The Foreign Service Journal, September 2011.Pdf

SERVICE IN IRAQ: TWO VIEWS I SHOOTINGFROMTHE HIP(PIE) I FS FICTION

$4.50 / SEPTEMBER 2011 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS

REFLECTIONS ON 9/11 How the Foreign Service Has Changed

— advertisement — OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S CONTENTS September 2011 Volume 88, No. 9

C OVER S TORY

THE FOREIGN SERVICE A DECADE AFTER 9/11 / 16 AFSA members reflect on changes in the Foreign Service following, and because of, the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001. By Steven Alan Honley

F EATURES

EXPEDITIONARY DIPLOMACY FROM THE GROUND UP / 30 Hammering the square peg of expeditionary diplomacy into the round hole of State Department regulations can be a complicated process. By Scott McFadden Cover illustration by Ben Fishman Photography courtesy BLOOMSDAY IN BAGHDAD: READING JOYCE IN IRAQ / 32 of iStockphoto.com Ulysses is a sprawling, confusing, difficult novel, with a narrative arc that never seems to make much progress. A perfect choice for Baghdad. By William V. Roebuck

HIPPIE CONTROL OFFICER / 35 An unconventional appellation leads to unexpected consequences for a new FSO. RESIDENT S IEWS P ’ V / 5 By Larry Lesser Diplomacy after 9/11: More Important than Ever By Susan R. Johnson F ICTION REFLECTIONS / 76 Paying Tribute DRIVING IN PARK / 39 By Melanie Settje Quick thinking and reflexes get a U.S. embassy employee out of a jam. By Peter Brennan

LETTERS / 7 CYBERNOTES / 13 MARKETPLACE / 15 BOOKS / 43 IN MEMORY / 61 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS / 74

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3 OREIGN ERVICE CONTENTS FJ O U R N A L S EWS A F S A N Editor STEVEN ALAN HONLEY AFSA PRESENTS AWARDS FOR DISSENT AND PERFORMANCE / 47 Senior Editor NEWS BRIEFS / 48 SUSAN B. MAITRA Associate Editor VP STATE: QDDR: CHANGING THE GAME SHAWN DORMAN AND CHANGING THE RULES / 49 AFSA News Editor DONNA AYERST VP USAID: QDDR: CLOSING THE EXPERIENCE GAP? / 50 Ad & Circulation Manager AFSA GOVERNING BOARD ELECTION RESULTS / 51 ED MILTENBERGER Art Director REPORT FROM AFSA-PAC TREASURER / 51 CARYN SUKO SMITH 2011 AFSA AWARDS CELEBRATE DISSENT AND PERFORMANCE / 52 Editorial Intern ASA MACLAY HORNER WITNESS TO TRAGEDY: A REFLECTION ON THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY / 54 EDITORIAL BOARD AFSA BOOK NOTES: WASHINGTON RULES: TED WILKINSON Chairman AMERICA’S PATH TO PERMANENT WAR / 55 KELLY ADAMS-SMITH AFSA HONORS KENNAN AWARD WINNER / 55 JOSEPH BRUNS STEPHEN W. BUCK FOREIGN SERVICE YOUTH AWARD RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED / 56 JULIE GIANELLONI CONNOR MARY E. GLANTZ TO OLLABORATE WITH AFSA C MSU / 57 GEORGE JONES AFSA-FPA EVENTS SPREAD AWARENESS OF FS WORK / 57 KATE WIEHAGEN LEONARD LYNN ROCHE CLASSIFIEDS / 58 RACHEL SCHNELLER JAMES P. SEEVERS

THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published monthly with a combined July-August issue by the American Foreign Service Associa- tion (AFSA), a private, nonprofit organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, preferably by e-mail. Journal sub- scription: AFSA members – $13 included in annual dues; others – $40. For foreign surface mail, add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Services (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods offered. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045 FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEB: www.afsa.org; www.fsjournal.org © American Foreign Service Association, 2011. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to: AFSA Attn: Address Change 2101 E Street N.W. Washington DC 20037-2990 Printed on 50-percent recycled paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste.

4 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Diplomacy after 9/11: More Important than Ever BY SUSAN R. JOHNSON

This issue of AFSA’s Foreign through sustained dialogue mastered and old lessons relearned. Service Journal focuses on the and negotiation to promote Paradoxically, since 9/11 the value impact of the Sept. 11, 2001, our national interests and val- of diplomacy seems eclipsed by major terrorist attacks on American ues, while avoiding costly mil- military interventions, especially in diplomacy. With a decade’s per- itary conflict. For this basic Iraq and Afghanistan. It is far from spective, we must ask whether purpose, a strong economy clear that the role of diplomacy and the terrorism is the central chal- and political system are a sine need for a strong institutional basis and lenge to our national security and in- qua non and diplomacy, along with de- professional service are well under- terests, and whether diplomacy is less fense and intelligence, is a critical tool. stood or appreciated. or more relevant in today’s world. It is This is particularly true because the The budget cutting called for under debatable whether the 9/11 attacks drivers of global change are amor- the various approaches to deficit re- could have been averted, but there is a phous, with no defined or consistent duction being put forward seems set to body of opinion that walking away center of gravity. They cannot be ad- damage our long under-resourced from Afghanistan after a decade-long dressed by military means alone. In- diplomatic and development services engagement in the 1980s left a dan- terestingly, it is our military and busi- at the very moment when our national gerous vacuum and was an error. ness sector leadership who seem to interests call for them to be strength- As a global power, America needs to recognize this most clearly and who are ened, including by more and better remain engaged around the world. speaking out most consistently on the professional education and training. This engagement has to be multidi- need for investing more in diplomacy What can AFSA do? mensional and responsive to the broad and development. Both former Secre- As the professional association rep- range of contemporary challenges, tary of Defense Robert Gates, and his resenting active-duty and retired mem- rather than dominated by a narrow successor, Leon Panetta, have called bers of the Foreign Service, we must focus on any single threat. for the Department of State and the organize ourselves for more effective While the United States has fo- U.S. Agency for International Devel- and sustained advocacy for the re- cused on countering international ter- opment to receive the resources they sources we need, for reforms that in- rorism, for understandable reasons, need to build strong, professional volve innovative use of the resources other phenomena have been deter- diplomatic and development services, we have, and for more education and mining the shape of international rela- in parallel with our outstanding pro- training to ensure that we can recruit tions. Today, the fundamental drivers fessional military forces. and develop the talent we need to of change include demographics, tech- The international situation is more build the premier diplomatic and de- nology and globalization, accompanied complex than ever today. There are no velopment services America needs. by the emergence of new power cen- neat solutions to either the longstand- The newly elected 2011-2013 AFSA ters and increased competition in coming conflicts in the Middle East, Asia, Governing Board will focus on ways to merce, political influence and access Africa and Europe, or to the newer ones do this at its strategic planning retreat to, and control of, resources. emerging. Effective diplomacy is therein mid-September. I invite you to send The fundamental role of diplomacy fore more challenging and more vital your thoughts to [email protected] in is to help manage these new forces than ever before. New tools need to be advance. I

