The Foreign Service Journal, November 2005

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

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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

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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. Yet in the three years I career derailed following the revoca- browbeating a confession out of a served at that post, we never received tion of his security clearance by criminal suspect than to eliciting verbal or written acknowledgement of Diplomatic Security/Personnel Secur- information for an objective investiga- the predicament. ity. That action followed a back- tion. He found very little of what I I would strongly argue that the DS ground investigation by the Diplo- said worth recording, and I wonder role is no more “thankless” a job than matic Security Bureau, during which now whether the interview was any other in the Foreign Service. I was interviewed. recorded faithfully. When it was clear Characterization in that vein not only As an intelligence and former law- I wouldn’t change my assessment of ignores the important contributions of enforcement professional, I have the employee, he terminated the everyone else on the Foreign Service used interviewing techniques I interview, making it very clear that he team, but also begs the question of learned at the military police and held me in disdain. which parts of our organization are intelligence schools and the Utah I am not a State Department getting generous slices of the resource State Police Academy. I have myself employee and, thankfully, DS/PSS and personnel pies, and why. Security been interviewed as part of back- cannot influence my own TS/SCI is essential, but let’s not forget that ground investigations on other indi- clearance. However, had I been a DS’s primary role is to help the viduals. By doctrine, these inter- State Department employee, I would department carry out its mission. views require the investigator to ask have feared for my own clearance and I am far more concerned about the straightforward questions, taking felt very intimidated by the agent's way that some DS personnel appar- care not to influence or direct the bullying. If my experience is any indi- ently carry out their tasks at the indi- statements of the interviewee. Given cation, there might be something very vidual level. The article “Security the subjective nature of the clearance wrong in DS. Clearance Suspension: Know Your process, the investigator should faith- Ruben G. Toyos Rights” tells me that in suspending a fully record the honest sentiments of Lieutenant Colonel, security clearance, DS is likely not to the interviewee. I was stunned by U.S. Army Reserve protect an officer’s rights and inter- the comportment of the DS special Charlottesville, Va. ests. It suggests that someone merely

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suspected of being a security risk no need to go to the Hill or the courts ations. We then criticize. Do we (whether for allegedly leaking infor- — but it must be fixed. Management criticize! One overreacts when one mation to an enemy or for allegedly ought to convene an independent shouldn’t. I learned that myself the having an unhappy marriage) has panel to look into abuses and recom- hard way, studying Arabic, French, fewer rights than someone charged mend administrative protections and Hindi and Turkish as an adult. with treason, where anyone accused remedies. Internal controls should be The remarks about language must be assumed innocent until instituted to protect the rights of the learning are on target. The Hebrew proved guilty — not in the eyes of the accused and ensure that the govern- piece points to the essential fact that investigators, but in a court of law. mentwide standards are interpreted an FSI test score of “3” in speaking That’s the American way; it’s what we and applied in a manner consistent does not mean one is able to conduct stand for as a nation. with the special mission of the depart- significant professional business in Lest my concern be confused with ment. The alternative is likely to be a the language. Much struggle ensues. melodrama, just look at the “Left in costly juridical process that might turn Part of the frustration is that lan- Limbo” article. Either one of those out more difficult for management guage learners tend to overrate their individuals could be you! They enjoy than corrections they could make in- own ability to communicate. Find- no real protection and their careers house. A legislative fix would be the ing themselves falling short during are in ruin whether they are innocent most time-consuming and unpre- training or at post, they too often find or guilty. dictable of all the alternatives. someone else to blame. Such is the Let me suggest that there is a DS, Department of State, heal thy- emotional cauldron. “clash of cultures” in progress here self! Language learning for FS (with apologies to Professor Samuel Michael D. Metelits employees presupposes need and Huntington). While we are busy tout- Ambassador, retired interest by the employing agency. In ing democracy and human rights Portland, Ore. the Foreign Service, foreign-lan- around the world, there may well be guage capability should be the sine rogue individuals within our service USAID’s Anti-Foreign qua non for professional success and who are not upholding the “American Language Culture assignment desirability. Not so. Way” in carrying out their responsibil- As a lifelong ordinary student of State has its language priorities gen- ities. languages and a former chief of erally in sync with training and assign- The current way of doing business USAID’s Professional Studies ments. It is part of State’s bureaucrat- is not good for our nation and is not Branch, I read with keen interest the ic culture. By contrast, USAID’s good for the Department of State. items about the Foreign Service bureaucratic culture has an anti-for- While DS has to act on accusations Institute in the July-August Journal. eign language bias. that question an individual’s security They triggered dormant, unexpect- For the first 15 years or more of status, a ham-handed approach does edly powerful visceral reactions even my career, I was the only non-ethnic neither the nation nor the institution now that I am retired after 30-plus FS employee in USAID who could any good. Star Chamber methods years of service. speak and read reasonably well in don’t make the department or our Language learning is one of life’s Arabic. I entered the Service with embassies any safer. They just make it most humbling experiences for this ability, following lengthy studies more difficult for the department and adults. We become inarticulate chil- in Egypt. Yet for years, USAID its employees to do their job effec- dren again, and we don’t like it. refused even to have me tested by tively. Ego-driven FS employees like it FSI. Throughout my career, agency Let’s drop the pretense: no matter even less. We find ourselves unable officials found “reasons” why I — a how well DS may be doing at the to express our thoughts. Embarrass- USAID generalist — was unsuitable global level, there are unacceptable ment abounds, interspersed with for Arabic-speaking posts. “You abuses and lack of basic rights at the moments of progress and joy. One’s know the country so well, I can’t have individual level. The system as it emotions are deeply tapped, the lows confidence in you,” one mission stands needs fixing. There are three and the highs. One result of that is director told me, typically. I con- possible routes: legislation, judicial that we can become hypercritical of cluded this was not personal to me. decision or administrative action. If language teachers and programs. Others with hard languages had the we can fix this in-house, then there is They become the targets of our vex- same experience: an economist who

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spoke four Southeast Asian languages was refused the economist position in the Bangkok regional mission. For the current Iraq program, USAID refused to include Arabic-language proficiency in its solicitations for vol- Whether you are with unteers. “Not important,” senior per- the Local, State or sonnel officers sniffed. Federal Government State’s bureaucratic culture dif- agency or the military, fers from USAID’s about hard lan- Crimson offers superior guages. Ambassadors welcome FS solutions to fit your staff members with good local-lan- budget and per diem. guage capability, while USAID mis- Crimson Government sion directors do not like having sub- Housing Solutions ordinates who have local access via a Include: hard language when they lack it. It’s Assignment Changes an ego thing, I learned, based on the Evacuations all-power-in-the-director culture of Intern Programs USAID. State’s environment is wel- International Visitors coming while USAID’s is disdainful. Project teams Want more evidence? When USAID Relocations opened its Russia program some Short / Long Details years back, it resisted providing its TDY employees with any Russian training. Training USAID’s willingness to fund language training lags far behind State’s. Crimson offers an There is no language requirement in exceptional value in the various promotion precepts for temporary housing for any level, including the Senior government personnel. Foreign Service. Our furnished USAID’s anti-language culture apartments and single- appeared again recently. USAID family homes are a proposed to AFSA to lower the FSI spacious and more level for tenuring to “Speaking-2; luxurious alternative to Reading-2” in French and Spanish the cramped quarters from the current S-3/R-3 require- of a hotel room. ment. It also wants to abolish any language requirement for tenure for two categories of FSOs. “FSO Sec- 202.986.0433 ond Class” for USAID employees? 888.233.7759 USAID’s culture is deeply flawed [email protected] regarding language capability, and www.crimsonworldwide.com that flaw is profound and enduring. While I work for AFSA as Senior Fully furnished apartments and single family homes, with large Labor Management Adviser for spacious rooms, full sized kitchens, and housewares. Separate living, USAID, these are my views, not dining and sleeping areas. Hotel style amenities, including swimming AFSA’s. pools, hot tubs, fitness centers, optional maid service and more. Douglas Broome Rates within the TDY per diem. USAID FSO, retired McLean, Va.

NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9

L ETTERS u columbia plaza apartments Capital Living With Comfort and Convenience Casey’sNow Coffee Open! 24 Hour Problems with FSI Tests Fitness Center I recently completed a 10-week internship at Embassy Vilnius, and my superiors there suggested that I consider joining the Foreign Service as an FSO. Between such a sugges- tion and an FSO name-badge lies a Utilities Included difficult obstacle course: the Foreign Complimentary Voice Mail Beautiful and Spacious: Service Written Exam and Oral Courtyard Style Plaza Assessment. Polished Hardwood Floors Efficiencies, 1 bedroom and Private Balconies 2 bedrooms available for Some time ago I read an article Huge Walk-in Closets immediate occupancy titled “State Department Struggles to Fill Posts. Diplomats Don’t Want 24 Hour Front Desk 2400 Virginia Ave., N.W Jobs in ‘Hardship’ Areas,” in the Garage Parking Avaliable Washington, D.C., 20037 Houston Chronicle. The article stat- Controlled Access Tel: (202) 293-2000 ed that for the 2002 assignments Potomac River Views E-mail: [email protected] Minutes to Fine Dining cycle, there were no bidders for 74 Newly Renovated Kitchens Office Hours: Mon. - Fri. 8:00 AM-5:30 PM mid-level positions. Sixty percent of Market at Columbia Plaza Sat 10:00 AM-4:00 PM U.S. embassies and consulates are Directly across the street from Main State, minutes to Kennedy Center and Georgetown designated hardship posts for reasons including security threats, poor hospitals and schools and oppressive weather. From Nigeria to Kazakh- stan, U.S. missions report a vacancy rate 50 percent higher than in more developed countries. The 2005 list of Historically Difficult to Staff positions does not show improvement in the State Department staffing short- ages across the globe. The current method of staffing the State Department was okay when Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris. Times have changed, but State human resources management has not. The State Department’s Board of Examiners actually accomplishes only randomization of FSO selection to prevent staffing by hereditary candidates. The State Department could save a lot of money if it used roulette to select Foreign Service candidates instead of the expensive current testing process. The results would be the same. Many contract employees and specialists bypassing the examination process do very well at the same jobs as FSOs, yet cannot pass the tests after numerous tries. After three tries, the test looks to

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me to be more like a basic literacy test than an examination of a prospective Foreign Service candidate. It seems strange to me that in a world of high professionalism everywhere, the State Department requires candidates to state their career-cone selection in advance, yet the examination process tests all candidates the same way regardless of the cone selected. My overall oral exam score of 4.00 did not meet the cutoff grade of 5.25. Yet during the interview, I was told that I am ‘overqualified’ for the Foreign Service. The letter from the Board of Examiners stated that “Many successful Foreign Service officers have taken the written examination, and the oral assessment, several times.” If that is true, the State Department misses some quite qualified candidates because not everyone will continue trying after failing the initial round of tests. At the same time, repeated testing of unqualified candidates costs taxpayers significant amounts of money, which could be saved if the right candidates were selected the first time. The State Department can and should do a better job of screening applicants, and improvements might start right on the application page of the State Department Web site. The page does not allow applicants to enter all the various information about themselves that might be important for evaluating whether they would be successful Foreign Service officers (e.g., foreign experience, knowledge of more than two foreign languages, education in international economics for an economic cone, various achievements in science, etc.). Better-formulated questions on the biographical part of the written exam would give wider ground to evaluate candidates’ real knowledge

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and experience. I would suggest the biographical part be changed with consideration of the biographical backgrounds of candidates, perhaps supplemented with recommenda- tion letters or questionnaires. These could be verified and confirmed by the FBI follow-up. I am fluent in English, Russian and Ukrainian, and I have published poetry in each language. I would recommend that foreign-born U.S. citizens with native knowledge of one or more foreign languages be given some additional minor credit for such linguistic and cultural knowledge, and that such credit be considered at the time of the Foreign Service exam evaluation. George Bogachevsky Houston, Texas I

Send your letters to: [email protected].

Note that all letters are subject to editing for style, format and length.

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CYBERNOTES

State Makes the Top Ten cies as representing the future of the ing audiences abroad. On Sept. 14, the Partnership for federal civil service: “highly-engaged The theme of the night was that Public Service (http://www.our and highly-skilled workers performing cultural diplomacy is our nation's publicservice.org/) released its critical tasks with professionalism and heart and soul, and we need the arts in third annual list, “Best Places to Work efficiency,” rivaling their private sec- troubled times. As one speaker put it: in the Federal Government 2005.” tor counterparts. “Arts are not urgent but fundamental- The four main foreign affairs agencies — Steve Honley, Editor ly important.” The evening ended all ranked fairly high: State was 10th with Robilette playing a Paderewski of the 30 agencies surveyed; Lifting Spirits While nocturne and several Chopin selec- Commerce, 12th; Agriculture, 16th; Making Friends tions to an enthusiastic response. and USAID tied with the Labor A Sept. 28 concert evening in the The event was a good case of effec- Department for 18th. Library of Congress’ Coolidge Audi- tive outreach to the Hill on behalf of a The top five were, in descending torium explored “The Power of Great stronger cultural diplomacy effort. order: the Office of Management and Music in the Revival of U.S. Public — Harry C. Blaney III Budget, National Science Founda- Diplomacy.” The well-attended event President, Coalition for tion, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, featured pianist John Robilette, who Effective Leadership Abroad Government Accountability Office and back in 1982 created the Artistic (COLEAD) the Securities and Exchange Com- Ambassador Program for the U.S. mission. The bottom five: National Information Agency. He was preceded Katrina Draws Foreign Aid Archives and Record Administration, by several prominent speakers involv- to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, ed in public and cultural diplomacy. The wave of worldwide assistance Department of Education, Depart- Robert Schadler, who long direct- to the Katrina recovery effort marks a ment of Homeland Security and, last, ed the USIA International Visitor significant reversal in which the the Small Business Administration. Program, acted as master of cere- United States, a pre-eminent donor of PPS put together the list with the monies. He cited the “International foreign aid, has become a recipient. help of American University’s Insti- Music Initiative” in advocating the The State Department released a list tute for the Study of Public Policy revival of an expanded classic music of over 120 foreign countries that Implementation and Sirota Survey exchange program. Senator Norman have donated money or supplies Intelligence. To compile the rankings, Coleman, R-Minn., a member of the (http://www.state.gov/katrina/ the partnership analyzed the answers Senate Foreign Relations Committee 53264.htm). A number of multilat- of nearly 150,000 federal employees and co-chair of the Senate Arts eral organizations have also played a to questions about their overall job Caucus, strongly endorsed cultural critical role in the recovery effort. satisfaction. Respondents were asked diplomacy as a part of public diploma- The initial delays in aid approval whether they agreed with statements cy. Other speakers included Letitia reflected America’s lack of experience such as “My job makes good use of my Baldrige, chief of staff in the White with being on the receiving end of skills and abilities” and “I hold my House to Jacqueline Kennedy; Marta assistance. As the confusion subsided, organization’s leaders in high regard.” Casals Istomin, president of the the federal government welcomed all The report observes that “the key Manhattan School of Music in New foreign donations with few exceptions, drivers behind workplace satisfaction York from 1992 to 2005 and former and began to channel the aid to its and engagement remain the same: wife of Pablo Casals and Eugene proper destination. The outpouring of effective leadership and a good match Istomin; and former Artistic Amb- sympathy from foreign citizens and gov- between employee skills and the mis- assador Philip Hosford, who made an ernments has, at least in the short term, sion of the organization.” It also eloquent case for the effectiveness of caused some noteworthy changes in describes the top-rated federal agen- music programs as a means of reach- America’s international relations.

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CYBERNOTES

Gulf Coast, Canadian oil producers another example, Israel — a longtime or what can be heard around agreed to step up oil production to ally and the largest recipient of aid the world, in the wake of the near full capacity. This is an impor- from the United States — is consider- Finvasion of Iraq, the prisoner tant development given that relations ing whether in the aftermath of abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, between the two countries were Katrina, to decline a $2.25 billion aid and the controversy over the recently soured over a NAFTA trade package intended for the Gaza disen- dispute in which the Bush administra- gagement plan, among other purpos- handling of detainees at Bagram tion chose to ignore a ruling to refund es. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz and Guantanamo Bay, is that five billion dollars in lumber tariffs. In quoted U.S. Ambassador Daniel America is less a beacon of hope than a dangerous force to be countered. Site of the Month: Project Gutenberg

— The Advisory Committee on In a world where you can chat with friends or strangers, play poker, shop or Cultural Diplomacy, Sept. 29, take a college class without leaving your computer, a new online trend has quoted on www.salon.com evolved: reading e-books on your desktop or laptop. It all started with Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org), the first and largest single collection of free electronic books on the Web. Resembling its In a Sept. 4 speech in Bayou Le namesake, the Gutenberg press, which drastically reduced the cost of printed Batre, Ala., Secretary of State text and thereby made material available to the masses in medieval Europe, the Condoleezza Rice — an Alabama digital library contains 15,000 public-domain e-books to date and continues to native — praised other countries for grow every day. Each downloadable e-book is available at no cost to anyone their generosity, “People have said with a computer and Internet access, providing readers with texts ranging from that America has been so generous in fiction to analytic reports to sheet music, composed in languages from around times like this in other places, and the globe. Most e-books are the reincarnations of out-of-print texts whose now it is time to be generous to copyright dates have expired; Project Gutenberg has spared them from literary America.” Rice thanked a large and extinction. diverse group of donor countries, In an effort to “change the world,” founder Michael Hart developed Project ranging from large and powerful Gutenberg to make literature free and accessible to all in 1971. In his mission countries like France and China to statement, Hart explains: “Project Gutenberg is powered by ideas, ideals and small ones like the Bahamas and even idealism — not by financial or political power.” Hart typed the first text, the Sri Lanka, itself still recovering from Declaration of Independence, himself, but the organization has expanded to the devastating tsunami of December hundreds of volunteers in the past three decades. 2004. More of Rice’s commentary can Hart is dedicated to minimalist bureaucracy within his organization, reflect- be found at the State Department’s ing his anti-establishment beliefs. As he explained to an interviewer (http:// International Information Programs www.planetebook.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=376), this includes Web site (http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/ specifically opposition to copyright laws and the subsequent commercialization Archive/2005/Sep/05-187847. of information, which, in his eyes, hinder literacy and education, discriminate html). against the poor and, ultimately, undermine basic democracy. Hart hopes that Close allies of the United States, his project will provide millions of e-books in every language to billions of peo- like Canada, have sought to improve ple in every corner of the globe. “Project Gutenberg stands for opening, not relations by participating during the closing, doors,” he says. recovery effort. To compensate for — Brooke Deal, Editorial Intern the loss in oil production along the

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C YBERNOTES u

50 Years Ago... What we have set out to do is to create an institute for the Foreign Service of the United States that in its field will compare favorably with the War Colleges of the Armed Forces, as there has never been an institute equipped to do for diplomacy what the War Colleges do for defense. — From: “The New FSI Training Program” by Harold B. Hoskins, FSJ, Nov. 1955.

Kurtzer on Sept. 9, “The government United Nations Office for the may or may not decide to pursue it Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [the aid], in view of the fact that the to alleviate the condition of displaced costs to the American taxpayer of people along the Gulf coast, much as Katrina are likely to be enormous in it did for those affected in Asia follow- the period ahead.” ing last December’s tsunami. Relief- Traditional adversaries of the web, a Web site administered by UN- United States like Cuba, Venezuela OCHA, provides a wealth of docu- and Iran have also offered their help. ments on Katrina relief (http://www. Cuba has sent 1,100 physicians, and reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc108? Venezuela has donated food supplies OpenForm&rc=2&emid=TC- and humanitarian relief. Less sin- 2005-000144-USA). A collection of cere is Iran’s offer to provide 20 mil- maps can also be found of the affect- lion barrels of crude oil, which is ed areas. conditional on the U.S. lifting trade Predictably, scandal has erupted sanctions. The United States has alongside all of the help. CI Host, the rejected this and all other condition- largest private Web-hosting firm al offers. worldwide, reports that over 4,000 Multilateral organizations have Katrina-related scam Web sites have also provided assistance to the recov- been created since Sept. 1. Accord- ery effort. NATO’s contribution is sig- ing to their figures, 60 percent of all nificant, both in monetary terms and Katrina fundraising Web sites are as evidence of its continued transition fraudulent. Tips on how to avoid toward humanitarian and peacekeep- scam Web sites are available, among ing missions. To provide for disaster other places, at the FBI cyber investi- relief, NATO has utilized the Euro- gations Web site (http://www.fbi. Atlantic Disaster Response Coor- gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm). dination Center, created in 1998 as Government agencies working the focal point for coordinating disas- with foreign donors have begun to ter relief efforts in the Euro-Atlantic produce tangible results. These partnership. Daily situation reports same efforts are also being directed can be found at the EADRCC Web toward Hurricane Rita and its after- site (http://www.nato.int/eadcc/ math. Having struck only weeks 2005/katrina/index.htm), with de- after Katrina, Rita has underscored tailed information on the contribu- the need to learn, and institutionalize, tions of donor states. Katrina’s many tough lessons. I The EADRCC has also been — Daniel Zussman, working in close coordination with the Editorial Intern

18 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

SPEAKING OUT Leadership at State: A Work in Progress

BY PRUDENCE BUSHNELL

hen I left the Foreign Washington. Of course, there are rea- Service Institute in 1989 We have made sons for that. Overseas, the chief of W after three years heading progress, but the mission has a letter signed by the up the Executive Development Divi- president of the United States outlin- sion, I published an article in the Foreign Service is still ing his or her leadership responsibili- Foreign Service Journal titled “Lea- not an organization ties, and the accompanying account- dership at State: The Neglected Di- that values ability is clear. People taking ambas- mension.” That title pretty well sum- sadorial and DCM assignments for med up my assessment. leadership across the first time are obligated to attend Fast forward 16 years. I have re- the board. preparatory seminars. At post, securi- cently retired after 24 years of service, ty and other concerns force every the last three spent as the dean of w front office to pay increasing attention FSI’s Leadership and Management to purpose, organization and people. School. My assessment of leadership Employees and even “the system” are at State today? A work in progress. We are still not an organization less tolerant of bad or indifferent “Take care of your people,” words that values leadership across the leadership overseas and more in- absent from our vocabulary in 1989 board. A boss may demonstrate lead- clined to take action against it. This but a mantra over the past few years, ership, or not. He or she may under- has a trickle-down effect. If the top still echo for me. Over 4,500 col- stand what it is, or not. Either way, it’s values leadership, others do, too. leagues at the middle and senior fine. Clearly, too many people still The culture in Washington is dif- ranks have graduated from at least don’t get it: leadership is not some ferent. Senior leaders, career and one of the mandatory leadership touchy-feely, people-related thing non-career alike, receive no written training courses with a common that’s nice to do if you have time after expectations of performance from the understanding of how and why lead- tending to process and paper. Nor president; their work objectives are ership works. The results of the does it mean serving the next person closely held. Many are too busy to Office of Personnel Management’s up the ladder exclusively, as if only attend senior-level seminars designed 2004 Human Capital Survey show a people at the top can get something to enhance effectiveness in very com- stunning improvement over the 2002 accomplished. And it’s not something plicated jobs. I’m not sure how many survey in the opinions State Depart- you delegate to the head of your man- in leadership positions even consider ment employees hold of their supervi- agement team. themselves accountable for issues sors. The ambassadorial and DCM Rather, leadership is providing beyond those which relate directly to seminars emphasize leadership re- the vision, wherewithal and steward- short-term policy goals. As a result, sponsibilities, and participants discuss ship to enable others to achieve when I look at the department’s orga- them seriously. We can all name results — it’s leveraging your assets. nizational chart, I know what the hardship posts with wonderful morale It’s a job in and of itself, vital to pol- boxes stand for but I have no idea because of good leadership from the icy and central to transformational what leadership responsibilities reside front office. And grass-roots initia- diplomacy. in them. This, too, has a trickle-down tives are popping up all over — the effect. Leadership Roundtable and YPro Value Leadership in Who, for example, is accountable (Young Professionals) groups are just Washington, Too for making sure we never again have two that are fostering change. I’ve seen many more examples of to bury colleagues and family mem- And yet… leadership overseas than I have in bers because of insufficient security

NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 19

S PEAKING O UT u resources? Where does the buck stop us and the American people well. when it comes to ensuring that all Opaque, diffused responsibilities and employees receive the training and I’ve seen many more poor accountability have created seri- development opportunities they ous problems, past and present. need? Whose hand goes up if we examples of leadership Tongues cluck around town these have to ask why we do not have days about the need for better man- enough people, resources, or physical overseas than I have agement and leadership across the and technological support systems to federal government. The absence of a do an effective job? in Washington. resolution to these discussions contin- Not long before I retired from ues to absolve everyone. State, I heard the Government Accountability Office’s comptroller Let’s Change the Culture general say that the federal govern- This reality impedes the department is going to have to get used to ment’s transition to an organization “doing more with less.” I remember tional chart is responsible for that. that values leadership in all places and that refrain from the 1990s. I also I’m asking which person. at all levels. But it doesn’t have to be a remember the consequences. To I know that working in Washington show-stopper. We have choices. We whom do we now look to ensure we is different from working overseas can hope that non-career appointees have the wherewithal to serve the and I know that we hold different will take charge of our stewardship president and the American people expectations of the people in leader- for us. Or we can complain about effectively and safely? Note that I’m ship positions. But I question career colleagues who don’t “get it,” not asking which box on the organiza- whether the double standard serves assignment and promotion systems

2000 N. 14th Street • Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201 Telephone (703) 797-3259 Fax (703) 524-7559 Tollfree (800) 424-9500

20 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

S PEAKING O UT u that aren’t perfect, and resources your work products and the convic- that will never be sufficient. Or we tion with which you have stood by can wait and hope that one day If we don’t get the them in the face of pressure in things will change … maybe. Washington. Or we can start taking responsibil- results we want the first You make a difference. You ity for our organization ourselves. deserve good leadership. And so do And I mean all of us, not just the peo- time, we can try again. the people who work for you. I ple at the top. We can value leadership and accountability within our After all, we’re in Prudence Bushnell, a Foreign spheres of influence and we can ask Service officer from 1981 to 2005, our bosses to do their part, as well. If the business of served as ambassador to Kenya and we don’t get the results we want the Guatemala, principal deputy assis- first time, we can try again. After all, influencing people. tant secretary of State for African we’re in the business of influencing affairs, and dean of the Foreign people. Service Institute’s Leadership and I leave the department with enormous respect and affection for all my Management School, among many colleagues, but especially my career the rubble of bombed embassies, and other assignments. Before joining colleagues. I have seen you put your- confront natural and man-made disas- the Foreign Service, Ambassador selves and your families in difficult ters that would make contestants in Bushnell enjoyed a successful career and often dangerous places. I have television survival shows run away. in the field of management and lead- watched you rescue colleagues from And I can attest to the integrity of ership training.

