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.

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. They are ing the development process in many, aid really support the idea of external particularly relevant to me in my cur- if not most, developing countries. A donor assistance beyond the provision rent, post-USAID job with Bread for partial list would include: denying of short-term humanitarian aid and the World, where I’m working on for- equality of opportunity to all citizens, emergency relief? In this context, it is eign-assistance policy issues. Kudos resisting wealth redistribution, under- interesting to note that schoolchildren to the authors, and to the Journal for valuing a work ethic, tolerating official from Scandinavia to Japan receive seeking out and publishing them! corruption/nepotism/tribalism, prefer- instruction in developmental issues, Charles Uphaus ring authoritarian (“strongman”) gov- the role of foreign assistance in their USAID FSO, retired ernments, etc. government’s budget and the work of Fairfax, Va. One of your authors cited the suc- such specialized United Nations agen- cess of several Asian countries, from cies as UNICEF and UNDP. Lessons Not Learned Japan to India, in achieving signifi- Here at home, in contrast, Con- Thanks for your June articles that cant levels of economic development. gress has banned USAID from using commented on both USIA and Notably missing from that list was the its resources to educate the public USAID. I served in USIA from 1962 only Asian country to have “benefit- regarding America’s foreign assis- to 1965 and in USAID from 1966 to ed” from a half-century of American tance efforts. Nor is there much 1980. I then went out on short-term colonial administration: the Philip- interest in this topic among any but a assignments until about 1990. When pines. Was American tutelage there miniscule group of specialized educa- I left USIA, I was debriefed by almost during the first half of the 20th cen- tors at any level. Is it any wonder, every office in the agency. But when tury insufficient to erase the attitudes then, that foreign aid as a federal I left USAID, I was not even asked to and values acquired during centuries budget line item, and the United come back to Washington, despite of Spanish domination? Why does Nations as an international organiza- the fact I had served so much longer that country continue to lag behind tion, have become whipping boys for there. its regional neighbors despite sub- politicians seeking federal elective I did not leave quietly; I wrote long stantial assistance? Despite the adop- office? Under these circumstances, memos to give my views on how for- tion of an American-style constitution one wonders whether USAID can eign aid should be improved, but they and other forms of government, the ever be reconstituted so as to once never evoked a response. My depar- Philippines seems constantly plagued again take a leading role in interna- ture from USIA made a lot more sense by a restive military, political violence, tional development forums. If in- to me than my departure from an oligopoly-dominated economy, per- deed the agency is to have a future, USAID. We had a lot to learn in both

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institutions — and we certainly still do. “What Are We Training IMSers to IMS Work & When I was in USIA, Edward R. Do?” Personal Responsibility Murrow was our leader, and I think I’m just finishing up my first Carl E. Stefan’s May Speaking Out our public diplomacy was at its zenith. Foreign Service assignment and the appears dated because many changes He insisted that if PD were to work, it new-hire training process is still fresh have occurred at FSI’s School of had to be believable — and to be in my mind. I agree that there is an Applied Information Technology. To believable, it had to be the truth. undue emphasis on training for tech- FSI’s credit, it asked our IMS class for Telling America’s story to the world nical certifications, and the certifica- feedback on how to improve future was not hard, because we had such a tion mill my new hire class ran FSI/SAIT classes. Our group, the good story to tell. We were not to through didn’t do nearly enough to 82nd IMS class, was a strong propo- “shade the truth.” get us ready for the actual work at nent of eliminating the Microsoft cer- The main thing I learned from post. Three months of generic A+, tification requirement and replacing my experience in both agencies was Windows and Exchange certification it with classes that are more relevant that we have to go for the long haul. classes, and only six weeks of State- to the State Department’s IMS shop. Too often we give too much atten- specific training? Reversing those FSI/SAIT recently eliminated the tion to quick fixes. We should be numbers would go a long way in bet- requirement to certify in Microsoft just as concerned about how things ter preparing new hires for the field. Server 2003 and replaced it with are going to be in 10 years as in the Although there wasn’t enough of State-relevant courses. When I was next 10 months. This is often not the it, the State-specific training (most of going through FSI/SAIT in 2005, we case. it at the Warrenton Training Center) had a 10-day “Practical Examination,” In USAID, our project evalua- was extremely helpful. The highlight where we applied what we learned in tions always had a section at the end was the two-week Simulated Opera- a setting that resembles an embassy for “lessons learned.” I thought this tions Course that put us through the or a consulate Information Program was the most important part of the paces of preparing pouches, trouble- Center. evaluation and I gave it serious shooting the phone system and In Jeddah, where I now work, one thought, but I found that other mis- administering the servers. It gave us of the casualties of the Dec. 6, 2004, sions and projects seldom learned a chance to pull together everything al-Qaida attack was the FSN tele- from our experience. I complained we had learned and was the first time phone technician. With that position and asked that the section be named I got a realistic picture of what being vacant, the everyday maintenance of “Lessons to Be Learned” and that an IMS entailed. We need more of the consulate phone system became other missions and projects really these kinds of classes, and fewer part of my job as the new IMS. benefit from our experience. I generic ones. Being taught by Without going into details, the way noted that other missions went right IMSers who had served in the field the consulate buildings are laid out, on making the same mistakes that was invaluable; they could clearly the age of the telephone wiring and we had corrected. articulate how to apply the things we the hot temperature outside made We must make sure that we are learned to work in the field in a way maintenance of the telephone sys- making a better country and world that contract Windows-certification tems very demanding. But the tech- for our children and grandchildren — instructors couldn’t. nical training I received at FSI pro- that is what public diplomacy and for- While there are plenty of capable vided me with enough knowledge to eign aid must be doing. people out there with certifications, effectively handle the day-to-day Charles B. (Chuck) Green having a certification certainly doesn’t upkeep. When I didn’t know some- FSO, retired automatically make someone capable. thing, I would consult with my super- Malibu, Calif. Metrics and accountability are impor- visor, Riyadh or the regional informa- tant, but pursuing the goal of having tion management center, and they all new hires certified in this or that is were all helpful. Job-Specific Training for IMS a metric that doesn’t correlate with the Eventually, we were able to hire a Carl Stefan is right on with many ability to perform the job. new FSN telephone technician, and of the points in his May Speaking Gene Tien I’ve trained him using much of the Out regarding the information man- IMS knowledge I acquired at FSI/SAIT. agement specialist training program, Embassy Khartoum The radio system also needed

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 7 L ETTERS

maintenance and organization. The issues that we can’t resolve within the of the Foreign Service Journal for knowledge and documentation I embassy, so we need assistance from almost 20 years. While her son did a brought from FSI/SAIT helped me the InfoCenter. wonderful job describing his mother’s perform radio tasks effectively. I We new IMSers should be asking tenure at the helm of the Journal don’t think it is fair to blame only the ourselves these questions: Are man- (Appreciation, May), I think that there training if an IMSer is not function- agers at post providing good on-the- is a rather vital part of her story which ing effectively in his or her position. job training and are they providing a needs to be told. Isn’t it also a part of the job of the clear picture of expectations? Where I knew Shirley from early on in her senior IMS or information program is the best place to go for assistance? tenure at the Journal. She was con- officer to provide on-the-job training And (especially because of the men- tent to work diligently and quietly for a new hire? I’m fortunate to have tion of leaving the Service after one behind the scenes and laid the foun- an information programming officer or two tours), why did we join the dation for making the magazine what who taught me many things needed Foreign Service? For most of us, it it is today. During the 1970s, when I to be an effective IMSer. Without my was to serve our country. had a rotation tour back in Washing- IPO’s guidance, all the training in Hector Matienzo ton, she persuaded me to run for the FSI/SAIT wouldn’t have been as IMS AFSA Governing Board (earlier, I effective. Consulate Jeddah had been an appointed member). First-time IMSers need to learn With no overseas assignment in sight, where to get help. Sometimes assis- Credit for 1970s I found it hard to refuse her nudging. tance can be found through the Editor Newhall During that election there was a “InfoCenter” rather than from col- It is with great sadness that I read three-way race for president. The leagues in the IMS world. There are of the death of Shirley Newhall, editor group that won the presidency was headed by someone who had been selected out of the Foreign Service, was exceedingly conservative in his views on all manner of issues, and demanded that the Governing Board be in lockstep with him. Moreover, he wanted to use AFSA and the Journal as a vehicle to express his right-wing views and rehash his selection-out case. Neither the Governing Board nor the Editorial Board would approve such tactics. Various lawsuits followed, some initiated against Shirley Newhall and the Journal. We all held fast to our positions. Ultimately, thanks to Shirley’s help, the whole group was removed. Together with AFSA’s capable general counsel and several Governing Board members, Shirley orchestrated the scenario leading to the recall of the AFSA president. She insisted that the entire distasteful procedure had to be procedurally and legally correct. Furthermore, without her, the unbiased story of this episode in the life of AFSA would never have been told. Thanks to her, the Journal not only

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maintained its independence but refused to be a vehicle for biased and inaccurate reporting. Those working at AFSA today might do well to remember those like Shirley Newhall who, at great personal and professional sacrifice, have made AFSA and the Foreign Service Journal something of which we can all be proud. Tom Boyatt and Tex Harris are two who can remember those hectic days of acrimonious Editorial Board and Governing Board meetings. This, too, is a legacy of AFSA and the Foreign Service Journal. Roy A. Harrell Jr. FSO, retired Ozona, Texas

CORRECTION The URL for Craigslist, the July-August “Site of the Month” (Cybernotes), is incorrect. Though it was incorporated as a for-profit entity in 1999, Craigslist retains the .org domain as a symbol of its service mission and noncorporate culture. The correct URL is www.craigslist.org. We regret the error.

Send your letters to: [email protected]. Note that all letters are subject to editing for style, format and length.

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9 CYBERNOTES

NPR Spotlights the “New Hires and the Foreign Service,” Harvard University scholar Maria “Real” Foreign Service by Associate Editor Shawn Dorman, Cristina Caballero says, Americans On July 25 and 26, National Public in its online version of the story learned in 2000 that even in a mature Radio’s “Morning Edition” ran a two- (www.npr.org/templates/story/story democracy, “there are all sorts of part series on the real Foreign Service, .php?storyId=5343016). things that can happen to an individ- produced by Megan Meline, an NPR — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor ual’s vote. There can be efforts to keep producer and Foreign Service spouse. certain kinds of people from voting, The series offered an inside look at Mexico: ‘Close Elections there can be honest mistakes, there today’s Service, and was an excellent Are No Big Deal’ can certainly be the possibility of vehicle for educating the American It was the closest Mexican election fraud. My suspicion is that there is a public about this still-misunderstood in history. In the July 2 presidential little bit of all of that in Mexico” profession. contest — in which an estimated 41 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/ Part I, “Dangerous Postings: Life in million Mexican citizens voted — 13833342/site/newsweek/). the Foreign Service,” looked at the Mexico’s Federal Election Institute Many analysts argue that Mexico reality of FS work in the post-9/11 declared that Felipe Calderon of the can only stabilize its democracy if its world, including the dangers, evacua- National Action Party, beat Andres different political parties stop bicker- tions and other challenges that are Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Demo- ing and start cooperating. Julia Sweig, rarely publicized. Part II, “Foreign cratic Revolutionary Party, by a mere director for Latin America Studies at Service Life Disruptive for Foreign 0.58 percent. the Council on Foreign Relations, says Service Families,” looked more specif- “Close elections are no big deal,” that if the PAN, PRD and PRI do not ically at the heightened difficulties for says Jorge G. Castañeda, Mexican for- cooperate with each other, the “shal- FS families, who are increasingly sep- eign minister from 2000 to 2003. This low mandate of this election and its arated by unaccompanied postings. election was significant, he says, legacy of political polarization and dis- “Read [about] a day in the life of because it was not only close, but trust will weaken the next president’s diplomats in Kabul and Bangkok at “real.” According to Castañeda, only capacity to build a coalition in the leg- www.npr.org,” host Renee Montagne four presidential votes in Mexico’s his- islature and to carry out the numerous commented at the end of Part I, refer- tory would qualify as free and fair by reforms left incomplete by the Fox ring to excerpts from AFSA’s book, international standards, including government” (http://www.washing Inside a U.S. Embassy. The transcript President Vicente Fox’s 2000 win, tonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti of Part I is posted on the NPR Web which broke the 71-year rule of the cle/2006/07/19/AR2006071901593 site, accompanied by two excerpts Institutional Revolutionary Party .html). from Inside a U.S. Embassy as well as (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ The election is important to the a “Purchase Featured Book” link. The wp-dyn/content/article/2006/ U.S. — but not primarily for who story spent two days as one of the top 07/14/AR2006071401436.html). wins. Pamela Starr, an analyst with the three most–e-mailed stories on NPR. Indeed, the European Union de- Eurasia group and professor of Latin AFSA was in regular contact with clared the election legitimate and the American studies at Georgetown the producer of the series, and assisted world praised Mexico’s electoral insti- University, points out that Mexico and with providing resources, contacting tutions for their efficiency and sophis- the U.S. simply have to work together FSOs overseas and clearing legal hur- tication. Yet, in a move reminiscent of if they want to achieve national eco- dles. In addition to excerpts from the U.S. presidential election in 2000, nomic and political goals, no matter Inside a U.S. Embassy, NPR included Obrador and supporters claimed fraud who is the president (http://www. a link to the FSJ’s 2004 Special Report, and are demanding a full recount. As cfr.org/publication/11030/challen

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ges_for_a_postelection_mexico. blow to the administration’s assertion country outside the liberal democratic html?breadcrumb=default). of executive power. West it could have happened that the Even apart from the sensitive im- Surveying Italian, British, French highest constitutional court ruled migration issue, U.S.-Mexican rela- and German newspapers for reactions, against the decisions of the extremely tions are vitally important. As Deputy Jefferson Morley of the Washington powerful head of the executive branch Assistant Secretary for Western Hemi- Post observed: “The consensus was at the request of a terrorist prisoner sphere Affairs Elizabeth A. Whitaker that the court’s ruling was a victory for who has sworn to destroy the nation.” emphasized in testimony before the American law, international law, and Coverage in the Arab and Islamic House Committee on International the image of the United States” (http: media, though less strong, was also Relations in April, the U.S. must stay //blog.washingtonpost.com/world positive, Morley found. intensively engaged with Mexico on opinionroundup/2006/07/guantan In Europe, the ruling “fueled issues of trade; law enforcement, amo_reaction_seen_as_us.html). hopes that the detention center’s days including border security; and democ- Morley cites coverage in the Italian are over,” writes Craig Whitlock of the racy throughout the hemisphere right-wing newspaper, Il Giornale, Washington Post (http://www.wash (http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/rm which read: “Ask yourself if in any ingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/art /2006/q2/65334.htm). Mexico will not inaugurate its new president until December. In the Site of the Month: www.cdc.gov meantime, Sweig advises, “no one in Washington should have any illusion Is there a risk for malaria in Kuwait? Which mosquito repellent works the that a bilateral agenda with the new best? How do I know if I need yellow fever vaccinations? As the most experi- president will be any easier to carry enced travelers know, anxiety over health care concerns never goes away. out than it was with Fox, who came in The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a Web site for travelers’ with a much stronger mandate.” health at http://www.cdc.gov/travel. Basing its information on scientific stud- For updated news sources on ies, disease surveillance and best practices, the site assists travelers and their Mexican politics, visit Mexico Online health-care providers in deciding what vaccines, medications and other mea- at http://www.mexonline.com/head sures are necessary to prevent illness and injury during international travel. line.htm. For profiles of the Mexican Simply type in your destination country, click enter, and you will be provid- presidential candidates, visit the BBC ed with the latest travel notices, the necessary vaccines you should take, a list of at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/amer diseases in the region you should be aware of, advice on what you should bring icas/5114388.stm. with you, what you should do while you’re there, and what you should do when — Eirene Busa, Editorial Intern you get home. You can also search for information according to specific topics: The Supreme Court on Vaccinations, Diseases, Insect and Arthropod Protection, Safe Food and Water, Guantanamo: Victory for Travel Medicine Clinics, and more. Justice or Toothless Ruling? The site also provides information for specific groups and settings, including The June 29 Supreme Court ruling special-needs travelers and disaster-relief workers, and offers links to other that President Bush overstepped his online resources. authority, in violation of U.S. laws as The CDC is one of the 13 major operating components of the U.S. well as the Geneva Convention, in Department of Health and Human Services. ordering military tribunals for Guan- — Eirene Busa, Editorial Intern tanamo Bay detainees was a sharp

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icle/2006/06/29/AR2006062902248 _pf.html). ook at where we are in the Elsewhere in Europe, leaders are Middle East with no more skeptical of the ruling’s positive L process. Crisis diplomacy implications, however. Paisley Dodds is no substitute for sustained, of the Associated Press notes that the decision is seen as either a “vindication day-to-day engagement. The for Europeans who have condemned pursuit of tactical military the U.S. prison camp” or a “toothless victories at the expense of the ruling that will ultimately make no dif- core strategic objective of Arab- ference in a climate where they Israeli peace is a hollow victory. believe Washington is determined to have its way” (http://www.thestate. — Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., com/mld/thestate/news/world/ in an address at the 14936584.htm). Brookings Institution, July 28, For more information on the deci- http://www.brookings.edu/ sion, see the Council on Foreign comm/events/20060728.pdf. Relations backgrounder at http:// www.cfr.org/publication/11025/im pact_of_hamdan_v_rumsfeld.html. Wikipedia provides additional refer- been pushing to deploy U.N. troops to ences, including links to official docu- help the A.U. peacekeeping mission ments relating to the case, at http:// and, in effect, take over from it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamdan_v. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al- _Rumsfeld. Bashir, however, has rejected the pro- — Eirene Busa, Editorial Intern posal outright (http://english.alja zeera.net/NR/exeres/FB917C3B- Darfur: What Next? D9BF-4D96-B29B-DCE020F673 As the Sept. 30 end-date for the D0.htm). mandate of the African Union peace- But pressure for a U.N. peacekeep- keeping mission in Sudan draws near, ing deployment increases. At a donors attention is once again focusing on the conference in Brussels in mid-July, the crisis in Darfur. Continuing violence U.S., European Union and others there has resulted in over 200,000 urged Khartoum to give its consent dead civilians and more than two mil- (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/0 lion refugees since February 2003 — 7/14/darfur13743.htm). Humani- and, tragically, shows no signs of let- tarian organizations such as UNICEF ting up. are pushing for the deployment of In brokering the Darfur Peace U.N. troops because the A.U. mission Agreement, signed May 5 between is underfunded and unable to protect the Sudanese government and one civilians. In testimony before the faction of the largest rebel movement, Senate Foreign Relations Committee the U.S. and African Union aimed at on July 27, U.S. Ambassador to the disarming the government-sponsored United Nations John Bolton echoed militias. But the agreement has been this view (http://usinfo.state.gov/ largely ignored by both the govern- xarchives/display.html?p=washfile- ment and the rebels (http://www. english&y=2006&m=July&x= cbc.ca/cp/world/060523/w052378. 20060727163315WCyeroC0.4781 html). 763). The A.U., the U.N. Security Assistant Secretary of State for Council and the Arab League have all African Affairs Jendayi Frazer empha-

12 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 C YBERNOTES

sized the Bush administration’s deter- and rejuvenation in the Balkans, or exhibited by the government in Pod- mination to “play a leadership role triggers further unraveling in the gorica emphasized that the goal of internationally in the effort to resolve region, is the question. self-determination can be achieved the situation in Darfur” in mid-May A May 30 briefing from the Inter- peacefully” (http://euobserver.com/ testimony to the House International national Crisis Group opined that 7/21703). Relations committee (http://www. Montenegrin independence should The new nation is more deter- state.gov/p/af/rls/rm/2006/66498. “on balance” improve stability in the mined than ever to become a member htm). In a July 25 press release car- western Balkans, with the caveat that of NATO and the E.U., but according ried in the Sudan Tribune, the U.S.- reactions from Belgrade, the Monten- to European Commissioner for based Africa Action NGO spelled out egrin opposition and within Bosnia Enlargement Ollie Rehn, “There is no how Washington can use its leverage could tip the scales in the other direc- shortcut to Europe.” The E.U. will (www.africaaction.org). tion (http://www.crisisgroup.org/ help Montenegro navigate the mem- But whether the U.S. and the inter- home/index.cfm?id=4144&l=1). In bership process, but makes no pro- national community will continue to a July 25 op-ed in the Wall Street mises of membership. bow to national sovereignty and allow Journal, retired Ambassador Morton Economists look forward to a posi- Khartoum to implement the peace Abramowitz and Joe Black, both of the tive effect. Janusz Bugajski, of the agreement on its own, or will act based ICG, called on American and Euro- Center for Strategic and International on a “responsibility to protect” — as an pean officials to demonstrate strong Studies, is optimistic that Montene- International Crisis Group document leadership in the Balkans during this gro’s independent status will enable puts it (http://www.crisisgroup.org/ uncertain period (http://www.crisis both its country and Europe to focus home/index.cfm?id=4269&l=1) — group.org/home/indexcfm?id=428 less on security threats and more on remains to be seen. 1&l=1). economic investment and institutional — Eirene Busa, Editorial Intern Some analysts, such as Gordon N. integration (http://www.csis.org/co Bardos of the Washington Post, worry mponent/option,com_csis_progj/ta Rumbling in the Balkans ... that Montenegro’s move to indepen- sk,view/id,652/). Again dence may pose a threat to the Dayton Others, such as Marian Tupy of the The Union of Serbia and Monten- Accords, which have kept the peace in Cato Institute, consult that Montene- egro dissolved on May 21 when, after Bosnia since 1995, especially in light of gro can only promote economic stabil- three shaky years, 55.5 percent of the upcoming decision on Kosovo’s ity if its government makes wise deci- Montenegrins voted in favor of inde- status (http://www.washingtonpost. sions (http://www.cato.org/pub_dis pendence during a referendum. The com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/ play.php?pub_id=6404). European Union–brokered federation 06/23/AR2006062301505.html). For updated news sources on was the final step in the tumultuous According to a commentary at EU Montenegro, consult BBC News breakup of Yugoslavia that began in Observer.com, however, “fears of a Online http://www.bbc.com. For the 1990s. Whether Montenegro’s domino effect are unwarranted. The Europe’s involvement in Montene- secession sets the stage for stability political sophistication and patience gro, read the European Commission’s “Serbia and Montenegro 2005 Pro- gress Report” at http://www.delscg. 50 Years Ago... cec.eu.int/en/eu_and_fry/key_doc The idea of a universal international organization able to uments/documents/2005%20sec_ 1428_final_en_progress_report_s resolve political problems and to enforce their resolution cg.pdf. For details on U.S. policy in has played a great role in this period and is of continuing the Balkans, click onto http://usinfo. importance. The U.S. took the initiative in creating the League of state.gov/eur/europe_eurasia/balk Nations, and despite our refusal to participate, the fundamental idea of ans.html or read the Congressional Research Service report, “The Future the League retained an appeal in this country so that the U.S. played a of the Balkans and U.S. Policy Con- prominent role again in the establishment of the United Nations. cerns,” last updated in January 2006, — Howard Trivers, “Morality and Foreign Affairs,” reprinted from the at http://fpc.state.gov/documents/ Virginia Quarterly Review, FSJ, September 1956. 12organization/62663.pdf. — Eirene Busa, Editorial Intern

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 13 IN RESPONSE What We Train IMSers to Do

BY DAVID P. J ESSER

he May 2006 issue of the hire curriculum is the two-week Foreign Service Journal fea- Simulated Operations course that T tured a Speaking Out article We have completely takes place in two mock-up embas- titled “What are We Training IMSers overhauled the new- sies, which the Warrenton Training to Do?” by Carl Stefan, a mid-level Center has been using since 2004. IRM employee. This article was high- hire IMS curriculum This training includes extensive State- ly critical of FSI’s School of Applied to prepare specialists specific systems troubleshooting and Information Technology, our staff and to perform the full exercises for OpenNet, CableXpress our training programs. Administration, COMSEC, pouch, Some of Mr. Stefan’s points may range of duties. radios and telephone systems, capped have been relevant, at least in part, off by a day-and-a-half-long advanced back in 2004 when he was at the First Responder course taught by cer- Warrenton Training Center. How- tified trainers/Emergency Medical ever, information technology changes hanics and accountants must all stay Technicians at the Fire and Rescue rapidly, and two years is a long time in abreast of developments in their fields Station. IT terms. Over that period, as docu- and periodically obtain certifications Beginning in February 2005, every mented in numerous telegrams, of their competence. This is of partic- student attending SAIT training has department notices and other media, ular importance in the IT field, where been informed, on the first day of SAIT (like its sister schools at FSI) has rapid changes in software and hard- class, that supplemental test materials continuously reviewed and updated ware are a constant reality. Certifica- such as “Test King,” “Actual Exams,” its curriculum, both for accuracy and tions are also used as prerequisites for etc., are not allowed on the premises. relevance. our courses, with the goal of keeping This prohibition is reflected in SAIT For instance, Mr. Stefan’s article our IT work force up-to-date with the policy and strictly enforced. While we calls into question the conduct of our latest technological changes. Contin- do sanction one approved commercial new-hire colleagues and adds an ual refresher training is a must, as cer- and licensed package as a supplemen- assumption that they arrive at post tification alone is not sufficient to tal study aid, the emphasis is on fol- with the idea that they are, first and guarantee high performance. Experi- lowing the prescribed curriculum, not foremost, systems administrators. ence and practice are also required. just passing an exam. Today, I am confident that our new The new-hire IMS curriculum has Since October 2005, A+ and Net- colleagues leave SAIT with the under- been completely overhauled since work+ certifications have been estab- standing that they will be expected to 2004. The Basic Communications lished as prerequisites for all FSI/ perform the full range of IMS duties. course, in particular, has been upgrad- SAIT systems courses (see 05 State Mr. Stefan is also critical of the ed through collaboration with the 188485, sent Oct. 12, 2005). In addi- industry-standard certification pro- Diplomatic Mail and Pouch Division, tion, SAIT recently coordinated with cess, implying that the primary focus the Cryptographic Services Branch, the Bureau of Human Resources to of SAIT instructors is to help the stu- the Bureau of Diplomatic Security include A+ and Network+ certifica- dents pass the exams. Industry-stan- and other process owners to continu- tions among the prerequisites for hir- dard certifications set a reference ally update our training and ensure its ing new IRM personnel. point by defining a base set of skills relevance to the field. SAIT leadership and staff are and are used in many professions. Mr. Stefan should be pleased to open-minded and encourage com- Doctors, nurses, teachers, auto mec- hear that the cornerstone of the new- ments and suggestions from students,

14 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 I N R ESPONSE

management and other stakeholders. For example, in April 2006, our new hires piloted YW279 — Department of State Applied Systems — a three- week State-specific course that is now a permanent part of the new-hire training regime. The course does not adhere strictly to the Microsoft Official Curriculum, and whether a student passes or fails is determined by a comprehensive practical in- house exam. SAIT continues to pursue providing more State-specific training, rather than teaching strictly industry standard curriculum. Finally, the Stefan article suggests that SAIT should teach new hires to build various servers from scratch. While this is not a core competency of IM specialists in the field, SAIT does offer an extensive IT Disaster Recov- ery course that addresses the most common contingency issues at post. Although our current curriculum does not provide instruction for the complete rebuilding of all systems, IRM personnel are given excellent reference tools. Information management in the Foreign Service is a unique job that requires our personnel to be talented in a broad spectrum of related disci- plines. As all SAIT training makes clear, providing IT support at our missions worldwide is a critical and even exciting role; it is not necessarily a glamorous one. In closing, SAIT’s goal is simple: to establish a highly trained technical work force that effectively uses information technology in meeting the strategic objectives of the Depart- ment of State.