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5

LETTERS

A Message from D with a transparent OCO budget that from the legislation raising the debt As you know firsthand, the men and portrays the whole-of-government ap- ceiling, which included instructions for women of the State Department and proach to these operations by aligning future reductions in spending. For the U.S. Agency for International Devel- military and civilian costs. As the num- first time, the State Department — opment serve in Washington and in ber of troops in Iraq is reduced and the along with Defense, Homeland Secu- every corner of the world in support of scope of the State Department and rity and some veterans’ affairs spending our foreign policy objectives. During USAID’s duties increases, the Depart- — has been was included in the “secu- the past two years, Secretary of State ment of Defense’s costs will decrease rity” spending category. Hillary Rodham Clinton has worked by $45 billion, while our proposed in- While the final allocations remain with Congress to identify the resources crease is less than $4 billion. That’s an unknown at press time, we do know required to perform our critical mis- impressive savings by any yardstick. that maintaining leadership requires re- sions around the world and to elevate Our mission in Iraq is difficult and solve and resources. As Sec. Clinton diplomacy and development — the challenging. AFSA’s president, Ambas- has said, “American leadership is not a components of our civilian power — in sador Susan Johnson, raised good ques- birthright; it’s an achievement.” partnership with defense as the three tions in her Senate testimony earlier Our diplomats, development ex- pillars of our national security strategy. this summer. But we are working perts and programs are critical to Whether providing humanitarian around the clock to get the resources American leadership. Our diplomacy assistance or countering terrorism, our and the personnel to make sure we and development efforts around the work saves lives and promotes a more maintain and build on the military’s world enhance our national security. secure future. As former Secretary of success. A fully funded OCO budget is Our programs help create jobs at home Defense Robert Gates has said, “The critical to that effort. by promoting trade and economic op- work performed by diplomatic and de- Meanwhile, at the same time that portunities for American businesses velopment professionals helps to build we are taking on increased responsibil- abroad. the foundation for more stable, demo- ities abroad and promoting our national We know too well that hunger and cratic and prosperous societies.” That security in new ways, we face a difficult economic deprivation lead to greater is why President Barack Obama has budget climate. For Fiscal Year 2012, instability. Continued engagement and designated our entire budget — both Pres. Obama requested $47 billion for sufficient resources are needed to pro- core functions and the portion for the State Department and USAID’s mote U.S. interests around the globe. Overseas Contingency Operations — core operations and programs. He also Significant cuts to the State Depart- as part of a broader, governmentwide requested $8.7 billion for OCO to pay ment and USAID budgets — which national security budget. for the extraordinary — but temporary total just over 1 percent of the entire As State and USAID are being — costs of State Department and federal budget — will not make a dent asked to make extraordinary and critical USAID operations in Iraq, Afghanistan in the deficit or debt. But they will de- contributions to our efforts in Iraq, and Pakistan. The Department of De- grade our ability to address issues that Afghanistan and Pakistan, these un- fense takes the same approach to such threaten American interests. precedented efforts require new re- extraordinary costs in its budget. I hope this gives you a better un- sources. We have provided Congress We will soon learn what to expect derstanding of the debate here in

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 7 L ETTERS

Washington and the case we are mak- I know from personal experience), but wasn’t always thus. Larry was a regular ing on behalf of the Department of sometimes they do. Thus, I would sug- participant in the embassy’s occasional State and USAID. In the six months I gest that they have a far better record of Saturday morning touch football have been on the job, I have been thor- influencing actual policy decisions than games. (Ambassador-to-be David An- oughly impressed with the stellar qual- Dissent Channel messages. derson would quarterback one team, ity and remarkable dedication of the That said, there can be little doubt the Army corporal in charge of our men and women at State and USAID. that the Dissent Channel mechanism is Army/Air Force Post Office service the Many of you have served in tough, invaluable from the institutional, mor- other.) Larry’s asthma inhaler was al- dangerous environments where you ale and substantive standpoints. Honor ways at hand, however, even then. confronted complex issues. Thank you the dissenters and let the practice Larry Eagleburger was a friend to for your service and your patriotism. It spread. all, a mentor to embassy newcomers, is an honor to work with you. Jack R. Binns and a highly valued adviser to Ambas- Tom Nides Ambassador, retired sador Burke Elbrick. Fluent in Ser- Deputy Secretary of State Tucson, Ariz. bian (we called it Serbo-Croatian back for Management and then), he was also regarded with great Resources Remembering affection by the embassy’s Yugoslav Washington, D.C. “Lawrence of Macedonia” staff — so much so that they all gath- “Hello, Birdledogger here!” That ered to greet him when he returned as Dissenting Views would be Second Secretary Lawrence under secretary for a meeting with Bravo for the July-August issue on Eagleburger calling to follow up Prime Minister Milka Planinc. dissent in the Foreign Service. I espe- (“bird-dog,” we called it) a clearance After making the rounds, sharing cially enjoyed Tom Boyatt’s review of request on a cable to Washington from embraces with them all, Eagleburger the Dissent Channel’s value and his Embassy Belgrade in the 1960s. said, “I don’t know what I’d do if I had suggestions for its effective utilization Already a rising star, Eagleburger to kiss another moustache!” (“What If I Disagree?”). Professor was the embassy’s point man for U.S. Rest in peace, Larry. Hannah Gurman’s analysis of Secretary assistance after the 1963 earthquake in Russ Prickett of State Henry Kissinger’s tortured deal- Skopje, Macedonia. With responsibil- FSO, retired ings with dissent, illuminated by Amb. ity for civil aviation and residual Austin, Texas Boyatt’s “back story” (“Dissent in the USAID affairs, it fell to him to obtain Kissinger Era”), was likewise thought- airspace clearance for the flights that Not the Best Part of Valor ful, provocative and informative. delivered U.S. military hospital equip- Daniel Hirsch’s May FSJ “VP Voice” For the record, it seems to me im- ment and personnel and to coordinate column is shocking, as it reflects atti- portant to affirm that not all, nor even USAID’s provision of temporary hous- tudes that are — or should be — in- most, foreign policy dissent flows ing for displaced Skopje residents. compatible with a Foreign Service through the Dissent Channel. It often While the French were (under- career. He writes that “Unwillingness comes from chiefs of mission in re- standably) evacuating their consulate to serve in an unaccompanied or war- stricted correspondence and debrief- staff from Skopje, Larry Eagleburger zone post should be regarded as a sign ings with the Department of State. It and Consul Stuart Kennedy slept in of mature self-awareness,” and he calls also surfaces in well-run embassies, tents there so they could provide help on the State Department to “separate from within country team delibera- to local citizens and funds to U.S. So- war-zone service from career advance- tions. While such dissent often deals cial Security annuitants. Accompany- ment.” Since he is speaking as AFSA with questions of nuance, it can also ad- ing Larry on subsequent trips to the State vice president, he at least implies dress fundamental policy issues. city, I witnessed the hero’s welcome he that these views represent AFSA policy, As Amb. Rozanne Ridgway pointed received, which earned him the sobri- not just his personal opinion. out in her interview with FSJ Editor quet, “Lawrence of Macedonia.” As a member of the Foreign Serv- Steve Honley in the same issue, these As his obituaries note, Eagleburger ice and AFSA (active-duty and retired), arguments may not always succeed (as was overweight in later years. But it for half a century, my understanding of

8 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 L ETTERS the nature of the career has always been hardship are often integral parts of the • An Eligible Family Member wrote that it involves, as an integral, indispen- profession we have chosen. about her next-door neighbor’s position sable component, a commitment to I hope AFSA’s other leaders will disin the embassy, how many weeks he serve the nation, at the direction of the associate themselves from Mr. Hirsch’s had been at post, and the imminent ar- president, wherever one’s service is re- views on this matter. rival of his wife. quired — even when that service brings James R. Bullington • Members of A-100 classes blog personal danger and hardship. Ambassador, retired about their colleagues. There are many people who are un- Williamsburg, Va. Others are posting information that able or unwilling to make such a com- could lead to identity theft. One blog- mitment. Their “mature self-aware- Bloggers Beware! ger, “Madam le Consul,” revealed in ness” may indeed be respectable, but do I wish I shared your enthusiasm various entries her exact date and place they have some sort of right to a For- about Foreign Service bloggers (“The of birth, her assignment history, her eign Service career? Foreign Service Blogosphere in 2011,” health issues, and other personal infor- Mr. Hirsch’s column is titled “The June). Don’t get me wrong: I support mation. Though “Madam” took her Better Part of Valor.” Appropriately social media for professional and per- blog down following rants about a pol- enough, the phrase originates with sonal use (I am on Facebook and Twit- icy issue that were not in line with of- Shakespeare’s cowardly knight, Sir John ter, and have written in these very ficial views, it did not take long to Falstaff, who attempts to redeem a pages about using social media for con- figure out who this “anonymous” blog- cowardly act with a pompous procla- sular outreach.) It is the mixing of the ger was. mation: “The better part of valor is dis- two uses that concerns me. I am not calling for the prohibition cretion, in which the better part I have Many bloggers use the hook of their of FS blogs. But if being a pundit is sav’d my life.” In extending it to the Foreign Service connection to attract your calling in life, apply to The Huff- Foreign Service, Mr. Hirsch seems to readers. Despite the standard dis- ington Post. And if you really need to proclaim that courage and dedication claimer that most of these blogs in- write down all of your thoughts about to duty are discretionary decisions for clude, the public often does not official policy or the negative attributes the individual FSO — not part of the distinguish between personal and offi- of your A-100 classmates, I suggest organizational culture, not fundamen- cial views. Another concern is privacy doing it the “old-fashioned” way: in a tal virtues to be rewarded — and that and security. diary kept under your pillow. no one should be subject to censure for Here is a sampling of troubling blog William Bent lacking these characteristics. entries: Acting Deputy Director, Have we so degraded traditional • A consular officer posted his top 10 Office of Policy Foreign Service values that cowardice pet peeves in visa interviews, including Coordination & and malingering are now redefined as applicants who dress like “whores” and Public Affairs “mature self-awareness”? Mr. Hirsch who “haven’t showered for days.” An Bureau of Consular Affairs begins his column with a story of a immigration attorney then put that list Washington, D.C. friend who is an excellent swimmer on his own Web site as advice from a but is “terrified of deep ocean water.” Foreign Service/consular officer. Life Care from State She might make a fine lifeguard at the • An officer working in a geographic We in the Bureau of Human Re- local swimming pool. She should bureau posts views on foreign policy sources’ Office of Employee Relations never be hired as a lifeguard on an that are not always in line with the ad- were delighted to see the May FSJ ocean beach. ministration’s policy. focus on work-life balance, for we People who lack the courage and • A consular officer blogged about share the goal of maximizing work-life dedication to serve in unaccompanied visiting an orphanage in a country balance for all employees of the De- and war-zone posts may make fine do- where the adoption issue is extremely partment of State. mestic civil servants, but they should sensitive. An adopting parent then The department provides numerous not be hired or retained as Foreign questioned the objectivity of the officer resources to assist and support employ- Service officers, for whom danger and when adjudicating orphan visa cases. ees with work and family concerns.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9 L ETTERS

