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PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION MAY 2013 THE CHANGING FACE OF THE FOREIGN SERVICE FIDEL CASTRO AS MOBY DICK FOREIGN May 2013 SERVICE Volume 90, No. 5 FOCUS DIVERSITY WITHIN THE FOREIGN SERVICE AFSA NEWS Together We Grieve / 53 As we were completing this issue, A Longstanding Commitment / 18 we learned of the tragic death of Anne Smedinghoff, a promising BY STEVEN ALAN HONLEY young FSO and AFSA member, in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan. Diversity and Cultural Competence: VP Voice State: All Overseas Positions Should Be Language Mission-Critical Elements of U.S. Foreign Policy / 21 Designated / 54 To prioritize diversity, organizations like the State Department must think boldly, VP Voice FCS: Farewell / 55 beyond the legacy paradigms of “affirmative action,” “diversity” or “inclusion.” VP Voice Retiree: BY ERNEST J. WILSON III Getting What You Need / 56 AFSA President Addresses EW@S: Supporting and Mentoring Female Leaders / 25 World Affairs Councils / 57 Five years after its founding, Executive Women at State has become a strong Benefits Series: advocate of gender parity and diversity. Focus on Geriatric Care / 58 BY CYNTHIA SABOE FS Books: Something for Everyone / 59 Active After Active-Duty: TLG: Expanding Opportunities at State / 28 Finding Roots / 60 The Thursday Luncheon Group, State’s oldest employee affinity group, continues The Foreign Service Family: to strengthen the Foreign and Civil Service workplace through its advocacy. Remembering Carolina / 61 BY STACY D. WILLIAMS Husbands of Chennai / 62 AFSA Book Notes Presents Pride Every Day / 32 a Master Class / 63 Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies has largely accomplished its original mission to combat discrimination. But its work continues. COLUMNS BY STEVEN GIEGERICH President’s Views / 7 Reviving the Foreign Service Celebrating Our Past, Uplifting Our Future / 36 BY SUSAN R. JOHNSON Publicizing the contributions of African-Americans to diplomacy and development Speaking Out / 15 work can help attract young, diverse talent to careers in international affairs. It’s Time to Update the BY MORGAN MCCLAIN-MCKINNEY Threshold Review BY BRIAN T. NEUBERT How Are FS Women at State Faring? / 39 Reflections / 77 The Ties That Bind The importance of State’s mission demands that we ensure talented BY LEAH EVANS female FSOs have the opportunity to reach for, and grab, the brass ring. BY MARGOT CARRINGTON DEPARTMENTS Letters / 8 Talking Points / 11 FEATURES Books / 67 Local Lens / 78 Fidel Castro As Moby Dick: Dispatches from the Cold War / 46 MARKETPLACE An FSO traces U.S. policy in the Americas from the 1950s through the 1980s. FSJ Guide to Extended BY PAUL D. TAYLOR Stay Housing / 65, 66 Classifieds / 70 On the cover: A photo of the Diplomatic Class of 1912 (rear) and one of new hire Foreign Service officers in Real Estate / 73 Chennai today. Image composition by Jeff Lau. New hire FSOs in Chennai: (From left) First-tour FSO Rachel Index to Advertisers / 74 O’Hara; second-tour FSO Shiraz Wahaj, a Pakistani American (sitting); second-tour FSO Kris Arvind, an Indian-American; first-tour FSO Ben Embury; first-tour FSO Halima Voyles, a Pakistani-American (sitting); and first-tour FSO Daniel Lee, a Korean-American. Photo credit: James Talalay. THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2013 5 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Reviving the Foreign Service BY SUSAN R. JOHNSON n my April column (“AFSA and the is designed to meet the requirements of at all levels of the Service, integrated with Foreign Service: The Road Ahead”), I worldwide diplomacy, as specified by the assignments and career advancement, to promised to discuss some of the factors Foreign Service Act of 1980. The expansion build and continually renew a professional I that are undermining the Foreign Ser- of GS positions has resulted in a decline in cadre ready to address the complex, chal- vice as an institution and to highlight FS opportunities in all bureaus, especially lenging and changing global environment. reforms to strengthen it and the State those responsible for human resources, Second, State should review how the Department. This column will also draw management and global policy issues. “cone” system has compartmentalized the on the April 12 Washington Post op-ed, Having two fundamentally different, Foreign Service into a set of narrow spe- “Bring Back Professional Diplomacy,” competing personnel systems cannot be cializations. To nurture an effective, profes- that Ambassadors Ronald Neumann and expected to create a harmonious corporate sional cadre of diplomats, especially at the Thomas Pickering and I co-authored. That environment in the State Department. Ide- leadership level, FSOs must develop broad opinion piece has generated considerable ally, a more integrated personnel system experience in dealing with the gamut of comment and served to draw attention to is called for to serve the requirements and bilateral, multilateral, political and eco- this important issue. purposes of American diplomacy. nomic