The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM REFORM I AFGHANISTAN’S TROUBLES I OF MICE & MEN

SEMIANNUAL SCHOOLS SUPPLEMENT

$3.50 / DECEMBER 2005 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS

EXPLORING NEW DIMENSIONS Diplomacy in the Information Age

CONTENTS December 2005 Volume 82, No. 12

F OCUS: IT AND D IPLOMACY S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT

21 / WIRING STATE: A PROGRESS REPORT GOING TO COLLEGE IN AMERICA / 64 Once a technology laggard, the State Department Advice on preparing yourself for the has become an innovator. But the pace must be weirdest culture of all: your own. sustained to truly transform diplomacy. By Francesca Huemer Kelly By Joe Johnson STUDY ABROAD: TAKE THE PLUNGE / 78 29 / THE SUN, THE WORLD AND RFID In some ways, a semester abroad is like an The technology behind e-passports extended vacation. But for most students, promises to dramatically streamline the it’s an experience that encompasses much more. global movement of people and goods. By Brooke Deal By Emily Sopensky SCHOOLS AT A GLANCE / 80 36 / IT COMES OF AGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST Essential data on educational choices. The information revolution is creating a new generation LOST AND FOUND: INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL REUNIONS / 85 in the Middle East that will likely, but not necessarily, Attending an international school can provide not only be more democratic. fond memories but a course for the future. By Jon B. Alterman By Mikkela Thompson 43 / DEFENDING STATE AGAINST ONES AND ZEROS A complete security strategy must embrace not only C OLUMNS D EPARTMENTS robust physical safeguards but also complementary PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 LETTERS / 7 cybersecurity measures. The Foreign Service CYBERNOTES / 12 By Steven E. Roberts as a Political Foil MARKETPLACE / 14 By J. Anthony Holmes BOOKS / 60 INDEX TO ETTER FROM F EATURE L ADVERTISERS / 102 THE EDITOR / 10 AFSA NEWS / 51 / AFGHANISTAN’S TROUBLED By Steven Alan Honley CENTER INSERT PAST AND UNCERTAIN FUTURE SPEAKING OUT / 16 To understand how Afghanistan was transformed Implement Career into a breeding ground for terrorist attacks on the West, Development by Reforming and to help it get back on its feet, we need to know the Assignment System something of its bloody history. By Camille Hill By Arthur Lezin REFLECTIONS / 104 The Mouse Still Roars By James Patterson

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 STEVEN ALAN HONLEY organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent Senior Editor TED WILKINSON, the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, preferably by SUSAN B. MAITRA CHAIRMAN e-mail. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - $13 included in annual dues; others - $40. For foreign surface mail, Associate Editor add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mail- KENT C. BROKENSHIRE SHAWN DORMAN ing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. Ad & Circulation Manager STEPHEN W. BUCK 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited ED MILTENBERGER ANTHONY S. CHAN Business Manager LILLIAN DEVALCOURT-AYALA manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein MIKKELA V. T HOMPSON JOSH GLAZEROFF does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. Art Director ILLIAM ORDAN E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service CARYN SUKO SMITH W W. J Association, 2005. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., Editorial Interns LAURIE KASSMAN DANIEL ZUSSMAN JOYCE W. N AMDE Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Printed on 50-percent recycled paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste. CAITLIN STUART KAY WEBB MAYFIELD Advertising Intern CHRISTOPHER L. TEAL WILLEM HOFSTEDE Cover and inside illustration by Valerie Sinclair

DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3

J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust AN INVITATION TO PROPOSE PROJECTS FOR FUNDING BY THE J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST IN 2006

he J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust is a char- children, Venezuela - eyeglasses for the visually itable fund established in the memory of Kirby impaired, Zambia - water well in “day orphanage.” T Simon, a Foreign Service Officer who died in 1995 • Other Facilities in Poverty Areas: Chile - communal while serving in Taiwan. The Trust is committed to kitchen, Japan - food bank for the poor, Uganda - expanding the opportunities for community service and livestock-raising program. professional fulfillment of active Foreign Service Officers • Project for Animal Care: Egypt - shelter used in and Specialists and their families. humane animal programs. The principal activity of the Trust is to support projects The Trust now invites the submission of proposals for that are initiated and carried out, not in an official capacity support in 2006. It is anticipated that most of the new and not on official time, by Foreign Service personnel or grants will fall within the same funding range as the 2005 members of their families, wherever located. The Trust, awards, and that projects assisted by the Trust will reflect however, will also consider proposals from other U.S. a variety of interests and approaches, some of which are Government employees or members of their families, illustrated by the 2005 grants. regardless of nationality, who are located at American Grants provided by the Trust can be used to support diplomatic posts abroad. several categories of project expenses; the third In 2005 the Trust made its ninth round of grant paragraph of this announcement provides examples. awards, 37 in all, ranging from $505 to $4,327, for a total Grant funds from the Trust, however, cannot be used to of $85,836. These grants support the involvement of pay salaries or other compensation to U.S. Government Foreign Service personnel in the projects briefly listed employees or their family members. Because of the below (further described in a Trust announcement limited resources available to the Trust, it is not in a entitled Grants Awarded in 2005 and available at position to support projects that have reasonable www.kirbysimontrust.org). The grants defray a wide prospects of obtaining full funding from other sources. range of project expenses, including books, food, Nor does the Trust support projects that require more medicines, furniture, computers, sanitary facilities, resources than the Trust and other funders can provide. kitchen equipment, job training machinery and staff The Trustees wish to emphasize that the Trust will costs, excursion costs, supplies for school and provide support for a project operated by a charitable or orphanage renovation and for playgrounds. educational organization only where the Foreign Service- • Educational Projects: Botswana - nature reserve related applicant(s) play an active part in initiating and educational center, Burundi - school for orphaned carrying out the project, apart from fundraising. children; Cambodia - library for local school, Costa Rica A proposal should include a description of the project, - English class for teenage mothers, Iraq - computers for what it is intended to achieve, and the role to be played by girls’ school, Mexico - life-skills training for orphans, the applicant(s); a preliminary plan for disseminating the Swaziland - school for orphans, The Gambia - results of the project; a budget; other available funding, if classroom for a rural school, Zimbabwe - art program for any; and a brief biography of the applicant(s). Proposals street children. should be no longer than five double-spaced pages • Other Projects for Children: Albania - community (exclusive of budget and biographical material). children's playground, Azerbaijan - orphanage building, Applicants should follow the application format available Brazil - computer for children’s center, Brazil - refuge for at www.kirbysimontrust.org/format_for_proposals.html or street children, Chile - playground for abused children, that can be obtained by communicating with the Trust Estonia - beds for orphanage, Ghana - shelter for (see below). orphaned and abandoned children, Israel - inter-cultural Proposals for projects to be funded during calendar summer camp, Lithuania - excursion for residents of a year 2006 must be received by the Trust no later than children’s shelter, Mexico - refuge for homeless children, March 1, 2006. South Africa - safe haven for children in distress, Uruguay - regional softball league. Proposals and inquiries can be sent by mail, fax or • Health-related Projects: Albania - palliative care for e-mail to: cancer patients, Albania - emergency treatment for J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust respiratory failure, Belgium - housing and employment 93 Edgehill Road for mentally handicapped adults, Cambodia - water New Haven, CT 06511 wells in rural village, Colombia - nutritional lunches for FAX: 203-432-0063 under-nourished children, Ghana - sanitary facilities and [email protected] health education for rural school, Morocco - kitchen for the physically handicapped, Sri Lanka - dog-bite Further information about the Trust can be found on prevention program, Suriname - walkers for disabled the Web at www.kirbysimontrust.org.

PRESIDENT’S VIEWS The Foreign Service as a Political Foil

BY J. ANTHONY HOLMES

In my initial I told the Secretary that, while nel are studiously apolitical and would meeting with Sec- AFSA puts out its own statements to not dream of going beyond the rules of retary Rice on Oct. respond to these “cheap shots,” a first- the game. We offer advice based on 27, I asked her to person statement or op-ed piece unparalleled experience and expertise, help AFSA de- answering particularly egregious and rarely dissent, even within the system fend the Foreign inaccurate criticism and reaffirming (i.e., before the policy is set), imple- Service. I told her her confidence in the loyalty, courage, ment the policies our political masters that in addition to and professionalism of FS employees choose, analyze the results, and try to “bread-and-butter” issues like Overseas would go a long way toward refuting get them fine-tuned. Comparability Pay that we’d just dis- our detractors. Everyone remembers Both parties in Congress recognized cussed, AFSA members care deeply how then-Deputy Secretary Richard the need for a professional diplomatic about the Foreign Service as a profes- Armitage’s “Newt’s off his meds again” corps loyal to the nation, and not to sion with a vital role to play in defending quip made a mockery of the former political parties or individuals, when it our national security and advancing U.S. House Speaker’s attack. passed overwhelmingly the 1924 interests. I noted that the Foreign Ser- Rogers Act that ended the spoils system vice continues to come under fire un- and created the modern Foreign fairly from certain quarters, including Foreign relations are too Service. As President Gerald Ford said accusations of disloyalty, unwillingness important to be left to a on its 50th anniversary, “Foreign rela- to serve in difficult places and handle corps of ‘yes men.’ tions are too important to be left to a tough tasks, favoring foreign over Amer- corps of ‘yes men.’ You must report – Gerald Ford, 1974 ican interests, and even compromising without fear or favor what you actually our nation’s interests in pursuit of see abroad, not what we in Washington “lucrative post-FS employment” (sic). want to hear.” The Foreign Service Act I pointed to Jim Hoagland’s Aug. 25 The Secretary responded that she of 1980 consolidated this professional- Washington Post column as an example does not believe it effective to react to ism, again with broad bipartisan sup- of the slurs and distortions to which the every slight. She regularly praises the port. FS is regularly subjected. Hoagland Foreign Service in her speeches, she Detractors like Hoagland make me urged Sec. Rice to quell “the hotbed of said. I noted that AFSA members had wonder what they want. Is it results or rebellion” at a State Department dom- listened to such remarks with satisfac- just the immediate political splash and inated by FS “battle-hardened policy tion. Unfortunately, though, this type glitz of the initial rollout? Are they warriors,” whose “Olympian view of of support has been articulated almost committed to success, or just the spin? current events discounts an administra- exclusively to in-house audiences at Do they want pros who see the forest tion’s ideology and political needs” and town hall meetings and swearings-in. through the trees, or hacks who let whose “clientitis” leads them to favor I’ve always been appalled by attacks short-term exigencies obscure long- foreign nations or “potential future like Hoagland’s and the seemingly will- term interests? Whatever motivates employers.” She’d better watch her ful ignorance behind them. We in the such attacks, I trust Secretary Rice will back, Hoagland concluded, because Foreign Service take an oath “to uphold not allow slurs against the Foreign “the fire can come from any direction.” and defend the Constitution.” Ever Service to become the perceived foil conscious that we need to work for for her success. An occasional public J. Anthony Holmes is the president of the whichever party controls the White defense of her troops would be highly American Foreign Service Association. House, the vast majority of FS person- appreciated. I

DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5

LETTERS

Bias Against DS looked good, but wasted space, cost stances and to create a safe and secure As a Diplomatic Security agent, I inordinately too much and were environment for the conduct of diplo- often find cause to disagree with arti- unsafe for our employees. macy. Like no other federal security cles presented in the Foreign Service A discussion of the Office of agency, it does so in a way that is sen- Journal. Many times I have picked up Overseas Buildings’ standard embassy sitive to foreign culture and the need my pen (or keyboard) to write you, design program has no business in an to conduct business. Instead of criti- only to end up scrapping the message issue dedicated to DS. This program cizing DS, I would recommend that for fear of appearing petty. I have was put into place by OBO to save the Journal do something to highlight even considered resigning my mem- money and reduce project timelines, the lives of the two agents who lost bership in AFSA over some of the and has next to nothing to do with their lives in service of their country more anti-security positions it has security. Congress continually criti- this year in Iraq. These DS employ- held over the years. So imagine my cized the former Foreign Buildings ees were killed while protecting oth- surprise when I opened my copy in Office for overspending on extrava- ers so that critical Foreign Service September to see a whole issue dedi- gant designs and for taking too long objectives could be met. cated to the Bureau of Diplomatic getting embassies built. The result In the mid-1990s, there was a Security! was reduced funding for new embassy move orchestrated by high-level offi- However, upon reading the issue, construction. Say what you will about cials within our own department to my previous opinions were validated, OBO’s chief, retired Gen. Charles E. cede most DS responsibilities to as your editors found it necessary to Williams, but at least he fixed the another federal agency. I would ven- trot out critics of DS even in an issue problem and got the funding spigot ture to guess that the department designed to highlight its contribu- turned back on. Perhaps Ms. Loeffler would be remembering DS with tions. This type of criticism is not is prepared to “err on the side of open- fondness today if that had been included when the Journal highlights ness” and have hundreds of our fellow allowed to occur. The bureau’s other bureaus, and betrays what I per- officers die in the process. employees will never feel fully inte- ceive to be the deep-seated biases of Out of nine articles on security, grated as part of the Foreign Service your editorial staff and, indeed, some one was neutral (Honley), four were team until biases like the ones pre- members of the Foreign Service. negative (Jones, Loeffler, Hannon and sented in the September issue are I question the appropriateness of Anonymous), and four were positive corrected, and the brave professionals including an essay about Overseas (Griffin, Whitelaw, Johnson and Ren- that staff DS are made to feel that Buildings Operations by Jane Loeffler, zuli). Not surprisingly, DS employees their contributions are valued. in an issue supposedly meant to tout wrote most of the positive ones. The Frank DeMichele DS. Ms. Loeffler is a longtime critic sad thing is that this percentage prob- Regional Security Officer of DS, and it appears that no amount ably reflects the attitudes of your edi- Embassy Lusaka of security included in embassy design tors and readership. Is it any wonder would be acceptable to her. She con- that DS employees feel alienated Editor’s Note: As with all topics the tinues to cling to the past, when aes- from the Foreign Service in general, Foreign Service Journal covers, our thetics were the only concern and and AFSA in particular? DS does its intent was neither to “tout” the award-winning architects were com- best to safeguard the lives of our fel- Diplomatic Security Bureau’s accom- missioned to produce buildings that low employees under difficult circum- plishments nor to condemn its short-

DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 7

L ETTERS u

comings. We always strive to present times when security fears dictated ative impact on key decisions such as a wide range of perspectives — posi- policy and treatment of its employees. embassy design, location and access. tive, negative and mixed — in our The nation’s interests were not served Stephen Muller pages and let readers make up their then and will not be served now if FSO, retired own minds. such fears dominate our decision- Troy, N.Y. making and our policy implementa- Balancing Security tion. Good but Dark Fiction and Openness Pierre Shostal I took the fiction issue of the FSJ The Journal’s September edition FSO, retired with me to Baghdad and found it very on Diplomatic Security is an impor- Alexandria, Va. enjoyable. In addition to being an tant service to the foreign affairs com- appreciative reader of short fiction, I munity, and especially to the Foreign One Service? had submitted a story for considera- Service, but its contents are chilling Two points were not touched upon tion. Since it wasn’t selected, I was and the policies described potentially in the series of articles in the curious to see my vanquishers. self-defeating. It is true that foreign September FSJ dedicated to Diplo- Taken as a group, the stories are affairs professionals, both overseas matic Security. One, which ought to interesting and well-told. They cer- and in Washington, are working in a be a sore point within AFSA, is that tainly reflect a Foreign Service per- dangerous world. It is also a world in DS officers are unique among spective, set as they are in exotic for- which their effectiveness in their jobs Foreign Service professionals for their eign places. But with the exception of is crucial to our nation’s long-term ability to earn overtime pay for doing “The Allemande Left Plan” and, to a security. their job. I always found it inexplica- certain extent, “The Interview,” the I’m afraid that the mind-set ble, for instance, that embassy and events recounted were set in the for- described by David Jones and others department FSOs expect and accept eign society at large, not in the insular in that issue undermines that effec- the need to work long hours without world of diplomats and their diploma- tiveness. Walling ourselves off over- compensation to prepare and execute cy. I was also struck by two motifs that seas will make the United States more a visit by the Secretary of State — run through almost all the stories: vulnerable, because it will undermine while the Secretary’s DS protection they take place in a dark, malevolent our ability to understand and commu- detail earns overtime pay for sitting world, and women are treated abu- nicate with the societies with which outside a hotel room. sively. we are dealing. Paranoia about losing The other point is that DS service In next year’s fiction issue I’d like a security clearance will also discour- seems to attract a different kind of to see a greater range of subject mat- age Foreign Service personnel from person than is drawn to traditional ter and more relief from the oppres- understanding and communicating Foreign Service work. I joined the sive mood set in most of them. I’d with these societies. Service because I was interested in also like to see at least one or two sto- It was therefore encouraging and international affairs and wanted to ries told in a less conventional narra- refreshing to read Jane C. Loeffler’s experience life in other cultures. I tive style. Of course, that depends to article about the need for both securi- have been struck that many DS offi- a considerable degree on what gets ty and openness in embassy design. If cers appear to have little interest in submitted. I pledge to do my part to Karen Hughes’ mandate to re-ener- the substance of the work done by offer something along the lines I’m gize our public diplomacy is to have a their Foreign Service colleagues, but recommending. lasting and positive impact, this bal- see themselves primarily as law Larry Lesser ance has to be maintained. In the enforcement personnel whose job is FSO, retired personnel arena, as AFSA General to separate official Americans from Washington, D.C. Counsel Sharon Papp argues, there is the world at large. This would per- a need for a stronger system of checks haps not be so important if DS simply A Ranking Error and balances, one that protects the played a supporting role, but now that Thanks for making me an ambas- rights of employees threatened with it is in a position to make or affect sador (Letters, “Squandered Pro- loss of their security clearances. major department policies, we see mise,” September FSJ). Too late, alas. The Foreign Service has known this narrow perspective having a neg- That honorable title belongs to my

8 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/DECEMBER 2005

L ETTERS u

son, Stephen R., not to me, Stephen N. The letter, however, was mine, not his. I served happily in the department’s and USIA’s Foreign Service at Whether you are with posts from Singapore to Helsinki the Local, State or from the 1940s to the 1970s. Now in Federal Government my 93rd year, I have the enormous agency or the military, pleasure of seeing my children pick Crimson offers superior up where I left off. My work solutions to fit your appeared numerous times in the FSJ budget and per diem. in mid-century and mid-career. Crimson Government Stephen N. Sestanovich Housing Solutions FSO, retired Include: Moraga, Calif. I Assignment Changes Evacuations Intern Programs International Visitors We regret an error in “Breaking Project teams through Diplomacy’s Glass Ceil- Relocations ing,” by Ann Wright (FSJ, October Short / Long Details 2005). In Chart 1, “Firsts for TDY Female Diplomats,” the entry for Training 1995 is incorrect. The first female ambassador to a Middle Eastern Crimson offers an country was April Glaspie (FSO), exceptional value in who served as U.S. ambassador to temporary housing for Iraq from 1988 to 1990. government personnel. Our furnished apartments and single- family homes are a spacious and more luxurious alternative to the cramped quarters of a hotel room.

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DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

BY STEVEN ALAN HONLEY

appy holidays! As we all take articles for these sections from dif- stock of this year and look There are many ferent sources, but warmly welcome Hforward to 2006, I’d like to ways you can contributions (2,000-3,000 words is issue my periodic invitation to avail the usual range, though shorter sub- yourselves of the many opportunities share your insights missions are also accepted) from FS to contribute to the Journal. In that personnel who are familiar with regard, let me thank those of you who in our pages. these issues. responded to AFSA’s recent online Let us hear On the facing page you will find a survey of active-duty State members, list of the focus topics our Editorial which contained a number of ques- from you. Board has identified for the coming tions referencing the Journal (some year (subject, of course, to revision). indirectly). Approximately 2,000 As you can see, most of these members, nearly a quarter of the w themes relate directly to Foreign State contingent, responded to the Service professional and lifestyle survey, a remarkably high response issues, so I hope many of you will rate. Of those, about 400 respon- riences. We welcome contributions consider sharing your insights and dents offered written comments and on topics ranging from managing expertise with your colleagues. suggestions about the magazine’s cov- one’s career and cutting red tape to Please note that because of our lead erage, readability, etc. parlaying one’s professional skills in time for publication, and the require- While they varied considerably in retirement, as well as financial infor- ment for Editorial Board approval, subject matter, level of detail and mation and guidance for Foreign we need to receive submissions at tone, one theme was dominant: a real Service personnel. least two months (and preferably hunger for “news you can use” — There are many other ways you longer) prior to the issue’s release e.g., information about how to can contribute to our pages, of date. Thus, we have already lined up advance your career; tips on dealing course. The Speaking Out depart- authors for the January and February effectively with the bureaucracy at ment is your forum to advocate poli- issues, but there is still time to sub- State and the other foreign affairs cy, regulatory or statutory changes to mit manuscripts for later months. agencies, especially when you are the Foreign Service. These columns If those choices don’t grab you, or trying to resolve a problem; and (approximately 1,500 words long) if you feel we have not devoted updates on how AFSA is working to can be based on personal experience enough space to a professional con- improve working and living condi- with an injustice or offer your cern or functional issue, please con- tions for Foreign Service employees insights into a foreign affairs-related sider writing a feature article (gen- and their families. Much of that cov- issue. erally 2,000-3,000 words long) about erage is found, of course, within the it for us. pages of AFSA News. But another Focus Topics While we are continuing our place to look is in our relatively new Each issue of the Journal features annual fiction contest (now begin- FS Know-How department, which a focus section examining various ning its second decade, by the way), ran four times this year — three of facets of an issue related to the based on your input, we have decid- them by AFSA members sharing the Foreign Service or international rela- ed not to devote a summer issue to it hard-won benefits of their own expe- tions. We commission most of the this year. Instead, we will publish the

10 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/DECEMBER 2005

2006 EDITORIAL CALENDAR for the winning story (most likely in the July- we are pleased to consider poetry FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL August double issue, as in years past) and photographs for publication, and a few of the other stories in other either in that section or as freestand- JANUARY Life and Work after the issues throughout the year, space ing features. Foreign Service permitting. Otherwise, the rules and Don’t forget that the monthly FEBRUARY The State of State after timing are the same: entrants are still AFSA News section offers many dif- Condi Rice’s first year restricted to one story of 3,000 words ferent ways for members to share MARCH Third anniversary of Iraq or less, which must be e-mailed to their experiences, thoughts and con- War (central theme: impact Journal Business Manager Mikkela cerns regarding professional issues. of staffing posts in Iraq and Thompson at [email protected] We are now — as always — accept- Afghanistan on the Foreign no later than April 1. For more ing submissions for a number of fea- Service as an institution) details, see the ads in the next sever- tures, including: Family Member APRIL Latin America al issues of the Journal or contact Matters, Of Special(ist) Concern (a MAY Career development for Mikkela directly. forum for specialists), Where to FS Specialists We invite those of you who expect Retire, Memo of the Month and The JUNE Globalization & to publish a book between now and Lighter Side (FS humor). Find more Development: The U.S. next fall to send us a copy, along with details in this month’s AFSA News, or Role (USAID, MCC, etc.) promotional materials, for inclusion contact Journal Associate Editor (PLUS: semiannual in our seventh annual compilation of Shawn Dorman for more informa- SCHOOLS SUPPLEMENT) recently published books by Foreign tion at [email protected]. JULY/AUGUST The Post-DRI Era: Human Service-affiliated authors, “In Their Finally, let me invite you to share Resources Management (PLUS: AFSA Awards Own Write.” Sept. 1 is still the dead- your reactions, positive and negative, coverage) line for inclusion in the roundup, to what you read each month in our SEPTEMBER Reforming the United which will run in November (but, in Letters section. Just bear in mind Nations and other a change from the past few years, it that, as with all periodicals, the international organizations will appear as a feature, not as that briefer and more focused your letter OCTOBER Public Diplomacy issue’s focus). For more information, is, the more likely we’ll be able to (evaluating Karen Hughes’ contact Senior Editor Susan Maitra print it in full. first year) at [email protected]. Please note that all submissions to NOVEMBER Best & Worst of the the Journal must be approved by our Foreign Service Share Your Insights Editorial Board and are subject to (based on reader survey) Our Reflections department pre- editing for style, length and format. (PLUS: “In Their Own sents short commentaries (approxi- For information on how to submit a Write,” annual roundup of mately 600 words long) based on column, article or letter, please con- books by FS authors) personal experiences while living or tact us at [email protected] and we DECEMBER Russia and other countries traveling overseas. These submis- will be delighted to respond. For of the former Soviet Union) sions should center on insights other inquiries — changes of (PLUS: semiannual gained as a result of interactions with address, subscriptions, etc. — e-mail SCHOOLS SUPPLEMENT) other cultures, rather than being us at [email protected] descriptive “travel pieces.” Note that Let us hear from you. I

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CYBERNOTES

Public Diplomacy In an unprecedented move, she has description of every single ambas- in the Spotlight already created a deputy assistant sec- sador and every single employee at Under Secretary of State for Public retary for public diplomacy position in the State Department.” Further, Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen each regional bureau, who reports Hughes plans to attend each of the Hughes’ high-powered “listening both to Hughes and to the regional chiefs-of-mission conferences, and tours” to the Middle East and Muslim assistant secretary. has directed the ambassadors to Asia, including her gaffes on Saddam “We’re also speaking at all the bring their public affairs officers to Hussein’s gassing victims and other seminars for new ambassadors,” states these meetings. missteps, have received lively press Hughes, “emphasizing that public In the discussion following her attention worldwide. But getting “out diplomacy is now part of the job talk, Hughes spelled out yet another there” with America’s message speaks to only one aspect of Washington’s much-studied public diplomacy crisis. Site of the Month: Audit of the Conventional Wisdom Even more critical, perhaps, is to In this age of relentless media hype and information overload, where there break through the structural and orga- is a premium on byte-size packaging of ideas and events, no matter how com- nizational problems that have kept plicated, the essay series launched by MIT’s Center for International Studies in PD on the sidelines ever since USIA May offers welcome relief (www.mit.edu/cis/acw.html). The essays “audit” was abolished and folded into the the conventional wisdoms that underlie U.S. foreign policy, putting them to the State Department in 1999. test of data and history and exploring their effects on American policy. Hughes addressed some of the By “conventional wisdoms” CIS means the folk axioms, bromides, platitudes underlying problems on Oct. 14, and generally superficial explanations that, once entrenched, go unchallenged. when she keynoted a forum on the Whatever the source and whoever the supporters, when conventional wisdom future of public diplomacy, “America’s in foreign policy is mistaken, it can be damaging to U.S. interests and to global Dialogue with the World,” co-spon- peace and stability. sored by The George Washington Take the case of the “free market” economic policies fostered globally by the University’s Public Diplomacy Insti- United States. Though insisted upon by the U.S. and known, ironically, as the tute, The Public Diplomacy Council “Washington Consensus,” many economists point out that “structural adjust- and the American Academy of ment” and similar marketization schemes have failed time and again to allevi- Diplomacy. There, in the second half ate the problems of low or no growth in developing countries. of her talk, she shared “a few of the So far, the series includes such provocative titles as “All Weapons of Mass tactical specifics of what we’re doing” Destruction Are Not Equal,” “The United States as an Asian Power: Realism with an audience of 300, mostly PD or Conceit?,” “U.S. Military Power: Strong Enough to Deter All Challenges?” professionals. (The transcript on Amb. and “Iran: Rogue State?” Hughes’ remarks is available online at “By subjecting particularly well-accepted ideas to close scrutiny, we hope to http://www.state.gov/r/us/2005/ start an argument, or to re-engage policy and opinion leaders, on topics that are 55165.htm.) too easily passing such scrutiny,” states the MIT Center for International “First of all, we’re bringing public Studies. “We do so as academics, rather than as policy-makers, by accepting diplomacy to the policy table and inte- complexity, marshaling historical evidence, offering new or overlooked data, grating it into every aspect of the State and providing fresh analysis.” Department,” Hughes stated, explain- CIS hopes this will lead to “something we can all agree on: better foreign ing that she or one of her senior policies that lead to a more peaceful and prosperous world.” At least it can help staffers attends Secretary Rice’s first to keep the debate honest. meeting every morning and last meet- — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor ing every night, and many in between.

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objective: that the Bureau of Inter- New Report Finds Decline ventive diplomacy initiatives and a national Information Programs ought in Global Violence fourfold increase in peacemaking to become a technology hub, not only The Human Security Report, a efforts since 1990. for the department, but for the U.S. comprehensive study released by The “The increase in preventive diplo- government. “We’re going to make Liu Institute for Global Issues at the macy helped prevent a number of that one of IIP’s core missions, and University of British Colombia, has latent conflicts from crossing the we’re convening a private-sector advi- found surprising evidence of a decline threshold into warfare, while the rise sory council where I’m reaching out in the number of wars, genocides and in peacemaking activities has been to some of the best minds in the human-rights abuses over the past associated with a major rise in peace technology world to try to get them decade. Terrorism is an anomaly, settlements,” the report concludes. to help me,” says Hughes. being the only category in which Further resources on the subject are These measures and plans may be armed conflict has risen. (The full available at the Human Security Gate- driving a healthy institutional shake- report is available online at http:// way (http://www.humansecurity up at State, thanks to Karen Hughes’ www.humansecurityreport.info/.) gateway.info/), a research and infor- close friendship with President Bush. The report credits three major mation database affiliated with the But whether that political backing political changes over the last 30 years Liu Institute. The site offers a trea- will translate into financial back- for the decline in violence. First came sure trove of electronic and biblio- ing, enabling her to command the the process of decolonization. Wars of graphic resources on human security, resources necessary to actually imple- national liberation accounted for 60 to including access to maps. ment her ideas, remains to be seen. 100 percent of the conflicts from the The decreasing trend in armed As on previous occasions, Hughes early 1950s to the 1980s, depending conflict runs counter to common per- reiterated her determination to step on the year. But since colonialism’s ceptions of an increasingly violent and up exchange programs and institute virtual demise, no such wars have chaotic world, though the researchers a vigorous citizen ambassador pro- occurred. insist their positive findings are no gram. Some “new money” has been Second was the end of the Cold grounds for complacency. The report diverted into both exchange and War, which has resulted in an end to is ultimately intended to help the English-language training programs the instigation of proxy wars in the international community learn the already, Hughes reports, and a “sig- Third World. During the Cold War lessons of conflict prevention and con- nificant” increase is planned for period these accounted for approxi- flict resolution, both when policies Fiscal Year 2006: $74 million. mately one-third of all conflicts. work and when they do not. But fully $180 million of the $430 The report pays special attention to — Daniel Zussman, million requested for educational and the upsurge of international activism Editorial Intern cultural exchange programs in FY from the World Bank, donor states, a 2006 is specifically earmarked for number of regional security organiza- Video Games: “Muslim Outreach” programs — tions and NGOs. However, the A Changing Medium despite the fact the America’s image is United Nations is given most of the A new generation of nonconven- no less tarnished among non-Muslims. credit for its effectiveness in spear- tional video game-makers is promot- The $74 million increase will only heading these international opera- ing world peace through a medium allow the mainline exchanges to con- tions. This may be surprising in light notorious for embracing violence. tinue at about 2005 levels, and there of some of the U.N.’s recent and high- Those concerned about the effects of is no telling whether more will be ly publicized failures, but the report exposure to video-game violence on cut in the post-Katrina budgetary maintains this is because success is young people have reason to hope the universe. never as widely reported. The report newest line of constructive video — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor details a sixfold increase in U.N. pre- games will produce a similar, yet

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www.seriousgamessummit.com/ hose who argued at the home.html#). These efforts are evi- time that the acceptance dence of a maturing video game Tof democracy in Iraq would industry whose constructive potential is just now being realized. be easy, and who drew on our — Daniel Zussman, experience with Japan and Editorial Intern Germany, were wrong. They were dead wrong. Hurricane Season 2005: A Global Warming Link? — Richard Armitage, The destructive hurricane season former Deputy Secretary of 2005 has added new urgency to the of State, The Diplomat, question of climate change, already Oct.-Nov. 2005. contentious well before Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma struck the Gulf Coast and Florida within a two- month period this fall. opposite outcome. Ross Gelbspan, who believes glob- The United Nations’ World Food al warming is a man-made phenome- Program has seen enormous success non, is the author of Boiling Point: since the release this past spring How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, of “Food Force” (downloadable for Journalists and Activists Are Fueling free at http://www.food-force.com/ the Climate Crisis — And What We index.php/game/downloads/), an Can Do to Avert Disaster (2004). online game primarily targeted at Gelbspan asserts that Katrina’s “real children, in which players must fight name is global warming.” However, hunger in conditions replicating mod- such claims from him and other ern-day humanitarian crises. In a sign alarmists were met with skepticism in of the game’s popularity, Yahoo! had some quarters. But despite the to step in as Web host when the apparent lack of consensus, this year’s original U.N. site was overwhelmed devastation has caused a growing by users. number of people to grasp the seri- A team at Carnegie Mellon ousness of the debate. University has produced “Peace- The Web offers an array of per- Maker” (http://www.etc.cmu.edu/ spectives on global warming, ranging projects/peacemaker/TheGame. from general background information htm), a strategy game whose objec- to polemics on both sides. A good tive is to resolve the Israeli- introduction is available at the Palestinian conflict. CMU designed it Environmental Protection Agency’s especially for Israeli, Palestinian and information page (http://yosemite. American youth in high school and epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/ college settings. content/index.html). This site pre- The Serious Games Summit, an sents a balanced view of the phenom- annual conference dedicated to enon, laying out the problems it poses advancing this new market, offers a across many categories, and its likely guide to upcoming conferences and causes. It also offers extensive data an abundance of downloadable infor- and research material for download, mation sessions from previous keynote giving the public sufficient knowledge speakers on their Web site (http:// to form its own opinion on the matter.