Even when it cannot provide direct as- actions and arranging for deliveries; issue affects the environment and sistance, it does provide access to inde- • The Care Connection Program, health of millions of women in devel- pendent resources. LifeCare, the which helps employees facing chal- oping countries, including Guatemala. service provider for the IQ:Information lenging life events — e.g., illness, aging I have worked for many years with Quest program, is one of those re- parents, a new baby, deployment and Behrhorst Partners for Development sources. disasters — network and seek support; (www.behrhorst.org), which to date The IQ:Information Quest program and has provided some 3,000 isolated is available to all U.S. Department of • Free prenatal kits, child care kits, Mayan families with fuel-efficient, State direct-hire employees and their college care kits and adult care kits, all vented, improved cook stoves. I have household members, at no cost to the full of useful household items, books seen firsthand the tremendous impact employee. IQ is available 24/7 to pro- and educational guides geared to each such stoves have, for very modest costs. vide expert guidance and personalized specific age group. I applaud this and every effort to referrals for virtually any issue relating For more information about the prevent premature deaths of women. to child care and parenting, adult care program and to sign up, visit the Web However, such initiatives must be ac- and aging, pregnancy and adoption, site at www.worklife4you.com; then companied by education about, and health and wellness, legal and financial, enter the screen name (statedepart access to, family planning, which pre- education and special needs, job and ment) and password (infoquest). The vents many premature deaths and im- career, and more. intranet address is: http://intranet.hr. proves the environment. While the program is based in the state.sbu/Workforce/EmployeePro India’s population is expected to U.S., employees may access it from grams/Pages/IQInformationQuest.aspx. surpass China’s by 2020, and water anywhere in the world. Working with If you have questions about the pro- shortages are rapidly becoming critical IQ can save employees time as they gram, please contact me or Mary Jean there and in many other parts of the head to the United States for elder care Dixon in the Office of Employee Re- world. A recent study by the London trips, send children home to college or lations, Work/Life Division. School of Economics revealed that return to the U.S. Judy Goodman Ikels family planning is more effective than A few examples of services include: Chief, Work/Life Division conventional green technologies in • Geriatric care management (new Office of Employee Relations meeting climate change goals. All for Fiscal Year 2011); Department of State FSOs and other people working in • Legal services, including free or Washington, D.C. diplomacy and development should discounted document preparation for remain conscious of these realities and wills, living wills and advance directives, Women in Focus raise the critical importance of family as well as various powers-of-attorney Your April focus on women in secu- planning at every possible opportunity. documents; rity and development was one of the Sue H. Patterson • Financial services, including free most interesting in recent years. Since FSO, retired or discounted in-person or telephone my retirement from the Foreign Serv- Founder of WINGS assistance with credit/debt issues, in- ice 16 years ago, I have lived in (www.wingsguate.org) vestments, savings, college planning, Guatemala working on community de- Antigua, Guatemala home buying, retirement planning, tax velopment projects, focusing primarily issues, 401k funds, identity theft, bud- on women. Ten years ago I started Recognizing the get analysis and planning; what has become a very successful Stimson Center • Relocation services, including per- nonprofit called WINGS, which works We note with embarrassment that sonalized packets of detailed informa- to strengthen Guatemalan families our recent Journal article (“Taking tion on communities nationwide; through reproductive health. Diplomatic Professional Education Se- • Disaster support, including help The inclusion of the article on cook riously,” July-August) focused so heav- with identifying and researching op- stoves by Satinder Bindra (“Cook ily on the conclusions of our study that tions to making reservations, schedul- Stoves: From Bane to Boon”) was un- we neglected to acknowledge the ex- ing appointments, conducting trans- expected but most welcome. This tensive contribution of the Stimson

10 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 L ETTERS

Center, our partners in the project. tices real management. Why innovate the ability to find and implement in- We respect their significant contribu- if you can just use brute force? novative solutions will be underdevel- tion and apologize sincerely for the Innovation takes constant practice. oped. Further, many FSOs will be oversight. If the cultural solution is “work longer,” drained from having worked longer Ronald E. Neumann, then the space for new solutions never hours for the last few months or years. President, American develops. This is what Mr. Schofield is Developing the ability to solve Academy of Diplomacy warning us about. problems in a “finite resources” work Robert M. Beecroft, In dangerous, unstructured envi- environment, within a limited budget Project Director, AAD ronments like the aftermath of a natu- and a 40-hour workweek, is a daunting Washington, D.C. ral disaster or the beginning of armed challenge. But that’s what manage- conflict, Foreign Service employees ment is supposed to do. Workaholism Erodes don’t have the luxury of more time. When Foreign Service officers Management You have to work late, but working late learn to manage, they aren’t just learn- In response to the May issue on won’t help in the race to save lives. In ing how to increase efficiency. They work-life balance, I would point out a crisis, you have to manage. are learning how to better carry out the that workaholism in the Foreign Serv- If FSOs perennially work longer, work of building democracies. They ice erodes our ability to manage. My they won’t be ready for a situation are learning how to save lives. wife (an FSO) and I (holder of an M.A. when that isn’t enough to get the job Joshua Burleigh in management) have both encoun- done. When success is critical and FS Family Member tered the workaholic culture discussed deadlines are hours or minutes away, Consulate General Lagos I in Shawn Zeller’s article, “The Foreign Service Juggling Act.” While management is about increasing productivity without increasing resources, workaholism is about adding more time. Therein lies a crisis and an opportunity. William Schofield’s Speaking Out column in the same issue, “Building Professional Skills,” gets to the heart of the problem. As he comments, “[Management ability takes] on greater importance in dangerous and unstructured environments.” When everyone works longer hours, they aren’t managing the work. The Foreign Service is essentially hiring more workers but hiding the cost in another category, compensatory time. Many will argue that it isn’t always possible to increase productivity, despite many innovations in work processes, training and environmental engineering that have done just that. If workers are always willing to work more hours and managers are willing to let them, then neither group prac-

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 11

CYBERNOTES

ithdrawal is what the enemy ployees and major contractors like rhetoric continues to run hot. Defense Whopes to hear. Our goal is to Lockheed Martin, the Defense De- Secretary Leon Panetta warned at his make sure that the enemy doesn’t partment announced that it was build- June confirmation hearing that the ing a “virtual firing range” in which to “next Pearl Harbor we confront could hear withdrawal and the Afghan test cyberdefense technologies. very well be a cyberattack that cripples people don’t hear withdrawal. The National Cyber Range, a closed, our power systems, our grid, our secu- — Senator Lindsey Graham, scaled-down replica of the Internet, is rity systems, our financial systems, our R-S.C., speaking about President expected to launch in 2012. Still, governmental systems.” Barack Obama’s troop withdrawal Reuters reports that the gap between In the wake of heightened anxieties, plan during a July 3 visit to Kabul emergent threats and defensive capa- Senators Susan Collins, R-Maine, Jo- (http://m.theglobeandmail.com/ bilities continues to grow, as adver- seph Lieberman, I-Conn, and Tom news). saries and technologies proliferate Carper, D-Del., have reintroduced leg- faster than policy can adapt to them islation they failed to pass last year: the Assessing the Cyberwar Threat (www.reuters.com). Protecting Cyberspace as a National A flurry of high-profile hacking in- However, escalation poses prob- Asset Act. This legislation would give cidents this year against individual, lems of its own. In response to re- the Department of Homeland Security commercial and governmental targets peated accusations that Beijing had authority to partner with private in- has renewed worldwide concern over originated cyberattacks against U.S. dustry to identify and assess threats to Internet security and turned up the targets, the Chinese Liberation Army our cyberinfrastructure, set cybersecu- heat on already simmering tensions be- Daily retorted in June that it is China rity priorities and improve defenses tween the U.S. and China over the al- that is vulnerable to American attack: (www.senate.gov). leged origins of these cyberattacks. “The U.S. military is hastening to seize Other analyses suggest that the With many analysts couching their the commanding military heights on threat is overblown. In the March edi- fears in terms of national defense, the Internet … We must accelerate In- tion of Cybernotes, we reported that there is a growing debate as to whether ternet defense development and ac- an Organization for Economic Coop- or not such incidents constitute the celerate steps to make a strong Inter- eration and Development report, “Re- opening stages of a sustained, calcu- net army.” ducing Systemic Cybersecurity Risk” lated cyberwar, and just how worried This echoes sentiments expressed (www.oecd.org), found that many in- Americans should be about that pros- weeks earlier on the establishment of cidents referred to as acts of cyberwar pect. China’s own “cyber blue team” to pro- do not deserve the name. The U.S. government considers it a tect its armed forces’ Internet security Bruce Schneier, author of Applied serious threat, if the allocation of more (http://eng.mod.gov.cn/). Henry Cryptography and the chief security than $500 million in the Pentagon’s Kissinger and former Ambassador to officer at British Telecommunications, Fiscal Year 2012 budget request to re- China Jon Huntsman Jr. have called for concurs. For years he has maintained search new cybertechnologies is any “cyberdétente” between the two coun- that appropriate responses to emer- indication. After recent attacks on the tries. gent threats will depend on correctly Google accounts of government em- Such a détente may prove elusive as distinguishing cyberwar from cyber-

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 13 C YBERNOTES crime, cyberterrorism and cybervan- tiprpt/2011/). This annual report as- loss of foreign aid, though the presi- dalism. Our increasingly heated “bat- sesses the efforts of governments dent can waive such penalties. The ma- tle of metaphors” could end up driving worldwide to combat the practice of jority of these 23 most egregious cyber policy in uncomfortable ways, he human trafficking at every stage: in vic- offenders are located in Africa and the warns, potentially leading to increased tims’ countries of origin, along their Middle East (a map is available at militarization of the Internet. routes traveled and in their ultimate edition.cnn.com/intertive/2011/06/ When asked about allegations that destinations. world/table.trafficking.report/). Beijing had instigated cyberattacks Countries are ranked according to The report has attracted significant against U.S. interests in June, he their degree of compliance with the criticism from a number of sources. posted the following comment on his minimum standards of the Trafficking Pardis Mahdavi, a professor at Pomona blog (www.schneier.com): “When I Victims Protection Act or their efforts College and a former Woodrow Wilson first read the story, I decided it was not to meet those standards. The 32 coun- Center fellow, laments in an online worth blogging about. Why is this tries afforded a Tier 1 ranking, includ- comment that “once again the [2011 news?” ing the United States, are in full TIP] rankings seem to align more — Asa Maclay Horner, compliance, while the 86 nations in closely with U.S. foreign policy consid- Editorial Intern Tier 2 are seen as making significant erations than actual trafficking prob- strides toward compliance. There is lems” (www.huffingtonpost.com). An Unwelcome “TIP” also a separate Tier 2 Watch List cov- Mahdavi commends the report for On June 27 Secretary of State ering an additional 40 countries that ei- stressing that human trafficking is an Hillary Rodham Clinton released the ther failed to document their efforts to issue of forced migration and labor that department’s 2011 Trafficking in Per- comply with the act or have especially extends far beyond the typically high- sons Report (www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/ severe trafficking problems. lighted sex industry. She points out Placement in Tier 3 means a foreign that the narratives for Tier 3 countries government is neither in compliance in the Muslim world are infused with CHANGE OF ADDRESS with the TVPA nor making any efforts descriptions of the sexually exploitative to move in that direction. Such a find- aspects of human trafficking, while Moving? ing can result in U.S. sanctions or the other serious violators, such as the 50 Years Ago... Take AFSA uerrilla warfare may be a politico-military endeavor not just With You! in its ends, like all warfare, but also in its means. Yet until Change your address online at: Grecently it was generally neglected by political and military officers alike. www.afsa.org/comment.cfm If the political officer recognized his responsibility to understand the uses of all To log in, use your AFSA membership means of political persuasion, of which force is one, his attention was more likely number on the mailing label of to be captured by long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. your Foreign Service Journal. The regular military found it difficult to regard guerrilla warfare as an impor- The number is on the top tant military subject: if they saw it as primarily military, they did not take it seri- left corner of the label, right above your name. ously; if they took it seriously, they did not regard it as primarily military. It may be 2 digits or up to 7 digits. Such attitudes are readily understandable in the members of a profession The password is your last name. generally considered as apolitical and drawn from a society characterized by a It is not case sensitive. high degree of specialization, faced by a form of warfare in which only basic Or send change of address to: units fight for small objectives, perhaps under a system of command, divided AFSA Membership between political and military officers, which repels them. Department 2101 E Street NW — Edward E. Rice, “Generals, Guerrillas and Diplomats,” Washington, DC 20037 FSJ, September 1961.

14 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 C YBERNOTES

Site of the Month: www.gutenberg.org WWW.AFSA.ORG Scroll down & click on AFSA Marketplace Invented on July 4, 1971, electronic books celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. So does the first and largest single collection of free e-books on the Web, Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org). AFSA Insurance Plans In an effort to “change the world,” founder Michael Hart developed the site in 1971 to make literature free and accessible to all. Hart typed and circulated the hirshorn.com/afsa first text himself, the Declaration of Independence, and continues to lead the project, but the organization now draws on the talents of thousands of volunteers. AFSA FAD In the spirit of its 15th-century namesake, the Gutenberg press, which drasti- cally reduced the cost of printing books and thereby paved the way for their mass afsa.org/CFCFAD.cfm distribution, this digital library now contains more than 36,000 free e-books, with more added every day. All are available for download to your personal computer, AFSPA Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android or other portable device, in ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats. Afspa.org Project Gutenberg’s contents encompass texts ranging from fiction to analytic reports to sheet music, and much more, written in languages from around the AKA Hotel Residences globe. Most are the reincarnations of out-of-print publications whose copyright dates have expired in the United States. However, as the site cautions, restrictions stay-aka.com may apply in other countries, so readers outside the U.S. should check the copyright laws of their countries before downloading or redistributing materials. Meanwhile, the market for commercial e-books continues to grow exponentially. Bryan Schwartz Law Writing in the May 19 edition of the New York Times, Claire Cain Miller and Julie www.bryanschwartz.com Bosman reported that Amazon.com customers now buy more e-books than print editions. To be sure, e-books currently account for only about 14 percent of all general Clements International consumer fiction and nonfiction books sold, according to Forrester Research. But clements.com James L. McQuivey, a digital media analyst at Forrester, says “e-book reading is a big deal, and it’s going to continue to be even bigger.” —Steven Alan Honley, Editor NPCA www.paececorpsconnect.org Democratic Republic of the Congo, year, rather than against a consistent receive more attention for forced labor. measurable standard, and mischarac- Senator Jim Webb, D-Va., who terize the comparative urgency of traf- SDFCU chairs the Senate Subcommittee on ficking between countries. sdfcu.org East Asian and Pacific Affairs, is also On July 13, Sen. Webb introduced a critical of the TIP ranking system. Cit- bill to create a clear, quantifiable stan- ing concerns from State Department dard by ranking countries against a sin- WJD personnel and foreign officials who felt gle scale, eliminating the Special wjdpm.com their countries had been wrongly eval- Watch List category, and rating coun- uated, the senator offered the example tries as either in or not in compliance. of Nigeria, which received a Tier 1 He stressed the importance of an ap- ranking for its efforts at improvement proach that strengthens anti-trafficking even as Japan and Singapore remained efforts without compromising diplo- in Tier 2. In his view, such inconsis- matic relationships. I When contacting an advertiser, kindly tencies result from ranking countries — Asa Maclay Horner, mention the Foreign Service Journal. against the progress made in the past Editorial Intern

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 15 C OVER S TORY

THE FOREIGN SERVICE A DECADE AFTER 9/11 Ben Fishman

AFSA MEMBERS REFLECT ON CHANGES IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE SINCE, AND BECAUSE OF, THE TERRIBLE EVENTS OF SEPT. 11, 2001.