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NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 21

FS KNOW-HOW FLO Is Here to Help with Career-Employment Issues

BY DONNA AYERST

ill I find a job? Will my three regional programs covering partner be able to work? State’s Family southern Africa and Central America. W Will I be able to advance Liaison Office Seven countries have graduated from my career? Does the embassy find the pilot program and have now insti- jobs for family members? Is there advocates in many tutionalized SNAP by funding Local help with the job search when I ways on behalf of Employment Adviser positions with return to Washington? Can only U.S.- International Cooperative Adminis- citizen spouses work overseas? How FS family members trative Support Services funds. can I work on the local economy? In and their employment In addition to creating a network short, what can the Family Liaison concerns. of employment opportunities on the Office do for me? local economy, LEAs, often in con- These are just some of the many junction with the CLO, offer pro- questions FLO receives regarding w grams that address family members’ family-member employment in the employment concerns in a variety of Foreign Service. The queries arise the director general’s office, FLO ways including career development during the briefings FLO conducts continues to advocate on behalf of seminars, discussion groups, and for new Foreign Service class mem- Foreign Service family members and information on available training, bers and other groups; are submitted their employment concerns, and to business development and telework by Community Liaison Office Coor- provide client services covering a resources. dinators and Local Employment wide range of employment initiatives. The concept of SNAP was further Advisers at posts; and come in through Addressing local family-member expanded last year through FLO’s new individual e-mails, telephone calls and employment issues is one of the eight Global Employment Strategy, de- visits from current FS personnel and areas of CLO responsibility. Com- signed to create a network of multina- family members. munity Liaison Officers at 200 posts tional corporations, NGOs, interna- A recent AFSA survey found that worldwide sit on post employment tional organizations and consulting 81 percent of respondents agreed that committees, present family-member firms in the U.S. committed to hiring “AFSA should press for action to employment concerns to post man- professional FS family members. The increase employment opportunities for agement and provide client services most far-reaching program created by family members overseas.” (Twenty- focusing on employment. These ser- this expansion of SNAP is the Depart- seven percent “strongly agree” and 54 vices include workshops, dissemina- ment of State’s partnership with percent agree.) Shawn Dorman’s arti- tion of information from FLO and, at Manpower, a worldwide human re- cle in the July-August Foreign Service posts where the Strategic Networking sources recruitment and placement Journal, “Family Member Employ- Assistance Program operates, coordi- agency. Manpower’s most immediate ment: At Work in the Mission,” also nation with the Local Employment benefit to FS spouses and Members of addresses the issue in depth. Adviser to assist individuals. Household at all foreign affairs agen- In the near future, the Family cies is free access to thousands of Liaison Office will conduct a world- The SNAP Contribution online courses through Manpower’s wide survey of spouses asking these FLO’s SNAP pilot program started Global Learning Center. This re- and other questions regarding their at Embassy Mexico City in 2001. source, now available, gives family employment aspirations. In the Today, SNAP serves clients in 31 members the opportunity not only to meantime, with the active support of countries around the world, including brush up on old skills, but to learn and

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FS KNOW-HOW u expand new ones. (For more informa- or find employment while moving tion on Manpower’s training courses, from post to post, resiliency, flexibility, visit FLO’s Internet site at http:// FLO has established creativity and patience are required. www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/38620.htm.) FLO is constantly looking for ways to In addition, FLO contracted with partnerships with provide new tools to aid in this Going Global, a leading provider of endeavor. country-specific career and employ- various firms to assist Earlier this year, FLO contracted ment information, to offer FS spouses with StaffCentrix, a leading provider free access to Going Global’s Country FS spouses seeking of virtual careers training and related Career Guides and the Global Key resources to the Armed Forces, to Employer Directory (job listings overseas employment. provide training in virtual careers to included). Together, these valuable Foreign Service spouses. As of resources assist spouses with their mid-September, the “e-Entrepreneur international job searches. Training Program” had taught 76 Partnerships have also been estab- spouses (with 30 more signed up for lished with Baker and McKenzie, a where they can commute with their training in October) how to launch global law firm; Pricewaterhouse- spouse is more attractive than dealing and operate portable, home-based Coopers, accounting and consulting; with the challenges of working on the businesses as “virtual professionals,” and the Parsons Corporation, engi- local economy. However, the State delivering high-end, business-related neering and construction, to provide Department’s Diplomatic Readiness services to their own clients remotely opportunities for professional spouses Initiative and the tightening of securi- via e-mail, phone and fax. To make interested in working on the local ty after the 9/11 attacks have com- this training available to more spouses economy at their posts. This program bined to cause an erosion of employ- and MOHs overseas, StaffCentrix has already placed two spouses with ment opportunities within U.S. mis- developed a “Train-the-Trainer” PricewaterhouseCoopers, while 11 sions for spouses, as FSOs fill vacan- course for LEAs and CLOs, enabling spouses have been retained as foreign cies that had previously been filled by them to provide the course at post. legal consultants with Baker and family members. The Consular Asso- The enormous response to e- McKenzie. ciate program, once a viable opportu- Entrepreneur training indicates that Victor Williams, an FS spouse in nity for interested spouses, is still spouses and MOHs are willing to go Pretoria, attests to the value of SNAP: available but has been diminished down new roads in an effort to find “Prior to coming to South Africa, I because consular associates are no meaningful employment they can had over three years of successfully longer allowed to adjudicate cases. carry with them from post to post. selling over 100 vehicles on eBay in As an FS spouse in Tel Aviv, Another indicator along the same the Washington, D.C. area. I met Sharon Harden, observes: “Of course, lines was the overwhelming number with the SNAP Local Employment the secretarial/administrative posi- of applications FLO received for fel- Adviser, Jacqui Fogg, and she suggest- tions were offered up, but for some- lowships offered by the Una Chap- ed that it would be a great opportuni- one who graduated alongside the man man Cox Foundation. This new pro- ty if I could use that same eBay busi- who would be the Regional Legal fessional fellowship program provided ness model and tailor it to meet the Adviser, I knew that taking such a 19 fellowships of up to $2,000 each to needs of the diplomatic community in position would not be fulfilling profes- Foreign Service spouses for enrich- South Africa. ... Due to the over- sionally or financially.” ment activities, including, but not lim- whelming response from the commu- In addition, State’s overseas Hard- ited to, continuing education, distance nity, I plan to launch two additional to-Fill program permits qualified learning, professional development, Web-based services.” Eligible Family Members to bid on participation in professional confer- and fill vacant Foreign Service posi- ences, dues for membership in pro- Different Doors Open tions on the hard-to-fill list. However, fessional organizations and small busi- Historically, spouses have pre- the number of placements through ness start-up costs. ferred to work inside the U.S. mis- this program in the past has been lim- sion. For many, the comfort level of ited. Coming Home working for the U.S. government, in Consequently, for Foreign Service For FS family members returning English, in a secure environment, and spouses striving to maintain a career to the Washington area from abroad,

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FS KNOW-HOW u starting a job search in the U.S. can be considerable delay, implementation just as daunting as it is overseas. Low regulations were issued in September wages and low government grade lev- Former Department of 2005. The State Department’s Office els, a spotty employment record and of Retirement is processing these extensive volunteer activities do not State family-member cases, in cooperation with the Office always meet local employers’ require- of Personnel Management. ments. FLO’s monthly Job Seekers employees have the right FLO will continue to advocate for Network Group meets to provide and create programs to ease the chal- support, networking opportunities, to “buy back” retirement lenge of finding employment oppor- resources and information to those tunities and maintaining dual careers involved in a job search. credit for time employed for Foreign Service family members. Former Department of State fam- For more information on FLO’s ily-member employees now have the from 1989 until 1998. employment programs, please visit right to “buy back” retirement credit FLO’s Intranet site at http://hrweb. for time employed under a Part-time, hr.state.gov/flo/employment/employ Intermittent or Temporary (PIT) ment.html or its Internet site at appointment during the period from http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c195 1989 until 1998. Family members took effect in the beginning of 1989. 9.htm. I had been excluded from retirement A new law was passed in September coverage when the Federal 2002 to provide retroactive retire- Donna Ayerst is publications coordi- Employees Retirement System law ment benefits for this group, and after nator for the Family Liaison Office.

24 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

F OCUS ON FS AUTHORS

IN THEIR OWN WRITE Mikkela Thompson

THIS YEAR’S COMPILATION OF RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS BY FOREIGN SERVICE-AFFILIATED AUTHORS FEATURES MEMOIRS, HISTORY, FICTION AND A LIVELY GROUPING OF WORKS ON PEOPLE AND PLACES.

he Foreign Service Journal is pleased to present our annual Foreign Service authors roundup again, in plenty of time for holiday orders. Here is an annotated list of some of the volumes written or edited by Foreign Service personnel and family members, past and present, in 2004 and 2005. ThisT year’s selection contains a substantial history section; a respectable fiction section, including some notable historical fiction works; several books focusing on foreign-policy issues; a diverse array of works concerning people and places;

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and seven memoirs of Foreign Service life. As in the past two years, a significant portion of our titles are self-published. Our primary purpose in compiling this list is to celebrate the wealth of literary talent within the Foreign Service community, and to give our readers the opportunity to support colleagues by sampling their wares. Each entry contains full publication data along with a short commentary. As has become our custom, we also include a listing of books “of related interest” that were not written by FS authors. While many of these books are available from bookstores and other sources, we encourage our readers to use the AFSA Web site’s Marketplace to place your orders. (See p. 48 for details.) We have created a Bookstore there with links to Amazon.com. For the few books that cannot be ordered through Amazon.com, we have provided alternate links and, when the book is not available online, the necessary contact information. But enough crass commercialism. On to the books! — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor

HISTORY second in ADST’s Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series, created in 2003 to preserve such firsthand American Diplomats: accounts and informed observations on foreign affairs, The Foreign Service at Work and make them more accessible to the public. William D. Morgan and Charles Stuart Kennedy, eds., iUniverse, Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding 2004, $22.95, paperback, Fathers and the Haitian Revolution 315 pages. Gordon S. Brown, University Press In American Diplomats, retired of Mississippi, 2005, $32.00, Senior Foreign Service officers hardcover, 321 pages. William D. Morgan and Charles From 1790 through 1810, the Stuart Kennedy present 40 accounts of diplomats’ young American nation watched experiences in the years from 1920 to 1997 mined from anxiously as its wealthy trading part- the Foreign Affairs Oral History archives of the ner Haiti, a rich hothouse of sugar Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. The plantations and French colonial profit, exploded in a stories bring readers into the room, so to speak, when rebellion led by a former slave, Toussaint L’Overture. Mao-Tse Tung drops by for a chat, when Sukarno The supporters of Toussaint’s rebellion against France moves Indonesia into the communist camp, when conducted a bold policy of American intervention in Khrushchev calls Kennedy an SOB, when fighting favor of the rebels. But Southern slaveholders, such as erupts in the Congo over Katangan secession, when the Jefferson, eyed the slave-general’s ascendance with NATO treaty is secretly formulated, when Kremlinol- alarm, and eventually engineered a reversal of U.S. poli- ogy is born and more. Accounts are grouped into chap- cy. The Haitian Revolution was one of the chief foreign ters by period; the editors provide context for the chap- policy crises faced by the founding fathers, testing their ters as well as for each piece. The result is a fascinat- capacity for internal debate and balance. In this book, ing sampling of the rich history of American diplomacy. retired ambassador Gordon S. Brown documents the Charles Stuart Kennedy is the founder and director intricate history of this defining moment for America’s of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and foreign policy. Training’s Foreign Affairs Oral History Program. He During a 35-year Foreign Service career, Gordon S. served in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Yugoslavia, South Brown served mainly in the Middle East and North Vietnam, Greece, South Korea, Italy and Washington, Africa, including assignments as General Schwarzkopf’s D.C. William Morgan served as U.S. consul general in political adviser in the first Persian Gulf War and ambas- Beirut, Paris and Montreal. American Diplomats is the sador to Mauritania. Since his retirement in 1996, he has

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written two books, Coalition, Coercion and Compro- experience and expertise in Russia address President mise: Diplomacy of the Gulf Crisis, 1990-91 (Institute of Vladimir Putin’s handling of politics, civil society, the Biblical Studies, 1997) and The Norman Conquest of economy, the military and security, and foreign policy. Southern Italy and Sicily (McFarland & Co., 2003). The result is a detailed assessment of Putin’s efforts to Toussaint’s Clause is an ADST-DACOR Diplomats and extricate Russia from the mess it found itself in by the Diplomacy Book; it has been nominated for the end of the Yeltsin era and set it on a stable course American Academy of Diplomacy’s 2005 Book Award. toward a democratic and prosperous future. However, as retired FSO James F. Collins, U.S. ambassador to The First Resort of Kings: Russia from 1997 to 2001, notes in his foreword, the American Cultural Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century book offers no uniform or consistent answers to critical Richard T. Arndt, Potomac Books, Inc., 2005, $45.00, questions about the future of Russia’s fragile democra- hardcover, 608 pages. cy and developing market economy. “Rather,” Collins If war is the last resort of kings, then cultural diplo- says, “what emerges is a complex and uneven tapestry macy, an age-old tool for promoting understanding whose design and weaving are far from complete.” among nations through cultural exchange, should be the Dale R. Herspring is a professor of political science first, says Richard Arndt in The First Resort of Kings. at Kansas State University. A retired FSO and 32-year The author of this exploration of eight decades of veteran of the U.S. Navy, he is the author and editor of American cultural diplomacy, from World War I through 10 books and more than 70 articles dealing with civil- the 1990s, is a retired FSO and 24-year veteran of the military relations in the former East Germany, Poland, U.S. Information Agency. Please see p. 66 for a review. Russia, the USSR and the United States.

In the Aftermath of Genocide: The U.S. Role in Rwanda The Pentagon and the Presidency: Robert E. Gribbin, iUniverse, 2005, $23.95, Civil-Military Relations from FDR paperback, 360 pages. to George W. Bush Robert Gribbin, U.S. ambassador to Rwanda from Dale R. Herspring, University 1995 to 1999, draws on 30 years of experience in the Press of Kansas, 2005, region to analyze U.S. perceptions of Rwanda in the $45.00, hardcover, 490 pages. years before the genocide and to recount the unfolding This timely and path-breaking of the terrible event and its aftermath. In the Aftermath book addresses the complex rela- of Genocide: The U.S. Role in Rwanda is part of the tionship between civilian and mili- Memoirs and Occasional Papers series of the Associa- tary officials in the U.S., for the first time from the tion for Diplomatic Studies and Training; it has been standpoint of the military. The book focuses on the nominated for the American Academy of Diplomacy’s relationship between the military and its commander- 2005 Book Award. Please see page 67 for a review of in-chief from the administrations of FDR to George W. this book. Bush. Each chapter zeros in on one president and his key advisers, and contains case studies showing how Putin’s Russia: Past Imperfect, the military reacted to the president’s leadership. The Future Uncertain final chapter includes a ranking of the presidents Dale R. Herspring, ed., Rowman & according to their degree of conflict with the military Littlefield Publishers, Inc., — from, for example, Nixon, Johnson and Clinton in 2005 (second edition), $29.95, the “High Conflict” category to G.H.W. Bush, Ford, paperback, 315 pages. Reagan and Roosevelt in the “Minimal Conflict” cate- Updated to take account of devel- gory. In between, the author shows how the nature of opments through 2003, this new civilian control has changed, and also how the military edition of Putin’s Russia is a valu- has become a very effective bureaucratic interest able and highly readable analysis of the forces shaping group. contemporary Russia. Fourteen contributors with (See previous entry for author’s information.)

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Captains of Bomb Disposal that had profound political and legal consequences. When T. Dennis Reece, Xlibris, 2005, explosives experts disarmed a booby-trapped cache con- $20.99, paperback, 197 pages. taining highly confidential documents, including informa- In pursuit of an understanding of tion about the Nazi occupation of the region, there was what his late father and other considerable diplomatic and public relations fallout. American bomb disposal personnel Reece devotes two chapters to recounting how Embassy did in World War II, T. Dennis Reece Prague and the State Department handled the flap. has pieced together an often com- Retired FSO T. Dennis Reece served in Moscow, pelling account of the contribution Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Cape these 5,000 largely-unrecognized individuals made to Verde, Guyana and Washington, D.C. He now resides in winning the war and, afterward, helping with the prob- Tampa, Fla. lem of up to two million tons of surplus explosive ord- nance scattered about the theater. Are We Winning? Are They Winning? This is the first American book on the subject in World A Civilian Adviser’s Reflections on War II literature. Reece shows the kinds of problems Wartime Vietnam bomb disposal personnel faced, and documents the suc- John R. Campbell, AuthorHouse, cesses of a group of bomb disposal squads in the Ninth Air 2004, $10.25/paperback, Force that operated in northwestern Europe. The second $3.95/e-book, 150 pages. part of the book centers on the work of one bomb dispos- This is an unusual addition to al captain during a top-secret mission to Czechoslovakia the literature of the Vietnam War.

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Author and former FSO James Campbell — who and Washington, D.C. After leaving the Foreign served two tours of duty in Vietnam from 1965 to 1967, Service, he taught international relations at the first as psychological-warfare adviser to the American University of Maryland and Southern Methodist military and then as director of 15 indigenous teams University. Now retired, he divides his time between propagandizing via entertainment — does not claim to California and Spain. challenge other historians’ conclusions or present new facts. Instead, he zeros in on the fundamentals that, in Anthology of Arabic Literature, Culture and Thought his view, drove the events in wartime Vietnam to their Dr. Bassam K. Frangieh, Yale University Press, fateful conclusion, such as South Vietnam’s basic vul- 2004, $60.00, hardcover, 600 pages nerabilities in the areas of security, leadership effec- with slipcase and DVD. tiveness, motivation and commitment and diversity of This comprehensive reader of Arabic literature from population. Campbell combines hard facts with per- pre-Islamic times to the present is the first of its kind sonal anecdotes and insights in a spare narrative that is created for advanced students of Arabic. Selections highly readable. from 70 different authors, the best of the various After military service in World War II, Campbell schools and disciplines including poetry, religious texts, completed his education, taught at the University of grammar and linguistics, literary criticism, belles-let- Geneva and worked on various assignments for the tres, religious thought and philosophy, novel and drama Department of Defense. He joined the State make this a truly comprehensive collection. Each Department in 1956, and during the next 12 years was selection is followed by a vocabulary list, a list of idioms posted with USIA in France, Ecuador, Vietnam, Spain and notes, and a set of questions about the text. The

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book introduces students to the entire sweep of Arabic who would learn from the history of negotiations to intellectual, political and cultural thought, offering secure peace in the Holy Land.” This is what L. Carl important insights into the Arab mind. It has been Brown, writing in Foreign Affairs, said of The Truth about hailed as a “wonderful resource” by the Northeast Camp David, in which author Clayton Swisher challenges Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. the prevailing view that a Palestinian refusal to entertain a Bassam K. Frangieh, the spouse of a recently-retired generous offer from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak FSO, is a senior lecturer in the department of Near sank the last bid for Middle East peace. A year after the East languages and civilizations at Yale University. talks, Swisher conducted extensive interviews with Israeli, American and Palestinian officials closely involved with An American Soldier in World War I the July 2000 to January 2001 negotiations at Camp Robert Sherwood Dillon, Five and Ten Press, 2005, David. The result was a very different, more complex and $5.00, paperback, 49 pages. highly nuanced picture, one which the author feels is In piecing together the story of his own father’s essential to grasp if progress is ever to be made on resolv- experience in World War I, Robert Sherwood Dillon ing the Arab-Israeli dispute. pored over a sheaf of letters from his father to his A former Marine reservist, Clayton E. Swisher served mother during the war, and delved into the literature as a special agent in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security on that war and the period. Reticent by nature and cul- and was assigned to the Secretary of State and visiting ture — men of his generation did not believe in exhibit- Arab and Israeli leaders in support of the Oslo process, ing emotion — Dillon Sr. had rarely spoken of his including trips to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Washington and wartime experiences. When asked by a grandson, he Camp David. He is now an associate with a Middle East says only: “You don’t want to know.” consulting firm in Washington, D.C. It turns out that the 35th Division, where Dale Crowell Dillon ended up after enlisting in the Kansas National Guard at age 18 and being assigned to the POLICY ISSUES Kansas Engineer Company, had a very difficult time in the Meuse-Argonne campaign, where it took heavy Foreign Aid: Will It Ever casualties. Following the war a controversy developed Reach Its Sunset? over the division’s performance and leadership. The Ludwig Rudel, author recounts this history, interwoven with specifics Foreign Policy Association on his father. The result is an essay that casts light on all Headline Series, 2005, $8.99, the young soldiers in World War I, and the experience paperback, 68 pages. of war in general. This monograph reviews the state Robert Sherwood Dillon is a retired FSO and for- of foreign assistance 50 years after mer ambassador to Lebanon. He is also the author of its post-World War II beginnings as a personal memoir, One of the Very Best Men (Five and short-term assistance to former European colonies Ten Press, 2004). gaining independence, and adds some fresh ideas to the debate over its future. Does concessional aid nec- The Truth about Camp David: essarily create dependency? Can it be made to create The Untold Story about the basis for its own termination? Not as things the Collapse of the Middle East presently stand, says Ludwig Rudel. Part of the prob- Peace Process lem, he observes, is that the distinction between Clayton E. Swisher, Nation Books, humanitarian assistance and development investment 2004, $14.95, paperback, has been blurred if not lost. Further, he argues, major 451 pages. changes in the “aid relationship” between donor and “This may not be the definitive recipient are needed to bring about conditions in which ‘truth about Camp David,’ but it aid programs can achieve their objective of poverty warrants careful attention from all alleviation within a reasonable time frame, and become

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superfluous. Issued as part of the Foreign Policy sufficient yet interrelated essays, the book presents a Association’s Headline Series, this slim volume is both psychosocial model to explain fertility behavior and an readable and relevant. explanatory analysis of fertility trends from 1950 to Ludwig Rudel retired from the Foreign Service in 2050 in all nations. A brief but inclusive history of the 1980 after serving 25 years with USAID and its prede- international family planning movement contains cessor agencies. Since then he has worked as an inter- essays on the U.S. Agency for International Develop- national consultant in the design and evaluation of aid ment’s program by former senior agency officials programs and projects funded by the World Bank, the Steven Sinding and Morrie Blumberg. Finally, there is United Nations Development Program and USAID. a critical review of current population policy, with rec- ommendations for change. Fertility, Family Planning, HIV/AIDS and Donald J. Bogue is a professor of sociology at the Reproductive Health University of Chicago and research associate of the Donald J. Bogue with essays by Steven W. Sinding Population Research Center there. Steven W. Sinding, and Morrie Blumberg, The Social Development formerly with USAID, is currently worldwide director Center, 2004, $18.00, paperback, 264 pages. general of the International Planned Parenthood This is a comprehensive and up-to-date textbook in Federation, London. Morrie Blumberg is a retired the amalgamated fields of fertility, family planning, FSO with a 20-year career at USAID. The book can HIV/AIDS and reproductive health — with emphasis be ordered from the Social Development Center by on the Third World — that will be of interest to spe- e-mail: [email protected], or by regular cialists and laymen alike. Written as a series of self- mail: P.O. Box 37-7710, Chicago IL 60637.

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Challenges for Nonprofits and Philanthropy: the classical sense, Dominican Sojourn is a gentle and The Courage to Change accessible introduction to this Caribbean country’s sights, Pablo Eisenberg, Tufts University Press, 2005, atmosphere and traditions. Each chapter, starting with $29.95, hardcover, 242 pages. the secret delights of a game of dominoes, tells a story With government budgets again under strain, atten- that will whet your desire to visit and learn more. The tion will inevitably shift to philanthropy and the nonprof- book covers many destinations within the Dominican it world to accomplish needed work in the public domain. Republic, while also highlighting obscure corners of Will they rise to the occasion? Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone. Pablo Eisenberg thinks they can and ought to, but A tango dancer, espresso drinker, earth scientist and they’ll have to “lighten up” first. This collection of essays, FSO, Norman Barth has published numerous peer- written over the past three decades by one of the most reviewed scientific articles. This is his first book-length influential and outspoken voices in philanthropy, offers work. Dominican Sojourn may be purchased online at insight into the growth of the nonprofit sector from its http://www.normanbarth.com/books/dr/. origins in the wake of the 1960s War on Poverty and the changes within nonprofits and foundations that have Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: accompanied this growth. Readers learn how the non- Two Years in the Heart of profit world really works — not how it is supposed to an African Village work in academic or legal theory — and the author Sarah Erdman, Picador, 2004, speaks candidly about what he sees as philanthropy’s fail- $14.00, paperback, 336 pages. ure to adequately serve the disenfranchised. With a tow- This book, released in paperback ering institutional presence, the nonprofits have become late last summer, garnered rave self-righteous and controlling, he shows. The author reviews when it appeared in hard- argues persuasively for a reinvigorated, visionary and cover two years ago. “A delightful activist leadership and a sense of humor — offering role and moving portrait of modern Francophone Africa by an models in appreciations of several nonprofit leaders. uncommonly talented writer with the eye of a social sci- Pablo Eisenberg, a former FSO who was posted to entist and the ear of a poet,” said The Washington Post. Africa with USIA, is a senior fellow at the Georgetown “Erdman’s irrepressibility lofts you along. If her book is University Public Policy Institute and a regular columnist more earnest, less coruscating, less eager to K.O. the for The Chronicle of Philanthropy. reader than [other memoirs], it’s wonderful in a way that [the others] can’t touch,” enthused The New York Times. The village of Nambonkaha in Cote d’Ivoire is a place PEOPLE AND PLACES where electricity hasn’t yet arrived, where sorcerers still use magic and where the tok-tok sound of women pound- Dominican Sojourn: ing corn fills the morning air like a drumbeat. As a Peace Two Years in the Corps Volunteer, Sara Erdman finds that Nombonkaha is Dominican Republic also a place where AIDS threatens and poverty is con- Norman Barth, 2004, stant, where women suffer the indignities of patriarchal $25.00, paperback, 110 customs and where children work like adults while still pages (105 in color). managing to dream. As a first-tour vice consul Erdman does not offer prescriptions for promoting at Embassy Santo Domin- health care in rural Africa. Rather, she makes us wonder go, Norman Barth and his with her whether AIDS education on the continent wife spent weekends exploring their new country of resi- would have been more effective if health workers had dence. Pretty soon Barth was writing a weekly article on worked with the notion of sorcery instead of against it. As their discoveries, illustrated with his own photographs, Library Journal put it, she “takes the reader on a vivid for a local expatriate newsletter. This book is a collection and compelling journey. The author’s sensitivity to the of the best of these columns. While not a guidebook in traditions of the villagers, the unique ways she found to

