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The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

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The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007 FS FICTION PROGRESS IN NORTHERN IRELAND TWO HOSTAGE CRISES AFSA AWARD WINNERS INSIDE $3.50 / SEPTEMBER 2007 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS STRIKING A BALANCE Human Rights Promotion in the Post-9/11 Era CONTENTS September 2007 Volume 84, No. 9 F OCUS ON H UMAN R IGHTS F EATURES 20 / REASSERTING U.S. LEADERSHIP IN HUMAN RIGHTS LESSONS FROM NORTHERN IRELAND’S The U.S. reputation for integrity, just behavior and PEACE PROCESS / 53 leadership in upholding global standards is at a low point. The recent breakthrough in the troubled region could How can it be restored? be a model for easing other sectarian conflicts. By Edmund McWilliams By Andrew Sens 26 / A CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE? THE BOXER SIEGE: A PRECEDENT The heart of the administration’s approach to FOR THE IRANIAN HOSTAGE CRISIS / 56 curbing terrorism is the use of torture and These two major breaches of diplomatic facilities were coercion to force information from suspects. separated by eight decades and thousands of miles. By Kenneth Roth But they have much in common. By Moorhead Kennedy 33 / CRAFTING A NEW COUNTERINSURGENCY DOCTRINE The Army and Marine Corps have raised the banner of human rights in their new counterinsurgency doctrine. C OLUMNS D EPARTMENTS Its principles could be the basis for an PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 LETTERS / 7 effective campaign against terrorism. Team AFSA CYBERNOTES / 10 By Sarah Sewall By John K. Naland MARKETPLACE / 12 41 / THE FOLLY OF A SHORT-TERM APPROACH SPEAKING OUT / 14 FASTRAX / 13 A British diplomat describes the challenges of promoting Six Simple Proposals AFSA NEWS / 63 human rights when a dictatorship is also a key ally. to Improve Efficiency By Craig Murray and Morale BOOKS / 79 By Hollis Summers IN MEMORY / 80 INDEX TO FS FICTION FS KNOW-HOW / 17 ADVERTISERS / 90 48 / LUCKY Retirement Planning 101 Against the bleak, frozen landscape of a Russian winter, By John K. Naland an American woman finds an unexpected path REFLECTIONS / 92 through her grief. Politically Incorrect in Burma By Joan Broyles Odean By Don North THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS OREIGN ERVICE Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published J O U R N A L F S monthly with a combined July/August issue by the American Foreign Service Association, a private, non-profit Editorial Board Editor organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent STEVEN ALAN HONLEY TED WILKINSON, the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, preferably by Senior Editor CHAIRMAN e-mail. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - $13 included in annual dues; others - $40. For foreign surface mail, SUSAN B. MAITRA add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mail- Associate Editor KENT C. BROKENSHIRE SHAWN DORMAN ing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. STEPHEN W. B UCK Ad & Circulation Manager 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited ED MILTENBERGER ANTHONY S. CHAN manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein Business Manager JOSH GLAZEROFF does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. ANDREW KIDD WILLIAM W. J ORDAN E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service Art Director LAURIE KASSMAN CARYN SUKO SMITH Association, 2007. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., KAY WEBB MAYFIELD Editorial Intern Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Printed on 50-percent recycled paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste. JOHN K. NALAND ANNA WONG GLEYSTEEN Advertising Intern JOYCE NAMDE ANGELINE VUONG CHRISTOPHER L. TEAL Cover and inside illustrations by Ian Dodds SEPTEMBER 2007/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Team AFSA BY JOHN K. NALAND Greetings from your new with agency management supported, more respected and more AFSA president. I join with the over many conditions of satisfying place in which to spend a 24 other members of the new service. Speaking as a pro- career. AFSA Governing Board in fessional association with an As we move forward, I promise to pledging to tenaciously defend 83-year track record as the maintain an active pace of outbound and advance the interests of the voice of the Foreign Service, communications, not only through this Foreign Service over the next AFSA can often influence monthly column, but also via frequent two years. I thank my pre- even non-negotiable agency e-mail updates sent via our free listserv, decessor, Ambassador J. Anthony policies. AFSA frequently testifies on AFSAnet. If you are not among the Holmes, and the members of his Capitol Hill, has a full-time