BY STEVEN ALAN HONLEY

his month marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. AFSA as an organization is commemorating that solemn anniversary in a variety of ways, with a focus on the sacrifice and service of Foreign Service employees and family members in all foreign affairs agencies. As partT of that observance, we used our AFSAnet listserv to invite AFSA members and their families to share their thoughts on how the Foreign Service has evolved over the past decade, posing the following questions as a starting point:

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• For those who entered the There has to be an option guage to privileged international Foreign Service after 9/11: To what college students, I checked out the extent did the attacks motivate you for some officers to take on options for government service. to join the Service? Do you still feel Somewhere on the Internet, I that drive? more risk in a prepared way found an invitation from Secretary • For those who have served of State Colin Powell to take the overseas in recent years (particularly to reach the areas where our Foreign Service exam. As a young at unaccompanied or danger-pay Peace Corps Volunteer from 1994 posts): Have security measures af- interaction with local to 1995, I had thought about join- fected your ability to do your job? ing the Foreign Service some day, How, specifically, have you coped populaces is most needed. but I had no idea how to go about with the challenges of working and it. When Sec. Powell’s invitation ar- interacting with host-country coun- rived, I answered the call. terparts while based in what some have called fortress em- In my A-100 class, we all asked each other why we’d bassies? And do heightened security restrictions remain joined the Foreign Service, and most of us mentioned the appropriate, or is the price too high? feeling of wanting to do something to help our country in • For all: Is the Foreign Service a stronger, more ef- its time of need. All my life, I had wanted to serve my fective institution now than it was 10 years ago? Whatever country. Despite the fact that my dad and three brothers your answer to that question, how much of the change do had served in the Army, I was drawn to the Peace Corps you attribute to the impact of 9/11? (“the toughest job you’ll ever love”) and the diplomatic Our thanks to all who responded so thoughtfully. corps, even though I had not yet been born when John F. — Steven Alan Honley, Editor Kennedy issued his immortal call to service, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” His words have always inspired me. Honored to Serve Nearly seven years into my career as a consular officer, On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, while I was teaching I am still greatly honored to have the opportunity to serve a class at the University of North Texas, a student knocked my country. In Mexico, Ethiopia and India I have worked on the window of my classroom door. “Please, ma’am. in consular sections, adjudicating visas, assisting American Class is canceled.” Annoyed, I hurried down the hall to citizens overseas, and learning about how people live and the office of the Intensive English Language Institute, work around the world. Though there is much to admire where I worked, and asked what was going on. “We’ve in countries to which I’ve been assigned, I am prouder been attacked,” said my boss. “Everybody should go home than ever of the United States. and call their families.” Sept. 11, 2001, did not signify the closing of our nation’s Five months pregnant with my first child, I gladly took doors and the myriad opportunities for advancement we her advice. After dismissing my class, I walked home in a offer. To the contrary: Our great experiment in democ- daze. Glued to CNN, mesmerized by the horror, I called racy is still a beacon to the world. every member of my family. We all knew the world had Celia Thompson changed forever. FSO Over the next couple of months, as the U.S. govern- Chief of American Citizen Services & ment charged into overdrive and began the search for Consular Information Unit Osama bin Laden, the thug who had perpetrated these un- Consulate General Hyderabad thinkable acts of violence, I contemplated my future and that of my husband and unborn child. When my boss warned me that enrollment of international students Taking on Risks would surely drop in the aftermath of the attacks, I began I am a Foreign Service officer who has served in Liberia, to search for other jobs. Iraq and Afghanistan in unaccompanied positions. In all No longer content to teach English as a second lan- three of those assignments, security measures defined my

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 17 C OVER S TORY

job. However, a greater State De- The most historic changes to Service had to retool and take a partment investment in state-of- more entrepreneurial approach in the-art technology for videocon- the Foreign Service came as a the competition for resources and ferencing could do much to allow leadership in interagency policy- officers to interact with their host- result of the institution making. country counterparts when condi- That said, the most historic tions do not permit travel. building begun by Secretary changes to the Foreign Service, the At the same time, the spill- ones that have made this institution over of these restrictions to em- of State Colin Powell and more versatile and effective, came bassies in much less threatening as a result of the institution build- countries is making officers irrele- continued by his successors. ing begun by Secretary of State vant in many cases. Colin Powell and continued by his The places we need to reach are successors. often the very places Diplomatic Security Bureau person- A greater emphasis on leadership training, strategic nel do not want us to go. There has to be an option for communication and interagency assignments has strength- some officers to take on more risk in a prepared way, or we ened FS skill sets, helping us find or make opportunities will not be able to reach the areas where our interaction and head off challenges amid high-velocity change in mar- with local populaces is needed the most. kets and social organizations, and respond to the rise of The State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for new regional players that affect all our national interests. Reconstruction and Stabilization has made real strides in Speaking as a public diplomacy officer who has been in preparing Foreign Service officers to work in post-conflict the Foreign Service for 27 years, I have been especially conditions. I have served in the Active Response Corps impressed by how quickly FSOs are transforming our out- and continue to volunteer with the Standby Response reach and engagement with foreign countries by harness- Corps precisely because those positions allow me to vol- ing Web-based tools. Both in Washington and the field, we untarily take necessary risks to advance U.S. interests. It are competing well with media outlets for the attention of is time for diplomacy, particularly public diplomacy, to worldwide audiences. We are also building communities reach the parts of the world where it is needed the most. of interest and partnerships across borders that help us Deborah S. Hart-Serafini demonstrate the positive change our policies advocate. FSO Equally important, FSOs recognize that public diplo- Middle East Partnership Initiative Coordinator macy must inform every aspect of our policy advocacy and Embassy Kuwait that we must communicate our successes with businesslike metrics and compelling stories to compete for funding in an austere budget environment. Yes, We’re a Stronger Institution Mark Tauber In the wake of 9/11, the most important changes to U.S. FSO, Public Affairs Section national security structure were domestic in nature. The Embassy San Jose establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 is the most visible outcome of an executive-congressional consensus that a whole-of-government ap- No, We’re Becoming Irrelevant proach had to produce better value from our many The State Department is markedly less effective than it national security assets, both human and technological. was before 9/11. The department has let its responsibility Clearly, the Foreign Service was integral to this ap- for effective diplomacy be sapped by a preoccupation with proach, sharpening its training and moving assets to loca- non-critical, politically correct programs that skew em- tions where terrorist organizations were thriving. But the ployment opportunities in favor of incompetence; the dis- tipping point for adaptation came with the lessons learned traction of same-sex accommodation in assignments from our engagement in Iraq. As we moved quickly to re- overseas; and the provision of day-care for the children of build civil society in that former dictatorship, the Foreign employees.

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One only has to read State magazine to see the trend. branch office to get the news, phone the ambassador and Such distractions continue to erode an already limited re- map out a plan. source base, which is likely to become even smaller in the Speaking as someone who entered the Foreign Service near future as the department’s influence continues to de- 20 years ago, I think our mission and those around the cline. world coped extremely well with the attacks. I also be- The upshot is that State simply does not have the ca- lieve the Foreign Service is a stronger institution now than pacity to be effective in its former traditional role. Near- it was 10 years ago; but that strengthening is unrelated to ing irrelevance, it almost appears to be a minor subsidiary the attacks or State’s response to them. of the Department of Defense. The attacks occurred after several successive Secre- Bill Faulkner taries of State had focused more on policy than manage- USAID FSO, retired ment. This emphasis adversely affected the department Falls Church, Va. in many ways, from obsolete information systems to an erosion of the benefits that make the Service an affordable career for the middle class. The Price of Security Secretary of State Colin Powell understood this point On Sept. 11, 2001, I was attending a Chamber of Com- and used his vast energy to improve the situation. His merce luncheon with the deputy chief of mission in Diplomatic Readiness Initiative created a float of officers Douala, Cameroon, when the planes hit the World Trade so we could be sufficiently trained before beginning new Center and the Pentagon. The DCM decided to let the assignments. Likewise, Secretary of State Hillary Rod- lunch continue, but afterward we raced back to the U.S. ham Clinton has ably balanced policy and management

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 19 C OVER S TORY

of the department, enhancing the Nearing irrelevance, ward — reaffirming its commit- ability of the Foreign Service to ment to develop and foster a function effectively. Given the State almost appears to be unique cadre of experts. need to address our huge budget Our organization has also as- deficit, this task will be increasingly a minor subsidiary of the signed increasing value to authen- challenging; but I believe she will tic interagency collaboration and do the best she can. Department of Defense. smart power, reaching beyond Embassies have become much whole-of-government resources to more secure over the past decade, include the insights and perspec- but at what cost? The department is increasingly moving tives of civil society, the private sector and nongovern- its embassies, once fairly open facilities in downtown cen- mental organizations. This has been driven both by an ters, to suburban locations in fortress-like buildings that appreciation of how the respective insights and per- do not represent the open society that is the United States. spectives of each can inform a more holistic under- Due mainly to budgetary pressures, but also for security standing of global issues and transnational threats, as reasons, the department is closing its American Informa- well as a recognition of a budget environment in which tion Centers or moving them into far less accessible all must do more with less. chanceries. These measures have undoubtedly saved lives As a result, the Foreign Service has enhanced its abil- (as in Yemen last year), but we do pay a price for them in ity to continue building relationships and bridges to ef- terms of effectiveness. fectively inform and influence around the world, and to Harry Sullivan implement U.S. national security policy and foreign pol- FSO icy interests. Consulate Nagoya Cheryl Steele FSO, retired Senior Associate Looking Forward Booz Allen Hamilton After joining the Foreign Service in 1996, my first tour was in Cairo. The activities of the “Blind Sheik,” the mas- termind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, An Outpouring of Support were very much at the forefront of every consular offi- On Sept. 6, 2001, I arrived in Ottawa after completing a cer’s mind. So, too, was the importance of security advi- tour at the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo, sory opinions and Consular Lookout and Support System which at the time was one of our highest-threat posts. Like hits, as well as the front-line responsibility of holding a many others serving outside the U.S. on 9/11, I still remem- consular commission and making decisions on visa cases ber the helpless feeling of not knowing what was going on. every day. The next day was full of all those tasks one does after ar- As I reflect on my diplomatic career, which ended in riving at post. I was alone because our four children were 2004, and my time in the private sector working closely in college or living on their own and my wife, Martha, was with State, I see a Foreign Service that has evolved into a still in the States with our cat and dog. So I stayed at work stronger organization. This is largely due to a renewed until it was almost dark on Sept. 12, then exited through emphasis on the contributions of our country’s diplomats the employee entrance, which has a view of the entire — the perspectives, insights and expertise they bring to fence line facing Sussex Drive. bear to help solve complex issues around the world. I was immediately struck by the many flowers, notes, and Getting to this place has not been easy. In the imme- stuffed animals Canadians had left on our fence as an ex- diate wake of 9/11, and other crises throughout history, pression of their grief and solidarity with their American hindsight made it easy to imagine how events might have cousins. The riot of flowers and other expressions grew in evolved differently. Yet rather than only looking back to re- number as the days progressed, but that first night was par- think processes and procedures, the Foreign Service has ticularly moving as I slowly walked the line, reading mes- remained true to its mission and continued to look for- sages of sympathy and hope while my emotions welled up.

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That assignment was my eleventh Embassies have become was staffed by British Special Air overseas tour. Never before nor since Service veterans with combat expe- have I been so touched by the spon- much more secure rience, assisted by Iraqi local hires taneous outpourings of a host coun- and Gurkhas. try. I could feel them weeping with over the past decade, I had to submit a formal request to us. the regional security officer in Bagh- Michael F. Gallagher but we have had to pay dad every time I wanted to leave the Senior Foreign Service officer, base. Worse, the RSO would not retired a price for this security. allow me to travel with Aegis, the Ocean View, Del. British firm that provided our security, because it supposedly “did not meet American standards.” This was despite the fact that the Tying Our Own Hands Aegis team had already conducted more than 1,000 mis- From 2008 to 2009 I served with an Italian Provincial sions during the existence of the PRT with no incidents. Reconstruction Team in Tallil, Iraq. Our facility, a former The Aegis team was desert smart, leaving the wire in a Iraqi Air Force base, was now home to the 82nd Airborne single nondescript vehicle. The team always included lo- Division (the All-Americans). cally hired Arabs from the leadership of the local tribes State Department security measures often prevented and negotiated transit throughout the province in advance. me from carrying out my job, and put me at a distinct It left a light footprint and was well respected in the local disadvantage vis-a-vis my Italian colleagues. Our team community.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 21 C OVER S TORY

The American company’s security I joined the 104th Back in 1973, I was serving as eco- team, by contrast, had no Iraqi mem- nomic-commercial counselor and bers, and left the wire in three large A-100 class on Sept. 10, USAID mission director in Addis black Chevy Suburbans, each con- Ababa. In March of that year, a ter- taining up to 12 armed personnel. 2001, bright-eyed and rorist attack on the Saudi embassy in After repeated traffic incidents, they Khartoum killed the U.S. chargé d’af- were despised by the local people. ready for the world. faires and the Belgian ambassador, The Italian PRT leader concluded among others. The French embassy that traveling in such a conspicuous Or so I thought. then advised us that information from motorcade would destroy the team’s Beirut indicated that the perpetrators reputation in the local community, had a list of additional Americans to undermining good will that had taken years to cultivate be attacked, including personnel serving both in Africa and and effectively inviting violent attack. Consequently, she the Middle East. would not allow anyone from her team to travel with the My colleagues in Ethiopia and I were all on the list. Americans. I concurred with her assessment, yet the RSO The State Department advised us that no ransom would be continued to deny my repeated requests to go out with my paid if we or our family members were kidnapped, but that Italian colleagues and Aegis. our families could be relocated to a safe place if we wished, The Italians left the base every day to meet Iraqi con- either back home or elsewhere. tacts and monitor projects, while I was confined there. I We all remained at post and, thankfully, were not at- eventually received permission from the RSO to go on tacked. But I share this experience to make the point that missions with the 82nd and was able to do some work the so-called “war on terror” is not new and must always be outside the wire. The PRT also converted an abandoned borne in mind. Italian Army base nearby to a neutral area, where we met Roger Ernst Iraqis and conducted training. I also hired Iraqi em- FSO, retired ployees to monitor my many projects and to provide me Tampa, Fla. with briefings and photographs, as site visits were im- possible. The RSO also prevented me from working with our al- Undaunted lies. He denied my request to accompany a Romanian “Aren’t you afraid?” my classmate asked. It was August Army unit to its training area outside the wire, and to par- 1998, and we had just received news that the U.S. em- ticipate in a weeklong Australian Army mission. (A non- bassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam had been bombed. State Department American team carried out the Austral- Weeks before, I’d learned about the Graduate Foreign ian mission without incident.) Affairs Fellowship Program, one of two programs now It was frustrating to see that even though U.S. taxpay- known as the Pickering Fellowships, and I had applied. ers spent millions of dollars to fund my year in Iraq, the Though it involved a three-year work commitment in the State Department effectively tied my hands and prevented Foreign Service following graduation, it was a no-brainer me from running a truly effective program. for me. I loved the adventure of international travel, I Jon P. Dorschner needed the money, and I didn’t have any strong feelings FSO, Economic Section one way or another about a specific career, so long as it was Embassy Berlin interesting work and comfortably remunerative. (My commitment to public service would grow later.) The Foreign Service appeared to be a good fit. Remember History! As for danger, I was from Detroit and had traveled a lit- As a retired FSO whose career lasted from 1942 to tle bit. I figured the possibility of harm was everywhere. 1980, I would like to contribute a footnote to your discus- I was also a bit naïve. sion of the impact of 9/11 on the Foreign Service. History Following graduation, I joined the 104th A-100 Orien- repeats itself and needs to be learned! tation Class at the Foreign Service Institute on Monday,