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overcome and incorporate those traditions in her work, take him from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the and the despair she sometimes felt over the intrusion of exotic Orient, and eventually around the world. In this the modern world make this a complicated but also con- fascinating tale, Huffman shares his experiences and emo- templative book.” tions over two years as a French interpreter for a commu- Sarah Erdman, the daughter of an FSO, grew up in nity development team on the Plain of Jars in Laos. At the seven countries. After graduating with a history degree end of his Laos tour, he buys a motorcycle and sets out for from Middlebury College in Vermont, she served as a Europe, with only a National Geographic map of Asia and Peace Corps Health Volunteer in northern Cote d’Ivoire. the optimism of youth as his guides. She is currently a placement officer for Central Asia, We go along for the ride as Huffman motors up the Eastern Europe and Jordan at Peace Corps headquarters road to Mandalay in what is now called Myanmar, is in Washington, D.C. chased by a motorcycle-hating cow near the Taj Mahal in the northern Indian city of Agra, participates in a mutiny Monks and Motorcycles: on a ramshackle bus in the Pakistani desert, thumbs his From Laos to London by the way across Iran to Turkey and carouses through Europe in Seat of My Pants, 1956-1958 a Simca with pilfered sleeping bags and C-rations. He Franklin E. Huffman, iUniverse, shares his insights on the culture and society of the coun- Inc., 2004, $23.95, paperback, tries he visits, from Laos to the U.K. Huffman’s sense of 328 pages. humor and fluent writing style make Monks and In 1956, 22-year-old Frank Huff- Motorcycles an enjoyable read. man embarks on a journey that will Franklin Huffman was a Foreign Service officer with

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USIA from 1985 to 1999. During his first career as a pro- atmosphere of Old Shanghai as expressed in its archi- fessor of linguistics and Asian studies at Yale and Cornell tecture. From the late 19th century to 1941, the city (1967-1985), Huffman published nine books on was divided into the international and French conces- Southeast Asian languages. He and his wife Sanda, a pro- sions and dominated by Western commercial activity. fessional interpreter, live in Washington, D.C. Each wave of international settlement brought new energy and style to the city. As Tess Johnston writes in “Two Friends”: Another Version her introduction, “The ensuing mélange of building of the Willa Cather Classic styles is what makes Shanghai unique. There are few Thomas R. Hutson, River Junction cities in the world today with such a variety of architec- Press LLC, 2005, $5.00, tural offerings, buildings that stand out in welcome paperback, 14 pages. contrast to their mediocre modern counterparts.” This brief memoir, issued on the But they are fast disappearing under the pressures 50th anniversary of the Willa Cather of population and progress. The best still surviving Pioneer Memorial and Educational have been preserved in this book, now in a second, Foundation, takes its title from one expanded edition. The stunning photographs are of Cather’s best-known short stories. The memoir is a complemented by informative captions, and grouped tribute to two women and the work they did to pioneer in sections such as commerce, residences, etc. the revival and preservation of the literary works and Introductions by the collaborators, retired FSO and persona of Willa Cather, one of America’s best female China hand Tess Johnston and photographer Deke writers, in Cather’s hometown of Red Cloud, Neb. Erh, give a historical perspective and depth to this Ironically, author Thomas R. Hutson, who was also labor of love. raised in Red Cloud, had to go to Tehran to have his inter- Tess Johnston has had over 30 years of exciting est in Willa Cather piqued. There, as a first-tour Foreign diplomatic assignments, including Berlin, Paris, Service officer conducting English language conversation Vietnam and, for the past two decades, Shanghai, classes at the Iran-America Society, Hutson was confront- where she retired and still resides. Deke Erh has a 20- ed out of the blue by a student: “Did you know Willa year career in photography and journalism, having Cather?” He had to admit, with chagrin, that he didn’t established himself as the earliest freelance photogra- really know her writing. pher in China. The two have published 12 volumes on There began a voyage of discovery into the great Western architecture in old China. This book can be author’s works, into his own family’s past in Red Cloud, ordered by mail. Send a check made out to “Old China collaboration with the Cather Foundation and, finally, Hand Press,” in U.S. dollars and drawn on an American efforts to repair the estrangement of the “two friends” bank, to: Tess Johnston, Old China Hand Research who were the Foundation’s guiding lights. Service, Donghu Lu 70/3/201, Shanghai 200031, Recently re-employed as the U.S. representative on China. the U.K. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Mazar-e- Sharif in Afghanistan, retired FSO Thomas R. Hutson is Me May Mary now a diplomatic associate at the University of Nebraska’s Mary Cameron Kilgour, Center for Afghanistan Studies. Child Welfare League of America Press, 2005, $13.95, A Last Look (Revisited): paperback, 184 pages. Western Architecture in This is a the story of a young Old Shanghai woman who, despite heavy odds, Tess Johnston and Deke Erh, refuses to fail. With the help of a Old China Hand Press, 2004, loving brother and a few caring $58.00, hardcover, 240 pages. adults, she negotiates her passage from a chaotic, This gorgeous coffee-table impoverished and abusive childhood with violent, alco- book captures the charm and holic parents, through unsuccessful foster homes and,

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finally, a home for girls, to a successful adulthood with mental health and stamina, free time, financial where- college degrees, a stint in the Peace Corps and a withal, and a lack of restrictive commitments (personal 29-year career as a Foreign Service officer. or professional). Mary Cameron Kilgour wrote this autobiographical memoir for young people and adults struggling with the impact of a chaotic or violent past, people like the FICTION, HISTORICAL AND children for whom she now advocates as a volunteer OTHERWISE guardian ad litem. There is no trace of self-pity in this story. It is written simply and straightforwardly, with Vietnam When the Tanks humor and grace, and a keen ear for dialogue. But Were Elephants what it conveys so poignantly is that hope and potential Thomas J. Barnes, can indeed triumph over the past. Xlibris, 2005, $22.99, Retired FSO Kilgour served for 29 years in USAID. paperback, 321 pages. She is a 1993 recipient of the Presidential Distin- The Tay Son Revolution in guished Service Award. A writer, she is a frequent con- Vietnam, which began in 1771 and tributor to the Journal, and a volunteer with the ended in 1802, was contemporane- Guardian ad Litem Program and Habitat for Humanity. ous with its French and American counterparts, but is virtually unknown in the Western Around the World in 80 Travel Tales world. Three brothers trained in the martial arts led a Peter Dev Kurze, grass-roots movement against two entrenched shogu- Hasamelis Publishing, nates that expanded to dominate the entire country. 2004, $19.95, paperback, National stability was short-lived, however, as the 335 pages (including 39 ablest brother, Nguyen Hue, a Vietnamese national color photos). hero, died prematurely of fever in 1792. His successor Here is a book for those in whom was incapable of stemming the corruption and dissen- Mark Twain’s advice to “Explore. sion that eventually led to the dissolution and defeat of Dream. Discover.” reverberates per- the regime. petually. This new addition to travel literature is based Author Thomas Barnes presents an historically on a young man’s 16-month, round-the-world odyssey accurate account of these events in this novel written, to 30 countries on five continents during 2000 and strikingly, from the first-person viewpoint of eight of 2001. The book is nicely organized into 18 sections, the participants. The text is a complete expansion and each containing one or more short stories or vignettes reorientation of the author’s earlier work, Tay Son: of memorable, unusual or even bizarre experiences in Rebellion in 18th-Century Vietnam (Xlibris, 2000), and that region. Thus, the reader has the choice of reading was written with the intent of making this important from start to finish, or zeroing in on a particular coun- but little-known chapter in Vietnam’s history more try or region of interest. Either way, the experience is accessible to Western audiences. interesting and informative. A selection of the author’s Thomas J. Barnes joined the Foreign Service in 5,500 color photographs from the journey are included 1957. Following retirement in mid-1980, after a career in the book; all of them can be accessed online at concentrated mainly in Southeast Asia, he worked in www.80traveltales.com. the field of refugee and migrant assistance. In 1996, he The son of a retired FSO, Peter Kurze was born in settled in Austin, Texas, where he has published sever- Nepal and has lived in Austria, Barbados, Belgium, al books through Xlibris: including Southeast Asian France, Germany, India, Japan, Morocco and the Portraits (2002) and Anecdotes of a Vagabond: The United States. He decided to undertake this trip after Foreign Service, the U.N., and a Volag (2000). His having worked in Tokyo for three years because the Coping with Lust and the Colonel: Wartime Korea prerequisites for undertaking such a global adventure from Sokchang-ni (2000) was updated and expanded were all there: a strong desire to travel, physical and in 2005.

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When Tigers Fly job is to spirit this rare Flying Tiger away from its current Bob Bergin, Impact Publications, owner, a Chinese warlord who fancies himself a poet, and 2004, $14.95, paperback, deliver it to their employer, a wealthy American warbird 289 pages. collector. The adventure, which unfolds in Burma and “Old Asia hands love Bob southern China, is full of unexpected twists and turns and Bergin’s novel because the author’s populated with colorful characters. Though set in the pre- adventures help stir up memories sent, the story reflects the history of the World War II-era of their own. The sights, sounds, American Volunteer Group, the “Flying Tigers.” smells and feel of the Far East come A retired FSO and Southeast Asia specialist, Bob alive on his pages.” That is what Brett M. Decker, former Bergin is a writer and dealer in Asian art and antiques editorial writer and books editor of The Asian Wall Street based in Alexandria, Va. His articles have appeared in Journal, says about Bob Bergin’s second historical novel. many publications in the U.S. and Asia. A previous novel, Decker adds: “In When Tigers Fly, Bergin works another Stone Gods, Wooden Elephants (Impact Publications, element into his exciting storytelling: expertise in aviation 2003), is an adventure set in the world of Asian antiques. and its role in winning the Pacific War. Buffs of history and fiction will have an equally hard time putting down Day of the Dead: A Novel the book.” Marshall Brement, Moyer Bell, 2005, $26.95, In this story, protagonists Harry Ross and Alysious hardcover, 438 pages. Grant are on the trail of a rare World War II-vintage Set in Vietnam in 1962-1963, this debut novel by a Tomahawk aircraft sighted in the jungles of Burma. Their retired FSO is reminiscent of Eric Ambler and Graham

THE REMINGTON

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Greene’s work. It tells the story of one of the central retirement, he taught Cold War history and diplomacy at events of the Vietnam War, the overthrow of the South the University of Virginia. Brement lives in Tubac, Ariz., Vietnamese government and the assassination of its pres- and is working on a new novel set in Washington and ident, Ngo Dinh Diem, through the eyes of a young Moscow. Foreign Service officer on a first posting as aide to the American ambassador. We see from the inside — and in A Spy Sat Down Beside Her colorful detail — how the United States would reach the Ken Byrnes, AuthorHouse, point of no return in Vietnam. 2005, $16.95, The book is well-crafted and engagingly written. The paperback, 296 pages. cast of characters is broad — all types of Vietnamese, ram- This novel, set in the early 1940s bunctious young newspapermen, shrewd diplomats and when Hitler’s armies are ravaging military men, elegant ladies in the elite of Saigon society Europe, tells the story of Ian Steele and rowdy bargirls, all of whom mix with and influence and Margaret Whitcombe, two those making policy about the war. The author draws on British Secret Intelligence Service factual records and declassified documents to establish officers who meet in London and fall in love but are soon the story’s historical veracity. sent on separate assignments: Margaret to the SIS office Marshall Brement served for 12 years in various in Zurich, and Ian on an intelligence-gathering mission Southeast Asian posts and spent six more years dealing into occupied France. The two meet again in Tours, and with the Soviet Union. He capped his Foreign Service are then sent on a special mission through the death career with a posting as ambassador to Iceland. Following swamps of Poitou to the Bay of Biscay. There a British

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submarine picks up Margaret, but Ian is left behind. you like.” This is how author Ted Mason describes this Back in London, when Margaret fails to hear from Ian, delightful collection of short stories written during the she disguises herself as a nun and returns to Tours, vow- course of his 30-year career in government service over- ing to find him. seas. We are drawn into this engrossing story by the author’s The stories are grouped chronologically from the skill in developing the characters and making their action world of boyhood to the great world outside, and explore and the terrain through which they move come alive. a wide range of human emotion and events — such as the Ken Byrnes, a lieutenant colonel in U.S. Air Force escape of a hybrid mix of tiger and lion, a tiglon, from the (Intelligence), is a 23-year veteran of the Foreign Service. fictional town of Quassatuck’s new zoo; a young writer’s After serving as consul general in Izmir, Turkey, he opted early lesson in prejudice and censorship; and the libera- for early retirement and went into the field of foreign tion of a forgotten French town by a deserter in World trade and investment, where he continued his world trav- War II. Though it is often said that truth is stranger than els. He has had short stories, poems and articles pub- fiction, in these stories fiction rings truer than truth. lished, including several in the Foreign Service Journal. A Ted Mason served as a political intelligence analyst novel, The Daughter of Ramon Godoy (1st Books Library, for U.S.-European Command headquarters in France 2002), is based on his experiences as a vice consul in during the 1960s. He joined the Foreign Service in Mexico City. Byrnes lives in Powell, Ohio, with his wife, 1967 and served with USIA in Vietnam, Morocco and and is working on another novel. Madagascar as a training officer and public affairs officer until 1985, when he retired. He is the author of a East to the Bottom novel, Hostage to Fortune (Bartleby Press, 1999). K.D. Hewitt, AuthorHouse, 2005, $14.95, paperback, 305 pages. Possessed by Shadows In this vivid first novel, K. D. Hewitt takes us into the life Donigan Merritt, Other Press, 2005, $22.00, of an African-American family whose roots in Washington, hardcover, 239 pages. D.C., and Foggy Bottom in particular, go back six genera- “An avid rock climber refuses to go gently in tions. It is the life saga of the author’s own free black ante- Merritt’s gorgeous sixth novel … a compelling and trag- bellum Georgetown ancestors from 1857 to the present, ic love story,” says Publishers Weekly about Possessed by seen through the eyes of young Calley MacAllister, a fic- Shadows. Set in Southern California and Czechoslo- tional descendant. Tales of romance, war, suffrage, racke- vakia, the book tells the story of journalist Molly and teering and murder are interwoven with historical events philosophy professor Tom Valen, both world-class from the Civil War on. In this rich history of her ancestors, mountaineers. A climbing accident leads to the discov- the author paints an inspiring and enduring portrait of the ery that Molly has a fatal brain tumor: thereafter, the strength and vitality of the seemingly typical, yet unique story alternates between Tom’s account of the year African-American family. before her death, when they climbed together in K.D. Hewitt, an African-American Foreign Service France and the High Tatra mountains of Czechoslo- spouse, was born and raised in the Foggy Bottom district vakia, and Molly’s journals, which reveal much that of Washington, D.C. She, her husband and two children Tom never knew of her life, including a dark secret are now posted in Dhaka. concerning Stefan, a fellow climber who once saved Tom’s life. The story is a tribute to selfless love and the Tales Before Midnight bonds of friendship forged in the extremes of high Ted Mason, Bartleby Press, 2005, mountains. “Not only a book for climbers, it is a book $12.95, paperback, 260 pages. for everybody,” says Zoltan Demjan, the first Slovak “All are signposts along the way in mountaineer to reach the summit of Mount Everest. a lifetime of observing people and “Soulful and transformative, it is a journey to our inner their reactions to the tricks they play world, to find our inner voice.” on each other and life plays on them, Merritt Donigan is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ and you can read them in any order Workshop and the author of five previous novels,

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among them One Easy Piece (Coward, McCann & ry over Sparta is being used by certain radicals to Geoghegan, 1981) and My Sister’s Keeper (Putnam, undermine the democratic constitution, for the man 1983). He and his FSO wife Holly have lived for most who won the decisive victory is a demagogue. While of the last 13 years outside the U.S., presently in Berlin. Tegea slips into tyranny, Antyllus turns his back on politics and focuses his hopes and dreams on an Olympic Selected Poems, 2001-2004 victory. Robert W. Proctor, Through an engaging story, with predominantly fic- The Mesilla Valley Press, tional characters, The Olympic Charioteer provides the 2004, $5.00, paperback, modern reader with insights into ancient Greek society 28 pages. and, in particular, challenges many clichés about Asked what inspires him to Sparta. The book describes the events that led to the write, author Robert Proctor says: establishment of the first non-aggression pact in “Inspiration for me comes from recorded history: the mutual defense treaty between feelings that won’t permit rest Sparta and Tegea was the prototype for a series of unless I try to put into words my views on what is bright treaties resulting in formation of the Peloponnesian and dark, resolved and disjointed, peaceful and violent League. in the nature of humankind. This is said in the context Helena P. Schrader joined the Foreign Service in of a universe I perceive as both incredibly beautiful and June, and is currently in language training in prepara- uncompromisingly harsh, and with a belief that man tion for her first assignment as vice consul in Oslo. himself is the primary source of all his delights and Previously, she spent 20 years working in Berlin, where woes.” This vision and inspiration is reflected in this she lived with her German-born husband. Her interest collection, both in its 16 poems and in the author’s in ancient Greece was sparked by a holiday trip to award-winning photograph of a dramatic storm-cloud the Mediterranean. She is the author of a German- formation that graces the book’s cover. language biography of a member of the German Robert W. Proctor is a retired FSO who served in Resistance to Hitler, General Friedrich Olbricht: Ein Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Originally from Man des 20. Julis (Bouvier Verlag, Bonn, 1993). Her Santa Fe, he and his India-born wife now live in La book comparing the experience of women pilots in the Lux, N.M. His writings have been published in a num- U.S. and U.K. during World War II, Sisters in Arms, is ber of journals, including Border Senses, The Inkspot due out from Pen & Sword Books of the U.K. in 2006. and Sparrow Forum, as well as the Foreign Service She is now working on a book on the Berlin Airlift for Journal. To purchase this book, write to Mesilla Valley release at the 60th anniversary of that event in 2008. Press, P.O. Box 847, Las Cruces NM 88004-0847. Star Over Chingat The Olympic Charioteer W ill Sutter, PublishAmerica, 2004, Helena Schrader, $19.95, paperback, 205 pages. iUniverse, 2005, $22.95, A top-secret Russian military paperback, 416 pages. satellite is about to fall to earth and This historical novel tells the scatter itself across the northern story of a slave and a charioteer in desert of Naurlandia, in the African ancient Greece. Antyllus of Tegea, Sahel. Secretary of State Malcolm a landowner of power and wealth, is Trowbridge, an unreconstructed devastated by his son’s death Cold Warrior, intends to recover a sensitive decoder defending Tegea against Sparta. Philip, the abused from the satellite debris as part of his ongoing turf bat- quarry slave Antyllus purchases out of spontaneous tle with the CIA and to discomfit the Russian bear. pity, has an uncanny affinity for horses. Now Tegea’s Foreign Service officer Paul Scarborough, detailed fortunes are on the rise, but Antyllus can find pleasure from the State Department’s special ops section, quick- in nothing. He worries, moreover, that the city’s victo- ly finds himself on his way to Naurlandia. His mission:

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take possession of the decoder with the help of a disaf- Brandon Grove is a career ambassador who served fected high-ranking member of the Naurlandian gov- nine American presidents and 12 Secretaries of State. ernment. Soviet embassy security operatives, sand- Today he lives and works in Washington, D.C. Behind storms, U.S. bureaucratic turf battles, treacherous Embassy Walls is an ADST-DACOR Diplomats and desert tribal politics, paid assassins and the machina- Diplomacy Book, and has been nominated for the tions of the ambitious U.S. ambassador all stand American Academy of Diplomacy’s 2005 Book Award. between Paul and the decoder. Will Sutter is a retired FSO. During a career of Coming of Age in Arabia: more than 20 years he served as press and cultural A Memoir of Aden attaché in Bangkok, Vientiane, Moscow and Nouak- before the Terror chott, and also lived for several years in Rome and Tom Henighan, Vienna. He now lives in Frederick, Md., and, since Penumbra Press, 2004, retirement, has devoted himself to writing. This is his $29.95, hardcover, 243 pages. first published novel. Tom Henighan went to Aden in 1957 as vice consul, his first posting as a newly-minted Foreign Service MEMOIRS OF FOREIGN SERVICE LIFE officer. His memoir of the following two years, engaging and laced with ironical obser- Behind Embassy Walls: vation, will not only entertain, but will sharpen the The Life and Times of reader’s sense of how far western policy has to go an American Diplomat before it can “come of age” in Arabia. Brandon Grove, University The core of the book is a lively mix of stories, some aris- of Missouri Press, 2005, ing from the author’s professional duties and some from $34.95, hardcover, 328 pages. his personal relationships. But as his account proceeds, “When American foreign policy Henighan gradually recognizes in his earlier observations is working well, you’ll find a few of that seemingly placid world of long ago, callow and top-quality diplomats like Brandon naïve though they may have been, symptoms of the disor- Grove employed in the nation’s service. Behind Embassy der and violence that have characterized much of the his- Walls explains why. Here are the sights and sounds, the tory of the region in the four decades since. clashes of ideas and egos, in a fascinating Foreign Currently professor emeritus of English at Carleton Service career vividly depicted.” This is what former University in Ottawa, Tom Henighan is the author of Secretary of State George P. Shultz says about Brandon three books on Canadian arts and culture that are Grove’s memoirs. required reading in various university courses, three pub- Over a distinguished 35-year career, Grove played a lished novels, two collections of short stories and a vol- role in key events of the Cold War era. He opened the ume of poetry. first U.S. embassy in East Germany in 1974, served as consul general in Jerusalem in the early 1980s during A Bed of Roses: the war in Lebanon and was ambassador to Zaire (now An American Woman’s the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during three Memoirs of Turkey years of Mobutu Sese Seko’s infamous reign. Woven Anna Maria Malkoç, into the narrative are observations about the impact of eBookstand Books, 2005, McCarthyism, the relative advantages of career versus $24.95, paperback, 274 pages. political appointees to ambassadorships; the training of In 1952, Anna Maria Jones asks ambassadors; lawyers as diplomats; CIA stations at U.S. her husband Selahattin Malkoç embassies; and crisis management in Washington, what life is really like in Turkey, his notably the interagency task force he led in 1992 for homeland, where he — with his young wife and baby the relief of the humanitarian crisis in Somalia. Continued on page 46

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OF RELATED INTEREST

Accidental Encounters Mission Italy: On the Front Lines of the Cold War with History (And Some Richard N. Gardner, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lessons Learned) 2005, $29.95, hardcover, 320 pages. Lincoln Palmer Bloomfield, Richard Gardner’s four years as ambassador to Italy Hot House Press, 2005, $26.00, (1977-1981) witnessed the kidnapping and murder of hardcover, 222 pages. Aldo Moro, the failed attempt of the Italian Com- “A scholar, practitioner and for- munist Party to take power, the Soviet invasion of Af- mer colleague, Bloomfield makes it ghanistan and seizure of American hostages in Tehran, quite clear that he has a responsi- as well as Italy’s historic decision to deploy U.S. cruise bility to educate. He does so brilliantly in this well- missiles. “A scrupulously honest and thoroughly docu- written account of his various encounters with history. mented narrative of a critical episode in the history of His personal description of major events shaping the the Cold War … [that] can serve as a guidebook for stu- last half of the 20th century adds vivid details and dents of diplomacy and aspiring diplomats,” says thoughtful interpretations,” says former Secretary of Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser, State Madeleine Albright. who wrote the foreword. Bloomfield served in the U.S. Navy, the State Mission Italy has been nominated for the American Department and as director of global issues for the Academy of Diplomacy’s 2005 Book Award. National Security Council. As a political science professor at MIT, he directed the Institute’s arms control The Opportunity: America’s Moment project and pioneered the development of political to Alter History’s Course gaming. Richard N. Haass, PublicAffairs, 2005, $16.50, hardcover, 242 pages. Terrorism and Peacekeeping: Here, in what The New York Times calls “the New Security Challenges groundwork for a counterrevolution,” is a statement of Volker C. Franke, ed., the “realist” point of view on the post–Cold War world Praeger, 2005, $24.95, from the president of the Council on Foreign paperback, 294 pages. Relations. Haass, a former head of the State Today, U.S. forces are increas- Department’s policy planning staff, argues that the U.S. ingly charged with asymmetric war- now has great opportunities to integrate itself political- fare and fighting terrorism or with ly with the rest of the world, and that if that integration humanitarian relief and peacekeep- does not happen, “the principal challenges of this era ing missions, challenges that defy predetermined … will come to overwhelm the United States.” Says responses based on the rigid and automated contain- Publisher’s Weekly, “Coming as they do from a careful- ment strategies utilized during the Cold War. The case ly calibrated source, those are sobering words.” studies presented in this book are valuable tools to The Opportunity has been nominated for the stimulate the type of creative thinking, new ideas and American Academy of Diplomacy’s 2005 Book Award. adaptable strategies needed to ensure stability in this new world. Volker C. Franke is assistant professor of political science and international studies at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md.

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Organizing U.S. Foreign Aid: Does Foreign Direct Investment Confronting the Challenges Promote Development? of the Twenty-first Century Theodore H. Moran, Carol Lancaster and Edward M. Graham and Ann Van Duesen, Magnus Blomström, eds., Brookings Institution Press, Center for Global Development, 2005, $16.95, paperback, 2005, $19.77, paperback, 78 pages. 411 pages. While the amount of foreign assis- What is the impact of foreign tance has increased in recent years, the way it is orga- direct investment on development? The answer is cru- nized and delivered by the government has become cial for policy-makers in developing and developed increasingly fragmented and chaotic. The result is a countries, and central to the debate about globaliza- crisis of inefficiency in the use of this important foreign tion. Here is a collection of essays reflecting the cut- policy tool. Here, two experts provide some keen ting edge of research on FDI and host-country eco- observations and offer guidance on the critical choices nomic performance. Editor Theodore H. Moran holds facing American policy-makers, drawing on, among the Marcus Wallenberg Chair at the School of Foreign other things, insights into how other donor govern- Service, Georgetown University, and is founder and ments have dealt with these challenges. director of the Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy. Grasping the Nettle: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict The Quest for Viable Peace: Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and International Intervention and Pamela Aall, eds., United States Institute of Strategies for Conflict Peace Press, 2005, $22.50, paperback, Transformation 432 pages. Leonard R. Hawley, Jock Covey The world is still troubled by a group of conflicts — and Michael J. Dziedzic, eds., from Kashmir to Colombia, the Korean Peninsula and United States Institute of the Middle East — that seem destined to never end. Peace Press, 2005, $22.50, Surprisingly, aside from the apparent futility of media- paperback, 302 pages. tion, they offer many lessons. The case studies exam- An exploration of the nationbuilding process with ined in this book give us insights into the sources of international operations in Kosovo as the point of ref- intractability and such facets of mediation and conflict erence, The Quest for Viable Peace offers valuable management as how to gain leverage, when to engage guidelines for the conduct of such operations in the and disengage, how to balance competing goals, and future. “Presenting an excellent set of essential strate- whom to enlist to play supporting roles. Chester A. gies for building durable peace by means of interven- Crocker, a former assistant secretary of State for tion, this volume is a prodigious, extremely high-quali- African affairs, is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of ty, valuable work,” says retired FSO and former ambas- Strategic Studies at Georgetown University. sador Robert B. Oakley. Leonard R. Hawley was a deputy assistant secretary of State during the Clinton administration. Continued on page 44

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OF RELATED INTEREST

Working for Change: The New American Expat: Making a Career in Thriving and Surviving Overseas International Public Service in the Post-9/11 World Derick W. and William Russell Melton, Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff, Intercultural Press, 2005, Kumarian Press, Inc., 2005, $24.95, paperback, 221 pages. $23.95, paperback, 222 pages. “The New American Expat offers “Working for Change provides much more than a narrow look at excellent guidance on how to go the post-9/11 expatriate environ- about pursuing a career in a highly competitive field,” ment. Melton provides an excellent overview of expa- says Julius E. Coles, president of Africare. The authors triate needs, ideal for someone heading off on his or offer practical and inspiring guidance on finding the her first assignment, as well as numerous checklists right mix of public service objectives, degree programs, and resources that would be helpful to even the most job opportunities and personal lifestyle choices. An ideal seasoned expat.” So says Tara Nielsen, director of resource for anyone considering work in international worldwide services for GMAC Global Relocation public service and mid-career professionals looking for a Services, about this new addition to expat literature. change in direction. Derick and Jennifer Brinkerhoff William Russell Melton has lived and worked over- have been there, done that themselves. seas for 25 years.

