of the Overlooked Diplomats Sahara: No Scope for and Consuls Who Died “Business as Usual” in the Line of Duty Comprehensive strategies—and A discovery in a cemetery in Hong contingency plans if they fail—are Kong spurred a quest to find the names needed urgently to deal with the of U.S. diplomats whose ultimate complex and rapidly deteriorating sacrifice remained unacknowledged. situation in the Sahel. By Jason Vorderstrasse By Mark Wentling THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2020 5 FOREIGN SERVICE Perspectives Departments 7 101 10 Letters President’s Views Reflections A Message from George Shultz The Fastest Car in All Bolivia 12 Letters-Plus to the Foreign Service By George S. Herrmann By Eric Rubin 16 Talking Points 9 86 In Memory Letter from the Editor 93 Books Tending the Garden By Shawn Dorman 21 Speaking Out Marketplace Female, (Won’t) Curtail & Yale: Waiting to Exhale 96 Real Estate By Samantha Jackson, 102 98 Index to Advertisers Ayanda Francis-Gao, Local Lens Lisa-Felicia Akorli, Aja Kennedy, Nuuk, Greenland Annah Mwendar-Chaba 99 Classifieds By James P. DeHart and Tessa Henry AFSA NEWS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION 77 Bringing Americans Home: AFSA, Diplomacy Museum Team Up for Presentation 78 State VP Voice—Time for an Office of Conflict Resolution 79 USAID VP Voice—The More Things Change… 80 FCS VP Voice—The Advocacy Center: A Win for American Jobs 80 New Members Join AFSA Committee on Elections 81 Book Notes: Believers: Love and Death in Tehran 82 AFSA Welcomes Three New Governing Board Members 83 State Offers New Remote Work Flexibility 85 FS Retirees Visit Vineyards 85 AFSA Governing Board Meeting, Sept. 16, 2020 85 85 2021 FEHB Insurance and Benefits Presentation On the Cover—Design: Driven by Design LLC. Background: iStockphoto.com/Ota Gebauer. Photos, from left: Secretary of State George Shultz at State Department Press Conference, Oct. 25, 1983—ALAMY/KEYSTONE PICTURES USA; Secretary Shultz greets Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze at the White House, Sept. 27, 1985—RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY; George Pratt Shultz—U.S. DEPART- MENT OF STATE; Secretary Shultz walks with President Ronald Reagan outside the Oval Office, Dec. 4, 1986—RONALD REAGAN PRESIDEN- TIAL LIBRARY; Secretary Shultz meets Embassy Moscow staff, May 1988—SHAWN DORMAN. 6 NOVEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL PRESIDENT’S VIEWS A Message from George Shultz to the Foreign Service BY ERIC RUBIN e are honored to share in tion. We are nowhere near achieving Service. Secretary Shultz objected this month’s FSJ a superb Secretary Powell’s objectives, or those of strongly, maintaining that polygraphs essay by former Secretary Secretary Shultz. were inaccurate and unreliable, and that Wof State George Shultz on We at AFSA strongly endorse Secre- showing such a clear lack of confidence the occasion of his 100th birthday. In it, tary Shultz’s vision. We also salute him in the integrity of our patriotic public he asks that we take another look at train- for the essential contributions he made servants was unfair and unwarranted. ing and education in the Foreign Service toward obtaining funding for building In public comments, he said that if as a requirement for the kind of strategic the National Foreign Affairs Training State Department employees had to take thinking needed going forward. Center, now appropriately named for polygraphs, he would take the first one He notes that the U.K. has established him in honor of his determination to see and then resign his post the next day. The a diplomatic academy and urges that it happen. Reagan administration backed off. we consider much greater training and Early in his tenure as Secretary, Shultz Secretary Shultz’s determined action preparation for members of the Service, was taken aback by his first tour of the to defend and protect his employees both at the beginning of their careers and shabby, cramped rented FSI buildings resounds to this day as an example of at various stages along the way. in Rosslyn, and committed himself to leadership, one that is captured in a Secretary Shultz asks that we stop replacing them with a campus worthy of Harvard Business School case study. How stigmatizing education and training as our nation and its public servants. The fitting that his article in this month’s FSJ “non-promotable” endeavors and instead National Foreign Affairs Training Center is called “On Trust.” treat them as essential experiences for thus came to be. Our debt to Secretary Secretary Shultz also laments the loss promotion, as the U.S. military does. His Shultz for seeing this project through is of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship in ideas