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Sept. 10, 2001, bright-eyed and ready for the world. Or so felt the same way, it turned out. I thought. Following training, several of us were sent to Bogotá On the second day, 30 minutes into our first session, for our first assignment. While there, Club El Nogal, a the deputy course coordinator ran down the aisle and ex- club blocks from where many embassy personnel, in- claimed that a plane had struck one of the two World cluding me, lived, was bombed. There were other ter- Trade Center Towers in New York. We were to remain rorist incidents in the city during our posting, as well. calm and seated and await further information. I first But it was clear to most of us how seriously the de- thought of my uncle who regularly attended business partment and embassy leadership took our safety. Phone meetings in the World Trade Center. Was he OK? Then tree drills, regular security briefings and updates when I thought of a friend whose father also had regular meet- there were credible threats helped me, and I think oth- ings there. Was he all right? (Both, we later learned, were ers, feel more secure. I have felt the same priority on fine.) safety in subsequent overseas assignments in India, Sin- We then heard that another plane had struck the sec- gapore and, now, in Jakarta. ond tower, that the Pentagon had been hit and that the Since joining, only a handful of my 104th A-100 Class department’s main building in Foggy Bottom was being colleagues have left the Foreign Service. Most of us have evacuated. Numb, I returned to my hotel room. Like served in danger-pay or hardship posts, and will likely do the rest of the world, I remained glued to the television. so again, proudly. We remain undaunted. The next morning, I boarded the hotel’s shuttle to FSI. Clayton Bond I hadn’t heard whether class was still on, but assumed (and FSO perhaps hoped) it would be. The rest of my 97 classmates Embassy Jakarta

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 23 C OVER S TORY

Foreign Service personnel change and enter the Foreign Serv- Stretched Thinner ice. The cost of recruiting and ap- Than Ever are stretched thinner than at pointing FSOs and training them has A decade after 9/11, Foreign to be weighed against the attrition Service personnel are stretched thin- any time in the past as they rates (probably relatively low) of ner than at any time in the past as those who leave the Service after one they serve in a larger number of mis- serve in a larger number of or two assignments. Still, it is a fac- sions, many of them unaccompanied tor in the overall strength of the For- assignments. This creates tensions missions, many of them eign Service. within their families, especially when State has used retired FSOs in spouses are professionally employed unaccompanied assignments. When Actually Employed assign- and when they have children. ments to cover overseas positions to While there was a surge in peo- permit active-duty personnel to take ple taking the Foreign Service exam in the months and home leave or to fill positions that were vacant pending as- years immediately after the events of 9/11, the problem of signment of an active-duty officer. Without WAEs, there unfilled positions overseas persists. Retirements continue would have been even greater gaps in embassy and con- to work against increasing the overall numbers of FS mem- sular staffs. Still, the department’s system for employing bers. annuitants is a hodgepodge, dependent on individual re- In addition, because so many mid-level FSOs retired gional bureaus rather than a centralized system to place or were reassigned to Washington before the new re- experienced retirees in key overseas and domestic posi- cruits could be trained and deployed, there were fewer tions when and where needed. Indeed, WAE employ- mentors for them at our embassies and consulates, just ment remains a mystery for many. as the number of “stretch” assignments increased dra- A decade after 9/11, the fact that the Foreign Service matically. continues to lack the recognition and support that mem- We also still have the perennial problem of recruiting bers of our armed forces enjoy suggests that our work re- qualified, seasoned professionals to join the Foreign Serv- mains a mystery to most Americans. This attitude is ice at starting salaries often substantially below what they sometimes reflected in statements by members of Con- are already earning in other career fields. And efforts to gress who criticize the funding and work of the Foreign find and hire entrants who already speak Arabic, Farsi, Service. More must be done to educate the American Dari, Urdu and other critical languages often run afoul of public, key interest groups, and members of Congress and the mandatory security background checks. their staffs about the dedicated service of our Foreign Language training, in general, remains one of the weak Service members and the sacrifices of their families. spots in the Foreign Service. More funding and career in- Bruce K. Byers centives are needed to motivate FSOs willing to spend one FSO, retired to two years learning a hard language. (Extending the Reston, Va. time-in-class for those learning critical hard languages is one incentive that has existed for years.) The financial in- centives for learning and using these languages at post Working More Closely with DOD were diminished years ago from a percentage of one’s base One aspect of a strengthened, more effective Foreign salary (10 percent for a 3/3 score in speaking and reading Service a decade after 9/11 is an increased capability to a language, 15 percent for a 4/4) to a much smaller fixed operate with a whole-of-government approach and mind- annual figure based on one’s Foreign Service Institute lan- set. This is most evident in the Bureau of Political-Mili- guage score. tary Affairs and in the Office of the Coordinator for One has to be very dedicated to public service, often Reconstruction and Stabilization, but it is evident else- under very harsh and sometimes dangerous circumstances, where at State, as well. to pursue a Foreign Service career. The terrible events of For example, there are now more political advisers to 9/11 may have energized more people to make a career meet increased military demand, as well as improved

24 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 C OVER S TORY

prospects for their career development and advancement. diplomats and development officers will be dealing with Military-civilian communication and planning have im- a given foreign environment long after they and their re- proved, with more joint schooling and operations and sources have essentially moved on. Moreover, Congress more cooperation in program management. is still divided into too many competing principalities and Unnecessary walls between organizations have broken does not recognize that State and USAID are part of the down to an appreciable degree. The Secretary of State U.S. national security apparatus. and Secretary of Defense interact collegially, even ap- Finally, stark differences in resource allocations persist pearing together before Congress, and there is less knee- between the Department of Defense and civilian foreign jerk negativity by each service toward the other. Let’s affairs agencies. As a result, there are still not enough For- hope these trends continue and recent lessons have truly eign Service personnel to act and to train for the tasks at been learned, not actively forgotten as after the Vietnam hand — and those still over the horizon. War. Mort Dworken There has also been a growing recognition by defense FSO, retired personnel of the authority and responsibility of chiefs of Falls Church, Va. mission and of the expertise that State and USAID civilians can bring to the pursuit of our national interests (the Don- ald Rumsfeld era was a low point in this regard). I’ve Never Looked Back Still, things are not perfect by any means. Some of In September 2001, I was anticipating my new career our military colleagues still do not fully appreciate that in the Foreign Service and, as president of the Friends of their operations overseas are largely short-term, or that Burkina Faso, preparing for our role in the annual meet-

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 25 C OVER S TORY

ing of the National Peace Corps Asso- Sept. 11, 2001, did not Career advancement in the For- ciation. The 9/11 attacks threw every- eign Service should be based on lead- thing into chaos. The NPCA initially signify the closing of our ership that contributes to the co- announced its plan to cancel the herent, unified function of the insti- meeting, and the FBF nearly did the nation’s doors and the tution and to the achievement of its same. goals. Individual achievement is sec- In that climate, I briefly doubted myriad opportunities for ondary to group achievement when it the wisdom of my decision to join the comes to esprit de corps and the Foreign Service. But the next day I advancement we offer. building and maintenance of a supe- realized that reaction would mean rior Foreign Service. The important the bad guys had won. I overcame tasks of representing and defending my doubts, and both groups successfully met the follow- America are best accomplished working together. ing weekend. I’ve never looked back. Bruce Andrus Bob Osborne FSO, retired FSO, Management Section Montreal, Canada Embassy Kabul Team-Building is Key Let’s Work Together The 9/11 terrorist attacks brought American society to- As a retired FSO who served from 1977 to 2001, and gether in pursuit of a common goal: get the bad guys and has filled When Actually Employed positions every year make sure this never happens to us again. I was assigned since the 9/11 attacks, I offer the following comments for to the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels when Article 5 of your consideration. the Washington Treaty (an attack on one ally is an attack on Members of the Foreign Service work 24/7 to project all) was invoked for the first and only time in the alliance’s American values in all countries of the world. We are a history. democracy, and we believe in the rights of the individual. The sense of mission was already palpable as Secretary Let us not downplay the foundations of our society, or un- of State Colin Powell introduced the department to the dervalue our strengths abroad. concept of team-building, along with a broader concern We are defenders of America no less than our esteemed for “taking care of the troops.” As an institution, however, military colleagues overseas and, like them, often find our- we failed to internalize his conception of how these addi- selves in harm’s way. Also like the military, the Foreign tional tools could be used to channel our dedication to Service depends on all its members to do their jobs effec- achieve our goals. As a result, his efforts to change State’s tively. Thus, there is an acute need to invest adequately in organizational culture did not survive his departure in hiring, training and supporting all our staff. 2005. Another key component of an effective work force is an I spent 10 years on active duty as a U.S. Army officer esprit de corps that fosters fairness, cohesion and achieve- before joining the Foreign Service, including three over- ment. A smooth working relationship with our Civil Serv- seas tours in Asia and the Middle East. I therefore recog- ice colleagues is highly important, as is continuity of nized, and wholeheartedly endorsed, Sec. Powell’s team- purpose in our overseas posts. The optimal direction of building campaign, which reflected standard Army leader- the Foreign Service depends upon leadership that inspires ship practices. and guides all personnel to work together to achieve com- In the Army’s view, effective team-building lays the mon goals and to meet our nation’s essential needs. foundation for efficient mission accomplishment. All mem- Good security practices are also essential in running the bers work together regardless of their role or specialty, Foreign Service overseas, but must not inhibit the ability knowing that their contribution is genuinely valued and of our diplomatic representatives to do their jobs. Flexi- their personal needs acknowledged and respected. It’s not bility and smart thinking are needed to keep our person- simply a question of resources (we all know that the De- nel safe as they work to meet our goals. partment of State’s budget will never match that of the Pen-