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In the Shadows of History: Journey to Become a Diplomat Fifty Years Behind the Scenes George Cunningham, of Cold War Diplomacy FPA Global Vision Books, Chester L. Cooper, Foreign Policy Association, 2005, Prometheus Books, 2005, $19.95, paperback, 214 pages. $28.00, hardcover, 357 pages. A successful diplomat who has Over a career spanning five served with the United Nations and decades, Chester L. Cooper served the European Union, Briton George in the White House, State Depart- Cunningham began his journey to a ment and CIA, often as a deputy to such high-profile career in world affairs with a trek the length of Africa. statesmen as John Foster Dulles and Averell This compelling story of his voyage of discovery and Harriman. He was near the center of power during subsequent career path in Europe and the U.S. offers many of the crises of our nation’s recent history. This inspiration and valuable guidance to all who seek that lively memoir takes us behind the scenes to see for precious goal: becoming a diplomat. The author is an ourselves how policy is made and offers unique honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, and insights into the personalities of many now-historic currently serves as counselor at the European Com- individuals. mission Representation in Nicosia.

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Continued from page 41 In this memoir, a Foreign Service officer and inter- daughter — is returning to work as a petroleum engi- national peacekeeping official reflects on a career neer, he pauses thoughtfully, and then says, “Where spanning the years of the Cold War — from 1945, as we’re going, I think life is not a bed of roses.” This com- a young sailor in the Pacific, through 1990, when he pilation from the author’s letters and journals from 1952 was responsible for helping enforce the security pro- through 1965 — when, two years after her husband’s visions of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. Mills records tragic death in a car accident, she and their children his impressions of the era’s key political and security return to the U.S. — recounts the exciting but often dif- conflicts, including Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan and ficult process of adjustment to life in Turkey. The book Israel. reflects her growing understanding and appreciation of “Writing a book is a little like designing an airplane,” the family and culture into which she married, and is a says Mills. “You have to know what purpose it is to tribute to the country she came to love. serve before you can get the design right.” In this Anna Maria Malkoç served as an English teaching offi- book, he seeks to balance two objectives: to preserve a cer in USIA, with postings in Turkey, Poland and Washing- record of the events of his life for his children and ton, D.C. She retired in 1990 after a 15-year career. grandchildren, and to record his own impressions of the era in which he was a participant-observer in so The Time of My Life: many pivotal events. The result is certainly flight-wor- A Personal Look at the Twentieth Century thy. Mills’ observations about the international scene Hawthorne Mills, Xlibris, 2005 (revised edition), from the start of the Cold War to the collapse of the $24.99, paperback, 424 pages. Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar world will be

Five and Ten Press: An Iconoclastic Institution o you have something original to say that is being about the Middle East, focused pri- ignored or rejected by the media and mainstream pub- marily on the Israel-Palestine con- Dlishers? Talk to retired FSO and former ambassador flict, that present the author’s imag- Robert Keeley, founder of Five and Ten Press in Washington, inative solutions to this problem. D.C., (http://fiveandtenpress.com). Ambassador Keeley, Another 2005 offering, An Ameri- whose business card identifies his profession as “Consulting can Soldier in World War I by Iconoclast,” established this small, independent publishing retired FSO Robert Sherwood company in 1995 for the purpose of bringing out original arti- Dillon, is listed on p. 30. cles, essays and other short works of fiction and non-fiction Five and Ten’s main criteria for that have been rejected or ignored by mainstream outlets. publication are wit (if possible a The name comes from the intention to price the products of lot), originality and readability. All the press at between five and 10 dollars a copy. of the books are published in limit- “There were to be no restrictions as to ed first editions of from 300 to 600 copies, in a 5” x 8” for- genre: historical, personal, polemical, mat that makes them convenient to carry in a coat pocket or humorous, serious, fictional, factual or, a purse. They rarely exceed 100 pages, so are not heavy to category I particularly like, factual fiction,” read in bed. Keeley explains in the introduction to Five Since late 1996, Five and Ten has been selling its publica- and Ten Press, and its imprint Black Sheep tions on a subscription basis (though it is not necessary to Books, on the Web site. “I was eager to find other writers subscribe to purchase the books), and also through the who were interested in self-publishing their own work in the Internet. The Press currently has more than 200 subscribers, same manner, using my new press as the vehicle.” a list of 24 titles and nearly breaks even. One of the latest writers to seek out Five and Ten Press is Amb. Keeley retired in 1989 with the rank of career John V. Whitbeck, an American international lawyer whose minister after a 34-year career in the Foreign Service. He The World According to Whitbeck was added to the Black served three times as ambassador: to Greece (1985-1989), Sheep list in April 2005. The book is a collection of 20 essays Zimbabwe (1980-1984) and Mauritius (1976-1978).

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of interest to the general reader. Candid and tren- of the U.S. and around the world. Full of lively detail, chant, and sometimes at odds with conventional wis- the stories often provide humorous insight into life and dom, this book is never boring. diplomacy; the stories on ants encountered in Africa Hawthorne Mills retired from the Foreign Service and one titled “Is a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich a in 1985. He and his wife Diana live on a sheep farm in Cross-cultural Affair?” are exemplary. Not simply an New Zealand. exercise in recollection, however, the author has written to set the record straight for his own conscience. My Life in Capitals: Accordingly, each story is accompanied by a reflective A Memoir of Life in afterthought. The book is well-organized, with the sto- the Foreign Service ries grouped in four parts: youth, Nevada, Africa and Bobbie Bergesen, Hellgate Press, in-between. 2004, $16.95, paperback, After teaching at Cornell University, John Morris 191 pages. Fenley joined USAID in 1961. He spent the next 16 The title says it all. Born in years in Africa, first with USAID and then with the Vienna, the daughter of a U.S. diplo- U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, helping mat, the author grew up in several underdeveloped countries to start or improve agricul- different countries and, following graduation from col- tural extension services for their farmers. lege, married a Foreign Service officer. Bobbie Bergesen has truly lived her whole life in capitals. Written in an A Simpler Time: unassuming style with verve and directness, her memoir is Stories from a Vanished Era an account of her travels and experiences in Port-au- Eric V. Youngquist, Voyageur Prince, Phnom Penh, Lisbon, Rangoon, Budapest and Publishing Co., 2005, $22.50, Bangkok. The format is, as she explains in the first chap- hardcover, 355 pages. ter, a natural one: “I explain where in the world — literal- A Simpler Time presents a warm, ly —I happen to be, followed by the story, article or poem nostalgic view of life in the urban I wrote, either at the time or later.” American Midwest of the 1930s Bobbie Bergesen worked briefly in the Office of and 1940s. Though the Great De- Strategic Services and in the State Department before pression caused dislocation and hardship to many fam- marrying Foreign Service officer Alf Bergesen in 1951. ilies, it was also a time when children had glorious free She accompanied her husband to a variety of diplomatic time, without constant supervision by adults, and when posts, primarily in Europe and Asia, until he retired in that time was usually spent outdoors. The story’s set- 1984. After his death in 1995, she remarried and cur- ting is Dearborn, Mich., “Ford’s Town,” where the rently lives in Florida. Although this is Bergesen’s first author, of Swedish immigrant stock, grew up. As we book, her writing has been published before. Many of the follow his life from youth to military service and gradu- stories in My Life in Capitals appeared first as articles in ation from college, we come to appreciate the vast gap publications such as Florida Today, The Georgia Journal, that separates that simpler way of life from the frenet- Great Expeditions and American Diplomacy. ic ethos of 21st-century urban America. Eric Youngquist joined the Foreign Service in 1954 My Highway of Life and served in consular affairs for 12 years, with postings Had Many Detours: in Thailand, Finland and Washington, D.C. He Worldwide Adventures resigned in 1967 to embark on a career in corporate John Morris Fenley, Xlibris, law. He is the author (under the pseudonym Gilbert D. 2005, $18.69, paperback, Visconti) of a suspense novel, The Joint Venture 261 pages. (Voyageur Publishing Co., 2003). I This memoir is a collection of 84 stories depicting episodes and experiences in a life lived in many parts To order any book listed here, see page 48.

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48 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

MORE CEREMONY, MORE HISTORY, MORE THANKS

THOSE OF US IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB OF FORMALLY ACKNOWLEDGING OUR DEBT TO MENTORS AND COLLEAGUES.

BY MARC GROSSMAN

am at that point in life where I go to more ilar events for Ambassadors Roy Atherton, Peter funerals and memorial services than weddings Constable, David Ransom and Arthur Hummel and and bar mitzvahs. As I get ready to go to each Under Secretary Joseph Sisco. Each of those gatherings of these sad events, I feel uneasy. Will I say reinforced my belief that we need to work harder to bring the right thing to the family? Will it be hard to more history, more ceremony and more acknowledge- see the older genera- ment of our debts to mentors and tion looking frailer? friends into the regular life of the IWhen the gathering is over, I I find myself wishing the Foreign Service. leave grateful that the family want- We are doing better. The ed a ceremony, and glad that I had Foreign Service had a Diplomatic Security Color Guard a chance to acknowledge my debt opens important events at the to predecessors. But I also find greater appreciation for the department. State’s senior leader- myself wishing that the Foreign ship swears in new employees and Service showed a greater appreci- importance of ceremony. presides over more meaningful ation for the importance of ceremo- retirement ceremonies. But there ny (an area where our military col- is still more to do. leagues have much to teach us). • We go to great lengths to This past June 18, I attended a memorial service for make sure that a departing ambassador and an arriving Ambassador Morris Draper, who was my first boss in the ambassador are not in their country of assignment at the Foreign Service. (For an obituary, see p. 70.) I recall sim- same time. Why? Let’s adopt a version of the military’s change-of-command ceremony. Let the outgoing and Marc Grossman, who reached the rank of career ambas- incoming chiefs of mission stand together in front of their sador, retired from the Foreign Service earlier this year. “troops.” Let them acknowledge the past and look for- His last assignment was as under secretary of State for ward to the future as the flag passes in front of everyone political affairs. He is now vice chairman of The Cohen to recognize the importance of the event. Group, a consulting firm. • Let’s take each A-100 class to the Foreign Service

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section of Rock Creek Cemetery, or for Foreign Service decedents to sup- to Arlington National Cemetery, plement family photographs and where some Foreign Service mem- A Foreign Service career memorabilia and honor service to bers are also buried, to recognize that country. we stand on the shoulders of others. is like being in a relay • Regional assistant secretaries While there, the new entrants could should keep an eye out for memorial hear a presentation on what some of race. We are given the services of those who had served in these departed colleagues accom- their region and then send someone plished for our country. baton by those who to represent the bureau at the service. • The Bureau of Human Resour- The person assigned this important ces could list the accomplishments of came before us. task might not even know the person those honored at the State Depart- being honored, but that is not the ment’s retirement ceremonies so that We then pass it to the point. The job is a different one: to people could leave that event with a acknowledge the debt to those who booklet which recorded some of the next generation. went before. contributions their service made to A Foreign Service career is like the United States. being in a relay race. We are given • The Historian’s Office could the baton by those who came before send a note to those leaders taking on us and we hold it for our time of ser- new assignments describing the peo- American diplomacy. vice. We then pass it to the next gen- ple who served in those positions • The Director General’s office, eration. It is the moments when the before them. This might encourage working with the Historian’s Office, baton is passed that we need to do them to seek out a predecessor for could offer to provide photographs or more to remember, to acknowledge advice and emphasize the chain of news clippings at memorial services and to celebrate. I

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50 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

LEARNING FROM DAYTON

A DECADE AFTER ITS SIGNING, THE DAYTON PEACE AGREEMENT STILL OFFERS VALUABLE LESSONS ABOUT HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION, PEACEKEEPING AND POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION.

BY THEODORE TANOUE

he 20th century began and ended U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and held under with wars in the Balkans. The First quarantined conditions at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base World War started with the assassi- in Dayton, Ohio. Initialed at Dayton on Nov. 21, 1995, and nation of Archduke Franz Ferdi- signed in Paris on Dec. 14, 1995, by representatives of the nand in Sarajevo, and at century’s Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, end the dissolution of the Yugoslav and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Dayton Peace republic made Bosnia and Kosovo Agreement created a loosely unified Bosnian state com- synonymous with brutal ethnic wars and crimes against prised of the Croat-Bosniak Federation and the Republika Thumanity. Then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher Srpska. It also set the stage for a massive military and civil- described the 1992-95 Bosnian War as “a problem from ian intervention that continues today. This anniversary is a hell.” It produced acts of genocide and war crimes on a good time to look back at a decade’s worth of lessons about scale unprecedented in Europe since World War II, humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping and post-conflict accounting for nearly two million refugees and internally reconstruction, and to contemplate the steps needed to displaced persons. A series of failed peace plans under- ensure that peace continues to take root in this troubled scored the impotence of the international community and region. dashed hopes that the end of the Cold War could empower Dayton was a success story, but also a work in progress. the United Nations as a force for collective security and The Dayton blueprint had significant deficits in the recon- humanitarian intervention. It also proved a false dawn for struction pillars of security, justice and reconciliation, and in those eager to declare that the “hour of Europe” as a force ensuring social and economic well-being. Yet as the inter- for regional security had arrived. national community’s interpretation of the accords evolved, Ten years ago this month, the Dayton accords finally implementers assumed more robust powers and expanded brought that bloody conflict to an end, constituting a signal the original agreement’s terms to strengthen the Bosnian achievement for U.S. diplomacy. The agreement was the state’s stability. The result has been a decade of peace, the product of a marathon three-week negotiating session led by return of over a million displaced persons, and a growing commitment by all ethnic groups to rejoin international Theodore Tanoue has been a Foreign Service officer since society through the creation of a multi-ethnic state at peace 1982. He served in Sarajevo as political counselor from with its neighbors. 2002 to 2004, and recently completed a year as State Some observers might be tempted to ask whether the Department Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Bosnian experience still matters. Beyond the country’s prox- Diplomacy, where he drafted this article. His previous imity to Western Europe, there are several other reasons to overseas postings include assignments in Munich, Rome, pay close attention to its prospects: Taipei, Osaka and Manila. • Bosnia’s porous borders, abundance of loose weapons

NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 51

and reservoir of ethnic tensions — as detain major war criminals in the well as the continued presence of immediate postwar period, allowing wartime mujahedeen and jihadist The Dayton blueprint them to develop the underground groups with links to al-Qaida and other political and financial networks that extremist organizations — all make it succeeded despite have helped them elude capture ever an attractive base for terrorist activity. since. Arbitrary deadlines for the dur- • A key lesson of 9/11 is that failed significant deficits in the ation for IFOR and successor Stabili- states matter, since they serve as host zation Force missions also tempted and vector not only for terrorist groups, areas of security, justice local spoilers to hunker down and wait but also for organized crime rings, out the departure of the foreign pres- drug traffickers and other non-state and reconciliation, and ence rather than cooperate in imple- actors that threaten regional security. menting the peace. So one important • Until Iraq, Bosnia was the largest social and economic lesson of Bosnia is that it is better to post-Cold War military intervention focus on an acceptable end-state than of the United States and our most well-being. an end-date. ambitious, complex peacekeeping and Protect local infrastructure and nationbuilding project. vulnerable populations. Peacekeep- • Future interventions will also ers also initially did not extend their require an integrated approach to “safe and secure” mandate to cover post-conflict reconstruction analo- refugees and internally displaced per- gous to what eventually evolved in engagement measured in years, if not sons who sought to reclaim their Bosnia. That will entail coordinating decades. prewar homes, allowing ethnic para- the various civilian and military agen- This was particularly true because militaries to conduct campaigns to das within the U.S. government, as initial implementation efforts were intimidate and terrorize returnees. In well as those of the many internation- slow to create a self-sustaining state the immediate aftermath of Dayton, al players involved. And such efforts and to bring about the conditions to IFOR did not intervene to prevent will also require that America develop allow the international community to Bosnian Serb hardliners from destroy- a civilian reconstruction and stabiliza- end its massive involvement in almost ing housing stock and infrastructure tion capacity that is the match of our every aspect of Bosnian political and when they withdrew to the Serb side military prowess. economic life. In short, Dayton of the inter-entity boundary line. The For all these reasons, we need to stopped the fighting, but left the price of inaction was high, in material learn both from the failures and suc- country divided between two antago- reconstruction costs, lost credibility cesses of Bosnia — in order to avoid nistic entities, with a weak central and lost time. past mistakes and to build on the best authority ill-equipped to provide basic But the military can’t do every- practices in the future. governance or to meet other postwar thing. Successful peace implementa- challenges. tion requires military forces and civil- Some Key Lessons Nothing happens without security. ians to work in tandem. In the securi- Haste makes waste. The Bosnian The military implementation under- ty arena, for example, civilian policing experience underscores the fact that scores the importance of deploying complements, rather than replaces, peacemaking is a slow process that from the outset with an overwhelming the need for a military peacekeeping requires patience on the part of poli- force capable of creating a security presence. International and local cy-makers. In particular, it highlights environment that permits civilian police forces alone do not have the the growing — and troubling — dis- reconstruction efforts to proceed with firepower to deal with insurgents, connect between the duration of the a robust mandate capable of com- paramilitaries and other armed warfighting phase and the length of pelling cooperation from all parties. groups, but they play an essential role the stabilization and reconstruction NATO’s initial efforts were under- in restoring stability and the rule of phase in modern peacekeeping oper- cut by a “mission creep” phobia (a law. In Bosnia, the deployment of the ations. While modern wars can fre- misapplication of the lessons learned U.N.’s International Police Task quently be measured in days and in Somalia) and a bias against expand- Force helped immediately to raise weeks, peace implementation and ing the roles and missions of military local police standards, served as a postwar reconstruction will always be peacekeepers. The NATO-led Imple- deterrent to ethnic hate groups and a task that requires a sustained mentation Force missed its chance to organized crime, and provided reas-

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surance for minority returns in many go basis. One exception was the front-line areas. A corollary to this Bosnian Central Bank, led from the lesson is that if we want others to While modern wars can start by expatriate staff working along- underwrite a major share of postwar side local experts. As one banker reconstruction costs — as we suc- frequently be measured there told me, “The first year was hell, ceeded in doing in Bosnia — we must the second year was purgatory, and be willing to cede some decision-mak- in days and weeks, peace then it got better.” Constantly cycling ing authority to others. new personnel through an interven- Start with an implementation plan implementation and tion means that the international that gets the sequence and priorities community will be condemned to the right. Unless all components of a bro- postwar reconstruction eternal purgatory of the bottom of the ken system are fixed, repairing isolat- learning curve. ed parts does little good. The Bosnian require years, Avoid enshrining special ethnic experience was characterized by a rights. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, myriad of U.S. agencies, international if not decades. the reconstruction effort in Bosnia organizations and assistance agencies, had to traverse a minefield of compet- bilateral players, NGOs and other ing ethnic interests. A side effect of entities, all operating without a single the compromises necessary to get to shared vision of the end-state and Dayton was favoring ethnic commu- end-institutions that we were building nity rights over individual rights. toward. Without overall coordination, tent, not just the willing. Just as too These included quotas on govern- lack of progress in one area frequent- much assistance at the wrong time ment positions, a tripartite presiden- ly became a drag on others. For can be counterproductive, the wrong cy, upper houses of parliament based example, the absence of the rule of mix of implementers can hinder on ethnicity, and other institutions law and the lack of judicial reforms progress. While soldiers, diplomats, that conferred special status on hampered economic growth and secu- international civil servants and other the three “constitutent peoples” of rity. The vetting, training and recerti- generalists are important, it is critical Bosnia. This has given ethnic groups fication of police forces occurred with- to enlist teams and individuals with the institutional levers to block out corresponding reforms in the specific competencies, including cen- progress and has imparted a zero-sum prosecutorial and judicial system. tral bankers, financial examiners and ethnic dynamic to almost every major Getting the sequence and priorities forensic auditors, legal experts, prose- political issue. Perhaps a better right is helped by having a detailed cutors, engineers and specialists who approach might have been to create a plan that identifies priorities, aligns can focus on key industrial and public civil system and constitutional guaran- objectives with budgets, establishes sectors such as power generation, tees that emphasized individual meaningful metrics for progress, and transportation, and rehabilitation and rights, and which were consonant sets the stage for an exit strategy. privatization of state-owned enter- from the outset with international Too much assistance can hinder, prises. They will provide the best pos- human rights norms. not help, reform. The boom-bust sible on-the-ground situational aware- Harness local aspirations to join dynamic of postwar assistance flows ness of the economic and social envi- international society and apply was also problematic. Money was ronment available, and can help get objective international standards. wasted because of Bosnia’s limited the information base right from the Eight years after Dayton, the interna- absorptive capacity. Some assistance beginning. These experts need to be tional community fixed what Ambass- shielded dysfunctional communist- assigned on a long-term basis, work- ador Holbrooke acknowledged was era economic institutions and prac- ing alongside local staff to facilitate the agreement’s greatest failure: the tices from market forces. Other assis- capacity-building. They must begin lack of central command and control tance was looted by corrupt officials. the process of handing over responsi- over Bosnia’s rival entity militaries. Only after the rule of law is estab- bilities to local staff at an early stage. These reforms were launched in the lished and the business environment Don’t fight the learning curve. A wake of the “Orao” (Eagle) scandal in put on a sound footing should the related problem in Bosnia was rapid 2002, which revealed that Bosnian spigots be turned on for economic staff turnover and the concomitant Serb officials had engaged in illegal development initiatives. loss of institutional knowledge, result- arms deals with Saddam Hussein’s Create a coalition of the compe- ing in reforms moving on a stop-and- regime. The international communi-

NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 53

ty responded with the judicious appli- tion to create a sense of local owner- cation of sticks and carrots. These ship and responsibility. included the ouster of the Serb The objective should be to move Republic’s defense minister and the through the intervention stage as departure of the Serb member of the quickly as possible, before it plants Bosnian presidential triumvirate, cou- the seeds of future problems. Bene- pled with offers to begin a collabora- volent dictatorships — even well- tive effort to create a smaller, more meaning international organizations affordable military under central com- — are frequently unable to respond mand and control. to political market signals. In The effort harnessed Bosnia’s aspi- Bosnia, the continued international rations for joining NATO’s Partner- presence risks perpetuating a ship for Peace with NATO’s standards dependency culture and instilling a for defense reform. In contrast to warped political culture with nation- eight previous years of cosmetic tin- alism as its default setting. The local kering, defense reform succeeded in electorate looks to the “internation- 2002-2003 because all sides acknowl- als” to deliver reforms and to nation- edged that this was not an exercise in alist parties to protect their ethnic dumbing things down to a lowest interests. This division of responsi- common denominator but, rather, of bilities allows nationalists to enjoy rising to a bar set by NATO. By offer- incumbency without accountability, ing the implicit security guarantee of and international civil servants to possible future membership in NATO, occupy the political space that defense reform also gave Bosnians should be assumed by homegrown, the reassurance that the impending multi-ethnic reform-oriented par- departure of Stability Force peace- ties. keepers did not necessarily mean Bosnia is fortunate in that it has a abandonment by Western Europe natural home in Europe. With that and the United States. in mind, we need to recalibrate our reconstruction paradigm from mere- Dump-and-Run vs. ly “fixing things” and then departing Plug-and-Play to focusing on ways to reintegrate The final step in the process is to Bosnia back into the region and, create a viable exit strategy — a chap- eventually, with the rest of the world. ter which is still being written for Specifically, we should leverage Bos- Bosnia-Herzegovina. Past interven- nian aspirations to play a meaning- tions in Haiti and East Timor suggest ful role in international fora — the that this is where interventions tend European Union, World Trade to falter, often because the exit stage Organization, Interpol, the Egmont so frequently becomes the abandon- Group, the Venice Commission, the ment stage. The peace implementa- Community of Democracies and tion stage and the exit stage require other groups — both to continue to completely different tools and para- shape and influence events in a posi- digms. Exit does not equal abandon- tive direction in Bosnia from outside ment, but rather a type of engage- and to help ensure that reforms are ment that is different from, but no not orphaned once the peacekeepers less important than, the intervention and civilian implementers depart. phase. The tools required are mirror The objective should be to replace images of each other, with interven- “bad” networks — organized crime, tion calling for robust “hard” powers trafficking rings, arms smugglers, of imposition and the exit stage black markets and illicit militias — emphasizing “soft” powers of attrac- with “good” ones that enmesh Bosnia

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within a web of economic, political, by bringing to justice the major war security, cultural and other links with criminals still at large. the international community. Eight years later, the Since the Dayton era began, debate over Bosnia issues has often Looking Ahead to the international community involved only the various internation- Next Decade al players involved in peace imple- After 10 years, we are nearing the fixed the lack of central mentation. This debate should be end of the Dayton era. What the long over, and the architects need to international community has given command and control let the rightful occupants take full Bosnia is something unimaginable ownership of their common home. during the bloody conflict and the over Bosnia’s rival Without active local participation and chaotic aftermath: a second chance. buy-in, the international community In the context of potential member- entity militaries. ultimately will achieve little that will ship in NATO, the E.U. and other last. Dealing with a normal, sovereign international bodies, Bosnia’s frac- polity requires normal tools of engage- tious ethnic groups have an opportu- ment. To echo Ambassador Warren nity to create a functioning state and a Zimmermann’s description of prewar lasting peace. normal states in a normal region. Yugoslavia, what the international It is also a second chance for an Toward that end, we need a new com- community has created in Bosnia after international community that proved pact with Bosnia that hastens the end a decade of high-intensity intervention so ineffectual initially in handling the of Bosnia’s political tutelage, and is a state, but not yet a nation. In the breakup of Yugoslavia. We cannot put renews the promise of an open door final analysis, nationhood cannot be the pieces back together, but what we to the E.U., NATO and other interna- conferred by outsiders, but must be can do is to create a context within tional institutions — provided it final- reclaimed by the people of Bosnia- which the successor states can live as ly meets its international obligations Herzegovina themselves. I

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RESCUE AT URMIA

IN AN OBSCURE CORNER OF PERSIA FOLLOWING WORLD WAR I, AN UNDERESTIMATED CONSUL BECAME AN UNLIKELY HERO.