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NASA’s Earth Observatory Web Judith Curry and Hai-Ru Chang. “In not human actions but rather natural site (http://earthobservatory.nasa. the 1970s, there was an average of cycles are the primary cause.” (The gov/Laboratory/PlanetEarthScie about 10 Category 4 and 5 hurricanes article is available at http://www. nce/GlobalWarming/GW.html) per year globally. Since 1990, the techcentralstation.com/091605F. provides background information on number of Category 4 and 5 hurri- html.) climate change, but it is better suited canes has almost doubled, averaging Others have gone further, criticiz- for the tech-savvy visitor. Here one 18 per year globally.” They conclude ing not only the content of these stud- can find writings as well as video clips that the spike in Category 4 and 5 hur- ies, but the publications themselves. on the different aspects of climate ricanes is caused by a global rise in Dr. Benny Peiser, an authority on the change, and an interactive map for sea-surface temperatures, which effects of environmental change at obtaining information about a specific intensifies the magnitude of hurri- Liverpool John Moores University, region. canes once they have formed. (The claims that Science magazine refused Another valuable resource is the full report is available at http://web to publish his findings because it September issue of Science magazine, ster.eas.gatech.edu/Papers/Web raised doubts over a link between which offered a comprehensive col- ster2005b.pdf.) global warming and human activity. lection of global-warming articles However, these studies have come Professor Roy Spencer, another regarding Hurricane Katrina, and cli- under attack from a number of critics, prominent skeptic and an expert on mate change more generally, available most notably Dr. Patrick Michaels of satellite measurements of global tem- free to all visitors (http://www.sci the University of Virginia, a longtime peratures at the University of encemag.org/sciext/katrina/). skeptic of global warming and the Alabama, also accuses Science of bias. Overwhelmingly, its articles attribute author of Meltdown: The Predictable He claims that when his own team deadlier hurricane seasons to man- Distortion of Global Warming by submitted findings casting doubt on made global warming. Scientists, Politicians, and the Media the existence of global warming, they In a timely study done at Georgia (2004). Michaels maintains that the were rejected by reviewers from Institute of Technology’s School of latest claims of a link between Nature and Science magazines (http:// Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, increased hurricane activity and glob- www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main. researchers gathered hurricane data al warming are unfounded. “The con- jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/01/wgl on the number, duration and intensity clusion many draw from papers such ob01.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05 of hurricanes during the past 35 years. as these is that anthropogenic global /01/ixworld.html). “What we found was rather astonish- warming from the burning of fossil As the global-warming debate ing,” says Peter Webster, who took fuels by humans is causing more lethal rages on, it remains uncertain which part in the project with Greg Holland, storms. A closer look, though, reveals side will ultimately gain popular support. In light of recent events, the skeptics have hit back hard, while advocates of a link wonder what will convince doubters, if not this year’s 50 Years Ago... record-breaking hurricane season. In In this little world, we constitute perhaps the happiest any case, the magnitude of destruc- family of any “hardship” post. It is hot here, and mail tion along the Gulf Coast has awak- takes eight days to reach us, but we are working hard and having fun. ened many people to the gravity of the By Christmas, those of us who do not yet have apartments will have issue. As Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on them, and air-conditioned, too. We have a boat which takes us on Environmental Pollution, puts it: “If picnics up the Mekong, and once a week we look at American movies this makes the climate loonies in the on the roof of the embassy residence. States realize we’ve got a problem, — Martin F. Herz, from Phnom Penh, in “News from the Field,” FSJ, some good will come out of a truly awful situation.” December 1955. — Daniel Zussman, Editorial Intern I

DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 15

SPEAKING OUT Implement Career Development by Reforming the Assignment System

BY CAMILLE HILL

applaud the intent of the new upon entry to the Service, and Career Development Program, Employees should be employees would select the second Ibut am concerned about flaws in proactive in planning upon being tenured. One would be the implementation plan that com- from the reporting cones (political or promise employees’ ability to obtain their careers, but economic) while the other must be the kind of planned series of assign- the system must from the program management cones ments required by the letter and spir- facilitate their efforts (public diplomacy, management or it of the CDP. The most crucial of consular). During bidding, employ- these flaws are two: first, the failure to to develop and ees would be considered in-cone for eliminate the assignment system’s implement both of their cones. They would des- longstanding bias against consular, reasonable plans. ignate one cone as their dominant management and public diplomacy cone (major cone) for in-cone promo- officers; and, second, the failure to tions. They would not be considered provide adequate rewards for FSOs w for promotion in their other cone in all cones who have demonstrated (minor cone). They would be expect- their willingness to meet the needs of ed to serve in both their cones, along the Service through a series of assign- simply viewed by some colleagues as the lines of the requirements for the ments to differential posts. incapable of performing at an accept- CDP regional major/minor — three able level in reporting positions. tours/six years of in-cone service for a Eliminating Conal Bias In effect, political and economic major and two tours/three years of in- As a consular-coned officer, I have officers are being treated as true cone service for a minor. consistently encountered the attitude Foreign Service generalists who can Preferences for Out-of-Cone Bid- that while reporting (i.e., political and serve in any capacity, while consular, ders. Alternatively, HR could reserve economic) officers should have a PD and management officers are certain “cushy” jobs in developed chance to learn program management treated as glorified specialists. This countries in all cones for qualified out- and consular skills, it is a lower priori- bias severely disadvantages officers in of-cone bidders. This could be done ty for consular, public diplomacy and the program management cones in by offering specified positions only management officers to learn report- obtaining the career-enhancing assign- to out-of-cone officers, or by allowing ing skills. This attitude appears to ments needed to be competitive for anyone to bid but giving preference to reflect one of two beliefs. First, some cross-grade promotions and to satisfy out-of-cone bidders. Or, a quota sys- assume that consular, management career development requirements, tem could be set up, requiring that a and PD officers are mainly going to be and runs contrary to the letter and given percentage of all jobs in each filling in-cone jobs throughout their spirit of career development. region or bureau be filled by out-of- careers, and therefore do not need to The Career Development Plan cone bidders. learn reporting skills. (There is some should develop the skills of all officers Individual Development Plans. Yet truth to this claim regarding manage- in all cones, not just offer out-of-cone another solution would be to replace ment officers, given the real shortage opportunities to political and econom- the coning system with Individual of officers in that cone compared to ic officers. Toward that end, I suggest Development Plans that each em- the number of positions, but that dis- the following possible fixes: ployee would sign with HR. These parity should not be used to deny them Dual Cones. Every officer could would be along the lines of a contract out-of-cone assignments.) Alterna- have two cones. The Bureau of between the employee and the tively, officers in those cones are Human Resources would assign one bureau of his or her choice regarding

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completion of a certain number of immediately following the hardship ferential. The required number of assignments. While the details would tour. And, because there is no hardship points to bid on non-hard- obviously have to be worked out, each retroactivity to the new rule, those of ship jobs would go up according to FSO could design an IDP with the us who have accepted several substan- the grade of the position (perhaps geographic bureau responsible for tial hardship assignments over the seven points to bid on an FS-3 posi- his/her regional “major” under the course of our careers are on the same tion with no hardship differential, 10 Career Development Program; with footing as fair-share bidders who took for an 02 position, 13 for an 01 posi- the appropriate functional bureau for their first hardship tour only under tion). Employees would also need to his/her major cone under the dual- protest. This disparity is effectively a accumulate a minimum number of cone system outlined above; or with slap in the face to those of us who hardship points to be eligible to bid the Bureau of International Organi- really came through when asked to on any jobs on the DCM/principal zations Affairs or one of the bureaus meet the needs of the Service. officer list — perhaps seven. under the under secretary for global To remedy this, I propose institut- Similarly, a minimum number of affairs. The plan could be flexible in ing a system of hardship equity points hardship points would be required for that the order of postings could be that explicitly favors bidders with sub- an employee to be eligible for promo- rearranged according to available stantial fair-share service over bidders tion. The required hardship points jobs, etc. without it. It would give bidders for each promotion would increase for hardship equity points for every year each grade (seven for promotion to Using Incentives to (i.e., at least 10 months of actual time FS-3, 10 for promotion to FS-2, 13 for Meet Service Needs at post) served at a differential post promotion to FS-1 and 16 to open The other major flaw in the assign- along the following lines: one’s window). Employees with ments system concerns bidders with a • One hardship point per year at a fewer points would not be presented pattern of service at differential posts. 5- or 10-percent differential post. to the boards unless/until they had I have served in four of these in rapid • Two hardship points per year at a been at grade for at least seven years. succession: Lagos to Douala to Beirut 15- or 20-percent differential post. And the boards would be instructed (via Arabic training) to the Bureau of • Three hardship points per year at to low-rank them unless they had a Population, Refugees and Migration a 25-percent differential post. valid waiver for health reasons to Baghdad. So, again, I speak from • One extra hardship point for (including dependents’ health). personal experience when I say that every year in which the employ- the system does not adequately ee received danger pay for at Additional Measures reward FSOs for meeting service least six months. I would also propose the following needs. Hard assignments in difficult • One extra point for each year of steps: places do not earn tenured employees service in critical-need/hard-to- Designate advocates for the bid- equity toward future assignments in fill assignments or at unaccom- ding process. HR should assign advo- nice places. In addition, the very fact panied posts. cates in the bidding process to all that employees are serving in difficult Employees would accumulate employees coming from 20-percent and isolated spots makes them less hardship equity points from their date and above differential posts, as well as able to lobby than their colleagues of entry into the Foreign Service. all posts with danger pay. This will closer to Washington. A minimum number of hardship help level the playing field for those At present, the only payback in the points would be required to bid on bidding from remote and dangerous system for service at hardship posts is any position with no hardship differ- locations overseas, who are often “out the differential-bidder program, ential. I would suggest a minimum of of sight, out of mind.” which treats bids on one-grade seven points — i.e., the equivalent of Establish directed assignments for stretches the same as at-grade bids. two years of service at a post with a “plum” positions. HR should treat all However, given the natural tendency hardship differential of 25 percent, assignments below the DCM level to of the system to favor at-grade bid- with one year at a danger pay, critical non-differential posts, and certain ders, in most cases this is a nice but needs, hard-to-fill or unaccompanied “juicy” domestic assignments (such as hollow gesture. Moreover, this option post, or one additional year in service watch officers in the Operations only applies to the bidding cycle at a post with any level of hardship dif- Center and all country desk officers

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below the office-director level), as directed assignments for which bidders with hardship equity above the minimum would be given priority consideration. HR should have total control over these plum assignments, as it now has over entry-level jobs, and prohibit lobbying for them. It would then give bidders with at least a set minimum number of hardship points a special early-bidding opportunity before the regular bidding season to bid on these posts, and would be able to offer handshakes (informal promises of assignment) before the regular bidding season. These posts would open up to all bidders as of the opening date of the regular bidding season if no handshake had been given, but no bidder with less than the minimum number of hardship points could be assigned to any of them as long as there was at least one bidder with the required minimum number of points who had not yet been given a handshake on a job. Offer linked follow-on assignments. Employees who accept assignments at 20-percent and higher posts, or those with danger pay, should have the chance to be paneled into a desirable follow-on assignment at the same time as they are paneled for the hardship tour. This could be an offshoot of the Individual Develop- ment Plans discussed above, or a separate program allowing those who agree to take a tour at post with a differential of 20 percent or higher to pick from the next cycle’s list ahead of time. Link professional development to hardship service. The aim would be to make service in a minimum number of hardship posts a requirement for attractive professional development assignments. For example, one hardship tour after tenure would be needed for FS-3 professional development, two hardship tours after

18 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/DECEMBER 2005

S PEAKING O UT u A time of service…a time of need Help for Seniors May I propose instituting Be Just a Phone Call Away— a system of hardship The Senior Living Foundation may be able to help you or someone you know. equity points that Some examples of assistance are:

explicitly favors bidders N Home Health Care N Adult Day Care & Respite Care with substantial N Prescription Drug Copayments fair-share service over N Transportation to Medical Appointments N Durable Medical Equipment bidders without it. For more information, please contact the SENIOR LIVING FOUNDATION OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE 1716 N Street, NW N Washington, DC 20036-2902 Phone: (202) 887-8170 N Fax: (202) 872-9320 E-Mail: [email protected] N Web Site: www.slfoundation.org tenure for FS-2 professional develop- SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION ment, three tours after tenure for FS- 1 professional development, etc. Reward sustained hardship service with language-training incentives. Employees who accumulate the level of hardship points needed to open their windows should receive an extra year of language training in the language(s) of their choice. Employ- ees would decide when to take the training (i.e., after which assignments), so that employees with heavy hardship service early in their careers could save the training for timely use within seven years prior to opening their windows. Employees would not need to have a follow-on assignment in hand where the language would be used. They could take the training in a one-year block, or break it up into two or more segments to use at different times. Language training linked to an assignment before reaching the FS-1 level would not count against the year; however, training linked to assignments after promotion to that grade would count. In addition, upon opening their windows, employees would lose any unused portion of the year of language training.

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Dividends of Proposed Reforms Employees should be proactive in planning their careers, but the system must facilitate the efforts of individual employees to develop and implement reasonable plans. I would like to see a frank and open discussion of the assignments system. Manage- ment should brainstorm with the Foreign Service on possible improvements, vet all the options with an open discussion of merits and disadvantages of various schemes put forward, and select a way forward from among the available options. The reforms to the assignments system that I propose would correct long-standing inequities in the system that have disadvantaged certain cones and created disincentives for employees to meet service needs by serving in hardship tours. Dual cones, preferences for out-of-cone bidders and Individual Development Plans are ways to enhance employee morale and job satisfaction by giving all officers a realistic chance to serve in several generalist functions. Those officers who demonstrate their commitment to meeting service needs through a series of tough assignments would be favored for promotion and for the most desirable assignments. Real incentives for hardship service should encourage bids on such jobs, providing the department with a robust selection of qualified and motivated candidates. Moreover, these reforms would facilitate the Career Development Program’s fundamental purpose: training and developing a cadre of officers with broad experience competing for promotion to the Senior Foreign Service. I

Camille Hill, an FSO since 1991, has served in Sao Paulo, Lagos, Douala, Tunis, Beirut and Washington. She is currently refugee coordinator in Baghdad.

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F OCUS ON IT AND D IPLOMACY

WIRING STATE: A PROGRESS REPORT alerie Sinclair V

ONCE A TECHNOLOGY LAGGARD, THE STATE DEPARTMENT HAS BECOME AN INNOVATOR. BUT THE PACE MUST BE SUSTAINED TO TRULY TRANSFORM DIPLOMACY.

BY JOE JOHNSON

couple of years ago, I bought a new personal computer. Selecting exactly the features I wanted proved fascinating, and purchasing the equipment was easy. It was when the boxes arrived on my doorstep that the fun stopped. The new machine held a magnitude of capabilities, but none ofA my own data. All my e-mail addresses and contact information, settings for my Internet provider, and the thousands of records I had built up were on my obsolete machine. It took more than two months of painstaking work before I could

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disconnect my old but smart computer and take it off the • In the political section, the office management spe- card table where I had kept it, next to the new, dumb PC cialist posts the latest reporting cable to the embassy’s on my desk. classified Web site, where everyone on the Secret In thinking about how the State Department has SIPRNet (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network), adopted information technology to carry out its mission, including the regional combatant command headquar- that experience is a good starting point. It’s not enough to ters, can find it. buy the gear; you have to work to put it to use. Sometimes • The public affairs officer convenes local opinion- new capabilities even change how you work. makers with an expert in Washington via videoconference; Over the past decade, the State Department has the embassy’s public Web site is updated automatically. moved with increasing speed to establish strong networks • After everyone has gone home, the embassy duty of computers, to integrate computer applications to man- officer carries a palm-size BlackBerry device with all ref- age its global operations, and to ensure that new invest- erence information and contact points. This digital assis- ments would be sustainable and accountable to Congress. tant receives and sends e-mail and doubles as a telephone. So this is a good time to ask: what did the department get, The above are ideal cases, not available at all posts. and how well is it using its new capabilities? (BlackBerry deployment overseas, for instance, is only To what extent State can and will use its new electron- beginning.) But all these technologies are in use today in ic capability to further its core mission of conducting and embassies and inside the department. leading diplomacy remains an open question. Measured against State’s total operating budget, the $1 billion per year being spent on information technology Information: A Core Resource outstrips the proportion spent by a typical American com- and Responsibility pany by a factor of two or more, however you take the Information has always been a core resource and measure. Admittedly, the department has had to play responsibility for the State Department. When Congress catch-up. In 1999, examining the East Africa embassy established the department as the first cabinet agency in bombings, the Overseas Presence Advisory Panel levied 1789, the act of law gave the Secretary of State custody of the following judgment: “We were dismayed to find that all official records going back to the Continental Congress our embassies are equipped with antiquated, grossly inef- and the Articles of Confederation. ficient, and incompatible information-technology systems State’s mandate has evolved since then, but not its incapable of even the simplest electronic communications reliance on information, which is increasingly automated. across department lines that are now commonplace in pri- To think of all the diverse ways in which the department vate-sector organizations.” is using information technology right now, it helps to imagine the daily routine at an average embassy. Powell Ramps up Technology • The consular officer pulls up electronic files on the A modernization program was already in progress applicant before him or her, including previous visa appli- when Colin Powell launched his Diplomatic Readiness cations with photos, thereby revealing evidence of fraud Initiative in 2001, but Powell sent the makeover into high in an instant. Outside the embassy, a private call center gear. William Smullen, who served as Secretary Powell’s answers applicants’ questions for a fee and schedules their chief of staff at that time, recalls: “At our initial briefings, appointments with the visa officer. we learned that State was not even close to being able to • The management officer uses a suite of software grapple with the requirements of the 21st century.” The applications to view the budget, logistics and critical func- upgrades would include new Foreign Service personnel, tions at post, while requests for services go electronically more modern and secure embassy buildings, and to administrative staff. enhanced technology. “Ever since I’ve known him, Secretary Powell believed in technology as a force multi- Joe Johnson recently retired from the Foreign Service plier,” Smullen says. When the Secretary went to Con- after heading the State Department’s Office of gress for new money, he justified information technology eDiplomacy. He now works for the Computer Sciences as an integral part of diplomatic readiness. Corporation as a part-time consultant. By the time Powell left office, 43,000 employees the

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world over were linked through State’s unclassified board of America Online. For instance, he made known OpenNet, which included broadband Internet access. his complaint that Diplomatic Security took away his per- Nearly all embassies were embraced in an expanded clas- sonal digital assistant. sified network. These networks in turn could access inter- Smullen recalls, “The computer was always on in his agency intranets. OpenNet computers offered the Open office; he talked online all day.” Powell would check clas- Source Information System, while ClassNet computers sified memos against public information obtained from displayed the secret-level SIPRNet. Google. He pushed to get broadband on his official air- The business systems on State’s networks needed cost- craft. When traveling, he would duck into embassy offices ly upgrades as well. Incompatible software programs at random to check his e-mail. At daily senior staff meet- could not provide the consolidated management informa- ings, he would often point out official Web sites that were tion needed by State’s new, hands-on leadership. Grant out of date, and he amiably nagged his press spokesman Green, Powell’s under secretary for management, over- to get more pictures and human-interest information on ruled Chief Information Officer Fernando Burbano to State’s public Web site. It made the IT transformation assume direct oversight of key projects to modernize the about more than new gear. old software with commercial, off-the-shelf systems. The Powell team added a further upgrade to the agenda: a Systems Integration: A Work in Progress 21st-century messaging system to replace cables, which But just as the work did not begin with Powell, it was dated back to the end of World War II, as the depart- not complete at his departure. Secretary Condoleezza ment’s main communications network. Rice has expressed support for continuing investments in Other budget resources went into less visible up- IT. Still, sometimes State reminds me of myself two years grades: a permanent set-aside to refresh equipment, and ago, trying to transfer masses of information to new com- accountability programs strengthening network security. puter circuits. As a result of the work done over Powell’s tenure, the One major challenge is the integration of commercial President’s Management Agenda, which summarizes all standard software to manage basic business functions like agencies’ fitness with simple traffic-light indicators, human resources, budgeting and logistical support to flipped State’s color first to yellow, then to green. embassies. Old systems developed by individual bureaus The new Secretary billed himself as a chief executive would not share information, so managers had difficulty officer, but his role (unlike that of his predecessors) was relating expenses to budget lines, or merging bits of per- more like a rainmaker, according to Smullen and Bruce sonnel information to make and execute personnel deci- Morrison, who replaced Burbano as chief information sions. Over the past decade, the department has acquired officer in December 2002 and served until last year. new computer programs built and maintained by large Consider the move to give Internet access to everyone software vendors. The problem arises in adapting the on the unclassified network. That may seem a no-brainer, standard software to State’s entrenched bureaucratic but it actually took Powell’s personal intervention. processes, and in making the major components work Morrison describes the internal controversy this way: “It properly with each other. Broadly, this process is called was a difficult situation, because of the fact that we share systems integration. our Sensitive-But-Unclassified network with FSNs. [The Christopher Bronk, who wrote software before enter- open Internet link] made the possibility of any security ing the Foreign Service, summarizes the difficulty: “The breaches much more likely. We went back and forth with issue is combining so many different systems into a Diplomatic Security for well over a year before finally homogenous network. Do you change the software to fit working out a method. Secretary Powell’s eagerness to get the business function, or the function to fit the software?” it done helped us all to get to a compromise. In his first A common technique is to make diverse databases deliver town hall meeting, he had talked about Internet on the their information to Web browsers like Windows Internet desktop, and he told us he would find the resources. In Explorer or Mozilla, which most workers can use efficient- the end, it cost over $100 million to do it.” ly. “The goal,” says Bronk, is “making the State computer The Secretary also pressed for more open information- environment work the way common transactions do when sharing generally, referring to his own experience on the you buy something from Amazon over the Internet.”

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Former CIO Bruce Morrison spoke of how People- government. During confirmation hearings last October Soft, the largest commercial provider of business software for John Grimes, the president’s nominee for chief infor- for human resource management, has improved person- mation officer at the Defense Department, Sen. Carl nel management after a multiyear investment. “I think Levin, D-Mich., asked Grimes to report on whether cen- the department has a much better grasp of who has lan- tralizing DOD’s information technology spending would guage skills, who has training and experience for a job. It’s make the diverse armed services work together better. also now much easier to use the Internet and Web tech- Levin complained, “We hear constant references to nologies for all kinds of HR activities, from assignments to technical difficulties.” retirement to functions like changing your dependent status. The old system would never have adapted to the The Next Challenge: Reaching Out Internet.” The department recently used its integrated Arguably, a core challenge in conducting foreign rela- databases to quickly identify team members in response tions in this era is to coordinate more than a score of fed- to the Asian tsunami of December 2004. eral agencies that engage in international operations. The vision is to enable all management data to be Today’s embassies are, in effect, federal buildings where shared, mixed and matched. For example, embassy pur- State employees are sometimes in the minority. As the chase orders can update the global financial accounting lead foreign affairs agency, State must track DEA agents, database, and can also feed supply chain software. This is Library of Congress functionaries, and military attaches the Valhalla of most large organizations. And like most and their support staff in the U.S. at the same time that bureaucracies, State remains far from that goal, partly as a they handle State’s internal business. That is where the result of uncoordinated and poorly-conceived software solutions are not all in view, despite the Overseas decisions made over the previous 15 years. Presence Advisory Panel’s call for “electronic communications across [departmental] lines.” Centralized or Federated? Not surprisingly, USAID is the agency most closely Federal legislation, notably the Clinger-Cohen Act of tied to State through information technology. The two 1996 and the E-Government Act of 2002, required every agencies have begun joint infrastructure planning, and last agency to name a chief information officer and to central- year linked their networks. State employees can now view ize information technology under government-wide stan- USAID’s intranet from their OpenNet screens, and vice dards. But State’s CIO is no czar. The position controls versa. This has eased electronic communication between less than half of the relevant outlays, which reside mostly all personnel and opened new sources of information to in the accounts of regional bureaus and management both agencies. It may also enable (if not lead to) shared bureaus like Consular Affairs, Administration and Diplo- administrative functions in the future. matic Security. New projects require approval by a Other extra-agency business is harder. Paul Christy, department-wide executive board, which has not so far deputy CIO for the Foreign Commercial Service, was been able to secure a comprehensive accounting of unsuccessful this year in getting Commerce Department bureaus’ expenditures from their operations and mainte- software approved for use on State’s OpenNet computers. nance budgets. At 11 embassies, State Department personnel are carry- Fulfilling congressional mandates, says former CIO ing out commercial services and programs in conjunction Morrison, “very much colored my tenure, as did the sub- with FCS, but they are doing it on individual computers sequent President’s Management Agenda. Compared to that link back to Commerce’s network. prior decades, the department is very centralized.” Nevertheless, Christy is upbeat about his experience at Morrison recalls an era when each region and bureau State: “State is 10 times bigger than FCS. That means a spent money on IT entirely as it saw fit. Foreign Service lot more process and less flexibility in managing the desk- officers often had to learn different equipment when top.” Christy’s office is modifying its applications so that transferring from one post to another, State lost out on they can be accessed from common Web browsers, which economies of scale, and connecting everyone together in would enable more economic sections to use the com- a network was impossible. mercial tools. This is a common concern throughout the federal State needs a way to conduct business with more than

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30 agencies at embassies, each with its business applica- computers on two global networks, SMART is compli- tions locked in stovepiped systems. Its first attempt to cated. The new SMART messages will have to inter- leap across the stovepipes failed at the pilot stage. The face with other agencies’ existing systems set up for Foreign Affairs Systems Integration System, funded at cables, and the system’s designers want it to pass infor- $17 million, aimed to create a specialized, unclassified- mation across security classification boundaries within but-protected network called the Interagency Coll- security guidelines. aboration Zone. FASI was abandoned in January 2003 A blue-ribbon steering committee made up of senior after the software was tried at Embassy Mexico City. officials and technologists selected these characteristics The leadership replaced FASI with a dual approach: and — after surveying 24 private- and public-sector mes- the new messaging system, which was already in the saging systems for ready-made programs — decided in early stage of development, and full participation in 2002 that SMART would have to be built from several two networks linking multiple intelligence and defense commercial software components. Headed by retired agencies. Neither has yet achieved a breakthrough. Ambassador Joe Lake, the committee set up a project office and, in November 2003, selected the Northrop Getting SMART Grumman Corporation to build and maintain a system at SMART messaging will replace cables, e-mail and a potential cost of $270 million. other correspondence with a system that looks like Originally intended for deployment in 2005, SMART is Outlook e-mail to the user, but tags and archives each now running more than a year behind schedule. A system policy-oriented message for easy retrieval. Deployed is currently being tested in State facilities for a pilot run at across more than 50,000 unclassified and classified embassies in Northeastern Europe and in parts of the

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Diplomatic Security Bureau in Washington. Northrop Current acting CIO Jay Anania wants to fully utilize Grumman’s contract for the current developmental phase protected channels to other agencies that are already in has been extended until Jan. 31, 2006. The project office place: two interagency networks operated by Intelink, an is guarded on next steps, but it appears to be preparing office of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Open alternatives in case Northrop Grumman’s product cannot Source Information System is a governmentwide intra- pass muster by that date. net, cleared for Sensitive-But-Unclassified information. Why is it so hard to install a system that might appear The SIPRNet allows multiple agencies to share informa- to be nothing more than souped-up e-mail? The new pro- tion through the secret classification. Both networks are gram also has to include all command-and-control fea- expanding to cover all foreign affairs agencies, and they tures of cables, including automatic distribution to offer up-to-date features like Google search, weblog soft- responsible offices. It must tag each message on the fly ware and automated information updates. State employ- (supplementing existing TAGS indicators with new cate- ees can access OSIS from any OpenNet workstation, and gories) and deliver it to an archive open to all with the SIPRNet from any ClassNet computer. proper clearance, thereby enabling a decision to move In fact, some 180 embassies already maintain Web from a concept of “need-to-know” to one of “need-to- pages on SIPRNet, featuring staff lists and political and share.” Finally, the vision requires communication economic reporting; cumulatively, those pages were draw- between unclassified and classified systems, e-mail access ing more than a million visitors per month at the end of to employees away from their offices, and access to instant 2004. In addition, State’s OSIS page offers an e-mail messaging and collaborative workspaces. directory of State and USAID personnel. Charles Wisecarver, who heads the SMART project In a speech to Intelink’s annual conference last office, says State recently updated its earlier study of alter- September, Anania laid out the vision that every foreign native systems. “None satisfies the State Department affairs employee should have access to all relevant U.S. vision of a system that is simple, secure and user-driven,” government information from any U.S. government com- he says. Newly installed Under Secretary for Manage- puter, proposing Intelink as the carrier. No funding has ment Henrietta Fore has endorsed the SMART concept. yet been announced to support the concept, however. At a more senior level, the Office of Management and Many agency offices overseas already pay for OpenNet Budget has a say. According to an OMB official, “OMB terminals, and some — citing difficulties in accessing continues to closely monitor the SMART project and OSIS, in particular — believe State should simply make it State’s internal IT governance process as the department easier for other agencies to access its own networks. works through the continued development of, and alter- State hosts occasional meetings of foreign affairs natives for, a modernized messaging system.” agency CIOs to discuss these problems. An Interagency Collaboration Working Group, chaired by Deputy CIO Crossing Lines Christine Liu, convenes senior information managers If Northrop Grumman cannot deliver a working sys- from all foreign affairs agencies to discuss these matters. tem, the original vision will face hard questions. One Paul Christy, the Commerce Department deputy CIO, option for State would be to continue the project on its stresses the value of this: “It doesn’t take a lot of funds to own. Any new attempt would have to consider delaying keep people talking and collaborating.” or eliminating one or more of the advanced features called for in the original design. The Two Cultures Even if it eventually works, SMART messaging will not New technology projects are involving workers from solve the problem of agency computer systems that do not throughout the organization as information processing link to each other. By opening its unclassified network to requires less technical intervention and maintenance but the Internet, State enabled routine e-mail to most other pervades everyone’s daily business. foreign affairs agencies. However, without security pro- In a 1959 lecture titled “The Two Cultures,” the British tection for information going across the Internet, or com- novelist, scientist and government administrator C.P. prehensive address lists, Internet e-mail cannot meet the Snow argued that the crumbling of intellectual connec- burgeoning needs for cross-agency business. tions between scientists and humanists (the “two cul-

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tures”) prevented society from dealing with its most tional and management bureau leaders along with tech- intractable problems. In our era, the phrase describes nology experts. Many new applications now involve gen- aptly the gap between the State Department’s generalists eralists to a greater or lesser degree. Some individual and its specialists. Technology’s value depends upon the diplomats are taking the applications already on their willingness of the generalists to get involved in how it is desktops and using them in new ways. Some examples: applied, but so far only a few have been willing. • Embassies and consulates have opened more than 20 A handful of Foreign Service officers have crossed the Virtual Presence Posts designed to deliver as much service lines between information technology and generalist to remote cities without a permanent U.S. diplomatic assignments. Jay Anania, a senior FSO from the manage- presence as possible. Thomas Niblock, a consul in ment career track, is acting chief information officer. Yekaterinburg, Russia, developed the concept by using Ambassador James Holmes, a political officer, started the tailor-made Web sites for several cities in his district to dis- eDiplomacy Task Force in 2002, and in 2003 helped play personalized information, link to standard sources, restructure the Bureau of Information Resource and coordinate and publicize official travel. The virtual Management. The bureau clustered existing planning post in Davao, The Philippines, staged a number of online and customer service staff with the eDiplomacy task force discussions last year for locals on topics of interest, includ- as an office. ing visa regulations and study in the U.S. Current eDiplomacy director Gary Galloway, whose • The consulate in remote Chengdu, China, opened a experience includes both IT work and management, blog to recruit officers and to provide State and intera- describes the office’s function in the following terms: gency readers with information about Chengdu. Consul “The challenge of eDiplomacy is to influence the depart- Jeffrey Moon says, “I have always believed that this is a dif- ment’s IT policy to ensure that investments serve the user ficult-to-fill post because potential bidders are unfamiliar community, particularly the diplomat overseas.” The with conditions here. I attribute our success in attracting eDiplomacy staff includes FSOs, General Schedule good bidders this year at least partially to our increased employees, IT specialists and a science fellow who evalu- ability to share multimedia information about the post.” ate emerging programs by gathering input from a growing • Seven different bureaus are interested in combining cadre of employees around the world. They have pro- information from databases into images from satellites to moted a broad range of technologies, especially access to make policy-relevant maps and charts, according to Dr. State’s unclassified network for employees outside the Carol Christian of State’s eDiplomacy Office. These geo- office. Lately, eDiplomacy has focused on enabling online graphic information systems and related technologies pro- collaboration by virtual teams engaged in a common task vided new abilities during the 2004 Asian tsunami by visu- like standing up Embassy Baghdad, or in pursuit of a com- alizing the conditions of infrastructure, locations of affect- mon interest like economic analysis. ed populations, existence of assets and the distribution of A 2002 study by Barry Fulton, published by Price- personnel with skills to support the relief and reconstruc- waterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of tion efforts. Government, analyzed 12 innovative State Department programs that emerged mostly from demands of the post- Next Stop, Your Desktop Cold War world: for instance, the collapse of Yugo- Most State employees use what is put in front of them slavia, the bombing of the World Trade Center and effi- and retain their hands-off attitude toward technology. But ciencies required by budget cuts. Analyzing the pro- new technology will change how all of them get their work grams, Fulton found that nearly all “were initiated and done. Here are some megatrends to expect. developed by individuals who were part of the user com- • More self-service. Administrative processes are munity that they were designed to serve.” increasingly driven by a simple Web browser, enabling Powell’s team, where Fulton served as an adviser, each employee to apply for travel reimbursement, provide incorporated that principle to form the steering commit- information to renew a security clearance, or apply for a tee for SMART messaging. They recruited people like job or assignment. Even senior officers will be doing more Charles Ries, principal deputy assistant secretary of the for themselves online — often through government- Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, to join func- wide service providers other than State.