David Jesser, the operations branch chief at the Warrenton Training Center, joined State in 1988. Over the course of his Foreign Service career, he has served in the information management field in Hong Kong, Cairo, The Hague, Muscat and Pretoria.

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 15 SPEAKING OUT Time to End the U.N.’s Culture of Corruption

BY THOMAS D. BOYATT

n the second half of 2005, the The Oil for Food Program United Nations teetered on the There have been Benon Sevan, the Cypriot national Iedge of implosion. This crisis was and U.N. official heading the Oil for not brought about by great-power numerous verified Food program, accepted hundreds of rivalries, U.S. unilateralism or north/ reports of widespread thousands in bribes from the Saddam south divisions. The cause, rather, abuses by U.N. Hussein regime during his incumben- was the unadulterated corruption — cy, according to the Volcker Commis- old-fashioned bribery and extortion personnel involving sion Report. The bribes were in the — on display in the secretariat, the sexual and financial form of allotments to purchase Iraqi General Assembly and some of the extortion. oil at below-market prices, which specialized agencies. It even reached were then resold at a profit to the into the Security Council. Secretary- holder. The report found that Sevan General Kofi Annan escaped indict- steered oil allocations to AMEP, an oil ment and trial only because the trading company run by one Fakhry Volcker Commission that investigated accountability within the U.N. sys- Abdelnour, who just happens to be a the “Oil For Food” scandal — the tem. (For a book-length analysis of cousin of former U.N. Secretary- diversion of funds generated by U.N.- the U.N.’s culture of corruption, see General Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali, monitored sales of Iraqi oil that were Pedro San Juan’s The U.N. Gang. who presided over the creation of the intended to provide food and human- Although written before the Oil for Oil for Food program in 1995. Also itarian aid to Iraqi civilians — did not Food scandal broke, it is most illustra- on AMEP’s board is Efraim Nadler, possess the power to subpoena, indict tive.) Boutrous-Ghali’s brother-in-law. and try. Had Annan been required to Space is limited and the examples When Volcker’s investigators found meet the Martha Stewart–Scooter of wrongdoing are numerous, so I will an unexplained $150,000 in a bank Libby standard of justice — i.e., liabil- not deal with sexual malfeasance here account belonging to Sevan, he ity to a jail term for “lying to investiga- — beyond noting a rare example of claimed it was a gift from his maiden tors” — the outcome might well have gender equity at the U.N. in actions aunt in Cyprus who had retired as a been different. taken against a senior Dutch politician photographer for the government. This discouraging state of affairs (male) and a senior Uruguayan staffer Sevan’s claim regarding his aunt could was remarkable both because of the (female) both for sexual harassment. not be verified because she was found breadth of the rot and the persistence The former, a special representative dead at the bottom of an elevator of American elites in denying or of the secretary-general, was forced to shaft soon thereafter (I am not mak- ignoring the reality. Over the past two resign, and the latter, his special rep- ing this up). Cypriot authorities ruled years, numerous verified reports have resentative to the Iraqi parliamentary the death accidental. been published of widespread abuses elections, was suspended pending Other examples of dubious behav- by U.N. personnel involving sexual investigation. Instead, I will confine ior involving the Oil for Food pro- and financial extortion. There have myself to describing some of the most gram include (but, as the lawyers say, been two consistent themes in these egregious examples of corruption in are not limited to) the following: scandals: the use of U.N. office and the Oil for Food program and the • The U.N.’s internal auditors status for self-gratification (anyone U.N. procurement office; analyzing sought to audit the program. Natural- who has ever served in the Third the denial of such problems by U.S. ly, Sevan opposed this idea, and U.N. World will recognize this phenome- elites; and discussing the possibilities Deputy Secretary-General Louise non) and the apparent total lack of for reform. Frechette decided against any audit.

16 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 S PEAKING O UT

• When Annan announced forma- Getting Rich in the Greek Cypriot named George Steph- tion of the Volcker Commission, he Procurement Office anides, has been reinstated.) enjoined U.N. employees to safe- Another locus of U.N. corruption Over Labor Day weekend in 2005 guard all files. Nevertheless, Annan’s is its procurement office, which has Vladimir Kuznetsov, a Russian For- chief of staff promptly shredded sig- been under fire for years for rigging eign Ministry official who has for nificant portions of the records in the bids and taking bribes. In 1993 seven many years chaired the very critical secretary-general’s office and then procurement officers were suspended General Assembly Budget Commit- retired to his native Pakistan. for rigging bids to the benefit of a tee, was also indicted for corruption. • The Swiss company Cotecna favored airlifter, Canadian Skylink It is not clear where this particular won a large management role in the Aviation. Despite overwhelming evi- alleged malefactor fits into the situa- Oil for Food program by low-bidding, dence, a “U.N. administrative body” tion, but it seems likely that his com- then immediately requested and exonerated them and all seven return- patriot Yaklovlev turned him in while received a significant contract price ed to work. copping a plea in his own case. No increase. This is the oldest trick in the Two of the seven procurement further public announcements in his bid-rigging game. Kofi Annan’s son officers investigated and exonerated case have been forthcoming. worked for Cotecna and was paid in 1993 were later involved in another about $500,000 in disguised deposits major scandal in the context of Oil for Elite Denial after he left the company. The secre- Food. Alexander Yakovlev of Russia Does anyone see a pattern in all of tary-general either lied to investiga- was indicted in late 2005 for taking $1 the above? Apparently not in Blue tors or misspoke, depending on your million in bribes and pled guilty. His America (uptown liberals, academia, point of view, about the dates of colleague, Alan Robertson of Zambia, the mainstream media and the gov- his son’s employment, the amounts was accused by the Volcker Commis- ernment bureaucracies). Let us stip- his son received and about meeting sion of rigging bids in favor of a Dutch ulate that Tina Brown was correct personally with Cotecna representa- company hired to monitor Iraqi oil when she stated in a Washington Post tives. exports. These two officials were article last fall that New York’s upper • In late 2005 France’s former “exonerated” by the U.N. system and East Side “salonistas” will “cling to ambassador to the United Nations, returned, as we now know, to corrupt Kofi” as long as possible. As to the Jean-Bernard Merimee, admitted he business as usual. universities, the silence is deafening: had taken payments of $156,000 from The “administrative body” that no outraged letters to the editor, no the Iraqi government in 2002 in return found Yakovlev and Robertson inno- broadsides from “Nobel Laureates for support for Iraqi interests. At the cent in 1993 was actually a group from Against U.N. Corruption,” no student time, Merimee was a special adviser to the U.N. employees’ association, protests. Likewise, the media remain (you guessed it) Kofi Annan. which performs the appeal function in as quiet as possible under the circum- • Under Secretary Maurice Strong, such cases. In reviewing disciplinary stances. Even the biggest U.N. cor- also a Canadian, resigned when it cases this administrative body has ruption stories ran below the fold (if emerged that he had given a U.N. job almost never found anybody guilty of they appeared on the front page at to his stepdaughter. Even before anything. The lunatics are running all), and were soon buried on page 14. resigning, Strong had been suspended the asylum, and that explains in large Now they’re ignored altogether, even from his duties as Annan’s personal part the lack of accountability in the though much continues to happen. adviser on North Korea, pending the U.N. system. With respect to most of my retired outcome of an investigation by U.S. Indeed, to my knowledge, no one Foreign Service colleagues in the federal prosecutors into his alleged involved in either the Oil for Food international branch of the blue financial ties with Tongsun Park (re- program or procurement office mal- bureaucracies, the responses to U.N. member him from Koreagate?). Park feasance has ever been punished by corruption have been risible. First, it was convicted in July of acting as an the U.N. Some officials have resigned was asserted that it didn’t happen and, “unregistered agent” of Saddam’s Iraq or retired to avoid problems, and oth- if it did, it was an isolated event and regime to influence the Oil for Food ers have been suspended, but all — by the way — everyone is innocent program, and faces up to a dozen apparently still receive their annuities until proven guilty. When this line of years in prison for his role in the or salaries. (The one U.N. official defense/apology was overtaken by decade-long conspiracy. (Senten- who was fired in connection with the events, efforts at deflection focused cing is set for Oct. 26.) Oil for Food scandal in 2005, another on shifting the blame. The “irregular-

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 17 S PEAKING O UT

ities” in the Oil for Food program developing countries (including KGB- happened because the Security types salted away throughout the orga- Council permitted Saddam to smug- The Oil for Food nization) have quietly taken over the gle oil out of Iraq. This non sequitur secretariat, the General Assembly and was followed by the “blame America” program has spawned the Budget Committee. The latter ploy, consisting of condemnation of meets as a “committee of the whole” U.S. firms for buying tainted oil, cou- some of the most wherein all members of the General pled with dark mutterings about Assembly approve budgets by consen- Enron and U.S. corporate corruption. egregious examples of sus. This, in turn, gives every mini- However, this approach has been state the chance to extort a job here, a hard to maintain as more and more U.N. corruption. project there — and to thwart any and U.S. businessmen go to jail, while cor- all reform proposals, which must be rupt European politicians and U.N. approved by the Budget Committee. staffers remain free. It should be pointed out that the U.N. Now that the existence of a U.N. equal vigor, precisely because they are Oversight Office, which is responsible pattern of corruption has been estab- so specific and would be so effective. for monitoring and investigating all lished beyond reasonable doubt, and Under the circumstances it is dis- parts of the U.N., including the serious efforts at reform — particular- appointing to see retired colleagues General Assembly, depends on this ly the Gingrich-Mitchell Commission attacking the reform proposals as committee for funding. Report discussed below — have “hortatory, diffuse and laden with gen- The reality is that by controlling the begun, the elite counterfire has con- eralizations.” That’s simply not true. U.N. budget, the G-77 has effectively centrated on those advocating and There is nothing diffuse, general and taken over finances and staffing and pursuing much-needed reform. The hortatory about the investigations, brought Third World-like corruption most important and extensive set of indictments and convictions, or the and chaos to these functions. Yet even reform proposals is found in the 2005 proposal for an independent oversight though the dice are loaded against any report of the bipartisan commission board. Even more sadly, the reform- change in the status quo, progress is authorized and funded by Congress ers have been attacked with claims possible. In fact, the current context is and chaired by former House Speaker that “some of them are people who favorable. For starters, the entire sor- Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and former just don’t like multilateralism.” did mess is now in public (and con- Senate Majority Leader George Perhaps that is true for a few. But the gressional) view, and likely to remain Mitchell, D-Maine. vast majority of reformers are people there as events continue to unfold. This report makes very specific who just don’t like corruption, and the Secretary-General Annan has waived proposals on a variety of subjects distortion of diplomatic processes cor- diplomatic immunity for all U.N. per- (Human Rights Commission, peace- ruption brings. sonnel facing serious charges. Accord- keeping, etc.). Gingrich-Mitchell goes Does anyone believe that Saddam ing to GAO reports, in January Annan right to the heart of the U.N. corrup- Hussein’s ill-gotten gains were not placed eight top procurement officials tion reality by highlighting the fact pouring into the French and Russian on special leave, pending investiga- that in the current U.N. structure political systems via U.N. programs tions by the U.N. and the U.S. (Fed- there is no accountability. None. and affecting those countries’ posi- eral Court of the Southern District of Anything goes, as the history of the tions on Iraq? The characterizations New York). One of these officials, Oil for Food program and the U.N. of reformers’ motives are as out of Sanjaya Bahel of India, a former head procurement office proves. place as would be characterizations of of the U.N.’s Commercial Activities To deal with this, the Gingrich- their critics as apologists for corrup- Services and Post Office, is alleged to Mitchell Commission proposes setting tion. have improperly steered U.N. peace- up an Independent Oversight Board keeping contracts to several Indian with broad powers to investigate and Is Reform Possible? companies. Reportedly hundreds of punish corruption. The U.S. govern- At best, reform will be very diffi- corruption investigations — mainly in ment supports these proposals strong- cult. The reason is that for 50 years peacekeeping operations and particu- ly. But the Chinese, Russians and the major powers have concentrated larly in Africa — are under way. Group of 77 countries (from the Third on the political aspects of the United Second, Washington is maintaining World) oppose these reforms with Nations, while staffers appointed by pressure for administrative reform.

18 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 S PEAKING O UT

This year, Annan submitted a U.S.- supported reform plan (a watered- down version of Gingrich-Mitchell, but still a reform plan) to the Budget Committee and the General Assem- bly. However, the G-77 plus China forced a vote in April on a resolution to table Annan’s reform proposals for several months, betting that the secretary-general would not be able to push through reforms during his last year. Reform lost 108 to 50. The good news is that Washington is now in a stronger position to reduce or even eliminate U.N. funding on a selective basis. The greater the U.S. pressure, the more likely administrative reform becomes. Third, the appointments of Chris Burnham, a former chief financial officer of the State Department, as U.N. under secretary for management, and Mark Malloch Brown, a U.K. citizen who has lived in the U.S. for years, as deputy secretary-general, have strengthened the chances for anti-corruption reform significantly. Burnham is the real thing, a financial official of unquestioned integrity and capability who also has extensive private-sector experience. The current large-scale, anti-corruption campaign began with his arrival on the job late last year. I met Malloch Brown in a commercial activity with which we were both associated several years ago, and know him to be an honest and effective executive. I sincerely hope that he can help change U.N. culture.

Recommendations for Action To take advantage of the current favorable prospects for reform, I recommend the following steps be taken by U.S. governments, current and future: • Candidates to replace Secretary- General Annan, who steps down at the end of this year, are already poli- ticking. None can be confirmed without U.S. backing. Washington should

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 19 S PEAKING O UT

therefore make its support of the next er role in the Security Council until U.N. head contingent on a pledge to and unless the group agrees to signifi- continue to waive the diplomatic The U.N. procurement cant reforms in the U.N.’s Budget immunity of any employee accused Committee. Some form of propor- of corruption and an agreement to office has been under tional representation favoring those strongly pursue administrative re- who pay the bills would be a good forms designed to clean up the cur- fire for years for rigging place to start. Financial and adminis- rent mess and sustain honest, effective trative processes must also be rational- operations thereafter. Otherwise, in a bids and taking bribes. ized. few months or years it will be business • Finally, neither the president nor as usual — anything goes. Congress should flinch from withhold- • The position of under secretary- ing funds on a targeted basis as lever- general for management has tradition- age to correct U.N. abuses. For sever- ally been reserved for a U.S. official. al years in the 1970s and 1980s, Washington should ensure that re- pursuit. The days of single-issue con- UNESCO campaigned to limit press mains the case. centration on political matters should freedom worldwide. The U.S. refused • Washington needs to remain firm be over. Ambassador John Bolton is to fund that agency, and eventually its over time in its commitment to finan- setting a positive and useful standard campaign for press control ended. cial reform of the United Nations. in this regard. Let me close by stressing that the This will require the appointment of • The U.S. government should United Nations does useful work in U.S. ambassadors who will pay atten- make it very clear that it will not sup- many areas. And yes, if the U.N. did tion to the issue and be strong in its port any moves to give the G-77 a larg- not exist, the international community

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20 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 S PEAKING O UT

would have to invent it (presumably pointed out, continued corruption we would do a better structuring job will eventually erode U.S. public the second time around). From a per- Neither the president support for the organization — with- sonal perspective, my professional out which it cannot survive. involvement with the U.N. Force on nor Congress should Cyprus in the 1960s and 1970s was Thomas Boyatt, an FSO from 1959 very positive. The UNFICYP was mil- flinch from withholding until 1985, served as ambassador to itarily and politically effective, at least Colombia and Upper Volta (now in its early decades. However, that funds on a targeted basis Burkino Faso) and chargé d’affaires in was 30 years ago. The intervening Chile, among many other postings. decades have witnessed serious deteri- as leverage to correct Currently the treasurer of AFSA’s oration in the U.N.’s capacity for effec- political action committee, AFSA- tive and corruption-free activity on the U.N. abuses. PAC, he has in the past been AFSA’s world stage. Something must be president, vice president and treasur- done. er, as well as serving as a retiree repre- Reforming the U.N. to end corrup- sentative. After retirement Amb. tion should not be an issue agitating Boyatt was vice president of a large the red-blue divide in U.S. domestic company, president of a small compa- politics. Surely we can agree on a at his last press conference as chair- ny, and a trustee of Princeton bipartisan basis that this is a priority. man of the Volcker Commission that University. He is currently president Former Federal Reserve Chairman the U.N. itself had the largest stake of of the Foreign Affairs Council and Paul Volcker was right when he stated all in ending the abuses. As he continues to lecture, teach and consult.

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JOHN BOLTON: OUR UN-DIPLOMAT Poul Hans Lange

AFTER HIS FIRST YEAR AT THE UNITED NATIONS, IT SEEMS THAT JOHN BOLTON IS NOT SO MUCH AN INEFFECTIVE DIPLOMAT AS AN UNWILLING ONE.

BY JAMES TRAUB

n choosing officials to serve as our ambassador to the United Nations, presidents over the last 30 years or so have alternated between professional diplomats, like Thomas Pickering (Bush I) or Richard Holbrooke (Clinton), and activists or dogmatists, including Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Nixon), Andrew Young (Carter) and Jeane KirkpatrickI (Reagan). Presidents send doctrinaire figures to the U.N. not only to work with the organization but to say something to it — either “we’re with you,” in Young’s case; or “we’re not with you,” as was true of Moynihan

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and Kirkpatrick. These ambassadors served at times itate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self- when the U.N. itself had become an ideological cockpit: defense by acting pre-emptively.” Moynihan faced down the obsessive hostility to Israel The Bush administration, in short, seemed uncom- that led to the notorious “Zionism equals racism” resolu- fortable with the very premise, first made explicit by tion, while Kirkpatrick lambasted the contempt for capi- President Truman, that the U.S. would ultimately talism and Western freedoms that was pervasive there enhance its authority, and its security, by accepting the during the 1980s. strictures that come with membership in a global body. By the time George W. Bush became president in When the administration decided in 2002 to confront 2001, the West had largely won the ideological battle in Saddam Hussein, Vice President Dick Cheney urged the U.N., as it had in the world. Most states professed President Bush to bypass the U.N. rather than permit the faith in capitalism and democracy, even if they didn’t organization to trammel the U.S. in process and debate. practice them. Bush shared none of his father’s zest for Cheney lost that argument, but ultimately was vindicat- international affairs, but he was essentially indifferent, ed, at least in the inner councils of the White House, rather than hostile, to the U.N. He did not bother to when the Security Council refused to vote for a resolu- appoint an ambassador at all until the shock of 9/11, but tion authorizing hostilities. The burst of euphoria that then he immediately forwarded the name of John followed the coalition’s swift military victory, no matter Negroponte, a highly regarded career diplomat. When how transitory, bolstered the hawks’ view that the coun- Negroponte left in 2004 to become our first ambassador cil’s fabled “legitimacy” was an over-rated good. to post-Saddam Iraq (he now serves as director of central intelligence), another well-regarded figure, former Just Say No Senator John Danforth, R-Mo., followed him, serving There was no more ardent exponent of the rejection- until January 2005. ist view than John Bolton. In articles and speeches Then, in a decision that would have seemed unac- throughout the 1990s, he had argued that the U.N., and countable in any previous administration, Bush nominated international law generally, were tools that had turned on as Danforth’s successor a fierce dogmatist, John Bolton. their master. He described treaties as “political obliga- No one could doubt that Bolton’s nomination meant tions” rather than legal ones, in no way binding on their “we’re not with you.” But on what? signatories. In 1999, when the U.S. fell so far behind in After all, the U.N. had certainly not moved “left” in its dues payments to the U.N. that it was in danger of los- any discernible sense. The secretary-general, Kofi ing its vote, he said, “Many Republicans in Congress, and Annan, was sympathetic to U.S. interests; in fact, his calls perhaps a majority, not only do not care about losing the for institutional reform largely accounted for the Clinton General Assembly vote but actually see it as a ‘make-my- administration’s support in 1996 after it blocked the reap- day’ outcome.” Ideally, he said, “nothing should be paid pointment of his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a to the U.N. system.” In a 1998 interview (with me), he regular and unbuttoned critic of America’s role at the sneered that the Clinton administration acted “as if it sees U.N. In addition, the institution had rallied behind the the U.N. as having a life or existence outside of what the United States in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. U.S. wants it to do.” So it wasn’t the U.N. that moved, but Washington. During the Bush administration’s first term, Bolton The Bush administration was inclined to view interna- served as under secretary of State for arms control, where tional agreements and international organizations — at he won respect for his grasp of highly technical issues and least those it couldn’t dominate — as encumbrances. his exacting, not to say remorseless, negotiating style. He Soon after taking office, the White House not only repu- specialized in extricating Washington from obligations it diated the International Criminal Court but demanded had no wish to honor, withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic that signatories who were U.S. aid recipients sign bilater- Missile Treaty and terminating negotiations on the al agreements exempting American citizens from its Bioweapons Protocol, a small arms pact and the terms. In September 2002, the administration released a International Criminal Court. When Bolton signed the new National Security Strategy which stated forthrightly document formally repudiating the Clinton administra- that in the face of a terrorist threat, the U.S. “will not hes- tion’s acceptance of the court, he called it “the happiest

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moment in my government ser- Most of Bolton’s U.N. end of 2006, when the 109th vice.” Congress adjourns, unless he is con- Officials inside the U.N., who tenure has been quiet — firmed to the position. viewed Bolton as the diplomatic Bolton’s chief Republican oppo- equivalent of Genghis Khan, were at least until this past nent, Senator George Voinovich of horror-struck when President Bush Ohio, recently announced his sup- announced Bolton’s nomination in summer, when he almost port, significantly easing the way for March 2005. Had the president Senate confirmation. However, the decided to sack the place? A more torpedoed efforts to Senate Foreign Relations Commit- likely explanation was palace poli- tee has postponed a vote on his nom- tics: Bolton apparently had hoped reform the institution. ination until September, and a to become deputy secretary of Democratic filibuster is still possible. State, but new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was putting together a team of His Way or the Highway relatively doctrine-free professionals, had refused. The Until this past summer, John Bolton’s yearlong tenure U.N. job was said to be the consolation prize upon which as U.N. ambassador has been in many respects a quiet Bolton’s patron, Vice President Cheney, had insisted. one, largely marked by the Security Council’s ongoing, Yet Bolton almost didn’t get this job, either: In the and painfully inadequate, attempt to grapple with the course of hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations grave humanitarian and political crisis in Darfur. But in Committee, former aides and colleagues of Bolton recent months the council has been all but overwhelmed accused him of browbeating underlings and, more seri- by the need to deal simultaneously with the nuclear ously, of threatening intelligence officials who disputed ambitions of Iran and North Korea and with the spread- his (groundless, as it turned out) claims about weapons ing conflict pitting Israel against Hamas in Gaza and programs in Cuba and Syria. It became clear that Bolton Hezbollah in Lebanon. In all these matters, Bolton has had lost all the Democrats and one or possibly two shown himself to be an exceptionally well-informed and Republicans on the committee, forcing Bush to give his hard-working emissary, which is scarcely surprising. But candidate a “recess appointment” rather than risk a vote. he has also generally proved to be circumspect and prag- Bolton’s term began Aug. 1, 2005; he will serve until the matic, which might not have been predicted. If he has won few unexpected allies on the council, neither has he James Traub is a contributing writer for The New York made unnecessary enemies. He has sparred with Times Magazine, where he has worked since 1998. From reporters without regularly making a meal of them, prov- 1994 to 1997, he was a staff writer for The New Yorker. ing to be a far more accessible figure than his reputation He has also written for The New York Review of Books, had led them to expect. Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic Monthly and The New But Bolton has left his mark, not on the ordinary high Republic. His articles about the United Nations and politics of the Security Council, but on the extraordinary international affairs have been widely reprinted and campaign of reform that Kofi Annan initiated after the anthologized. In recent years, he has reported from the demoralizing failure to reach a consensus on Iraq. That Congo, Iran, Iraq, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Vietnam, process was already far advanced by the time Bolton India, Kosovo and Haiti. reached Turtle Bay: Annan had published his reform The Best Intentions, his forthcoming book about Kofi blueprint, “In Larger Freedom,” to almost universal Annan and the United Nations, will be published in praise in the West, and his aides had worked with Jean November. His previous books include The Devil’s Ping, president of the General Assembly, to produce a Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times document that would also satisfy the concerns of the Square, which was published in 2004, and City On A Group of 77, as the U.N.’s Third World bloc is known. Hill, a book on open admissions at City College that The Ping document was a plum pudding into which the appeared in 1994 and won the Sidney Hillman Award for entire developing world’s agenda on economic and social nonfiction. issues had been crammed, but U.N. officials and Western

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diplomats hoped that the more noxious elements could worry that they were making important concessions on be extracted in the course of negotiations. the issues the developing world cared about without And then Bolton arrived. bringing the G-77 around on the core peace and security Though it’s impossible to know what would have hap- issues that the U.S. was pushing, were relieved to see pened had Pres. Bush appointed a more anodyne figure, Bolton interrupt what had come to feel like an unstop- there’s no question that Bolton altered the reform debate pable process. At the same time, virtually all participants drastically, and in a very Boltonesque direction. On his felt that conducting a debate among 191 deeply self- very first day in New York, Aug. 3, 2005, he delivered to interested parties was a recipe for gridlock. And General Assembly President Ping the stunning news that Washington itself seemed not to want stalemate: Earlier the entire existing 35-page document would have to be in the summer, administration officials had told their scrapped. What was more, the small group of diplomats counterparts in the U.N. secretariat that while they had who had been collecting views and writing drafts would some important reservations about the emerging docu- have to step aside, so that all 191 ambassadors could draw ment, they strongly supported Annan’s uncompromising up a document among themselves. When a panicked language on terrorism; his proposal to replace the tooth- U.N. official told the American ambassador that he was less Human Rights Commission with a much tougher courting disaster — the deadline was now five weeks body; his package of management reforms, and a new away — Bolton calmly answered that he would be satis- Peacebuilding Commission. But Bolton gave a distinctly fied with the sort of brief summary of common points different impression: improving the U.N.’s capabilities typically issued after a G-8 conference. mattered less than blocking language Washington A number of Western diplomats, having begun to deemed unacceptable. Indeed, the only advocates for

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Bolton’s proposed approach The Bush administration the reform package was rescued besides the U.S. were spoilers from the American emissary’s such as Cuba, Venezuela and seems uncomfortable with all-or-nothing position. The day Egypt, who preferred failure to before the heads of state were to letting the West have its way. the premise that the U.S. arrive, Annan presented Bolton This marriage of convenience with a compromise document would endure over the ensuing enhances its authority, and which his staff had been secretly weeks. preparing all along. Bolton was At the end of August 2005, its security, by accepting the outraged at this subterfuge. Bolton issued a series of “Dear Secretary of State Rice has said Colleague” letters, each accom- strictures that come with (in an interview with me) that panied by an extensively rewrit- she had expected such an out- ten version of a section of the membership in a global body. come, and was fully aware of the draft document. The “amend- consequences of Bolton’s brinks- ments” on disarmament and manship, but some of her subor- nonproliferation, for example, proposed to eliminate dinates were sending very different messages to U.N. more than half of the existing language, and to erase all secretariat officials. In retrospect, Bolton looks like a references to disarmament, the regulation of small arms madcap pilot who kept his hand firm on the tiller even as and treaties the U.S. opposed. His draft text on develop- the roar of the waterfall ahead grew louder and louder. ment issues struck out every reference to the so-called Perhaps he wanted to plunge off the precipice. Millennium Development Goals, which until that The drive for reform has not been an out-and-out fail- moment the Bush administration had never found excep- ure, but it has fallen drastically short of the no-doubt tionable, as well as to commitments on aid and debt hyperbolic hopes of the secretary-general and his staff, reduction that Washington, and in some cases only and of the Bush administration’s more measured expec- Washington, opposed. With two weeks left before the tations. John Bolton is scarcely the only party responsi- world’s heads of state arrived for the much-touted 60th- ble for this anticlimax, to be sure. The absurd lengths to anniversary session of the General Assembly, Washington which the G-77 has gone to obstruct management reform was suggesting a deal which, even viewed as a maximalist leave the clear impression that many countries prefer a negotiating position, looked like a calculated insult. hamstrung, ineffective secretariat. Arab nations blocked The debate, not surprisingly, became increasingly poi- a straightforward definition of terrorism. The opposition sonous. Moderate G-77 states were unwilling to stand up of China and dozens of other countries killed all hopes of to the spoilers, who had been empowered by expanding the permanent membership of the Security Washington’s intransigence. Diplomats met in a group of Council to include Japan, Germany, India and Brazil. 30, and then 15, but made little headway. Core issues like China and Russia, with allies like Pakistan, drew the teeth nonproliferation or guidelines for the use of force had from the proposed Human Rights Council, ensuring that long since been discarded for lack of common ground; on authoritarian states like Cuba and Saudi Arabia (and others, the group could agree only on broad principles. China) will be able to serve on the organization and use Bolton seemed to view compromise as surrender. “He their position to block resolutions criticizing their behav- would not give anything away to get his priorities — even ior. The Bush administration, which had talked about the rhetoric,” recalls a U.N. official deeply involved with the Human Rights Council as its highest priority on U.N. process. Bolton struck this official as oddly nonchalant reform, ultimately voted against it and refused to stand about the prospect of losing core elements of the U.S. for election to the new body earlier this year. agenda. The ambassador’s attitude, he says, seemed to amount to, “It’s either my outcome and we walk out of A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy here alive, or leave the place a smoldering ruin.” Bolton’s unique contribution has been to make failure It was only owing to the kind of adroit, difference- a self-fulfilling prophecy. Apparently convinced from the splitting diplomacy to which Bolton seemed allergic that outset that the U.N. was an inhospitable place for the

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U.S., he ensured that it would be so. Bolton has managed that they would submit to Washing- In fact, the U.S. has an extraordinar- ton’s demands? (It’s an approach ily strong hand to play as the U.N.’s to alienate some of that seems to be working fairly well largest funder, and as the world’s for the North Koreans, after all.) ultimate guarantor of security. A Washington’s best According to an American official seasoned diplomat can win wholly deeply involved with the negotia- undeserved victories there, as friends at the U.N. tions, “I think we on the U.S. side, Richard Holbrooke proved in 1999 and the radicals on their side, when he persuaded the institution thought huge portions would fall to lower the U.S.’s annual dues payments even after out because of disagreement, and we would salvage the Washington had withheld payments for years, and to heart of it.” In fact, they would have salvaged nothing accept the suffocating “reforms” upon which conserva- had secretariat officials not intervened. It is also possi- tives in Congress insisted. The U.S. can get away with ble that Bolton didn’t count on the backlash he would bullying the members — within limits. By surpassing produce by arriving at the eleventh hour and casually those limits, Bolton managed to play a strong hand as if it toppling the house of cards that others had been were a weak one. patiently — if perhaps deludedly — building for Should one conclude that the U.S. ambassador to the months. You would think, however, that someone of his United Nations was simply maladroit? Did Bolton, that intelligence and experience would be able to foresee is, mistakenly calculate that threatening to leave the U.N. such consequences. a smoking ruin would sufficiently terrify the members Or perhaps Bolton is not so much an ineffective diplo-

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mat as an unwilling one. After It was only thanks to the Nations, were denouncing man- all, he represents an administra- agement reform as a plot to tion that puts extraordinary store kind of adroit, difference- marginalize the G-77. in the telling of what it deems to Indeed, Bolton has managed be blunt truths — “Old Europe” splitting diplomacy to which to alienate some of Washington’s vs. “New Europe,” “Either you’re best friends at the U.N. with us, or you’re with the terror- Bolton seemed allergic Throughout 2005, Mark Malloch ists.” This Manichean approach Brown, Annan’s chief of staff and reorganizes the great amor- that the reform package closest adviser, earned the enmi- phous mass of reality into two ty of many diplomats and U.N. categories — desirable and was rescued from his staffers by defending the Ameri- undesirable — and lets the can position on a wide range of world see who stands where. all-or-nothing position. issues, and accepting much of This is not a formula of which, the harsh criticism provoked by say, Bismarck or Talleyrand the “Oil for Food” scandal. But would have approved, of course. The goal of diplomacy this past June, Malloch Brown, now the U.N. deputy sec- is not the revealing of truth but the blurring of differ- retary-general, finally blew his stack, delivering a speech ences in order to advance national interests even in accusing Washington of sabotaging the U.N. by practic- adverse settings. But the Bush administration, at some ing a “stealth diplomacy” in which it regularly made use deep ideological-temperamental level, is opposed to of the institution’s political, peacekeeping and humanitar- diplomacy — or at least very important elements of it are. ian capacities while allowing it to be characterized pub- True, during her confirmation hearing Condoleezza Rice licly as a den of corruption and fecklessness. (See announced, “This is the time for diplomacy,” and she has p. 56 for the text of that address.) sought to stitch up the tattered fabric of alliances. But Bolton responded in characteristic fashion, declaring the U.N. may have been one piece of the fabric she felt that Malloch Brown had insulted the American people, she had to yield to the absolutists. and threatening to abet the efforts of congressional John Bolton stands out even among the Bush admin- Republicans to cut U.N. funding. And so U.S.-U.N. istration’s Roundheads. In the run-up to arms-control relations took another turn in their long downward spi- talks with North Korea, Bolton, then our chief negotia- ral. tor, described the country’s president as a “tyrannical It is worth recalling that in the months after Kofi dictator” who managed an “evil regime.” The North Annan published “In Larger Freedom,” various Bush Koreans returned the favor by describing Bolton as administration figures had told U.N. officials that they “human scum,” forcing the State Department to were pleased (if surprised) by the document. They remove him from the talks. Bolton had never minced indicated that they were prepared to push hard for a words about the U.N. in years past, and once he arrived forceful human rights body, an unambiguous condem- he kept up the hail of invective. In the fall of 2005, as nation of terrorism, and the kind of deep management the reform debate resumed, the trigger-happy diplomat reform that would turn the U.N. into a more or less described the U.N. as “a target-rich environment,” and modern organization. Instead, it seems unlikely that warned that if the place didn’t shape up, “we’ll turn to any of those vital reforms will occur in the near future. some other mechanism to solve international prob- Perhaps Talleyrand himself would have done no bet- lems.” At a time when the advocates of reform needed ter, but most of the central players in the drama to mollify Third World countries who resented what believe the U.S. could have achieved a good deal they viewed as American and Western domination of more than it did. the U.N., Bolton appeared to be trying to get their goat We cannot, of course, fathom John Bolton’s motives, — which, of course, he succeeded in doing. By the but apparently he is keeping score by an entirely different spring of 2006, even moderate figures like Dumisani metric. History, though, is likely to judge him as a bad Kumalo, South Africa’s ambassador to the United diplomat at a time when diplomacy really mattered.

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U.N. REFORM: THINK BIG Poul Hans Lange

A BOTTOM-UP OVERHAUL MAY BE THE MOST PROMISING APPROACH TO TAKE.

BY RONALD I. SPIERS

nited Nations reform has been at the top of the international agenda for the past year, yet nothing very fundamental has been achieved to date. Rationalization of the secretariat, despite progress due to the efforts of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, still has a long way to go. Apparently resistance among smaller member-states to the Uintroduction of merit systems has impeded further progress. Although I suspect charges about the prevalence of corruption in the staff are politically exaggerated, it has certainly existed and, until merit systems governing recruit-

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ment, evaluation and promotion The key obstacle is the Security Council. are introduced, it will be hard to In many instances, appeasing ferret out. fact that different one group would sharpen the dissat- There has been marginal im- isfaction among another. There has provement in the Human Rights categories of members been no reform solution proposed Commission, though the U.S. that would take care of everyone’s decided not to stand for election to have different complaints problems. Only the classic “good that body — perhaps realizing it citizens,” like the Scandinavians and might well suffer an embarrassing about the institution. Canadians, seem to stand outside defeat if it did. The concept of a the “unhappiness” corner. Peacebuilding Commission, intended to keep an eye out for failed and failing states Aim High and coordinate international action to help or pre-empt Perhaps the problem is that our sights have been set failure, is a constructive one and may still produce too low, and that we need to aim for a more radical something useful, but there is no telling when it will restructuring. Realists may argue that if small steps bear fruit. can’t be made, large ones are even more out of the The key obstacle to meaningful reform is the fact question. I am not so sure. It is worth thinking about that different categories of members have different a bottom-up overhaul of an organization that is frozen assortments of dissatisfactions with the institution. in the realities of the 1940s. American unilateralists distrust the whole idea of a I believe the following ideas, though far-reaching, “world government” (which the U.N. certainly is not) are worth considering. and are suspicious of any strengthening or power-shar- The General Assembly might be rescued from its ing. Washington chafes at the economic burden of pay- sleepy irrelevance by two fundamental changes. The ing 22 percent of the institution’s total budget. It first would be a move to population-based, weighted resents underwriting programs with no sunset provi- voting. It is ridiculous that the vote of Palau (popula- sions in which the U.S. has little interest or actually tion 20,000) has the same weight as that of China or opposes, particularly when they are advanced by coun- India (each over a billion). Under weighted voting, tries that don’t have to carry the costs. each of the 192 members (Montenegro recently Other major contributors like Germany and Japan are became the 192nd) might have one vote (or a fraction unhappy that countries paying much smaller shares of thereof) for each million of its population. Admittedly, the costs (e.g., Russia and China) continue to enjoy a pre- this approach would give China (hardly democratically ferred position. Major geographic powers like Brazil and representative) a weightier vote than the U.S. in the India feel the institution should be modernized to recog- General Assembly, but it would engender a greater nize the political weight their large populations should be sense of equity within the body that might be con- accorded in the world body. Smaller countries complain ducive to achieving some of our goals. about the concentration of authority in a small group of The second reform would be to reconstitute the developed countries that don’t have their interests at assembly’s committee system along parliamentary heart. They feel that the General Assembly in which they lines, so that each of the present Committees of the are all represented, has been totally marginalized by the Whole would consist of just 30 to 40 members elected by each General Assembly session from among the Following his retirement from the Foreign Service, members who presented themselves as candidates to Ambassador Ronald Spiers was undersecretary-general assume membership at the following session. This for political affairs of the United Nations from 1989 to would make the committees smaller, more substantive 1992. He began his 34-year FS career by serving on the and efficient, and give the plenary sessions more of a staff of U.S. delegations to the General Assembly from 1955 role in resolving differences. As a bonus, General to 1959. He now writes and lectures on foreign affairs and Assembly recommendations would be more likely to is a fellow of the American Academy of Diplomacy. reflect global realities.

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Critics will be loath to see the Adopting population- category would consist of the five General Assembly strengthened, countries with the largest budget noting that the U.S. is frequently based, weighted voting assessments, which currently in- heavily outvoted there and has cludes the U.S., Japan, Ger- no veto. However, they should could help rescue the many, the U.K. and France. A remember that most GA resolu- second group could encompass tions are only recommendations, General Assembly from its the five most populous members or expressions of opinion. In not already included in the first; addition, war and peace decisions sleepy irrelevance. today that would be China, India, are reserved to the Security Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan, in Council. But as a means of reas- that order. A third category of, suring skeptics, the areas of “decision,” such as on the say, 10 members could be elected by the General budget, should require 3/4 votes in the assembly rather Assembly by majority vote in order of number of votes than simple majorities. received. Such a charter would serve geographic diversity by An Expanded Security Council placing selection of Security Council members in the If the U.N. Charter were to be redrafted from hands of the General Assembly. It would also free the scratch, I would argue strongly for an expanded institution from the traditional “Buggins’ turn” system, Security Council (20 countries instead of the current under which regional groups currently get to decide 15) drawn from three categories of membership. One candidates for top positions on a rotational basis with

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little regard to merit or qualifica- Abolishing, or at least Patience Is a Virtue tions. At first blush I know these Unfortunately, this logical for- curtailing, the veto of the proposals sound impossibly rev- mula would leave Russia out in olutionary, running as they do the cold to compete under the Security Council’s five against the cherished fiction of third category and is thus a non- “sovereign equality.” Clearly starter. So as a compromise, I permanent members would the obstacles are daunting and believe the U.S. should whole- resistance would be widespread, heartedly support British Prime serve not only world including within the U.S. But Minister Tony Blair’s proposal to discussion and further thought add Germany, Japan and India as interests but our own. may permit a more realistic permanent members without appreciation of how reform otherwise expanding the Secur- would improve the operation ity Council’s total membership. and effectiveness of an organization which, if it did In addition, I believe both world and U.S. interests not exist, would truly have to be invented. The only would be served by abolishing the veto that the pre- alternative may be to watch a further withering away sent five permanent members enjoy. If that is too bit- of an increasingly outdated institution. ter a pill for them to swallow, perhaps the veto could I think back to when I was a new member of the be strictly limited to action under Chapter VII of the staff of the Atomic Energy Commission in the early U.N. Charter. Otherwise, substantive decisions could 1950s and wrote a proposal for an international orga- be taken by two-thirds or three-quarter majorities and nization to monitor nuclear programs to ensure that by simple majority on procedural matters. However, they were not diverted into weaponry. Most of my col- I am quite convinced that the veto is not as important leagues at the AEC ridiculed the idea as naïvely vision- or precious as most people think. ary, if not actually contrary to U.S. interests. But one The Trusteeship Council is presently out of busi- of the commissioners (Harry Smythe, a former ness, because no trusteeship territories remain to be Princeton physics professor and author of the famous overseen. But it could be usefully reconstituted as a “Smythe Report”) thought the idea was worth pursu- Trusteeship Committee for the Environment, commis- ing. sioning studies and producing policy recommendations He took it to some of his colleagues in the relating to such “global commons” issues as pollution, Eisenhower White House and the idea, to my surprise, fisheries, climate, the “high seas,” global epidemics and surfaced as a proposal in President Eisenhower’s biodiversity. “Atoms for Peace” speech at the U.N. in December These changes might aid in easing more fundamen- 1953. tal secretariat reform that has so far been opposed by Shortly afterward I received a panicky call from a smaller member-states who fear that the large devel- special assistant to Secretary of State John Foster oped countries are trying to wrest away what little Dulles, telling me that the State Department had been influence they have. As a result, the secretariat handed responsibility for follow-up to the president’s remains top-heavy, overstaffed, reluctant to apply merit speech. State had no experts on nuclear matters in principles to promotion and recruitment, and too sub- those days and was at a loss about how to proceed. So ject to outside political pressure. my first assignment when I joined the department in The deputy secretary-general should be the chief January 1955 was to fill out the practical details of the management officer of the U.N. and be selected on the idea, prepare a draft statute and serve as a principal basis of demonstrated management experience. member of the team that negotiated it into existence in Subject to membership control of the budget process, 1956. he or she and the secretary-general himself should Last year the International Atomic Energy Agency have a freer hand to organize the secretariat without won the Nobel Peace Prize. It may take half a century, membership micromanagement. but sometimes it does pay to think “outside the box”!

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REINVENTING THE UNITED NATIONS Poul Hans Lange

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WAS THE FIRST GENERATION OF GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THE U.N. WAS THE SECOND. IT IS TIME TO DESIGN A THIRD-GENERATION ENTITY.

BY TAD DALEY AND DAVID LIONEL

rive from San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge and turn left, and you will arrive before long at John Muir Woods, home to the oldest living things on Planet Earth. Walk along the path back into the forest for a few miles, and you will come across a heavy metal and stone plaque set squarely into the earth. It is dated April 29,D 1945 — 10 days before the surrender of Nazi Germany, more than three months before the atomic devasta- tion of Japan, less than three weeks after the death of arguably the greatest statesman of the age. The plaque says this:

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“Here in this grove of enduring redwoods, preserved for weren’t invited to the party have pleaded to make the posterity, members of the United Nations Conference on United Nations more legitimate, more accountable and International Organizations met on April 29, 1945, to more representative of the peoples of the world. Several honor the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Thirty- initiatives marked the organization’s 50th anniversary in Second President of the United States, Chief Architect of 1995, including the Commission on Global Governance, the United Nations, and Apostle of Lasting Peace for All the Independent Working Group on the U.N. in Its Mankind.” Second Half-Century, the “Preferred Futures for the The work of that architect has stood the test of time. U.N.” symposium, and the South Center’s report, “For a But the challenge that apostle chose to take on is at least Strong and Democratic United Nations.” Many of these as acute today as it was six decades ago. And a whole host plans were backed by Nobel laureates, former heads of of new challenges have emerged, ones simply not on the state, and distinguished scholars and practitioners with radar screen of the framers who met in San Francisco vast experience in the global governance arena. Yet they during that fertile spring. all went nowhere. Today the world faces non-state terror networks, Nearly a decade later, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi failed states, intractable poverty, AIDS and other pan- Annan’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and demics, the challenge of governing transnational corpo- Change issued a report in December 2004, offering sev- rations, climate change and other forms of chronic envi- eral recommendations to revitalize the U.N. system. A ronmental degradation. Despite promises of “never follow-up document, In Larger Freedom: Towards again,” we see genocides repeated in Bosnia, Rwanda, Development, Security and Human Rights for All, further Darfur — places remote from great-power interests and explored those ideas in March 2005. therefore unlikely to motivate international interventions. At a summit just before the opening of the U.N.’s 60th We witness one state trying to stem the tide of nuclear General Assembly session in September 2005, world proliferation while insisting on retaining and indeed leaders intended to inaugurate a package of reforms that, improving its own vast nuclear arsenal — seemingly it was hoped, might equip the world organization with at oblivious to both the contradiction in that position and least some promising new tools to cope with challenges the futility of such an enterprise. likely to arise over the next six decades or so. For six The structure of the U.N., too, has become embar- months before that meeting, Annan’s panel focused on rassingly anachronistic: Britain and France are only identifying politically attainable results that governments medium-rank world powers by any reckoning, yet both might actually adopt. These were compiled in an imagi- hold Security Council vetoes. In contrast, Germany, native 38-page “Outcome Document” that contained Japan, India, Brazil, and many other nations possessing many genuine advances. significant geopolitical weight have virtually no voice. Enter, stage right, John Bolton, the new U.S. ambas- Since the U.N.’s inception, those who feel like they sador to the United Nations. Despite Republican control of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tad Daley, who led an initiative called the “Campaign for Bolton was so unpopular that President George W. a New U.N. Charter” during the U.N.’s 50th-anniversary Bush ended up sending him to New York in August year in 1995, is now Peace and Disarmament Fellow in 2005 under a recess appointment through the end of the Los Angeles office of Physicians for Social 2006. His first act was to reject 35 of the agreement’s Responsibility, the Nobel laureate anti-nuclear organiza- 38 hard-won pages. A frantic three weeks of negotia- tion. David Lionel, president of the Earth Television tions restored barely 10 watered-down pages, which Public Education Foundation, is a veteran producer of was all that was left for signing at the summit. Some video documentaries portraying the historic U.N. civil excellent proposals survived, including a Human society forums of the past 15 years, including those in Rio Rights Council, a Peacebuilding Commission, and in 1992, Istanbul in 1996, and the Millennium Forum in a Democracy Fund. But it was hardly the profound New York in 2000. He is developing a weekly digest of revitalization of the United Nations system it might the vast quantity of U.N.-produced TV programming have been. And thanks to perfunctory media coverage, that is presently unseen in the United States. most Americans barely knew the summit took place —

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let alone the dimensions of the missed opportunity. Washington’s intransigent opposition. The ICC and the If the League of Nations was the first generation of landmine ban are clearly here to stay. And we have like- global multilateral organizations and the United Nations ly not seen the last of this new technique for changing the the second, it is high time to begin considering the archi- international political status quo. tecture of a third-generation entity. What kind of United Still, those near-term successes hardly obviate the Nations system would we create if we were designing it need for longer-term structural transformations. Perhaps from scratch today? Here are some of the issues that, for the most important of these is the veto. Few things could the most part, have been conspicuous mostly by their be more profoundly undemocratic than a rule that allows absence from the global governance policy debate. a single state to stand opposed to the rest of the world, and command the rest of the world into impotence and The Security Council inaction. In the past decade or so, several important initiatives Even when a veto is not actually cast, veto calculations have advanced not so much by changing the Security dominate virtually every decision the Security Council Council, but by going around it. The Rome International makes. Why? Because it is always necessary to get all Criminal Court Treaty and Ottawa Landmine Treaty, for five permanent members on board. Has there been any example, were both initially kept off the U.N. agenda by exercise in the past decade more inequitable (or cynical) the United States. In response, smart coalitions of mid- than the one in December 1996, when the vote to reap- dle-power governments and civil-society organizations point U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to a generated enough political momentum to actually bring second term tallied up at 14-1 ... but the “one” won? If into being two brand-new multilateral treaties, despite we believe, as Churchill insisted, that “democracy is the