BY DAVID D. NEWSOM

n June 1919, Gordon Paddock, the United National Archives and in the archives of the Presbyterian States consul in Tabriz, Persia (changed to Iran Historical Society in Philadelphia tell the story of the res- in 1935), received a stark message delivered by cue, and of Paddock’s subsequent problems with the State a messenger who, to get through Kurdish lines, Department bureaucracy. had hidden the paper in the sole of his sandal: “May 24. Kurds fought with Persians. “Deliberateness Instead of Kurds driven from city. Persians massacred Energy and Action” 200 Christians in American mission yard and wounded Gordon Paddock was an unlikely hero. Born in New I100 more. Many attempts on lives of Clarence Packard York in 1865, he graduated from Princeton and Columbia and Yacob, but both are safe. City mob looted all mission Law School. After practicing law in New York for 10 property and burned some. Secure immediate protection years, he entered the United States Diplomatic Service in and help. Packard.” In response, Paddock set out to save 1901. the missionaries and 600 of their Assyrian Christian fol- On June 5, 1911, shortly after Paddock took up his con- lowers, who were trapped in the Persian city of Urmia sular duties in Tabriz, State Department inspector Alfred (also spelled Urumiah; later changed to Rezaiyeh). L.M. Gottschalk described him as “a gentleman, trained Letters from the missionaries and from Paddock in the to the life of the idle rich in his youth. He has no money left now and is trying, late in life, to learn something of David D. Newsom, an FSO from 1947 to 1981, served as business.” Knowing that background, the inspector sym- ambassador to Libya, Indonesia and the Philippines, as pathized all the more with Paddock’s living conditions. well as assistant secretary for African affairs, among many “He has to live in a mud-walled village where there is other assignments. From 1978 to 1981, he was under sec- practically no social life and where the only fellow coun- retary of State for political affairs. He received AFSA’s trymen that he meets are well meaning, but certainly not award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy broad-minded, missionaries, where clean or well-trained in 2000. Ambassador Newsom was assisted in the prepa- servants are unattainable, and where the house he lives in ration of this article by two other FSOs and their wives, is not weatherproof and therefore impossible to heat who had heard NEA Assistant Secretary George Allen tell through the severe mountain-winter of Persia.” this story in the 1950s (somewhat embellished?): Harold In addition, communications were poor and subject to and Sylvia Josif, and Fred and Winifred Hadsel. (Harold misunderstanding, as when he reported his marriage on Josif was consul in Tabriz from 1957 to 1959.) In April 29, 1918, in Tabriz to Marie Josephine Irma November 1962, the Foreign Service Journal published an Lefebvre, a French citizen. In a subsequent letter to the account of the rescue by Edward M. Dodd, one of the mis- American minister in Tehran, he wrote: “I am entirely sionaries involved. obliged to you for the trouble the legation has taken in

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telegraphing the Paris Embassy in reply to my sister, Mrs. Christians in the province of Azerbaijan, a region of multi- Alexander’s, inquiries. I believe a report of my marriage layered fear and conflict also inhabited by Shiite Azeris was changed to my ‘murder,’ a rather amusing mistake (the majority) and Sunni Kurds, all governed by a weak when played that way, but which would have been Persian regime. extremely unpleasant for me if it had happened the other The advent of World War I in 1914 aggravated the way around.” latent tensions of this ethnic mix: Turks, allied with Another despatch to Tehran, on July 27, 1918, illus- Germany, invaded from the west, while Russian forces trates the problems Paddock faced throughout his tenure were already ensconced in the region with the consent of in reconciling the demands of the Department of State their allies, the British, causing the region’s two principal with the realities of the region. “I regret extremely that it cities, Tabriz and Urmia, to be repeatedly occupied and is quite impossible for me to evacuated over the next few comply at present with the years. German propaganda dur- request contained in your Several years before the rescue, ing World War I emphasized the unnumbered instruction (File dual role of the Ottoman sultan 300) of the 15th instant, to sup- a State Department inspector as both the secular leader of ply the legation with quadruple Turkey and, as caliph, the reli- copies of my despatches. I have, had described Paddock as gious leader among Muslims. after much searching in the For their part, Czarist Russians shops here, been able to find but possessing “deliberateness acted as defenders of the local five pieces of carbon paper, of Christians; the latter were, as a poor quality and at an absurd instead of energy and action.” result, seen in the region as pro- price ($0.10) per sheet, and Allied. unfortunately, there remain but At the same time, strong fears two of these sheets, both of which are worn.” of Turkey prevailed among the Armenians, many of whom Notwithstanding such difficulties, Gottschalk was not had barely survived massacres in Turkey before fleeing to impressed with Paddock’s job performance. He reported Persia. Similarly, the Assyrian Christians, with their own that the consul had traits “usual in most of our American militia, the Jalus, saw threats from Turkey and their neigh- secretaries — a somewhat lofty idea of gentility; deliber- bors, the Kurds. The Sunni Muslim Kurds — like their ateness instead of energy and action; and the acquired fellow kinsmen in Iraq, Turkey and Syria — dreamed of habit of self-effacement and tactful subordination.” He an independent Kurdistan; they saw threats to their hopes concluded that Paddock’s long absence from the U.S. and from both Christians and other Muslims. Caught in the lack of consular experience “seem somewhat to militate middle of this turmoil were the American missionaries, against his usefulness in his present post.” who — because the U.S. was a neutral power until 1917 One other comment from his report is particularly rel- — operated hospitals and schools and provided relief. evant, in light of later events: “Where he has shown less The situation created dilemmas for the American mis- energy is in making no plans to visit Urmia (where we sionaries, some of whom were conscientious objectors. have an American colony, I am told).” When Dr. William Shedd was appointed honorary vice consul in Urmia, some of his colleagues objected — fear- Caught in the Middle ful, with some justification, that such close identification Paddock probably expected to spend his time following with the United States government would imperil them. the Persian carpet trade, issuing visas and promoting Some even urged Shedd to move outside their compound, American exports, but it was another consular function but he refused, though only a modest sign on the gate that was to preoccupy him: protecting the interests of the indicated his official status. American citizens in his district. Those were primarily Another internal debate involved whether to respond Presbyterian missionaries, whose predecessors had been to calls from the Assyrian fighters to provide them bread. among the first Americans to establish a presence in The missionaries did so, but were well aware that such a Persia back in 1835. They settled in an area of villages move supported charges that they were supporting one inhabited by Armenian and Assyrian (Nestorian) faction in the conflict.

NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 57

The disintegration of the Russian Packards and I decided last night government following the Bolshevik that I could not sit still and wait for Revolution removed the main safe- Paddock probably the Powers to act, but that I must do guard on which the Christians in something myself. I have consulted Persia relied. In early 1918, mobs expected to spend his with my colleagues the British and entered the several mission com- French consuls and I have called on pounds, driving nearly all the time following the Sipar-Salar, governor of Azerbaijan, remaining Christians around Urmia, and have formulated a plan which I estimated at 70,000, south toward Persian carpet trade, would like to present to you.” Hamadan and the British lines. He then outlined a proposal to Only about half made it. In June issuing visas and take two automobiles, accompanied 1918, because of a Turkish advance by an ex-governor of Urmia, Sardar- on Tabriz, the American consulate promoting American i-Fateh, and a former British soldier, and many members of the Allied Donald Ferguson (who would be a community moved to Kazvin, where exports — not rescuing driver), around the north end of the they remained from June 29 until lake. After seeking out the Kurds to Dec. 27, 1918. At the same time, missionaries. provide safe escort as far as their famine conditions aggravated by the lines went, he hoped to get in touch war created a desperate need for with the present governor of Urmia relief and an increasingly brutal and, after securing the release of the competition for the limited supplies Christians, arrange for them to be of money, food and medicine the transported back to Tabriz by lake missionaries were providing on were obtained and the wounded steamer. behalf of an American charity, Near were all dressed and with a few Paddock acknowledged that this East Relief. instruments a number of operations would be no easy task. It was Rama- Tensions between the Kurds and were done in dingy rooms or in the dan, the Muslim fasting month, which the Christians flared up when the governor’s yard and many patients would complicate preparations and principal Kurdish chief in the were seen and treated. Then, for travel. While Sardar-i-Fateh had been region, Ismael Agha, known as the next 24 days, we were captives in successful in protecting the Christians Simko, killed the principal Assyrian that Muslim yard, hoping and pray- and avoiding conflict with the Kurds, leader, Mar Simon, who had come to ing for word from Tabriz and trying that was before the assassination see him on a peace mission. The in every possible way to send out a attempt had outraged Ismael Agha’s Christians, seeking revenge, attacked report on our condition and appeal tribesmen. Making matters worse, the Kurds, and drove Agha from his for help. ” It was at this point that those parts of the territory not con- stronghold. The Kurds, in turn, Packard appealed for help to Consul trolled by the Kurds were the domain attacked Urmia, but were driven off Paddock. of a Persian bandit, known as Kazim by Persian troops. The Persian gov- (full name unknown). ernment, in its own effort to restrain Riding to the Rescue The missionaries, nevertheless, the Kurds, sent a package bomb to Back in Tabriz, Paddock pon- heartily endorsed the plan, though Agha. He escaped injury, but his dered how to respond. Urmia was, they recommended transporting the brother was killed. In response, as the crow flies, 75 miles away on automobiles part of the way by train Persian mobs, joined in some cases the other side of Lake Urmia (later to save gasoline. In addition, Muller by soldiers, looted the Presbyterian known as Lake Rezaiyeh). The and Dodd volunteered to join the mission compound in Urmia and route around the lake was more than party; the latter knew the Kurdish attacked Christians. 200 miles over bad roads and language well and was acquainted Harry Packard, in an account through potentially hostile territory. with Ismael Agha, whose assistance written later, described what was On the afternoon of June 6, 1919, would be vital to the mission. happening when he sent his appeal he sent for three missionaries residing Once the necessary papers to Paddock: “We found about 280 in Tabriz: Hugo Muller, Frederick arrived from the Persian authorities, more Christians and had them Jessup and Dr. Edward M. Dodd. the party set out at 4:30 p.m. the brought, for small presents, to the He told them, “I’ve been thinking a next day, Saturday, June 7, 1919, on governor’s yard. Surgical dressings good deal about Urmia and the the four-mile trip to the railway line

58 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

to load the cars. Letters from the whether the chief would call on the missionaries, now in the archives of delegation. His reply came quickly, the Presbyterian Historical Society Persian mobs, joined in saying he was indisposed and could in Philadelphia, describe what fol- not come, but would be glad to re- lowed. some cases by soldiers, ceive “His Excellency, the American Days 1-2: Because the track was consul.” in need of repair, and “wobbly,” the looted the Presbyterian Another letter arrived at the gov- train stopped at dark. Starting again ernor’s house explaining that Persian at 5:30 the next morning, the train mission compound in horsemen, not Kurds, had fired on reached its destination, Sheriff the American party, thinking they Khana, by mid-morning. Although Urmia and attacked were involved in a Kurdish attack. the autos were successfully off- The Persians, to make amends, loaded and the party ready to go, it Christians. offered to escort the group to Urmia. took Paddock five hours to notify the Muller commented in a subsequent governor-general in Tabriz and letter, “What strange logic — first, to receive a reply. While waiting they mistake two automobiles flying the “begged” a good meal from a Russian American flag, and fleeing like the woman and searched in nearby debris very mischief, for a Kurdish attack; “left by the Bolsheviks” for a staff horsemen were designated as and second, to suggest the possibili- from which to fly an American flag. escorts, two in front and two behind. ty of escorting us through a Kurd- At 4 p.m., they finally began the The trip was delayed while one infested country.” drive, entering what one participant car was freed from sand. Then sud- Days 4-8: Patience is a virtue, described as “no man’s land.” The denly the lead car, Paddock’s, speed- particularly in the Middle East, and lead car, driven by Ferguson, flew ed up and three of the Kurds left the Gordon Paddock amply demonstrat- the American flag and carried group and galloped toward the ed that quality in Dilman. For five Paddock, Sardar-i-Fateh and a ser- mountains, the fourth remaining days the party remained, calling on vant for each. Dodd and Muller, in beside the lead car. The sardar sud- Ismail Agha and receiving his visits. the other car, carried the gasoline, denly waved a white handkerchief Such calls involved a great deal of food and personal kits. They pro- out the car window, for Kurds from a sitting and drinking cups of coffee, ceeded without difficulty until about nearby village were firing at the cars. but little talking. Twice during the 8 o’clock that evening, when they One bullet struck in front of time, Agha made all-day calls, com- realized they had lost their way and Paddock’s car, another behind. The ing at 10 a.m. and staying until 5:30 had to retrace their steps. Because a party sped ahead, away from one vil- p.m. During one of those occasions, battle had taken place between lage, only to find that they were he excused himself, but Paddock Kurds and Persians a few days being fired on from the next village remained seated, waiting for his before, neither people nor animals as well. guest’s return. The missionaries could be seen, but they eventually The Kurdish escort returned, informed him at dinner that evening found a village to spend the night. indicating it was safe to proceed. that while he had been patiently By the time they laid out their blan- The next immediate obstacle was a waiting, Agha had gone into an kets and turned in, it was nearly mid- large ditch, which the Kurds filled in adjoining room and “had a nice nap.” night. to permit the cars to pass. At 1 in During this period, the delegation Day 3: The group started out the afternoon, Paddock and compa- was effectively trapped by the securi- along the lakeshore anticipating ny arrived in Dilman (also known as ty situation. As Muller described the meeting up with Kurds, as Sardar-i- Salmas and Shahpur), the site of a scene, “Kurds go through the streets Fateh had sent a letter to Ismail governorate and four miles from the in twos and threes with lowered Agha requesting a meeting. Not home of Ismail Agha. Anticipating rifles; shops are closed and locked; long afterward, five Kurdish horse- that at least one night would be most people keep off the streets; for- men appeared, having intercepted spent with the governor, the party eigners and officials move about with the messenger. One of the five unloaded the cars and parked in a a guard; men constantly waiting on dashed off to a nearby village and nearby inn (caravanserai). Paddock the governor with complaints of what shortly returned with a minor chief sent a letter to Agha seeking advice the Kurds are doing ask for redress and 30 horsemen. Four of the on whether he should call on him or and the governor puts them off with a

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diplomatic answer. The Kyargyusar out, that he could not discuss these [Persian government representative orders, but was there to carry them for foreign interests] was robbed of “I decided that I could out; if the governor prevented him his clothes and became the butt of from carrying them out, he himself many jokes, but there was no way to not sit still and wait for would return to Tabriz and make a get back his stolen goods nor to full report of the situation, with the apprehend the robber. ” the Powers to act, implication that the result would not On the day of his second visit, be good for the governor.” Friday, June 13, 1919, Ismail Agha, but that I must do Paddock’s appeal on behalf of the satisfied with his talks with Paddock, Christians resulted in requests for called in one of his subordinate something myself.” protection to be provided for the chiefs and said, “These gentlemen Persians threatened by the Kurds. A are going to Urmia and I want you to —Gordon Paddock delegation called upon him to ask send a guard with them all the way. that, before he left the city with the In addition, send a detachment of Christians, he appoint an agent who horsemen to Kutchi just over the could hoist the American flag in case pass and surround the village. If the the Kurds should break through and bandit Kazim is there, kill him; and attack the town. There is no evi- in any case open a road for these 6:30 p.m., Ferguson drove the sar- dence that he did so, but he correct- gentlemen to pass.” dar and his orderly into Urmia to ly took that request as an indirect Day 9: Transiting the pass lead- make arrangements for Paddock to signal that the Christians would be ing to Urmia, the group did not get enter the city. They “returned with permitted to leave the next day. far before having two blowouts. their faces wreathed in smiles — the Day 12: The party’s original plan They had not brought enough inner trip had been successful, the for the return journey was to meet a tubes, so Ferguson stuffed the tires Packards were safe, and the consul boat and barge at the lakeshore and with grass, which lasted until they and his party were to enter at once.” cross the lake to Sheriff Khana, returned to Tabriz. In the late after- Day 11: The consul and sardar where they would once more board noon they came within 50 yards of entered, proceeding through sullen the train to Tabriz. But first they the village of Kutchi when horsemen crowds to the governor’s house, had to escort the missionaries and appeared, informing them that a where they were greeted by the the 600 or so local Christians from battle was taking place there. The Packards and their Christian helpers. the governor’s compound across 13 Kurdish escort led the party to But the mission was not yet accom- miles of unsecured territory through another village to spend the night, plished: the several hundred Assyrian crowds of doubtful friendliness. but their duties were not over: Christians still had to be safely Paddock, after conferring with Wounded from the battle were removed from a hostile city. And Packard, decided to proceed as soon brought in for Dr. Dodd to treat. rumors were rife that major efforts as possible in the afternoon. He sent Once they had been treated, supper would be made by some elements to Dodd out of the city to arrange safe was served, and Paddock and com- prevent them from leaving. passage with the Kurds and pro- pany bedded down, ending the day Paddock covered himself with cured carts and animals to move the past midnight. glory in his negotiations with the sick and wounded and to carry a sup- Day 10: A timely start brought governor, noting that he was acting ply of bread and the few possessions the party to the village of Saatlu, just with the authority of the governor of still remaining with the refugees. a few miles from Urmia. There they Azerbaijan, a fact he had in writing. By 4:30 p.m. the carts and ani- were greeted by a hundred or more He also declared that he was speak- mals had not arrived, but Paddock Kurdish horsemen who escorted the ing not only for America, but for decided to proceed anyway. Muller party to within two miles of the city. Great Britain and France. (This was wrote, “It was a tense moment; we There Sardar-i-Fateh received a let- a slight exaggeration, though it was all knew that the slightest mishap ter from the governor saying he true that his British and French col- between the governor’s gate and the would be pleased to receive him and leagues in Tabriz were in accord outside of the city might mean a mis- that he would order the Persian with him.) Then, as Muller recount- erable end for all of us — it would troops not to fire and to permit a ed, “Mr. Paddock said he came there have required only a rifle shot, the safe entrance into the city. At about under orders to take the Christians throwing of a stone, accidental push-

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ing in the crowd, a hasty word, or an car. … My only passenger for most angry look to have started a confla- of the way was a poor little crippled gration from which the imagination Patience is a virtue, boy whom I had invited to sit beside turns in horror.” me and another little waif who Meanwhile, Dodd reached the particularly in the tucked himself away between the Kurds, who were exchanging fire tool box and the mud guard and with Muslim irregulars outside the Middle East, and whom I could not bring myself to city. They acceded to his request to throw off. ” stop the firing and, to demonstrate Gordon Paddock A line of soldiers and horsemen at their friendship, produced two ears the governor’s gate dispersed the they had just cut off of the irregulars. amply demonstrated crowd. As other horsemen cleared a (Back in the governor’s yard, Dr. way through the streets, a long line Packard was bandaging the victims’ that quality. of soldiers ensured the passage. bleeding ear stumps.) Several miles from the city, Muller, In a reversal of the original not seeing the consul’s car, stopped sequence, Muller’s car led the pro- and waited. Ultimately, the carts cession, with the Christian refugees appeared and, with them, Paddock following on foot. The consul’s car and Ferguson. Dodd and Packard was to bring up the rear. Sardar-i- also wanted to climb aboard. To stayed behind to await the return of Fateh rode with Muller, a rifle at the lighten the car’s load, the sardar dis- the cars to carry the most seriously ready. Two men with rifles rode on mounted and walked. Muller com- wounded. the left running board and one on mented: “I was obliged to be hard- Muller drove on ahead to the lake the right. Several other armed men hearted in the matter of refusing to landing to oversee arrangements for walked alongside. Understandably, let the poor people put their babies the embarkation. The road was at the aged, the sick and the wounded and their loads and their sick on the times under water and at other times

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difficult to find. Darkness descend- And a third is of the same Syrian ed, but the moon shortly thereafter [Assyrian] and Armenian people the came up to light the way. Kurds at The missionaries next day, safe, happy and carefree on the landing assisted in housing Mrs. the big barge which Dr. W.P. Ellis [a Packard and others. Muller reached informed Paddock at fellow missionary] brought across the the landing at 1 a.m.; the remainder lake to meet us. ” of the procession did not arrive until dinner that evening that after 2 o’clock in the morning. No Good Deed Goes Day 13: When the day dawned, while he had been Unpunished the steamer and barge were visible At the time of the rescue, about a mile from shore. Ferguson patiently waiting all day, Paddock had been outside the was able to pick up Dodd and United States for almost 20 years. In Packard and the whole party his guest had gone into a memorandum written in Washing- reassembled by noon. The cars were ton and addressed to the Secretary loaded on a barge with some diffi- an adjoining room and of State on Dec. 18, 1922, Paddock culty because the Kurds had burned noted that he had requested the the pier. But for some unexplained “had a nice nap.” State Department’s permission to reason, the captain of the steamer return to the United States and been maneuvered around near the land- “granted leave of absence for 60 days ing for two hours before heading for with permission to visit the United Sheriff Khana. States.” On the basis of this author- Day 14: The steamer arrived at ity, he left for Washington, paying his Sheriff Khana without incident. By Not one of the whole party to leave own way. 11 a.m., the cars had been loaded Urmia with us — neither little child Missionaries had already brought onto the train and it was making its nor aged woman — failed to arrive Paddock’s assistance to the attention way toward Tabriz. Muller describes in Tabriz, and the only accident of of the Secretary of State. On Sept. 18, the group’s arrival there: “Carts, wag- any kind was that one woman fell 1919, Mrs. Mary Lewis Shedd, widow ons and carriages were waiting to and broke her leg. Again I am glad of W.A. Shedd, wrote to Secretary of receive the sick, wounded and weary, to say that under God the credit for State Robert Lansing and enclosed a the women and the children (which the success of this enterprise goes to petition of appreciation from the included almost all). Provision had the American consul, Mr. Paddock, Assyrian community. Relief organi- been made for one good meal for all and the American flag, and secondly zations were also aware of his role and for a continuance of rations of to the Persian gentleman, my friend and the fact that he was returning to daily bread as well as houses to sleep Sardar-i-Fateh. ” the U.S. A letter of Feb. 2, 1922, in. The crowd at the station was Dr. Dodd, in a letter to the mission from Charles W. Fowle, the foreign large and many of those awaiting the headquarters in New York added his secretary of Near East Relief, to arrival of the train were waiting to impressions: “It was a trip with a good Wilbur J. Carr, director of Consular get news of relatives or friends who many sensations and some vivid men- Services, reads: had been in Urmia. Consequently, tal pictures. One of the latter was of “We understand that Mr. Gordon many of the greetings were smoth- Old Glory rippling out bravely over a Paddock, who has been American ered in tears of joy, but not a few swaying and jolting Ford touring car, consul at Tabriz, Persia, for such a who hoped for a joyful reunion surrounded by the tossing sea of a long period, is on his way home and turned back from the train with tears hundred-odd tasseled turbans of the should arrive shortly in this country. of sorrow. wild Kurdish horsemen who were Because of the close connection “It was a great privilege to have escorting the consul in state to their which Mr. Paddock has had with the had even a small share in so great siege headquarters just outside of work of Near East Relief and the and successful an undertaking, and Urmia. Another is of six hundred very valuable assistance which he now that it is all over I can say that I huddled, terrified women and chil- has rendered to us and other have never before seen so complex a dren filing out of the Urmia gover- American interests in his district, we plan and so large an undertaking put nor’s yard in the face of a huge crowd are extremely anxious to get in touch through in Persia with so little delay of Muslim spectators swarming over with him promptly on his arrival for and so little ‘hitch’ as this one was. the streets, walls, roofs, and trees … conference, and also to express our

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deep appreciation of his services.” “I beg to say that a careful exami- cers of Class VI of consuls he is There is little evidence in the nation has been made of the work of numbered 81 in a total of 95.” archives to suggest that these reports Mr. Paddock. ... Unless in the future But the Secretary of State’s letter of Paddock’s actions ever reached Mr. Paddock should show greater went on to say, “The inspection of the higher echelons of the depart- ability in the performance of strictly his record, however, has developed ment or the White House. Indeed, consular duties than he has shown in other facts which I feel should be the Department of State, apparently the past there would appear to be lit- brought to your attention.” The let- unaware that Paddock was on his tle likelihood that he could properly ter noted that Paddock’s original way home at the time, replied to be advanced to a higher position in appointment had been to the Near East Relief on Feb. 7 that his the Consular Service.” (At that time, Diplomatic Service and observed: “whereabouts were unknown.” It before the Rogers Act of 1924, the “His activities in behalf of American was not until Mrs. Shedd made con- Consular and Diplomatic Services interests, including those of the tact with her first cousin, General were separate.) interests of American missionaries in Charles G. Dawes (then director of Attached to the letter was the fol- Persia and also in the protection of the Bureau of the Budget and later lowing evaluation of Paddock’s work: British and other foreign interests in Calvin Coolidge’s vice president) “Careful consideration of his entire his care, have been highly com- that higher officials took notice. record indicates that Mr. Paddock is mendable. In view of these consid- At least partly due to her efforts, regarded as possessing good political erations, which we put before you on May 19, 1922, President Warren and diplomatic ability but that he when you wrote your letter of May Harding addressed a letter to has poor ability as an executive and 19, it occurs to me that you might Secretary of State Charles Evan on commercial and general consular feel disposed to transfer Mr. Hughes, expressing the interest of work. His rating for efficiency as a Paddock to a secretaryship in the Gen. Dawes in the “advancement of consular officer upon all phases of Diplomatic Service. …” Mr. Gordon Paddock.” The Secretary his work is ‘fair’ and in the order of On June 23, 1922, a reply from of State replied on June 2: relative efficiency to the other offi- President Harding to Secretary Hughes

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duly referred to the “transfer of Mr. intention — to America at that time. Gordon Paddock from the Consular The route via the Caucasus was then Service to be [a second secretary] in the Paddock covered open and comparatively direct and Diplomatic Service,” and said: “In inexpensive. accordance with your letter I have himself with glory in “In the spring of 1919, conditions signed the executive order making pos- at Tabriz, where I had returned in sible his transfer and have forwarded his negotiations with January, again became disturbed and his nomination to the Senate. I hope, Christians at the American mission after Mr. Paddock’s nomination is con- the governor. at Urmia were massacred and the firmed, that friendly consideration will mission property looted. I was be given to him in making his assign- instructed by the department to ment. Apparently he has rendered a open an official investigation of this long and faithful service without oppor- affair, which again made it impossi- tunity for any showing in the making of ble for me to leave Tabriz. In the a record, and I would like his fidelity to spring of 1920, a combined Bolshe- find a way open to reward if such a another branch of the service and vik and Turkish invasion of north- thing is possible.” assigned to the department. While I west Persia was threatened and the fear there can be little question following summer and autumn, the A Tale of Woe about the form of my original appli- situation became so serious that all Once admitted to the Diplomatic cation and the department’s reply, the foreign colonies evacuated Tabriz. Service, Paddock reportedly requested the circumstances under which I left “On Dec. 14, 1920, the situation assignment to Paris but was, instead, Persia and came here are such, I was such as to warrant my withdraw- assigned to Belgrade. But what pre- believe, as to permit me to hope that al to Tehran, where, on my arrival, I occupied him most upon his return I may not be deprived of transporta- found all European families were to Washington was the question of tion through a technicality. preparing for immediate withdrawal. reimbursement for his travel back “In support of this I mention the The British had given notice of with- from Tabriz. (He had reached the following: drawal of their forces from Persia, United States on the S.S. Olympic “1. I have been absent from and it was generally supposed that a on March 22, 1922. Because he had America in foreign service in distant Bolshevik force then at Resht would returned on “leave of absence” countries for over 20 years, during occupy Tehran. Under these condi- rather than home leave, he was not which time I never asked for leave of tions I arranged that my wife should automatically entitled to reimburse- absence, transfer or other privileges. accompany the family of the ment for his transportation expens- “2. I served for 11 years in Persia, American minister to France, but es.) of which 10 were in Tabriz, where that I should remain with the minis- His first recorded meeting at the conditions were such as to impose a ter as long as I could be of service. I Department of State was on Aug. 4, really serious strain on one’s physical then applied for leave to return to after which he wrote the following and nervous condition. In 1918, I America, which appeared to be the letter to Wilbur J. Carr, director of was forced on the Turkish occupa- only logical thing to do in case I were Consular Services: tion of Tabriz to withdraw the con- compelled to leave Tehran and “You were kind enough yesterday sulate to Kazvin for seven months, Persia, and in view of the fact that I to say that I might give you a memo- and while there was requested by was away from and could not return randum regarding the question of Dr. H.P. Judson (acting — as I was to my post at Tabriz. I did not at that my transportation from Persia. given to understand — with the time know of the regulations as to “I understood you to say that it approval of the department) to orga- transportation when on leave, but depends on whether my request for nize relief work of the American- supposed that if upon my arrival in permission to come to America and Persian Relief Commission on my America I were transferred to anoth- the authorization to do so are on return to Tabriz. This proved to be a er post, I should at least receive record in such form as to make it very considerable undertaking, transportation between Tehran and impossible to overcome the techni- which demanded a good deal of my such post. cal obstacles that I have returned ‘on attention in an advisory way for sev- “3. As the Bolshevik invasion did leave of absence;’ in spite of the fact eral months, and made it impossible not materialize, it was unnecessary that I have been transferred to for me to return — as had been my for me to leave Persia, but I could