bring to mind the efforts of former enormous and enduring. our foreign policy, and he urges that we Secretary of State Colin Powell to create Secretary Shultz was an experienced return to the idea of achieving a broad a “training float” to ensure that all State manager and leader, and his confidence consensus on our relations with the Department employees have ample time in and support for the people who world based on shared values and objec- and opportunity to expand their skill sets worked for him was demonstrated on tives. We at AFSA share that vision. and broaden their horizons. many occasions. I recall one incident It is likely that our elections will have The training float never took hold, as vividly. taken place before you read this column. the Foreign Service instead had to surge During my first year in the Foreign I hope that they go smoothly, and that we to cover the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Service, shortly before Christmas 1985, can once again be a model to the world of Afghanistan. The years since have seen Secretary Shultz publicly threatened to how decisions are taken and leaders are more resource cuts resign if the Reagan administration went chosen democratically, by the voters. than increases, ahead with plans to require all federal I remain convinced that the rest of the more retrenchment employees with Top Secret clearances to world needs America, and that America than expansion, undergo polygraph testing. needs the rest of the world. May the next and more crises The planned testing would have cov- year be one of success in our nation’s than periods of ered nearly 200,000 federal employees, engagement with the world in support of calm and reflec- including almost 5,000 in the Foreign our country’s security and prosperity. n Ambassador Eric Rubin is the president of the American Foreign Service Association. THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2020 7 FOREIGN SERVICE Editor-in-Chief, Director of Publications Shawn Dorman: [email protected] www.afsa.org Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra: [email protected] Managing Editor CONTACTS Kathryn Owens: [email protected] AFSA Headquarters: FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION Associate Editor (202) 338-4045; Fax (202) 338-6820 Director of Finance and Facilities Cameron Woodworth: [email protected] State Department AFSA Office: Femi Oshobukola: [email protected] (202) 647-8160; Fax (202) 647-0265 Publications Coordinator Manager, HR and Operations USAID AFSA Office: Dmitry Filipoff: [email protected] Cory Nishi: [email protected] (202) 712-1941; Fax (202) 216-3710 Controller Business Development Manager— FCS AFSA Office: Kalpna Srimal: [email protected] Advertising and Circulation (202) 482-9088; Fax (202) 482-9087 Member Accounts Specialist Molly Long: [email protected] Ana Lopez: [email protected] GOVERNING BOARD IT and Infrastructure Coordinator Art Director President Aleksandar “Pav” Pavlovich: Caryn Suko Smith Hon. Eric S. Rubin: [email protected] [email protected] Editorial Board Secretary Alexis Ludwig, Chair Ken Kero-Mentz: [email protected] COMMUNICATIONS Hon. Robert M. Beecroft Treasurer Director of Communications Daniel Crocker Virginia L. Bennett: [email protected] Ásgeir Sigfússon: [email protected] Joel Ehrendreich State Vice President Manager of Outreach and Internal Harry Kopp Thomas Yazdgerdi: [email protected] Communications Jess McTigue USAID Vice President Christopher Teal Allan Saunders: [email protected] Jason Singer: [email protected] Joe Tordella Online Communications Manager FCS Vice President Vivian Walker Jeff Lau: [email protected] Jay Carreiro: [email protected] Hon. Laurence Wohlers Awards and Scholarships Manager FAS Vice President Dinah Zeltser-Winant Theo Horn: [email protected] Michael Riedel: [email protected] Strategic Messaging Coordinator Retiree Vice President Nadja Ruzica: [email protected] THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS John K. Naland: [email protected] PROFESSIONALS State Representatives MEMBERSHIP The Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), Joshua C. Archibald 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is Director, Programs and Member Engagement Maria Hart published monthly, with combined January-February Christine Miele: [email protected] and July-August issues, by the American Foreign Service Kristin Michelle Roberts Member Operations Coordinator Association (AFSA), a private, nonprofit organization. Jason Snyder Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the Tomoko Morinaga: [email protected] Tamir Waser writers and does not necessarily represent the views of Coordinator of Member Recruitment the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA.