PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION APRIL 2013 AFSA: THE UNION TURNS 40 RECALLING SOS for DOS RUSSELL MEANS IN COSTA RICA FOREIGN April 2013 SERVICE Volume 90, No. 4 AFSAW NE S FOCUS AFSA CELEBRATES 40 YEARS AS A UNION 2012 USAID Survey Reveals Some Improvement / 45 Paving the Way for Unionization / 19 State VP Voice: A series of reforms during the 1960s transformed AFSA into an effective, energetic A Jury of Our Peers / 46 advocate for the career Foreign Service. FAS VP Voice: A Kinder, BY HARRY W. KOPP Gentler and More Productive Workplace / 47 The State of the Union / 27 USAID Alumni Association Continues to Grow / 50 Four past presidents of the American Foreign Service Association reflect on the organization’s past, present and future. AFSA’s First Virtual Student Foreign Service Intern / 51 THOMAS D. BOYATT AFSA at the Oscars / 52 TED WILKINSON Life in the Foreign Service / 53 DAN GEISLER 2012 Sinclaire JOHN K. NALAND Awards Winners / 54 Amb. Christopher Van Hollen Scholarship / 55 Retired USAID FSO Receives FEATUREs Purple Heart / 56 Managing Your Thrift Savings SOS for DOS, 13 Years Later / 35 Plan / 56 Back in 2000, a group of FSOs led efforts to publicize and elevate the need for change at State. Is it time for another grassroots campaign? COLUMNS BY TED STRICKLER President’s Views / 7 AFSA and the Foreign Service: My Breakfast with Russell Means / 41 The Road Ahead Looking back on an experience in San José, an FSO gains insight into the hubris of BYAN SUS R. Johnson men in power and the “perverse, unpredictable logic” of war. Speaking Out / 15 B Y STEPHEN J. DEL ROSSO Unionization, AFSA and the Foreign Service BDY AVID T. Jones DEpaRTMENTS L etters / 8 Talking Points / 12 Books / 58 In Memory / 61 Local Lens / 78 MARKETPLacE Guide to Property Management / 60 Classifieds / 71 On the cover: AFSA President Susan Johnson addresses the crowd at the “Rally to Serve America” on April 11, 2011, in Washington, D.C. Real Estate / 74 In the face of a threatened government shutdown, AFSA and employees of the foreign affairs agencies spoke out on the importance of diplomacy and development and the work they do for America’s national security and prosperity. Photo credit: Donna Ayerst. Index to Advertisers / 76 Lower left: Russell Means, the Ogalala Sioux activist for the rights of Native Americans. © Ernie Leyba/Denver Post/Getty Images. THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2013 5 FOREIGN SERVICE S Editor Steven Alan Honley: [email protected] Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra: [email protected] Associate Editor Shawn Dorman: [email protected] CONTACT AFSA News Editor AFSA Headquarters: Labor Management Donna Ayerst: [email protected] (202) 338-4045; Fax (202) 338-6820 General Counsel State Department AFSA Office: Sharon Papp: [email protected] Ad & Circulation Manager (202) 647-8160; Fax (202) 647-0265 Deputy General Counsel Ed Miltenberger: [email protected] USAID AFSA Office: Zlatana Badrich: [email protected] (202) 712-1941; Fax (202) 216-3710 Labor Management Specialist Art Director FCS AFSA Office: James Yorke: [email protected] Caryn Suko Smith (202) 482-9088; Fax (202) 482-9087 Labor Management Counselor Editorial Intern Janet Weber: [email protected] Jeff Richards GovERNING BoaRD Senior Staff Attorney President: Neera Parikh: [email protected] Advertising Intern Susan R. Johnson: [email protected] Staff Attorney Andreas Dorner State VP: Raeka Safai: [email protected] Editorial Board Daniel Hirsch: [email protected] Staff Attorney James P. Seevers, Chairman USAID VP: Andrew Large: [email protected] Judith Baroody Francisco Zamora: [email protected] Office Manager William D. Bent FCS VP: Christine Warren: [email protected] Clayton Bond Keith Curtis: [email protected] USAID Senior Labor Management Adviser Gordon S. Brown FAS VP: Douglas Broome: [email protected] Stephen W. Buck David Mergen: [email protected] Staff Assistant Ruth M. Hall Retiree VP: Alex Nostro: [email protected] Richard McKee Mary Ellen Gilroy: [email protected] USAID Staff Assistant Jed Meline Secretary: Vacant Chioma Dike: [email protected] Gregory L. Naarden Treasurer: Andrew Winter Beth Payne State Reps: MEMBER Services Matthew Asada Member Services Director William Bent Janet Hedrick: [email protected] THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AffaiRS E. Alex Copher Member Services Representative PROfessiONALS Tim Corso Kristy Pomes: [email protected] The Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Kenneth Kero-Mentz