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not return to my post at Tabriz. I accordingly remained at Tehran, where I conducted the work of both “[Paddock’s] activities in consulates until the arrival of my successor as consul there. In the behalf of American meantime, I found that the strain of my past years had begun to tell so interests have been upon my health that I consulted Dr. McDowell of the American Hospital highly commendable.” at Tehran, a copy of whose certificate (which I think I showed you — Secretary of State heretofore) is enclosed herewith. I Charles Evan Hughes believe it will be appreciated from this that I could not have thought of returning to Tabriz, even if it had been possible, and that it would have been undesirable for me to attempt to remain in Persia. Accordingly, without further explanation, which I already informed of the matters believe unnecessary, I requested to mentioned I present it only as a be allowed to avail myself of my pre- memorandum. As I cannot believe vious permission, which had been that I should be required to suffer granted in February 1921. I left in from the form in which my applica- December 1921. tion was presented, if otherwise “4. The only route available at the entitled to transportation, I venture time of my departure was via to ask you for such assistance in the Baghdad, Bombay, etc.; a very round- matter as you may think proper.” about and consequently expensive On Aug. 22, 1922, Carr replied: trip; the expense of which I should “With reference to the possibility of not have felt justified if my object had the payment of your transportation been merely a trip to America for my on your recent trip from Persia to personal pleasure. the United States, I have had this “5. On leaving Tabriz in Decem- matter looked into … and, while I ber 1920, I was forced to ship to appreciate your position in the mat- America such articles as were suffi- ter, I regret that it is not feasible to ciently valuable and transportable, consider the matter favorably.” for it did not seem that they could be Four months later, on Dec. 18, safely left at Tabriz and there was no 1922, Paddock, still in Washington, other place of safety to which I could wrote his final memorandum to the send them. It seems to me that Secretary of State, again setting under the circumstances this is cer- forth the circumstances of his depar- tainly a proper official charge. Most ture from Persia and his transporta- of my belongings were, of course, tion to the United States. The left at the consulate at Tabriz, where archives contain no indication that someday they may, or may not, be he ever received a reply or that he recoverable, but having twice fur- was ever reimbursed for his trans- nished the private living quarters of portation. the consulate, I am not too sanguine According to the best available about ever receiving either the arti- information, Paddock was eventually cles or their value. assigned to Paris, from which post “I feel that this is a very inade- he retired to live in France until his quate statement, but as you are death (date unknown). I

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BOOKS

Lessons Yet Arndt concedes that many Ameri- Arndt, a retired cans doubt the utility of cultural Unlearned engagement because of the difficul- USIA officer, ty of assessing its “value.” But how The First Resort of Kings: is refreshingly blunt do you measure the impact of expe- American Cultural Diplomacy about the disdain riencing Louis Armstrong jamming, seeing Twyla Tharp dancing, or in the Twentieth Century with which the Richard T. Arndt, Potomac Books, studying in a U.S. university? In 2005, $45.00, hardcover, 556 pages. Foreign Service fact, America stands alone in seeking community quantifiable results from such REVIEWED BY CYNTHIA P. endeavors; other countries, notably SCHNEIDER traditionally has postwar France and Germany, have regarded cultural taken for granted the critical role of Richard B. Arndt’s The First diplomacy. cultural expression and relations, Resort of Kings: American Cultural both in communicating about them- Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century, selves and in understanding others. the product of more than a decade’s u Arndt, a retired USIA officer, is work, could not be more timely. Had refreshingly blunt about the disdain its lessons on “best practices” (and with which the Foreign Service worst) in cultural diplomacy only community traditionally has regard- been heeded, we might well have his narrative thoughtful discussions ed cultural diplomacy. I experi- averted failures in our recent public of key themes, including the tension enced this attitude first-hand in diplomacy initiatives, documented between long-term and short-term 1998 as ambassador to the Nether- in so many recent studies. goals and results; Americans’ historic lands, when my public affairs officer Instead, U.S. policy-makers have ambivalence about the role of the proudly told me, “We don’t do cul- repeatedly committed many of the intelligentsia; and the perpetual ture; we do policy.” (This was in line mistakes Arndt catalogs here: con- debate within the government about with the prevailing USIA orthodoxy fusing diplomacy with advertising, where the institutional responsibility of the 1990s that “policy,” with sup- appealing only to one sector of the for cultural diplomacy belongs. posedly more measurable results, targeted population (i.e., youth), and Consider the distinction between had more value than cultural affairs.) ignoring the intelligentsia and opin- propaganda and cultural diplomacy. She looked utterly baffled when I ion leaders. These are not new Arndt reminds us that, as Charles explained that with everyone else in problems by any means, but they Thompson commented in the 1940s, the embassy doing policy, I wanted have undermined our intense efforts “The technique of propaganda is some people working on culture, since 9/11 to attain the “respect and generally similar to advertising; it too! praise” of the world, to use Thomas seeks to impress, to ‘press in.’ The One of the most bittersweet as- Jefferson’s words. technique of cultural relations is that pects of Arndt’s narrative is the con- As he skillfully chronicles the ups of education … to ‘lead out’ … [Its] trast between the almost miraculous and downs of cultural diplomacy goal is something deeper and more success of so many cultural diploma- over the past century, Arndt leaves lasting, the creation of a state of cy initiatives, carried out by dedicat- no doubt that he views its overall mind properly called ‘understand- ed cultural affairs officers on a shoe- course as a decline. He weaves into ing.’” string budget, and the gradual dis-

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B OOKS u

mantling of cultural diplomacy. played an unhelpful, even malign (Both political parties share respon- role. The French National Assembly sibility for this state of affairs, for it even went so far as to issue a report was in 1999, during the Clinton With welcome candor, proclaiming that “American links to administration, that the United States Uganda and the RPA lay somehow at Information Agency was absorbed Gribbin concedes that the heart of the tragedy.” into the State Department.) For his part, Gribbin dismisses If Karen Hughes, State’s new neither he nor other Operation Turquoise, the belated under secretary for public diplomacy, French intervention in southwest reads this beautifully written book, diplomatic experts on the Rwanda of June 1994, as having had she will see that successful public little impact on ending the genocide diplomacy lies not in promoting region foresaw the (which was already winding down by democracy, but in allowing others to then) and as allowing Hutu forces to experience freedom of thought Rwandan holocaust. escape into Zaire. As he scathingly through the strength and diversity of notes, “less pretension and more creative expression in America. We honesty would serve [France] — do not need to reinvent the wheel. and history — well.” Rather, we need both to “tell Gribbin concedes that neither he America’s story” (in Edward R. nor other diplomatic experts on the Murrow’s phrase) and to listen to the Tutsis and “moderate” Hutus, re- region foresaw the Rwandan holo- stories of other nations. mains a major blot on the record of caust. He also acknowledges his the Clinton administration. In the error in assuming that the Rwandan Cynthia P. Schneider is a Distinguish- Aftermath of Genocide: The U.S. Role government that took power followed Professor in the Practice of Diplo- in Rwanda, published under the aus- ing the genocide would not carry out macy in the School of Foreign Service, pices of the Association for Diplo- long-term military operations along- and the Pfizer Medical Humanities matic Studies and Training, is a major side rebel soldiers in the Democratic Initiative Fellow in Residence at the contribution to understanding that Republic of the Congo — formerly Public Policy Institute, both at George- holocaust and its aftermath. Zaire — whither the Hutu hard-lin- town University, where previously she Robert Gribbin has spent many ers had fled. (In fact, that support was an associate professor of art histo- years in East and Central Africa, first enabled Laurent Kabila to seize ry. She was appointed by Presi- as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then power in Kinshasa in 1997.) Such dent Clinton to serve as U.S. ambas- as a diplomat fanatically committed to welcome candor lends even more sador to the Netherlands (1998-2001). in-country travel. While he was not in credibility to his well-documented Kigali during the actual genocide, he case that the U.S. provided no assis- had three directly related Foreign tance to Kabila or the forces sup- Service assignments, as Rwanda desk porting him, despite numerous Lest We Forget officer (1977-1979), deputy chief of accusations and press accounts to mission (1979-1981) and as ambas- the contrary emanating from France In the Aftermath of Genocide: sador (1995-1999). and other quarters. The U.S. Role in Rwanda As Gribbin documents, the fact Gribbin also aims heavy artillery Robert E. Gribbin, iUniverse, Inc., that Washington and Paris were at what he terms “the humanitarian 2005, $23.95, paperback, working at cross-purposes in Africa industrial complex” — the Office of 307 pages. hampered the international commu- the United Nations High Commis- nity’s ability to respond to the crisis. sioner for Refugees, the phalanx of REVIEWED BY DANE F. S MITH JR. Deeply disturbed by the ascendance NGOs concerned with refugees and of the Anglophone-led Tutsi rebel human rights, and their patrons in the Passivity in the face of the 1994 force (the Rwandan Patriotic Army) Department of State. His unhappi- Rwanda genocide, in which Hutu over the Francophone Hutu regime ness stems from the unwillingness extremists slaughtered over 800,000 committing the slaughter, France of the “complex” to work harder to

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facilitate the repatriation of Hutu refugees in the Congo, rooted in a failure to understand that these unhappy victims were not being permitted to return to Rwanda by the leaders who controlled their camps. The magnitude of that mis- judgment was exposed when more than 600,000 Hutus cascaded back into Rwanda in four days in Novem- ber 1996, once Kabila and his Rwandan allies had broken the hard-liners’ grasp. (The generally successful Rwandan reabsorption of these refugees marked one of the signal achievements of the Tutsi-led government of Paul Kagame.) At times, the dual approach of interspersing a personal account of the author’s time in the region into chapters of detailed policy analysis leads to a loss of focus. For example, a brief chapter on a visit to the mountain gorillas and the fate of the family dogs, while presumably intended to give the reader a break, interrupts the flow between analysis of the justice system for genocide perpetrators and the refugee problem. (Then again, perhaps that is inevitable in a work which forms part of an ADST series of “memoirs and occasional papers.”) I also found Gribbin’s final “reflections” duplica- tive of conclusions clear from a narrative already rich in analysis. However, these are small flaws in a thoroughly readable account, interesting in its detail and incisive on the issues. It should be required reading for all students of Africa’s Great Lakes region and the general subject of genocide. I

Retired FSO Dane F. Smith Jr. served as ambassador in Senegal and Guinea, and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Ameri- can University.

68 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

IN MEMORY

Richard Morton Albaugh, 83, a Third U.S. Diplomat Killed in Iraq retired Foreign Service reserve officer, died July 2 in Jasper, Ind., from Stephen Eric Sullivan, 40, a the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as a complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Diplomatic Security special agent, field radio operator. In 1992 he He had been at a nursing home there was killed Sept. 19 in Mosul, when a earned a bachelor’s degree in crimi- for two and one-half years. car bomb destroyed his vehicle. He nal justice from Westfield State During World War II Mr. Albaugh is the third U.S. diplomat to be College, and the following year served with the Army in southwestern killed in the line of duty since the joined the Navy, where he served as China. While in Shanghai, he joined 2003 invasion of Iraq. a hospital corpsman and became a the Foreign Service. His subsequent “Steve Sullivan died in service of nationally registered emergency posts included Taiwan, Japan, France, his country and for the cause of medical technician. Sullivan also Ethiopia, Norway, Afghanistan and democracy and freedom. There is worked with at-risk youth at the Washington, D.C. He retired in 1976. no more noble a sacrifice,” Secre- San Diego Job Corps Center and Following retirement, Mr. Albaugh tary of State Condoleezza Rice said was a residential adviser to children and his family moved to a farm near Sept. 20. “Our thoughts and prayers with special needs for the Devereux the town of Shoals in Martin County, are with Steve’s family. We grieve Foundation in Rutland, Mass. In Indiana, that had been in his family with them in their loss and stand 2002, while working part-time at since the 1830s. Mr. Albaugh re- with them at this difficult time.” the Pepsi Bottling Group, he earn- stored the homestead, built in 1835, “This is a loss for Secretary Rice, ed a master’s degree in forensic and operated the farm. He also for me personally, for all of Steve’s science. enjoyed traveling and golf. colleagues here at the State Depart- Mr. Sullivan joined the Diplo- Mr. Albaugh is survived by his wife ment and in Iraq, and most pro- matic Security branch of the For- of 52 years, Kay, who resides on the foundly, for his family,” Assistant eign Service in 2002. After service farm, and three children, Jane Secretary of State for Diplomatic in the Miami Field Office, he was Albaugh of Vincennes, Ind., Hough- Security Richard J. Griffin said in an posted to Kabul as assistant regional ton Albaugh of Arlington, Va., and official message. “Special Agent security officer in 2004. Following Charles Albaugh of Columbia, Md. Sullivan’s career exemplified cour- service in Kabul, he volunteered for age, bravery and commitment.” the same position in Iraq, and was Mr. Sullivan was born and raised assigned to Baghdad. He was on u in Westborough, Mass. A 1983 temporary duty as acting RSO in Mrs. Frances Blancké, 86, a for- graduate of Westborough High Mosul at the time of the tragedy. mer employee of the Department of School, he was a member of the Survivors include a son, Kraig State and the Central Intelligence football team. Jan Gebo, his coach, Robert Sullivan; his parents, Mr. Agency, and the widow of the late remembers Sullivan fondly as “an and Mrs. Robert Irvine Sullivan of Foreign Service officer and ambas- American hero … a classy individual Westborough, Mass.; and two sis- sador Wilton Wendell Blancké, died and a gentleman — a model citi- ters, Erin Marie Sullivan and July 18 in Washington, D.C., follow- zen.” Shauna Grace Oliveri, both of ing a heart attack. Following high school, he joined Massachusetts. Mrs. Blancké was born in the Philippines to American parents.

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She was raised in the U.S. and grad- from Lebanon and on the creation of Service award for high achievement; uated from the University of Calif- security arrangements near Israel’s the Wilbur J. Carr Award for distin- ornia at Berkeley in 1940. She then northern border. guished service from the State Depart- joined the State Department as a Amb. Draper handled many of the ment; and the Order of the Cedar secretary. Her first posting was to day-to-day details of shuttle diploma- from the Lebanese government. Stockholm; in 1945, she was trans- cy during the Middle East assign- His marriage to Nancy Moyer ferred to Berlin. There she joined ment. He also participated in talks Draper ended in divorce. the CIA, working in Berlin and, that led the late Yasser Arafat, then the Survivors include his second wife, later, in Washington, D.C. leader of the Palestine Liberation Roberta Hornig Draper of Washing- In 1952 in Saigon, she married Organization, to move to Tunisia dur- ton, D.C.; three children from his FSO Wilton Blancké, then serving as ing that period, and helped negotiate first marriage, Courtney Draper Geer a consul in Hanoi. She accompanied the ceasefire between Israel and the of Richmond, Va., Blair A. Draper of her husband in Vientiane (1955- PLO that lasted from July 1981 to Denver, Colo., and Jonathan M. 1957) and Frankfurt (1957-1960). June 1982. These negotiations also Draper of Cleveland, Tenn.; four In 1960, when Mr. Blancké was produced the fragile May 17, 1983, grandchildren; and a brother. appointed ambassador to the Re- agreement between Israel and Leb- public of the Congo, she joined him anon to begin the withdrawal of for- in Brazzaville and traveled with him eign forces from Beirut (which, how- u as he presented his credentials to ever, faltered due to Syria’s unwilling- Norman H. Frisbie, 74, a retired Chad, Gabon and the Central African ness to withdraw). Senior Foreign Service officer, died Republic — the other newly-inde- Amb. Draper was a native of June 18 in Vienna, of a heart attack. pendent states to which he was the Berkeley, Calif. He graduated Phi Born in Wakefield, Mass., Mr. first accredited American ambas- Beta Kappa from the University of Frisbie grew up in New Bedford and sador. They returned to Wash- Southern California, and served in graduated from the University of ington, D.C., in 1964, and in 1965 the Army for two years. After joining Massachusetts in 1959 with a degree in were assigned to Monterrey. the Foreign Service, he pursued political science. He interspersed his Ambassador Blancké retired in Middle East graduate studies in college career with stints in U.S. Army 1968, and the couple settled in Beirut and learned to speak Arabic intelligence at Fort Holabird in Washington, D.C. Amb. Blancké and French, as well as some Spanish, Baltimore, and in France and Ger- died in 1971. Turkish and Hebrew. many, where he worked on Eastern Mrs. Blancké worked for many In the late 1970s, he participated European refugee resettlement. years for Recordings for the Blind. in the Camp David peace accords During his Foreign Service career, She is survived by a brother and sister. and in the Israel-Egypt peace treaty Mr. Frisbie served in Manchester, negotiations that followed. Frankfurt, Warsaw, Poznan, Maseru, Amb. Draper served as consul Prague, Nairobi and Munich, accom- u general in Jerusalem and deputy panied by his first wife, Arlene Morris Draper, 77, a retired assistant secretary of State for Near Couillard Frisbie of Gardner, Mass. FSO and former special envoy with Eastern and South Asian affairs. He (She died in 2000.) His final three ambassadorial rank, died April 15 at also held posts in Jordan, Turkey, tours were in Brussels, Vienna the Washington Home hospice cen- Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Singa- (UNVIE) and Antananarivo, the latter. He had lung cancer. pore. In his last State Department ter two as DCM. He was accompa- A career diplomat for 35 years, assignment, he spoke on college cam- nied by his second wife, Evelyn Ambassador Draper served as Presi- puses across the country urging stu- Eckl-Frisbie of Vienna. dent Ronald Reagan’s special envoy dents to consider the Foreign Service After retiring to Vienna in 1991, to the Middle East during the as a career. He retired in 1990. he became an accomplished cook, Lebanon crisis from 1981 to 1983. Amb. Draper received numerous much to the delight of his family and There he worked closely with U.S. honors, including the President’s friends. He returned frequently to special emissary Philip C. Habib to Distinguished Service Award. He was his beloved state of Vermont to visit negotiate the pullback of Israeli, also given an Award for Valor for his and care for his elderly parents. Syrian and Palestinian military forces service in Amman; a special Foreign Memorial services were held in

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June in Vienna at both the Otta- Belgium, on July 19. After some years in Italy, and brief kringer Cemetery and the neighbor- Born in Korea of American med- stays in Luxembourg and London, she hood St. Josef zu Margareten church, ical missionary parents, Mrs. Johan- spent 10 years in Maine before moving the same church in which Franz sen returned to the U.S. at the age of to Belgium to be near her daughter. Schubert was eulogized. 17. She earned a B.A. in English from Mrs. Johansen is survived by her Norman Frisbie is survived by his the University of Oregon before going daughter, Karin Johansen Adam of wife, Evelyn, and children, Michelle to Syracuse University, where she Lasne, Belgium; four granddaughters; Frisbie-Fulton of Newport, R.I., and obtained her master’s degree, also in and two grandsons, sons of her late Russell Frisbie, an FSO serving in San English. son, Rolff Johansen. Jose. He is also deeply missed by his She returned to the Far East as a four grandchildren, Seth and Gwen teacher and worked in Korea and Frisbie-Fulton of Philadelphia and Japan, where she met her future hus- u Indianapolis, respectively, and Claire band, Foreign Service officer Beppo David Everett Mark, 81, a and Margaret Frisbie of New York Johansen. They were married in retired FSO and former ambassador, City and Charlottesville, Va. Harbin, Manchuria, in 1939. Upon died Sept. 17 while on vacation in Mr. Johansen’s death in Japan in 1946, northern Montana. she joined the Foreign Service herself. David Mark was born in New u Mrs. Johansen was posted to Tokyo, York City on Nov. 15, 1923, to Leslie Lucy (Penny) Norton Johansen, Zurich, Montreal, Turin and Florence, Mark and Lena Tyor Mark. He 95, a retired Foreign Service officer, where she experienced the flood of graduated from Columbia Univer- died of a brain hemorrhage in Lasne, 1966, and where she retired in 1969. sity and, while serving in the Army

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Air Corps during World War II, Apple Greeter organization, he con- He taught at USC from 1947 to 1948. completed his studies at Columbia tinued to be an ambassador for our Mr. McCaskill joined the State Law School. He joined the Foreign country to the rest of the world. The Department in 1950, and first served Service in 1946. relief and the joy that visitors felt when as a visa officer in Frankfurt. He Ambassador Mark served in South Amb. Mark spoke to them, in their returned to State in 1951, and in 1956 Korea, Finland, Romania and Mos- own language, was a gift never to be received his commission as an FSO, cow during the 1950s. He met his forgotten,” recalls Carolyn Stone, for- after which he was detailed to Prince- wife, Elisabeth Lewis Mark, in Mos- mer director of marketing and public ton for Greek language and area stud- cow in 1958, where she headed the relations at Big Apple Greeters. “I ies training. In 1957 he was posted Anglo-American Elementary School. believe that the personal good will he to Salonika as a political officer, They married in Washington, D.C., in spread around the globe has been a and three years later transferred to 1959 and moved to Geneva, where great benefit to all New Yorkers and all Nicosia as an economic officer (1960- Amb. Mark joined the delegation to Americans. He made us all look good: 1964). He returned to Washington in the Test Ban Treaty negotiations. In kind, helpful, intelligent, educated, 1964 as desk officer for Cyprus. He the early 1960s, he was assigned to articulate and accomplished.” later served as political officer in Washington, D.C., as deputy head of Amb. Mark also taught a variety of Tehran from 1968 to 1972, as senior the Intelligence and Research Bureau, courses as an adjunct professor of political officer in Bombay (1972- and served in that capacity until his global affairs at New York University. 1975) and consul general in Madras appointment as ambassador to Burun- He is survived by his wife Elisabeth (1975-1978). His final overseas post- di in 1974. From 1979 to 1981 he Mark of Leawood, Kan.; his children, ing, from 1978 to 1982, was in Athens. returned to Washington to serve as Leslie Mark and Mark Eisemann of Survivors include his wife of 58 deputy assistant secretary of State. Leawood, Kan., Andrea and Adam years, Jacqueline H. McCaskill of After retirement in 1981, he consulted Chiou of Fairfax, Va., and Clayton and Springfield, Va.; two sons, Charles W. on international affairs for Alcoa in Lisa Mark of Overland Park, Kan.; a McCaskill Jr. of Vienna, Va., and Pittsburgh, Pa. niece, Elena Nantz Strunk; and seven Stephen H. McCaskill of Richmond, A gifted linguist, Amb. Mark spoke grandchildren, Emma, Noah and Va.; and one grandson. fluent Russian, German and French, Joshua Eisemann, Christie and Eric and was conversant in Portuguese, Chiou, and Olivia and Diana Mark. Spanish, Italian and Japanese. With The family suggests donations in u the break-up of the Soviet Union and his memory be made to Big Apple Frank Charles Strovas, 67, a the dearth of Russian linguists, he was Greeters, the Center for Global retired FSO, died Aug. 13 of pancre- asked to help establish the American Affairs at NYU’s School of Continu- atic cancer at his home in Somerset embassy in the former Soviet repub- ing and Professional Studies, or the West, South Africa. lic of Georgia. He returned to Tbilisi Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Strovas was born in Oak Creek, in 1992 to assist the Georgians in Colo., into a small community of writing their constitution. immigrants who came to America to During the 1990s until his death, u escape the economic hardships in Amb. Mark was an active member of Charles W. McCaskill, 82, a Europe. His parents had roots in Slo- the Council on Foreign Relations in retired Foreign Service officer, died venia, a Slavic enclave within the for- New York City. He also volunteered Aug. 13 at the Greenspring Retire- mer Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ini- every week for nine years as a guide ment Home in Springfield, Va., where tially coal miners, his grandfathers and and translator for Big Apple Greeters he lived. He had Parkinson’s disease. his father and uncles worked hard and of New York, and worked full-time as Born in Camden, S.C., Mr. prospered. a licensed New York City tour guide McCaskill served in the Army in An excellent student, Mr. Strovas for Gray Line, sharing his love for the World War II. After graduating from was awarded a scholarship that enabled city with thousands of tourists each The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., he him to continue higher education. He year in a number of languages. received a master’s degree in history graduated from the University of “He won the heart of every visitor and political science from the Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in he met or spoke with. At the Big University of South Carolina in 1950. journalism. He worked as a newspaper

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reporter for six months in Pueblo, During the apartheid era, American Special Forces in Fort Bragg; and for a Colo., and then joined the army and cultural centers were often the only final assignment to Pretoria before his was stationed in Germany. After three place where black performers had a retirement in 1994. years of military service, he returned to chance to play before mixed-race Mr. Strovas spoke French and the University of Colorado and earned audiences, and many local musicians Afrikaans, and he and his wife studied a master’s degree in politics. got a start there. Moreover, the homes Slovene and Romanian together. In 1967, Mr. Strovas joined the of American diplomats such as Mr. Following retirement, attracted to Foreign Service as a USIA officer. His Strovas were also the only places the beautiful Cape Winelands area of distinguished career was spent mostly where English and Afrikaans journal- South Africa, Mr. and Mrs. Strovas in Africa: he was posted to Ghana, ists from opposing sides of the political settled in Somerset West. They also Mali, Togo, South Africa and Cote spectrum mingled and debated with bought a home on Amelia Island in d’Ivoire. He came to know the conti- each other as well as with black news- Florida, with the idea of dividing their nent very well, and had a particularly papermen such as Percy Qoboza, then time between the two countries. In in-depth knowledge of South Africa, editor of The Sowetan. 2002, Mr. Strovas was diagnosed with where he served in three diplomatic In 1977, Mr. Strovas married South cancer. postings. There, Mr. Strovas enjoyed African journalist Cynthia Edwards in Survivors include his wife Cynthia the opportunity his position at the Washington, D.C. She accompanied of Somerset West, South Africa, and embassy gave him to promote writers, him on assignments to Ljubljana, sisters Valmarie Leonard of Salt Lake artists and musicians and to arrange Johannesburg, Bucharest and Riyadh; City, Utah, and Dottie Engberg of Ft. cultural and educational exchanges. on a civilian posting as adviser to the Lauderdale, Fla. I