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worst form of government — except for all those others,” al public policymaking processes — changes that will then we ought to aspire to democracy at every level of bring a much larger transformation in representation, human governance. legitimacy, accountability and universality. Many schemes have been put forth over the decades for modifying the veto. Perhaps it could be limited to A Broader Democratization only the most vital matters the Security Council consid- Some have described the often-ineffectual U.N. ers — rather than extending to everything on its docket. General Assembly as embodying the principle of “one Perhaps for other matters it could be transformed into a nation, one vote and no power.” Surely the time has long supermajority requirement — say, three of the five per- since come to give serious consideration to a weighted manent members and nine of 15 total members. In voting system in the General Assembly — similar to those American elections, after all, 60 percent is usually con- already used in the International Labor Organization, the sidered a landslide. European Union and the international financial institu- It’s often declared as self-evident that the U.S. “would tions. never give up the veto” — that is, give up our ability to One longstanding idea is the “binding triad” proposal, prevent the rest of the world from doing something we promoted for years by the late Richard Hudson of the don’t want it to do. But the veto’s existence also allows Center for War/Peace Studies, under which vote tallies other countries to keep us from doing something, too. would calculate not only the number of states voting for Consider an initiative Washington wants very much to some measure, but also the number of people represent- pursue, which garners the support of 10 or 11 or even 14 ed by those states and the number of dollars contributed Security Council members. If it is Russia, China, Britain by those states. Consider how much legitimacy would be or France that stands opposed, the U.S. is forced to conferred on initiatives that had secured support from a choose between dropping the initiative or pursuing it majority of states, a majority of people, and a majority of without council authorization and in defiance of interna- those paying the bills. tional law. This, of course, is why curtailing Iran’s nuclear In Hudson’s vision, such a system of three simultane- program has been so difficult, because the five have con- ous majorities would have enough credibility to grant to sistently had very different ideas about how to proceed. the General Assembly the same kind of power to enact This is what happened in early 2003, when the U.S. binding international law over other matters that the abruptly dropped its efforts to secure a resolution autho- Security Council now possesses over war and peace mat- rizing a U.S. invasion of Iraq, and launched such an inva- ters: the ability to legislate. sion anyway — illegally, in the view of most international Professor Joseph Schwartzberg of the University of lawyers. Minnesota has done elaborate mathematical analyses of Inextricably intertwined with the question of the veto how both the binding triad and other weighted voting is the question of the composition of the Security schemes might actually operate in practice. Nongovern- Council. Few things could be more profoundly anachro- mental advocacy organizations ought to start counting nistic than a body owned and operated by the five victors and promoting those tabulations now — to illuminate the of a war that ended in the first half of the last century. simple proposition that the mechanism for representa- Many schemes for democratizing the council have been tion decided upon in San Francisco in 1945 is not the put forth over the decades. There is little point in rehash- only possible kind. ing the respective merits of various plans here, beyond Another advantage of this approach is that it would noting that virtually all of them focus on bringing a small provide a tangible incentive for nations to fulfill their number of new great powers to the table, to provide a funding obligations to the U.N. promptly and consistent- voice to presently unrepresented regions. Perhaps one ly. The more you pay, the greater your clout. The Senate day we will see the emergence of enough political will to Foreign Relations Committee, under the suzerainty of actually bring one of these schemes into existence. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., a few years back, might not If humanity wants to avoid some of the cataclysmic have been so quick to withhold our dues to the U.N. had scenarios that are all too easy to conjure today, we must our voting power there been directly diminished as a con- try to envision much more dramatic changes in our glob- sequence.

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Incidentally, a variety of other A call for an Article 109 together in an international forum. alternative financing schemes has Even if only advisory, such an been advanced over the years. The charter review conference assembly could give citizens a more most well-known of these is the direct voice on the world stage. “Tobin Tax,” which would fund could become a powerful Such an assembly could lead to the U.N. activities and other worthy emergence of true transnational international undertakings through mobilizing force in political parties — a historic step a trivial levy on international cur- forward for democratic political rency transactions. Other proposals civil society. participation. include similar levies on national Even better might be to create a defense expenditures, international directly elected “U.N. People’s arms sales or national carbon emissions. Among the most Assembly.” Here in Los Angeles, we get to pick our rep- innovative of these is the “International Finance Facility,” resentatives for the city council, the state assembly and a central repository for aid and disaster funds contributed state senate in Sacramento, and the U.S. House of in advance — rather than in panic mode after the fact. Representatives and Senate in Washington, D.C. Not, Many ideas have also been advanced to provide a however, beyond that. Why not? After all, a directly- voice at the U.N. for more than just the appointed repre- elected transnational legislature already exists: the sentatives of national governments. One is to establish a European Parliament. A woman in Aberdeen, for exam- “U.N. Parliamentary Assembly,” where elected represen- ple, elects someone to represent her there, in Edinburgh, tatives from various national legislatures would convene in London and in Strasbourg. Why can’t all citizens of the

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world do something like this no matter where they live? how take care of our global commons.” John Kenneth Even if only advisory, such a world assembly could give Galbraith, who died earlier this year, said not long ago: people who feel impotent and powerless somewhere to “The greatest political conflict of our time [is] that of go to express themselves on the great challenges facing national interest as opposed to transnational concern and the human race. It might even move some to choose this responsibility.” And the late George F. Kennan, arguably as the vehicle for conveying their grievances — rather America’s pre-eminent 20th-century foreign policy sage, than suicide bombings or crashing airplanes into sky- floated the idea of a global “House of Councilors,” whose scrapers. members would explicitly not represent nations or regions, but instead strive to identify the perspective of Getting the Ball Rolling the whole, the transnational vital interest, the global pub- One strategy to actualize many of these potential lic good. strengths was envisioned by the San Francisco framers Perhaps we can peer even further into the future. themselves in Article 108, which details the process for Many thinkers have maintained that it is within the making particular revisions to the U.N. charter, and power of the human imagination to envision abolishing Article 109, for summoning “a general conference … for war itself. Many have suggested that organizing the the purpose of reviewing the present Charter.” world into separate sovereign states, each pouring enor- Moreover, convening such a conference is not subject to mous quantities of treasure, talent and often blood into the great-power veto. Such a meeting can be called by a the ability to make war on other states, is perhaps not the vote of two-thirds of the General Assembly and any nine end of history. Many have imagined that someday there of the 15 Security Council members. (Incidentally, the may be a next step in the social evolution of the human language of Article 109, Section 3, indicates that the species. framers expected the member states to summon such a Nearly 700 years ago, in his De Monarchia, Dante “general conference” after only 10 years — in 1955.) insisted, “to achieve a state of universal peace and well- A call for an Article 109 charter review conference being, a single world government is necessary.” That could become a powerful mobilizing force in civil society. remarkable proposition was elaborated in Immanuel It would provide something tangible and specific to urge Kant’s Perpetual Peace, Jean Jacques Rousseau’s A Lasting upon our governments, while leaving open what might Peace Through the Federation of Europe, H.G. Wells’ A ultimately emerge from the process. It could assemble a Modern Utopia, Emery Reves’s The Anatomy of Peace, broad coalition of supporters who might hold a number Vernon Nash’s The World Must Be Governed, Wendell of different visions for a world order, but who could all Willkie’s One World, Bertrand Russell’s Toward World agree on pursuing the process laid out in the charter itself Government, G.A. Borgese’s Foundations of the World to define the most appropriate vision for the challenges of Republic, Mortimer Adler’s How to Think About War and the 21st century. Peace, and Grenville Clark and Louis Sohn’s World Peace In 1945, Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of the Through World Law. And that same proposition was University of Chicago, feared that the simultaneous dawn forcibly defended — especially around the middle of the of both a timid U.N. charter and a new atomic age meant last century — by figures like Albert Einstein, Winston that “mankind has made up its mind for self destruction.” Churchill, Sigmund Freud, Arnold Toynbee, E.B. White, So he assembled some of the greatest intellectuals of the Norman Cousins, Oscar Hammerstein, Carl Van Doren, day, and grandly designated them “The Committee to U.S. Supreme Court Justices Owen Roberts and William Frame a World Constitution.” Are there any philan- Douglas, and future U.S. Senators Alan Cranston, Harris thropists out there who might consider launching a Wofford, Paul Simon and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. “Committee to Frame a New U.N. Charter” today? It is Many of them felt their hearts as well as their heads hard to imagine anything that might better serve as an moved by the words that had been uttered a century ear- engine of our global political imagination. lier by Alfred Lord Tennyson, who dreamed of the hour Singapore’s U.N. ambassador, Kishore Mahbubani, when we might “hear the war drum throb no longer, see says the organization is “based on the strange principle the battle flags all furled, in the parliament of man, the that nation-states pursuing national interests will some- federation of the world.”

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The San Francisco Charter itself, in its very first sen- a catalyst for expanding the parameters of political pos- tence, states that its principal purpose is “to save suc- sibility. ceeding generations from the scourge of war.” Perhaps We began this article with a visit to Muir Woods. Now we might permit ourselves the intellectual freedom to get back on the Golden Gate Bridge, cross back into San believe that we might one day live up to that noble call- Francisco, turn left at the Bay Bridge to Oakland, then ing. continue east until you reach the National Mall in Washington, D.C. At the Jefferson Memorial you will The Pragmatism of Idealism find these words: “I am not an advocate for frequent Few of these global governance reform proposals, changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institu- admittedly, are likely to be politically realistic in the near tions must go hand in hand with the progress of the term. The veto, for example, might be the single most human mind. We might as well require a man to wear intractable feature of global governance, because — as still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized soci- The Economist magazine put it so pithily several years ago ety to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous — “the vetoers can veto a veto of the veto.” ancestors.” But how will we ever get rid of the veto if no one The time has come for us to weave a new coat for a even says that we ought to do so? How can we ever third-generation world organization. We must seize the change the political realities of the near term if we don’t opportunity to invent a garment of our own, one even discuss what might be desirable in the long term? designed not for our ancestors, but for weathering the If politics, as every undergraduate knows, is the art of storms, exploring the vistas, and reaching for the promise the possible, then this kind of conversation can serve as of the uncharted 21st century. Home Suite Home

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SELECTING THE NEXT SECRETARY-GENERAL Poul Hans Lange

U.N. REFORM HAS BEEN THE HALLMARK OF KOFI ANNAN’S DECADE-LONG TENURE. FINDING A LEADER TO CONTINUE THAT EFFORT IS CRITICAL.

BY SUZANNE DIMAGGIO

here has been a great deal of talk over the years about reforming, renewing and revitalizing the United Nations. During the past year, real progress has been made in some important areas, including the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission and a new Human Rights Council, but considerable challenges still remain. T In many ways, the effort to modernize the institution can be viewed as the hallmark of Kofi Annan’s decade-long

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tenure as secretary-general. So as Annan prepares to ommend no more than one candidate. Resolution 11(1), step down on Dec. 31, 2006, selecting his successor is which was passed in 1946, states that “it would be desir- perhaps the central question facing the member-states able for the Security Council to proffer only one candi- this year. That process should reflect not only the desire date for the consideration of the General Assembly.” to find the most qualified man or woman for the job but Resolution 51/241, passed in 1997, sought to establish a to ensure that the new secretary-general has the mandate set of principles that might be applied to the selection of and capability to pursue institutional reform. the secretary-general, calling upon the assembly to make This article draws upon a project recently carried out “full use of the power of appointment enshrined in the by the United Nations Association of the United States of charter” and identifying a role for the assembly president America that aimed to: (a) clarify the appropriate roles of in facilitating interaction with the Security Council. the secretary-general and identify the qualities we should In practice, this has given the five permanent mem- look for in the next secretary-general; (b) shed light on bers of the Security Council — China, France, Russia, how to best improve the selection process; and (c) think the United Kingdom and the United States — veto through what should be the priority agenda for the next power over the selection process within the council since secretary-general. Toward this end, over a period of sev- the U.N.’s founding. The assembly has had the theoreti- eral months during the first half of 2006, UNA-USA cal power to override the council’s selection by declining organized a series of meetings and consultations on to give the recommended candidate the necessary major- choosing the next person to fill the U.N.’s top post. ity vote, but has never done so. Participants included member-state representatives to In the absence of official guidelines, some precedents the body from every region of the world, former and cur- have emerged over the years. Each secretary-general’s rent U.N. officials, representatives from nongovernmen- tenure lasts one or two terms of five years. The selection tal organizations and the private sector, scholars and has followed a geographical rotation of sorts, and it is gen- other experts. erally accepted that the secretary-general should not The following outlines some of the major issues that originate from one of the council’s P-5. emerged during the discussions, highlighting the areas of Previous U.N. secretaries-general were: Trygvie Lie of agreement and disagreement, and concludes with a Norway (1946-1952); Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden series of recommendations. (You can read the project’s (1953-1961); U Thant of Burma/Myanmar (1961-1971); full report at www.unausa.org/nextsg). Kurt Waldheim of Austria (1972-1981); Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru (1982-1991); and Boutros Boutros-Ghali The Current Process of Egypt (1992-1996). Since the United Nations was founded in 1945, the office of the secretary-general has evolved to encompass The Selection Process both administrative and diplomatic portfolios, at once Given the array of tasks for which the secretary-gen- managing a large bureaucracy and forging consensus eral is responsible, it is difficult to codify the specific among often-polarized member states. Yet despite the qualifications needed to do the job well. Obviously, the reach and importance of the position, the process for list would include outstanding diplomatic skills and choosing the secretary-general is murky at best. The strong leadership capabilities. But it is notable that some U.N. Charter provides minimal guidance, stating simply participants in USA-UNA’s project felt leadership should that “the Secretary-General shall be appointed by the reflect an ability to ensure that the organization is man- General Assembly upon the recommendation of the aged well, but not necessarily to serve as the organiza- Security Council.” The charter also states that the secre- tion’s “manager.” Instead, proponents of this view assert- tary-general should serve as the chief administrative offi- ed, candidates should exhibit a willingness to delegate cer of the organization, but no specific qualifications are responsibilities to a deputy on a daily basis while main- identified; nor is there any mention of the term length or taining overall accountability for the health of the criteria for selection. organization. Others disagreed, emphasizing that at this The General Assembly is on record as opting out of moment in the organization’s history — with the mis- the process by requesting that the Security Council rec- management of the Oil for Food program and wide-

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spread cases of sexual abuse perpe- Re-examining As noted above, the U.N. charter trated by peacekeepers still fresh in does not contain any specific refer- people’s minds — the U.N. needs a the selection process ence to regional rotation in the strong administrator at its helm process for selecting the secretary- above all else. should be viewed general. However, General Assem- There was general agreement bly Resolution 51/241 states that that the next secretary-general as a component of the “due regard” should be given to must be a “uniting figure” who can regional rotation. During our dis- develop solutions to challenges in larger, ongoing U.N. cussions, some argued that the the diplomatic, economic and practice has been more or less humanitarian fields. In particular, reform effort. adhered to for the past 60 years many respondents cited the need and, as such, it should continue to to bridge the gap between North be observed. and South and to repair the deep divisions that have Those who strongly favored regional rotation viewed it emerged recently. But while there was consensus that as a way to ensure an element of equity in the process, the next secretary-general must be able to work with all allowing the developing world to be represented. They member-states and to stand up to the five permanent believe Annan should now hand off the baton to an Asian. Security Council members when necessary, some P-5 Others felt that while regional rotation is important and members cautioned that he or she should not be too desirable, we should move on to others if Asia cannot strong a personality. Some participants drew attention to produce the best candidate. A third group of participants the mounting pressure that the next secretary-general (the smallest of the three) took the position that the most will likely face from powerful members-states whose qualified person for the job should be sought regardless recent attempts to gain permanent seats on the council of regional origin. have failed. The Asians and Africans, who together represent the The process for selecting the secretary-general has majority of the 192 member states of the U.N., seem to mainly consisted of secret ballots and closed meetings, agree that it is now Asia’s turn to take the helm at the with information distributed through leaks rather than U.N. But the five permanent, veto-wielding members of formal reporting. Most participants in our discussions the Security Council appear to be divided on where the therefore agreed that a transparent, democratic process next secretary-general should come from. With a lack of would go a long way toward producing the most qualified consensus among the P-5 on this issue, it remains to be and credible candidate. seen if the element of regional rotation will be adhered Some participants advocated the establishment of a to in the upcoming process. Notwithstanding this search committee with diverse regional representation, uncertainty, a number of participants observed that, possibly comprised of former heads of state that have pragmatically speaking, it would be difficult to envision emerged positively in an international light. This idea, any other outcome at this point. however, was met with some reluctance, primarily by Not surprisingly, many participants in our discussions those who pointed out that the U.N. is not a corporation called for the General Assembly to have a larger role in and should not be managed as such. One participant identifying specific candidates that reflect the priorities likened the establishment of a search committee for the of the membership and submitting them to the Security next secretary-general to placing an advertisement in Council. In fact, some asserted that the process of choos- The Economist. ing the secretary-general should originate in the General Assembly, which would enhance the nominee’s legitima- Suzanne DiMaggio is vice president for global policy cy. It is not clear whether adopting such a procedure programs at the United Nations Association of the would necessitate a change to the U.N. Charter, but an USA, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that serves expanded General Assembly role would likely become a as a center for innovative programs and dialogue to great source of tension with the Security Council that engage Americans in issues of global concern. would not be easy to resolve.

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Agenda and Priorities Given the array of tasks and human rights monitoring. It is self-evident that the Some participants also noted demands currently being placed for which the secretary- that the U.N. is being called upon upon the U.N. are markedly dif- more and more to respond to ferent from those of just a decade general is responsible, complex humanitarian emergen- ago, let alone those at the organi- cies. Currently, more than 19 zation’s founding six decades ago. it is difficult to codify the million refugees, asylum-seekers As some participants in our dis- and internally displaced persons cussions emphasized, the U.N. specific qualifications receive food, shelter and medical has in many ways become a assistance from U.N. bodies. At peacekeeping and peacebuilding needed to do the job well. the same time, the U.N. system is organization — a development its leading the largest international founders could not have fore- effort against diseases such as seen. With 80,000 peacekeepers stationed in trouble HIV/AIDS, malaria and polio. spots around the globe, the U.N. Department of When thinking about choosing the next secretary-gen- Peacekeeping Operations is now the largest deployed eral, participants underscored that any candidate being military in the world, aside from the U.S. armed services. seriously considered for the job must have the capacity to In addition, more than half of the U.N.’s 30,000 civilian carry out the aforementioned responsibilities and, at the staff are currently serving in the field, engaged in peace- same time, lead and follow through on the ambitious keeping, humanitarian relief efforts, electoral assistance agenda for reform that was put forward at the 2005

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World Summit and is already in In selecting the next tury into the organization’s history.) progress. This reform agenda Some participants advocated em- includes: secretary-general, powering the deputy with a real • Solidifying the organization of line of authority on management the new Peacebuilding Commission qualifications should and operations, to enable the sec- to strengthen the secretary-gener- retary-general to focus on the ever- al’s capacity for mediation and to hold primacy over all growing political and policy dimen- serve as the organizing mechanism sions of the U.N.’s work. Pro- to coordinate preventive and post- other considerations. ponents of this view noted that, conflict activities; given the realities of the job, defin- • Following through on a coming the secretary-general as chief prehensive convention against terrorism that universally political officer and the deputy as a chief operating offi- condemns it in all forms and also significantly strengthens cer makes great sense. Still, some disagreed, maintaining the U.N.’s counterterrorism capacity; that when assessing the qualities of candidates for the • Strengthening the newly-established Human Rights post of secretary-general, the emphasis should be on Council to reinvigorate the U.N.’s commitment to pro- management skills, not political skills. moting human rights, a function largely discredited in recent years under its predecessor, the much-criticized Recommended Improvements Human Rights Commission; The discussion above provides a snapshot of the • Moving forward on member-states’ recognition that debate surrounding the search for the next secretary-gen- there is an obligation to protect suffering populations eral. The recommendations that emerged from the under certain conditions, particularly genocide, if the UNA-USA consultations would not require any changes government in question is unable to do so or is itself to the U.N. charter and could be implemented during inflicting the suffering; the current selection process. They are as follows: • Continuing the implementation of a wide range of • In selecting the next secretary-general, the overrid- management reforms in the secretariat and beyond, ing goal should be to appoint the most qualified man or including increasing the U.N.’s oversight capacity, updat- woman for the job. In other words, qualifications should ing all mandates older than five years and overhauling hold primacy over all other considerations. policies on budget, finance and human resources; • The secretary-general should first and foremost be a • Maintaining the momentum toward the achieve- highly capable diplomat with outstanding leadership and ment of the Millennium Development Goals — a set of negotiating skills. His or her moral authority should be eight clearly-defined, time-bound and measurable devel- beyond reproach because, ultimately, the secretary-gen- opment targets that provide a common development eral’s power flows from the respect commanded by the strategy for the international community on issues rang- individual holding the office. ing from universal primary education and a reduction in • The secretary-general should be held accountable child mortality to environmental sustainability and the for the overall management of the organization, but he or promotion of gender equality — by 2015; and she should be able to entrust day-to-day management • Revitalizing the Economic and Social Council to fol- responsibilities to the deputy and other senior staff. low up on relevant outcomes of major U.N. conferences • In the U.N.’s 60-year history, the organization’s top and develop a mechanism for monitoring member-states’ post has never been held by a woman. In light of this, progress toward fulfilling the Millennium Development gender equality should be viewed as an important criteri- Goals. on in the selection process, and an effort should be made Throughout our discussions, participants noted that to identify qualified female candidates. the deputy secretary-general position has not been uti- • A candidate should not be accepted simply because lized to its full advantage. (It is worth noting that there is it is his or her region’s “turn” to hold the position. The no mention of a deputy anywhere in the U.N. Charter; in unwritten principle of regional rotation has helped to fact, the position was not created until 1996, a half-cen- somewhat mitigate the arbitrariness of the selection

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process in the past, but this is not a compelling enough • In an effort to open up the process, the Security reason to stick with it. Council, working through its president, should appoint a • The time has come to expand the role of the U.N. nominating committee composed of highly regarded General Assembly in the selection process. The assembly individuals with integrity and stature and task them with should play a role early on and assist in identifying candi- the responsibility of seeking out qualified candidates. dates. The president of the assembly should be engaged • Candidates seeking the U.N.’s top job should com- in seeking candidates and making those candidates avail- municate how they propose to address the most pressing able to the Security Council as envisioned in Resolution issues facing the organization and the international com- 51/241. Ideally, the selection process should start from munity at large, including development and the eradica- both ends of the organization and meet in the middle — tion of poverty, terrorism and weapons proliferation. in other words, both the Security Council and the They also should elaborate on how they would deal with General Assembly should provide names of candidates the expanding demands on the U.N. system in the areas for the other organ to consider informally. A deeper of peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance, as well as sense of process, including more extensive consultations, its growing role as a central coordinator for global action would increase transparency in a significant way. on issues relating to the environment and health. • General Assembly Resolution 11(1), which calls • All candidates to succeed Kofi Annan should commit upon the Security Council to recommend one nominee themselves in advance to the full implementation of the for appointment as secretary-general, should be amend- reforms he has overseen aimed at modernizing the orga- ed so that two or more well-qualified candidates are sub- nization. Those reforms that remain outside the secre- mitted to the assembly for consideration. tary-general’s authority should be implemented by the

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member-states before the end of The demands currently ing how to approach develop- this year in order to give his suc- ment, terrorism, disarmament, cessor a solid basis from which to being placed upon the U.N. nuclear nonproliferation and the begin. management of the U.N. itself. are markedly different from Making improvements in the The Time Is Now process for selecting the body’s A re-examination of the those of just a decade ago, next leader in the current climate process of selecting the secre- of strained relations and mistrust tary-general should be viewed as let alone those at the will undoubtedly be difficult. But a component of the larger, on- there is too much at stake to do going U.N. reform effort. A organization’s founding. otherwise. strong, capable leader is needed In some ways, the process of to ensure the implementation of reform is an issue of the triumph reforms and to guide the transformation of the U.N. into of imagination over reality. Imagination is required to a more efficient and effective body. The choice of a new overcome entrenched realities that always seem to steer secretary-general will have a lasting impact on the organi- the conversation toward the next secretary-general rather zation and, indeed, the world. than focusing on effecting real changes at the present The negotiations leading up to the World Summit of time. The urgency of the issues at hand call for changes September 2005, as well as more recent debates, reveal in thinking in time for the election in 2006, rather than how far apart member-states are on many fronts, includ- waiting until 2011 or beyond.

46 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 F OCUS ON U.N. R EFORM

RAISING PEACEKEEPING DIVIDENDS Poul Hans Lange

HOW CAN WE BOOST LOCAL ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN DIFFICULT OVERSEAS ENVIRONMENTS? CONSIDER THE EXPERIENCE OF SOME U.N. MISSIONS.

BY GARY GRAY

o perceptive observers involved on the ground in post-conflict situations, it is becoming clear that if these states are ever to get back on their feet, the peacekeeping operations must go beyond security work and election management to a broader approach that incorporates steps toward good governance and economic sustainability.T Even some of the U.S. Special Forces personnel operating in Afghanistan came to judge their own success not in security terms but in terms of the need to “buy locally, hire locally,” according to an Atlantic Monthly article

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by Robert Kaplan last year. Currently, however, only an tracting process biased in favor of external bidders. Most estimated 3 to 6 percent of PKO mission budgets is actu- irate was the director of a Congolese transportation con- ally spent in the local economies of the countries in which sortium, who had expected the U.N. to make extensive they operate. use of local aviation resources but failed to win any con- How does one contribute systematically to the stable tracts. A textile manufacturer wondered why the peace- growth of local entrepreneurial activity in the most chal- keepers could not at least buy their uniforms locally. The lenging environments in the world? I had an opportuni- Chamber of Commerce leaders said they had been con- ty to consider this question during the summer and early sulted by mission personnel initially, but were subse- fall of 2005, when I traveled to U.N. peacekeeping oper- quently ignored. ations in six different countries to help gather information There are, of course, two sides to these issues: U.N. for the Peace Dividend Trust’s “Economic Impact of mission officials and international contractors cite the Peacekeeping” project. The project aims to increase the abysmal safety record of Congolese aviation, the estab- positive impact on local economies of the large sums lished practice of troop-contributing countries providing spent by the U.N. operations. I held discussions with for their own soldiers, and concerns that the local busi- U.N. mission officials, economists, local businessmen, ness establishment was rife with cronyism and could not diplomats and government officials in Liberia, Cote be counted upon to give unbiased advice. One d’Ivoire, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congolese businessman privately acknowledged to me Congo, Haiti and Sudan. While one week with each that most local enterprises would have difficulty compet- PKO was hardly sufficient to achieve in-depth knowledge ing with international firms in terms of the quality and of these operations, and each country has its distinct quantities required for U.N. contracts. What seemed character, the clear outlines of some cross-cutting themes clear, however, was that there was much room for nevertheless emerged. improvement in communications between the mission and the local business community. Local Business Is Passionate Generally, success stories were the exception rather Because they may have the most direct stake in the than the rule. In Monrovia, amid the mud, dust, smoke U.N.’s economic impact, local contractors and indigenous and chaotic traffic of an industrial area on the edge of the business leaders were most passionate on these issues city’s sprawl, the bare-bones office of a furniture-building and often provided the most valuable insights. Among enterprise seemed an unlikely setting for the recently them, returning entrepreneurs play a particularly critical returned, articulate Liberian manager with an MBA from role. the U.S. He noted that, while it involved some cumber- In the Congo, at what was expected to be a routine some procedures and delays in obtaining payments, the meeting with the national Chamber of Commerce presi- contract with the United Nations Mission in Liberia had dent, we were ushered into a large hall where 15 or so of given a significant boost to his firm, which was struggling Kinshasa’s leading businessmen eagerly awaited this rare for a foothold in what must be one of the toughest busi- opportunity to air grievances regarding their inability to ness environments anywhere. This firm was a beneficia- obtain U.N. contracts. This ethnically diverse group — ry of the efforts of an exceptionally dedicated and enthu- including Indians, Lebanese and indigenous Congolese siastic UNMIL chief procurement officer, who made it a — had awaited the arrival of the mission with great antic- point to find indigenous contractors whenever possible. ipation. But, as they put it, they had had their hopes Though office furniture would seem to be a natural tar- dashed by what they saw as a less-than-transparent con- get for local procurement, the usual approach of U.N. peacekeeping operations is to bring in most furniture William Gary Gray entered the Foreign Service in 1985, from outside via international “systems” contracts with serving in Bucharest, Pretoria, Moscow, Maputo, big suppliers capable of meeting the large demand at Jakarta, Dili, Kuala Lumpur and Washington, D.C. mission startups. After leaving the Service in 2002, he served as senior The United Nations Operation in Burundi enabled political adviser for the United Nations Mission of Louis Ntibuberwa to greatly expand his security business Support in East Timor. after winning a contract for the bulk of the mission’s guard

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force. Returning to Bujumbura They had had their hopes Haiti was the only mission after 10 years in Montreal, he was environment we examined where passionate in arguing that the dashed by what they saw as security threats seemed to ham- biggest problem in countries like per activities in all spheres, Burundi was the mistreatment a less-than-transparent U.N. including business. When I and lack of respect for workers, called at the office of one of the and urged that the U.N. attempt contracting process biased mission’s leading local contrac- to address this within the realm of tors, it turned out that, like many its engagement with the local toward external bidders. others, he was waiting out the lat- work force. Ntibuberwa’s own est round of troubles in Florida, efforts had demonstrated results so we had to talk by phone. He — some 30 percent of the local security personnel at the nevertheless provided some of the most insightful commission were female, an extraordinary development in the ments I’d heard anywhere on the economic effect of the African context. In countries such as Burundi, the U.N. U.N. presence. One of the biggest benefits of the United presence and the onset of a degree of normality resulted Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, this businessman in some indigenous businessmen returning from abroad observed, was giving local enterprises an “alternative to to play an important role. The degree to which these having to deal only with the government power,” which returning entrepreneurs can survive and flourish is a crit- has a pernicious influence on local business. Engage- ical indicator of whether the peacekeeping missions ulti- ment with the U.N. had also exposed the business com- mately meet their objectives. munity to higher international standards and pushed peo-

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SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49 F OCUS

ple to learn more English. Just as important, in his view, operations located an NGO project in the eastern part of was the process of building U.N. bases outside of the cap- the country that was training some 500 blind people to do ital, which had enabled his firm to expand and hire peo- gardening. Arrangements were made, in cooperation ple in the economically depressed regions. with international agricultural specialists in the area who This is a critical point. Whether the UNPKOs con- were in a position to maintain quality control, for these tribute to much-needed decentralization (as opposed to blind gardeners to sell their excess production to the simply furthering the tendency to concentrate economic catering firm. This was an inspiring example of what benefits and political power in the center) can have could be done to improve the U.N.’s economic impact, important consequences for economic development, as but it was carried out solely on the local manager’s per- well as the settlement of political conflict. Cote d’Ivoire sonal initiative. With active encouragement from above is a good example. Given the relatively large size of the and systematic efforts to coordinate NGO projects and economy compared to most other PKO countries, U.N. UNPKO needs, there is little doubt that much more mission spending, mostly in the capital, had little effect could be achieved. on the country’s overall economy. But it did exert a more potent influence in neglected regions outside the capital, Mission Officials: Divergent Approaches where threats to the country’s prospects for reunifying Working in any aspect of a peacekeeping operation is were most serious. And, as at other missions, the rela- a tough job. These are, after all, some of the most diffi- tively small ($1 million per mission) budget for PKO- cult logistical environments found anywhere. Senior mis- managed Quick Impact Projects achieved disproportion- sion managers face additional challenges that include ate results. The QIP programs give missions the ability to unclear mandate lengths, inadequate lead times for the target projects to areas most key to overall mission objec- startup of missions, contradictory directives and med- tives, and they were referred to in positive terms every- dling from member states (who sometimes press for where I visited. lower expenditure and more efficiency, while simultaneously seeking to ensure that their own companies bene- PKF Catering and Local Agriculture fit). In addition, the U.N. bureaucracy has evolved vol- One of the largest economic activities at every mission umes of sometimes confusing and often overly rigid reg- is the catering contract for the PKF troops. Given the ulations. It was not surprising, therefore, that some PKO scale of these operations and the stringent U.N. quality- senior managers, who had developed their own time-test- control requirements, it did not seem feasible in most of ed ways of navigating through such obstacles, did not these countries for any local enterprise to handle such a react with enthusiasm to suggestions that they change contract. It was encouraging, however, to find that, for their approach. the most part, experienced on-the-ground managers for While most special representatives of the secretary- the major catering contractors had a strong interest in general and their deputies favored maximizing the increasing local procurement and local hiring. In most involvement of local contractors and personnel, their cases there were obvious financial and practical benefits. views did not always take hold. At one mission, after In Burundi, the PKF catering operation was the hearing the special representative state that the policy largest economic enterprise in the country. Faced with was to purchase everything possible on the local econo- the requirement of trucking imported supplies at least my, I met with the chief of procurement. He began by 1,600 kilometers overland from East African ports, its noting that he had been forced to buy a few small items innovative manager worked with local farmers to the max- locally to meet urgent needs, but he wanted to provide imum extent possible to procure eggs, fruits and vegeta- assurances that otherwise he got everything possible from bles. Finding inadequate supplies of bread and baked outside sources. This officer was not unique in reflecting goods locally, this manager established his own bakery, what he saw as strong encouragement from New York to creating a number of additional local jobs and producing procure as much as possible within the confines of the big what were probably the only authentic bagels in Central systems contracts. Africa. Complex procurement rules provide convenient pre- In the DRC, the international manager of the catering texts for officials who find it easier to deal with the more

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familiar international contractors, Complex procurement local and even international con- but it also appeared that these rules tractors. On occasion, I even could be worked around when rules provide convenient encountered problems obtaining there was an overriding need to current contact information for procure locally. U.N. policy is to pretexts for officials who these firms. A number of officials, pay for goods and services only some citing ongoing investigations after delivery, and this disqualifies find it easier to deal with of U.N. procurement irregularities, many small local firms lacking the explained the need to maintain dis- necessary startup capital. It was the more familiar tance from contractors to avoid the striking that this policy was widely appearance of favoritism or collu- cited by officials in most missions as international contractors. sion. Again, however, the more a major obstacle to local procure- dedicated, energetic mission per- ment. Yet in the new Sudan mis- sonnel seemed to be able to work sion, where there had been strong incentives to find local around these concerns and find ways to engage the con- contractors to work in areas where internationals were tractors effectively. reluctant to go, waivers to this policy were routinely obtained so that Sudanese contractors could be provided Political Factors with the necessary funds up-front. In assessing the prospects for enhancing UNPKO In some missions it was clear that procurement offi- impact on local economies, one cannot ignore the overall cers had relatively little contact and familiarity with their state of governance in these countries. Clearly, the more

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involvement there is by high government officials in busi- were so dysfunctional that they were unable to effectiveness, the more corruption and cronyism proliferate, and ly utilize skilled civil servants in any case. the more pitfalls there are for U.N. officials. One of the Some contacts complained that the economic impact objectives of the “Economic Impact of Peacekeeping” of such missions (and again, this extended to all interna- project is to measure the impact of PKO spending on tional entities) was merely to further enrich local elites or, host-government revenue and to explore the potential for even worse, to further the business interests of those making this influence more positive. It was primarily in associated with forces actually seeking to undermine the this connection that I sought meetings with government U.N.’s objectives. Seasoned observers agreed that, par- officials, but I cannot say the results were encouraging. ticularly in regard to real estate, the need to deal with The mere logistics of setting up meetings in most of possibly corrupt local elites, many of whom immediately these government offices was daunting. When I did suc- sent the resulting income to overseas bank accounts, was ceed in talking to host-country officials, there were usu- an unavoidable fact of life in these settings. Many con- ally a lot of complaints that the U.N. should be providing tacts also pointed out that in highly polarized post-con- more funds and projects but, in contrast to the private- flict states, some with serious ethnic divisions, PKO hir- sector meetings, little in the way of constructive sugges- ing and procurement decisions unavoidably had the tions. potential for political fallout. Finding officials who could speak authoritatively This would seem to argue for some input from the about tax issues was especially challenging. One of the political section into the procurement process, but in more forthcoming officials in the Congo acknowledged most missions this was not happening. “The last thing we that the country’s tax collection system was largely dys- want to do is involve political affairs in these (administra- functional. There, as in other countries where the rule of tive) issues,” said a very senior official at one mission. As law is weak, tax officials appeared to focus on harassing a former mission political affairs director myself, I can high-profile foreign enterprises with unreasonable sympathize with the desire of already overburdened offi- demands for special payments, helping to chill foreign cers to avoid still another meeting or clearance process. investment. The manager of a foreign-owned hotel doing But it would seem that if the PKOs are to improve their significant business with the U.N. mission showed us a economic impact, there has to be an increased awareness thick notebook recording his frequent dealings with host- of who is who among the beneficiaries in these societies, country tax officials who showed up monthly to demand and how such local expenditures can serve or detract exorbitant payments. from the missions’ overall objectives. Given this reality, the issue of whether U.N. missions contribute to government revenues seems secondary to Local Personnel: A Critical but the need for international assistance to fix the broken Controversial Component host-country revenue collection and spending mechan- A significant component of PKO local economic isms. impact is the hiring of local personnel. It was in this A common criticism of PKOs (and of diplomatic, realm that I found the most divergence in practice and international agency and NGO operations in these coun- viewpoints among the various missions. Some personnel tries) is that they tend to outbid the local governments managers were actively encouraging recruitment of sig- and recruit all the most able, educated local personnel, nificant numbers of national professional officers (local undermining attempts to improve governance. Typical personnel meeting international standards who are much was the complaint from a businessman in Burundi that more highly paid than other local personnel), while oth- the U.N. mission was “paying drivers the salaries of ers were quite negative toward the idea. In some mis- Cabinet ministers and casual laborers the wages of expe- sions local personnel were found in all sections; at others rienced civil servants.” While these inflated wage levels they were not permitted in the more sensitive offices. did seem to affect local businesses, depriving them of tal- Having worked in East Timor where there was a dearth ent or forcing them to raise their own pay scales to com- of local human resources, I found it striking that all these pete, most knowledgeable observers did not see much other missions had access to a very ample, qualified effect on governments, noting that these governments (often overqualified) pool of local talent, with dozens of

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suitable applicants for most openings. It would seem that Common to all the missions were Nevertheless, among personnel complaints from local business, expat officers and some senior managers I making better use of contractors and U.N. officials them- found strong resistance to the idea of selves about the organization’s han- converting more international posi- local talent should be dling of casual labor. Hundreds of tions into local posts, even though casual laborers were needed for con- local employees come at a small frac- an important element struction projects, and almost every tion of the cost of internationals. This mission had encountered an unfore- was curious, given the uneven quality of U.N. personnel seen requirement to hire local transla- of the U.N.’s international staff. As tors for the peacekeeping forces. any PKO veteran knows, one can find system reform. Because these positions were not at these missions some of the most included in the original mission highly dedicated, talented and experience-hardened peo- staffing patterns, they were being maintained as part- ple anywhere. But, on the other hand, as one top official time, casual jobs, with no benefits. Some missions were confided, “We have a way of recycling from mission to trying to outsource these positions, with the unintended mission some people who could never obtain jobs else- consequence of significant pay cuts for workers. Often, where.” It is widely acknowledged that the U.N. person- however, there was informal pressure from the U.N. on nel system urgently needs reform, and it would seem that local contractors to pay their workers more. Some mis- making better use of local talent should be an important sions attempted to compensate these workers for the lack element of this. of benefits and full-time, tenured employment by paying

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SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 53 F OCUS

them daily wages that were exorbitant by local standards. time is not only a great convenience, but also perceived This, in turn, angered local businessmen, who came as a measure of one’s status and value to the organiza- under pressure from their own workers as a result. tion. Although the issue is not directly related to the UNPKOs’ economic impact, because it was raised by so Some Obvious Steps to Take many of my interlocutors it is impossible to avoid men- The scope of the EIP project goes well beyond the tion of the ubiquitous, imposing white land cruisers that framework of the discussions I had; it involves systemat- are the most recognizable trademark of every PKO. A ic analysis of a wide array of economic data, which will chief administrative officer at one mission acknowledged lead to numerous thoughtful recommendations. I would that his biggest headache was dealing with vehicle acci- nonetheless like to identify a few of the more obvious dents involving mission personnel and local residents conclusions that emerged from my investigation: demanding compensation. At most missions, these • More coordination among the U.N.’s various ele- expensive, heavy vehicles appeared to seldom engage ments in these countries, as well as between the U.N., their four-wheel drives, rarely venturing outside the NGOs and major donors, on the economic impact of commuting corridors from residence to office, the air- their activities is a priority. “Coordination” has become port or international supermarkets and restaurants. an overused mantra at these missions, and formal struc- Security is often cited as a justification. But there is tures are constantly being set up to encourage it. In my no doubt that attempts to change the mindset of U.N. discussions, however, it seemed that, for the most part, personnel on this issue would encounter fierce resis- PKO managers and development agency officials still tance. As any staffer knows, having one’s own car full- see themselves as operating in very different worlds.

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At a minimum, it would seem that a full-time point of strong, clear signals from above to encourage and reward contact in the mission for these economic impact issues, more engagement with the local economies. a position with some real clout, is essential for real coor- • While increasing efficiencies to some degree, “big- dination. ness” — i.e., globalized “systems” contracts and tenden- • PKO construction projects should produce sustain- cies toward more centralized procurement management able long-term facilities (e.g., concrete fuel and water from headquarters — has not necessarily created the tanks rather than bladders, more permanent office facil- most favorable environment for increasing engagement ities rather than Quonset huts) to the maximum extent with the smaller local contractors. A procurement chief possible; but at the same time, the inheritors of these in the Congo offered a simple but possibly effective solu- assets should not be left with overly sophisticated sys- tion: why not break up some of these huge contracts into tems difficult to maintain. It was encouraging to find smaller pieces, so local firms would have a shot at them? that this approach was taking hold among some PKO • Finally, it was apparent that exit strategies are vital. managers. Though outside the scope of my research, one of the • An improved local economic impact also requires most common concerns encountered in all quarters was an increased tolerance of risk, acknowledging that in the question of what will become of any positive eco- some cases local contractors or locally-hired personnel nomic impacts — especially from the local employment will fail to deliver as promised. It is only natural that perspective — once PKO missions radically downsize or U.N. procurement and personnel officers, as most depart altogether. From the standpoint of their own bureaucrats anywhere, tend to be cautious and stick to security, if nothing else, the U.N. presence has become time-honored approaches. That is why there must be a critical factor for business owners in these countries.

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A SINCERE CRITIQUE OF AMERICA’S U.N. POLICY

THE DECADES-LONG TENDENCY BY ADMINISTRATIONS OF BOTH PARTIES TO ENGAGE ONLY FITFULLY WITH THE U.N. IS HAVING SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES.

BY MARK MALLOCH BROWN

hank you for allowing me to vailing practice of seeking to use the U.N. almost by speak to you today on power and global leadership. I stealth as a diplomatic tool, while failing to stand up for it often get asked to talk about leadership, but rarely about against its domestic critics, is simply not sustainable. You power. T I wonder why. will lose the U.N., one way or another. With that thought as my starting point, I am going to give what might be regarded as a rather un-U.N. speech. Founders’ Vision Some of the themes — that the United Nations is mis- Multilateral compromise has always been difficult to understood and does much more than its critics allow — justify in the American political debate: [it has] too many are probably not surprising. But my underlying message, speeches, too many constraints, too few results. Yet it which is a warning about the serious consequences of a was not meant to be so. decades-long tendency by U.S. administrations of both The all-moral-idealism-no-power institution was the parties to engage only fitfully with the U.N., is not one a League of Nations. The U.N. was explicitly designed — sitting United Nations official would normally make to an through U.S. leadership and the ultimate coalition of audience like this. the willing, its World War II allies — as a very different But I feel it is a message that urgently needs to be creature, an antidote to the League’s failure. At the aired. And as someone who has spent most of his adult U.N.’s core was to be an enforceable concept of collec- life in this country, only a part of it at the U.N., I hope you tive security protected by the victors of that war, com- will take it in the spirit in which it is meant: as a sincere bined with much more practical efforts to promote and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. global values such as human rights and democracy. by a friend and admirer. Because the fact is that the pre- Underpinning this new approach was a judgment that no president since [Harry] Truman has felt able to United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Mark repeat: that for the world’s one superpower — arguably Malloch Brown delivered this address on June 6 in New more super in 1946 than 2006 — managing global secu- York City to the annual conference of The Security and rity and development issues through the network of a Peace Initiative, “Power and Super-Power: Global United Nations was worth the effort. Yes, it meant the Leadership in the Twenty-First Century.” The confer- give-and-take of multilateral bargaining, but any dilu- ence was jointly sponsored by The Century Foundation tion of American positions was more than made up for and the Center for American Progress. by the added clout of action that enjoyed global support.

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Today, we are coming to the end of the 10-year term Human Rights, and the U.S. chose to stay on the side- of arguably the U.N.’s best-ever secretary-general, Kofi lines, the loss was everybody’s. Annan. But some of his very successes — promoting I hope and believe the new council will prove itself to human rights and a responsibility to protect people from be a stronger and more effective body than its predeces- abuse by their own governments; creating a new status sor. But there is no question that the American decision for civil society and business at the United Nations — to call for a vote in order to oppose it in the General are either not recognized or have come under steady Assembly, and then to not run for a seat after it was attack from anti-U.N. groups. approved by 170 votes to 4, makes the challenge more To take just one example, 10 years ago U.N. peace- difficult. keeping seemed almost moribund in the aftermath of More broadly, Americans complain about the U.N.’s tragic mistakes in Rwanda, Somalia and Yugoslavia. bureaucracy, weak decisionmaking, the lack of account- Today, the organization fields 18 peacekeeping opera- able modern management structures and the political tions around the world, from the Congo to Haiti, Sudan, divisions of the General Assembly here in New York. Sierra Leone, Southern Lebanon and Liberia, with an And my response is, “guilty on all counts.” annual cost that is at a bargain-bin price compared to But why? In significant part because the U.S. has not other U.S.-led operations. And the U.S. pays roughly stuck with its project — its professed wish to have a one quarter of those United Nations peacekeeping costs strong, effective United Nations — in a systematic way. — just over $1 billion this year. Former Secretary of State [Madeleine] Albright and oth- That figure should be seen in the context of estimates ers here today have played extraordinary leadership roles by both the Government Accountability Office and in U.S.-U.N. relations, for which I salute them. But in RAND Corporation that U.N. peacekeeping, while lack- the eyes of the rest of the world, U.S. commitment tends ing heavy armament enforcement capacity, helps to to ebb much more than it flows. And in recent years, the maintain peace — when there is a peace to keep — enormously divisive issue of Iraq and the big stick of more effectively for a lot less than comparable U.S. financial withholding have come to define an unhappy operations. Multilateral peacekeeping is effective cost- marriage. sharing on a much lower-cost business model, and it As someone who deals with Washington almost daily, works. I know this is unfair to the very real effort all three That is as it should be and is true for many other areas Secretaries of State I have worked with — Secretary in which the U.N. system works, from humanitarian Albright, Secretary Powell and Secretary Rice — put relief to health and education. Yet for many policymak- into U.N. issues. And today, in a very wide number of ers and opinion leaders in Washington, let alone the gen- areas, from Lebanon and Afghanistan to Syria, Iran and eral public, the roles I have described are hardly believed the Palestinian issue, the U.S. is constructively engaged or, where they are, remain discreetly underplayed. To with the U.N. But that is not well known or understood, acknowledge an America reliant on international institu- in part because much of the public discourse that reach- tions is not perceived to be good politics at home. es the American heartland has been largely abandoned However, inevitably, a moment of truth is coming. to its loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Because even as the world’s challenges are growing, the Fox News. That is what I mean by “stealth” diplomacy: U.N.’s ability to respond is being weakened without U.S. the U.N.’s role is, in effect, a secret in Middle America leadership. even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world. Take the Issue of Human Rights Exacerbating matters is the widely held perception, When Eleanor Roosevelt took the podium at the even among many U.S. allies, that America tends to United Nations to argue passionately for the elaboration hold on to maximalist positions when it could be find- of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world ing middle ground. We can see this even on apparent- responded. Today, when the human rights machinery ly non-controversial issues such as renovating the dilap- was renewed with the formation of a Human Rights idated U.N. headquarters in New York. While an Council to replace the discredited Commission on architectural landmark, the building falls dangerously

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short of city codes, lacks sprinklers, is filled with organization would be seen as uncontroversial, such as asbestos and is, in most respects, the most hazardous providing more authority and flexibility for the secretary- workplace in town. But the only government not fully general to shift posts and resources to organizational pri- supporting the [renovation] project is the U.S. Too orities without having to get direct approval from member much unchecked U.N.-bashing and stereotyping over states, have been fiercely resisted by the G-77 (the main too many years — manifest in a fear by politicians to be group of developing countries) on the grounds that this seen to be supporting better premises for overpaid, weakens accountability. Hence the current deadlock. corrupt U.N. bureaucrats — makes even refurbishing a What lies behind this? building a political hot potato. It is not because most developing countries don’t want reform. To be sure, a few spoilers do seem to be opposed Making Reform Work to reform for its own sake, and there is no question that One consequence is that, like the building itself, the some countries are seeking to manipulate the process for vital renewal of the organization, the updating of its mis- their own ends with very damaging consequences. But in sion, its governance and its management tools, is addressed practice, the vast majority are fully supportive of the prin- only intermittently. And when Washington does champi- ciple of a better-run, more effective U.N.; indeed, they on the right issues like management reform, as it is cur- know they would be the primary beneficiaries, through rently doing, it provokes more suspicion than support. more peace and more development. Last December, for example, largely at American insis- So why has it not so far been possible to isolate the rad- tence, instead of a normal two-year budget, member icals and build a strong alliance of reform-minded nations states approved only six months’ worth of expenditure — to push through this agenda? a period which ended on June 30. Developing and devel- I would argue that the answer lies in questions about oped countries, the latter with the U.S. at the fore, are motives and power. Very unfortunately, there is currently now at loggerheads over whether sufficient reform has a perception among many otherwise quite moderate taken place to lift that cap, or indeed whether there countries that anything the U.S. supports must have a should be any links between reform and the budget. secret agenda aimed at either subordinating multilateral Without agreement, we could face a fiscal crisis very soon. processes to Washington’s ends or weakening the institu- There has been a significant amount of reform over the tions, and therefore, put crudely, should be opposed with- last 18 months, from the creation of a new Ethics Office out any real discussion of whether it makes sense or not. and whistleblower policy, to the establishment of a new As for power, in two different ways that revolves Peacebuilding Commission and Human Rights Council. around perceptions of the role and representativeness of But [that is] not enough. the Security Council. First, there has been a real, under- The unfinished management reform agenda, which standable hostility by the wider membership to the per- the U.S. sensibly supports, is in many ways a statement of ception that the Security Council, in particular the five the obvious. It argues that systems and processes permanent members, is seeking a role in areas not for- designed 60 years ago for an organization largely devoted mally within its remit, such as management issues or to running conferences and writing reports simply don’t human rights. work for today’s operational U.N., which conducts multi- Second, there has been an equally understandable billion-dollar peacekeeping missions, humanitarian relief conviction that those five veto-wielding permanent mem- operations and other complex operations all over the bers, who happen to be the victors in a war fought 60 years world. The report sets out concrete proposals for how this ago, cannot be seen as representative of today’s world — can be fixed while also seeking to address the broader even when looking through the lens of financial contribu- management, oversight and accountability weaknesses tions. Indeed, the so-called G-4 of Security Council aspi- highlighted by the “oil-for-food” program. rants — Japan, India, Brazil and Germany — contribute One day soon, we must address the massive gap twice as much as the P-4, the four permanent members between the scale of world issues and the limits of the excluding the U.S. institutions we have built to address them. However, British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged exact- today even relatively modest proposals that in any other ly this point on his trip to Washington [in May], and it is

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something that does need to be Using the U.N. of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and addressed. More broadly, the very avian flu. Today’s national security reasonable concern of the full U.N. almost by stealth as a challenges basically thumb their noses membership — the fundamental mul- at old notions of national sovereignty. tilateral principle that each member- diplomatic tool, while Security has gone global, and no coun- state’s vote counts equally in the wider try can afford to neglect the global work of the U.N. — needs to be failing to stand up for institutions needed to manage it. acknowledged and accommodated Kofi Annan has proposed a within a broader framework of reform. it against its domestic restructuring of the United Nations to If the multilateral system is to work respond to these new challenges with effectively, all states need to feel they critics, is simply three legs: development, security and have a real stake. human rights supported, like any not sustainable. good chair, by a fourth leg, reformed New Global Challenges management. That is the U.N. we But a stake in what system? want to place our bet on. But for it to work, we need The U.S. — like every nation, strong and weak alike — the U.S. to support this agenda — and support it not just is today beset by problems that defy national, inside-the- in a whisper but in a coast-to-coast shout that pushes back border solutions: climate change, terrorism, nuclear pro- the critics domestically and wins over the skeptics inter- liferation, migration, the management of the global econo- nationally. America’s leaders must again say the U.N. my, the internationalization of drugs and crime, the spread matters.

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When you talk about better national education ny it is thought to have asserted in Iraq and scores, you don’t start with “I support the Department Afghanistan? of Education.” Similarly for the United Nations, it In essence, the U.S. is stymied before it even “pass- starts with politicians who will assert the U.S. is going es Go.” It needs the U.N. as a multilateral means to to engage with the world to tackle climate change, address Sudan’s concerns. It needs the U.N. to secure poverty, immigration and terrorism. Stand up for that a wide multicultural array of troop and humanitarian agenda consistently and allow the U.N. to ride on its partners. It needs the U.N. to provide the internation- coat-tails as a vital means of getting it done. It also al legitimacy that Iraq has again proved is an indis- means a sustained inside-the-tent diplomacy at the pensable component to success on the ground. Yet, the U.N. No more “take it or leave it,” red-line demands U.N. needs its first parent, the U.S., every bit as much thrown in without debate and engagement. if it is to deploy [forces] credibly in one of the world’s Let me close with a few words on Darfur to make nastiest neighbourhoods. my point. A few weeks ago, my kids were on the Mall Back in Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s day, in Washington, demanding President Bush do more to building a strong, effective United Nations that could end the genocide in Darfur (and Pres. Bush wants to play this kind of role was a bipartisan enterprise, with do more). I’d bet some of your kids were there, as well. the likes of Arthur Vandenberg and John Foster Perhaps you were, too. And yet what can the U.S. do Dulles joining Democrats to support the new body. alone in the heart of Africa, in a region the size of Who are their successors in American politics? Who France? A place where the government in Khartoum will campaign in 2008 for a new multilateral national is convinced Washington wants to extend the hegemo- security?

60 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 MANDARIN MATZAH

AN FSO PUTS A JEWISH CEREMONY TOGETHER IN GUANGZHOU WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM ATHEIST, BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN AND MORMON FRIENDS.

BY JASON SEYMOUR

radition! More than just a song from of the details of the story; but unless you have participated a Broadway musical, the word is the in a Seder, you cannot fully grasp all that the experience can life-giving water of every culture and, offer. indeed, every individual. Almost everyone who joins the Foreign Service does so because he Each Ceremony Is Unique Tor she is captivated by different cultures and the variety of No two ceremonies are alike, even when the same host time-honored celebrations and rituals around the globe. organizes the event. During my training at the Foreign Like all religions, Judaism observes many holidays with Service Institute, I invited many of my A-100 colleagues particular customs. However, because Jews are a minority and had different religious and non-religious backgrounds in the United States, non-Jews are often unfamiliar with the represented. When I was living in a tiny apartment in religion’s tenets and practices. Growing up in a small town Spain, I conducted a ceremony in Spanish and Hebrew for with very few Jews, I had almost no friends who shared my a room full of Catholics. The joyous evening was so loud background, so I began my own tradition. I started intro- that the neighbors complained for days. ducing people to my favorite holiday, Passover (Pesach), by For this year’s big event, I was living in a large diplomat- inviting friends and colleagues to come to my home for the ic housing facility in Guangzhou, with thick walls, so I was complex and lengthy celebration called the Seder. no longer worried about noise complaints. On the other This rite remembers much of the book of Exodus hand, I was concerned about creating a memorable event through metaphor. Participants eat certain foods, drink cer- for a large variety of Chinese friends, acquaintances and tain liquids and follow a large variety of rules. For example, colleagues. I even expanded the focus of the event by ask- guests are supposed to relax, so pillows, comfortable chairs ing professional journalists to attend. What better way to and even lying down are acceptable. A dish called charoset teach about the hospitality of Americans and the variety of combines various sweet and bitter tastes and resembles the American lifestyles than by inviting people to my home for mortar used in creating ancient Egyptian buildings. Red food, drink and cultural education? drinks, such as wine or cranapple juice, symbolize the blood The first difficulty I encountered was the size of my shed during the violent events. If you have ever seen “The home, which certainly could not comfortably accommodate Ten Commandments” or “Prince of Egypt,” you know some 20-plus people. No problem! A Mormon colleague offered

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 61 The guest list included mostly agnostic Buddhists who had never heard of the Ten Commandments, let alone charoset and bland matzah.

who kept offering caring but unwel- come advice and suggestions to The author, with a young American guest at his side, leads the ceremony. improvise or make things more com- Chinese guests are in the background. plex. “No, I really do just want a small bowl with salt and water and, yes, the other bowl should have nothing but parsley.” I considered conducting the ceremony in my primitive Mandarin. A friend offered useful translations, such as how to convey the term chutzpah; but in the end, I went with English. While I still kick myself for not finding the time to translate everything, I did not want the ceremony to be so simple that the detailed essence of the moment was lost, and I knew my Mandarin was still too unso- phisticated to accomplish such a goal. Charoset, shown here, is the traditional meal for the Seder ceremony. It is Maybe during my next China tour … made of apples or other fruit, nuts, spices and wine. The third problem was shopping. Matzah and horseradish are not easi- his much larger apartment. colleague offered his utensils, plates, ly found at the local Guangzhou mar- The second obstacle: despite hav- pots, etc. ket — but colleagues traveling to ing consistently attended public I hired two cooks who happened Hong Kong found those items for me. affairs events, my post has not needed to be atheists, and began the complex Piece by piece, everything fell into me to personally sponsor one. I there- ordeal of designing a format that place. fore did not have enough table set- would be fun, informative and stimu- At previous ceremonies in my tings for more than eight guests. I lating for a guest list that included home, I had opened the door for each considered shopping, but a Protestant mostly agnostic Buddhists who had guest. This time, I would have to take never heard of the Ten Command- the elevator to find my guests, deliver Jason Seymour is a first-tour FSO ments and a sea split in two, let alone them to security guards and hope serving a two-year consular tour in food like vivacious charoset and bland they had all remembered their identi- Guangzhou, China. matzah. I had to supervise my cooks, fication. After the late arrival of a few

62 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 people (lateness seems to bridge and ate plenty of traditional food — every culture and location) and some except for gefilte fish, alas — and last-minute changes to the guest list, The ritual has sixteen added some excellent Chinese dishes. the grand moment was at hand. We lit candles without setting off the steps, each with a special sprinklers. I even loudly and enthusi- Sharing the Ancient astically sang in my horrendous Jewish Story significance that guests singing voice. At least I didn’t have to The ceremony includes many long sing in Chinese. passages and storytelling. Because of could analyze All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the the variety of English abilities among exhausting but fantastic night, and I the guests, I know much of the story and discuss. am sure I will have another Seder was lost due to linguistic and cultural next year. As at every party, gathering boundaries. Of course, that is true or representational event, I noticed even for an English-speaking Ameri- plenty of kinks and little mistakes, but can audience attending the ceremony I also saw plenty of smiles and curi- for the first time. The ceremony is guests to debate important ethical ous but appreciative eyebrows. simply not one that can be fully issues by analyzing the choices of appreciated during the first attempt. both God and Moses. These ele- A Simple Moment to But that doesn’t matter. No one has ments of the lengthy biblical passages Remember to understand everything in a new have also become part (in different Diplomats serve many functions experience to have a good time. ways) of the Christian and Muslim when abroad. Sometimes they I began with a verse from Isaiah traditions. The script that I gave to accomplish challenging goals with and the following paragraph: We are each guest included photos from my complex programs during a period of born. We quickly learn to smile and trips in India, Brazil and China, weeks, months or years. Sometimes, cry as lessons come our way. Life showing that the subtext of the story they have just a single moment to pours out blood. Violence stains. is applicable to many cultures and make an impression, and they aren’t Wisdom refreshes. Loss weakens. time periods, and that the holiday’s always sure what they achieved. They Love rejuvenates. Blessings abound. themes of slavery and freedom are just hope they have planted small The script I wrote could have universal. seeds that will continue to grow. been shorter and simpler, but I never The ritual has 16 steps, each with I know that for many of my seem to think of a phrase that I would a special significance that guests can Chinese friends, I am the only not rather say with three or four sen- analyze and discuss. One of my American they have ever known and tences. That’s my PD challenge. favorites is the dipping of a green certainly the only Jew. What will they Guests shared the reading of the vegetable, such as parsley or cucum- remember? I do not know. I can only ancient Jewish story, which follows bers, into a bowl of salty water. hope that my guests (and especially Moses’ life from his childhood spent Symbolically, life and spring are my foreign friends) will occasionally as Egyptian royalty; his midlife as a immersed in the tears shed during reminisce about that American Jew shepherd, which occurs after he flees this painful time, reminding everyone who opened his home and his life to to the wilderness because he mur- that life is a constant blend. No them one April day in 2006. dered a cruel slave master; his first moment is ever completely satisfying Next year I’ll be back in Washing- encounter with God; and his return or completely devastating. ton. I will have another chance to to Egypt to save the Israelites from Another popular phase of the cer- perform the ceremony even better. I slavery. The tales include a variety of emony is the hand washing. Tradition- probably will not have a large room miracles, including a burning bush; ally, this part emphasizes the unity of filled with foreign minds, inquisitive 10 harsh plagues such as an epidemic the whole group. Strangers hand a giggles and covered mouths; but I can of boils, an infestation of frogs and towel to another person or pour look forward to one thing that will the killing of the Egyptians’ first- water over another person’s hands. not change. I will still have the born; and the most famous moment, Once a person’s hands are washed, he opportunity to share my special life the parting of the Red Sea, which or she remains silent until everyone story as an American, something this provides the opportunity for the has had a chance to wash, so that job gives every diplomat the privi- Israelites to make a final escape. everyone can start the meal together. lege of doing throughout the world. The many plot points inspire the We read the story, said the prayers, L’chaim! To life!

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 63

AFSAAmerican Foreign ServiceNEWS Association • September 2006

2006 AFSA AWARD CEREMONY Inside AFSA Honors Dissent and Performance This Issue: BY SHAWN DORMAN VP STATE: A TALE OF n June 22, AFSA welcomed haps controversial view on policy or oper- TWO CULTURES...... 67 several hundred people to the ational issues can be risky. It can jeopar- FOREIGN SERVICE State Department’s Benjamin dize one’s career. However, AFSA firmly DOMESTIC FIELD REPS ...... 68 O Franklin Diplomatic Recep- believes that it is vital to honor the construc- AFSA PRESENTS “WISH LIST”...... 70 tion Room to honor this year’s award win- tive and creative dissenters who are willing THE SYSTEM AND YOU ...... 74 ners. The prestigious and unique AFSA to work within the system to bring about AFSA/TLG INTERN...... 75 Dissent Awards, the Lifetime Contributions change.” to American Diplomacy Award, the Ambassador Holmes shared a quote Outstanding Performance Awards and two from Ambassador Morton Abramowitz, the FOREIGN SERVICE CHALLENGES AHEAD Special Achievement Awards were present- honoree for the Lifetime Contributions to ed at the ceremony. American Diplomacy Award: “Abramowitz AFSA Meets with AFSA President J. Anthony Holmes offi- stated in an article in National Interest mag- ciated. In his opening remarks, Holmes said azine last year titled ‘In Defense of Striped Secretary Rice that “Speaking out against conventional wis- Pants’ (written with another of our distin- ecretary of State Condoleezza Rice dis- dom and offering an alternative and per- Continued on page 73 cussed the challenges of staffing Iraq SPRTs, overseas comparability pay and pay for performance, improving the senior AFSA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST performance pay system, transformational diplomacy and the future of the Foreign Ceremony Awards Talented and Service during a July meeting in her office Passionate Youth with AFSA President J. Anthony Holmes, State VP Steve Kashkett and General BY EIRENE BUSA, EDITORIAL INTERN Counsel Sharon Papp. n July 19, State AFSA VP Steve Continued on page 69 Kashkett presented the 2006 AFSA ONational High School Essay Contest awards during the annual Youth Awards Ceremony held in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room. Director General of the Foreign Service George M. Staples delivered the keynote address, and Family Liaison Office Director Mikkela Thompson Ann DeLong officiated. The annual ceremo- Essay winners Eva Lam (right) and Karina Legradi ny is a joint endeavor of ASFA, the Foreign with AFSA State Vice Pesident Steve Kashkett. Service Youth Foundation, the Family Liaison Office, the Foreign Service Institute and the Office of Overseas Schools. “The individuals behind the scenes at FLO and the volunteers at FSYF ultimately make each year’s ceremony successful,” commented FSYF President Blanca Ruebensaal. Continued on page 76 See Wish List on page 70

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 65 A F S A N AFSANEWSBRIEFS E News from the AFSA Boards W S Two AFSA vice presidents stepped down from their Governing Service Journal Editorial Board left by departing board mem- Board positions in July. Laura Scandurra resigned from the FAS ber Lillian G. deValcourt-Ayala, who is heading out to an assign- VP position effective after the July board meeting. She is head- ment in Rome. Meriwether is a State Department FSO current- ing off for a tour as agricultural attaché in New Zealand. The ly serving as an education officer with the Middle East FAS VP slot is currently vacant, and AFSA encourages interested Partnership Initiative. FAS employees to contact the association about the position. From everyone at AFSA, sincere thanks to the departing USAID VP Bill Carter left AFSA in July for the retirement semi- Governing and Editorial Board members for their distinguished nar. At the July Governing Board meeting, USAID AFSA service, and welcome to the new board members. Representative Francisco Zamora was appointed to serve as the Briefs • Continued on page 69 USAID AFSA vice president for the remainder of the current board’s term. During the Aug. 2 meeting, the Governing Life in the Foreign Service Board approved the appointment of Michael Henning as the new USAID rep, replacing Zamora. BY BRIAN AGGELER In addition, on June 7 the AFSA Governing Board approved Diplomatic Security Special Agent Randy A. Steen to replace outgoing DS agent and State representative Brian Cook. Cook resigned because his duties on the Secretary of State’s protective detail require a heavy travel schedule, thus keeping him from attending many board meetings. On June 30, State Governing Board representative James Roseli left the board due to his transfer to Embassy Baghdad. State representative Makila James also resigned, in connection with her assignment to Juba, Sudan. At the Aug. 2 meeting, the Governing Board approved Daphne Titus as a new State representative. International Broadcasting Bureau Representative Sheldon Daitch resigned from the board effective June 30, due to his new assignment to Morocco. That position is currently vacant. In July, the Governing Board approved the selection of Crystal Meriwether to fill a new vacancy on the Foreign

AFSA HEADQUARTERS: Staff: Governing Board: (202) 338-4045; Fax: (202) 338-6820 Executive Director Susan Reardon: [email protected] Business Department STATE DEPARTMENT AFSA OFFICE: PRESIDENT: J. Anthony Holmes (202) 647-8160; Fax: (202) 647-0265 Controller Steven Tipton: [email protected] Accounting Assistant Jon Reed: [email protected] STATE VICE PRESIDENT: Steven Kashkett USAID AFSA OFFICE: (202) 712-1941; Fax: (202) 216-3710 Labor Management USAID VICE PRESIDENT: Francisco Zamora General Counsel Sharon Papp: [email protected] FCS VICE PRESIDENT: Donald Businger FCS AFSA OFFICE: Labor Management Attorney Zlatana Badrich: [email protected] (202) 482-9088; Fax: (202) 482-9087 Labor Management Specialist James Yorke: [email protected] FAS VICE PRESIDENT: Vacant Grievance Attorneys Neera Parikh: [email protected] and RETIREE VICE PRESIDENT: David Reuther AFSA WEB SITE: www.afsa.org Charles Garten: [email protected] SECRETARY: Tex Harris AFSA E-MAIL: [email protected] Office Manager Christine Warren: [email protected] FSJ: [email protected] USAID Senior Labor Management Adviser Douglas Broome: [email protected] TREASURER: Andrew Winter PRESIDENT: [email protected] USAID Office Manager Asgeir Sigfusson: [email protected] STATE REPRESENTATIVES: Bradford Bell, STATE VP: [email protected] Member Services Hugh Neighbour, Alan Misenheimer, Director Janet Hedrick: [email protected] RETIREE VP: [email protected] Joyce Namde, Randy Steen, Daphne Titus USAID VP: [email protected] Representative Cory Nishi: [email protected] Web-site & Database Associate Sheng Zhao: [email protected] and Andrew Young FCS VP: [email protected] Administrative Assistant Ana Lopez: [email protected] USAID REPRESENTATIVE: Mike Henning Outreach Programs FCS REPRESENTATIVE: William Center AFSA News Retiree Liaison Bonnie Brown: [email protected] Editor Shawn Dorman: [email protected] Director of Communications Thomas Switzer: [email protected] FAS REPRESENTATIVE: Robert Curtis (202) 338-4045 x 503; Fax: (202) 338-8244 Congressional Affairs Director Ken Nakamura: [email protected] IBB REPRESENTATIVE: Vacant Corporate Relations/Executive Assistant Austin Tracy: [email protected] On the Web: www.afsa.org/news Scholarship Director Lori Dec: [email protected] RETIREE REPRESENTATIVES: Leonard J. How to Contact Us: to Contact How Professional Issues Coordinator Barbara Berger: [email protected] Baldyga, Roger Dankert, Larry Lesser and Retiree Recruitment Coordinator Norma Reyes: [email protected] Gilbert Sheinbaum Elderhostel Coordinator Janice Bay: [email protected]

66 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 A F V.P. VOICE: STATE BY STEVE KASHKETT S A A Tale of Two Cultures N ne afternoon not long ago, I watched an old argument that Civil Service employees have a fair E unfold between two close friends and valued State col- chance at promotion to higher grades W Oleagues of mine, one who happens to be in the Foreign and mobility among challenging domes- S Service and another who happens to be in the Civil Service. My tic jobs at State. But we can certainly Foreign Service buddy was bemoaning the conversion of FS posi- find a mutually beneficial balance tions to Civil Service jobs and the DG’s stated intention to expand between Foreign Service and Civil overseas opportunities for the department’s Civil Service Service positions, as long as both sides employees. My Civil Service buddy retorted that we FSOs are are willing to be flexible and creative. just pampered, spoiled brats who do nothing but protect our Overseas mobility, however, is another matter entirely. The territorial privileges. people of the Foreign Service rightly bristle when they hear Civil The Department of State has always benefited — and suf- Service colleagues complain that they, too, want a shot at serv- fered — from the uneasy coexistence of the professional Foreign ing in Paris or London or Tokyo. Foreign Service members have Service and the professional Civil Service, working side-by-side fewer and fewer of these choice assignments these days when a throughout the halls and offices of Foggy Bottom. We have two growing majority of FS overseas positions are at hardship, dan- different career tracks, two different sets of ger-pay and unaccompanied posts. rules and two different workplace cultures, We need to keep the Most people in the Foreign Service today yet we collaborate daily on the tasks that are Foreign Service in the are more likely to spend the better part of their necessary to advance U.S. interests in the careers in places like Niamey, Islamabad and world and to make American diplomacy forefront of the decision- Ashgabat, dragging their families from one work. making process underpinning tough spot to another and sometimes being Our Civil Service colleagues play a vital forced to spend a year or more away from role at State, providing expertise and conti- U.S. foreign policy. their families. They put up with the un- nuity on a multitude of issues. There are healthy conditions, the political violence, the clearly advantages to having people concentrating on the same threats of terrorism, the constant uprooting and the separation job over a period of time, acquiring vast background knowledge from loved ones. Foreign Service members face the annual risk and institutional memory in a particular field. In bureaus such of being selected out of the Service because of the mandatory as NP, OES, IRM and PRM, Civil Service specialists furnish spe- 5-percent low-ranking and the six-year window for senior pro- cialized proficiency on a wide range of technical subjects that motion. The bottom line is: FS members pay dearly for a shot Foreign Service employees might have trouble mastering because at a cushy First-World posting. they switch jobs every couple of years. So we can certainly under- There is already a well-established vehicle for giving Civil stand the desire of Civil Service careerists to have opportunities Service employees an overseas excursion tour: the hard-to-fill for growth, increased salary potential and mobility. exercise. Under this program, hundreds of Civil Service employ- Nonetheless, the Foreign Service must remain the backbone ees have served all over the world in vitally important jobs, often of American diplomacy. Nothing can replace the insight and helping to plug gaps in the Foreign Service staffing. There can nuanced understanding that comes from a lifetime of living and be no doubt that they have contributed critically to the Iraq mis- working in foreign countries, speaking foreign languages, rep- sion, supplementing the hundreds of FS members who have vol- resenting the United States to foreign audiences and dealing direct- unteered to serve there over the past three years. ly with foreign governments. It is not a mistake that most desk When it comes to the overseas jobs that are not hard to fill officer-, country director- and deputy assistant secretary-level posi- — i.e., those increasingly rare and sought-after opportunities to tions at State are reserved for Foreign Service members. We need serve in places like London, Paris, or Tokyo — there can be only to keep the Foreign Service at the forefront of the decisionmak- one legitimate, equitable path. That path involves taking the ing process underpinning U.S. foreign policy. We have all seen Foreign Service exam, going through months of training, serv- the disastrous consequences that can result from ignoring the ing an apprenticeship in a couple of “directed” entry-level posi- advice of America’s veteran career diplomats. tions, preparing the family for a lifetime of dengue fever and gia- Here at the department in Washington, there should be plen- rdia and damaged household effects and limited school ty of room for both career services. Foreign Service employees options, getting a few difficult postings under one’s belt … and need good jobs to come back to after spending two, three, four then competing for the few non-hardship assignments along with or more assignments overseas. The department should ensure the rest of us.

