The Foreign Service Journal, November 2005
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FLO’S HERE TO HELP I A DECADE AFTER DAYTON I REMEMBERING A HERO $3.50 / NOVEMBER 2005 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS IN THEIR OWN WRITE Books by Foreign Service Authors CONTENTS November 2005 Volume 82, No. 11 F OCUS ON FS AUTHORS F EATURES 25 / IN THEIR OWN WRITE: MORE CEREMONY, MORE HISTORY, MORE THANKS / 49 BOOKS BY FOREIGN SERVICE AUTHORS Those of us in the Foreign Service need to do a Once again we are pleased to better job of formally acknowledging our debt to feature a compilation of mentors and colleagues. recently published books by By Marc Grossman Foreign Service-affiliated LEARNING FROM DAYTON / 51 authors. In addition to seven A decade after its signing, the Dayton Peace memoirs of Foreign Service Agreement still offers valuable lessons about humanitarian life, this year’s selection is intervention, peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction. highlighted by a strong By Theodore Tanoue history section, a wide-ranging RESCUE AT URMIA / 56 offering of fiction — in particular historical fiction —and In an obscure corner of Persia following World War I, a lively grouping of works on people and places. an underestimated consul became an unlikely hero. By Susan Maitra By David D. Newsom C OLUMNS D EPARTMENTS 5 / PRESIDENT’S VIEWS LETTERS / 7 Overseas Comparability Pay: CYBERNOTES / 16 Defining Issue and Litmus Test MARKETPLACE / 18 By J. Anthony Holmes BOOKS / 66 IN MEMORY / 69 19 / SPEAKING OUT INDEX TO ADVERTISERS / 78 Leadership at State AFSA NEWS / By Prudence Bushnell CENTER INSERT 22 / FS KNOW-HOW FLO Is Here to Help with Career-Employment Issues By Donna Ayerst 80 / REFLECTIONS Beans Love Cilantro By Donna Scaramastra Gorman 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 FJ O U R N A L S monthly with a combined July/August issue by the American Foreign Service Association, a private, non-profit Editor Editorial Board organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent STEVEN ALAN HONLEY 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. STEPHEN W. BUCK Ad & Circulation Manager 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited ED MILTENBERGER ANTHONY S. CHAN manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein Business Manager LILLIAN DEVALCOURT-AYALA MIKKELA V. THOMPSON JOSH GLAZEROFF does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. Art Director WILLIAM W. JORDAN E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service CARYN SUKO SMITH LAURIE KASSMAN Association, 2005. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., Editorial Intern AY EBB AYFIELD Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Printed on 50-percent recycled paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste. DANIEL ZUSSMAN K W M HRISTOPHER EAL Advertising Intern C L. T WILLEM HOFSTEDE Cover and inside illustration by Mikkela Thompson NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Overseas Comparability Pay: Defining Issue and Litmus Test BY J. ANTHONY HOLMES As of early Oct- mind for its next attempt. ober, AFSA has re- If there were ever a The other reason for optimism is ceived almost 2,000 that we have a new Secretary of State responses to the Secretary in a position with an unparalleled relationship with survey of our 8,100 to reverse OMB’s veto of the president and unrivaled influence State active-duty locality pay, at the White House, who has succeed- members launched Condoleezza Rice is it. ed in re-centering foreign policy back at in August. This sur- the State Department. Secretary Rice vey confirmed what we already knew: has made a number of statements getting overseas comparability pay and $110 million over three years.) So about her determination to take care of (OCP, aka “locality pay”) for non-senior far, neither AFSA nor the previous the department’s employees and her FS personnel posted overseas is over- State Department management’s big personal interest in and focus on good whelmingly our members’ highest pri- push last year has been able to attain management. If there were ever a ority. the administration’s blessing for OCP. Secretary in a position to reverse OMB’s We’ve made significant progress on So even if it is, as several senior depart- veto of OCP, Condoleezza Rice is it. the locality pay issue over the past few ment officials tell us, the department’s We believe that if she asks the presi- years, in part because State Depart- “highest priority” employee-related dent for what department principals ment management has shared our issue, we nonetheless are facing a situa- tell us is her “highest priority” for taking analysis of both the fundamental tion where department principals can- care of her people, he will say yes. This unfairness and the medium-term not support the issue on the Hill due to is necessary because the simple fact is threat to recruitment and retention that the “official” White House position. that Congress is not likely to grant the pay gap represents. Our success As we enter this year’s budget legis- something that it believes the adminis- three years ago in achieving “virtual lation end game, we have two impor- tration opposes. The key to ending that locality pay” to stop the erosion of FS tant advantages that give rise to at least opposition is in the Secretary’s hands. annuities was an important step. some hope. First, even though we have By the time you read this column, However, you will recall that virtual not yet succeeded with a standalone bill the battle almost certainly will have locality pay was always billed as an or in finding a champion in the Senate, been fought and the results or lack of interim measure until overseas and the House included language granting them will be apparent. AFSA has no Washington pay could be equalized. OCP in its FY 2006 authorization bill. illusions about the difficult road ahead. Today, as I write in early October, Thus, though it will be tough, there is But we also have been struck by the we have never been closer to achieving some possibility that the conferees who Secretary’s encouraging words and have the legislative breakthrough we seek. will craft the FY-06 foreign operations been looking for actions to put them But formidable obstacles remain to budget might be persuaded to include into effect. From our perspective, gaining OCP. The primary one is con- some of the House bill’s provisions, Secretary Rice’s willingness to use her tinued opposition by the White House including our OCP authority. I believe personal political capital and special and OMB based on cost and budgetary that a serious, no-holds-barred effort relationship at the White House on this impact. (The proposed three-year now, which AFSA has already begun, and other resource issues will be the lit- phase-in will cost $28 million this year just might succeed. Even if it does not, mus test for her intention to follow this effort will only increase our through on her many, much-noticed J. Anthony Holmes is the president of the chances in FY-07, which seems to be statements of support of the depart- American Foreign Service Association. the timeline the department has in ment’s personnel. I NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5 LETTERS Is Something Wrong at DS? agent who interviewed me. It Could Be You I am an analyst for the National That agent quickly made it clear The September issue focusing on Ground Intelligence Center and com- that he had formed preconceived diplomatic security raises more ques- mand a unit of the U.S. Army Reserve. ideas prior to my interview, struggling tions in my mind than it answers. You I was disturbed by the recent coverage to direct my statements to fit his par- have presented articles that view in the September Foreign Service adigm. My experiences with the sub- security issues on two very different Journal, the Washington Post and on ject of the investigation had been levels: global and individual. As I NPR regarding the Bureau of favorable, but when I conveyed that recall, measures to keep us safe from Diplomatic Security, and want to to the DS agent, he became argu- terrorist threats were taken as bud- share my own experience with your mentative and aggressive. When I getary resources permitted. As readers. didn’t support his theories, he pres- ambassador, in my introduction to our Last year, a man I knew as a loyal sured me to agree with him and post’s annual planning document, I American and a respected member of attempted to distort my own words to always underlined that our embassy the Army Reserve unit I commanded match his preconceptions. He used was a sitting duck for terrorist attack – had a promising State Department interview techniques more suited to which it was.