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NOVEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 79 REFLECTIONS Beans Love Cilantro

BY DONNA SCARAMASTRA GORMAN

“Lobio liubit kinzu.” praised her soup and begged for the That’s the one piece of cooking recipe. Each time she said she’d show advice Elmira gave me: Beans love She held my infant me how to make it the next time. But cilantro. I tried to learn. I watched son and kissed him, every day when I came home from over her shoulder as she worked her just like a grandma. work, the soup was finished already, magic, and occasionally she’d let me warming on the stove while she waited knead the dough, stir the sauce, peer eagerly for my opinion. into the pot. But she didn’t want me to Slowly, she became part of our learn, not really. Cooking was her joy, school, after all. Every day she family. My own mother was far away her talent — her way into other hearts. showed up early to wash, to iron, to in the States, so Elmira took over. She I hired Elmira as my housekeeper scrub, and not once did she complain. criticized my hair. She held my infant when I moved to Armenia. I needed At first, I stumbled around hope- son and kissed him, just like a grand- the help and she didn’t look like she’d lessly in my kitchen. I was trying to ma. She worried about me if I drove take no for an answer. Tiny, birdlike, figure out how to make the recipes my in the snow or came home late. And in her mid-fifties, with gray hair and family liked with Armenian ingredi- always, always, there was that soup. hungry eyes, she showed up for the ents. Pizza wouldn’t work without She loved us all with a love as fierce as interview dressed to work. mozzarella. There isn’t a word for a mother’s, and she labored over her I only learned her background “tofu” in Armenian. As I puttered in soup in an effort to make sure we were months later. Elmira was an engineer my kitchen, reading cookbooks and warm, well-fed and content. who’d fallen on hard times after the muttering to myself, she’d often pass Our year in Armenia passed quick- collapse of the Soviet Union. First she through and steal a glance with hawk- ly. Sooner than soon, the State lost her job (or rather, they stopped like eyes. Every so often she’d offer to Department was ready to send us on paying her). Then, one dreadful win- cut, slice or shred. Over time she to Kazakhstan. Elmira fretted and ter night, her apartment burned began to ask questions about what I grieved for us. She flapped her arms, down. Her husband couldn’t handle was making. And she started to make distraught, and asked if there wasn’t the stress, so he took to his bed. suggestions when I was at a loss for an some way we could stay. I wished we Elmira was left to raise her two chil- ingredient. could. But when you’re a diplomat, dren and care for her husband. When One day she showed up with fresh you go where they tell you to go and she found out there were jobs cleaning beets and offered to make borscht. you don’t question the timing. I houses for Westerners, she swallowed “No one makes borscht better than begged her to give me her recipes her pride and picked up a toilet brush. me,” she proudly announced. I’d had before I left, but she insisted I already She had a son to put through medical a long day at work, so I gratefully knew how to make them all. “Just accepted. And what do you know? remember: Beans love cilantro.” Donna Scaramastra Gorman is a free- She was right: her borscht was divine. Beans love cilantro. But my soups lance writer whose work has been The next day she showed up with cau- just aren’t the same. I stand in my published in the Washington Post and liflower and that night we feasted on kitchen here in Kazakhstan, stirring the Seattle Times. She has accompa- cauliflower soup — not a heavy, my soup and thinking back to my days nied her RSO husband on assign- cream-laden soup, but light and full of in Armenia, with Elmira fussing in our ments to Moscow, Yerevan and vegetables. The next day she made a kitchen. I miss that soup. I miss Almaty. The stamp is courtesy of the spicy lentil soup with cilantro, and the Armenia. I miss Elmira. I guess that’s AAFSW Bookfair “Stamp Corner.” next, yellow split-pea. Each time I what she really wanted, anyway. n

80 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 2005

AFSAAmerican Foreign ServiceNEWS Association • November 2005

WE ASKED, YOU ANSWERED Online Opinion Poll Shapes Inside This Issue: AFSA Agenda BRIEFS: AGGELER ...... 2 BY STEVE KASHKETT, AFSA STATE VICE PRESIDENT STATE VP: FAMILY QUARREL ...... 3 USAID VP: MERGER RUMORS...... 4 very representative organization Service, conducted a Web-based electron- FAS VP: HUMAN CAPITAL...... 5 needs feedback from con- ic opinion poll of State Department MEMBER SURVEY: CHARTS...... 6 stituents as a reliable way to active-duty members in August and AAFSW...... 8 find out what its members are September. Almost 2,000 of you com- FS VOICE: PERMANENT E IMPERMANENCE...... 9 thinking. The new AFSA Governing pleted the survey — a remarkably high Board, as part of the process of defining response rate and a statistically conclu- our priorities and determining our posi- sive sample of the views of the roughly tions on key issues facing the Foreign Continued on page 6 FOREIGN SERVICE MEMBER KILLED IN IRAQ CALL FOR AFSA DISSENT AWARD NOMINATIONS 2006 AFSA Mourns Loss BY BARBARA BERGER, PROFESSIONAL ISSUES COORDINATOR of DS Agent

or 37 years, AFSA has sponsored a n Sept. 19, State Department program to recognize constructive Diplomatic Security Special Agent Fdissent and risk-taking in the OStephen Eric Sullivan, 40, was Foreign Service. The AFSA Dissent killed in the line of duty while serving on Awards are unique, because they are based a protective detail in Mosul. (See obitu- on integrity rather than performance. No ary, p. 69.) Sullivan died along with three other organization or agency in the U.S. American security contractors when government has a similar program. Each their vehicle was struck by a car bomb. He winner receives $2,500, presented at a spe- was the third Foreign Service member to cial ceremony in June in the Benjamin be killed in Iraq. Franklin Room at the State Department. AFSA is deeply saddened by the AFSA’s constructive dissent awards pro- death of Mr. Sullivan. In a press release vide a way to honor those Foreign Service on Sept. 20, AFSA President J. Anthony

professionals who demonstrate the integri- JOSH Holmes stated: “This tragic loss underlines ty, initiative and intellectual courage to chal- the mortal dangers faced by the men and lenge conventional wisdom, to question the agreement/dissent with State’s established women of the U.S. Foreign Service who status quo or suggest alternative courses of policies.) are working under the most extreme cir- action. (The Dissent Channel at State, first Hiram (“Harry”) Bingham IV was an cumstances to advance our nation’s vital proposed by AFSA, was created in 1971 as FSO who granted American entry visas, interests around the globe. On behalf of a formal mechanism for expressing dis- Continued on page 8 Continued on page 4

AFSANEWSBRIEFS Past Scholarship Recipient Gives Back In September, Stephen Hubler, an AFSA scholarship recipient himself from 1979 to 1983, established a $1,000 financial aid scholarship in memory of Dr. Annalena Tonelli. Tonelli founded and worked in a tuberculosis clinic in Somalia, and tragically died there in 2003. Hubler has chosen to give back to the AFSA Scholarship Program because of the benefits he received as a financially strapped student. It is Hubler’s hope that this scholarship will help a Foreign Service student whose career will have the same positive impact on the lives of others that Dr. Tonelli had. Hubler joined the Foreign Service in 1992 and is currently assigned to Embassy Skopje as political- economic chief. He previously served in Frankfurt, San Jose, Addis Ababa and Washington. This award will be bestowed on a Foreign Service child for undergraduate study. For information on how you can establish a scholarship in your name, in honor of another, or to commemorate a special event, please contact AFSA Scholarship Director Lori Dec at (202) 944-5504 or [email protected]. Legislative Action Fund Life in the Foreign Service Don’t forget to make your contribution to AFSA’s Legislative Action Fund. AFSA is the key organization I BY BRIAN AGGELER, FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER working full-time to protect and improve Foreign Service benefits, for both active employees and retirees. Please mail your contribution to: AFSA Legislative Action Fund, PO Box 98026, Washington DC 20090-8026, or go to the AFSA Web site at: www.afsa.org/lafform.cfm. Make checks payable to the AFSA Legislative Action Fund. Please support the LAF by giving generously. Katrina Relief for FCS Employees The Commerce Department has established a fund for US&FCS employees affected by Hurricane Katrina. All staff were evacuated from New Orleans and some lost their homes and all of their belongings. The fund will be administered through the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund. For information on how to donate, go to www.feea.org/give transfer.shtml and then “Click here to continue to the online donation page” and choose “Commerce Employees Fund.” Checks can be sent to FEEA Commerce Employees Fund, US&FCS participants, 8441 W. Bowles Ave., Suite 200, Littleton CO 80123-9501.

AFSA HEADQUARTERS: Staff: Governing Board:

s: (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: Bill Carter 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: Laura Scandurra USAID Senior Labor Management Adviser Douglas Broome: [email protected] RETIREE VICE PRESIDENT: David Reuther AFSA WEB SITE: www.afsa.org USAID Office Manager Asgeir Sigfusson: [email protected] SECRETARY: Tex Harris AFSA E-MAIL: [email protected] Grievance Attorneys Neera Parikh: [email protected] and AFSA NEWS: [email protected] Joe Slotnick: [email protected] TREASURER: Andrew Winter FSJ: [email protected] Office Manager Christine Warren: [email protected] STATE REPRESENTATIVES: Bradford Bell, PRESIDENT: [email protected] Member Services Brian Cook, Hugh Neighbour, Director Janet Hedrick: [email protected] STATE VP: [email protected] Alan Misenheimer, Joyce Namde, RETIREE VP: [email protected] Representative Cory Nishi: [email protected] Web site & Database Associate Meijing Shan: [email protected] James Roseli and Andrew Young USAID VP: [email protected] Administrative Assistant Ana Lopez: [email protected] FCS VP: [email protected] USAID REPRESENTATIVE: Francisco Zamora Outreach Programs FCS REPRESENTATIVE: William Center FAS VP: [email protected] Retiree Liaison Bonnie Brown: [email protected] w to Contact U Contact w to Director of Communications Thomas Switzer: [email protected] FAS REPRESENTATIVE: Mike Conlon AFSA News Congressional Affairs Director Ken Nakamura: [email protected] IBB REPRESENTATIVE: Sheldon Daitch Editor Shawn Dorman: [email protected] Corporate Relations/Executive Assistant Austin Tracy: [email protected] Scholarship Director Lori Dec: [email protected] RETIREE REPRESENTATIVES: Leonard J. Ho (202) 338-4045 x 503; Fax: (202) 338-8244 Professional Issues Coordinator Barbara Berger: [email protected] Baldyga, Roger Dankert, Larry Lesser and On the Web: www.afsa.org/news Retiree Recruitment Coordinator Norma Reyes: [email protected] Gilbert Sheinbaum Elderhostel Coordinator Janice Bay: [email protected]

2 AFSA NEWS • NOVEMBER 2005

V.P. VOICE: STATE I BY STEVE KASHKETT

A Painful Family Quarrel

FSA’s electronic opinion poll has revealed a deep and painful or as high-profile as Iraq and Afghanistan? divide within the Foreign Service family. A great many FS What about someone doing brilliant A employees serving all over the world have sent us comments work on vital policy issues in Cairo, Port- protesting that our colleagues who have volunteered to go to Iraq au-Prince, Moscow or even Washington, and Afghanistan are getting preferential treatment in promotions D.C.? Don’t these talented, dedicated FS employees deserve an and onward assignments with little regard for their performance. equal shot at promotion? Meanwhile, a handful of people currently serving in one of those Whether we like it or not, the reality is that promotions are a two war zones have responded by arguing that they deserve every zero-sum game. Especially at a time of tight budgets when most possible compensation and reward for living through the hell of of us would consider being posted in those places, which, as we all know, feature daily ourselves lucky to get hardships, deprivations and dangers that would get any other, less promoted after six or Everyone agrees that we in the politically symbolic post shut down immediately. seven years at grade — At the same time, AFSA continues to detect disturbing indi- and when the threat of Foreign Service must have a cations of the tremendous pressure being placed upon the direc- being “selected out” strictly merit-based promotion tor general and the human resources system to fill all the vacant remains very real — it positions in Iraq and Afghanistan, by whatever means and at what- is essential that promo- system. Okay, then: let’s ever cost is necessary. tion boards base their keep our promotions We in AFSA have the highest regard for our colleagues who decisions solely on the are willing and able to undertake this hazardous duty, and we believe skills and potential of based on merit. there should be extremely generous rewards for those who serve candidates reviewed in Iraq and Afghanistan. These rewards could and should include on a level playing field. any number of creative ideas, such as substantial extra pay, spe- Everyone agrees that we in the Foreign Service, like all feder- cial R&R arrangements, flexible accommodations for family vis- al employees, must have a strictly merit-based promotion system. its and home leave, departmental awards and fulfillment of vari- Okay, then: let’s keep our promotions based on merit, not on will- ous career development requirements. AFSA will continue to press ingness or availability to go to two particularly dangerous posts the department to increase these and other incentives, as well as that may happen to be politically sensitive at the moment. to take immediate action to improve the security, housing and qual- Similarly, the open assignments process is supposed to be a trans- ity of life at posts in those countries. parent exercise in identifying the best-qualified candidate for a par- What this hazardous service should not do, however, is hold ticular assignment. As the number of hardship posts increases out the promise to those people of special treatment for promo- and the number of “cushy” posts dwindles, it becomes all the more tions and onward assignments at the expense of everyone else in important for the system to show fairness and even-handedness the Foreign Service. We all compete for class-wide promotions in the assignments process. Willingness to volunteer for a year in on the basis of how well we perform over a multiyear period. AFSA Iraq does not necessarily make someone the best candidate with annually sits down with management to negotiate the precepts for the most appropriate skills for a particular onward assignment. promotion — precepts that attach central importance to those lead- Service there should not trump strong qualifications of other bid- ership, managerial, substantive, interpersonal and foreign language ders, especially those with a recent tour at a hardship post. skills that demonstrate one’s ability to thrive at a higher grade level This is a painful family quarrel. Most of us know people on and one’s potential to serve effectively as a more senior officer. both sides and can sympathize with the emotions of each. But Willingness and availability to go to Baghdad or Kabul for a year, the issue is not about whether or not there should be special recog- while commendable, tell us little about the skills that should qual- nition, incentives and rewards for our brave colleagues who serve ify an employee for promotion. in Iraq and Afghanistan; AFSA is firmly in favor of better incen- Giving special “promotion points” to those who serve in a few tives packages for them. It is about determining what are the most dangerous posts demeans the work being done by FS employees appropriate rewards that neither come at the expense of the rest everywhere else. What about the person performing superbly at of the hard-working Foreign Service, nor unfairly put everyone one of our many important hardship posts not quite as difficult else at a long-term disadvantage. J

NOVEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 3

Iraq • Continued from page 1 V.P. VOICE: USAID I BY BILL CARTER all his colleagues, I extend my heartfelt condolences to Mr. Sullivan’s family.” Merger Rumors Sullivan served in the U.S. Marine Corps and as a U.S. Navy Hospital he question asked most often this summer by visitors Corpsman before joining Diplomatic from overseas missions was: “What do you hear about Security in 2002. After service in the TUSAID’s merger with State?” They must think that Miami Field Office, he was posted to I am privy to discussions in the lofty corridors of power. I Kabul in 2004, serving as an Assistant am not. Even so, I have views and this space allows me to Regional Security Officer. Following his express them. service in Kabul, he volunteered to go to I (first-person singular and not AFSA) do not believe that it would be in the best Iraq as an assistant regional security offi- interest of long-term U.S. foreign policy if USAID were merged with State. There is still serious debate on whether it was wise to have merged USIA with State back in 1999. AFSA urges the U.S. government Some would argue that our public diplomacy function is far less potent and effective today than it was in the heady days when we were at the “end of history” and naively to continually review the concluded we no longer needed “vestiges” of the Cold War. One wonders, had USIA security arrangements not been disbanded, whether our image in the world would be better than it is. protecting our heroic colleagues Do healthy organizational tensions lead to and to provide them the fullest If a merger were to occur, better results? I contend they do. Once USIA officers were subsumed under the predomi- measure of resources and I fear that the development nant organization’s personnel system, there was protection possible. rationale would be on the no longer any reward for an opposing view. Future promotions and assignments could be losing side in every debate. jeopardized by nonconformity with per- cer in 2005. Based in Baghdad, he was ceived organizational orthodoxy. And so it on temporary assignment as the acting would be with USAID. Something could be regional security officer in Mosul when lost — something quite important. this tragedy occurred. In the foreign policy debate, one of USAID’s primary roles is to advocate for long- AFSA recognizes that it is impossible term development goals. These often compete with short-term political objectives. In anywhere to provide 100-percent protec- practical terms, this could play out with the U.S. using its resources in a particular coun- tion for our personnel who staff the front try on an education strategy over several years versus a questionable infrastructure activ- lines of American diplomacy. Since the ity designed to curry fleeting favor with the ruling elite. Sound familiar? Just as the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings in U.S. Navy’s mission is different from that of the U.S. Army, so is USAID’s mission dif- which 224 died (including 53 U.S. gov- ferent from State’s. If a merger were to occur, I fear that the development rationale ernment employees), progress has been would be on the losing side in every debate. made in bringing our overseas embassies, FEMA melded into Homeland Security and USIA into State because merger seemed consulates and other missions up to like a good idea at the time and the cost-cutting advocates held sway. Does a similar acceptable security standards. However, fate await USAID? Let’s ask those same cost-cutters in the wake of Osama and Katrina, much work remains to be done. what costs were saved? We also recognize that Embassy There is another disturbing aspect to this merging, which puts USAID even deep- Baghdad and the four consulates in Iraq er behind walls. I am reminded of the two scheming fathers in the popular musical, are special cases and that security stan- “The Fantasticks.” The fathers build a wall between their two houses, because they know dards for our colleagues there (and in it will bring their two children together in marriage rather than keep them apart. On Afghanistan) are judged differently than Broadway, building a wall can accomplish the desired objective. But what works in at other posts around the world. At every the theater, more often than not, fails in real life. Intuitively, we know walls don’t work. opportunity, AFSA urges the U.S. gov- Merger or no merger, USAID’s retreat behind the walls of fortress-like embassies ernment to continually review the secu- is not the answer. Yes, there are real security concerns, but USAID, like the Peace Corps, rity arrangements protecting our heroic cannot achieve its objectives encased behind walls. Instead, it needs desperately to find colleagues and to provide them the fullest imaginative ways in which it can breach and eliminate the walls — or a “hostile takeover” measure of resources and protection pos- will be the least of its worries. Ì sible. J

4 AFSA NEWS • NOVEMBER 2005

V.P. VOICE: FAS I BY LAURA SCANDURRA

Capitalizing on FAS’s Human Resources

hese days, almost every federal agency is grappling with tives of the Presidential Management human capital questions. How do we align our people, bud- Agenda. Two AFSA FAS working Tget, technology and organizational structure to ensure strate- groups — the Leadership and Manage- gic goals are achieved? How do we create an organizational cul- ment Working Group and the Perfor- ture that supports results-oriented leadership and innovation? How mance Management Working Group do we attract, develop and retain the best talent? — have been instrumental in develop- To get a picture of the perceptions of FSOs, AFSA FAS con- ing a memorandum of understanding to enhance our perfor- ducted our own human capital survey. As with all federal agen- mance management system. We will circulate the draft MOU cies, there are areas where FAS is doing well and areas that need in the near future, and look forward to obtaining comments improvement. and suggestions from FAS FSOs. Most of the survey responses from our FSOs were on par with Enhanced training for FSOs is high on AFSA’s priority list. the FAS-wide and governmentwide responses to the human cap- AFSA is working through the FAS human capital working group, ital survey. However, in key areas, the attitudes and perceptions which was established at our request, to develop a comprehen- held by FSOs were less positive. More than half of FAS FSOs said sive training program they did not have sufficient resources — people, budget, mate- for FSOs. We would rials — to do their jobs, as compared to 37 percent in FAS over- like to see a compre- all and 32 percent governmentwide. Only 19 percent of survey hensive training and More than half of FAS respondents agreed that our performance-management system development pro- FSOs said they did not have rewards high-performing employees, as compared to 49 percent gram for junior, mid- in FAS and 42 percent in other federal agencies. Only 32 per- level and senior FSOs sufficient resources — people, cent of FSOs felt they received adequate training as compared to that builds on the budget, materials — 56 percent in FAS overall and 60 percent governmentwide. On recently identified key issues such as communication, leadership and management, core professional to do their jobs. FAS FSO responses were below governmentwide averages. competencies, lever- Nearly 70 percent of AFSA FAS members responded to the ages distance-learn- survey. Of the respondents, 64 percent were in the field; 90 per- ing programs, better cent were supervisors or managers (including 21 percent in the utilizes detail opportunities and equips FSOs with the manage- Senior Foreign Service); 66 percent were male and 34 percent were ment and leadership skills necessary to lead people, lead change female. and achieve results. The survey responses on sufficient resources to get the job done The survey responses on communication, leadership and man- are troubling. Our overseas presence is indispensable to the effec- agement likely reflect uncertainty on the part of FSOs regarding tive management of the agency’s programs. Our posts overseas the ongoing FAS strategic review and alignment process and what play a vital role in negotiating new trade agreements, resolving it means for employees. To address employee concerns, AFSA trade disputes, developing agricultural markets and providing agri- is encouraging FAS leadership to strengthen its communication cultural market intelligence. To ensure that the activities of our with employees, particularly those in the field, and to more active- posts and the resources committed to them are aligned with agency ly involve employees in the strategic review and alignment process. goals, FAS conducts a thorough and rigorous global review process While not specifically addressed in the survey, the Washington every year. Surprisingly, there is not a similar structure in place Placement Plan is another issue that merits our attention. While to evaluate our domestic operations. AFSA encourages FAS to we are convinced that FAS senior management makes every implement a “domestic review” process to ensure a more bal- attempt to ensure the process is equitable, we are concerned that anced approach to resource allocation and to help ensure that the process itself is flawed. If evaluated on the basis of its origi- our FSOs have the resources necessary to do their jobs. nal objective — a mechanism to place returning FSOs in posi- FSO responses on performance management reflect a lack tions best suited to advance the agency’s mission — the WPP is of confidence in the current system. A top AFSA FAS prior- a failure. ity is working with management to create an integrated per- AFSA FAS strives to represent member concerns and inter- formance management and measurement system that rewards ests, but we need your input to be successful. Our door is always proven leadership and management skills and meets the objec- open and the cappuccino-maker is on. J

NOVEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 5

Survey • Continued from page 1 2. Fighting for fairness in assign- views — but some differences of opinion 8,000-member target group. Respond- ments/promotions. as well — as illustrated in the accompa- ents, who came from virtually every over- 3. Assisting members with individual nying graphs. seas post and every domestic bureau, labor-management problems, concerns, Overseas comparability (locality) pay broke down as follows: inequities, disciplinary issues, grievances, remains “an important benefit which • Overseas: 71 percent etc. AFSA should pursue vigorously,” accord- • Domestic: 29 percent 4. Defending the reputation of the ing to 95 percent of respondents. Increasing professional Foreign Service and its role the Separate Maintenance Allowance, • FS generalists: 67 percent in the foreign policy-making process. Washington-area per-diem rates, and • FS specialists: 33 percent Other AFSA activities, such as publish- employment opportunities for family ing the Foreign Service Journal and pro- members overseas all received high marks. Respondents were asked to rank viding services such as scholarships, Some 70 percent believe that AFSA should order priorities for AFSA. The survey awards and insurance, are also important challenge unqualified political appointees revealed clearly what State active-duty to the membership, but constitute a some- at all levels. members want AFSA’s top four priorities what lower priority. Even more interesting than these target- to be, in the following order: On the major specific issues of con- ed questions on key high-profile issues, 1. Lobbying for overseas locality cern to the Foreign Service, the(44 poll/ 39 / 16 /however, 1) are the often elaborate comments pay and better benefits. revealed mostly unequivocal consensus entered by nearly 1,000 respondents on

Overseas locality pay is an important financial Strongly agree Per-diem rates for long-term TDY in the Strongly agree benefit that AFSA should pursue vigorously. Agree Washington, D.C., area are inadequate and Agree Disagree Disagree Strongly disagree should be modified. Strongly disagree

YES 69% 26% YES 44% 39% 4%

NO NO 1% (916% / 34 / 401% / 17)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Promotion panels place too much emphasis on Strongly agree While all FS members should be worldwide-available, Strongly agree service at danger and greater hardship posts Agree there should be more flexibility in granting waivers of Agree Disagree Disagree instead of the quality of performance, wherever Strongly disagree the 6/8-year rule for people who have compelling Strongly disagree performed. personal reasons to remain in Washington.

YES 20% 37% YES 9% 34%

NO 37% 6% NO (36 / 52 / 11 / 1)40% 17% (28 / 55 / 15 / 3) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

AFSA should press for action to increase Strongly agree At a time when we have more unaccompanied Strongly agree employment opportunities for family members Agree posts than ever, AFSA should work to get the Agree Disagree Disagree overseas. Strongly disagree Separate Maintenance Allowance significantly Strongly disagree increased.

YES 28% 69% 55% YES 36% 52%

NO 15% 2% NO 11% 1%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

6 AFSA NEWS • NOVEMBER 2005

other areas of concern to them. These com- officers, excessive security investigations/ We at AFSA will take to heart the ments, which AFSA staff have been scru- punitive actions and a widespread percep- responses we received in this survey as we tinizing and are now cataloging, suggest the tion that the department is offering unfair define our agenda and our priorities. Our wide range of disparate problems members and inappropriate rewards to people who members overwhelmingly (68 percent) would like AFSA to address, as well as the volunteer to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. want ASFA to serve as both a labor union diversity of opinion on how AFSA should (See my column on this latter subject on and a professional association, and a clear approach these problems. The comments page 3.) majority (61 percent) think AFSA should cover a multitude of subjects, resulting in This survey highlights the challenges fac- be more vocal and assertive in dealing at least 100 distinct suggestions for action ing AFSA when we try to represent this with management. We will continue to items. Recurring themes include: frustra- multifaceted — and often feisty — mem- listen to members’ concerns, to tackle tions over the EER/promotion process, the bership. We cannot tackle every issue of every problem we can and to strive con- inability to use home leave, unequal treat- importance to every member. When we scientiously to represent our diverse ment of Members of Household, secret do take on an issue in our negotiations constituency to the best of our ability. “handshakes” for choice assignments, with department management, we typi- The response to one question was par- problems with household effects/storage, cally find that members disagree on what ticularly heartening: when asked if they inadequate arrangements for pregnancy/ AFSA should do about that particular were “satisfied with AFSA’s efforts” on maternity, disparity between generalists and issue or how much effort AFSA should their behalf, some 83 percent of survey ((17 / 44 / 32 / 7) (Yes 83% / No 17%) specialists, poor managerial skills of senior expend on it. respondents answered yes! J

In order to prevent unfairness to FS members, AFSA Strongly agree should exercise greater scrutiny of the department’s Agree Are you satisfied with AFSA’s efforts on Satisfied Disagree Dissatisfied implementation of new career development require- Strongly disagree behalf of its members? ments that place more emphasis on service at hardship posts.