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• More work outside the office. The advent of remote ahead. New computer science graduates with fresh busi- access to the unclassified network means that more ness management skills are replacing the old “communi- employees can telecommute using random number gen- cators.” But like their predecessors, information manage- erators (called “fobs”) for extra security. The ONE sys- ment personnel are often taken aback by their second- tem, unveiled earlier this year, was snapped up by senior class status at embassies. At the same time, they are need- officials to check their unclassified e-mail from home and ed less in the computer room, where the system hums on the road, as well as by employees with telecommuting along on autopilot, and more around the embassy keeping agreements. As the technology spreads, middle managers IT-savvy customers satisfied. Accounting for system secu- will be challenged to deal with the new demands of super- rity is another task that is expanding overseas. vising staff who are often working from home. In 2003, the Gartner Group, a technology advisory ser- • More access to information. It is getting harder to vice, declared that the State Department had transformed compartmentalize information, and that applies right up itself from a technology laggard to a relatively “early to the secret level of classification. Even public affairs adopter.” Yet five years after Secretary Powell doubled officers are disturbed when Washington offers electronic the budget, IT spending is expected to begin a decline this “feeds” of announcements that local editors may see fiscal year. The inheritors of the Powell-era investment before they do. Old-fashioned diplomats will have to boom are wondering how to ensure that State does not fall become more agile as tactics of deception and surprise behind, as it did in the 1980s. One thing seems clear: for become more difficult, and as the pace of developments the foreseeable future, progress will depend less on new continues to accelerate. equipment, and more on good management and collabo- • The techies themselves have plenty of adjustments ration between technologists and diplomats. I

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THE SUN, THE WORLD, AND RFID alerie Sinclair V

THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND E-PASSPORTS PROMISES TO DRAMATICALLY STREAMLINE THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT OF GOODS AND PEOPLE.

BY EMILY SOPENSKY

erhaps it is an exaggeration to say that radio frequency identification is a broad, all-encompassing technology that has the capacity for influencing our daily lives around the word, much as the sun does now. But it is only a slight overstatement. FirstP used in World War II to identify airplanes, RFID has quietly expanded over the past 60 years to several important applications we now take for granted, such as remote keyless entry to our cars. Last year, it was spiced up and moved to the

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front burner when two giants in the logistics industry — the integrated circuit is checked by an inspector with an the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart — man- RFID reader. If the data page and the chip data are not dated its use in their operations. the same, the individual bearing the passport is subjected Today RFID tags are already used to speed transac- to further ID checks. tions at the point of sale, track livestock and pets, increase Traditionally, facial recognition has been used to dif- highway throughput, label shipping containers and gain ferentiate among humans. Other human physiological or entrance to buildings, to name just a few applications. behavioral characteristics that scientists and technologists Pharmaceutical companies are beginning to adopt the have been studying include the unique pattern of the iris, technology to prevent counterfeiting of drugs. With the the retina, ear, voice, gait, palm and finger tip. In the first introduction of biometric passports, the State Depart- generation of the e-passport, which Congress ordered to ment, too, is beginning to use RFID. be fully implemented by October 2006, the biometric Understanding how the technology works is important data is limited to the bearer’s photo. It is quite likely that to Foreign Service officers as well as to the general pub- second-generation U.S. e-passports will add iris scans lic (see “How It Works,” p. 32). Adoption and imple- (but not fingerprints, primarily because the iris scans mentation of the new e-passports, or “electronic pass- have a higher accuracy rate and require less storage ports,” though important in its own right, presage debates space). and projects to come, where technology breakthroughs The specifications for the new U.S. e-passports are will both challenge and facilitate the delicate balance governed to some extent by the Enhanced Border Secur- between individual privacy and state security. ity and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, which requires border entry documents to be machine-readable “con- The Biometric Passport taining biometric identifiers” and to be in compliance U.S. passports are a valuable commodity to many with the International Civil Aeronautics Organization around the world. Deputy Secretary for Consular Affairs standards. ICAO determined in 2002 that facial features, Frank Moss testified on June 22 that 8.8 million applica- fingerprints and iris recognition are all applicable to tions were processed in the last fiscal year — up 22 per- machine-readable travel documents. The European- cent from the year before. He stated that his office based agency designated facial recognition as the pre- expects 10 million to be processed by the end of FY 2005. ferred biometric, and characterized the latter two as To provide enhanced security in the post-9/11 era, the additional options. ICAO also selected contactless inte- U.S. passport has been undergoing changes. To prevent grated circuits as the best means of implementing the fraud, new artwork is visible only under ultraviolet light. biometrics data standard. Additionally, this next generation of the U.S. passport includes biometric technology that will further support Pilot Testing border security goals. Tests began in mid-2005 on the first generation of bio- Without question, biometrics will strengthen U.S. metric passports. Partnering with Department of Home- border security by ensuring that the person carrying a land Security border officials, the State Department con- U.S. passport is the person to whom the Department of ducted a field test with Australia and New Zealand, issu- State issued that passport. The biographic data page, ing approximately 250 of the new U.S. passports to a few which includes the bearer’s digitized photo, has been airline crews (United Airlines, Qantas and Air New moved to an interior page, and the data is replicated in a Zealand). The test compared the e-passports of all three contactless chip implanted in the back cover. The data in countries. In January 2006, Singapore plans to test one thousand of its e-passports issued to Singapore Airlines Emily Sopensky was the 2004 Institute for Electrical crews at U.S. borders and in Changi Airport. In the next and Electronics Engineers-USA Fellow to the U.S. step of the pilot program, beginning in early 2006, diplo- State Department, where she worked with the Office of matic and government employee passports will receive eDiplomacy in the Bureau of Information Resource the chips. Management and with the SMART project. She is a Both the midpoint report during the first phase of the business consultant, specializing in technology. trinational test and the final report at its conclusion found

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that improvements are needed in the technology, that mitted quickly. human factors must be thoroughly analyzed and that Because RFID allows data to be collected inconspic- focused training must be implemented. uously and at a distance, privacy and security advocates In keeping with requirements adopted by ICAO and are wary of its use in many applications, including e-pass- directives from the Department of Homeland Security, ports. In response to such concerns, the State Depart- the new passports are to be issued domestically to all ment’s Oct. 25 ruling mandates that the new e-passports applicants by the end of FY 2006. All 27 nations in the be equipped with “anti-skimming” technology. The de- Visa Waiver Program must begin issuing e-passports by partment is testing the feasibility of sandwiching a metal- Oct. 26, 2006, in order for their citizens to be able to con- lic mesh within the front cover and spine to prevent RF tinue to enter the U.S. without first obtaining a visa. reads until the e-passport is opened and read at close According to final regulations issued by the State range by an official. In June 22 congressional testimony, Department this past Oct. 25, the chips in the new e- Deputy Secretary Moss made clear that the e-passports passports will have enough memory to accommodate would not be rolled out until security issues were fully additional biometric information. Moss says that dealt with: “The bottom line is that we will not issue bio- Consular Affairs is already investigating adding addition- metric passports to the general public until we have suc- al biometrics (e.g., iris scans). Among the general para- cessfully addressed these concerns.” meters specified by ICAO to determine the standard for Although very challenging technological hurdles have biometric passports, were the requirements that the already been overcome in the development of the e-pass- technology had to support 32 kilobytes of storage, and port, there are still a few other issues. Not the least of that stored data needed to be easily accessible and trans- these is that the technologies incorporated in the new

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How It Works RFID is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. Radio frequency identification technology uses the same electromagnetic radiation spectrum that radios use to transmit.

A Brief Primer on the RF Spectrum To make radio waves, an alternating current is sent to an antenna, creating an electromagnetic field. The portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum used for wireless broadcasting and communications is from nine kilohertz to thousands of gigahertz. Still higher frequencies make infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays possible. To see the full-spread spectrum-usage allocation for the U.S., the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce) has a nifty chart at http://www.sss-mag.com/pdf/freqchrt.pdf. Other countries allocate the use of spread spectrum differently. For the ultra-high-frequency RFID tags being used for supply chain applications, the U.S. uses 915 megahertz. Japan prohibits the use of this frequency. Europe prefers 868 MHz. Consequently, the chance of reading these tags from one port to the next is not quite as easy as RFID advocates in the supply chain business would like. This is one reason why RFID is still considered an emerging technology. China, as with many issues in today’s commerce, holds the trump card. With so many products coming from China, RFID tags must be applied that will meet frequency allocation regulations there and elsewhere around the world. Biometric passports do not encounter this problem as they are subject to standards set by an international organization, the International Civil Aeronautics Organization.

The basic RFID system comprises a transponder, a reader and an antenna. Data are stored in a transponder device called a tag. Current tags, depending on application, can hold up to two kilobits of data. Tags can be read-only or read/write. A radio frequency signal is transmitted from the reader to a transponder that passes within range of the reader’s antenna. Unlike the ubiquitous bar code or the magnetic strip on a credit card, the RFID tag does not need a clear line of sight in order to be read. Instead, data in the tag is communicated via a radio signal. The signal is stimulated by a reader, which triggers the data in the tag to “ride” the radio wave back to the reader, where the data is captured and authenticated by a backend computer system. This tag is called a “passive” tag as the data is plucked by an external force. By contrast, an “active” tag relies on its own internal battery to supply energy and send the data to the reader. Active tags are more expensive than passive tags. The Department of Defense is planning on incorporating global positioning technology with active transponders to be able to track in real-time where shipping containers of supplies are around the world. The type of RFID tag helps determine the read range, or how far away the data on the tag can be read. The source of power is another factor. Antenna size, too, is part of this determination, but the size and type of antenna are mostly functions of the operating frequency used.

Frequency range Frequency type Read range Memory Comments

2.45 GHz Microwave 2 meters max Less than Silicon technology is in its infancy 1 kilobit for this frequency.

300 MHz to 3 GHz UHF Can be 6 meters 1 kilobit Sends faster and further than lower (typically 866 to or more frequencies. Spectrum use varies 960 MHz) Ultra High Frequency by country. (Europe uses 868 MHz for UHF; the U.S. uses 915 MHz. Japan prohibits the use of UHF spectrum for RFID, but may open the 960MHz portion.)

3 to 30 MHz HF 1.5 meters at best 256 bits but Used for smart cards. (usually 13.56 MHz) for high-end additional data Sometimes called “proximity” cards. High Frequency readers memory available today

30 kHz to 300 kHz LF 1 meter at best 64 bits to 1,360 Globally available frequency. bits; larger Low frequency allows tags to be read Low Frequency possible. through watery substances — the only technology that allows for this.

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passports do not come cheap. Initial U.S. yearly cost esti- RFID tags. It’s hard to say no to such behemoths. For mates range between $1.6 billion and $2.4 billion. many suppliers, no matter how large or small, these Further, as the new passports are only in a limited mandates will change the way they do business. trial, reliability has yet to be proven. And, transmission Both DoD and Wal-Mart are interested in maintain- times have been too long. In the midway report on the ing a flow of goods and products from and to points trials with Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., the aver- around the globe. For Wal-Mart and other corporations age time to read the chip varied from a low of 1.7 seconds invested in assembling and moving goods globally, being with a New Zealand passport to a high of 6.3 seconds with able to guarantee genuine parts manufactured in China, a U.S. passport. assembled in Japan, shipped through Europe, and dis- It remains to be seen whether the planned implemen- tributed in the United States adds value to the finished tation schedule can be maintained. Given the complex product. Being able to track assets throughout the nature of the technology, and the amount of training that manufacturing and distribution process — the supply will go into a full rollout of the new passports, Congress chain — is also a counterbalance to counterfeit and should be prepared to extend the October 2006 deadline, theft. At the beginning of 2005, Wal-Mart started hold- itself an extension of the original October 2004 deadline. ing trials with its top suppliers. The key to why RFID is so seductive to those in the The Logistics of Globalization business of moving products around the world is the fact Independently, the U.S. Department of Defense and that digital data remains in its native digital format. Once Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, are now requiring encoded into the tag, identifying information such as their primary suppliers to tag each of their products with serial number, manufacturer’s code and product line is

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A GLOBAL IMPACT: OTHER APPLICATIONS Airline baggage. Some airlines, like British Airways, have ple, the entire hog industry has much more control over its been studying the use of RFID in baggage tagging, hoping to market and consumers benefit from increased quality control. decrease operational costs. Misdirected or lost baggage can Already used to track valuable migratory wildlife and fish cost as much as $200 per bag on average, some analysts esti- whose geographical boundaries rarely respect political mate. In 2004, the International Air Transport Association con- boundaries, RFID tagging could also be used as a tool to aid ducted a pilot study of RFID technology. They concluded that: in containing dangerous, life-threatening contagions and 1) RFID must be concurrently integrated with bar-code tech- viruses that jump from livestock to humans, such as avian nology; 2) only a systemic, integrated approach will be suc- influenza, SARS and mad cow disease. cessful in the long run; and 3) tag costs are still too high. Airplane parts. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Eventually though, U.S. domestic airlines may be forced to recently decided to authorize using RFID tagging on airplane adopt RFID luggage tracking for security reasons. parts. Once the supporting system is in place, airplane man- Shipping containers. Shipping is another area where ufacturers and airlines can incorporate into routine mainte- RFID tagging has a future. Some analysts estimate that of the nance practices a scan of the airplane’s parts. The tags will 18-20 million shipping containers moving around the world store data on each part’s age and service record, for example, on any given day, less than 400,000 are ever inspected. To thereby expediting maintenance and improving overall quality address this, containers that range in length from 20 to 45 control. feet are being retrofitted with external seals that include RFID Pharmaceuticals. The Food and Drug Administration technology. Sophisticated harbors, like Singapore, are expects that counterfeiting drugs will be “extremely difficult already equipped to handle RFID-tagged containers. or unprofitable” with reliable RFID in place. By the end of Livestock. One longtime practical and successful appli- 2005, one of the first pharmaceutical companies to ship with cation of RFID tagging has been to identify and track live- RFID tagging to thwart counterfeiting is Pfizer. The drug giant stock. By encoding the type of breed, diet and breeder’s infor- is expected to begin shipping packages of Viagra, one of the mation into a tag implanted under the skin of a pig, for exam- most counterfeited drugs, with RFID chips.

transferred electronically. Having to manually re-enter paperwork and removing the human element may speed the data upon shipping, on the manifest and bill of lading, goods through the supply chain, but those advances also at the customs house, in the retailer’s warehouse, in the threaten traditional laws, regulations and procedures stockroom and at the checkout can be eliminated in a established to maintain the flow of goods and people complete end-to-end distribution system supported by across borders. The biggest challenges of RFID arise an RFID infrastructure. from the proliferation of data, the sharing of the data and In addition, each item can have its own unique identi- databases, and from the possibility of snooping via radio. fier, thereby permitting each item to be tracked and With few standards or common patterns of behavior traced. Tracking product usage, returns and even re- yet established on a global basis, RFID watchdogs sug- calls gives nearly complete control over product distribu- gest that the following information practices must be tion and development, making the detection of counter- accepted in order for the technology to thrive: feiting and thefts much easier and quicker. • Users must be provided notice that the technology is But, as with any technology that is mouthwatering to in use with the intent of collecting personal data limited some, the issues surrounding its development and appli- to the purposes for which it is collected. cation warrant a clear-eyed look. • Collected data is accurate, complete and timely. • Personal data are protected by reasonable security Disruptive, Discordant Technology safeguards against risk of loss, unauthorized access, The infrastructure to support RFID technology is not destruction, use, modification or disclosure. yet in place globally. Issues range from interoperability of • Users can view all information collected about them. systems to the lack of globally recognized standards, test- • Compliance with these guidelines is mandated and ing and reliability. Four challenges, however, stand out. a system is maintained to implement compliance. First, the real-time nature of RFID data creates con- Second, there are no laws yet to provide warranty pro- cerns for privacy and security experts. Eliminating tection on systems, readers and antenna RFID products.

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There is little recourse for malfunctioning RFID equip- echoed in the press, thus confounding any inherent mis- ment. understandings about the technology. Establish- Third, and equally important, is the fact that there is ment of recognized, certified courses in its fundamentals no certification or registry recognizing approved system is still a work in progress. integrators, RFID consultants and trainers. Some com- Acceptance of any disruptive technology — and panies do train on their own equipment, but a vendor- RFID is one — takes time. We take bar-code technolo- neutral solution to certifying providers is not yet avail- gy for granted now, but it took at least 20 years for it to able. Especially because RFID technology is remotely be incorporated as a mainstay of commerce. RFID readable, invisible and capturing data in real time, trust technology presents a similar challenge to the way we that the data are being captured and transmitted safely live and work around the world. and securely is essential for its spread. Thanks to G. Matthew Ezovski, a senior engineering Finally, there is the challenge of misinformation and student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., confusion about RFID that is more pervasive than the and a 2005 Washington Internships for Students of technology’s advocates want to believe. Education is key Engineering (WISE) intern, whose paper summarizing to defusing misinformation. RFID is a generic technolo- the e-passport policy, “Biometric Passports: Policy for gy with many possible applications, each of which has its International and Domestic Deployment” (Journal of own benefits and limitations. Currently, however, each Engineering and Public Policy, Vol. 9, 2005), was helpful industry using RFID has mounted its own informational in preparing this article. It is available at http://www.wise campaign, and the resulting consumer confusion is intern.org. I

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IT COMES OF AGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST alerie Sinclair V

THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION IS CREATING A NEW GENERATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST THAT WILL LIKELY, BUT NOT NECESSARILY, BE MORE DEMOCRATIC.

BY JON B. ALTERMAN

n the United States and in much of the developed world, new information and communications technologies have created a universe in which information is unimaginably plentiful and accessible. This abundance has shaped a new generation of youth, fundamentally different than their elders. Many of them cannot imagine researchI without the Internet, or communication without cell phones, e-mail and instant messaging. The idea of terrestrial television — showing just a handful of programs, often at awkward times and with imperfect reception — has

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yielded to a limitless world with hundreds of crystal-clear was the age of mass media. Government newspapers channels, hundreds of thousands of DVDs, and digital reached out to the newly literate, and government televi- video recorders that render broadcast schedules irrele- sion reached out to those suddenly wealthy enough to vant. Potential audiences are huge, but they are fickle, own a television. In places like Cairo and Baghdad, elite and beyond the control of any single individual, group or politics gave way to populist politics, and the children of movement. What once had been arcane is now com- the newly urbanized became the newly politicized. monplace. The Middle East is going through a similar transition. An Age of Media Plenty Although access to media and information remains far Now, in the first half of the 21st century, Middle more restricted than it is in Western Europe and the Eastern governments are losing their strangleholds on United States, in relative terms the change is just as rev- their publics. It is an age of media plenty. Any notion olutionary. There, too, a new generation is emerging. that there is a single “Arab line” on a matter of interest is They share with their Western counterparts the creativi- demolished nightly on Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and a host ty that follows from an exponentially freer media envi- of other stations. It is fascinating to see how different the ronment, and the growing sense of individualism that new generations growing up in this environment are from such an environment creates. What is confounding to their elders: so much more questioning of their identities, many in the United States is that this new generation so much more individualistic, so much more impatient. does not feel an instant kinship with the media-rich Much has been written about the relative youth of Western culture. If anything, a growing menu of Arab Middle Eastern societies. Forty-six percent of Yemenis media offerings has accentuated divisions between the and 45 percent of Palestinians are under 15, according to Arab world and the West, and made more raw the feel- U.N. numbers. Half of Saudis are under 18. Many Arab ings of anger, injustice and unfairness that many Arabs countries are among the youngest societies in the world. feel toward the non-Arab world. What is often forgotten in the mix, however, is how In the near term, the primary effects of the informa- much more literate young people in the region are than tion revolution in the Arab world are likely to be domes- their parents’ generation. In just the last 15 years, tic. Old categories will be challenged, and a richer spec- UNESCO estimates, adult literacy in Yemen has shot up trum of thought and belief will spring up. Governments from 50 to 68 percent, and in Syria from 80 to 95 percent. that relied on familiar tools to mobilize the public and Egypt’s overall literacy rate among those 15 and older is censor undesirable views will find themselves stripped of 55 percent; its literacy rate among youth aged 15 to 24 is the capacity to do either; nongovernmental groups and 73 percent. Jordanians, Palestinians and even Omanis individual personalities will have a reach within and now enjoy youth literacy rates above 95 percent, suggest- between countries that would have been unimaginable ing that complex information can pass hands far more only a few years ago. easily than even a generation ago. The world this new generation creates will likely — Feeding into this more literate population is a smor- but not necessarily — be more democratic, but it may be gasbord of information platforms that barely existed a even less liberal than its predecessors. Most important to decade ago. First off is the publishing revolution that remember is that information and communications tech- computers created. The ability to publish not only books, nology will reshape the task of governance in the Middle but, even more importantly, pamphlets and fliers, has East, and governments who fail to respond to the new become a great equalizer for those with limited environment will do so at their peril. resources. Marginal tracts can be produced with great The second half of the 20th century in the Middle East skill, and the key challenge is no longer to get something in print. The challenge, instead, is convincing someone Jon B. Alterman is a senior fellow and director of the to read one’s work instead of a myriad of other articles, Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and pamphlets, tracts and books that can be found on any International Studies in Washington. He is a former street corner in the region and outside every mosque. member of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department In the same way, local newspapers have a harder time of State. staying relevant. Elite regional papers — often edited in

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London and distributed to satellite- The Internet is not yet channels fill the airwaves. Most are linked printing facilities throughout available at no charge and, contrary the region — cover the news more a mass medium in most to popular belief in the West, most authoritatively than national papers, focus on entertainment rather than and domestic audiences increasingly countries in the region. news. U.S. government officials turn to a wide variety of television often complain bitterly about the lat- news programs for information and Among young elites, est outrage on Al-Jazeera, which con- analysis. Local papers often respond tinues to garner the highest marks in by playing up their “local-ness,” however, it is a totally the region for the trustworthiness of accentuating nationalist concerns its coverage. Yet the bulk of Arab and day-to-day interests. For elite different story. audiences — and especially young readers, the local press in many ones — are not Al-Jazeera junkies. places has become merely a way to Instead, they tune in to a daily diet of keep track of where the government stands on many game shows, music videos and reality television. issues; it has lost its role as either a leader or shaper of The audience for the Arab channels is impossible to opinions. estimate precisely, but upwards of 50 million Arabs — about 17 percent — have access in their own homes. The Birth of MBC Combined with the number who watch in public places The greatest change in the regional information envi- like coffeehouses and those who watch videotapes of ronment has been the rise of Arab satellite television. Its particularly newsworthy programming, the number of roots lay in Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in Arabs who are touched by satellite broadcasting begins August 1990 — an invasion that went unremarked on to approach the number who have an interest in it. Saudi domestic television because news editors were unsure how to report the events. An urgent desire to The Internet’s Reach understand what was happening next door gave rise not Internet access is far less common than satellite tele- only to Saudi and Egyptian rebroadcasts of CNN on their vision access. The International Telecommunications terrestrial network, but it breathed life into the idea for a Union’s 2004 figures put Internet access rates in two key small Saudi-owned station called the Middle East Arab countries, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, at just 6.3 per- Broadcast Center. cent and 5.4 percent, respectively. While most surveys MBC was launched as a subscription-free satellite ser- suggest somewhat higher numbers, the Internet is not yet vice in 1991, with a mix of news, entertainment and a mass medium in most countries in the region, with the movies. The revolutionary idea behind MBC’s news pro- exception of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates. gramming was that a truly Arab channel could cover Among young elites, however, it is a totally different developments in the Arab world better than any of its story. E-mail offers further opportunities for communi- Western competitors. The correspondents and editors cation, especially for those with friends or relatives over- would know the context, they could do away with a cum- seas. Chat rooms abound, many of which are password- bersome apparatus of translators and fixers, and they protected and all but inaccessible to outsiders. Arab pop would have the advantage of speaking to an informed stars maintain impressive sites, often in multiple lan- Arab audience instead of a fickle Western one. guages. A variety of sites provide religious guidance from There were two problems. First, no one had ever all points of view and, for readers who are only comfort- done it before. Equally daunting, how could such a able in Arabic, such sites provide the bulk of what many daring experiment flourish in an environment as turn to for research on the Internet. restrictive as Saudi Arabia? Owners located the station Surveys suggest Al-Jazeera’s Arabic Web site is by far in London, which simultaneously gave it access to top- the most popular for those seeking news, generating flight technical talent and distance from the stultifying more than a million hits per day. Among Western sites, hand of Saudi censors. those from sources as diverse as the New York Times, the Now, just 15 years later, more than 150 Arab satellite Jerusalem Post and the BBC are popular in newsrooms,

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and local newspapers sometimes lift their articles in their The Internet’s role is not limited to rallying the mass- entirety. That constant of Internet use, pornography, is es. Terrorists, including the 9/11 hijackers, have found as popular in the Arab world as elsewhere, if not more so. the vastness of the Internet an inviting and anonymous Governments in many parts of the region throw up fire- ocean in which to swim. They use anonymous e-mail walls and filters, but they scarcely inhibit thrill-seeking accounts, send coded messages and converse in pass- young people. As a prominent Saudi editor told me a few word-protected chat rooms that are often beyond intelli- years ago, “They have created a nation of hackers. They gence services’ ability to penetrate. For movements try to keep us from looking at anything related to politics, engaged in global jihad, the Internet’s global character, religion or sex. What else is there in the world?” size and indifference to distance make it an increasingly The Internet has also been a boon to the volatile mix valuable tool. Such users are few in number, but they of politics and religion that helps sustain the modern have a huge impact. Islamist militancy. Although dramatically reduced since law enforcement stepped up efforts to control it after the The Rise of Game Shows and Reality TV 9/11 attacks, Web sites feature dramatic pictures of dead Terrestrial television, led first by satellite program- and mutilated Muslims, religious edicts, appeals to group ming, has sought to go where the audiences are. solidarity and calls for vengeance. Western and Arab Confronting the threat of irrelevancy as audiences flee intelligence services have used electronic sleuthing to the mundane for something new and edgy, programmers swoop in and shut down servers hosting such sites on the have revolutionized coverage. News is much more one hand, while monitoring those seeking to access them watchable, and much less heavy-handed, than it was even on the other. a decade ago. Debate shows have flourished. Celebrity

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profiles abound. Slick televangelists like the Egyptian- hour channel to document contestants’ weekly prepara- born Amr Khaled implore audiences to sanctify their tions. Accurate audience estimates are impossible to daily lives. come by, but some studies put the proportion of The greatest change, however, has been the rise of Lebanese 18- to 25-year-olds watching at 80 percent; game shows and reality television. For several years in estimates of close to 50 percent in many other Arab coun- the early part of this decade, the most popular show in tries would be reasonable. the Arab world was not a news broadcast or a debate When Western commentators first heard about “Star show, not a religious program or a drama. It was the Academy,” some, such as the New York Times’ Thomas Arab version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Friedman, leapt on the idea that this was nascent democ- Contestants from throughout the Arab world wracked racy at work. Friedman argued that the “Star Academy” their brains, quivered, and called friends and relatives competitions were the first free elections in which many for help. On Tuesday nights in many cities, life would Arabs had been allowed to vote, and that it would create seemingly grind to a halt as viewers raced for their TVs a hunger for democracy. — many to watch Al-Jazeera’s signature debate show, “The Opposite Direction,” and even more to watch Rising Aspirations, Individual Choices “Millionaire” on MBC. Yet Friedman missed the core of the phenomenon. This all seems horribly mundane, but it is vitally What the rise of game shows and reality television has important. The reason is that game shows are culturally captured is the aspirational aspect of popular culture specific; they rely on questions to which a contestant among young Arabs. Youth in the region suffer through should know the answer. There are 22 member states in rote memorization in school and poor job prospects upon the Arab League, each with its own dialects, history and graduation. Infrastructure is often crumbling around culture; yet a successful regional show cannot ask ques- them, and they struggle to define a future for themselves tions that neither the contestant nor the audience could that is better than the life they knew growing up. Game be expected to know if he or she were not from a specif- shows and reality television not only provide a note of ic country. The questions have to be somehow universal, escapism, but they help build models — however unreal- and a viewer in Yemen has to feel he has the same chance istic — of how their peers can be happy, successful and of competing successfully as one from Lebanon. In this modern. The sets are modern, the people well-dressed, way, pan-Arab game shows serve to build a body of infor- and they are surrounded by luxury. mation that people are expected to know as Arabs; in the Television has led (and other forms of media picked same way, it helps accentuate common identities. Such up on the trend) in presenting the set of choices that shows do more to nurture a shared Arab identity than young people in the Middle East have to make every day. decades of government-sponsored regional radio broad- How should they talk, and what should they believe? casts that urged Arab unity. They foster Arabism from More crassly, how should they consume? How should the grass roots, rather than from above. they dress, and what should they have in their homes? Reality television is the other new arrival on the Technology has made the array of choices ever more regional scene. Building on the same models as Western vivid, and seemingly attainable. television, popular Western shows like “The Simple Of course, tantalizing and often liberal Western mod- Life,” “The Apprentice” and “Fear Factor” are hits in the els are not the only ones available for emulation. Neo- Arab world as well. No show has been quite as popular, traditional (or some argue, pseudotraditional) figures however, as “Star Academy.” Produced for two years run- seek to wrap themselves in the language and dress of a ning by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, the pro- simpler time, offering reassuring responses to a world full gram featured 16 young Arabs from around the region of temptation and uncertainty. At the extreme of this competing for a $50,000 recording contract. Similar to group are people like Osama bin Laden, whose core mes- the American show, “American Idol,” viewers voted sage is a rejection of the status quo. Most, however, rep- weekly to eliminate contestants. In addition to Friday resent not so much a rejection of modernity as an effort night shows with extended performances, LBC ran one- to be selective about it. In fact, many Islamic institutions hour updates each night, and dedicated a separate 24- in the Middle East actively seek to be more modern than

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their secular counterparts, thereby arguing for the funda- the middle — the tens of millions of people who are mental compatibility of faith and progress. linked by their love of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” The most fertile ground in the Middle East is worked “Star Academy” and the like. At the same time, howev- by those who navigate between these extremes. They er, it also helps extremist groups find like-minded mem- argue that Arabs should keep their feet rooted firmly in bers and flourish. tradition while reaching for a better future. Some wear But what is important here is the way in which infor- jeans, others the veil, and many women wear both. Each mation plenty drives choices down to the individual level. emphasizes a different mix of innovations and traditions, Increasingly in the Arab world, individuals maintain mul- and each appeals to a different group. In a world char- tiple identities, and the identities they embrace are acterized by choice, audiences determine who is popular increasingly a function of choice. Such overlapping iden- and who is ignored. While it is often jarring to the unini- tities are one characteristic of smoothly functioning tiated when apparently traditional young people democracies, and they are commonplace in Western soci- embrace liberal pop stars, and apparently modern peo- eties. Individuals typically feel a part of a large number ple embrace conservative clerics, it is precisely these of unwieldy interest- and identity-based coalitions, and individual choices of young Arabs that make the current politicians seek to assemble groups of them to secure vic- environment so interesting. tory. When individuals think of themselves as an amal- Of course, information plenty is not an unalloyed gam of economic, educational, social, religious, ethnic good. From our own experience, we know that informa- and regional backgrounds, it is easier for them to feel that tion simultaneously brings people together and drives at least some of their needs are met through the political them apart. Technology helps create mass audiences in system, even if all of them are not met.

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Near-term Democracy? control has been a vital tool in the political arsenal of Arab Does that mean information will bring democracy to governments. They have relied on the mass media to the Arab world? The answer is probably not, at least in mobilize their populations, and they have used censor- the short term. Political systems take time to grow, and ship to restrain them. Now, both tools are losing their ideas about identity change slowly. In addition, increased bite. The digitalization of content, the ease of duplicat- flows of information facilitate the rise of demagogues, ing and transporting videocassettes, and the sheer vol- promising easy answers to complex problems. Osama bin ume of information swirling in the region make effective Laden is a skilled user of television, but a more main- censorship a fool’s errand. Information simply cannot be stream figure could gain even greater support. Increased held back. The only solace censors can take is that tech- flows of information can also serve to reinforce the deep nology eases surveillance; while governments cannot feelings of injury, injustice and discrimination that many keep people from knowing things, they can more easily Arabs feel toward the outside world. Television has taken trace how information is passed. the plight of the Palestinians from a talking point in for- Arabs will move into the 21st century, and the process mal speeches to being daily fare in people’s living rooms, by which they do so will be messy, confusing and slow. It and Web sites feature pictures of atrocities committed will almost certainly have its setbacks. What is most excit- against Muslim populations around the globe. ing, however, is the creativity that these changes are Over time, though, it is clear that the sheer volume of unleashing. There is no guarantee that young Arabs’ information available to people in the Middle East, and future will be better than their past, but the tools at their especially eagerly consumed by young people, will trans- disposal to help make it so are more powerful than those form politics. Over the last half-century, information of their parents, and their grandparents before them. I

THE REMINGTON

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DEFENDING STATE AGAINST ONES AND ZEROS alerie Sinclair V

A COMPLETE SECURITY STRATEGY MUST EMBRACE NOT ONLY ROBUST PHYSICAL SAFEGUARDS BUT ALSO COMPLEMENTARY CYBERSECURITY MEASURES.

BY STEVEN E. ROBERTS

hen terrorists detonated a car bomb near the American embassy in Lima, Peru, in March 2002, killing nine people including an embassy guard, it was a stark reminder of the constant threat facing U.S. diplomatic facilitiesW operating overseas. Bombings, shootings and even kidnappings for ransom are the tools of the enemy’s trade. However, for the ultra-sensitive computer systems used by the State Department and other federal government agencies, the rise of computer-literate terrorists, nation-states and criminals is a virtual shot across the bow: U.S. embassies and con-

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sulates can be vulnerable to cyber- The armed guards, ballistic Commenting that terrorists are exploitation. As physical security now using many of the same tech- measures continue to improve — glass and vehicle set-backs niques as hackers, a branch chief first after the 1998 embassy from the State Department’s Anti- bombings in Nairobi and Dar es found in virtually every terrorism Assistance Program re- Salaam and then again following cently stated that “the same tech- the 9/11 attacks — cyber-attacks U.S. diplomatic facility are nique that a hacker would use … may be a preferred modus will be utilized by somebody with a operandi for those bent on caus- of little value if the different political motivation.” The ing harm, stealing information or inference is that common hacking gaining access. attacker’s weapons are tools are not simply for high-tech The armed guards, ballistic crooks but are also used by more glass and vehicle set-backs found ones and zeros. potent adversaries for a variety of in virtually every U.S. diplomatic nefarious ends. facility are of little value if the For example, when terrorists attacker’s weapons are ones and zeros. Combination struck in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2002, killing over attacks are now a legitimate concern. A suicide attack on 200 people, authorities traced the attacks — which tar- an embassy, combined with a simultaneous cyber-attack, geted nightclubs packed with foreign tourists — to the could incapacitate communications, impair the emer- South Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiya, linked to gency response and even prime the facility for a follow- al-Qaida and designated as a foreign terrorist organiza- on assault minutes later. Thus, a complete security strat- tion by the State Department. JI is also believed to be egy must embrace not only robust physical safeguards responsible for the Bali bombings that killed more than but also complementary cybersecurity measures, rang- two dozen people this past October. ing from password management to intrusion detection Although some of JI’s terrorist-members, including systems. 2002 bombing mastermind Samudra (like some Indonesians, he only uses one name), have been arrest- Not Just for Crooks ed and sentenced to death by Indonesian courts, the Cyberthreats to State Department systems originate danger posed by such figures extends beyond the physi- from three primary sources: terrorists, criminals and for- cal world and into cyberspace. From his prison cell, eign governments. While their motivations may be dif- Samudra has authored an autobiography in which one ferent, all three groups view State’s computers as trea- chapter encourages followers to use the Internet to com- sure troves of information about personnel, policy, intel- mit fraud and money laundering as a means to finance ligence and local operations. Adversaries value such terror operations. The chapter titled “Hacking, Why information both for its specific value and as a comple- Not?” underscores the growing threat of terrorists who ment to data gleaned from open-source surveillance and are as adept with a mouse and keyboard as they are with reconnaissance. And all three types of opponents use a satchel of plastic explosives. well-known hacking methods to tap into U.S. govern- As a user of the Internet, the State Department is also ment computers. Consequently, distinguishing the vulnerable to the “normal” perils of the World Wide criminal hacker seeking economic gain from a terrorist Web. Spam, phishing schemes, viruses and worms cir- or foreign government bent on attack or espionage is a culate in cyberspace, indiscriminately targeting unpro- challenge. tected systems. In September 2003, the Welchia worm infected some State Department networks. The infec- Steven Roberts writes and speaks frequently on home- tions forced technicians to shut down some computers, land security issues, with a special emphasis on critical temporarily disrupting the functionality of the depart- infrastructure protection, cybersecurity and terrorism. ment’s Consular Lookout and Support System, a data- His recent audiences have included the Departments of base used to screen visa applicants for potential criminal Defense, Justice and Homeland Security. or terror-related ties.

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A Complex Threat According to an in them are vulnerable to access, Indeed, there appears to be no change, disclosure, disruption or letup in the volume of cyber- August 2005 press briefing, even denial of services [attacks] by threats facing the State Depart- unauthorized individuals.” ment. According to an August State had already blocked But six years later, in a 2004 2005 press briefing, State had cybersecurity report card for 24 fed- already blocked approximately 3.8 approximately 3.8 million eral agencies, the Government million computer viruses so far Reform Committee — a key over- this year. But while the depart- computer viruses sight committee of the U.S. House ment’s arsenal of cybersecurity of Representatives — gave the technologies and practices — fire- so far this year. State Department a “D+” for walls, anti-virus software, patch cybersecurity. Though it repre- management and the like — have sents an improvement over the “F” helped to fend off electronic attacks, significant ques- the department received in 2003, the low score suggests tions persist regarding the effectiveness of its overall that it is having trouble implementing the cybersecurity cybersecurity posture. mandates of the Federal Information Security There is certainly no lack of awareness about the mag- Management Act. Passed as part of the E-Government nitude of the threat. As far back as 1998, a Govern- Act of 2002, FISMA builds upon prior federal law and ment Accountability Office report found that “State’s requires agencies to implement policies and procedures information systems and the information contained with- covering a range of cybersecurity issues.

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As State works to shore up The Bureau of Diplomatic in an appropriate manner.” While cybersecurity in anticipation of an “appropriate manner” could next year’s congressional report Security recognizes that include a commensurate cyber- card, the cyberthreats it confronts offensive initiated by the Depart- are growing more complex. Chief terrorists are now using ment of Defense, the ambiguities among them is the danger posed of the language suggest that the by foreign government hackers. many of the same U.S. response to a virtual attack Unlike terrorists or criminals, need not be limited to cyberspace. hackers trained and aided by a for- techniques as hackers. Arguably, bombs and bullets could eign government have the techni- constitute part or even all of an cal and institutional resources American counterattack. offered by a formal and estab- Given the growing threat posed lished host, typically the foreign nation’s military. In tes- by state-sponsored cyber-operations against the United timony before the Senate Select Committee on States, this is far from insignificant or purely theoretical. Intelligence in February 2005, FBI Director Robert In this context, China stands out among potential cyber- Mueller warned of state-sponsored hackers. Director adversaries. As the Chinese government continues to Mueller told the panel that “state actors continue to be a modernize its military forces, the development of a threat to both our national security as well as our eco- robust cyberspace component is emerging as part of nomic security because they have the technical and Beijing’s strategic vision. The Department of Defense’s financial resources to support advanced network annual report to Congress on the People’s Liberation exploitation and attack. The greatest cyberthreat is Army for 2005 — aptly titled “The Military Power of the posed by countries that continue to openly conduct com- People’s Republic of China” — asserts that “the PLA has puter network attacks and exploitations on American likely established information-warfare units to develop systems.” viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics to protect friendly computer systems Information Warfare Units and networks.” There is little doubt that real or potential adversaries Focusing increasingly on offensive cyber-operations — likely including Russia, Iran, North Korea and China rather than purely defensive ones, the report further — consider hacking a part of their arsenal. These posits that “… recent [cyber] exercises have incorpo- nations may have formal “information warfare” pro- rated offensive operations, primarily as first strikes grams that train and equip hackers to conduct activities against enemy networks.” The implications of such a far beyond cyber-espionage and data mining: state-spon- statement are clear: the PLA views cyberwarfare capa- sored information warfare includes the development of bilities as a critical component of a modern military offensive capabilities to disrupt an enemy’s civilian and force that is prepared to fight on both traditional and defense critical infrastructure, such as electric power virtual battlefields. grids, communications networks, and military command and control. Titan Rain Reflecting the significance of this threat, the National China’s cyberspace ambitions may already be mov- Strategy to Secure Cyberspace — released by the Bush ing from planning to practice. Some U.S. government administration in 2003 as a national blueprint for cyber- officials believe the Chinese government is behind a security — included an implicit recognition that future series of sophisticated hacking incidents targeting sen- attacks against the United States could include a cyber- sitive U.S. computer systems, including those operated space component. A section tucked into the appendix by federal departments and defense contractors. warns that “when a nation, terrorist group or other Dubbed “Titan Rain” by U.S. authorities, the investiga- adversary attacks the United States through cyberspace, tion has been the subject of recent public inquiry at the the U.S. response need not be limited to criminal prose- State Department. When asked specifically whether it cution. The United States reserves the right to respond had been “targeted or successfully penetrated by the

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China-origin computer hacking effort known as Titan Titan Rain represents an external threat to govern- Rain,” the department’s response was carefully worded. ment computers. Additional cyberthreats may origi- It acknowledged that “attempts to intrude on Web sites nate from State Department employees who abuse are a fact of life on the Internet,” but stated that State their positions of trust and access. The department has has “… had no successful intrusions on our public Web not been immune from insider-perpetrated crime. In sites, either in the U.S. or abroad.” State then directed late 2004, two former State employees were sentenced further inquiries to the Department of Homeland to federal prison terms for their roles in a visa fraud Security. scheme. Former Foreign Service officer Long N. Lee This answer begs two questions. First, the fact that and her husband, Acey R. Johnson, a former consular there were no “successful intrusions” does not fore- associate, used their positions to issue approximately close the possibility that there were unsuccessful intru- 200 illegal visas in return for bribes while stationed at sions. Second, and perhaps more significantly, Titan posts in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Fiji. While this con- Rain hackers have targeted sensitive networks and spiracy does not involve hacking or cybercrime, it is databases, not merely public Web sites. Thus, it instructive: cyberdefenses are mostly aimed outward. remains unclear whether the State Department’s more Yet, just as Lee and Johnson used their trusted status to sensitive networks and databases were targeted. commit visa fraud, there may be little to stop a rogue According to one unnamed official cited in an August employee — or consultant or contractor — from down- 2005 story in The Washington Post, however, State was loading sensitive diplomatic information or even drop- among the government agencies “…that have been hit” ping a time-delay virus into a computer system from by Titan Rain hackers. the inside.

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

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The Need to Even as State works aged, if never fully controlled. Remain Vigilant For the State Department, main- As DS already recognizes, pre- to shore up cybersecurity, taining strong defenses against the venting such a scenario requires a insider threat is especially acute at comprehensive policy that com- the threats it confronts are its hundreds of embassies and con- bines personnel security with cyber- sulates around the world. From security. Traditional background growing more complex. security to janitorial services, the investigations evaluate a potential host country provides the labor employee’s character and lifestyle. pool from which posts hire or con- Despite their ability to weed out tract in-country staff support. many unsuitable applicants, background investigations Despite the efforts of the department to validate back- are not perfect, especially with longtime employees. ground information, their potential impact on facility However, subsequent background investigations — security generally, and cybersecurity in particular, cannot required for those who hold certain security clearance be overlooked. classifications — may uncover evidence that suggests Because foreign nationals may have significant access wrongdoing or raises questions regarding loyalty. Follow- to and knowledge of security operations, foreign intelli- up investigations, as well as initial screenings, need to be gence services or terrorist organizations could use the “tuned” to pick up indicators of criminal intent or practice. cover of legitimate employment for operational surveil- Only through good personnel and physical security prac- lance and intelligence gathering, and certainly might do tices can the insider threat to computer systems be man- so to conduct a cyber- or physical attack. However, it is

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difficult to quantify that risk, and There is little doubt that real computer systems. These and it must be balanced against the other state-of-the-art tools have important functions they perform or potential adversaries — raised the level of protection at posts around the world. beyond what was available or Ultimately, technologically en- likely including Russia, Iran, practical just a few years ago. abled solutions — including, but The Greek philosopher Hera- not limited to, firewalls, anti-virus North Korea and China — clitus once said that a person can- software, patch management, not step into the same river twice. password control, encryption, in- consider hacking a part of The river, he observed, changes trusion detection systems and pen- from moment to moment. More etration testing — form the core their arsenal. than two thousand years later, elements of a robust cybersecuri- that observation could not be ty umbrella. Most of these tech- more relevant when applied to the nologies are increasingly used throughout government to perils of cyberspace. Whether in the sights of a nation- prevent, and when necessary, identify and correct elec- state, a terrorist cell or a lone-wolf hacker, the comput- tronic vulnerabilities. Advances in cybersecurity harder systems of the federal government will remain tar- ware and software — such as biometric readers to gets of choice. Like the river, the tactics employed by replace easily compromised alphanumeric passwords as attackers are in constant motion. The defenses neces- well as analytical software that helps predict cyber-attack sary to counter them must continue to evolve with equal patterns — now provide additional capabilities to protect vigor. I

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DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49

AFGHANISTAN’S TROUBLED PAST AND UNCERTAIN FUTURE

TO UNDERSTAND HOW AFGHANISTAN WAS TRANSFORMED INTO A BREEDING GROUND FOR TERRORIST ATTACKS ON THE WEST, AND TO HELP IT GET BACK ON ITS FEET, WE NEED TO KNOW SOMETHING OF ITS BLOODY HISTORY.

BY ARTHUR LEZIN

n the introduction to one of his engrossing histo- sharply divided world, in which, among other things, the ries of relations between Russia and the West, standing of the U.S. in popular opinion has plummeted in a George Kennan suggested that the reader was in very short time. Holding their flag-draped ceremonies in a better position to understand the complexity of secret, American military transport crews unload dead and the events he was describing — the actions and wounded in twos and threes from Iraq and Afghanistan. In reactions of the key actors — than they them- such a tempestuous present, an examination of the past selves were at the time. The reader, after all, seems a relative luxury.” could benefit from detailed studies of what had happened Speaking as someone who has served in the region and Iand why, written from the perspectives of all the parties who continues to follow developments there, I would involved. respectfully submit that, far from being a luxury, examining I had reason to reflect on Kennan’s observation while Afghanistan’s history is a necessity. Few countries have suf- reading Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, fered as much, or as visibly, as it has in the last quarter-cen- Afghanistan and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to tury. The toll in lives and materiel is staggering: one million Sept. 10, 2001 by Steven Coll (Penguin Books, 2004). It is dead, six million displaced (one-third of the population at an insightful analysis of events in that part of the world over the time), and an infrastructure — dams, roads, irrigation the last quarter-century: invasion and occupation by the systems — largely bombed into rubble. Mines are every- Soviet Union, followed by civil war, rule by the Taliban, the where. The International Red Cross estimates that 200,000 presence of al-Qaida and the U.S. invasion in the fall of Afghans have been killed by explosive devices since 1979, 2001. Near the end of his book, Coll writes: and that Soviet mines, along with unexploded ordnance “The pollsters’ fever charts from America, Europe, the from the U.S. invasion, kill or injure hundreds every month, Middle East and Central Asia depict an impassioned, including American soldiers. So it comes as no surprise that the 2003 United Nations’ Arthur Lezin was a USAID Foreign Service officer from Human Development Index, based on such factors as liter- 1962 to 1988, serving in Central America, South America, acy, health services, malnutrition and access to potable Asia and Africa. Over the years he has contributed a num- water, ranks Afghanistan 173rd out of 175 countries sur- ber of articles and photographs to the Foreign Service veyed. Life expectancy for males there is 46 years. The Journal and the Washington Post. In addition to writing, he infant mortality rate, roughly 160 per thousand live births, skis with the “Over the Hill Gang” in Bend, Ore. is exceeded only by Angola’s. And to compound the diffi-

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culty of pulling Afghanistan out of and his entire family. Based in neigh- poverty, about half the population is boring Pakistan, my wife and I had 14 or younger. The country’s history more than an academic interest in the To understand how the country fighting: our 14-year-old daughter was transformed into a breeding created a complex mix was in Kabul that weekend, and ground for terrorist attacks on the unknown to us, was separated from West, and to help it to get back on its of cultures, religions, her classmates. During most of the feet, we need to know something of fighting she found herself isolated in its bloody history. We need to exam- ethnicities and languages a house next to the palace — all the ine the decisions and actions of the while aware that the Afghan Air major participants in Afghanistan’s that make it difficult Force was not a world leader in most recent conflicts: Pakistan, Saudi bombing accuracy. One good thing Arabia, the U.S. and the Soviet for any central came out of it, however: when school Union. resumed she had no trouble with the government to unify it. assigned topic for an essay in English Isolation and Invasion class: “What did you do during spring It is said that geography goes a vacation?” long way to define a country’s politics, culture and history. This is certainly The Enemy of My Enemy true of Afghanistan. A strategic Even with Soviet backing, Daoud’s crossroad for warriors, traders and tions revenge in cases of shame, successors could not maintain con- pilgrims traveling between Europe, treats women as property, and puts trol and were themselves victims of Persia and Asia, it endured a series of clan and family above nation. savage coups. Increasingly alarmed invasions by Alexander the Great (4th In the 19th century, Great Britain at the mounting chaos, the Red Army century B.C.), Muslims (7th century and Russia fought and maneuvered invaded on Christmas Day 1979. A.D.) and Mongols (13th century), for control of what both powers con- This thrust Afghanistan into the among many others. This history cre- sidered a desirable piece of real forefront of the Cold War, with cata- ated a complex mix of cultures, reli- estate. Britain even invaded Afghan- strophic consequences for its citi- gions, ethnicities and languages that istan twice, but both campaigns zens. made it difficult for any central gov- ended in disaster. Afghanistan stag- The Soviet invasion was only one ernment to unify the country. In- gered into the 20th century relatively of the momentous, interconnected stead, the mountain ranges and iso- untouched by civilization outside of events of 1979: the fall of the shah lated valleys ensured that loyalty went the Hindu Kush mountains region. and the mob takeover of the U.S. to local chieftains, a pattern that, Little changed until the 1960s, embassy in Tehran, the attack on the regrettably, continues today. when the Cold War superpowers Grand Mosque in Mecca, and the Tajiks and Hazaras dominate the once again became interested in burning of the U.S. embassy in west of the country, Uzbeks in the Afghanistan because of its strategic Islamabad. Our friends and col- north, and Pashtuns in the south and location. In 1973, King Zahir Shah leagues there narrowly escaped being east. Pashtun is the official language, was ousted by his cousin, Moham- burned alive as the Pakistani Army, although sizable portions of the pop- med Daoud, a shifty character who stationed nearby, chose not to take on ulation consider Dari (Persian) or played off the Soviets against the the mob. Turkoman their mother tongue. Americans, seeking economic and Zia-ul-Haq was president of Pashtuns are not only the dominant military aid from both. What he did Pakistan at the time, having deposed tribe in Afghanistan (about 12 million not allow was Islamic fundamental- President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a July out of a total population of 28 million) ism, so large numbers of devout Af- 1977 military coup. The general but the key ethnic group in Pakistan ghans (including the warlords who rejected widespread pleas to save as well, concentrated along the areas would be the main protagonists in the Bhutto’s life and sent him to the gal- bordering Afghanistan. Equally im- ensuing civil war) fled to Pakistan. lows in April 1979. portant, Pashtuns dominate the senior In April 1978, Daoud was over- While President Zia was not a Pakistani Army officer class. Their val- thrown in a bloody coup. Plotters favorite in the Carter White House, ues are relevant on both sides of the dive-bombed and then overran the Washington urgently needed Pakis- border: a strict honor code that sanc- presidential palace, murdering him tan to funnel arms to the Afghan

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mujahedeen (freedom fighters) then taking on our enemy, the Red Army. But there was a steep price to pay for The Soviet invasion Islamabad’s cooperation: it demand- ed we supply sophisticated weapons of Afghanistan was just to the Pakistan army, as well. We agreed, essentially setting U.S. policy one of the momentous, for the next decade. In effect, the CIA and Pentagon subcontracted interconnected events with the Pakistan army to deliver U.S. weapons to Afghan fighters. of 1979. The Pakistanis, not we, chose which militias and warlords would get the arms, and a chief consideration was the desire to have a friendly (read Pashtun) government on their border. Neither we nor they were inter- providing a steady stream of recruits ested in the hearts, minds or welfare eager to fight the infidels in Afghan- of the Afghans, let alone the complex istan, not only from Pakistan but issues of the region. Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab Riyadh, which considered com- countries. munism abhorrent, also took an There were four main Saudi chan- active role in supporting the Afghan nels for assistance to Afghan militias resistance, writing checks to various and the Pakistani Army during the groups. (Reportedly, they matched 1980s: the Ministry of Religious U.S. congressional appropriations Affairs, the Directorate of Intelli- one for one.) In addition, the Saudis gence, the Foreign Ministry and pri- saw an opening to fund madrassas vate charities. Their combined sup- (religious schools) for indoctrinating port amounted to hundreds of mil- Pakistani youth in Wahhabism, an lions of dollars each year. As a result, austere and belligerent interpreta- Afghan fighters were swimming in tion of the Quran based on the ideas cash; militia commanders routinely of an 18th-century reformer, Ibn al- received $25,000 or more as a Wahhab, who celebrated martyrdom monthly retainer. This was a huge and viewed violence as “a means of sum when one considers annual per purifying a corrupt world.” Wahha- capita income for the nation as a bis believe that those who do not whole was, and is, measured in the agree with their interpretation of the hundreds of dollars. Quran — even other Muslims — are Despite this support, the Reagan heathens and enemies, and are pre- administration that came to power in pared to wage holy war against them. 1981 was skeptical that the ragtag What gave special power to the mujahedeen could defeat the Red Saudi brand of fundamentalism is the Army, one of the most powerful fight- fact that they control the holiest ing forces in the world. At first, the Islamic sites, Mecca and Medina, and U.S. was careful to provide only have the oil money to push their weapons that could not be traced back ideas throughout the Islamic world. to this country, worried that the Soviet Thus, by the early 1980s, there were Union might retaliate by invading some 8,000 religiously-affiliated edu- Pakistan. But as the “freedom fight- cational institutions, and thousands ers” gained strength (and victories), more unofficial schools, throughout we threw caution to the winds. The Pakistan. Soon the madrassas were latest U.S. weapons, valued at more

54 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/DECEMBER 2005

than $3 billion over the course of the unintended consequences. Our goal civil war, were carried across the bor- was to defeat the Red Army, and we der into Afghanistan on mule back. The Saudis and the did. At the same time, we created an Included were several thousand shoul- environment in which anti-American, der-fired Stinger missiles that turned Pakistan Army gave the anti-Western terrorists thrived. They the tide by taking away air superiority are still haunting us today. from the Soviets. Now, of course, we Taliban cash, equipment, So why didn’t an event as monu- are trying to buy them back. mental as the Soviet defeat prompt a transport, planes, food, thorough review of U.S. policy in the Be Careful What You region? Simply put, we were not Wish For fuel and ammunition as interested in helping to rebuild the When Mikhail Gorbachev as- country, or even in providing badly- sumed power in 1985, there was we looked the other way. needed humanitarian aid. The in- growing skepticism in the Politburo coming George H.W. Bush adminis- that the war in Afghanistan was tration’s priorities — all legitimate — winnable. It appeared to be turning were Iranian nuclear proliferation, into a Soviet Vietnam. Gorbachev German unification and the end of pressed the military either to devise a the Politburo decided to withdraw. the Cold War. Afghanistan was not plan to win the conflict or admit The Soviet foreign minister leaked on the radar screen, a serious mis- defeat and cut their losses. With a the decision to the State Department, take. large Muslim population in the Soviet but no one took him seriously. The Filling the resulting power vacu- Union, he also was worried about a Red Army finally left the country um, local warlords fought savagely for fundamentalist takeover in Afghanis- (with difficulty) in 1989. control. The most important of these tan. (If only we had had similar con- Our foreign policy in those years were Gulbuddin Hekymatyr, a devout cerns.) As the casualties mounted, was a good example of the law of Pashtun, and Ahmed Shah Massoud,

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Our foreign policy columbia plaza apartments during the 1980s was a Capital Living With Comfort and Convenience Casey’sNow Coffee Open! 24 Hour good example of the law Fitness Center of unintended consequences.

Utilities Included Complimentary Voice Mail Beautiful and Spacious: Courtyard Style Plaza Polished Hardwood Floors Efficiencies, 1 bedroom and Private Balconies 2 bedrooms available for Huge Walk-in Closets immediate occupancy a non-religious Tajik who headed the Northern Alliance. The latter offered the best hope for a secular state, but 24 Hour Front Desk 2400 Virginia Ave., N.W Garage Parking Available Washington, D.C., 20037 Islamabad and Riyadh preferred Controlled Access Tel: (202) 293-2000 Hekymatyr. For the next several Potomac River Views E-mail: [email protected] Minutes to Fine Dining years, betrayals and shifts in alle- Newly Renovated Kitchens Office Hours: Mon. - Fri. 8:00 AM-5:30 PM giance were the norm. Rival militias Market at Columbia Plaza Sat 10:00 AM-4:00 PM took turns occupying Kabul, which Directly across the street from Main State, minutes to Kennedy Center and Georgetown became the scene of continuous shelling and house-to-house fighting. In the midst of that chaos, a new force began pouring into Afghanistan from Pakistan in the early 1990s: the Taliban. That word simply means “an Islamic student who seeks knowledge,” so few U.S. policy-makers understood just how extreme their views were. But steeped in Saudi- type Wahhabism, and dominated by Pashtuns, the Taliban rejected all things modern and non-Islamic. The Saudis and the Pakistan Army gave the Taliban cash, equipment, transport, planes, food, fuel and ammunition. Those arms and supplies tilted the civil war in their favor and they swept into Kabul in Septem- ber 1996. By contrast, the Northern Alliance did not receive meaningful, sustained support from Pakistan or the U.S. until after 9/11. And their leader, the charismatic Ahmed Shah Massoud, was assassinated by al- Qaida in a carefully planned operation just a few days before the attack on the World Trade Center.

56 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/DECEMBER 2005

Both the Saudis and Pakistanis year in the United States. Secretary assured us that the Taliban would of State Warren Christopher had moderate their views as they gained Despite the recent barely mentioned Afghanistan in the experience. This was wishful think- past four years, and unpopular inter- ing. The Taliban were determined to progress, the country’s ventions in Bosnia and Haiti had left rewrite 1,400 years of Islamic history the Clinton administration gun shy of and take Islam back to the 7th centu- prospects are clouded by any entanglement that the public ry. In their warped world view, would not support. The assistant sec- Shariah (Islamic law) strictly gov- four mutually retary of State in charge of the region erned both the state and personal went so far as to declare: “We do behavior. There was no sense of reinforcing problems. not favor one faction over another.” social justice, openness to foreign The U.S. Agency for International ideas, or science — all part of the first Development had closed its humani- centuries of Muslim belief. tarian aid office in Kabul early in the Within 24 hours of taking Kabul, Clinton presidency. Our interest in the “students” imposed sweeping the country appeared to be limited to changes. All women were banned 50,000 widows with children were construction of a gas pipeline through from work, and since they represent- unable to work or even walk the it from Turkmenistan to Pakistan ed one-quarter of the civil service, streets without being beaten by the under a U.S. consortium headed by the majority of Afghan health-care religious police. The restrictions on Unocal. providers, and most teachers, the men were less onerous but still real; In the mid-1990s, the U.S. belat- social impact was devastating. men without beards, for example, edly came to the conclusion that Schools for girls were closed and a were subject to beatings and impris- Osama bin Laden, 17th son of a Saudi strict dress code instituted for onment. billionaire, was a serious threat. We women. The U.N. estimated that Meanwhile, 1996 was an election pressed Sudan to expel him. The

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Saudis anticipated problems if he weapons. They appear to have no returned to the kingdom, and shortage of volunteers willing to stripped him of his citizenship. In many ways, fight; and, if need be, blow them- Neither Jordan, Egypt nor Algeria selves up like their counterparts in was willing to open its borders to him, the current Iraq and elsewhere. so Taliban-controlled Afghanis- A general upturn in violence — tan was the only option. We missed situation in bombings, assassinations, rocket the chance to intercept his flight to attacks and kidnappings — has Kandahar in March 1996, where he Afghanistan is claimed the lives of more and more arrived with two planeloads of wives NATO and U.S. forces, and Afghan and children. hopeful. soldiers and civilians. More U.S. sol- In July 1999, a military coup in diers died in 2005 than at any time Pakistan brought General Pervez since 2001, and the cumulative toll is Musharraf to power. Although not now more than 200. Attacks on civil- religious (scotch was acceptable ians are also at a four-year high. according to his reading of the The forces in place to deal with Quran), the new president needed the rights of religious minorities. such threats are inadequate. Some the support of extreme religious par- However, it also declares that “No 8,000 men under NATO command ties to bolster military rule. This law can be contrary to the sacred reli- patrol mainly within the capital, while translated into a sharp increase in aid gion of Islam.” One can only surmise U.S. forces, currently around 19,000, to the Taliban. An important addi- how these provisions would be inter- are scattered around a country the tional inducement for Pakistan was preted by a post-Karzai, hard-line size of Texas with 28 million inhabi- the opportunity to train government. tants. By comparison, there are their own “freedom fighters” in Tali- Despite these positive develop- 40,000 NATO troops in Bosnia, a ban-controlled camps in Afghanis- ments, the country’s prospects are country one-tenth the size of tan to harass Indian forces in Kash- clouded by four mutually reinforcing Afghanistan and considerably less mir. With a minimal investment by problems: security (or, more accu- volatile. Pakistan, these guerrillas kept half a rately, the lack thereof), drug traffick- American forces are training an million Indian troops tied down. ing, the slow pace of reconstruction, increasingly effective Afghan National As for the U.S., our policy contin- and Afghanistan’s historic decentral- Army, with plans for a significant ued to focus on containing Iran and ization. expansion. However, the U.S. is foot- Iraq and on maintaining Saudi coop- A start has been made on disarming most of the bill, raising doubts eration — or, more accurately— ing private militias, but gunholders about how long we will sustain that cheap oil. We were not about to take still control much of the countryside. commitment. on the Saudis for funding Islamic rad- Most Afghans rank disarming the The booming opium trade, the icals in Afghanistan or anywhere else. warlords as a higher priority than country’s largest economic sector, eliminating all remnants of the threatens the stability and viability of Four Big Problems Taliban, even as the latter forces the country itself. Where the war on This brings us to the current situa- show signs of resurgence four years extremists and the war on narcotics tion in Afghanistan, which in many after having been driven from intersect, drugs are winning. How ways is hopeful. Hamid Karzai was power. Our decision to siphon off could it be otherwise in a poverty- elected president in December 2004 resources to go after Saddam stricken land where the returns from and has proven an adept and moder- Hussein, before the Taliban were poppy cultivation — which requires ate leader. Parliamentary and provin- convincingly defeated, is certainly a little water or care — are 20 times cial council elections — the first in 30 factor in their ability to regroup. So that of wheat, cotton or rice? In the years — were successfully held this is the fact that they benefit from nationwide lawlessness that followed past September, despite Taliban staging areas in Pakistan’s Northwest the Taliban’s ouster, acreage devoted intimidation. About three million Frontier and Baluchistan. In the to poppies (whose opium is the raw refugees have returned from Iran and lead-up to the fall parliamentary material for heroin) increased dra- Pakistan, and over two million girls elections they showed they were matically. The U.N. estimates that are in school. A constitution was well-organized and armed with rock- in 2004, the drug trade was respon- approved last year that guarantees et-propelled grenades and other sible for at least half of Afghanistan’s

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gross domestic product. So one The final factor inhibiting Af- senses a serious imbalance in the ghanistan’s social, political and eco- universe when Afghans need donat- Far from being nomic development is the oldest and ed American wheat from the World perhaps the strongest of all: the Food Program, while at the same a luxury, examining country’s history as a patchwork of time, heroin originating there is sold tribal cultures for whom blood ties, on the streets of Europe and the Afghanistan’s history ethnic affiliation and religious iden- U.S. tity all trump national loyalties. President Karzai has not been is a necessity. Will the Karzai government be successful in cutting production, and able to deliver on its promises of a his leadership in this area has been better life, thus winning the trust of criticized by the U.S. agencies the population? For over a genera- involved. For the past three years, tion the citizenry has been lied to by counternarcotics activities have been a succession of rulers: the monarchy, beyond the authority of U.S. military donor countries (up significantly communists, Taliban and muja- personnel. Washington policy-mak- from 2001), but the deteriorating hedeen. There is a limit to their ers now recognize that the U.S. mil- security situation, as well as difficul- patience, but not to their skepticism. itary will have to get involved if the ties in transport and communication Few could argue that our rela- drug traffickers are to be defeated. nationwide, have put a serious crimp tionship with Afghanistan and its In addition, eradication without a in efforts to rebuild. Corruption and neighbors in the recent past repre- feasible alternative source of income lack of trained government staff sents a high point for U.S. diploma- — along with supporting roads and have also contributed to the lacklus- cy. That being said, let us hope we rural infrastructure — is a non- ter results. Accordingly, economic have learned from our mistakes and starter. About $4 billion in recon- expansion remains the key to a are now in Afghanistan for the long struction aid has been approved by viable and stable Afghanistan. haul. I

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DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 59

BOOKS

Close Does Count in the region forced negotiators to Judging from this play what Hannay aptly calls “three- dimensional chess.” Hannay docu- Cyprus: The Search account, no one can ments in detail how relations between for a Solution accuse Hannay of Greece and Turkey, Greece and the David Hannay, I.B. Taurus, 2005, unfairly favoring recognized government of Cyprus, $45, hardcover, 256 pages. and Turkey and the unrecognized either the Greek government of northern Cyprus, as REVIEWED BY DANIEL J. LAWTON Cypriots or the well as domestic politics throughout Turkish Cypriots — the region, all complicated an already Is it possible — contrary to the old complex issue. adage that “close only counts in horse- he criticizes both Cyprus’ bid to join the European shoes and hand grenades” — that sides liberally. Union, coupled with Turkey’s own coming close to solving a longstanding aspirations to start E.U. accession international conflict counts in the negotiations, however, provided sig- world of diplomacy? Lord David Han- u nificant new incentives and an action- nay, who served as the British Special forcing timetable for all sides. Would Representative for Cyprus from 1996 Cyprus join the E.U. in 2004 as a to 2003, argues that it does in his com- The substantive issues are many: divided or reunited island? And to prehensive insider’s view of the most How would a reunited Cyprus be gov- what extent would Turkey use its recent round of United Nations-led erned without leading to the secession influence in northern Cyprus to help Cyprus negotiations. More promising of the Turkish Cypriots or to domina- advance its own E.U. aspirations? than any of the many previous inter- tion by the Greek Cypriots, 80 per- Hannay’s chronological narrative national efforts to resolve the conflict cent of the island’s population? How provides ample case study material since U.N. peacekeepers were origi- would both communities, the Guar- for conflict-resolution theorists and nally deployed to the island 41 years antor Powers (Turkey, Greece and the practitioners. Cyprus’ mediators tried ago, last year these sustained efforts United Kingdom) and the United it all: confidence-building measures nevertheless also ended in failure. Nations ensure the security of Cyp- and track-two diplomacy, indirect Judging from this account, no one rus? How would the line between the proximity talks off-island, and mediat- can accuse Hannay of unfairly favor- two populations be adjusted to better ed face-to-face talks on the island. ing either the Greek Cypriots or the reflect their relative sizes? How Years of patient preparatory work Turkish Cypriots — he criticizes both would the property claims of the by United Nations Special Repre- sides liberally. In particular, he chron- many persons displaced by the sentative Alvaro de Soto culminated icles the opportunities missed by their Turkish intervention of 1974 and in Secretary General Kofi Annan pre- aging leaders, Greek Cypriot Glafcos post-independence intercommunal senting in swift succession three Clerides and Turkish Cypriot Rauf strife be settled? And how would the detailed, non-binding U.N. settle- Denktash. And with clinical, hyper- Turkish Cypriots’ demand for interna- ment proposals, known informally as rational precision, Hannay dissects tional recognition/sovereignty prior to Annan I, II and III. the emotion-laden issues and bargain- negotiating a settlement be handled? But the constellations over Cyprus ing positions dividing the two sides, If these difficult questions were — again — did not align. Just prior to diagnosing their preference for zero- not daunting enough, a number of Cyprus’ signing the treaty of accession sum and “blame game” negotiating. influential, overlapping relationships to the E.U. (as a divided island) in

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2003, Denktash rejected Annan III. cer in Copenhagen. This review through George Tenet. She succeeds One year later, with pro-settlement/ reflects the author’s personal views in filling a niche between the baseline pro-E.U. opinion sweeping northern only. books of the post-World War II gen- Cyprus, the U.N. managed to per- eration — e.g., Sherman Kent’s The suade both sides to put Annan III to CIA and the Craft of Intelligence — separate referenda. While the Turk- and the exposés that in recent years ish Cypriots overwhelmingly approv- Spy vs. Spies seem to have been the only material ed of the U.N. secretary general’s plan extant on the agency’s activities. (despite lingering opposition from Denial and Deception: Chapter by chapter, and director Denktash), Clerides’ presidential suc- An Insider’s View of the by director, Mahle walks us through cessor and the Greek Cypriots round- CIA from Iran-Contra to 9/11 the history of the modern CIA. She ly rejected it (despite the retired Melissa Mahle, Nation Books, 2005, describes the agency’s effort to re- Clerides’ endorsement). $26.00, hardcover, 403 pages. invent itself in the post-Cold War era, Even though these conflict-resolu- even as force reductions changed the tion efforts did not succeed, Hannay REVIEWED BY DAVID T. JONES CIA mantra from “global presence” to rightly underscores some of the ancil- “global reach;” that is, attempting to lary benefits of conflict management, Denial and Deception: An Insider’s cover emergencies in places with no such as the dramatic relaxation of View of the CIA from Iran-Contra to CIA station through hasty TDY restrictions on crossing the U.N. 9/11 comes on the market as part of a efforts to revive old contacts and buffer zone. In addition, potentially trio of “insider” stories addressing the develop new ones. Mahle spent destabilizing military exercises on current CIA. The other titles are A much of this period as a field opera- Cyprus were canceled and the E.U. Spy’s Journey: A CIA Memoir by tive, but she also provides compre- promised (though it has not yet fully Floyd L. Paseman and Blowing My hensive detail of the agency’s internal delivered) trade and greater aid to Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lind- turmoil and its struggles with the northern Cyprus. say Moran (which could be subtitled executive branch and Congress. She Moreover, Greek Cypriots and Sex and the Single CIA Agent). In a provides engaging capsule summaries Turkish Cypriots appear increasingly personal comment regarding the lat- of each director, itemizing their aware that the division of Cyprus ter, Melissa Mahle pre-empts ques- strengths and weaknesses and the remains a stark anomaly and anachro- tions by saying that she is “not that outcomes of the agency’s struggles nism in a Europe transformed, whole, one.” But she does admit encounter- both with external operational cata- free and at peace. ing what she presumed would be strophes (e.g., Iran-Contra, Somalia, Eschewing both self-doubt and career-limiting, if not career-ending, the hunt for Osama bin Laden) and a self-pity, Hannay argues persuasively circumstances at the Central Intelli- series of internal security disasters, of that a Cyprus solution, although not gence Agency — circumstances she which Aldrich Ames was only the imminent, is still possible, particularly suggests would make a great story, but most public. if Turkey’s E.U. prospects and Greece- one which under security regulations Mahle’s judgments lead inexorably Turkey rapprochement prosper. The she is not permitted to disclose. That to the conclusion that the CIA is still strategic and moral imperatives to caveat is relevant and substantial, as it groping to find effective ways to man- reach a just and lasting settlement are makes it impossible for a reader to age its new challenges in global ter- still valid. Annan III, which continues determine whether there is an addi- rorism following 9/11 and enhance to enjoys broad international support, tional agenda beyond what is pre- internal personnel security. Develop- remains the most compelling alterna- sented. ing capable analysts is a lengthy tive to no solution. The constellations Nevertheless, this is not another process, requiring career-long educa- can someday align over Cyprus. breathless “tell-all” by the disgrun- tion — for which the new Sherman tled. Instead, Mahle has provided a Kent School for Intelligence Analysis Daniel J. Lawton, a Foreign Service serious — if arguably protracted, at (opened in 2000) is just the begin- officer since 1990, was the senior over 400 pages — review of the ning. As for beefing up internal secu- Cyprus desk officer from 1999 to agency and its problems over the past rity, she suggests that draconian poly- 2001. He is currently a political offi- two decades, from William Casey graph techniques stemming from the

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Aldrich Ames spy case (among others) Haass develops the multilateral, have destroyed careers and make From Hubris to consultative, essentially liberal Ameri- recruiting new CIA officers other Leadership can leadership approach many com- than “white bread” U.S. citizens sur- mentators (e.g., Zbigniew Brzezinski prisingly difficult. The Opportunity: America’s and Joseph Nye) assert is required to Deception and Denial suffers Moment to Alter History’s Course address the challenges of the current from some semi-ritualistic feminist Richard N. Haass, Public Affairs era, which simply do not lend them- laments over “glass ceilings” and (Perseus Books Group), 2005, $25.00, selves to unilateral or military solu- scattered “look at me” black redac- hardcover, 242 pages. tions. He coins the term “integration” tions of text deleted at the last for bringing together the rest of the minute by the CIA. Still, this is a REVIEWED BY BILL HARROP world, forming coalitions, exerting solid piece of analysis that should be quiet and consistent American leader- particularly interesting for those This thoughtful, slim volume lays ship, and setting aside excessive who think that bureaucratic life is out a new American foreign policy notions of nationalism, pre-emption, uniquely convoluted at State and for the 21st century, much different military solutions and unilateral that diplomats are alone in their pro- from that of President George W. power. fessional travails. Bush. A better organized and more Although he strives for a nonpar- coherent opposition political party tisan tone, as befits a president of Retired Senior Foreign Service officer than we now have in this country the Council on Foreign Relations, David T. Jones is a frequent contribu- might incorporate these recommen- Haass puts down, both explicitly and tor to the Journal. dations into its platform. implicitly, the policies and style of

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B OOKS u the current administration. His should pursue and which the world congressional politics, which can analysis and forceful rebuttal of the desperately needs, but does not have a paralyzing effect in Washing- various rationales for launching a address in any way how such a turn- ton.” preventive war in Iraq (not a pre- around in U.S. foreign policy could The Opportunity repeatedly emptive war, as the White House be effected given the domestic polit- argues that diplomacy is the essen- claimed, says the author) are partic- ical realities of our times. tial tool for the effective projection ularly clear and cogent. So it is per- Urquhart describes these realities of United States influence, and plexing that Haass served for several as “the firm hold of the big corpora- implies that the Bush administration years as director of policy planning tions, especially on environmental has neglected this tool at substantial in Colin Powell’s State Department and energy policy; the neoconserva- cost to the nation. But ultimately, while disagreeing utterly, he now tive ideology that rejects internation- this book is about policy, not diplo- reveals, with the neoconservative al organization and international macy. I values that inform the administra- treaties and conventions and favors tion. unilateral and military ventures; the A former AFSA president, Bill Harrop This paradox also informs an ele- growing influence of evangelical was an FSO from 1954 to 1993, serv- gant review of the book by former religion on the White House, on ing as ambassador to Guinea, Kenya, United Nations Under Secretary domestic policy and on some aspects the Seychelles, Zaire and Israel, and Brian Urquhart (The New York of foreign policy, including the as inspector general of the State Review of Books, Aug. 11, 2005). As administration’s approach to the Department and Foreign Service. He Urquhart explains, Haass defines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and the is on the boards of five diplomacy- policies which the United States relentlessly hostile partisanship of related organizations.

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GOING TO COLLEGE IN AMERICA

(OR, HOW TO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE WEIRDEST CULTURE OF ALL: YOUR OWN)

BY FRANCESCA HUEMER KELLY

an Haight was born in Kenya, spent the first What to Expect decade of his life living in Zambia and If you’re a Foreign Service or Third Culture Kid who has Zimbabwe, and then moved with his family to lived most of your life overseas, what can you expect from Italy for middle school and high school. A self- your first few months at college in America? proclaimed “Europeanized White African- • You may feel “different.” Everyone comes to college American,” Ian found adjusting to Bowdoin feeling a bit insecure about how they’ll fit in, but for Third College in small-town Maine a bit rocky. Culture Kids this feeling is likely to be compounded. “It was “Culture shock hit me pretty hard. I realized that I very easy to feel out of place as a freshman. You just assume Iwasn’t just here this time for a few months or relaxation; that everyone else is more in tune — more American,” says I was here to live and work in college. I felt really far away Mark Mozur, a 2005 graduate of Harvard University who from home.” has lived in Eastern Europe and South America. Almost all college freshmen go through an adjustment “During the first day of orientation, I listened to many period when they head off to school. But the Foreign other incoming freshmen bonding over their common New Service or Third Culture Kid — someone who has spent England backgrounds,” recalls Elisabeth Frost, a recent most or all of his life living in at least one foreign country — graduate of Bates College. “When people asked me where I gets hit with a double whammy. was from, I felt like I was telling them my entire life story: “The particularly challenging aspect for this group is that Guinea, Mexico, Honduras, and Brazil, with only two ele- they are so invisible,” says Anne P. Copeland, Ph.D., execu- mentary school years in the U.S.” tive director of the Interchange Institute and co-author of • You may not know how things work — but you’ll Understanding American Schools: The Answers to New- learn quickly. TCKs can face many of the same adjust- comers’ Most Frequently Asked Questions (Interchange ment problems as international students. College of the Institute, 2001, 2005). “They look American, sound Overwhelmed (Jossey-Bass, 2004) authors Richard Kadison American, are American. And so, unlike their international and Theresa Foy DiGeronimo posit that international stu- student classmates, no one (including them, perhaps) dents are “thinking about every move. … How do I choose expects them to be having culture shock, or to need cultur- from two dozen different laundry detergents, and how do I al information. They are adding this to the normal stresses turn on this washing machine? Conscious living gets very of moving away from family and encountering the academ- tiring.” ic and social demands of college, but these cultural issues Some FS kids “can lack the basic skill of taking care of are harder for being unexpected and invisible.” themselves, because they’ve always had a maid to tend to them,” observes Katia Miller, a sophomore at the College of Francesca Huemer Kelly, a Foreign Service spouse William and Mary, who spent her high school years in Peru. presently based in Brussels, is a professional freelance There, as in most developing countries where labor is plen- writer who is published regularly in American and inter- tiful and salaries low, domestic help is the norm, even for national magazines. She is a founder of Tales from a middle-class families. Small Planet (talesmag.com), was the Web site’s editor-in- Yet TCKs also learn to be self-sufficient very quickly. chief from 1999 to 2003, and currently serves in an advi- Along with international students, they’re often left alone on sory capacity. Also a trained concert singer, Ms. Kelly has campus for at least one holiday, and while other kids’ parents lived in Milan, Leningrad, Moscow, Belgrade, Vienna, arrive at end-of-term with the minivan to help their kids Ankara and Rome. She is the mother of four children. Continued on page 66

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pack up, TCKs are on their own, vacating their dorm rooms with ticket and passport in hand. • Other students may not know — literally — where you are coming from. “When I tell someone I went to high school in Austria and they say, ‘Oh, where the kangaroos are?’ it makes me think we may not have much in common,” admits Sarah Pettit, a senior at Washington Univer- sity in St. Louis. Feeling different is not helped by the fact that other students might not know quite how to categorize TCKs. For one thing, they can’t relate to the TCKs’ life experiences. “Whenever my friends talked about something, whether it was politics or cars or computer games, all I could add was ‘well, in Italy ...’” says Ian Haight, now in his sophomore year at Bowdoin. “It got to the point where the conversation would die if I said anything.” Happily, Ian reports that his new friends soon “got used to me. And I got more in touch with American culture.” “There is sometimes resentment from the U.S. kids because of the traveling you have done and the places you have lived,” says Steve Catt, a junior at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who arrived there from high school in Tokyo. “Just remember that your actions and words can play a big part in helping them understand. And you can always learn something from them, too.” Chelsea Jensen, a freshman at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif., says, “I came back to the U.S. thinking that everyone would be uncultured. I’ve known countless FS kids who thought the same thing. But in fact there are many American kids who are not the stereotypical ‘proud to be an American because we’re better than everyone else.’” “Be prepared for a lot of questions,” advises Emily Frost, a sophomore at Hollins University in Roan- oke, Va., who has lived in South and Central America as well as in Guinea. “But be watchful of talking too much

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They look American, sound American, are American. And so, unlike their international student classmates, no one (including them, perhaps) expects them to be having culture shock.

about your international background as some people will think you’re showing off.” In fact, Steve Catt reports that several students did not believe him when he told them of his experiences abroad. • Alternatively, Foreign Service and Third Culture Kids may be perceived as more interesting than the average college student. “Some- times when I tell people I’ve lived overseas my whole life, they react as if I were a god,” says Ian Haight. “Sure, it’s unique, but it doesn’t mean I’m better than someone who’s lived in the same town his whole life. I’m just different.” John Taylor, a junior at the University of California, Riverside, who lived for two years in Ankara, finds his international experiences are viewed as almost universally positive by his peers. “People are interested and even envious that I have had experiences people twice my age haven’t. I often find myself at the center of attention.” • You will not believe the food! Depending on where they were living before they arrived, FS kids’ reactions to college food will be as varied as diets around the world. A student coming from the Third World may be Continued on page 68

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Continued from page 67

astonished, even embarrassed, at how much food is offered at the college cafeteria — and how much is wasted. Conversely, a student coming from a country where cuisine is renowned may hate the repetitive daily fare in the dining hall. “Getting used to the processed food at school was a huge adjustment,” says Leah Speckhard, who attended James Madison Univer- sity for two years before transferring. “It was funny to have all of the food that I only used to get on vacations, such as Tater Tots and Doritos, available to me all the time,” says Emily Frost. • You may be stupefied by things most Americans take for granted. “It’s really weird to see my classmates driving!” my daughter, Annalisa Kelly, a sophomore at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, exclaimed on her first phone call home from school. Like many TCKs, she was used to urban public transport, and had never learned to drive. Other things international students have mentioned as surreal are seemingly endless strings of shopping malls, gigantic meal portions and polite, orderly lines at checkout counters. • You may be frustrated by the legal drinking age — and by the college drinking culture. Many students who have lived overseas as teens are used to a lower drinking age and have learned how to use alcohol moderately. “It’s difficult to be allowed to do something and then have that right taken away from you,” admits Sarah Pettit. Ian Haight adds, “American [students] look at drinking very differently. I don’t think they even see it as pleasurable, just ‘cool’ only because it’s illegal and everyone else is doing it.” However, most students inter- viewed have found friends who do not abuse alcohol or drugs. “There are even substance-free floors in some dorms,” reports one student. • “Diversity” might not mean “tolerance” or “integration.” Sarah Continued on page 70

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How Can Foreign Service Parents Help?

Melanie Kerber, Ed.D., an educational sages when your kids call home. The idea consultant, has found that FS teens and of college being ‘the best four years of your TCKs vary tremendously in their adjust- It is important that life’ is sometimes misleading, and kids ment to college. “Some kids who have expect it to be great all the time. So they lived their entire lives overseas go off to an the child always feel might call one time loving it, and the next American college with little to no difficulty, time bemoaning the fact that they don't whereas others struggle with not fitting in as though he or she has click with the other kids, it's not the right and do not relate to the campus activities: place for them, they want to transfer, etc. drinking parties, carousing, etc. The same a home country. Sometimes that might be true, but they can be said for kids who have lived their need to be encouraged to give it time, make entire lives in America. the effort to get involved, and realize that “I always give parents three pieces of unless they are on the verge of suicide. their feelings are shared by many others.” advice. Number one is to stay connected “Finally, parents can be influential in She adds: “When selecting a college, with their country. It is important that the steering their kids’ college choices based Foreign Service kids sometimes have addi- child always feel as though he or she has a on the type of child they have. For exam- tional factors to consider other than those home country. This is particularly true ple, if the teen tended to be clingy as a that are obvious. For example, if the par- regarding news, culture and current trends. child, he or she might revert back to that ents are overseas, how easy is it to get to Second, expect at least one semester of under the stress of college life, and it might an airport? Where are other family mem- turmoil where kids want to come home or be wise to select a college close to relatives bers going to be who can offer help and transfer. I urge parents to handle it accord- or close family friends.” support? Every student has a different ingly, not by bringing them home but help- Becky Grappo, education and youth comfort level with distance and their ing them through it at a distance. It under- officer for the Family Liaison Office, agrees. newly-found independence.” cuts kids’ confidence to bring them home “Don’t be surprised if you get mixed mes- — Francesca Huemer Kelly

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Continued from page 70

Alternatively, Foreign Service and Third Culture Kids may be perceived as more interesting than the average college student.

Pettit was surprised by a less diversified system than she expected. “I found people, especially minorities on campus, to be much more conscious of their differences and, as a result, more segregated. Black students tended to group together, Asians grouped together, and Hispanics grouped together. A lot of clubs of different minorities might detract from diversity more than promote it.” “I feel I understand racial differences and cultures better than the average American,” acknowledges Katia Miller. “Everyone has his or her own belief, own tradition, and I’ve learned more about that overseas.” • You may end up hanging out with other TCKs and international students. FS kids and TCKs often feel most comfortable with the kinds of people they went to high school with: international kids, for the most part. Mark Mozur says, “I found kids I could relate to through the Inter- national Club. I ended up hanging out mostly with Polish kids because Poland was where I had lived before coming to Harvard.” “Search out the international kids,” advises Steve Catt. “Like us, they are also having some difficulty adjusting and will love that you reach out to them. You will find they are probably more compatible with you than other Americans.” Ben Harburg, a senior at Tufts University who grew up in Spain and Switzerland, as well as in the States, reflects, “I’ve ended up feeling equal-

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ly comfortable with both international Foreign Service kid, when adjusting and American students among my to college in America, is that I already friends.” But he points out that there “In many ways the had a lot of experience dealing with can be different subcultures of inter- new situations, because of this past national kids: students from poor adjustment to college was history with change, and thus made a backgrounds/countries on full schol- smooth transition into college life,” arship, as well as very wealthy interna- the easiest move I ever says Janey Symington, a junior at Yale tional students whose parents have set University, who arrived there from them up with luxury cars and apart- made, because I was so Niamey, Niger, West Africa, where ments, and “who are perceived to be there were only five students in the snobby.” well-prepared by entire high school. “I made it a point to hang out with Ben Harburg says, “In many ways the American kids as well as the inter- our moving around during the adjustment to college was the eas- national kids,” says Ian Haight, iest move I ever made, because every- “because I knew that being friends my childhood.” one there is new and facing the same with them would help me adapt to my thing together, and because I was so new life. Talking to my former high — Ben Harburg well-prepared by our moving around school classmates who had also just so much during my childhood.” moved to the U.S. from overseas was important, too, because they were in Top Ten Things They Want exactly the same boat I was in.” lives moving to new countries and You to Know… • Your tolerance and resil- finding new friends. This adaptability Now that their adjustment to col- ience will help you in making and resilience is one of the many lege life in America is behind them, friends and finding your niche. strengths they bring to being college what advice do these TCKs give to Foreign Service kids have spent their freshmen. “One advantage to being a Continued on page 72

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Continued from page 71 high school students who are now liv- “I wish that I had gotten involved in ing overseas? more activities from the beginning,” 1. In making your college Don’t think of this as admits Elisabeth Frost. “Think about choices, consider carefully the what you like to do and try to pursue student body makeup and envi- “coming home.” your interests in college. However, be ronment — and visit the campus prepared for those academic and if you can. “A Third Culture Kid extracurricular interests to change, might feel completely alien in a rural, and don’t be afraid to try new things.” homogenous area,” says Ben Har- 4. Don’t think of this as “com- burg. “I love the Boston area because difference.” ing home.” Yes, you’re returning to it is so diverse.” 2. Don’t pack too much stuff, your native land, but you may set Your decision should also be based unless it’s the green stuff. Yes, yourself up for disappointment if you on what “just feels right.” My daughter you may get a shipment allowance, don’t lower your expectations. Many was certain she’d end up in New York but, as Michelle Beaudry, a student at Foreign Service kids only know or Chicago, but she ultimately chose George Mason University, points out, America as “Vacation Land.” So you Wesleyan in rural Connecticut, partial- “try not to pack absolutely everything, might want to get in touch with at ly because it reminded her of her over- because you will be the one who has least some aspects of American pop- seas high school. Visiting the campus to move it all in and out of your dorm ular culture before you head state- was what made the difference. room.” (She also advises saving “lots side. Read People magazine. Get Says Leah Speckhard, who is now of money” before college, because “it someone to tape some American attending Vesalius University in goes really fast.”) television shows for you. And even if Brussels, “I went to college in Virginia 3. Get involved in something it’s only during home leave, visiting without ever having visited the cam- fun right away. “Don’t be passive. America does help. pus, and I ended up transferring. Initiate. Join a club. Get out of the “Returning every summer to Visiting first would have made a big dorm,” urges Mark Mozur. Missouri, where I was born, also

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helped lessen the culture shock that Frost. “You are going to miss your many Third Culture Kids feel when family, so make use of the great tech- they return to their ‘native’ country,” Accept that you may feel nology available: instant messaging, e- remarks Janey Symington. mailing and video conferencing with a 5. Ask for help. If you find that like one person at home webcam.” you are seriously overwhelmed with “It’s important to realize that adjusting to both life in America and with your family, another you’re not all that far away from the stress of the college workload, do home,” says Ian Haight. “When I’m ask for help, whether it be from uni- person at school. In fact, sitting at my desk with three papers to versity counseling services, friends, write and only four hours of sleep, and family or religious community. Look you may have even more I’m sick, and my friends won’t stop for support groups. making noise, I reassure myself that And don’t feel that your issues than two homes. soon I will be sitting with my family always necessarily have to do with on the balcony back in Rome.” being a Foreign Service kid. Every 7. Expect surprises. “People will college student, no matter what his say, ‘Wow, your English is really good!’ or her background, goes through a seems — or, home needn’t seem even though I am an American,” rough patch. Sarah Pettit volunteers as far away as it is! Third Culture laughs Sarah Pettit. as a crisis counselor on campus: “If families tend to be more close-knit Leah Speckhard claims she went you are having trouble adjusting, than average; they “pull together” to school with an open mind, and don’t suffer in silence! Adjustment during every international move. “didn’t expect to run into the stereo- issues are very common, so take “Through all the moves, my family typical American … but I did.” advantage of the resources available was the main thing that remained Ian Haight’s “Carpe Diem” (Seize to help you.” constant — and this time I was mov- the Day) tattoo was similar to those of 6. Home is not as far away as it ing all by myself,” reflects Emily Continued on page 74

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Continued from page 73

his Italian friends. “But when I showed it to my American friends, they looked at me like I was a biker or a prison inmate.” “Everyone around me spoke English!” exclaims Emily Frost. Here are some other comments that come up in discussions with For- eign Service college students. “Ameri- cans always seem to be in a rush.” “Everyone dresses the same way.” “People are obsessive about diet and weight.” The point of these disparate stories is this: you may not, right now, have any idea what will surprise or even shock you, but you can pretty much count on the fact that something will. 8. Accept that you may have several homes, and that each one may not be perfect. Some students report that coming home for the holidays or for the summer feels just like old times, while others no longer feel as if they are the same person who left just a few months ago. Accept that you may feel like one person at home with your family, another person at school. In fact, you may have even more than two homes. “When I graduated from high school in Ottawa, Canada, I went off to the University of Virginia and my family moved to Ethiopia,” reflects Jimmy Galindo, a senior at U. Va. “The reality of being separated from my family by the width of an ocean and a continent struck hard at times.” If, like Jimmy’s family, your family moves while you are at college, you may return home for the holidays and realize that you don’t know anyone: all your friends from high school are back at your last post! Consider making special arrangements to visit your “old home” during part of your vacation if at all feasible. 9. Don’t forget who you are. “Follow up on and embrace your international background,” advises Jimmy Galindo. “Tutor a child from an immigrant family, take classes in international affairs, attend cultural events, study abroad, search out unique living experiences. (U. Va., for

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“Even if you have lived overseas your whole life, go abroad your junior year. It is a different experience to be in a foreign country on your own as opposed to with your parents.”