Administrative Assistant and Office Manager Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published Elise Mellinger Ana Lopez: [email protected] monthly, with a combined July-August issue, by the Joyce Namde American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), a private, Ted Osius COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING AND nonprofit organization. Material appearing herein repre- Lillian Wahl-Tuco OUTREACH sents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or David Zwach Director of Marketing and Outreach AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, prefer- USAID Reps: Ásgeir Sigfússon: [email protected] ably by e-mail. The Journal is not responsible for unso- Jason Singer Director of Communications licited manuscripts, photos or illustrations. 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Advocacy Director BUSINESS Department Javier Cuebas: [email protected] Postmaster: Send address changes to Director of Finance Scholarship Director AFSA Femi Oshobukola: [email protected] Lori Dec: [email protected] Attn: Address Change Controller Scholarship Assistant 2101 E Street NW Kalpna Srimal: [email protected] Jonathan Crawford: [email protected] Washington DC 20037-2990 Assistant Controller Cory Nishi: [email protected] CADMUS INSERT LOGO HERE www.afsa.org 6 A PRIL 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL PRESIDENT’S VIEWS AFSA and the Foreign Service: The Road Ahead BUANY S S R. Johnson ot for the first time in the Service by increasing awareness of its just one, albeit significant, feature of the nearly 90 years since the unique value. decline of the professional character of Rogers Act established the Second, AFSA should continue to call the Department of State and USAID—and N Foreign Service as a profes- attention to the importance of fostering its stature. The Foreign Service can no sional career cadre and the backbone of institutional leaders imbued with long- longer claim a lead role in the formulation the United States diplomatic service, our term perspective, Service discipline and a and implementation of American foreign Service faces an existential crisis. But we commitment to producing broad-gauged policy; instead, it is being relegated to a also, to borrow from the Chinese, have an senior diplomats able to provide sound secondary function of staff support to an opportunity for renewal. foreign policy advice and to lead its outside elite that sets and manages policy. After two terms as AFSA president, implementation. To help rebuild a strong, effective For- I use the term “existential” because Finally, AFSA needs to strengthen its eign Service and increase public appre- support for the very concept of a profes- own institutional capacity for advocacy ciation of its important role, AFSA must sional career diplomatic service, with a and negotiation to push this ambitious pursue efforts in three directions. First, disciplined and agile personnel system agenda. we must identify the factors that under- based on merit, rank in person and The Foreign Service Act of 1980 says a mine the Foreign Service as an institution, worldwide availability, seems to have professional, career Foreign Service “must highlighting areas that require attention eroded significantly. This is true not just be preserved, strengthened and improved to reform the Service. This will be the at the Department of State, U.S. Agency in order to carry out its mission effectively subject of my next column. for International Development and in response to the complex challenges Second, AFSA must devote serious other foreign affairs agencies, and in of modern diplomacy and international thought to defining the requirements of Congress, but within our own ranks. relations.” Are these challenges not much diplomacy as a profession and how they In the “State of the Union” article on more complex today? apply to the individual American diplo- p. 27 of this issue—part of The Foreign Between 1924 and the 1970s, the mat today. And third, AFSA must expand Service Journal’s coverage of AFSA’s Foreign Service presence within the its advocacy on behalf of the Foreign Ser- 40th anniversary as a union—four of my leadership of the State Department and vice with the Secretary of State, the White predecessors reflect on AFSA’s role and USAID grew slowly but steadily. But since House and Capitol Hill—for example, by responsibility to advocate for a profes- 1980 its share of top positions has steadily working with members of Congress to sional career Foreign Service.