YES 17% 44% YES 83%

NO (21 / 49 / 32%27 / 4) 7% NO (75/2517%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Unqualified political appointees at all levels Strongly agree Do you read the Foreign Service Journal Yes represent a problem that AFSA should Agree regularly? No Disagree challenge. Strongly disagree

YES 21% 49% YES 75%

NO 26% 4% NO 25% (improving 32% / worsening 27% / remaining the same 40%)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

At the present time, do you believe that the Improving overall conditions of work for the professional Worsening Remaining By what means do you get information on AFSA activities/efforts? Foreign Service are improving, worsening the Same or remaining the same? FS Journal/ AFSANews 73% IMPROVE 32% ALDAC cables 60% AFSANET e-mails 55% WORSE 28% Word of mouth 24% AFSA Web site 14% SAME 40% Post AFSA Rep. 13% 40%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

NOVEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 7

A MESSAGE FROM AAFSW New Address, Same Mission

he Associates of the American • Access to the members-only section Foreign Service Worldwide has of www.aafsw.org. Tmoved to Northern Virginia, on • Ability to post ads on AAFSW’s pop- Columbia Pike just east of Carlin Springs. ular online classified ads. AAFSW invites AFSA members to stop • Invitations to AAFSW’s guest speaker by for a visit. program series in the 8th-floor Diplomatic The location may be new, but AAFSW Reception Rooms of Main State. is as dedicated as ever to connecting the • Access to AAFSW’s special interest Foreign Service community at home and groups: Playgroup, Foreign-Born Spouses abroad. Over 1,400 members of the Group, French Group and others. Foreign Service community worldwide are nonprofit organization and an indepen- • Eligibility for AAFSW’s college connected through AAFSW’s Livelines e- dent advocate for its membership — scholarship program. mail discussion group, which is free to all. spouses, partners, and active and retired • Volunteer opportunities to benefit Each month, thousands visit www.aafsw.org employees of all U.S. foreign affairs the FS community. for helpful links, housing and book reviews, agencies. AAFSW is not affiliated with the • A community of like-minded peo- articles and tips on living the FS life. Over State Department, although it works ple who “speak your language.” 800 AAFSW members contribute time, closely with State representatives and money and energy to support the associ- helped found the Family Liaison Office AAFSW ation’s publications, special interest groups, and the Overseas Briefing Center. 5555 Columbia Pike, Suite 208 online resources, outreach efforts, annual You can join AAFSW at www. Arlington, VA 22204 BOOKFAIR and the Secretary of State’s aafsw.org. The $40 annual membership Phone: (703) 820-5420 Award for Outstanding Volunteerism fee includes: Fax: (703) 820-5421 Abroad. • Ten issues of the Global Link news- [email protected] Founded in 1960, AAFSW is a 501(c)3 letter. www.aafsw.org J

Dissent • Continued from page 1 Please give some thought pendent thinking or dared to ask the tough against official U.S. government policy, to questions that no one else will ask. now to identifying colleagues 2,500 European Jews (including many Please give some thought now to iden- prominent cultural figures) at great per- who have had the courage tifying colleagues who have had the sonal risk and cost to his career. He courage to challenge the system — on any received a posthumous dissent award to challenge the system — subject. Success is not a requirement. The from AFSA in 2002, presented by on any subject. willingness to ask the tough questions Secretary of State Colin Powell to despite the circumstances is what counts. Bingham’s children at the awards ceremo- The official call for dissent award nomina- ny. We understand that next year, the tions will be in the December AFSA News. U.S. Postal Service will issue a series of six The four dissent awards are: the stamps honoring U.S. diplomats, and cies put their lives and the lives of their Herter Award for senior officers, the Hiram Bingham will be among them. It families at risk every day to advance Rivkin Award for mid-level officers, the has taken over 60 years, but his story is America’s interests abroad. AFSA’s dis- Harriman Award for junior officers and the finally being told. However, AFSA wants sent awards offer an opportunity to recog- Harris Award for specialists. For more to tell the story of our most heroic dis- nize the critical contributions made by our information, please contact Barbara Berger senters today, while these brave employ- colleagues who have demonstrated the at [email protected] or (202) 338-4045, ext. ees are still serving their country in the courage to stand up for what they believe, 251. For nomination instructions and addi- Foreign Service. just as Harry Bingham did in 1942 in tional information on AFSA’s dissent Our country continues to face extra- Marseilles. AFSA asks that you help us and other awards, please go to www. ordinary challenges in the conduct of honor Foreign Service colleagues who have afsa.org/awards.cfm. We are counting on international affairs. Foreign Service followed in his path and have taken risks you to help us maintain this proud tradi- employees at all grades and in all agen- for their convictions, demonstrated inde- tion of dissent. J

8 AFSA NEWS • NOVEMBER 2005

FS VOICE: FAMILY MEMBER MATTERS I BY ADRIENNE BENSON SCHERGER Permanent Impermanence: Finding a Foothold in the Foreign Service

“Nostalgia is fatiguing and destructive, it is the vice of the expatri- ficult. The city is large and cold, the air filled with factory smoke. ate. You must put down roots as if they were forever, you must have You miss Nairobi. Maybe your sponsor takes you out for din- a sense of permanence.” ner and you spend the whole evening telling stories of camping — Isabel Allende, Of Love and Shadows in Maasai Mara. At the market you scoff at the produce because “the markets were filled with mangos and passion fruits as big as ll of us, Americans associated with missions around the your head back in Kenya.” I suspect this is the kind of nostalgia world, have chosen the expatriate’s life. Perhaps our choic- Allende warned us about. Maybe she meant for us to keep the A es horrify our families back home, perhaps they inspire past, but throw ourselves into each new post with both feet, as if envy, but either way, we’re out here, living a this were the last place we’d ever live. life that changes dramatically every two or three It’s hard to transcend the feelings of sad- years. We’re doing our work in languages and It’s hard to transcend the ness that can come with moving. It’s easy to cultures that are foreign to us, living in homes feelings of sadness that can compare every aspect of this country to the one we may never have picked for ourselves, sleep- you miss. Transition is a kind of grief, and ing in beds bought in bulk, meeting people we come with moving. It’s easy those of us who move often need to let our- may not have otherwise known. We are selves pass through the stages of grieving in to compare every aspect of this diverse in looks, background, politics and states order to make peace with the present. of origin, but all of our personal roads have country to the one you miss. Transition has five stages: Involvement (being led us here, to this transient lifestyle. So what happily settled), leaving (the physical process do we, expert expatriates, make of the “vice” of moving), arriving (the chaotic and anxious of nostalgia? How, with the constant transition that comes with period of arrival), entering (being vulnerable — a new face in new our chosen professions, do we shuck off nostalgia to maintain a place, learning the ropes) and reinvolvement (settling back in and sense of permanence? Or should we? Can looking back be use- feeling at home). Letting nostalgia play too big a role contributes ful? to getting stuck in the entering stage — constantly feeling like an Nostalgia, in a sense, is home for us. Beyond the household outsider. effects that we carefully pack up and ship from post to post, the one variable that is consistent is our memories. Our overseas homes A Fine Balance are temporary. If we didn’t let ourselves engage in nostalgia we So we are faced with the challenge of maintaining the balance would feel adrift — without the anchor of a personal history. between welcoming the transience of Foreign Service life and com- Nostalgia also gives us a sense of a greater community. How many mitting our full selves to finding happiness in each new place. It’s times do you say goodbye to someone at one post only to see them about leaving the office in the evenings and walking through the again at a conference in Washington, or find out they’ve just been neighborhood, making discoveries and connections. It’s about assigned to your new post? Being able to compare stories and suspending judgment and, instead, letting experiences wash over trade histories is especially important to people with temporary you. After all, this is the adventure; the daily minutia of watch- physical roots in any one place. We need our nostalgia to bol- ing a whole new country and culture unfold before you and know- ster our efforts every time we move. ing that, for the time you’re given, you’re a part of it. It’s a life that can be hard. It’s hard to say goodbye, to leave Moving On houses and people and places that you loved, but the silver lin- Everyone has a similar story: Maybe you’ve lived in Nairobi ing is that it’s also a never-ending source of potential joy. Every for two years and loved every minute. Your house is beautiful, place you go will offer you some kind of gift if you are willing to the garden is full of hummingbirds and banana trees, you spend put yourself out there, let yourself relax and find it. It’s your role your weekends viewing big game in the national park and, to top to enjoy every place you go while you can, set your roots down it all off, your boss is the greatest. This, you think, is what Foreign for awhile, live as if you were never leaving. This is the talent that Service life is all about. Then bidding season rolls around, and this special life calls for: being permanently impermanent. And though you hate to leave Kenya, you know another adventure is enjoying the ride. Ì in store for you wherever you may end up. You’re confident, adapt- Adrienne Benson Scherger grew up in four African countries with a USAID able and ready for anything. father. A freelance writer, she is currently serving as the CLO in Tirana, Getting used to your new post in Fredonia turns out to be dif- where her husband is administrative officer for the Peace Corps.

NOVEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 9

CLASSIFIEDS

RETIREMENT SERVICES TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES

RETIRING? Don't let your AFSA membership lapse! To continue automatic deduc- ROLAND S. HEARD, CPA tion of your AFSA membership dues, you 1091 Chaddwyck Dr. must fill out a form for annuitant deduction. Athens, GA 30606 For a copy of Form SF 1187A, call AFSA at Tel/Fax: (706) 769-8976 (800) 704-2372 or (202) 338-4045, go to E-mail: [email protected] www.afsa.org/mbr/SF1187A.cfm or write us TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES • U.S. income tax services at AFSA, 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, • Many FS & contractor clients D.C. 20037. ATTORNEY, FORMER FOREIGN SER- • Practiced before the IRS You can fax the form to (202) 338-6820 VICE OFFICER: Extensive experience w/ tax • Financial planning or mail it to AFSA. Don't forget to sign it! problems unique to the Foreign Service. • American Institute of CPAs, Member Available for consultation, tax planning, and FIRST CONSULTATION FREE LEGAL SERVICES preparation of returns: WWW.ROLANDSHEARDCPA.COM M. Bruce Hirshorn, Boring & Pilger, P.C. ATTORNEY WITH 23 years’ successful 307 Maple Ave. W, Suite D, Vienna, VA 22180. experience SPECIALIZING FULL-TIME IN FS Tel: (703) 281-2161. Fax: (703) 281-9464. VIRGINIA M. TEST, CPA: Tax service spe- GRIEVANCES will more than double your E-mail: [email protected] cializing in Foreign Service/overseas contrac- chance of winning: 30% of grievants win tors. CONTACT INFO: TEL: (804) 695-2939. before the Grievance Board; 85% of my CITIGROUP FAX: (804) 695-2958. clients win. Only a private attorney can adequately develop and present your case, CITIGROUP’S PERSONAL BANKING E-mail: [email protected] including necessary regs, arcane legal doc- OVERSEAS offers a variety of financial solu- trines, precedents and rules. Call Bridget R. tions for individuals that are sent on interna- Mugane at Tel: (202) 387-4383, or tional assignment. If you work for a corpo- (301) 596-0175. E-mail: [email protected] ration, organization or the United States gov- JACOB FORBAI, CPA/MS: Affordable Free initial consultation. ernment you may be eligible to open an expatriate tax solutions, compliance, plan- International Access Account. See ad, p. 2. ning, preparation for U.S. citizens & aliens worldwide. 20+ years experience. ATTORNEY - Move your money across international Tel: (301) 608-2248. GRIEVANCE ATTORNEY (specializing borders. E-mail: [email protected] since 1983). Attorney assists FS officers to - Meet your home and host-country correct defective performance appraisals, to financial obligations. reverse improper tenuring and promotion - Acquire and preserve a favorable credit APPRAISALS board decisions, secure financial benefits, rating while you’re away. defend against disciplinary actions and - Maintain and grow your financial portfolio. obtain relief from all forms of discrimination. APPRAISALS /CONSULTATIONS Free Initial Consultation. Call William T. Irelan, Go to: www.citigroup.com/pboe Esq. Tel: (202) 625-1800. FOREIGN SERVICE SPOUSE specializes Fax: (202) 625-1616. in personal property appraisals/consultations FREE TAX CONSULTATION: For over- E-mail: [email protected] for insurance, property donation, downsizing seas personnel. We process returns as and estates. Competitive rates, professional received, without delay. Preparation and rep- WILLS/ESTATE PLANNING by attorney results. Call Mary Lohman. resentation by Enrolled Agents. Federal and who is a former FSO. Have your will reviewed Tel.: (703) 994-9196 or (703) 280-1081. all states prepared. Includes “TAX TRAX” and updated, or new one prepared: Web site: www.lohmanandcompany.com. No charge for initial consultation. unique mini-financial planning review with rec- ommendations. Full planning available. Get the M. Bruce Hirshorn, Boring & Pilger, P.C. most from your financial dollar! Financial 307 Maple Ave. W, Suite D, Vienna, VA 22180. Forecasts Inc., Barry B. De Marr, CFP, EA, Tel: (703) 281-2161. Fax: (703) 281-9464. 3918 Prosperity Ave. #230, Fairfax, VA 22031 PROPERTY MANAGEMENT E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (703) 289-1167. Fax: (703) 289-1178. E-mail: [email protected] WJD MANAGEMENT IS competitively PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: PROFESSIONAL TAX RETURN PREPA- priced, of course. However, if you are con- $1.25/word (10-word min.) First 3 RATION: Thirty years in public tax practice. sidering hiring a property management firm, words bolded free, add’l bold text Arthur A. Granberg, EA, ATA, ATP. Our don’t forget the old saying, “You get what you $2/word, header, box, shading $10 charges are $75 per hour. Most FS returns pay for.” All of us at WJD have worked for ea. Deadline: 20th of the month for take 3 to 4 hours. Our office is 100 feet from other property management firms in the past, publication 5 weeks later. Virginia Square Metro Station, Tax Matters and we have learned what to do and, more Ad Mgr: Tel: (202) 944-5507. Associates PC, 3601 North Fairfax Dr., importantly, what not to do from our experi- Fax: (202) 338-6820. Arlington, VA 22201. Tel: (703) 522-3828. ences at these companies. We invite you to E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (703) 522-5726. explore our Web site at www.wjdpm.com for E-mail: [email protected] more information or call us at (703) 385-3600.

10 AFSA NEWS • NOVEMBER 2005

CLASSIFIEDS

TEMPORARY HOUSING TEMPORARY HOUSING REAL ESTATE

JOANN PIEKNEY/ PRUDENTIAL CAR- SHORT-TERM RENTALS GEORGETOWN QUARTERS: Exquisite, RUTHERS REALTORS: Complete profes- TEMPORARY HOUSING fully-furnished accommodations in the East sional dedication to residential sales in End of Georgetown. Short walk to World Northern Virginia. I provide you with person- WASHINGTON, D.C. or NFATC TOUR? Bank and State Department. Lower floor of al attention. Over 23 years’ real estate expe- EXECUTIVE HOUSING CONSULTANTS three-level home built in 1803 and renovat- rience and Foreign Service overseas living offers Metropolitan Washington, D.C.’s finest ed in 2003. Private front and rear entrances, experience. JOANN PIEKNEY. portfolio of short-term, fully-furnished and eight-foot ceilings, fireplace, marble bath- Tel: (703) 624-1594. Fax: (703) 757-9137. equipped apartments, townhomes and sin- room with Jacuzzi and shower, granite and E-mail: [email protected] gle-family residences in Maryland, D.C. and stainless steel kitchen, washer and dryer; Web site: www.foreignservicehomes.com Virginia. walk out to tiered rear garden great for enter- In Virginia: “River Place’s Finest” is taining. Street parking and limited car/pick- steps to Rosslyn Metro and Georgetown, and up sharing with management. Dishes, flat- 15 minutes on Metro bus or State ware, towels, linens and light maid service Department shuttle to NFATC. For more info, included. Preference for single person or LONGBOAT KEY, BRADENTON/ please call (301) 951-4111 or visit our Web couple. Rate commensurate with housing SARASOTA: Area will exceed expectations. site: www.executivehousing.com allowance. Photos available. Contact: Don’t miss owning in Florida. Resales, new Tel: (202) 625-6448. homes, rental management and vacation E-mail: [email protected]. rentals. Dynamic, growing company offering www.EquityFundGroup.com personalized professional service. Contact: Sharon E. Oper, Realtor (AFSA member) Wagner Realty. Tel: (941) 387-7199. E-mail: [email protected] CORPORATE APARTMENT SPECIALISTS Abundant experience working with Foreign FULLY FURNISHED APARTMENTS: Service professionals and the locations to best Arlington, VA. Two blocks to Rosslyn Metro. serve you: Foggy Bottom, Woodley Park, Short/long-term rental. Everything included. Cleveland Park, Chevy Chase, Rosslyn, Ballston, $1,500 Studio, $1,800 1 BR. Please contact Pentagon City. Our office is a short walk from Theodore at Tel: (703) 973-9551, or FLORIDA NFATC. One-month minimum. All furnishings, E-mail: [email protected]. housewares, utilities, telephone and cable NO STATE INCOME TAX enhances gra- included. Tel: (703) 979-2830 or (800) 914-2802. cious living in Sarasota, the cultural capital of Fax: (703) 979-2813. Florida’s Gulf Coast. Contact former FSO Paul E-mail: [email protected] MORTGAGE Byrnes, Coldwell Banker residential sales spe- Web site: www.corporateapartments.com cialist, by e-mail: [email protected], or Toll-Free: (877) 924-9001.

BUYING OR REFINANCING A HOME? Jeff Stoddard specializes in working with the Foreign Service community overseas and in the U.S. Call today. Tel: (703) 725-2455. YOU'VE TRAVELED the World; Now PIED-A-TERRE PROPERTIES, LTD: E-mail: [email protected] Retire to Paradise. Make retirement more Select from our unique inventory of fully-fur- enjoyable in the relaxed atmosphere of nished & tastefully decorated apartments & Scottsdale, Arizona - offering world-class golf, townhouses all located in D.C.’s best in-town restaurants and shops; outstanding museums neighborhoods: Dupont, Georgetown, Foggy and theater. Jeanette Sletten, Realtor(r), John Bottom & the West End. Two-month mini- Hall and Associates. (Former CLO and mum. Mother-Daughter Owned and Operated. EUR/EX PMO) Tel: (480) 567-5576 Tel: (202) 462-0200. Fax: (202) 332-1406. GET THE MOST FROM YOUR HOME. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] BUYING? REFINANCING? CASHING OUT? Web site: www.scottsdalehomesbyjet.com Web site: www.piedaterredc.com OR INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE? At PLAT- INUM Capital Group in Reston, Va., Guy Danaux can advise you on the best option available on the mortgage market. As a member of the Foreign Service community, in the YOUR EXCLUSIVE AGENT • Exclusively U.S. and abroad, Guy Danaux understands One Client at a Time • Exclusively MD/DC FURNISHED LUXURY APARTMENTS: the high level of service you expect in reach- Residential • Specializing in Foreign Service Short/long-term. Best locations: Dupont ing your real estate goals. Give him a call or Families • Including Expertise in Mortgage, Circle, Georgetown. Utilities included. All price send him an e-mail. He can help you find the Financing & Property Management. Fay ranges/sizes. Parking available. appropriate loan program to meet your needs. Finver - W.C. & A.N. Miller Real Estate. Tel: (202) 296-4989. Tel: (202) 297-3375. Tel.: (240) 338-5692 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

NOVEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 11

CLASSIFIEDS

VACATION SHOPPING PET TRANSPORTATION

NORMANDY, FRANCE: Large, comfortable farmhouse near D-Day Beaches for 110 - 220 VOLT STORE weekly rental. E-mail: [email protected] MULTI-SYSTEM ELECTRONICS Web site: www.laporterouge.net PAL-SECAM-NTSC TVs, VCRs, AUDIO, CAMCORDER, RENT A 300-year-old stone house in ADAPTOR, TRANSFORMERS, KITCHEN APPLIANCES a medieval village in the south of France PET MOVING MADE EASY. Club Pet GMS WORLD WIDE PHONES (Languedoc-Roussillon)! International, is a full-service animal shipper EPORT WORLD ELECTRONICS E-mail: [email protected] specializing in domestic and international trips. 1719 Connecticut Ave NW Club Pet is the ultimate pet-care boarding (Dupont Circle Metro. Btwn. R & S Sts.) facility in the Washington Metropolitan area. TEL: (202) 232-2244 or (800) 513-3907. Tel: (703) 471-7818 or (800) 871-2535. SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA: E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] ENJOY world-class golfing and shopping URL: www.eportworld.com Web site: www.clubpet.com in fully-furnished condo (sleeps 8). One-month DOWNTOWN LOCATION minimum. E-mail: [email protected] 1030 19TH ST. NW (between K & L Sts.) Washington, D.C. 20036 TEL: (202) 464-7600. DOMESTIC / WORLDWIDE SHIPPING: INQUIRE ABOUT OUR PROMOTIONS Over 25 yrs. experience, free estimates, no NEW HAMPSHIRE RETREAT: Government & Diplomat discounts 1780 farmhouse on 100 acres above Crescent deposits required, military veteran, 24-hr. avail- Lake, Acworth. Five bedrooms, three baths, ability. Tel: (304) 274-6859, (888) 234-5028 fireplace, country kitchen, screen porch, deck, E-mail: [email protected] swimming pond, canoes, rowboat, fall foliage, PALESTINIAN EMBROIDERY: Hand- www.actionpetexpress.com x-country from front door; 20 minutes from crafted jackets, vests, blouses, pillows, run- Mt. Sunapee. $1,500/wk or $650/weekend - ners, placemats, purses and eyeglass cases. - 8 people. Tel: (603) 863-3817. Tel: (703) 528-2623. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] BUSINESS CARDS Web site: www.mashrabiya.com BUSINESS CARDS PRINTED to State BARBADOS: DIPLOMAT'S 3-BR, Department specifications. 500 cards for as (sleeps 6) West Coast seaview home, CRAVING GROCERIES FROM HOME? little as $37.00! Herron Printing & Graphics. walk to beaches, shops, restaurants, Visit www.lowesfoodstogo.com. We ship Tel: (301) 990-3100. golfing. Low season: $1,000/week, non-perishable groceries to you via the Dulles E-mail: [email protected] $3,000/month; High: $1,500/$3,750. mail-sorting facility, or your choice of shipping facility. For more information e-mail: E-mail: [email protected]. MISCELLANEOUS Tel: (301) 587-4956, (703) 582-5751 [email protected]

SHIPPING DISNEY VACATION RENTAL: WWW.WEBNETSTORE.COM PLANNING TO MOVE OVERSEAS? Townhouse with pool sleeps eight nestled in $10 FREE GIFT CERTIFICATE! Need a rate to ship your car, household wildlife preserve minutes from Disney. Send e-mail to [email protected] goods, or other cargo going abroad? Contact: E-mail: [email protected] requesting your free $10 gift certificate. Include Joseph T. Quinn. at SEFCO-Export Web site: www.vacationdisneyhome.com your mailing address to receive a free cata- Management Company for rates and advice. log. Webnetstore.com has over 3,000 High Tel: (718) 268-6233. Fax: (718) 268-0505. Quality Products and Gifts. Shop for yourself Visit our Web site at www.sefco-export.com PELICAN COVE, SARASOTA. or send gifts home to friends and relatives eas- Near beaches. 2 bed/2 bath ground floor. On- ily! Checkout process is secure, SHOP site pools, tennis, classes, workshops. WITH CONFIDENCE. Tel.: (218) 741-2597. PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: $2,800/month 2-month minimum. Available Toll-free: (888) 741-2597. February. $1.25/word (10-word min.) First 3 Contact: [email protected] words bolded free, add’l bold text $2/word, header, box, shading $10 BOOKS ea. Deadline: 20th of the month for ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHALET. publication 5 weeks later. Cathedral ceilings, circular stairway, wildlife, Ad Mgr: Tel: (202) 944-5507. seclusion. FSO-owned. Photos and reserva- OLD ASIA/ORIENT BOOKS BOUGHT Fax: (202) 338-6820. tions: www.pinebrookvacationrentals.com/ Asian rare books. Fax: (212) 316-3408. E-mail: [email protected] ridgeviewdetail.html E-mail: [email protected]

12 AFSA NEWS • NOVEMBER 2005 In Re: Personal Banking from Overseas (Peace of Mind Is at Hand!)

ons, Dear Journal Reader: There are many exciting experiences while on overseas assignment, but managing your finances isn’t typically one of them. Actually, it can be quite challenging. Managing your pay, meeting financial obligati maintaining a good credit rating at home, and sustaining and growing one’s financial portfolio can all become a challenge. Additionally, once settled-in at your country of assignment, local obligations arise, requiring the need to transfer funds, be it in US Dollars or in Foreign Currency. A seamless solution exists, which not only provides all of the necessary tools to efficiently manage your Personal Banking but, more importantly, provides “Peace (PBOE)of Mind.” program delivers this Peace of Mind The Citibank Personal Banking for Overseas Employees and so much more. Citibank PBOE has been the provider of choice and industry leader servicing international assignees for over a third of Citibank’s century-plus history. Citibank PBOE offers a product and solution set designed specifically for the client on overseas assignment. Citibank PBOE provides a simpli- fied, practically paperless way to manage your Banking by establishing a comprehensive, globally accessible banking relationship that includes access to credit and also to alternative banking products and services. NO other financial institution can compare to Citibank’s depth and breadth of global expertise, its technological networking capabilities, its product offerings, or its worldwide presence.

Program offers: The Citibank PBOE • U.S. Dollar, NY-based, interest-bearing International Access Account with unlimited deposits and withdrawals. • No Monthly Account Balance Requirement AND the Monthly Maintenance Fee has been WAIVED! • Assignment of a “Personal Banker,” a dedicated point of contact who can handle a variety of financial and customer service needs. • Global access via a Citibank Banking Card, which provides access to account information and funds at over 500,000 locations worldwide. • Ability to access account information, execute Bill Payments and other transactions via Citibank Online, Citibank’s award-winning, premier Internet banking service, at NO charge. • Ability to execute Funds Transfers in almost ANY currency and at a Preferred Foreign Exchange Rate, regardless of currency or amount of transfer. • Assistance in establishing bank accounts overseas, with Citibank or another financial institution. And much more. Citibank Personal Banking for Overseas Employees Now you can start enjoying “Peace of Mind.” The program is close at hand. Simply call, e-mail or write to: Eduardo J. Velarde Vice President Citigroup International Citibank Personal Banking for Overseas Employees Group 666 Fifth Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10103 Tel: 1.212.307.8578 (Admin) 1.212.307.8527 (Dir. Line) 1.877.647.7723 (Toll-Free) Email:. [email protected]