— Sarah Pettit

example, has an International Resi- dential College where 300 students, about 100 of whom are foreign students, live together in a multicultural community.) All this will make you feel a little more at home.” “Even if you have lived overseas your whole life, go abroad your junior year,” suggests Sarah Pettit. “It is a different experience to be in a foreign country on your own as opposed to with your parents.” 10. Finally, remember your strengths. You’ve adjusted to new situations all of your life. This is just another one. Chances are you will soon be embracing college life in America and all its wild and crazy roller-coaster turns. “My advice is not to worry so much,” says Owen McMullen, who grew up in South Africa, Fiji and Burma. “I was concerned about not fitting in to Drake University in Des Moines, but have found it easier than I had feared.” Says Ian Haight, “At first the going was rough, but now I love it here. Bowdoin is an excellent college and has excellent people. I really feel like I belong here, and I don’t regret a single choice I made. It’s great.” I

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Resources for Going to College in America Books: Richard Kadison, M.D., and Theresa Foy DiGeronimo, College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It, Jossey-Bass, 2004 Suzette Tyler, Been There, Should’ve Done That II: More Tips for Making the Most of College, Front Porch Press, 2001 Janet Farrar Worthington and Ronald Farrar, The Ultimate College Survival Guide, Peterson’s Guides, 1998. David Pollock and Ruth Van Reyken, Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing up Among Worlds, Nicholas Brealey, 2001 Karen C. McCluskey, Notes from a Traveling Childhood: Readings for Internationally Mobile Parents and Children, Foreign Service Youth Foundation, 1994 Carolyn D. Smith, Strangers At Home: Essays on the Effects of Living Overseas and Coming “Home” to a Strange Land, Aletheia Publications, 1996 Linda Bell, Hidden Immigrants: Legacies of Growing Up Abroad, Cross Cultural Publications, 1997

Web Sites: Foreign Service Youth Foundation — www.fsyf.org (clubs, support, resources, interactive opportunities for FS kids and teenagers) Third Culture Kid World — www.tckworld.com (resources for TCKs) The Interchange Institute — www.interchangeinstitute.org (resources for people moving to new cultures) U Magazine at colleges.com — http://www.colleges.com/Umagazine/ (college culture) Co-Ed Magazine — http://www.co-edmagazine.com (more college pop culture) — Francesca Huemer Kelly

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A New Kind of College Guide U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of colleges, and others like it, have become very influential in the choices parents and their children make about schools. Understandably, parents want to be assured that the considerable financial outlay for their child’s higher education is “worth it,” and existing college rankings aim at identifying the “best” schools in terms of academic excellence. By contrast, the Washington Monthly College Guide that debuted this fall sorts schools according to what the schools give to society. “Other guides ask what colleges can do for you,” says Washington Monthly. “We ask what colleges are doing for the country.” In the new college guide, schools are ranked by how well they perform three vital socioeconomic functions: how well they serve as engines of social mobility; how well they serve as producers of the scientific minds and research that develops new knowledge and drives economic growth; and how well they promote an ethic of service. Not surprisingly, the headline schools routinely found at the top of the U.S. News list did not necessarily finish at the top of the Washington Monthly list. In fact, only three schools in the 2006 U.S. News top ten are in its highest ranks: MIT, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Among the Ivy League schools, only Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania made Washington Monthly’s top ten. Princeton, tied with Harvard for first place in U.S. News’ 2005 list, ranks 44 on the Washington Monthly list. Interestingly, MIT earned its overall number-one ranking in the Washington Monthly guide not so much because of its ground-breaking research. What made the school number one was its commitment to national service, where it ranked 7, far better than most of its elite peers. Similarly, UCLA, which finished second on the overall list, excelled in research and came in first in the social mobility rating because of its astound- ingly high graduation rate given its large number of lower-income students. Overall, the Washington Monthly list contains many more first-rate state schools than the U.S. News list, which has no public universities within its top ten. The rankings have had a growing impact on schools, too. College administrators scramble to increase the amount of money given by their alumni or raise the SAT scores of their incoming freshmen to improve their score in the ranking. Competition to improve rankings in the Washington Monthly guide could have far-reaching effects as schools start enrolling greater numbers of lower-income students and making sure that they graduate, encourage more of their students to join the Peace Corps or the military, and intensify their focus on producing more Ph.D. graduates in science and engineering. The Washington Monthly College Guide, including an explanation of the methodology behind it, is available online at http://www.washington monthly.com/features/2005/0509.collegeguide.html. — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor

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STUDY ABROAD: TAKE THE PLUNGE

IN SOME WAYS, A SEMESTER ABROAD IS LIKE AN EXTENDED VACATION. BUT FOR MOST STUDENTS, IT’S AN EXPERIENCE THAT ENCOMPASSES MUCH MORE.

BY BROOKE DEAL

s many Foreign Service families experience. Sure, you can learn these things in the United already know, studying abroad is an States, but living in another country as a young adult will exciting, challenging plunge into the give you the insight to better understand another culture culture and academic life of another and another people. country. There may be other attrac- tions, too, such as enrolling at St. Getting Started Andrews University in Scotland in So how do you become part of that group of 170,000 hopes of meeting Prince William. Whatever their motiva- overseas students? Here’s what you need to do well before Ations, over 170,000 American students study abroad each you get on that plane. year, according to the Institute of International Education. Start early! Studying abroad takes a great deal of prepa- Cities in Europe remain a hot spot for many, but more and ration. Most programs require applications at least one more students are choosing locations off the beaten path, in semester before you go abroad. But well before that, you Asia, Africa and South America. And the numbers increase must decide where on earth you want to go, which may take year by year as more students recognize the importance of longer than you think. Begin by making a list of places you’d studying abroad in a globally interdependent world — and like to live. Many students use this as a chance to explore as the understanding these students acquire becomes their family roots or to discover new and exotic places. If increasingly valuable in today’s society. you can, talk to someone who has studied or lived in these People often ask me why I chose to go abroad for a countries. In addition, start saving money now — travel is semester of my college career: “Why would you want to not cheap! And keep in mind that you can even choose to leave this wonderful nation to go to some backward country study at another university in the United States as a visiting where most people don’t even own dishwashers?” I am student if you don’t want to stray far from home. tempted to respond that the answer is simple: to avoid peo- Narrow your choices. After enough debate, you ple with that attitude! But the answer is more complicated. should be able to weed out some of the choices you are less Study abroad isn’t just a carefree semester spent travel- enthusiastic about, ending up with two or three universities ing, exploring nightlife and meeting new people. It is an in which you are truly interested, whatever the reason. experience you won’t find anywhere else. Completely Apply early. Get those applications in as far ahead of removed from all you’ve ever known, this is a chance to dis- the deadline as possible. Many programs accept students on cover who you really are while exploring a culture and a rolling admissions, so the earlier the better. You’re also like- place completely foreign to you. You’ll be amazed at how ly to receive word of the school’s decision sooner that way, so quickly you will bond with new friends. You will have to if your first choice falls through, you can still apply to others. budget, take tests and write papers, and still be responsible Get all your documentation together. No matter enough to balance work and play. how much time and deliberation you put into making your It’s also about learning how to survive on your own, emo- final decision, you won’t make it there without the necessary tionally, mentally and physically. This is why I call it a life documents. First and foremost, every person traveling internationally must have a passport, so apply for one as Brooke Deal, a senior at Wake Forest University in soon as possible; it can take months to receive it. Winston-Salem, N.C., was the Journal’s editorial intern Depending on the country, you’ll probably need a student during the summer of 2005. In the fall of 2004, she spent visa and certain inoculations before leaving home. You can a semester at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Continued on page 82

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S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT SchoolsSchools atat aa GlanceGlance Go to our Web page at www.fsjournal.org and click on the Marketplace tab for more information.

uition,

Annual T School Name Advertisement PageEnrollment No. Gender Distribution,Percent M/F BoardingPercent InternationalLevels Offered Common ApplicationAccepts/Offers ADDMiles and to LD Int’lInt’l Airport StudentsDorms Orientation w/E-mail,Holiday phones Break CoverageRoom & Board (USD)

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Alexandria Country 84 240 47/53 NA NA K-8 N N 20 NA NA NA 16,800 Day School Browne Academy 89 276 49/51 NA 1 PS-8 N 5 NA NA NA 17,502 Langley School 90 466 50/50 NA 0 PK-8 NA N 15 NA NA NA 20,500 Washington International 75 825 49/51 NA 37 PK-12 N Limited 8 Y NA NA 18,500 School

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Indian Mountain School 93 260 60/40 27 12 PK-9 N Y 75 N Y N 33,180

JUNIOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

British School of 72 300 50/50 NA 50 PK-12 N N 10 Y NA NA 19,050 Washington Christ School 73 185 All boys 82 10 8-12 Y Limited 3 Y Y Y 31,500 Dana Hall School 68 465 All girls 50 10 6-12 Y Limited 12 Y Y N 37,000 Hockaday School, The 84 1,010 All girls 9 1 PK-12 Y Y 30 Y Y Y 30,170 Maxwell International 69 160 49/51 45 38 7-12 Y Y 30 Y Y N 17,360 Bahá’í School Oakwood Friends School 91 140 55/45 55 5 6-12 Y Y 35 N N N 25,900 Perkiomen School 76 265 60/40 60 20 5-12, PG Y Y 50 Y Y N 34,300 Shattuck - St. Mary’s 74 335 61/39 70 20 6-12 Y Y 45 Y Y N 29,900 School Stone Ridge School 96 782 All girls NA 2 JK-12 N N 15 N N N 17,480 of the Sacred Heart Stony Brook School 95 336 55/45 56 20 7-12 Y Limited 50 N Y N 29,600 St Margaret’s School 75 150 All girls 75 15 8-12 Y Limited 50 Yes Y N 34,500

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Dublin School 81 124 60/40 78 23 9-12, PG Y Y 43 Y Y Y 35,400 Emma Willard School 90 312 All girls 60 16 9-12, PG Y NA 7 Y Y Y 32,750 Foxcroft School 89 170 All girls 66 14 9-12 Y Limited 18 Y Y N 35,700 Idyllwild Arts Academy 79 262 40/60 85 27 9-12, PG Y N 120 Y Y N 35,800 Kents Hill School 68 215 60/40 70 20 9-12, PG Y Y 50 Y Y Limited 33,900 Madeira School 93 302 All girls 55 13 9-12 Y Y 15 Y Y Limited 34,780 Miss Hall’s School 77 175 All girls 75 18 9-12 Y NA 40 Y Y N 35,800 Oregon Episcopal 70 290 53/47 19 18 9-12 Y Limited 19 Y Y Y 33,445 School

CONTINUED ON PAGE 86 Notes: NA - Not Applicable. ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder. LD - Learning Disability.

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Continued from page 78 check the “Travel and Living Abroad” Once You’re There… section of the State Department Web Starting out in a new environment site for that information (www.state. Every study abroad is usually tricky, even for Foreign gov). Service dependents and other sea- All students should receive a “stu- program is different, so soned veterans of overseas living. dent validation letter” from their host Prepare yourself for an emotional university prior to leaving home; you make sure you know roller coaster ride, usually in three will have to present this to the immi- phases. Most students are nothing gration office once you arrive at your exactly what yours entails. but excited for the first couple of destination. Don’t forget to obtain an weeks, when everything is brand-new International Student Identity Card and calls out to be explored. But brace (www.isic.org/sisp/index.htm) for yourself to crash into homesickness; emergency assistance as well as dis- after a few weeks, most international counts on travel, hostels and entertain- from the originals. students begin to miss family, friends ment abroad. In addition, some study- Do good financial planning. and 24-hour supermarkets. There are abroad programs demand proof of Every study abroad program is differ- always a few things that study abroad financial security. The requirements ent, so make sure you know exactly programs won’t tell you. Not only vary from program to program, so what your program entails. Some that, but you might even resent things make sure you know them well in offer housing for their students; oth- about your host country (like not hav- advance. ers do not. You might need to provide ing constant Internet access in your Have back-ups. Make at least your own transportation to the desti- room or the tedious matriculation two extra copies of all your docu- nation as well as around town. And process at your university). ments. Leave one set of copies at you’ll almost certainly be responsible But don’t worry; this phase won’t home with your parents, and keep for covering your own household last long. Soon you’ll grow accus- another with you, in a separate place expenses, personal spending, etc. tomed to the new way of life you are

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S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT leading, and most likely enjoy the rest Five Things I Wish I’d Been Told of your time as you would at your American university. By the end of Here are some other snippets of advice, your term abroad, you’ll understand things I wish people had told me before I everything that you once considered went to Scotland: Brush up on U.S. history foreign. You might not even want to Bring shower shoes. This is especially return home! important when you plan on staying in a and politics before you go Here are some suggestions to ease youth hostel. Believe me, you’ll regret it the transition: otherwise. abroad, as well as the Reach out. It may seem obvious, Experience local nightlife for yourself. but particularly when you’re home- Of course, be careful and go with a group, basics for the location in sick, it can be difficult to befriend but there’s just no substitute for seeing local students. Many Americans “Eurotrash” first-hand! which you’ll be studying. abroad find themselves stuck in their Take overnight trains to save on hotels American bubble, always hanging out when traveling. with the other students in their pro- Don’t be surprised that most people will be able to tell you’re American, whether by gram because it can be difficult to go your accent or your tennis shoes. I once had a stranger in Edinburgh, say to me, “You’re out and meet foreign nationals, par- American, aren’t you?” When I asked him how he knew, he responded, “You just have that ticularly if you don’t speak the local cheery look about you.” language. But do it anyway; you’ll be Similarly, don’t be surprised to encounter anti-American sentiment. Almost any- glad you did. where you go, you will be expected to defend yourself and U.S. policy on a wide range of Join student clubs. Campus issues. To make this easier, brush up on U.S. history and politics before you go abroad, as organizations are a good place to start, well as the basics for the location in which you’ll be studying. Be honest about how you particularly those that cater to your feel and support your ideas; most people will be glad to listen even if they don’t agree. Continued on page 84

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Continued from page 83 own interests and hobbies. Besides amazing experience you just had. then join local undergraduates at the giving you a connection to life beyond What do you say at Christmas when student union, which, if you happen the school, they can be a reason to your grandparents ask, “So how was to be in Europe, will usually serve come back to this city where you lived it?” How do you describe this incred- cheap alcohol. for a semester or two. ible experience? Above all, being removed from Keep a journal and take lots of Studying abroad drops you right your normal situation gives you a photos. You’ve probably already into the lifestyle of another corner of chance for introspection, so you can heard those pieces of advice, but the world. Although you might feel learn who you really are. Study they’re both true. When you get back like one at first, you are much more abroad gives new meaning to the home, you’ll have a first-person than a visitor — you’ll need to know phrase “discovering different per- chronicle and timeless reminders of the essentials: where to buy groceries, spectives.” You go abroad to learn international adventures, ready to how to use the public transportation, about another way of life, but end up return you to your time abroad. which gestures are offensive … the learning even more about your own list goes on. I found out, for instance, identity, and returning to the United The Re-entry Process that in the United Kingdom, the word States with a new appreciation for life Believe it or not, coming home “pants” refers to what we Yanks call at home. might be the hardest part of the entire “underwear.” So you learn to watch No matter how much traveling you experience. Returning to the world of what you say (sometimes the hard have done, studying abroad is some- midnight fast food and endless super- way!). thing every university student should markets can trigger a nasty case of The study-abroad experience is do before graduating. After all, col- reverse culture shock. And whether unique in that, in the end, you are a lege provides you with this one you fell in love with your host country tourist and a local, and soon when chance to live abroad that you will or not, and even if other friends also people ask you for directions, you’ll be most likely never have again. It’s easy studied abroad, you may feel frustrat- able to answer them. You can still to dream about it. Now take the next ed that no one else can relate to this enjoy the tourist traps of the city and step. Go ahead — take the plunge. I

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LOST AND FOUND: INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL REUNIONS

ATTENDING AN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CAN PROVIDE NOT ONLY FOND MEMORIES BUT A COURSE FOR THE FUTURE.

BY MIKKELA THOMPSON

ll over the world, every week, there classmates, it is possible to find them. David Hocking, a are impromptu international school former pupil at Lakenheath High School (a U.S. reunions. Just last month, I had din- Department of Defense school), set up a Web site, ner with former students from my www.libertynet.co.uk/LHS, for his high school. On the site, school, and this made me think back he included a “brat links” page with useful links. He to my international high school. I explains his reason for starting the site: “What you see here sent out a request for stories on a cou- is the culmination of an idea. After I left Lakenheath in ple of listservs and talked on the phone with other Foreign 1986, I lost touch with a lot of people. With the foolishness AService brats and other internationally raised people. I got of youth, I allowed some good friendships to lapse. In the responses from more than a score of people and had lively years since nostalgia set in, I looked back at my years at e-mail conversations and phone conversations with most of Lakenheath as some of the best in my life thus far. Then them. there was this little problem... It suddenly became The reunions seem to fall into several distinct categories: extremely difficult to find people. People moved, got mar- official reunions, alumni clubs and activities, major events ried or, even worse, got unlisted phone numbers!” (weddings, birthdays and funerals) and casual get-togeth- Hocking’s brat links include the All England American ers. A recent article on adult Third Culture Kids reports High School Virtual Reunion, which is a weekly chat room; that they maintain regular contact with people from other the Department of Defense Dependents Schools home countries. (A TCK is a child who has his or her parents’ cul- page, For the Brats (www.geocities.com/SoHo/7315/); ture, the one that they are living in, and his or her own, Global Nomads (www.worldweave.com/GN.html); Military “third” culture created out of this cultural mélange. TCKs Brats International (http://www.militarybrat.com); and can be military brats, missionary kids, Foreign Service and Operation Footlocker, which leads you to the TCK World corporate kids, and others who have lived as children in for- Web site (www.tckworld.com). eign cultures.) The AFCENT/AFNORTH International High School “Whether in professional or volunteer roles, through alumni site, a NATO school located in Brunssum, the friendship or family networks, the vast majority (92 per- Netherlands, has a creative approach to dividing the class- cent) have at least yearly contact with people from other es. It segments the students as Flower Children (the countries. Nearly a quarter associate with internationals at 1960s); Village People (the 1970s); New Wavers (the least once a month, some daily,” state Ann Baker Cottrell 1980s); Generation X (the 1990s) and Millennials (the and Ruth Hill Useem. “A majority also report some, 2000s). They then give names, years of attendance and e- though often infrequent, contact with people they knew as mail addresses (including a “bad e-mail” list, where people children abroad. Increasingly popular are school reunions can check to see if they are still listed under an old e-mail which validate the third culture and TCK identity and address). They also note the year of graduation, usually maintain contacts.” meaning from the American 12th grade — though some respondents consider their 13th year their graduation year. Searching the World Wide Web As I trawled the Internet, I found many specialized Web Even if you have lost contact with your old school and sites for finding and organizing school reunions (see p. 88). Many of these sites include international schools. I also dis- Mikkela Thompson is the Journal’s Business Manager and a covered that most international schools have Web sites of former FS child. Continued on page 89

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S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT SchoolsSchools atat aa GlanceGlance Go to our Web page at www.fsjournal.org and click on the Marketplace tab for more information.

uition,

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CONTINUED

Purnell School 83 110 All girls 85 10 9-12 Y Y 35 Y Y N 34,725 Salem Academy and 65 200 All girls 52 6 9-12 Y N 20 N Y/N Y 24,600 College Sandy Spring Friends 95 547 49/51 17 12 PK-12 Y Limited 25 Y Y N 25,100- School 30,680 St. Timothy’s School 96 132 All girls 55 22 9-12, PG Y N 19 Y Y N 34,500 Storm King School 72 135 66/34 60 24 7-12 Y Y 90 Y Y N 31,600

DISTANCE LEARNING/HOMESCHOOLING University of Missouri 66 Independent study: 3-12, PG, accredited HS diploma. 21,000 (at Columbia) Go to: www.cdis.missouri.edu/go/fsd3.asp for more information

MILITARY SCHOOLS

Valley Forge Military 87 600 All boys 100 12 7-12, PG Y N 15 Y Y N 28,550 Academy

SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOLS Frederic L. Chamberlain 71 112 61/39 82 2 6-12, PG N Y 50 Y N Y 116,226 School Gow School 73 143 All boys 100 20 7-12, PG N Y 20 Y Y N 41,900 Riverview School 70 182 50/50 100 Limited 7-12, PG N Y 75 Y N N 55,643

OVERSEAS SCHOOLS

Leysin American School 87 350 54/46 100 65 9-12, PG Y Limited 75 Y Y N 33,000 in Switzerland Marymount 66 800 49/51 NA 50 PK-12 N Limited 15 Y N N 19,285 International School St. Stephens School 76 211 45/55 16 63 9-12, PG N N 12 NA Y N 31,177* Prem Tinsulanonda 67 431 53/47 24 70 K-12 N N 15 N Y N 9,000 International School

OTHER

AAFSW (Associates 79 Bringing the FS community together to promote a better quality of life. Go to www.aafsw.org of the American Foreign Service Worldwide) FSYF (Foreign Service 82 Assists Foreign Service Youth by coordination development programs. Go to www.fsyf.org Youth Foundation) ISS (International 81 Go to www.iss.edu Schools Services)

Notes: NA - Not Applicable. ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder. LD - Learning Disability. * Euro 26,500 – USD equivalent based on the November 2005 exchange rate.

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Fishing for Friends on the Web

Classmates.com said that I had 313 birth date!). Don’t forget to unclick the all class members to have full participa- other classmates registered. You go to “Please include me in dating directory” tion with no membership fees and no their Web site, click on “Overseas part at the bottom of the registration dues. Create simple reports for the vol- American /Canadian schools” at the bot- page (unless you want to use this ser- unteer class administrators to print tom (or go straight to the Canadian, vice as well). It costs $36 for a year or mailing labels, track missing students, German or Swedish icons). Then pick $72 for three years to use the site to send bulk e-mails to their class mem- your country and city. The site’s current contact people. “Limited site access” is bers and to easily back up the data to directory includes only schools located free, but if you want to e-mail people their personal computer. Create a in the United States and Canada and you will have to pay. You have to down- dynamic online experience which would American or Canadian schools located load a software program called spark an interest among classmates in overseas, and does not support the “GoodContacts,” and you must have the lives of their fellow alumni — not addition of other schools. When you Outlook installed on your computer for just a huge, overpriced, online directory click on your school, you get to a page this program to install. Alas. service.” Although a purely voluntary that tells you how many from your system of donation does allow for free- school are registered. There is a fee, Alumni.net asks you to sign up, fill riding, there will most likely be someone but to avoid it you can click on “basic” in a resume/CV and also provide the e- in your class willing to pay the suggest- to see who is registered from your mail addresses of two friends, so that ed $15 per year to maintain your class school. I saw at least 15 names that I they can invite them. They then bom- site. recognized. Students from the four bard you every step of the way with ads years prior to your graduation year are for online dating, pop-ups, etc. I man- Alumni-find.com is free. You can listed, but you can see all the years if aged to finally get through to the mem- even search before signing up. Then you want to. There are e-mail address- bers-only section (I gave up two of my you sign up and fill in all kinds of infor- es or groups or photo sections. To e- own dead e-mail addresses), and tried mation about yourself (if you feel like it). mail someone, you need to pay — it one search. Then I gave up as the bar- You can also add a school to the site. I costs $32.50 for a year. rage of ads was so great. All through added my international high school as I the process they tell you that it’s all nec- couldn’t find it on the list of internation- Graduates.com is free. It also starts essary to maintain a free site, but I took al schools. with a simple registration including a my freedom elsewhere. message space. Then you move on to Gradfinder.com has an extensive list selecting your school by country. And Classreport.com seems a clean site of schools in Denmark — near 100. And it’s fast. I got an e-mail confirmation allowing you to donate money via it’s free. It easily guides you through the and welcome within two minutes of reg- PayPal and to post comments. It has a registration. The only drawback is that istering. You have to click on the link list of about 20 international high you have to know what state your school and activate your account within 15 schools. It was started by Tim and is located in. Once I had researched days. On your profile page you can post Barbara Davis and officially launched on which “state” the school was located in, I all sorts of things, including pictures. Feb. 5, 2003. On their Web site, they tell easily navigated the Web site. The selection of schools includes ele- with wry humor their tale of why and mentary and high school, and also has a how they started classreport.com. They Youralumni.com will help you set up section for colleges and universities. set out a clear mission and with a suc- your alumni organization for a fee. They You then add yourself to your school by cessful background in database man- will also train the main contact person. year that you graduated. Then you can agement, they have created a Web site search for classmates. The site allows that allows for their objectives: “Create a Other than Web sites solely dedicated you to invite people to join, but if they Web site where students could keep to finding old classmates, there are those haven’t then you can’t find them on the their own contact information current. where you can find out friends and search engine. The Web site was start- Create a class-based system rather than family such as www.friendsreunited. ed by Jason Classon, and you can a school-based system. Rely strictly on co.uk, a British-based Web site. This one donate money to help him maintain and volunteers from each class to operate also costs money only if you want to con- run the site. their own class Web site. Rely strictly tact people, and sends confirmations. But on voluntary contributions from each while the application process was simple, Reunion.com also allows for simple class to support the Web site. No adver- the Web site kept freezing, so I gave up. info (but include the slashes in your tising, no pop-up ads, no spam! Allow — Mikkela Thompson

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Continued from page 85 their own started by alumni, and town as a long-lost friend from many have alumni clubs that have decades and continents ago. Some held successful reunions. All of the I discovered that most meetings are accidental, but many sites had a similar set-up: a place to are planned events. A typical register, class representatives, a way international schools had response to the question of what it to contact other classmates and a was like to go back was: “I went back place for you to get involved in the a Web site of their own for my five-year reunion at the pri- search for other alumni. Many also vate school and then my 10-year had a place where you could donate started by alumni, and reunion. Both were odd experiences. money or time, either in their name, This one guy gained about 50 pounds your class’s name or your own, for a many had alumni clubs and lost most of his hair in five years, good cause. which was alarming. When I’ve gone which had held to the private school, I’ve always been Encounters of the Global in awe of how beautiful it is. The Kind — Reunion Tales successful reunions. school has a view of the beach, and is When I sent out my cybercall for really stunning. I don’t think I really tales of international school reunions, appreciated it while I was a student I heard, as expected, from most of the there.” corners of the globe. The stories Then there are those experiences were tales of heartache, catharsis, res- been to reunions and many had been which are uniquely international. olution and discovery. As I read and back to visit their old school. Some Walteen attended the International listened to the stories, I realized that admit to looking back with rose-tint- School Bangkok in the 1960s and there were many common experi- ed glasses. I even heard stories of 1970s when her father worked for ences and revelations. some alumni who have found that USAID. Walteen says of her reunion Many of the former students had they have been living in the same Continued on page 90

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Continued from page 89 experiences, “I have attended meet with others who were like her, reunions of my school and class at least in their experience of having (1969) from the International School For the 50th anniversary lived some of their formative years Bangkok. It’s affirming to see people abroad. She was surprised to find who shared my peculiar childhood. celebrations, the school that now, as an adult, she found she We can speak about experiences that had more in common with her class- people in our stateside lives just don’t hosted a reunion in mates than she did when they were in have a clue about. My attendance at high school. Walteen was involved in reunions goes back to the late 1970s, Bangkok. many activities at her high school, when I attended one in the D.C. including serving as editor of the area. I got that invite via snail mail. yearbook. Yet she was not part of the E-mail has made communications so party scene and as she says, “I didn’t much easier … I got to see a number get asked to the prom — because I of folks from my class as well as the was one of maybe two black girls in son of a friend of my dad who worked seem to be the center of some peo- my class … There were so few blacks with him in Saigon during the war. It ple’s lives, as if the time spent in at ISB, I felt no racial tension, just was really satisfying to talk with him Bangkok was the best time of our isolation. Isolation was an element of about our fathers, both of whom had lives. While it was a wonderful two being an American overseas; it was passed away by then. He is a person years for me, it was not the best just particularly nuanced by race. I I would have never known in the time.” was treated as unique, one of a kind, States had we not had the common Walteen expressed a common voted most likely to succeed ... It was experience of living overseas. He is a theme, that of having a shared experi- not a terrible way to be perceived, farmer from Idaho or some far off ence and therefore a bond with oth- just not real helpful when I came place in the Midwest. What surpris- erwise disparate people. She also back to the U.S. in 1969 to the racial es me is how much the reunions said it helped her sense of identity to climate here and the unfolding

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events. That was overwhelming. I neighborhood which housed the think many of us experienced more school and the various embassies and culture shock returning to the U.S. For one woman, embassy-workers. My coping mecha- than we did when we left. When I nisms for dealing with this were no returned to the States I entered a “going back for a reunion longer in place.” nationalist phase — culminating in Returning to New Delhi for a joining the Nation of Islam. From 14 years later was a reunion allowed her to reflect on the where I sit now I can see that I did life she had led as a teenager. In high this to find a community with which profound but shattering school she had managed a balance to identify in the U.S. I just didn’t fit between the popular and academic in anywhere.” experience. I felt kids. She was involved in sports, For others it is the double return drama, music and partying. She adds — going back to a place that one has vulnerable and ill-prepared that as teenagers, they had incredible special memories of — that causes freedom to try and do many “grown- the most stress. Going back for a to take on India” ... up” activities — “we were not reck- reunion 14 years later was “a pro- less, but we had a great measure of found but shattering experience” for abandon!” one woman. “No longer was I “So it was with some trepidation cocooned in the international com- and much excitement that I returned munity, but had to live in a hotel (hor- to a place where I had spent wonder- rors). I felt vulnerable and ill-pre- ories of my time in India were rudely ful, even magical years. Where else pared to take on India,” she says. “I shaken by the realities of poverty and could you go get yards of pure white wasn’t the seasoned veteran of living pollution and traffic-choked roads, silk for a pittance and draw the prom in developing countries that I had even on the wide boulevards of my dress of your dreams and have the tai- been as a kid. My starry-eyed mem- beloved New Delhi and the swanky Continued on page 92

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Continued from page 91 lor make it for you for next to noth- Jenny was born, her family traveled as ing? Even down to covering 50 tiny a British diplomatic family. Later, her buttons with the same white silk to go She knew that India parents divorced and her mother down the slit that went up one of your rejoined State. Jenny’s father was legs? Where else could you walk had changed in 14 years, killed in 1996 after an attempted car- home at five in the morning through jacking in Kenya. In 1991, Jenny was the city with your friends, listening to just as she had. But in in the 7th grade at the International the exotic squawking and calling of School of Islamabad. There she the birds waking up for the day? her heart, she wanted became friends with a sophomore “Where else could you hop on a named Peggy. Peggy was also friends train wearing a cashmere throw and to find “home” in a place with a senior named Richard, whose sandals on a cold, fog-enshrouded father worked for USAID. By the December morning with your pals that had once been end of 1992, they were all friends and head for a hill station where at (Richard came back every summer night there was no electricity, so you just that. from college). In 1994, Richard took saw every single star in the heavens, both Peggy and Jenny to the prom. and then some? Where else could There was no romance between you go on a tiger safari at a game Richard and Jenny yet. preserve and feel the large elephant Jenny and Richard’s paths contin- you are riding trembling under you ued to intertwine as Jenny attended as the beaters corner a tiger in the the other reunion attendees. The Syracuse University, as had Richard. bushes? rest of the trip was filled with sight- Then in 2001, Jenny moved to Seattle “Where else do you and your best seeing, visiting the old school, lunch- and she and Richard became god- friend discover that the gardener has ing with former teachers and attend- parents to Peggy’s first-born. Richard secretly been growing marijuana ing Diwali festivities in the tented couldn’t make it to the baby’s birth, plants among the tomatoes in the VIP section. But she felt a “discon- but as they are all part of a group that family garden plot in the back yard? nect ... between being back in Delhi Jenny describes as “faux family” he Where else do you observe a solar as a tourist versus how it had felt to made it out for a visit in December eclipse one day that has the entire live there. I could never really get 2003. And then, “we stayed up late nation paralyzed with fear ... yet you over this feeling and I have to say, one night talking, after everyone else are out gallivanting and climbing this was the hardest part ... because I had gone to bed, and he suddenly water towers in your neighborhood truly realized the old cliché, you can kissed me. … He returned to New with your best pals? Where else never go back, and the magic would Hampshire a week later … and then could you jump off the second-story be impossible to recapture.” a month later drove across country balcony of a luxury hotel into its Many see that the communities and moved in. swimming pool with all your clothes that they once were part of are actu- “In March he informally asked for on and not get arrested?” ally still alive and thriving today, my hand, and then in July he got Although she knew, intellectually, through reunions, alumni clubs and down and proposed on a camping trip that India had changed in 14 years cyberspace. Returning to the country to Rainier. We were together until just as she had, in her heart she of one’s memories can allow for clo- August; then, he went to Ohio to get wanted to find “home” in a place sure. It allows you to say your final his master’s degree in geography. that had once been just that. After goodbyes as you see that you and the After years of knowing each other landing, it did seem like the old place have moved on. You realize and being apart, it’s easier to live with India with “the same burnt cooking- that you are now only a tourist and no a couple of months between visits. … fire smell in the air … The airport longer a “native,” and the country is Our wedding is in August and it will was the same, teeming with human- no longer your home. end up being mostly a reunion of kind, noisy and crowded and dingy. Some reunions happen sponta- oversea-ers, of whom most will be The cab ride from the airport to neously for joyous occasions. When friends from Islamabad.” town was the same ... same smells, Jenny and Richard got married in same trees, same thick acrid air, August 2005, it was the culmination of How to Organize a same ambling cows.” But once she a truly international tale of romance. Reunion got to her hotel, reality set in and she In the late 1970s, Jenny’s mother Some reunions are organized in was saddened to find herself a worked for State in what was then conjunction with the school. One stranger. Determined to enjoy her- Zaire and her father was a Scot with such school is the International self, she changed hotels and joined the British High Commission. When School of Manila, which has held

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many reunions, both in the U.S. and weekend was “more like discovery — in the Philippines. The alumni page discovering old friends.” Her class on the school Web site (alumni. Once the party is over, had 150-200 students and she recon- ismanila.com) is well organized. nected with some friends. There is also a section for “lost alums” it is still possible to keep One of the advantages of talking to on the Web site, and they seem to others who have shared your experi- make an effort to keep in touch with the reunion spirit alive. ence is that you can say things that their graduates. The alumni office would be misinterpreted elsewhere produces a newsletter for alumni — talking about maids and drivers, association members. which was part of everyday life in the They had a reunion for the whole Philippines, and not have people school in 2002 in the Philippines, and registration. assume you are an elitist. She felt it another in 2005 in San Jose, Calif. As one alumna said, “Hadn’t had was a relief to be in a room with oth- That weekend was well organized, touch with them in 15 years. Fun ers who understand one’s stories for thanks to help from the school coun- weekend. You have a different per- what they actually are. selor who worked with the alumni spective from when you were in the Often it is an intrepid former stu- office and some of the teachers. The 8th grade. … You stripped yourself dent who takes on the task of organiz- first night someone from the current of all the pre-pubescent cliques. … ing a reunion. Kathy, who attended a school community gave a talk. The We had cocktails by the pool: San British international school, Green- participants paid beforehand for the Miguel beer, and the scenery could gates (www.greengates.edu.mx), in whole weekend, and had to make have been in Manila.” She added Mexico City from the second through their own reservations for the hotels. that it was a full weekend with events seventh grades, got roped into doing Payment was done through the including a formal dinner, class pho- the heavy lifting for their reunion. school — the registration fee was tos, a group photo and after-hours She was contacted via the Internet in a $125-150, with a discount for early socializing. The important part of the Continued on page 94

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Continued from page 93

Yahoo group for Greengates alumni. Worth the Journey Someone suggested a reunion; she Most of those who attend interna- volunteered to plan the main event, a “We are recounting tional school reunions think they are dinner dance. And from there, she worthwhile, even if they do not give it eventually planned the whole week- experiences that we had in a deeper meaning than having a end. party. For many former students, They used Evite to get the word the past … we enjoy each attending a reunion is best done years out. One person organized the finan- later when people are older and have cial side of the event, which was held other now because we had more of an incentive to reminisce and in Las Vegas. One of the alumni nego- reflect. For some it is the impetus for tiated a good deal at the Sahara hotel this bonding experience. the future. As Tony, Walteen’s broth- ($120 per night for a double), and the er and fellow alumnus of ISB, organizers charged $130 for two — Tony Grady says, “We’re not living in the past … nights’ entertainment. Another per- we are recounting experiences that son was tasked with finding people; we had in the past. … We enjoy each they used word of mouth and the other now because we had this bond- Internet to reach a final tally of 60 ing experience. You can make new attendees, but with many more saying pitality suites sponsored by different friends.” that they wished they could come. graduating classes, which compete to The reunions are likely to grow in The party got off to a roaring start see who can get the best attendance at popularity. As the TCK World Web on Friday night and on Saturday, the the reunions. They have a board site (www.tckworld.com) put it committee decorated the room for the made up of eight people, and the before the worldwide reunion in buffet dinner. They organized a DJ, board members make a four-year 2003, “Reunion 2003 will be the gath- speeches, prizes, free gifts, nametags, commitment. They do not get paid ering point for hundreds of TCKs etc. They asked two people to give and they use their own funds to get to from around the world. It will be a speeches on how their Greengates the locations to investigate and set up time to celebrate our heritage, to experience had affected their lives; the reunions, which are held in differ- learn, to reminisce, to dream, to they showed video clips from the ent locations in the U.S. every two reunite with old friends and to make teachers; there was a gregarious MC years. They created a separate orga- new ones who share similar back- and other spontaneous entertainment. nization, ISB Inc., to run the reunions grounds.” They had display tables where people as a registered nonprofit. The There are many alumni who feel could share their photos, memorabilia reunions encompass graduates from they have received so much that they and a guestbook. the late 1950s to 2000; despite should give back, and are doing just In this case, the school did not get Hurricane Charlie, over 500 people that. The International School involved in the reunion but they did, made it to the one in Florida. In Bangkok has an alumni-sponsored with some prodding, state a willing- 2002, for the 50th anniversary cele- scholarship for a Thai student. Some ness to get involved next time, in bration, the school hosted a reunion schools reach out even more to their Mexico. “It seems to mean different (two years in the making) at the alumni community. things to people, but everybody there Grand Marriott (owned by a 1967 In March 2005, the Woodstock was glad they had come and seems to graduate of ISB). There were fire- and Kodaikanal schools in India host- have a sense of ‘coming home’ or even works on a barge on the Chao Phraya ed a reunion dinner at Sangam, an healing,” Kathy said. “I actually felt River and that was a huge success. Indian restaurant in Arlington, Va. I that I had done something worthwhile Once the party is over, it is still heard about the reunion through one once it was all over with. It was cer- possible to keep the reunion spirit of the local Global Nomads, and tainly a headache to work on but it all alive. ISB has an online newsletter, decided to crash the party. Wander- came together in the end.” a vibrant Web community and an ing around with chili poppadom in Some schools like the international alumni directory. The International hand, I noticed the majority of the school in Bangkok (www.isb.ac.th) School of Manila (www.ismanila. attendees were in their 50s; but there have an annual membership fee com) Alumni Committee sends out were also several in their 20s. As I (around $35) for the alumni associa- highlights of their reunions, includ- stood chatting, who walked in but tion and a separate fee for the ing gossip and verbatim (but anony- alumna Norma McCaig, founder reunions. These gatherings have an mous) chatter from the parties. and embodiment of the Global exhibit room with sale items, hand- They also send out a link with pho- Nomads. Growing up global had outs at some of the events, a dinner tos, an invitation to send in more such a profound effect on her life and a dance. They also organize hos- reunion stories and a survey. that she coined that term and started

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the organization. Kodaikanal school, together with a Kodaikanal and Woodstock have a teacher, filled trunks with rice, money monthly alumni lunch in Washington, It may be that and other essentials, and these trunks but this dinner had an ulterior motive. were distributed to the victims. The guest speaker was Kodaikanal the harder the posting, It may be that the harder the post- International School interim principal ing, the closer and more bonded the Eleanor Nicholson. She was there to the closer and community. For those who attended talk about the different alumni-spon- school in Kabul during the 1979 sored programs at the schools. Glenn more bonded the Soviet invasion, this is true. They also Conrad, who graduated from Wood- have strong emotions to work stock in 1968 and is executive director community. through. As one alumna says, “Kabul of the Winterline Foundation, was was a special place because the also in attendance. (The Winterline school was very small, the interna- Foundation was founded by Mahen- tional community was very close and drajeet “Jeet” Singh, Woodstock class the place was an extreme hardship of 1981, and makes grants to Wood- Program that prepares students for post. So we all tended to be very stock for special programs at the the IB curriculum. Annually, KIS bonded and close to each other. The school.) alumni have raised about $50,000. second Kabul reunion in 2002 in San The amount of money raised reg- The Woodstock School alumni have Antonio was very intense: lots of ularly by alumni is impressive. For already raised over $7 million as part emotions and very positive. People example, the Kodaikanal class of of a 3-year capital campaign for the want to do something to improve the 1954 raised about $16,000 one year, school’s 150th anniversary. conditions in Afghanistan and many which supported a special creative Nor does one have to wait to be a of them did, in fact, go to Kabul on writing project at the school as well graduate to give back. After the Asian trips and get involved in NGOs.” as establishment of the Middle Years tsunami in 2004, students at the Continued on page 96

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Continued from page 95

One alumna, filmmaker Stacia lived there during the “Golden Age” of Teele, produced a short film, “Vasila’s the 1960s and 1970s. The effort Heart,” after meeting Vasila, a young “The desire to give to the includes Advocates for Afghani- Afghan girl in need of a heart opera- stan, a grass-roots organization found- tion. The film aired on ABC. Teele is communities that I have ed by the alumni of the American now in the process of developing a International School of Kabul documentary, “Growing Up in Af- lived in has been one that (www.aisk.org/portal.php). ghanistan.” As she says, Afghanistan Dawn Erickson is a co-founder is “wonderful. Magical. Childhood started in my youth of Advocates for Afghanistan (www. memories full of close friendships and advocatesforafghanistan.net) with exciting adventures. Training for the and continues.” Marnie Gustavson, Anne Payson & big soccer tournament, surrounded Stacia Teele — all AISK alumni. by the majestic mountains of the — Dawn Erickson Their projects include the Qarabagh Hindu Kush; piling into taxis and School Project and fundraising for heading down to Chicken Street or Vasila’s heart surgery. Dawn is also the Green Door Bazaar for shopping involved in the Hayward Ghazni without our parents; playing after Sister City Formation Committee, school with the Afghan children who al and thriving culture ... [We felt wel- organized by Bay Area community lived next door; class trips in our yel- comed] by our host country, Afghani- members and Afghan-Americans. low school bus through the Khyber stan.” Their endeavors include sponsoring Pass. We had all the elements of a The documentary will tell the sto- pen-pal projects; raising funds for a normal childhood: first dates, sleep- ries of Afghans who fled to Ameri- Widow’s Literacy project that will overs, long summer days at the pool, ca, those who stayed in Afghani- help 30 widows and other women in a school plays, proms ... lived out in the stan, and the alumni of the American one-year, 3rd-grade-level education bosom of an incredibly exotic, spiritu- International School of Kabul who program; and assisting the Afghan

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Women’s Association International’s to go to Afghanistan again and to be literacy project by purchasing sewing directly involved in projects, I was machines so that the program can “My sense of the ready to participate along with many include job training. In May 2004, other fellow international students. I Erickson returned to Kabul and world being inhabited hope to return again to work with and taught sewing classes. At the same for the people of a country that time two former AISK students, a by one people that are helped to raise me.” doctor and an EMT, provided first- aid training. only divided by arbitrary Finding Home Dawn’s altruism seems to stem My own high school, Copen- from her international childhood. As boundaries comes hagen International School, had a she says, “I lived in Kabul for five reunion in 2002 (one of my class- years, from 1966 through 1971. The from seeing so much mates, a TV producer, created a experience of being a student at an DVD of the reunion festivities), but International School allowed for of the world at a I did not attend. I figured, with performing friendships with students haps faulty logic, that I did not need from other countries and encouraged young age.” to go dig up the past with people me to interact with people of differ- who weren’t necessarily close to me ent cultures throughout my life. My — Dawn Erickson (since I am still in touch with my sense of the world being inhabited by friends). But having heard many one people that are only divided by international reunion stories, includ- arbitrary boundaries comes from ing tales of those who have exponen- being an international student and the communities that I have lived in tially improved on their experiences, seeing so much of the world at a has been one that started in my youth I think that I will go and see what I young age. … The desire to give to and continues. When it was possible can find next time. I

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102 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/DECEMBER 2005

REAL ESTATE

DECEMBER 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 103

REFLECTIONS The Mouse Still Roars

BY JAMES PATTERSON

The Mouse That Roared by take shelter underground. Leonard Wibberley was originally Back in the U.S., Just then the Fenwickians arrive, serialized in The Saturday Evening meanwhile, eccentric ready to declare war and surrender, Post from December 1954 through but find only deserted streets and January 1955 as The Day New York Dr. Kokintz, buildings. After reading about the Q- Was Invaded, before being pub- “a mouse of a man,” bomb in a newspaper, they march to lished as a novel in 1955. But it is has developed the Kokintz’s Columbia University lab and probably best known today as the take him, his beautiful daughter and 1959 screen adaptation starring Q-bomb for the weapon back to Grand Fenwick. Peter Sellers in three roles. the Pentagon. There the duchy declares victory in its From reading the book in the war with the U.S., prompting Russia 1960s, I learned even serious subjects to dispatch troops to “protect” Grand like foreign policy could be success- u Fenwick and the weapon. That leads fully mined for humor. I suspect to an international peace conference many Journal readers are already big and rehabilitated beyond our wildest and a happy ending (for most of the fans of the work. But for those few dreams by Friday night.” characters, anyway). unfortunates who have never encoun- Duchess Gloriana XII (Sellers) Irishman Leonard Wibberley tered it, here’s a quick plot synopsis. duly sends a declaration of war to (1915–1983), a prolific author and Despite being famed for its wine, the State Department, citing evi- journalist with over 50 children’s the European Duchy of Grand dence a California winery is pirating books and other publications to his Fenwick, “five miles long and three Pinot Grand Fenwick. But desk offi- credit, lived most of his life in miles wide,” is in dire economic cer Chet Beston, attracted to the California. He dedicated The Mouse straits. The two political parties, the Foreign Service because he “didn’t That Roared, his most famous work, Dilutionists and the Anti-Dilutionists have to work very hard or know too “To all the little nations who over the (named for their respective positions much” to work there, assumes the centuries have done what they could on watering down the wine to document is a joke. After weeks of to attain and preserve their freedom. increase sales), propose asking the silence, Grand Fenwick sends an It is from one of them I am sprung.” U.S. for aid to save the duchy from expeditionary force of 23 men, The message of The Mouse That communism. But they are unable to armed only with longbows, to attack Roared, a classic tale of mice and find anyone who’ll pretend to be a New York City. men, is as sharp today as it was 50 communist. Instead, the duchy takes Back in the U.S., meanwhile, years ago. Wibberley’s world was another tack: “We declare war on eccentric Dr. Kokintz, “a mouse of a panicked over weapons of mass Monday, are vanquished Tuesday, man,” has developed the Q-bomb for destruction. We need look only at the Pentagon. It will incinerate two Iraq to see the WMD panic is still James Patterson, a retired Foreign million square miles when detonated, with us. Service officer, is Grand Fenwick’s he tells the president. News of the Memo to all State Department ambassador to the U.S. The stamp bomb panics New York City, where desk officers: That unopened enve- is courtesy of Mikkela Thompson, Kokintz lives, so a civil defense drill is lope on your desk could be of Fen- noted Fenwickian philatelist. authorized and nervous New Yorkers wickian importance! I

104 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/DECEMBER 2005

AFSAAmerican Foreign ServiceNEWS Association • December 2005

CALL FOR 2006 AFSA AWARD NOMINATIONS Honor the Dissenters Among Us Inside This Issue: F. Scott Gallo, winner of the 2005 Harris Dissent Award, took a brave (and ultimately successful) stand against a bureaucracy that was pushing the Embassy Nairobi community to move BRIEFS: AFSA-NATSIOS MEETING ....2 into a new residential compound that Gallo believed was vulnerable to terrorist attack. STATE VP ON DISSENT...... 3 Keith Mines, winner of the 2004 Rivkin Dissent Award, was honored for his courage in send- RETIREE MEMBERSHIP ...... 4 ing a May 2003 Dissent Channel message, “Let the U.N. Manage the Political Transition in WHITHER THE COMMERCIAL SERVICE?...... 5 Iraq.” OVERPAYMENT RESPONSIBILITY .....6 Four of Embassy Moscow’s consular officials received the 2003 Herter Dissent Award for MEDICARE D...... 8 their refusal to back down on a visa denial decision. They were honored for their strong com- RECYCLE FOR DIPLOTOTS ...... 9 mitment to upholding the law and protecting U.S. security interests in the face of strong pres- sure to disregard both.

OVERSEAS COMPARABILITY PAY his is AFSA’s official call for bosses about situations and when they press nominations for the 2006 AFSA for a serious examination of policy,” write Constructive Dissent Awards Morton Abramowitz and Leslie H. Gelb in AFSA Meets with T and for the 2006 AFSA Out- their Spring 2005 National Interest article the Secretary standing Performance Awards. While the “In Defense of Striped Pants.” At this time, performance awards speak for them- they go on to say, “the country has a par- BY J. ANTHONY HOLMES, selves, the dissent awards merit AFSA PRESIDENT special comment, as they are uring our first meeting with unique in the federal government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice The dissent awards seek to recog- Don Oct. 27, AFSA State VP Steve nize and honor those among us Kashkett and I outlined the primary con- who have the courage to offer cerns of the 8,200 State members of AFSA constructive dissent. The awards — with a strong emphasis on overseas com- are based on integrity and profes- parability pay — as well as the profession- sional courage rather than on per- al concerns shared by all of us in the Foreign formance. Service, both active-duty and retired. We Speaking out against the con- noted that our recent survey of active-duty ventional wisdom and offering a members added credibility to our agenda contrary view on policy or oper- and provided a strong base for present and ational procedures comes with upcoming AFSA initiatives and proposals risk and can even jeopardize a to management. career. AFSA believes that it is vital to con- ticular need for preserving candor in the We had signaled to senior department tinue to honor the constructive and creative departments and a variety of viewpoints officials for the past seven weeks that we dissenters, those who demonstrate the will- from different agencies.” would use our first meeting with the ingness to work within the system to bring “We have always needed our dis- Secretary to stress that the current 16-per- about change. senters,” wrote then-AFSA President John cent salary reduction suffered by all FS “Career professionals are being most Limbert in December 2004, “and we need employees below the senior ranks when loyal when they are being candid with their Continued on page 7 Continued on page 9

AFSANEWSBRIEFS

AFSA Meets with Entry-Level Employees in Africa Posts AFSA State VP Steve Kashkett participated in the Africa-region entry-level conference that took place in Addis Ababa from Oct. 12-14. This event, which brought together more than 70 entry-level Foreign Service employees from virtually every post in AF — and was organized by the employees themselves — provided an opportunity for a candid exchange of views on the key concerns and problems facing entry-level employees in that region. Kashkett participated in several panel discussions covering personnel issues and career development in today's Foreign Service. He particularly enjoyed and found useful his private conversations with nearly 50 of the participants on the margins of the conference. AFSA Meets with USAID Life in the Foreign Service Administrator I BY BRIAN AGGELER, FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER On Oct. 31, AFSA President Tony Holmes met with USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios. The meeting was cordial and frank and covered a wide range of topics. Amb. Holmes highlighted AFSA’s highest-priority issue: overseas comparability pay. He also expressed AFSA’s bafflement at USAID’s refusal to abide by the decisions of the Foreign Service Grievance Board and resolve the cases involving the unfair selection out of two employees. Other topics discussed at the meeting included USAID’s extensive use of Foreign Service Limited appointments and using program resources as opposed to the operating expenses budget. AFSA pointed out that these two separate FS systems would inevitable start bumping up against each other and cause the agency problems. Administrator Natsios said that he was preoccupied at the moment with the $60 million shortfall in the large operating expense budget, but would do all he could to avoid a RIF and mitigate, to the extent possible, rollbacks in employee benefits such as train- “Wallace, I understand your youthful appetite for reckless ing, student loan repayment and spousal language training. speculation, but maintain it’s safer if this memo concludes Continued on page 4 that whatever will be may be.”

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] Charles Garten [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 • DECEMBER 2005

V.P. VOICE: STATE I BY STEVE KASHKETT

On Dissent and Disloyalty

“We must never confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.” — Edward R. Murrow

FSA’s annual dissent awards are in danger of acquire a certain instinctive sense of what will work and becoming a thing of the past. These awards, cre- what will not in that country and in that part of the world. A ated to encourage those willing to speak out forth- Many of our colleagues take great pride in this “hands- rightly, in appropriate channels, to express alternative on” expertise in foreign affairs and seek to reinforce it con- points of view on policy matters, have attracted a dwin- stantly during their careers through reading, academic dling number of nominees over the past few years. As training and involvement in think-tanks. These are peo- we again launch the call for nominations in this issue of ple who deserve a special place at the table when U.S. for- the Foreign Service Journal, we fear that eign policy decisions are made. These constructive dissent may be disappear- are people worth listening to. ing from the landscape of the Foreign On occasion, Foreign Service Service. U.S. foreign policy only careerists might disagree on a particu- Use of the Department of State’s offi- stands to benefit from an lar course of action that the administra- cial Dissent Channel, which was designed tion of the day has embarked upon and to serve the same lofty purpose as open and candid debate might have an alternative approach to AFSA’s dissent awards, has dwindled to that includes our country’s recommend. There must be a place for a trickle since its heyday in the 1970s. In such constructive dissent in our demo- 1977, the Executive Secretariat logged in true experts. cratic system of government. There some 32 Dissent Channel messages. By must be a place for an open airing of dif- contrast, in 2005, you can count on the ferent points of view without fear of fingers of one hand the number of reprisal or career damage. Foreign Service professionals who have sent in a Dissent Any administration that equates such constructive dis- Channel message. sent with disloyalty is making a serious mistake, and is This is a disturbing trend. It tells us that people are depriving itself of a valuable resource. Foreign Service reluctant to express any point of view that might be per- careerists are patriots who spend a substantial part of their ceived as contrary to the policy line of the administration lives faithfully serving their country in difficult and often that happens to be in power. It tells us that internal debate dangerous places around the globe. We all care deeply among foreign policy professionals within the department about the United States and its relationship with the rest is being stifled. It tells us that our colleagues are afraid of the world; after all, most of us in the Foreign Service of retaliation. got into this profession to help shape foreign policies that The Foreign Service is full of genuine experts on all can effectively advance U.S. interests. regions of the world and on virtually every substantive pol- It is a tragedy that so few people in the Foreign Service icy issue, ranging from conflict resolution and counter- today feel safe using the Dissent Channel, and it is a sad terrorism to sustainable economic development and the state of affairs that so few are willing to nominate oth- promotion of democracy and human rights. A diplomat ers — or be nominated themselves — for AFSA dissent who spends years living and working in a foreign coun- awards. U.S. foreign policy only stands to benefit from try, speaking the language, learning to understand the cul- an open and candid debate that includes our country’s ture and dealing directly with the foreign government, will true experts. J

DECEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 3

V.P. VOICE: RETIREES I BY RETIREE REP. LEN BALDYGA AFSANEWSBRIEFS Briefs • Continued from page 2 Don’t “Overlook” Your Membership ome 30 years ago I ran for the AFSA Governing Board on the “Radical Slate” and did not make it. I am delight- Sed that this time around, in the 2005 board election, I was selected to be one of the retiree representatives. The slot I now occupy had been previously held for the USIA retiree Austin Tracy representative. Although the agency no longer exists, I still consider myself a voice of those ex-USIAers who are now aging annuitants. AFSA Send-off for Not long after the election results were distributed, I got an e-mail from the widow Susan Moorse of a former USIA officer asking me if she should join AFSA and what the benefits would During a farewell luncheon on Oct. 25, AFSA President Tony Holmes and AFSA State VP be for her. I told her that the benefits of AFSA membership were considerable for the Steve Kashkett presented a plaque to Susan affordable annual dues she would have to pay as a retiree spouse. I pointed out to her Moorse, the State Department’s outgoing that AFSA is the only organization that is solely dedicated to protecting and catering to labor-management negotiator, to acknowledge her needs as a Foreign Service retiree. I told her that AFSA lobbies Congress to preserve, the productive and businesslike relationship and hopefully to expand, the retiree benefits she that AFSA had with her during her tenure. is receiving. AFSA’s ability to lobby While she did not seem responsive to the Congress is dependent on mention of AFSA’s lobbying efforts on Capitol Call for Writers Hill regarding the Windfall Elimination Let your voice be heard throughout how strong a voice it has in Provisions and the Government Pension the Foreign Service community by writing a feature for AFSA News. We terms of total membership. Offset issues, she became very interested when I started talking about AFSA and her health ben- are now — as always — accepting efits, about Medicare prescriptions and premi- submissions for a number of fea- um conversion and about information regarding various insurance programs available tures, including: though AFSA. I told her she could also keep up on these personal matters of concern • “Family Member Matters,”a via AFSA News and the bimonthly Retiree Newsletter. Finally, I pointed out that if she forum for views from Foreign needed counseling or wanted further information, all she had to do was contact Bonnie Service family members about issues Brown by phone or e-mail. She then said she would send in her membership dues. of concern to the Foreign Service All of you should be aware by now that the Retiree VP and all four retiree represen- community. ($100 honorarium tatives will be making a determined effort to recruit new members from the retiree com- upon publication) munity and to convince “lapsed members” to renew their membership. AFSA’s abili- • “Of Special(ist) Concern,”where ty to lobby Congress and the foreign affairs agencies is dependent on how strong a voice specialists can write about issues of it has in terms of total membership. I was surprised to learn that of the 3,200-plus retirees particular concern to them. in Virginia, where I live, only 878 are AFSA members. • “Where to Retire,”advice from In recent conversations with some of the “lapsed members,” I discovered that while retirees on the best places to retire. they were paying $100 or more a year to join other social and professional organiza- • “Memo of the Month,”where we tions, they had “overlooked” AFSA membership. I challenged them to compare the feature unusual and entertaining benefits of being a member of a monthly luncheon group to the benefits that AFSA pro- memos. vides its members, both professionally, as a voice of the Foreign Service, and personal- • “The Lighter Side,”an opportuni- ly, as an advocate before Congress on issues that affect their own lives and the lives of ty to share Foreign Service humor. their spouses. I argued that the choice is a “no-brainer,” and said I would expect them Please submit your 400- to 600- to be rejoining AFSA as soon as possible. word essay/column to FSJ Associate As AFSA Retiree VP David Reuther pointed out in his October column, you can expect Editor Shawn Dorman at dorman@ to hear from us often. At the same time, we want to hear from you and welcome your afsa.org. We cannot guarantee pub- comments, recommendations or concerns. I can be reached most easily by e-mail at lication of all submissions, but do [email protected]. guarantee that all submissions will Your Voice, Your Advocate. Ì be seriously considered.

4 AFSA NEWS • DECEMBER 2005

AFSANEWSBRIEFS V.P. VOICE: FCS I BY DONALD BUSINGER Briefs • Continued from page 4 Whither the Money from AFSA for College Commercial Service? Children of Foreign Service employees who are high-school seniors and n Sept. 13, Will Center and I tabled three midterm pro- college undergraduates are eligible posals for negotiation with management and have been to apply for one-time-only AFSA Oseeking its concurrence for a posting on the AFSA FCS Academic and Art Merit Awards and Web site (by the time this is published I expect you should see renewable need-based AFSA Financial it there). As I write during this balmy mid-October week in Aid Scholarships. Awards range from Washington, we are still awaiting an official response from management, but I have indi- $1,000 to $3,000. cations that we may progress more quickly than in the past on at least one of the issues. Management, however, has been rightly focused on two much larger priorities. The top concern for Commerce management has been getting confirmed as management so that strategic decisions can be made. The Commerce Department’s Under Secretary- designate for International Trade — the head of our agency — had not been confirmed as of this writing. Israel Hernandez, however, was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General of the US&FCS in mid-October. Hernandez very promptly requested a meeting with AFSA President Tony Holmes. The meeting The submission deadline is Feb. 6. took place just two days after his swearing-in. Visit AFSA’s scholarship programs Indeed, as alluded to in my October column, “strategic disbursement,” “right-siz- Web page at www.afsa.org/scholar/ ing,” cutbacks and realignments and perhaps even the dreaded “R” word (RIF), are issues index.cfm for complete details, e-mail that have been awaiting those confirmations and should be addressed shortly. As was Lori Dec at [email protected] or phone apparent from the presence of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, First Lady Laura her at (202) 944-5504 or 1 (800) Bush, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and 704-2372, ext. 504 (toll-free). OMB Director Josh Bolten at the swearing-in ceremony at USDOC, DG Hernandez In the Journal has top-notch political connections. He assured AFSA that he would work all angles, Have you ever wondered whether tak- both at Commerce and on the Hill, and keep us advised of pending decisions. His swearing your kids along for overseas posting-in remarks and other statements indicate that cuts do loom. ings will enhance their long-term educa- In the field, Commercial Service officers are generally quite capable and effective at tional/careeer/social prospects? Well, managing budgets — appropriated and trust funds — to match expenses and income Francesca Kelly addresses this question at a post level. CS clients — American exporters — are also generally quite satisfied with in her article, “Going to College in our services for the fees paid. As we often say, for every dollar spent on trade promo- America,” in this month’s Schools tion generally or assisting an export client specifically, many more dollars accrue to our Supplement. See if her conclusions exports and our economy, as well as to the client company. match your expectations. Given budget pressures to extend the Commercial Service cost recovery toward 100 percent of indirect as well as direct costs, CS collections and targets remain in In Search of a Symbol doubt. For Fiscal Year 2006, we got a partial reprieve on Oct. 1. CS did not increase and a Slogan for OCP pricing to full cost-recovery levels, pending the outcome of House and Senate nego- Active-duty AFSA members have tiations in conference for the FY-06 Commerce, Justice, State appropriations bill. confirmed that overseas comparabil- On a broader scale, even though our total budget is set to increase from $220 mil- ity pay is the number-one person- lion in FY-05 to $232 million in FY-06, earmarked amounts for reimbursements nel-related issue for them. As part of to State and other programs set by Congress leave the Commercial Service with a AFSA’s ongoing campaign to gain shrinking budget, even without a possible across-the-board 2-percent cut because OCP for all Foreign Service person- of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Salaries account for about 57 percent of budget nel serving overseas, we are seeking a and are considered a “sunk” cost (people are our best resource anyway, right?), so catchy symbol and slogan for the the pay increases from 2005 to 2006, combined with inflation, unfavorable exchange campaign and encourage your input. rates and uncertain OMB cost-recovery levels, squeeze the overall budget so much Send ideas to AFSA Secretary Tex that we cannot escape some action to realign expenses with “income.” Whether Harris at [email protected]. the actions involve personnel or program cutbacks — or both — remains to be Continued on page 7 seen. Whither the Commercial Service? J

DECEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 5

EYE ON GRIEVANCES The Overpayment Cases: A Warning to All BY JOE SLOTNICK, AFSA GRIEVANCE ATTORNEY

ver the past three years AFSA’s equity and good conscience.” See Section arguments as baseless. The department State labor management staff 807(d) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 stated that the annuitant received suffi- Ohave represented a number of (22 USC 4047(d), as amended), 22 CFR cient information to determine that the retired members in annuity disputes with Part 17. overpayment was occurring, and called the State Department. While the specifics Based on these regulations, AFSA into question the individual’s credibility. of each case are different, a broad pattern argued that the overpayment resulted The department rejected the argument has emerged. Early in the spring of 2003 from a department error, and in light of that the annuitant relied to his detriment the department began to discover the scant and often contradictory infor- and, primarily due to the annuitant’s rel- accounting errors by its retirement and mation provided by the department, it atively stable financial position, argued payroll offices that resulted in a large that recovery would not be against equi- number of annuitants being overpaid over ty and good conscience. a significant period of time (15 years or The Grievance Board unanimously more). held that the individual was not entitled The department then contacted the to a waiver. Despite the undisputed fact affected annuitants with a demand for that the individual did not know of the immediate payment of thousands or tens department’s error, the Grievance Board of thousands of dollars. If they did not concluded that the individual was not pay, their monthly payments would be without fault because he/she could have reduced by hundreds or thousands of dol- determined that overpayments were

lars. AFSA learned that annuitants JOSH occurring. The board stated, “Casual could request a waiver of this debt and reading of Annuity Adjustment Notices the labor management staff assisted and an unquestioning confidence in the some annuitants with this process. accuracy of the department’s accounting After the department denied these The individual system are not acceptable excuses.” requests, AFSA helped members file can always be held (FSGB Case 2004-018). appeals to the Foreign Service Grievance This decision reinforces two unofficial Board. Some of these cases are ongoing, responsible, even in the event axioms of Foreign Service life: 1) the indi- more have been settled, and one was of a department mistake. vidual is presumed to know the govern- recently decided by the Foreign Service ing rules, regulations and standards, no Grievance Board. The board’s decision matter how arcane; and 2) the individ- offers a cautionary tale for annuitants, as ual Foreign Service officer, specialist, well as a broader message to members of career candidate or retiree can always be AFSA. would have been impossible for the annu- held responsible, even in the event of a In FSGB Case No. 2004-018, the annuitant to detect the department’s error (and department mistake. itant was seeking a waiver of the more than thereby avoid the overpayment). With So what’s the lesson? From compe- $50,000 owed. (Note: Due to confiden- regard to “equity and good conscience,” tent retirement planning and manage- tiality rules, Grievance Board decisions are AFSA argued that it would be inequitable ment to storing your HHE, the Grievance not available for public review until all con- to punish the individual for the depart- Board thinks that you can take care of fidential information has been excised by ment’s 15-year-old mistake. In addition, yourself. So, whether it is your first time the FSGB. Information on the availabil- we stated that the annuitant had relied to overseas or you have retired after 30 con- ity of FSGB decisions can be obtained at his detriment on the department’s erro- secutive years abroad — never assume www.fsgb.gov.) According to the Foreign neous payments in irrevocable legal and you “know the rules” or that the depart- Service Act and department regulations, financial arrangements and therefore, as ment will “take care of you.” If you don’t overpayments shall be waived when the provided by regulation, recovery would know the rules, ask. And if you do know annuitant proves that he/she was “with- be against equity and good conscience. the rules, ask anyway. Remember, igno- out fault” and recovery would be “against The department dismissed AFSA’s rance is no excuse. J

6 AFSA NEWS • DECEMBER 2005

Dissent Awards • Continued from page 1 them now more than ever. AFSA believes Part III should not exceed 700 words. that the courage to ask ‘why’ or ‘why not’ All winners receive a monetary award or suggest ideas that may be considered con- of $2,500 and a framed certificate and are troversial or against popular wisdom is a honored at a reception in late June at the true indication of loyalty — to our Service, State Department’s Benjamin Franklin to our oath of office, to our profession and Diplomatic Reception Room. The to the American values upon which our Secretary of State is invited to participate country was founded. in the ceremony. “Just as AFSA believes it has a solemn Further details on nomination proce- responsibility to advocate for our Foreign dures, additional guidelines and a nomina- Service colleagues,” Limbert added, “we also JOSH tion form can be found on the AFSA Web believe that each of us has the responsibil- site at www.afsa.org/awards.cfm. From ity to stand up for our convictions, to give there, you can also link to articles about the the best possible counsel we are qualified AFSA awards and find a comprehensive list- to give, and to recognize those colleagues ing of past award winners. who stick their necks out, who challenge Questions should be directed to Barbara the status quo, who dare to ask the tough office management specialist. This award Berger, Coordinator for Professional Issues, questions.” recognizes the work of an OMS who has by e-mail: [email protected], or phone: made a significant contribution to post or (202) 338-4045, ext. 521. For reference on CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT AWARDS office effectiveness and morale, beyond the dissent in the Foreign Service, go to the June • The Tex Harris Award for a Foreign framework of her/his job responsibilities. 2002 Foreign Service Journal (www.afsa.org/ Service Specialist • The M. Juanita Guess Award for a fsj/2002.cfm), which features several arti- • The W. Averell Harriman Award for community liaison officer. This award rec- cles on the topic. The deadline for submit- a Junior Officer (FS-4, 5 or 6) ognizes a CLO who has demonstrated out- ting nominations is Feb. 24, 2006. • The William R. Rivkin Award for a standing leadership, dedication, initiative Perhaps Thomas Jefferson said it best: Mid-level Officer (FS-1, 2 or 3) and imagination in assisting the families of “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” •The Christian A. Herter Award for a Americans serving at an overseas post. Help AFSA honor our fellow patriots, who Senior Officer (FE-CA or OC) • The Avis Bohlen Award for a Foreign have stood up for what they think is right, These prestigious awards recognize Service family member. This award rec- by nominating a worthy candidate for a individuals “who have exhibited extraor- ognizes the accomplishments of a family dissent award. J dinary accomplishment involving initiative, member whose relations with the American integrity, intellectual courage and construc- and foreign communities have done the tive dissent.” They reward Foreign Service most to advance the interests of the AFSANEWSBRIEFS members who have promoted critical and United States. Briefs • Continued from page 5 constructive solutions to foreign policy AFSA Group problems, management issues, consular NOMINATION PROCEDURES policies or any other area which affects the Please submit the following informa- Accident Plan work of the Foreign Service. The construction to AFSA by Feb. 24, 2006: AFSA Group Accidental Death tive dissent awards are not for performance Part I — The name of the award for Coverage has been expanded to of assigned duties, however exceptional. which the person is being nominated; the include Medical Evacuation and nominee’s name, grade, agency and posi- Repatriation Costs (up to $75,000). OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE tion. (For the Bohlen Award, also include Terrorism is covered everywhere in AWARDS the family relationship.) the world and at full policy limits. AFSA offers three awards recognizing Part II — The nominator’s name, grade, The policy is not expensive, at $1 exemplary performance of assigned duties agency and position, and a description of per $1,000 of coverage. Choose or voluntary activities at an overseas post, the association with the nominee. limits from $50,000 to $500,000. performance that demonstrates extraordi- Part III — The justification for the nom- nary contributions to effectiveness, profes- ination. This narrative should discuss the For more information, call toll-free: sionalism and morale. actions and qualities which the nominator 1 (800) 242-8221, e-mail The outstanding performance awards believes qualify the nominee for the award, [email protected] or visit are: giving specific examples of accomplish- www.hirshorn.com/AFSA-group- • The Nelson B. Delavan Award for an ments that fulfill the criteria stated above. accident.html. J

DECEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 7

PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE Medicare D: What You Should Know BY BONNIE BROWN, AFSA RETIREE COORDINATOR

edicare prescription drug covering a penalty. For more information, call Companies offering Medicare D plans can- age is a voluntary insurance pro- Medicare toll-free at 1 (800) 633-4227 or not call you if your home telephone and Mgram that will be available to visit www.medicare.gov. cell phones are on this registry. everyone with Medicare coverage in When considering or comparing • Do not give out any personal informa- January 2006. Open season began Nov. 15. Medicare D plan(s): tion, particularly your bank account or The monthly premiums will be $32.20. • Take an inventory of your prescription Social Security number, over the telephone. After a $250 deductible, Medicare will pay needs. • Demand written materials from tele- 75 percent of the cost of each prescription • Determine if your present plan meets phone solicitors before making any deci- and the beneficiary will pay 25 percent, up those needs. sions. to $2,250 in total costs. (At this point the • Find out if a plan lists your prescrip- • Remember, you can hang up on tele- beneficiary will have paid an out-of-pock- tions on its “formulary,” the list of drugs marketers. et total of $750.) covered by its policy. • Do not allow anyone you do not know Once a beneficiary has $2,250 in drug • Calculate to see if the plan will save you and have not invited into your home. costs (a combination of costs paid by the money, taking into consideration your • Do not allow yourself to be pressured beneficiary and Medicare), he/she hits a cov- income level, prescription needs and your into a quick decision. erage gap or “doughnut hole.” At this point present drug coverage. • Check out Medicare D companies with Medicare will stop covering drug costs until • Find out if you can use your regular Medicare by calling (toll-free) 1 (800) 633- the beneficiary spends an additional $2,850. pharmacy under the plan. 4227 or visiting www.medicare.gov. This amount may not be paid by another Consumer and Medicare groups have • Do not pay any money to apply for a insurance plan. Once the beneficiary has expressed concern that consumers will be plan. Medicare D plans never require an paid this $2,850, he/she is eligible for cat- overwhelmed by the plan choices, and that application fee. astrophic coverage. the open season will be a high-pressured • If you become apprehensive about a Because FEHBP plans pay well for pre- marketing blitz, rather than an effort to gen- caller or telephone solicitor, call your local scription drugs, adding Medicare D pre- uinely educate seniors about Medicare D police. J scription drug coverage would not make options. In addition, these groups caution sense for most retirees with these plans. that unscrupulous people might acquire There are exceptions, particularly people bank account and Social Security informa- More on PIT Buyback with low incomes or those in a health plan tion, or fees, under the guise of registering with a weak drug benefit. Since any par- people for the new drug program. he PIT buyback is available to ticipant in any FEHBP plan has “creditable” Here are some tips to help you protect Temployees who will be eligible for an drug coverage (coverage deemed as good yourself from fraud: annuity under the Federal Employees as or better than Medicare D), he/she can • Register for the national Do-Not-Call Retirement System and the Foreign enroll in Part D in later years without pay- registry by calling toll-free, 1 (888) 382-1222. Service Pension System, but who were unable to participate in the retirement system from Jan. 1, 1989, to May 23, New Retiree Benefit: 1998. They are now able to purchase Consumer Checkbook Guide credit toward retirement by making a FSA is pleased to offer a new retiree benefit — online access to the 2006 Consumer deposit equal to the deductions that ACheckbook Guide to Health Plans. The Guide provides 2006 premiums and bene- would have been made from their earn- fits, as well as information on comparative plan quality and service to help retirees choose ings if they had been eligible, plus inter- the best plan for their needs and pocketbooks. est. Employees under the Foreign Retirees can gain access to the Guide at AFSA’s Retiree Web page at www.afsa.org/ Service Retirement and Disability System rtvppage.cfm, or go to www.afsa.org and click on the retiree tab at the top of the page. and the Civil Service Retirement System Retirees who do not use the Internet but need assistance with the FEHB open season have always been able to purchase cred- may write or call our retiree coordinators toll-free at 1 (800) 704-2372: Bonnie Brown it for their PIT service if it was followed (ext. 509) and Norma Reyes (ext. 514). by FSRDS or CSRS service.

8 AFSA NEWS • DECEMBER 2005

Rice • Continued from page 1 (We learned later from her chief of staff sion to pay for performance, there would they go overseas is unfair, illogical and unac- that she was unable to make the call be some big tradeoffs in the equation. All ceptable at a time when we need to encour- because OMB would not clear it. FS employees would lose their annual 3-per- age people to serve in increasingly difficult However, he affirmed that she supports cent step increase in return for a pool of per- — and difficult to staff — foreign posts. We OCP and will work to get it for Fiscal Year formance-pay money. Whether this trade- informed her that our survey, as well as 2007. I told him that her willingness to off would be good for FS employees direct contacts with our members, left no use her personal political capital and rela- depends on some key assumptions, the most doubt that this is the number-one issue for tionship with the president to get OCP is important of which is that Congress would the Foreign Service. I described the seen as the litmus test of her support for fund the performance-pay line item in tremendous progress that AFSA has made the department’s employees.) the department’s future budgets at levels in lobbying a range of members of that equaled the lost three percent step Congress to get overseas comparability pay Pay for Performance Linked to OCP increases. passed in Fiscal Year 2006, including find- As it turns out, department management You will probably be hearing much ing a champion in the Senate who was will- had long ago given up on OCP in FY-06. more about all this in coming months. In ing to put his support in writing in an The OMB veto in last December’s budget any case, you can be assured that AFSA will important letter to the key appropriations request “passback” was definitive. The only play the legislative game again next year. subcommittee chairman. way the White House will ever seriously con- The fact remains that OCP is in the autho- I told the Secretary that our members sider it, we’ve been told, is if it is part of an rization bill the House passed earlier this have heard her assert her support for the initiative to convert the entire FS person- year and that is a “two-year bill,” which Foreign Service and that her key deputies nel system to “pay for performance.” means that it remains valid through the pre- have told us that obtaining overseas com- However, it is important to realize that if sent Congress. To become law, though, parability pay for employees at the FS-1 management goes forward with a conver- we’d need a Senate companion bill. J level and below is the department’s highest personnel-related priority. I OCP Dead for FY-06 asked her to use her personal influence Despite a six-week-long full court press by AFSA that generated enough momentum to to make it happen, and to get the White keep our hopes up until literally the last minute, the House/Senate conferees on the State House on board. I asked her to make a Department portion of the Fiscal Year 2006 appropriations bill finished their work on Nov. phone call to a key member of Congress 4, and did not include the provision we’d been seeking granting overseas comparability pay to show her support of OCP in principle, something that would have greatly to all FS members (not just the senior FS) overseas this year. At the end of the day, accord- improved the chances for its passage this ing to people in the meeting, it was the administration’s and department’s complete lack year. Secretary Rice reaffirmed that OCP of support that doomed our efforts. The only way you’re realistically going to get this, we is in fact a top priority, and said that she were told, is if you bring the administration along with you. The lesson we learned is that had personally spoken to the director of when Congress and the White House are controlled by the same party, it is exceedingly dif- the Office of Management and Budget on ficult to get something passed in the face of that party’s opposition. several occasions to seek his concurrence.

STATE RECYCLING PAYS FOR CHILD CARE Last year, department recycling efforts generated $63,000. This revenue makes it possible for parents from a wide variety of income Recycle for Diplotots levels to send their children to the same high-quality program. BY PAIGE CHABORA, DIPLOTOTS BOARD MEMBER In 2005, nearly one-quarter of the families receiving tuition assistance earn less than $20,000 per year. The Diplotots Board cov- id you know that you help children and families every time ers about 65 percent of the tuition bills for those families. The you recycle paper, cans or glass? It’s true. State Department average annual income for a family with one child receiving assis- Drecycling helps families cover the cost of quality child care tance is $33,000. The average award given to a family is just over at Diplotots, the department’s child-care center. $300 per month. Child care with Diplotots costs $700-$1,000 per month, depend- Funds are also used to permit children who receive tuition assis- ing on the age of the child. The Diplotots Board of Directors man- tance to participate in the center’s extracurricular activities — such ages a tuition-assistance program that provides funding each year as gymnastics, swimming and field trips — and to provide special in tuition assistance for 15 to 20 children. The program is fund- learning opportunities for all the children in the center. ed primarily by contributions through the Combined Federal So, the next time you need to toss any paper, cans or glass, look Campaign (#7861) and the State Department’s recycling program. for a recycling bin. It’s good for the earth, and good for children. J

DECEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 9

CLASSIFIEDS

RETIREMENT SERVICES TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES

RETIRING? Don't forget to transition your automatic deduction for AFSA mem- ROLAND S. HEARD, CPA bership by filing form SF 1187A for annui- 1091 Chaddwyck Dr. tant deduction so we keep you on our rolls. Athens, GA 30606 Tel/Fax: (706) 769-8976 For a copy of SF 1197A call AFSA at E-mail: [email protected] (800) 704-2372 or (202) 338-4045, or go to • U.S. income tax services www.afsa.org/mbr/SF1187A.cfm or write us TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES • Many FS & contractor clients at AFSA, 2101 E. Street, NW, Washington, • Practiced before the IRS D.C. 20037. ATTORNEY, FORMER FOREIGN SER- VICE OFFICER: Extensive experience w/ tax • Financial planning You can fax the form to (202) 338-6820 problems unique to the Foreign Service. • American Institute of CPAs, Member or mail it to AFSA. Don't forget to sign it! Available for consultation, tax planning, and FIRST CONSULTATION FREE preparation of returns: WWW.ROLANDSHEARDCPA.COM LEGAL SERVICES M. Bruce Hirshorn, Boring & Pilger, P.C. ATTORNEY WITH 23 years’ successful 307 Maple Ave. W, Suite D, Vienna, VA 22180. VIRGINIA M. TEST, CPA: Tax service spe- Tel: (703) 281-2161. Fax: (703) 281-9464. experience SPECIALIZING FULL-TIME IN FS cializing in Foreign Service/overseas contrac- GRIEVANCES will more than double your E-mail: [email protected] tors. CONTACT INFO: TEL: (804) 695-2939. chance of winning: 30% of grievants win FAX: (804) 695-2958. before the Grievance Board; 85% of my CITIGROUP E-mail: [email protected] clients win. Only a private attorney can ade- CITIGROUP’S PERSONAL BANKING quately develop and present your case, OVERSEAS offers a variety of financial solu- including necessary regs, arcane legal doc- tions for individuals that are sent on interna- JACOB FORBAI, CPA/MS: Affordable trines, precedents and rules. Call Bridget R. tional assignment. If you work for a corpo- expatriate tax solutions, compliance, planning, Mugane at Tel: (202) 387-4383, or preparation for U.S. citizens & aliens world- (301) 596-0175. E-mail: [email protected] ration, organization or the United States gov- wide. 20+ years experience. Free initial consultation. ernment you may be eligible to open an International Access Account. See ad, p. 2. Tel: (301) 608-2248. E-mail: [email protected] ATTORNEY - Move your money across international borders. GRIEVANCE ATTORNEY (specializing - Meet your home and host-country RELOCATION since 1983). Attorney assists FS officers to financial obligations. correct defective performance appraisals, to - Acquire and preserve a favorable credit ON THE MOVE? Want a vacation reverse improper tenuring and promotion home? Call Carol McNiff, with W.C.& A.N. board decisions, secure financial benefits, rating while you’re away. Miller Relocation, serving the U.S. and defend against disciplinary actions and - Maintain and grow your financial portfolio. Canada, specializing in the Washington, obtain relief from all forms of discrimination. D.C., metro area: Va., Md. & D.C. A former Free Initial Consultation. Call William T. Irelan, Go to: www.citigroup.com/pboe Foreign Service wife, Carol will send you Esq. Tel: (202) 625-1800. an area orientation package. Call or e-mail Fax: (202) 625-1616. FREE TAX CONSULTATION: For over- for information on real estate sales, rentals, E-mail: [email protected] seas personnel. We process returns as property management, schools, cost-of- received, without delay. Preparation and rep- WILLS/ESTATE PLANNING by attorney living comparison or a free market analysis resentation by Enrolled Agents. Federal and who is a former FSO. Have your will reviewed on your present home. all states prepared. Includes “TAX TRAX” and updated, or new one prepared: Tel: (301) 229-4017. No charge for initial consultation. unique mini-financial planning review with rec- Toll-free: (888) 246-5668. ommendations. Full planning available. Get the M. Bruce Hirshorn, Boring & Pilger, P.C. E-mail: [email protected] most from your financial dollar! Financial Web: www.wcanmiller.com 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 E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (703) 289-1167. Fax: (703) 289-1178. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT 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 • DECEMBER 2005

CLASSIFIEDS

TEMPORARY HOUSING TEMPORARY HOUSING REAL ESTATE

YOU'VE TRAVELED the World; Now SHORT-TERM RENTALS GEORGETOWN QUARTERS: Exquisite, fully-furnished accommodations in the East Retire to Paradise. Make retirement more TEMPORARY HOUSING End of Georgetown. Short walk to World enjoyable in the relaxed atmosphere of Bank and State Department. Lower floor of Scottsdale, Arizona - offering world-class golf, WASHINGTON, D.C. or NFATC TOUR? three-level home built in 1803 and renovat- restaurants and shops; outstanding museums EXECUTIVE HOUSING CONSULTANTS ed in 2003. Private front and rear entrances, and theater. Jeanette Sletten, Realtor(r), John offers Metropolitan Washington, D.C.’s finest eight-foot ceilings, fireplace, marble bath- Hall and Associates. (Former CLO and portfolio of short-term, fully-furnished and room with Jacuzzi and shower, granite and EUR/EX PMO) Tel: (480) 567-5576 equipped apartments, townhomes and sin- stainless steel kitchen, washer and dryer; E-mail: [email protected] gle-family residences in Maryland, D.C. and walk out to tiered rear garden great for enter- Web site: www.scottsdalehomesbyjet.com Virginia. taining. Street parking and limited car/pick- In Virginia: “River Place’s Finest” is up sharing with management. Dishes, flat- steps to Rosslyn Metro and Georgetown, and ware, towels, linens and light maid service JOANN PIEKNEY/ PRUDENTIAL CAR- 15 minutes on Metro bus or State included. Preference for single person or RUTHERS REALTORS: Complete profes- Department shuttle to NFATC. For more info, couple. Rate commensurate with housing sional dedication to residential sales in please call (301) 951-4111 or visit our Web allowance. Photos available. Contact: Northern Virginia. I provide you with person- site: www.executivehousing.com Tel: (202) 625-6448. al attention. Over 23 years’ real estate expe- E-mail: [email protected]. rience and Foreign Service overseas living www.EquityFundGroup.com experience. JOANN PIEKNEY. Tel: (703) 624-1594. Fax: (703) 757-9137. CORPORATE APARTMENT SPECIALISTS E-mail: [email protected] Abundant experience working with Foreign Web site: www.foreignservicehomes.com Service professionals and the locations to best VIENNA METRO AREA TOWNHOUSE: serve you: Foggy Bottom, Woodley Park, Three bedrooms, 3ﬁ baths. Lots of storage. Cleveland Park, Chevy Chase, Rosslyn, Ballston, Available immediately. Four, six months or YOUR EXCLUSIVE AGENT • Exclusively Pentagon City. Our office is a short walk from longer/shorter periods (Lease duration flex- One Client at a Time • Exclusively MD/DC NFATC. One-month minimum. All furnishings, ible). $1,750. Tel: (703) 319-3965. Residential • Specializing in Foreign Service housewares, utilities, telephone and cable E-mail: [email protected] for Families • Including Expertise in Mortgage, included. Tel: (703) 979-2830 or (800) 914-2802. appointment. Financing & Property Management. Fay Fax: (703) 979-2813. Finver - W.C. & A.N. Miller Real Estate. E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (240) 338-5692 Web site: www.corporateapartments.com MORTGAGE E-mail: [email protected]

BUYING OR REFINANCING A HOME? VACATION PIED-A-TERRE PROPERTIES, LTD: Jeff Stoddard specializes in working with the Select from our unique inventory of fully-fur- Foreign Service community overseas and in NORMANDY, FRANCE: Large, comfort- nished & tastefully decorated apartments & the U.S. Call today. Tel: (703) 725-2455. able farmhouse near D-Day Beaches for townhouses all located in D.C.’s best in-town E-mail: [email protected] weekly rental. E-mail: [email protected] neighborhoods: Dupont, Georgetown, Foggy Web site: www.laporterouge.net Bottom & the West End. Two-month mini- REAL ESTATE mum. Mother-Daughter Owned and Operated. Tel: (202) 462-0200. Fax: (202) 332-1406. RENT A 300-year-old stone house in E-mail: [email protected] LONGBOAT KEY, BRADENTON/ a medieval village in the south of France Web site: www.piedaterredc.com SARASOTA: Area will exceed expectations. (Languedoc-Roussillon)! Don’t miss owning in Florida. Resales, new E-mail: [email protected] homes, rental management and vacation rentals. Dynamic, growing company offering FURNISHED LUXURY APARTMENTS: personalized professional service. Contact: SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA: Short/long-term. Best locations: Dupont Sharon E. Oper, Realtor (AFSA member) ENJOY world-class golfing and shopping Circle, Georgetown. Utilities included. All price Wagner Realty. Tel: (941) 387-7199. in fully-furnished condo (sleeps 8). One-month ranges/sizes. Parking available. E-mail: [email protected] minimum. E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (202) 296-4989. E-mail: [email protected] NEW HAMPSHIRE RETREAT: FLORIDA 1780 farmhouse on 100 acres above Crescent Lake, Acworth. Five bedrooms, three baths, FULLY FURNISHED APARTMENTS: NO STATE INCOME TAX enhances gra- fireplace, country kitchen, screen porch, deck, Arlington, VA. Two blocks to Rosslyn Metro. cious living in Sarasota, the cultural capital of swimming pond, canoes, rowboat, fall foliage, Short/long-term rental. Everything included. Florida’s Gulf Coast. Contact former FSO Paul x-country from front door; 20 minutes from $1,500 Studio, $1,800 1 BR. Please contact Byrnes, Coldwell Banker residential sales spe- Mt. Sunapee. $1,500/wk or $650/weekend - Theodore at Tel: (703) 973-9551, or cialist, by e-mail: [email protected], or - 8 people. Tel: (603) 863-3817. E-mail: [email protected]. Toll-Free: (877) 924-9001. E-mail: [email protected]

DECEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 11

CLASSIFIEDS

VACATION SHOPPING PET TRANSPORTATION

BARBADOS: DIPLOMAT'S 3-BR, 110 - 220 VOLT STORE (sleeps 6) West Coast seaview home, MULTI-SYSTEM ELECTRONICS walk to beaches, shops, restaurants, golfing. Low season: $1,000/week, PAL-SECAM-NTSC TVs, $3,000/month; High: $1,500/$3,750. VCRs, AUDIO, CAMCORDER, E-mail: [email protected]. ADAPTOR, TRANSFORMERS, Tel: (301) 587-4956, (703) 582-5751 KITCHEN APPLIANCES PET MOVING MADE EASY. Club Pet GMS WORLD WIDE PHONES International, is a full-service animal shipper EPORT WORLD ELECTRONICS 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. DISNEY VACATION RENTAL: E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Townhouse with pool sleeps eight nestled in URL: www.eportworld.com Web site: www.clubpet.com wildlife preserve minutes from Disney. DOWNTOWN LOCATION E-mail: [email protected] 1030 19TH ST. NW (between K & L Sts.) Web site: www.vacationdisneyhome.com Washington, D.C. 20036 DOMESTIC / WORLDWIDE SHIPPING: TEL: (202) 464-7600. Over 25 yrs. experience, free estimates, no INQUIRE ABOUT OUR PROMOTIONS deposits required, military veteran, 24-hr. avail- Government & Diplomat discounts ability. Tel: (304) 274-6859, (888) 234-5028 E-mail: [email protected] www.actionpetexpress.com PELICAN COVE, SARASOTA. Near beaches. 2 bed/2 bath ground floor. On- PALESTINIAN EMBROIDERY: Hand- site pools, tennis, classes, workshops. crafted jackets, vests, blouses, pillows, run- $2,800/month 2-month minimum. Available ners, placemats, purses and eyeglass cases. BOOKS February. Contact: [email protected] Tel: (703) 528-2623. E-mail: [email protected] OLD ASIA/ORIENT BOOKS BOUGHT Web site: www.mashrabiya.com Asian rare books. Fax: (212) 316-3408. E-mail: [email protected]

ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHALET. CRAVING GROCERIES FROM HOME? Cathedral ceilings, circular stairway, wildlife, Visit www.lowesfoodstogo.com. We ship BED AND BREAKFAST JOURNEY by seclusion. FSO-owned. Photos and reserva- non-perishable groceries to you via the Dulles Gordon (FS 1958-82) and Barbara Evans. A tions: www.pinebrookvacationrentals.com/ mail-sorting facility, or your choice of ship- how-to plus. Foreward by John C. Whitehead. ridgeviewdetail.html ping facility. For more information e-mail: $12.50 postage included. Tel: (231) 276-7751 [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

BUSINESS CARDS WWW.WEBNETSTORE.COM WWW.BETWEENLAKES.COM BUSINESS CARDS PRINTED to State B&B Vacation suite in Interlochen, Michigan. $10 FREE GIFT CERTIFICATE! Department specifications. 500 cards for as Tel: (231) 276-7751. Send e-mail to [email protected] little as $37.00! Herron Printing & Graphics. E-mail: [email protected] requesting your free $10 gift certificate. Include Tel: (301) 990-3100. your mailing address to receive a free cata- E-mail: [email protected] log. Webnetstore.com has over 3,000 High Quality Products and Gifts. Shop for yourself MISCELLANEOUS or send gifts home to friends and relatives eas- PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: ily! Checkout process is secure, SHOP $1.25/word (10-word min.) First 3 WITH CONFIDENCE. Tel: (218) 741-2597. SHIPPING words bolded free, add’l bold text Toll-free: (888) 741-2597. PLANNING TO MOVE OVERSEAS? $2/word, header, box, shading $10 Need a rate to ship your car, household ea. Deadline: 20th of the month for goods, or other cargo going abroad? Contact: publication 5 weeks later. Joseph T. Quinn. at SEFCO-Export Ad Mgr: Tel: (202) 944-5507. Management Company for rates and advice. Fax: (202) 338-6820. Tel: (718) 268-6233. Fax: (718) 268-0505. E-mail: [email protected] SHOP THE USA. Buy anything American. Visit our Web site at www.sefco-export.com We ship worldwide: www.globalgophers.com

12 AFSA NEWS • DECEMBER 2005