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The Foreign Service Journal, September 2006 MORE ON IMS TRAINING A SHANGHAI SEDER HUCK FINN LIVES $3.50 / SEPTEMBER 2006 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX How to Achieve Meaningful U.N. Reform CONTENTS September 2006 Volume 83, No. 9 F OCUS ON U.N. REFORM A SINCERE CRITIQUE OF AMERICA’S U.N. POLICY / 56 The decades-long tendency by administrations of both 22 / JOHN BOLTON: OUR UN-DIPLOMAT parties to engage only fitfully with the United Nations After his first year at the United Nations, is having serious consequences. it seems that John Bolton is not so much an By Mark Malloch Brown ineffective diplomat as an unwilling one. By James Traub F EATURE 29 / U.N. REFORM: THINK BIG A bottom-up overhaul may be the most MANDARIN MATZAH / 61 promising approach to take. An FSO puts a Jewish ceremony together in Guangzhou By Ronald I. Spiers with a little help from atheist, Buddhist, Christian and 33 / REINVENTING Mormon friends. THE UNITED NATIONS By Jason Seymour The League of Nations was the first generation of global organizations C OLUMNS D EPARTMENTS and the U.N. was the PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 LETTERS / 6 second. It is time to Square Pegs, Round Holes CYBERNOTES / 10 design a third- By J. Anthony Holmes MARKETPLACE / 12 generation entity. AFSA NEWS / 65 IN RESPONSE / 14 By Tad Daley and BOOKS / 82 David Lionel What We Train IMSers to Do INDEX TO By David P. Jesser ADVERTISERS / 90 40 / SELECTING THE NEXT SECRETARY-GENERAL U.N. reform has been the hallmark of Kofi Annan’s SPEAKING OUT / 16 decade-long tenure. Finding a leader to Time to End the U.N.’s continue that effort is critical. Culture of Corruption By Suzanne DiMaggio By Thomas D. Boyatt 47 / RAISING PEACEKEEPING DIVIDENDS REFLECTIONS / 92 How can we boost local economic activity in I Found Huck Finn in the most challenging environments in the world? El Salvador Consider the experience of some U.N. missions. By Jack Gallagher By Gary Gray 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 Editor Editorial Board STEVEN ALAN HONLEY organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent Senior Editor TED WILKINSON, the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, preferably by SUSAN B. MAITRA CHAIRMAN e-mail. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - $13 included in annual dues; others - $40. For foreign surface mail, Associate Editor add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mail- KENT C. BROKENSHIRE SHAWN DORMAN ing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. Ad & Circulation Manager STEPHEN W. B UCK 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited ED MILTENBERGER ANTHONY S. CHAN Business Manager LILLIAN DEVALCOURT-AYALA manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein MIKKELA V. T HOMPSON JOSH GLAZEROFF does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. Art Director ILLIAM ORDAN E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service CARYN SUKO SMITH W W. J Association, 2006. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., Editorial Intern LAURIE KASSMAN EIRENE BUSA JOYCE W. N AMDE Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Printed on 50-percent recycled paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste. Advertising Intern KAY WEBB MAYFIELD ANDRES VIDER CHRISTOPHER L. TEAL Cover and inside illustrations by Poul Hans Lange SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Square Pegs, Round Holes BY J. ANTHONY HOLMES A year ago the Foreign As I write in early August, lated priorities of being employee- and Service was abuzz about then- AFSA is in the process of family-friendly. Director General W. Robert negotiating elements of a We all agree that getting the best Pearson’s signature initiative, major State Department ini- qualified personnel to the highest pri- the State Department’s highly- tiative to re-engineer the assign- ority positions is a worthy objective. touted new Career Develop- ments process. The first shoe The reality, though, is that neither ment Programs. The CPDs to drop was a ban, with a few State nor any other part of the USG were, inter alia, the depart- limited exceptions, on tour-of- have anywhere near the number of ment’s solution to the challenges of duty extensions at posts below the 15- qualified people they need for Iraq or staffing unaccompanied and severe percent hardship differential level. other war-zone service. The recently hardship posts, creating “a Foreign Other department proposals in- released GAO report on foreign-lan- Service for the 21st century.” There clude: turning the cycle’s timing inside guage shortfalls reveals this starkly. We was strong support throughout the out so that the toughest positions to simply do not have enough Arabic Service for the CDPs. They were staff are addressed first; minimizing speakers with Middle East experience viewed as bringing the system into sync and delaying “handshake” commit- for the 300 positions at Embassy with reality, improving the assignments ments between bureaus and individu- Baghdad and the PRTs every summer, system’s fairness, and finally putting als; tightening up the still-on-the-books much less the rest of the region with some teeth into the long-ridiculed “fair fair-share program by eliminating low- similar needs. share” rules for service at hardship differential posts and ending further The FS assignment system needs to posts. In a town hall meeting, DG consultations before paneling; CDOs remain a fair, effective mechanism for Pearson agreed that the CDPs obviat- becoming much more aggressive in staffing all posts around the world, not ed the need for fair-share rules in the arm-twisting and jawboning; and, in just Iraq. It would be dangerous and future. what is easily the most sensitive pro- wrong to allow short-term exigencies to It is now clear, however, that the posal, changing the 6/8 year limits on undermine the department’s long-term department views the CDPs as a medi- Washington service to 5/6 years. ability to meet its broader mission, um- to long-term solution that is not AFSA and State share a strong regardless of the wildly inappropriate relevant to its acute short-term staffing desire to maintain the present system allegations by some in certain other needs. Because unaccompanied tours of staffing all positions for tenured per- USG departments that the state of Iraq are for only 12 months and, at almost sonnel on a voluntary basis. We recog- today is somehow due to State’s “failing 800, they now represent over a quarter nize the Secretary’s authority to move to step up.” of all positions opening next year, the to directed assignments if she chooses. The department is in a huge rush to pressure to staff them is relentless as In an era when the department places make these changes, which amount to the same jobs reappear every cycle. great emphasis on sound management an “Iraq tax” on all personnel akin to Secretary Rice has started saying the practices, though, the advantages of what the bureaus have paid in bud- Foreign Service is becoming “more having personnel where they want to getary terms over the past few years. expeditionary.” It is hardly surprising be are obvious in productivity and We need to make sure that we all that she wants to bring the assignments morale terms. understand their implications and that system into conformance with her We in AFSA have decided to work unintended consequences are mini- transformational diplomacy concept. closely and constructively with the mized. AFSA urges the department to department to support its assignment allow the CDPs and all the special Iraq J. Anthony Holmes is the president of the objectives while preserving a system service incentives approved over the American Foreign Service Association. that lives up to State’s publicly articu- past year to have their desired effect. I SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5 LETTERS Donor Difficulties vasive corruption and grinding pover- are we not obliged to recognize and Many of the fine articles in the ty (not to mention serious problems rectify our own dysfunctional societal June focus section, “Realigning For- with a Muslim minority). No matter attitudes towards foreign aid? eign Assistance: The Future of how many donor resources are made Fred Kalhammer USAID,” made apparent the complex available to address a country’s prob- USAID FSO, retired difficulties donors encounter in fos- lems, can sustainable economic devel- Stateline, Nev. tering economic development and opment occur in such a place absent a emphasized that long-term efforts change in key societal attitudes? USAID Reform may be required to overcome them. The foregoing notwithstanding, let The June articles by Tom Dichter Barely alluded to in these discussions us optimistically assume that some and James Fox on USAID reform are were the intangible and seemingly gradual progress is possible. Do our the most insightful and provocative intractable societal attitudes imped- own domestic attitudes toward foreign I’ve read in a long time.
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