issues, and diplomatic practice, as In it, we identified two of the factors At the very least, we must rethink the well as human resource and management which have weakened the Foreign Service emphasis on narrow specialization built issues. and undermined the effectiveness of on static positions that undergirds the Civil Discussion of the points raised here is American diplomacy. The first is the steady Service system, and the Foreign Service urgent if diplomacy is to regain its primacy decline of Foreign Service representation framework of specialized political, eco- in the pursuit of the foreign policy goals in the senior-most positions at the State nomic, public diplomacy, management of national security, economic prosperity Department. Increased reliance on politi- and consular “cones.” But this will require and democratic values. The experience of cal appointments has limited the number thoughtful re-examination to meet the the two longest wars in U.S. history reveals of positions available to Senior Foreign need for strategic vision and three-dimen- the limitations of exclusive dependence on Service officers. The impact of this trend sional thinking in Foggy Bottom. military or economic pre-eminence. has been exacerbated by the longstanding Let me be clear: Both the Civil Service Effective diplomacy is indispensable practice of appointing non-career ambas- and the Foreign Service personnel systems because U.S. strategic goals cannot be sadors to head the overwhelming majority need reform. But the inescapable ques- achieved by military power alone. Our of our embassies in Group of Eight capitals tion is this: How can the Foreign Service armed forces should support diplomacy, and other important countries. develop as a top-notch professional cadre not the reverse. The second factor relates to the co- if it is squeezed out of top positions at State In the foreign policy arena, the Depart- existence under the same roof of two dis- and in the very overseas missions that con- ment of Defense and other national tinct State Department person- stitute the operational frame- security agencies must not eclipse or nel systems: the non-rotational work for it and for diplomacy? sideline the State Department. Similarly, General Schedule Civil Service This trend must be reversed. State cannot assert itself as the primary system, with no common entry The Foreign Service itself institution responsible for the conduct of standard or up-or-out evalua- needs reform in two areas. First, diplomacy without a strong, professional tion; and the Foreign Service’s State must offer enhanced pro- Foreign Service. n rotational, rank-in-person, fessional education and training up-or-out system. That system is modeled on the U.S. military and Susan R. Johnson is the president of the American Foreign Service Association. THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2013 7 LETTERS Save the Legation wood, etc., threaten what is a repository when the location for an embassy or con- The mail gets to us only slowly here in of the best that artisans from across the sulate is selected primarily on the basis of Morocco, so I am only now able to com- Maghreb could produce—mashrabi- security standards. ment on the excellent December 2012 yya screens on the windows, intricately To find enough open land to pro- article by Jane Loeffler, “Beyond the For- painted wooden ceilings, zellij floor tiles. vide the required 100-foot setbacks, the tress Embassy.” As the director for nearly As a living embodiment of citizen bureaus of Overseas Buildings Opera- three years now of the Tangier American public diplomacy, the legation is also a tions and Diplomatic Security have had Legation Institute for Moroc- symbol of America’s longstand- to move many embassies and consul- can Studies, I have come to ing engagement with the Arab, ates farther and farther from convenient appreciate what Ambassador African and Muslim worlds. locations in or near the cities they serve. Barbara Bodine, quoted in the Sultan Sidi Abderrahman Decades ago, for instance, I narrowly article, calls “embassies inte- recognized “the Americans” foiled a plan to move Consulate General grated with their surroundings as Moroccan partners in Montreal miles west to a location on and culture.” December 1777, while George the Trans-Canada Highway, which was You can’t get more integrated Washington was still hunker- served by no public transport of any sort. than the American legation, ing down in Valley Forge. Not only would this have made it very which is not only nestled in OBO, the Fund to Con- difficult for the public to come to our the Medina (“Old City”), but serve U.S. Diplomatic Treasures Abroad office, but it would also hurt our efforts bestrides “America Street” and is built and historic preservationists would to recruit and retain good local staff. over it. That was the American way of do well to band together to “Save the It would also increase travel time for diplomacy in Morocco from the 1790s to Legation Pavilion.” What could be more officers to call on contacts, with a con- the early 1960s.

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