director of nearly 10,000 subscribers to that ser- Governing Board for their strong, legislative affairs, and operates a vice, you may sign up at www.afsa.org/ principled advocacy of AFSA mem- political action committee, AFSA- forms/maillist.cfm. bers’ interests over the past two years. PAC. We have an active communi- If you are a subscriber, you will This is a critical time for our cations outreach program that gets have seen my initial updates laying profession. Conditions of service have AFSA’s views cited by major media out the new AFSA Governing Board’s deteriorated. More posts are danger- outlets and arranges speaking events starting agenda, which includes the ous and unhealthy. The number of around the country to explain the following objectives: secure Overseas unaccompanied positions has soared. importance of diplomacy to tens of Comparability Pay; obtain more Longstanding physical security policies thousands of citizens each year. resources for diplomacy; improve have been abandoned in order to staff Our greatest strength, however, is overseas security; influence Foreign war zones. Many posts and offices are you. AFSA’s active-duty members are Service reform initiatives; preserve understaffed and overworked. The our eyes and ears around the world, and strengthen USAID; defend the Service has become less family- alerting us to the good, the bad and the Foreign Service against outside friendly. The lack of Overseas Com- ugly in agency practices. Our retiree critics; expand professional training; parability Pay is an ever-growing finan- members play a key role in lobbying improve overseas living conditions; in- cial disincentive to overseas service. Congress for resources for diplomacy crease WAE opportunities; defend Gains made earlier this decade in and educating our fellow Americans and expand retiree benefits; expand strengthening diplomatic readiness about the role of the Foreign Service. diplomatic privileges for specialists; have been overwhelmed as staffing And all members, through their dues, improve administrative accommoda- demands in Iraq have far outpaced support AFSA’s talented professional tions for members of household; appropriations for personnel. There is staff, who work hard each day to update contact reporting and security a growing deficit between the missions advance your interests. clearance suspension procedures; and assigned to the Foreign Service and This, then, is our Team AFSA: assure fair and equitable standards for the resources available to carry out Governing Board, professional staff, assignments. those missions. and rank-and-file members. Working I also welcome your comments, AFSA has many tools with which to together over the next two years, we suggestions and — as may be appro- confront these challenges. As a union, can help realize AFSA’s mission of priate — complaints. You may contact AFSA has the legal right to negotiate making the Foreign Service a more me by e-mail at [email protected]; by effective agent of United States mail at 2101 E Street, NW, Washington John K. Naland is the president of the international leadership — while DC 20037; by phone at (202) 338- American Foreign Service Association. simultaneously making it a better- 4045; or by fax at (202) 338-6820. I SEPTEMBER 2007/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5 LETTERS The Case for many of us are probably more than Rereading Roman History Mid-Level Entry happy to serve in consular and other I would normally let Ambassador In my brief (untenured) tenure as sections outside our cone for extend- Thomas Boyatt’s June letter, respond- an FSO, I have been impressed with ed periods of time. But I suspect that ing to Foreign Service Journal Editor AFSA’s forthright advocacy on issues the State Department would be Steve Honley’s March review of the pertaining to the independence and better served by introducing a system book Imperium: A Novel of Ancient well-being of the Foreign Service. that permitted experienced profes- Rome, go by without comment. How- However, Ambassador J. Anthony sionals to join the Foreign Service at ever, I found it not just devoid of sub- Holmes’ reiteration of AFSA’s stiff “mid-level” positions. stantive merit but gratuitously offen- opposition to a mid-level entry pro- First, such a shift in policy would sive, as well. gram (President’s Views, April) strikes provide the department with a wider Where to begin? We all know that me as short-sighted and detrimental pool from which to select mid-level “European” has been a cuss word to sound recruiting. officers for important management ever since Donald Rumsfeld told us I will not deny that my discomfort and operational positions. Second, it so, and that “literati” is even more with this position stems partly from would significantly increase the de- laughable than “intellectuals.” But do my own experience.
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