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 67 A F S V.P. VOICE: RETIREE BY DAVID REUTHER A N Foreign Service Domestic Field Reps E W S etirees are the domestic field reps for the Foreign Service At the same time, AFSA is also a bou- and for AFSA. You are out there in cities and towns across tique Foreign Service-oriented organi- RAmerica, and the Foreign Service needs you to lend your zation. It was AFSA that, working with voice in support of the Service, for your own retiree benefits and the military groups, persuaded Congress for sensible policies for active-duty members. to liberalize the treatment of the capital Far too few lawmakers have the Foreign Service on their radar gains tax calculated on the sale of a principal residence. Remember, or see it as having any connection to their own constituents. In it was those approaching retirement who first alerted us to the fact, there remain those who are convinced that the Service is still need for change, because they were the ones who realized that comprised of the sons and daughters of the rich East Coast elite. the one-time tax exclusion on rolled-over capital gains had been With your help, we can change this. We inadvertently eliminated in the 1997 tax law live in all 50 states (and the District, of changes. It took five years to get the tax code course). AFSA calls on you to reach out to It’s not just for the changes through Congress, so AFSA made legislators in your home state. Visit the local sure the provision was retroactive to 1997 offices of your representatives and senators good of the Foreign Service, instead of just the three years usually pro- in your hometown. Let them know you’re vided for the filing of amended taxes. It was it’s for your own benefit as well. there, and that you, and your family and also through AFSA’s efforts that the “vir- friends, vote. tual locality pay” concept was legislatively Once a year, the day before Foreign authorized in the computation of retirement Affairs Day at the State Department, AFSA hosts “Day on the Hill,” from an overseas post, and that diplomatic security personnel are escorting Foreign Service retirees to Capitol Hill to meet with their now covered under the Law Enforcement Officer Retirement members of Congress. This event helps put a human face on System. the Foreign Service, but it is only one piece of what has to be a Your help is needed, not only for the retirement issues that larger effort, an ongoing, year-round, long-term campaign. affect you directly, but also because of what you can do to help Congress can be your ballgame. You are the human face of the Foreign Service overall. Your member of Congress not only the Foreign Service. You are the generations that staffed Vietnam, needs to hear your opinions on the legislation of the day, but also saw the emergence of independent nations in Africa, South Asia your delight in being chosen to represent the American people and the Far East and experienced the winds of emergent nation- overseas. Telling your short story to a congressional office will alism, regardless of which embassy section you called home. give the Foreign Service the face it needs when legislation is pend- Just as our diplomatic missions nurtured relationships with ing. We need your help in educating Americans about the real- foreign officials during your active-duty years, durable relation- life Foreign Service, about the employees willingly serving in dif- ships with members of Congress need careful nurturing. If AFSA ficult and dangerous places. Too often, the media and entertain- members establish relationships with legislators locally, around ment industries depict the Foreign Service negatively and inac- the country, we could see an overall growth in awareness of the curately, promoting a popular image that is far from reality. So Foreign Service and the issues of importance to both retirees and we need to educate our fellow citizens and our members of active-duty members. Then when key issues come up, you will Congress on today’s Foreign Service reality. There is a lot of work be well-positioned to let your legislators know what’s best for the to be done both in Washington, and in “the field” around the Foreign Service. U.S., and there is an important role for you if you are willing to During our retirement years, what happens on Capitol Hill pick up the gauntlet. can take on even more meaning than during our active-duty years. Ask us for resources, or volunteer for a local speaking engage- So we have to remain engaged, not just for the good of the Foreign ment. AFSA Communications Director Tom Switzer can arrange Service, but for our own personal benefit, as well. AFSA already local outreach events for you, and we can provide you with back- works with other large retiree organizations, such as the National ground papers to help in discussing our issues (Phone: (800) 338- Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, in seeking to 4045, ext. 501, or e-mail: [email protected]). AFSA can help you change the laws regarding the Government Pension Offset and establish local Foreign Service retiree associations. Together with the Windfall Elimination Provisions (which affect your Social AFSA, you can help give the Service a voice that will be heard Security benefits). around the country and on Capitol Hill.

68 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 A F Secretary Rice • Continued from page 65 acceptance that the FS career may involve to justify inaction in changing the regula- S Holmes opened the meeting by high- a greater proportion of difficult, dangerous tions. He asked the Secretary to have the A lighting the compromises that AFSA and and unaccompanied postings in the future. department’s legal adviser review this pol- the department had reached on incentives We must start recruiting differently, she icy and the relevance of the DMA to it; she for Iraq volunteers, noting that AFSA’s sup- said, and new entrants into the Foreign said she would look into this issue. N port for special benefits is combined with Service will need to have different expec- The recent successful negotiations to E our strong desire to minimize unfairness tations. Holmes noted, and the Secretary improve the fairness of the SFS pay-for-per- W to the rest of the Foreign Service and to pro- agreed, that the new Career Development formance system, Holmes pointed out, S tect the integrity of our performance-based Programs were designed to do just this, but serve as an example of how a sustained promotion system and meritocracy. Secre- he recognized that the CDPs are a medi- AFSA-State Department engagement could tary Rice expressed her view that merit also um to long-term solution to staffing hard- lead to win/win outcomes in many areas. encompasses willingness to take difficult ship posts and the Secretary was focused He reiterated AFSA’s desire to work with assignments, and that there should be ways more on the short-term problems related the department across the board, stressed to reward those people without compro- to filling jobs in Iraq, particularly those on the contributions the association can mising basic principles enshrined in the provincial reconstruction teams. make even in areas outside of its bargain- Foreign Service Act. The Secretary agreed with AFSA that the ing rights, and stressed the need to be State VP Kashkett commented that department must provide a better support included much earlier in the process. AFSA’s recent electronic poll on Iraq PRT structure for families, as the military does. Holmes also reported on several incentives, which 2,500 members worldwide This applies to family members at post and minority outreach programs that AFSA is completed, revealed a strong sense of duty those separated from employees serving at ramping up in response to the Secretary’s and a widespread desire to maintain the vol- unaccompanied posts. AFSA officers ob- request that we assist her efforts to make unteer nature of war-zone assignments, as served that the reality for family members the Foreign Service more diverse. These well as a concern that proper recognition falls far short of the department’s stated programs include the AFSA Minority be given to FS employees doing superb work commitments in areas such as employment Intern Program, the AFSA National High all over the world, as well as in Iraq. The and financial benefits, pointing out that the School Essay Contest, and outreach con- Secretary affirmed her hope to keep staffing department has not given serious consid- nected with AFSA’s Inside a U.S. Embassy Iraq with volunteers, but cautioned that the eration to AFSA’s proposals for creating a book. staffing imperatives of unaccompanied family-member employment “equalization The Secretary concluded the meeting posts could be a long-term problem. fund” and increasing the inadequate by expressing satisfaction with the results AFSA officers briefed the Secretary on Separate Maintenance Allowance. Holmes of the AFSA-department partnership so ongoing efforts to work out compromise observed that unmarried partners (Mem- far and stating that she looks forward to language for the Foreign Service modern- bers of Household) still face even greater a continuing engagement on the many ization legislation that would provide difficulties, and that the department con- tough issues that will undoubtedly arise overseas comparability pay to all FS tinues to use the Defense of Marriage Act in the future. employees abroad while converting automatic within-grade step increases to per- AFSANEWSBRIEFS formance-based salary adjustments. Holmes explained that AFSA wants to AAFSW Seeking Volunteer Award Nominations ensure that such adjustments will truly be The Associates of the American Foreign call AAFSW at (703) 820-5420. based on quality of performance and that Service Worldwide are seeking nomina- Beginning this year, nominations for a money will be available to pay for them. He tions for the AAFSW/Secretary of State’s new award — the Eleanor Dodson suggested that the Secretary’s personal inter- Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Tragen Foreign Service Spouse Award — Activities. These awards honor members are being sought by Diplomats and vention might be necessary to break a of the Foreign Service community who Consular Officers, Retired. This award potential executive branch deadlock and have made exceptional contributions in will recognize a family member who has ensure that the final draft bill reaches one of the following categories: service to effectively advocated for family member Congress in time to be passed this year. the U.S. government community at post, rights and benefits. The award is named outstanding activities directed toward the after Ele Tragen, a long-time AAFSW Moving to transformational diploma- host country and/or exceptional service member and advocate, and funded by cy, the Secretary described her vision of the during emergencies at post. income from a gift to DACOR from her Foreign Service as becoming more “expe- Nominations for the SOSA awards must husband, retired FSO Irving Tragen. ditionary” and requiring employees to be received by Oct. 6, and should be sent Nominations must be received at deploy more frequently to areas of crisis and by mail to AAFSW, 5555 Columbia Pike, DACOR by Oct. 6. Send them to: Suite 208, Arlington VA 22305-3117; DACOR Bacon House Foundation, conflict, sometimes on short notice. This, e-mail to [email protected] or fax to 1801 F St. NW, Washington DC 20006. she said, will require sacrifice and a broad (703) 820-5421. For further information, Briefs • Continued on page 72

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 69 A F S A AFSA AND THE DG said he hoped for relations with AFSA that would be as collegial and collaborative as possible. Topics covered included recruit- N AFSA Presents “Wish List” ment for the Foreign Service, training, service discipline and Foreign E Service family issues. AFSA President Tony Holmes spoke about W n June 7, during his first week on the job as the new direc- the core importance of maintaining integrity in the performance- S tor general of the Foreign Service and director of the Bureau based promotion system. Oof Human Resources, Ambassador George M. Staples In connection with the desire to have an open and produc- joined the AFSA Governing Board for a lunch meeting at AFSA tive relationship with the DG, AFSA offered to present a “wish headquarters. Amb. Staples was accompanied by Principal Deputy list” of priorities that the association would like to see addressed Assistant Secretary for Human Resources Heather Hodges, Policy by the State Department. Amb. Staples said he would welcome Coordination Staff Director Karen Krueger and Chief Labor such a list. Management Negotiator Steve Polson. Following is a copy of the AFSA Wish List document that was The DG described priority issues to the Governing Board and sent to the DG on June 27.

June 27, 2006 fied but are not personally “known” to the bureau. Some prime examples of unfair practices that you can put a stop to are: Ambassador George M. Staples Giving “half-handshakes” to below-grade bidders Director General of the Foreign Service Assigning Civil Service candidates when good FS candidates U.S. Department of State are available Using directed assignments to overcome Fair Share Dear Ambassador Staples: requirements Asserting “unique personal qualifications” to give jobs to AFSA remains committed to working with you and your team special candidates to transform the Foreign Service to meet the needs of the 21st century, to devise creative “outside-the-box” solutions to problems, Iraq PRTs: Our members continue to express deep reserva- and to develop sensible changes in personnel policies, procedures, tions about service in the red-zone PRTs, partly because of the and regulations that would benefit our colleagues worldwide. We dangerous conditions — which many believe exceed what share with you the objective of making the Foreign Service a career unarmed FSOs should be expected to endure — and partly because that attracts and retains the very best people to represent our coun- of concerns about the inability to do the job they would be sent try overseas. Doing so requires us to address the fairness and to do. Because we know that greater openness and more infor- equity concerns of our members, to attend to the needs of fam- mation are in everyone’s interest, we urge you to persuade NEA, ilies, and to implement effective incentives for hardship service S/I and DS to work forthrightly with HR and AFSA to: in an increasingly difficult and dangerous world. Give the membership an honest accounting of conditions We need a Foreign Service that bends over backward to take at PRTs care of its employees. Too often, our members feel as if an unsym- Address security concerns pathetic bureaucracy is looking to chip away at their overseas Develop further incentives to encourage volunteers and pre- allowances, is ready to strip them of their security clearances on vent directed assignments the slightest pretext, and is generally unforgiving and regulation- bound when unique situations arise. Overseas employment of spouses/partners: Despite the Depart- You asked that AFSA provide you with the priority “wish list” ment’s stated commitment to meaningful, well-compensated of the most important or most pressing action items which our employment of family members overseas, the reality is that many spous- members have raised with us. The list that follows is distilled from es and partners feel blocked by bureaucratic rigidity and by posts’ rel- the hundreds of comments that we receive from members around ative budgetary priorities. Some measures you can take are: the world every week, as well as from the extensive responses to Urging M to create the EFM employment “equalization our surveys. fund” proposed by AFSA and FLO Open Assignment rules: The Department needs to follow its Changing the FAM to require posts to pay the Highest own rules in making assignment decisions. Members are deeply Previous Rate to experienced EFMs frustrated by a system in which bureaus routinely reserve choice Ordering an expedited process to hire spouses/partners to jobs for insider candidates, excluding those who may be quali- fill vacant FS positions at post

70 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 A F S Promotions: Reinforcing the integrity, fairness, and number as well as the DS “pass through” program for assignment to crit- A of opportunities in our performance-based promotion system is ical-threat posts. People fear that too much power is vested in a top priority for our membership. Employees feel that their pro- DS as the investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury in security clear- motions are too dependent on their supervisor’s EER-writing abil- ance cases. There is also concern about the lack of transparency N ities, and many (particularly DRI entrants) are apprehensive about when it comes to DS’s recommendations against an employee’s E the overall shrinkage in promotion numbers, which seems to be assignment to a critical-threat post. First steps might include: W leaving more people at the same grade longer — six to eight years Creating a task force, including AFSA, to develop new guide- S or more — before getting promoted. It is important that you: lines for security investigations/adjudications/and assignment Fight for more resources to expand the promotion num- recommendations bers Assigning employees who have lost their clearances, where Seek ways to significantly reduce the unrealistically high appropriate and feasible, to positions that do not require a mandatory 5-percent low-ranking Top Secret clearance and devising meaningful work responsibilities for them. Unaccompanied tours of duty: At a time when the Department needs to motivate our colleagues to volunteer for the Maternity benefits overseas: While we understand the need nearly 700 unaccompanied positions every summer — more than to work within existing federal governmentwide laws, AFSA believes 20 percent of overseas assignments — AFSA believes we must do that the unique conditions of the Foreign Service require special more to accommodate family concerns. Our members serving rules/benefits for female FS employees posted overseas who become in war zones are keenly aware of the disparities between DOD’s pregnant. For many, the three-month medical evacuation man- treatment of military families and our own. Some important dated by M/MED becomes a severe hardship because the employ- actions you can take include: ee must use her own leave and then is forced to go on leave with- Increasing the woefully inadequate Separate Maintenance out pay when her accumulated annual/sick leave runs out. This Allowance is particularly unfair for female employees who have only a small Facilitating use of home leave during or after 12-month unac- accumulated leave balance and who may be the sole income-earn- companied tours er in the family. This situation cries out for urgent measures, Expanding the Department’s outreach and support to sep- such as: arated family members Granting the employee administrative leave during her three- month medical evacuation Members of Household: Our surveys have revealed wide- Authorizing travel for husbands who are dependent spouses spread dissatisfaction with the Department’s unwillingness to recognize unmarried partners on the same terms as spouses. We Contact reporting requirements: HR and DS foreign con- believe that the Department is applying the Defense of Marriage tact reporting rules are grossly outdated, unclear, and sometimes Act far beyond its legal scope and see considerable room for contradictory. Despite many significant changes over the years, improvement and flexibility in how MOHs are treated without these sections of the FAM have not been revised in 19 years. As violating the DMA. AFSA has been working with GLIFAA to a result, many FS employees have been curtailed from post, had develop a series of specific recommendations to address this prob- their clearances suspended and are facing discipline due to alleged lem, even if some require challenging the current legal constraints. violations of contact reporting requirements. AFSA lawyers have These include: received contradictory information on whether certain contacts Funding travel to/from post for MOHs need to be reported, so our members are understandably confused. Changing the Foreign Affairs Manual to require Chiefs of We ask that the Department work with AFSA to: Mission to extend the same benefits to MOHs as spouses Immediately update and clarify 3 FAM 4100 and 12 FAM According MOHs the same within-mission employment 260 opportunities as spouses Including MOHs in post evacuation plans Overseas housing: Our members at foreign posts suffer as a result of 1960s-era regulations that require any overseas housing Diplomatic Security: While Under Secretary for Management lease over $25,000 (a figure that has not been changed in 30 years) Fore appears to be pressing DS to expedite the resolution of long- annually to receive Washington approval and that impose arbi- stalled cases of members whose security clearances have been in trary limits of the square footage of overseas housing. We urge limbo for as much as 2-3 years, we face a growing feeling among you to: Foreign Service employees that there should be greater transparen- Change the rules in order to liberalize these antiquated hous- cy and accountability in many of the programs run by DS, including requirements ing the investigation/adjudication processes for security clearances Continued on page 72

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 71 A

F DG Wish List • Continued from page 71 S A Technology in the workplace: OpenNet Everywhere has Use other methods to communicate with these retirees, in launched a long-overdue revolution in the work habits and flex- addition to e-mail, and ensure that the period statements ibility of FS employees, who can now answer e-mails and com- of annuity changes are printed out and mailed to all retirees N plete unclassified tasks outside the office. Remote-access tech- who do not choose to receive them only electronically E nology facilitates communication overseas when posts must close W for security reasons. In order to bring the Foreign Service into Finally, as a general observation, we all share the view that the S the 21st century, AFSA proposes: Foreign Service should honor the experience and expertise of its Making ONE access universal among Foreign Service career diplomats and give them a pre-eminent role in the formu- employees lation of U.S. foreign policy. Too often, our members today feel Expanding the availability/use of laptops and wireless devices as if non-career appointees chosen for a particular ideological point (PDAs, Blackberries, etc.) of view and/or personal loyalty are the only ones who play a role in developing policy, while the professional Foreign Service is side- Per diem for long-term training: The declining scale of per- lined. Anything you can do to combat this trend would be wel- diem in the D.C.-area remains a source of anguish to our mem- comed by our membership. bers, many of whom find themselves seriously out of pocket at Some of the suggestions in our “wish list” challenge conven- the end of a lengthy training period. The new Cost-Effective tional wisdom and seek new ways of doing things. We under- Lodging Initiative is a good start to addressing housing costs, but stand that this fits in with your thinking about the Foreign Service. more needs to be done, including: As we have told you before, we hope you will see AFSA not as an Finding ways to ease the financial burden of the sliding scale, adversary, but as a partner, as a conduit for feedback from mem- such as providing a flat rate for all periods of training beyond bers worldwide, and as a source of creative ideas for developing 60 days a Foreign Service for the 21st century. Establishing different per-diem rates depending on an employee’s family size Respectfully yours,

Pets in the Foreign Service: For many employees overseas, pets are their household companions and support structure. We need to: Allow reimbursement of the costs of transporting and quar- J. Anthony Holmes antining pets AFSA President Include pets in post evacuation plans

Outreach to retirees: HR/RET uses an e-mail–based work- load management system to communicate with Foreign Service retirees and provide the information and services they need. This tracking system cannot fully accomplish this task because many retirees — probably more than half — do not have e-mail capa- Steven Kashkett bility. HR/RET should: AFSA State Vice President AFSANEWSBRIEFS BOOKFAIR For months, volunteers have been sorting, pricing and storing books to prepare JOSH for the 46th Annual AAFSW BOOKFAIR, which opens on Friday, Oct. 13, at 2 p.m. in the Exhibit Hall of Main State. Employees, their escorted guests, retirees and their spouses are cordially invited. Between Oct. 16 and Oct. 20, this same group of people will be admitted from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. BOOKFAIR is open to everyone, including the general public, on two weekends: Oct. 14-15 and Oct. 21-22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. On the last day, some items will be discounted by 50 percent. VISA, MASTERCARD and checks are accepted. Questions? Please call (202) 223-5796. Briefs • Continued on page 77

72 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 A

AFSA Awards • Continued from page 65 F procedures. Allison was unable S guished guests today, Leslie Gelb): ‘Career to attend the ceremony, so A professionals are being most loyal when they Caroline Easterling, Harriman’s are being candid with their bosses about sit- great granddaughter, presented uations, and when they press for a serious the award to Allison’s col- N examination of policy.’ Edward R. Murrow, league, Nyda Budig, who E in his famous quote during the McCarthy accepted on his behalf. W era, said that ‘we must never confuse dis- S sent with disloyalty.’ It is AFSA’s view that Exemplary Performance

American foreign policy can only benefit Mikkela Thompson Awards from an open and candid debate of the Award winners at the ceremony, from left: Martine McKinnie, The M. Juanita Guess issues among our Foreign Service profes- Margaret Riccardelli, Kevin Morgan, Nyda Budig, Richard Sacks Award for a community liaison sionals.” and Amb. Michael Guest. officer was presented to Martine S. McKinnie, from Embassy went to four Foreign Service officers and spe- Yaounde, by Jon Clements, son of M. cialists who demonstrated extraordinary Juanita Guess. McKinnie was honored for accomplishments and professionalism providing the warmest possible welcome to involving initiative, integrity, intellectual embassy newcomers, as well as for the courage or constructive dissent. The numerous morale-improving activities she Christian A. Herter Award was presented organized for the community. to Ambassador Michael E. Guest, current- The Delavan Award for an office man- ly dean of the Leadership and Management agement specialist was presented to School at FSI, by Amb. Edward Gibson Malgorzata “Gosia” Lamot, from Embassy Mikkela Thompson Lifetime achievement award winner Ambassador Lanpher. Guest was honored for his efforts Kuwait. Lamot was honored for improv- Morton Abramowitz with Dr. James Schlesinger. to push the State Department to end dis- ing morale at the embassy, in part through crimination against Members of Household a program she created called The Healthy Dr. James Schlesinger, a former secre- and all unmarried partners of Foreign Living Lunch Break, bringing many mem- tary of Defense and CIA director, present- Service employees. In his remarks, Guest ed the Lifetime Contributions Award to thanked AFSA “for giving the issue the atten- Amb. Abramowitz, whom he has known tion it deserves.” for many years. Dr. Schlesinger spoke fond- The William R. Rivkin Award for a mid- ly of Amb. Abramowitz, calling him a mar- level officer was presented to Richard S. velous person, imaginative, unbelievably Sacks, from Embassy Panama City, by energetic and a splendid public servant inside Charles Rivkin. Sacks called attention to the and outside government. He noted that negative effect that the poor treatment of

Abramowitz “habitually told truths for his Panamanian Muslims at U.S. ports of entry Mikkela Thompson country,” and was “an aggressive interna- was having on America’s image in Panama. Sen. Paul Sarbanes receives his award. From left: tionalist.” His dissent ultimately influenced the AFSA President Tony Holmes, Sen. Sarbanes and Director General George Staples. In accepting the award, Abramowitz Department of Homeland Security’s pas- offered memories of working with senger-screening procedures. bers of the embassy community together for Schlesinger over the years, fondly recalling The Tex Harris Award for a Foreign exercise and professional development the 1970s debates between then-Secretary Service Specialist was presented to Kevin B. activities. of Defense Schlesinger and then-Secretary Morgan, from Embassy Minsk, by Amb. Amb. George M. Staples, Director of State Henry Kissinger. Abramowitz spoke William Harrop, who noted that it was a General of the Foreign Service and Director critically of the Iraq War, commenting that special privilege for him to give an award of Human Resources at the State “American foreign policy does not need an to someone who put himself on the line to Department, presented a Special AFSA exit strategy, but a strategy. Staying the protect his staff. The winner of the W. Certificate of Appreciation and Recognition course is not a strategy.” He added that the Averell Harriman Award was Christopher to Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, D-Md., for his Foreign Service “has a responsibility to pro- Allison, from U.S. Consulate Chennai. extraordinary support of U.S. diplomacy vide candor.” Seeing problems with the way temporary- through a long, distinguished career. worker visas were being processed in Sarbanes, who is retiring from the Senate Constructive Dissent Awards South India, Allison challenged the status this year, spoke of the importance of diplo- This year’s Constructive Dissent Awards quo and helped bring about changes in the Continued on page 75

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 73 A F S FS VOICE: THE SYSTEM AND YOU BY KENYA OWENS A N Notes from the Depths of the Bureaucracy E With this essay, AFSA News is initiating a new occasional feature,“The System and You,” which W will highlight your stories of bureaucratic absurdities faced when navigating life in the Foreign Service. S When possible, we will try to get an explanation for the policy or regulation causing the problem and, who knows, maybe even persuade management to make changes, either in regulations or in the interpretation of them. Send your submissions (aim for 500 words) to FSJ Associate Editor Shawn Dorman at [email protected]. The first installment looks at how a husband and wife, both Foreign Service employees, were penalized for not renting separate quarters while on TDY training in the D.C. area. (Note: As we go to press, we have learned that the claims office is reviewing the case to determine whether an error was made.)

A Housing Loss

would like to tell you about a recent incident that I see as a ing rate was $180. While I was on TDY to Warrenton (approx- potential obstacle for all government employees, especially imately 40 miles from Arlington), my maximum daily lodg- Icouples and partners. My wife and I are both relatively new ing rate was $67. Despite the fact that we both have our own employees of both the federal government and the Foreign separate travel orders, my wife and I decided to share a room Service. We are currently on temporary duty in Arlington and in Arlington for a double occupancy daily rate of $180. I sim- Warrenton, Va., respectively. ply commuted to Warrenton at my own We have all heard cynical stories of expense. government agencies wasting copious According to the State Department amounts of money due to mismanage- It would appear that in interpretation of federal travel regulations, ment or misinterpretation of regulations Chapter 301: 11-13, the fact that my wife originally written to protect resources. this case, the system is not and I decided to share a room (and con- Unfortunately, many of the stories only encouraging us to waste sequently save the government money) prove to be true, though in most cases reduced our total daily lodging rate to the losses were justified by regulations money, but is penalizing us $157. Apparently, we needed to split the that have gone astray from their origi- for not wasting it. cost of the daily room rate equally, so my nal intentions. Our own experience relat- wife’s per diem only covered $90, while ed to convoluted, drawn-out travel my per diem only covered a maximum guidelines. This particular incident not rate of $67. The total thus translated to only defies logic; it defies plain common sense. a $700-per-month difference that I had to pay out of pocket. Following the recent submission of two separate expense When we asked if we could just submit one expense report reports, my wife and I received an e-mail from our financial for my wife’s maximum allowable per diem of $180 per day, management specialist explaining that we had calculated the we were informed that such an act would be both illegal and reports incorrectly. As a result, the reports had been recalcu- immoral. We were told that in the future we should just pay lated and the total reimbursements were reduced. This e-mail for two separate rooms, regardless of their use. It would appear led to a series of phone conversations with the financial man- that in this case, the system is not only encouraging us to waste agement specialist and the office supervisor. At the conclusion money, but is penalizing us for not wasting it. of our correspondence, we had a very clear understanding of why our reimbursements had been reduced, though we still Kenya and Nicole Owens are both Foreign Service specialists assigned could not actually believe it. to Geneva. Kenya has recently completed the core training of his While on TDY to Arlington, my wife’s maximum daily lodg- new-hire orientation program, while Nicole has recently been tenured.

74 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 A F AFSA/TLG SUMMER INTERNSHIP Attending a lunch for AFSA/ S TLG Intern Stacy Session A AFSA/State Intern prior to her June departure for Nairobi, from left: Serves Overseas AFSA Governing Board N Member Joyce Namde, TLG E BY LORI DEC, AFSA SCHOLARSHIP Treasurer Stacy Williams, W ADMINISTRATOR Session and TLG’s president, Amb. Denise Mathieu. S tacy Session, a rising senior from Below: Session with Florida A&M, arrived in Kenya on a Masai warrior in Kenya. SJune 19 to begin her three-month offices regarding the embassy’s Chief of summer internship in the management Mission Management Statement of Assur- office of Embassy Nairobi. The internship ance, temporarily assuming the responsi- was sponsored by AFSA and the State bilities for the chargé’s assistant. Session also Department’s Thursday Luncheon Group, drafted routine letters on such issues as noti- known as TLG. This collaborative partner- fying Kenyan vendors that the embassy is ship began in 1996 to help raise awareness exempt from the Value Added Tax. of the Foreign Service and increase diver- In her spare time, Session tried to take sity within its ranks. Each summer, one advantage of all Nairobi had to offer. She minority undergraduate or graduate stu- visited an ostrich farm and resort and dined dent has the opportunity to explore a career on ostrich, went salsa dancing every in international affairs at the State Thursday night and volunteered at the New opportunity is accessible and my essential Department in a high profile, substantive Life Orphanage for young children (new- needs are met. Every morning when I work environment. The student is men- born to age 3) who were abandoned and/or arrived at work, the visa line at the tored by AFSA and TLG members, and HIV-positive. “It was uplifting to see that embassy was very long, because people are receives a small stipend. This summer, for the agency had an 80-percent adoption desperate to come to America for the the first time, the internship was done over- rate,” Session tells AFSA News. In addition, opportunity of a better life. I take so many seas. This is Session’s second summer as Session was able to connect with several things for granted in the United States, and the AFSA/TLG intern. Florida A&M students who were studying this internship experience has changed me For the 2005 internship, Session worked at the U.S. International University in and made me a better person.” in the State Department’s Bureau of Nairobi. Awards • Continued from page 73 Oceans and International Environmental Session was sad to see her internship and Scientific Affairs, in the Office of end on Aug. 19. “I feel very blessed to have macy, noting that “our diplomatic corps International Health Affairs, on bioterror- been given such a life-changing opportu- build bridges that endure.” He said the job ism, biodefense and health-security issues. nity,” she says, adding that “the Kenyans of the diplomat has become increasingly After developing a D.C.-based perspective were friendly and hospitable, and the dangerous, adding that there has never been on a possible career in international affairs, Foreign Service Nationals I worked with a more urgent need for skillful diplomacy. Session eagerly accepted the overseas were so helpful to me as I adjusted to “While Senator Sarbanes is, I think, best opportunity, which helped her more clear- embassy life. I learned a lot about man- known around the world for his efforts to ly understand what embassy work as a agement and the functions and operations promote transparent and improved corpo- Foreign Service employee would be like. of a U.S. embassy. Managers have to deal rate governance,” Holmes said, “we regard Like most Nairobi embassy employees, with a lot of employee complaints and him as perhaps the foremost champion of the workday for Session began at 7:15 a.m. issues. They have to be problem-solvers the Foreign Service outside the Service itself.” She worked on a variety of tasks during her and good at delegating.” Holmes presented a Special Award of assignment, including updating the man- “I have also learned that being an Recognition to Ambassador L. Bruce agement briefing packet for the new American overseas means so many things Laingen for two decades of leadership and ambassador and deputy chief of mission. to the people in the country where you live service to AFSA as chairman of the AFSA Session assisted with preparation of the new and work,” Session says. “To some, you’re Awards and Plaque Committee. Amb. post differential report and worked on like a movie star and they want to know Laingen commented that in his position as preparations for a visit from the Office of everything about you and your life back in committee chair, he sometimes felt under- the Inspector General. She collected and the States. To others, you may be the enemy employed, and noted that the committee analyzed management risk assessment or a target for crime. I realized how for- needs to receive more nominations for the questionnaires from various embassy tunate I am to live in a country where dissent awards.

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 75 A

F Essay Contest • Continued from page 65 S Kid Vid Awards delayed by voting, so his staff member, A AFSA established the high school essay Ambassador Ruth A. Davis, a former Sarah Shenning, shared his remarks with contest seven years ago to encourage director general of the FS and former direc- former FSYF President Pamela Ward, who American high school students to learn tor of the Foreign Service Institute, as well stepped in and presented the awards. N more about the functions of the U.S. as a Foreign Service Youth Foundation These prestigious awards recognize E Foreign Service, the craft of diplomacy and board member, presented the Kid Vid Foreign Service teenagers who demonstrate W America’s role in the world. More than Awards. The contest is sponsored by FSI’s outstanding leadership in international S 3,000 submissions have been received since Transition Center and the FSYF, and hon- community service or in service to their the program began, from students in all 50 ors FS youth between the ages of 10 and peers while facing the challenges of grow- states. The contest continues to be one of 18 for their videos depicting life at post for ing up in an internationally mobile lifestyle. AFSA’s most successful outreach activities. young people. Oakwood Worldwide The winners demonstrate the power of the Out of this year’s 300 submissions, three Corporate Housing generously donated individual to improve the lives of those less outstanding essays were selected as contest prize money. Amb. Davis remarked how fortunate. For the first time, Clements winners and the writers were honored at impressed she was with the winners’ tech- International Insurance donated $3,000 the July ceremony. nological savvy, creativity and youthful per- U.S. government savings bonds to the first- Though the contest allows participants spectives. She noted that because partici- place winners. Several representatives from to write about any of today’s major inter- pants include aspects of their posts’ school- Clements attended the ceremony. national issues, all three of this year’s win- John Alsace of Barcelona and Jessica ners wrote about international develop- Himelfarb of Harare received this year’s first ment topics. Eva Lam of Milwaukee, “It opened my eyes place awards. Alsace spearheaded a pro- received the first-place AFSA award of ject to provide food to 80 impoverished $2,500 for her essay on empowering to the Foreign Service.” families at a local children’s center. He cre- women in Afghanistan. Second place ated a connection between his school and — Eva Lam, first-place National High School went to Kimberly Hayward of Oak the center to ensure his efforts would con- Essay Contest winner Lawn, Ill., for her essay on the role of tinue after he departed post. Himelfarb was Foreign Service officers in bridging the honored for her project to paint and education gender gap in Africa. Third ing, recreational activities and communi- remodel a one-room school building used place went to Karina Legradi of Tampa, ty life, Foreign Service families use the Kid to educate over 60 children, ages 2 to 15. Fla., for her essay on the role of the Service Vids to learn about their future posting or She also raised money for school uniforms, in the war on drug trafficking in Colombia choose between posts. All Kid Vids enabling over 50 orphans to attend school, and Afghanistan. become part of the permanent collection and served as the point person to receive Eva Lam thanked AFSA for the “oppor- in the Overseas Briefing Center library. and distribute clothes donated from the U.S. tunity to familiarize ourselves, as children The first-place award recipients were The Highly Commendable Award who aren’t children of the American Christian and Patrick Lisko for their went to Nelson Patterson of Harare. Foreign Service, with this side of American video of Valetta, Malta. Davis praised the Though already accepted to college, foreign policy that doesn’t involve guns and brothers’ lively production for its “engag- Patterson instead spent a “gap year” work- bombs.” In particular, she thanked Steve ing narrative, smooth transitions ... and ing in an HIV/AIDs hospice in Zimbabwe Kashkett and AFSA Executive Director inviting footage of this charming Mediter- that also has programs for HIV/AIDs Susan Reardon for their efforts. Lam, a ranean post.” Second place went to Anna- orphans. At Mashambanzou, Patterson graduate of Rufus King High School, will maria Ward for her video of Quito, Ecua- worked primarily on the orphan outreach be attending Harvard University this fall. dor. Third place was a tie between Sean team, visiting the poorest communities in Karina Legradi, a rising high school Patrick Kelly for his presentation of Vilnius, Zimbabwe and serving as a big brother to senior, told AFSA News that she, too, was Lithuania, and Anthony Oman and hundreds of orphans. He also spent many grateful for the unique opportunity to Thomas Litchfield for Helsinki, Finland. hours on the “Education for Life” program, learn about American diplomacy: “It offering seminars to help stop the spread opened my eyes to the Foreign Service.” Foreign Service Youth Foundation of AIDS. On his days off, Nelson volun- Kimberly Hayward was unable to attend Community Service Awards teered in the learning-support center of the ceremony. Representative Chris Van Hollen, D- Harare International School as a tutor for The essay contest is sponsored by the Md., an FSYF Advisory Council member children with learning disabilities. His sin- AFSA Fund for American Diplomacy and and a former Foreign Service youth him- cerity — “I just wanted to help people, I the Nelson B. Delevan Foundation. For self, was scheduled to present the didn’t expect to be here” — captured the more information, go to www.afsa.org/ FSYF/Harry M. Jannette Awards for American spirit of volunteerism of all the essay-contest/essay.html. Community Service. The congressman was winners.

76 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 A F S AFSANEWSBRIEFS A N E Staff News W S It is with much sadness that we report the August Thompson started at AFSA in 2001 and worked in the departures of two valued members of the AFSA staff. membership and accounting departments before mov- AFSA Director of Legislative Affairs Ken Nakamura ing over to the Journal in 2002. Raised in the Foreign joined the AFSA staff over 11 years ago and has done a Service (her father is Ward Thompson, lifelong friend of remarkable job establishing and maintaining the associ- AFSA), she has been a vital member of the FSJ team for ation’s relationships on the Hill. “It is because of Ken’s the past four years. She not only managed Journal busi- skills and leadership,”says AFSA Executive Director ness, but played a key role in advertising management Susan Reardon, “that AFSA can say today that our and did writing and editing for the magazine as well. advocacy and lobbying efforts are a cornerstone of the She even served as AFSA’s unofficial photographer. She services we provide our members and of AFSA’s stand- has left AFSA to pursue graduate studies full time. ing in the foreign affairs community.” Ken has accepted “Many thanks to Mikkela for her years of first-class a position as research analyst for the Congressional performance at AFSA,”says Ted Wilkinson, Editorial Research Service. Board Chair. “I hate to see this splendid Journal team Foreign Service Journal Business Manager Mikkela lose any of its members.” CLASSIFIEDS

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78 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 A F S CLASSIFIEDS A N E REAL ESTATE REAL ESTATE VACATION W

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BOOKS

The Paranoid Style drugs but U.S. missionaries.” The Grandin could have Miami Herald article he cites in making this accusation only states that the Empire’s Workshop — Latin made his central point contractors “mistakenly helped tar- America, the United States and more effectively by get” the plane. In fact, they repeated- the Rise of the New Imperialism showing how Central ly warned the Peruvian Air Force jet Greg Grandin, Metropolitan Books, America in the 1980s to hold its fire until the aircraft’s iden- 2006, $25.00, hardcover, 286 pages. was the proving ground tity was established, but the Peruvians for Iraq today. shot it down anyway. REVIEWED BY DENNIS JETT Grandin’s argument would have been better served had he been less If there is one thing the far right ambitious as well as less ideological. and the far left have in common, it is He covers a broad sweep of history paranoia. Both political extremes see with no chronological or thematic grand conspiracies in things they one who teaches Latin American his- coherence. And he spends a lot of oppose. Empire’s Workshop — tory at New York University should time blaming capitalism for the Latin America, the United States and have avoided. For instance, he de- world’s woes, leaving the impression the Rise of the New Imperialism scribes the El Salvadoran military and that Latin Americans have no respon- argues that Latin America has served oligarchy as preternaturally violent, sibility for the shape the region is in. as a proving ground for U.S. imperi- but then adds: “Their solution to the Grandin could have made his cen- alism for the last 250 years — a his- crisis, according to Reagan’s own tral point quite effectively had he lim- tory author Greg Grandin sees as a ambassador, Robert White, was apoc- ited himself to showing how Central dress rehearsal for what is happening alyptic: the country must be ‘des- America in the 1980s was the proving in the Middle East today. troyed totally, the economy must be ground for Iraq today. Some of the In the process of making this argu- wrecked, unemployment must be same apparatchiks, like Elliot Abrams ment, Grandin finds no heroes — only massive,’ and a ‘cleansing’ of some and Otto Reich, pop up in both co-conspirators. Both the National ‘300 or 400 or 500,000 people must be administrations, and their earlier dis- Endowment for Democracy and carried out.’” Grandin gives no hint information operations were clear Freedom House are in on the plot. of what Amb. White, who was a precursors of Karen Hughes. (If we Former President Bill Clinton is Carter appointee, thought of that really cared about public opinion included because he “embraced free- idea. Worse still, he neglects to men- abroad, incidentally, she never would market absolutism and American mil- tion that White was removed less than have been placed in charge of public itarism as solutions to the hemi- two weeks after Reagan’s inauguration diplomacy. But since propagandizing sphere’s woes.” As a result, his admin- precisely because he believed vio- the audience at home is her main task, istration only “served as a bridge lence was not the answer. she is perfect.) between [Ronald] Reagan’s resurgent Corporations are also included in Grandin could have devoted more nationalism and George W. Bush’s Grandin’s conspiracy, but he again time to demonstrating that the death revolutionary imperialism.” resorts to gross distortion to make his squads we encouraged in Central In his search for villains, Grandin case. He asserts private contractors America are being replicated in Iraq becomes deliberately misleading or, at “advised Peru to shoot down a plane today. The Iraqi security forces are least, makes factual errors that some- that turned out to be carrying not probably contributing more bodies to

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the Baghdad morgue every day than recent volume in the series, details search for identity as a former French al-Qaida and its allies, and it would be the efforts of Ambassador Cameron colony, a single-party political scene, nice to know to what extent they were Hume to strengthen bilateral rela- and gross economic mismanagement. doing so with U.S. government en- tions during his tenure in Algeria from Yet because U.S. policy centered on couragement. 1997 to 2000. He currently serves as “positive conditionality,” with Wash- Another useful parallel between chargé d’affaires in Khartoum. ington supporting Algiers as it imple- the two situations that deserves more This is Amb. Hume’s third pub- mented political and economic re- careful attention than this book gives lished work; he previously wrote The forms, the embassy was limited to a it is how the myth of U.S. success United Nations, Iran and Iraq: How reactive role, rather than proactively in Central America was invented, Peacemaking Changed (Indiana Uni- seeking areas for constructive engage- because it is essential to the myth of versity Press, 1994) and Ending Mo- ment. Reagan’s presidency being a success. zambique’s War: The Role of Media- Accordingly, Hume quickly famil- It will be interesting to see how the tion and Good Offices (U.S. Institute iarized himself with government, future apologists for the current pres- of Peace Press, 1994). business, media, diplomatic and civil ident will distort events in Iraq to Mission to Algiers presents a day- society leaders, probing for areas of prove he is something other than one by-day chronicle of the embassy’s con- engagement. The election of Abdel- of the worst presidents in our history. certed efforts to foster democratiza- aziz Bouteflika as president of Algeria tion, the rule of law, human rights and in 1997 facilitated those efforts, which Dennis Jett is a retired FSO who a market economy in Algeria follow- eventually opened the door to visits by served as ambassador in Peru and ing the country’s economic tailspin Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, Mozambique, among many other post- and the canceled elections of 1991, Assistant Secretary of State Martin ings during his 28-year career. He is which fueled an Islamic insurgency Indyk, congressional delegations, mil- currently dean of the International that would result in the killing of more itary officers, trade and development Center at the University of Florida in than 100,000 people. Amb. Hume officials, and many other high-level Gainesville. The author of Why skillfully relates how his team used individuals and groups. Peacekeeping Fails (Palgrave, 2001), the tools of diplomatic tradecraft — As the cycle of political violence he has published over 70 opinion principally personal engagement with subsided, and both sides came to pieces in major newspapers. Algerian counterparts, matched by value a closer relationship, engage- public diplomacy — to broaden and ment grew to include a meeting strengthen the bilateral relationship. abroad between Presidents Bouteflika Leadership Once he arrived at post, Hume’s and Clinton, expanded U.S. commer- first priority was getting to know his cial activity in Algeria, and a visit to by Example mission team and address the many Washington by Algerian presidential challenges they faced. These includ- envoys. All these initiatives helped to Mission to Algiers: Diplomacy by ed the inherent stress of service at a lay the foundation for a new partner- Engagement one-year, unaccompanied hardship ship, as did working together on the Cameron R. Hume, Lexington Books, post; limited Arabic- and French-lan- Eritrean-Ethiopian border dispute. 2006, paperback, $24.95, 186 pages. guage skills; a rapidly changing securi- Reflecting on the improved ties, ty profile; poor housing and living con- Hume underscores that U.S. missions REVIEWED BY JONITA I. WHITAKER ditions; rudimentary communications in similar situations should choose the and information technology systems; right goals, empower people, collabo- The Association for Diplomatic and limited access to Algerian leaders. rate with others, opt for action and Studies and Training, and Diplomatic Fortunately, all these problems im- use the chief of mission as the “point and Consular Officers, Retired, initi- proved with time, paralleling improve- of the spear.” The road to success is ated the Diplomats and Diplomacy ments in the bilateral relationship. often paved with small steps, and book series in 1995 to expand an Hume’s extensive background sometimes requires the reversal of understanding about the role of U.S. reading and consultations prior to past policy. For instance, Hume diplomats in world history by the gen- departure had led him to understand pushed the Federal Aviation Adminis- eral public. Mission to Algiers: that Algeria faced three challenges in tration to provide Algeria with airport Diplomacy by Engagement, the most achieving stability and progress: its security training, even though insta-

SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 83 B OOKS

such depth that they primarily appeal to specialists, or commit the opposite Amb. Hume’s book sin, covering so much ground so broadly that they end up being hope- underscores the fact that lessly glib. I’m delighted to report that Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East diplomacy remains a Asian Policy escapes both those traps, and should interest the many mem- highly personal bers of the Foreign Service (like this reviewer) who are not Asia hands, but endeavor. do follow developments in the region. AAFSW Co-authors Morton Abramowitz and Stephen Bosworth are both eminent retired ambassadors who draw BOOKFAIR on their extensive diplomatic experi- bility and violence still persisted to ence. Amb. Abramowitz, this year’s some degree. winner of AFSA’s Lifetime Contribu- This book offers many insights for tions to American Diplomacy Award, ARTWORK students of diplomacy, as well as for is a senior fellow at The Century practitioners of statecraft, who seek to Foundation (the book’s publisher); BOOKS learn how an embassy can focus its Amb. Bosworth is dean of the Fletch- resources and energy to turn around er School of Law and Diplomacy at COINS, STAMPS relations with a country in crisis. But Tufts University. The two blend their perhaps the key lesson is this: despite perspectives, and voices, together so advances in communications and smoothly that it is nearly impossible HANDICRAFTS information technology, diplomacy to tell who is writing at any given remains a highly personal endeavor point. through which its practitioners can Each of the seven chapters (fol- October 13-22, 2006 help shape international events. Such lowing a foreword by the foundation’s work is the essence of transformation- president and the authors’ own intro- at Main State al diplomacy. duction, both worth reading as well) examines the principal bilateral and Donations accepted. Jonita I. Whitaker is currently man- multilateral issues East Asia poses for agement counselor in Khartoum. the United States. The authors start E-mail for info: with the premise that “The era of [email protected] absolute American pre-eminence in Yes, Virginia, There East Asia is over” — though they also challenge the “massive cliché” of Is an East Asia China’s rise. Instead, they propose a less alarming characterization: “China, Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East Asia’s Community Builder.” East Asian Policy Their judicious observations about Morton Abramowitz and Stephen Beijing’s behavior, and its effects on Bosworth, The Century Foundation, its neighbors, are unlikely to change 2006, $15.95, paperback, 156 pages. the minds of those who are already firmly convinced the PRC is a dire REVIEWED BY STEVEN ALAN HONLEY threat to U.S. interests, but they are still valuable in their own right. Most books on Asian affairs either Abramowitz and Bosworth return examine one country or theme in to the overarching theme of their book

84 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006 B OOKS

Abramowitz and Bosworth proceed from the premise that the era of absolute American pre-eminence in East Asia is over.

in the concluding chapter, “What Do We Do?” They grant that U.S. leadership in the region remains central on major issues ranging from security and counterterrorism to democracy promotion, trade and investment, but warn that “the exercise of American power is becoming more problematic and Asians themselves must take on more responsibility for regional stability and their own well-being.” They then make thoughtful recommendations for U.S. policy toward each of the region’s major players. One caveat: In keeping with their geopolitical weight, China, Japan and the Koreas receive the bulk of the authors’ attention. Thus, readers who are interested in Southeast Asia will find somewhat less here to engage them. But that said, Chasing the Sun more than fulfills the aspiration Amb. Abramowitz expressed in an interview in this magazine’s July-August issue: “Steve [Bosworth] and I wanted to do a book that would provide a fresh, broad analysis of East Asia, what the U.S. was doing in the area, and what it might do better.”

Steven Alan Honley, an FSO from 1985 to 1997, is the editor of the Journal.

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SEPTEMBER 2006/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 91 REFLECTIONS I Found Huck Finn in El Salvador

BY JACK GALLAGHER

resident Kennedy’s Alliance for aisles searching for a seat. Not one Progress programs in the 1960s He was wearing a chair was available, but this little fel- included a school construction low was no quitter. He kept on look- P straw hat and was initiative that, with Salvadoran coop- ing. Suddenly his eyes lit up. He had eration, extended to the most remote barefoot. “Huck finally found an unoccupied seat and, areas of El Salvador. Schools sprouted with his boyhood logic leading him at the rate of one a day, mostly small, Finn is alive and on, he headed straight for it. When bare-essentials buildings, sometimes well in El Salvador,” he got there, he sat down quietly — with only seven or eight classrooms. right in the governor’s chair on the These schools also served as commu- I thought to myself. speakers’ platform. nity centers where the campesinos I looked at that marvelous country could gather and discuss their con- lad and smiled. He smiled back, total- cerns. ly happy. The audience snickered, As Embassy San Salvador’s cultur- which must have surprised the gover- al affairs officer, I frequently repre- began delivering his speech. nor, who was concentrating on his sented our country at the dedicatory While the governor spoke, I looked speech and hadn’t noticed Huck’s ceremonies for the new escuelas. out at the capacity audience. Behind almost silent capture of the seat of Recalling one of these formal occa- the overflow crowd, but off to one honor. sions still brings a most joyful smile to side, I could see a little boy elbowing In a few moments, the governor my face. It took place in a small agri- his way onto the patio. He was wear- finished speaking, turned around to cultural village in the departamento of ing a straw hat and was barefoot. It walk back to his seat and immediately San Miguel, a hot, dusty area. seemed that Mark Twain’s ghost had saw the new straw-hatted and bare- When I arrived there I joined infiltrated the audience, and had foot governor-elect. Instinctively, and Governor Miguel Charlaix on the brought that lad with him. “Huck with genuine affection, Gov. Charlaix speakers’ platform and delivered our Finn is alive and well in El Salvador,” picked up the youngster and held him embassy’s greetings to the villagers. I thought to myself. on his lap until the ceremony ended. Gov. Charlaix then walked over to the The youngster’s face revealed a I never saw a happier boy. microphone and, after officially rec- lively curiosity. Obviously, he had A number of years after that unfor- ognizing each of the many dignitaries, never before witnessed such an event. gettable day, the Salvadoran newspa- It was easy to see that he was wonder- pers headlined the sad news that the Jack Gallagher, a retired FSO (USIA), ing why so many people had congre- governor had perished in an airplane is a freelancer whose writing has gated on the patio. Next, I noticed crash. At least one Salvadoran boy, appeared in some 20 publications. that this Salvadoran Huck was looking now several years older, must surely He received a Golden Quill award for somewhere to sit. His curiosity have wept — and Mark Twain in from the Western Pennsylvania Press had convinced him to stay and watch heaven must surely have been the Association in 2004. Stamp courtesy all the strange goings-on. first to welcome the governor to that of the Stamp Corner. Huck walked up and down the celestial realm.

92 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2006