26 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 C OVER S TORY

tagon); rather, it’s a question of institutional training and in- Service into a more expeditionary model, we have failed to doctrination. instill a lasting team-building mentality among our em- In the Army, taking care of the troops ranks in impor- ployees. tance almost as highly as accomplishing the mission, and Make no mistake. I believe the State Department is leaders are trained from Day 1 of their careers to respect generally effective in its work and does much good around both principles. Those who are unable or unwilling to do the world, especially considering its shoestring budget. so are quickly relieved. But we could have become an even better organization Contrast that with the department’s institutional mind- had we seized the opportunity to follow through on the set, in which employees generally are conditioned to focus convergent realities of 9/11 and Sec. Powell’s strong lead- on the needs of immediate supervisors, the front office and ership in remaking the department. senior officials. We become excellent at managing issues, Anthony M. Kolankiewicz but less good at leading people or building effective teams. FSO Getting ahead is often synonymous with recognition of in- Embassy Warsaw dividual accomplishments or the ability to please superiors. We are neither rewarded for team-building or “taking care of the troops,” nor substantially penalized for failing to re- Molding a More Peaceful World spect these time-honored principles for success. The 9/11 attacks occurred during the formative years Although the department has indeed tried with some of my early adulthood and strongly influenced my deci- success in the post-9/11 world to streamline its approach to sion to join the Foreign Service. I was asleep in bed in political-military operations and transform the Foreign New York City’s financial district when I felt the boom of

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 27 C OVER S TORY

the first plane’s impact that morning. We become excellent Service as a public diplomacy officer As I spoke with the assignment editor to make a contribution to such ef- for a radio show who was tasking me to at managing issues, forts. It was comforting to feel I get to the towers, I saw the second would work among like-minded peo- plane explode in flames. not at leading people or ple who would understand the per- The timeline of what follows re- sonal impact of politically motivated mains hazy. I was interviewing wit- building effective teams. violence. Although it’s terrible to nesses on the street when I looked up hear about the traumas of others, I to see a man in a suit running toward appreciate having found a colleague me. We briefly made eye contact as he pointed east and who had escaped from one of the towers, and others who shouted, “Go!” A stampede of frantic faces came into have experienced terrible upheaval, including war and the focus behind him, chased by a wall of smoke and deafen- loss of loved ones. ing crashes. I turned and ran. Two friends and I, scared I like to think that all who have been touched by such of being trampled, fled for an East River pier. experiences are using the force of their personal histories We shared the next few hours with about 50 others, all to help mold a more peaceful world. of us feeling trapped on the pier by waves of smoke that Lisa Venbrux rolled in and out like the tide. When the smoke got too FSO thick, we took off our shoes, ready to jump. We watched Embassy Tegucigalpa hordes running over the Brooklyn Bridge, calmed a man panicking about anthrax, and comforted a Tower 1 janitor who had listened on his walkie-talkie as his colleagues Moving Beyond 9/11 died. Ashes covered us like snowflakes. I sometimes find it hard to believe that I will be spend- We gathered to listen as a man read news headlines ing the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in Saudi Ara- from his pager, shared phone numbers of family for peo- bia as a Foreign Service officer, using my Arabic-language ple to pass on if they reached someone, and decided skills to adjudicate visas. I was a senior in high school on whom to send off in small boats that stopped to pick up Sept. 11, 2001, and the events of that day have been the people in small groups. Eventually, a Coast Guard boat primary motivation for many of my life decisions since took us all to Brooklyn. I was impressed by how many then. Given that it occurred at the same time I was think- people offered us cups of water as we wandered. ing about where to go for college, I decided that New York That night, a dance teacher let us sleep on the floor of City was where I wanted to study. her studio. After a week of moving around, we then I visited Ground Zero two months after the attacks and checked into a hotel for a month while the apartments could feel the sadness in the air. At that moment, I knew we’d left behind were inspected for contamination and that I wanted to be part of rebuilding the city. Application stability. They were time capsules upon our return, for submissions were down that year across all universities in everything around them had changed. The surrounding the city, but I refused to let the fear of another attack pre- blocks felt like a modern Pompeii, bathed in stadium vent me from moving there and making a difference. lights and the drone of helicopters. In 2002, I matriculated at New York University with That experience knocked me into political conscious- an eye toward studying international business and cultural ness. It became very important to better understand the affairs. I knew that I had a knack for foreign languages dynamics between people of different cultures, so I could and, after a wonderful study-abroad experience in Italy, I process what I had witnessed. As the years progressed, I decided that it was time to learn a language that would be also saw some U.S. actions under the “war on terror” to be more useful. damaging and counterproductive. I hoped somehow to Arabic was my first choice, for I wanted to confront the contribute to better understanding between people and to large cultural chasm that seemed to exist between average finding ways to improve relations that didn’t contribute to Americans and people from countries that spoke it. I took cycles of violence and distrust. four semesters of the language which, combined with my After several years as a journalist, I joined the Foreign international business classes, further cemented my in-

28 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 C OVER S TORY

terest in being part of the management cone in the For- I am a member of the 163rd A-100 Class, which be- eign Service. I knew that the Foreign Service was the gins training on Sept. 12, the day after the 10-year an- right place to meet my new life goal of using my skills and niversary of bin Laden’s attacks. We will train and serve abilities to build America’s relations with the people of the our country in honor of the victims of 9/11, mindful that Middle East and North Africa. it will be up to us to continue the work those already in I pursued entry into the Foreign Service right after grad- the Foreign Service are doing. uation, but initially had no luck. As I worked in the private Dahm Choi sector I never forgot that passion. And once I had some FSO, 163rd A-100 Class relevant work experience under my belt, I was able to join Washington, D.C. the Foreign Service in 2009 and be assigned to the consular section here in Riyadh. Above and beyond my daily duties, I am thankful for the Writing the Next Chapter opportunity to get out and meet Saudi people. I have found On Sept. 11, 2001, I was a blond-haired, green-eyed, that they would like to move beyond 9/11, and I look for- slightly naïve college student from a small town in south- ward to advancing our dialogue and building a new future. ern California who knew very little about Afghanistan and Daniel J. Tarapacki even less about al-Qaida. The events of that day irrevo- FSO, Consular Section cably altered the shape of my dreams and the course of Embassy Riyadh my life. I was fortunate enough not to lose any loved ones in the attacks, but the force of the change in my per- ception of the world blew the doors of my cozy, safe, in- A Formative Trauma sular world wide open and brought with it the realization The 9/11 attacks occurred during my first week of col- that nothing would ever be the same again. lege, and were a formative trauma for my generation. For those of us who became adults post-9/11, our life They shaped the notion of patriotism for us throughout choices have been indelibly shaped by that day. I even- college, creating an immediate, righteous indignation tually joined the Foreign Service and, when bidding on that still marks our thinking about international affairs my second tour, readily volunteered for service in and America’s place in the world in a way that the final Afghanistan. I will spend the tenth anniversary of the phase of the Cold War during our very early childhood 9/11 attacks posted to Kabul as an assistant information could not. Those strong feelings were matched two years officer in the public affairs section. later by fierce questioning of the decision to pursue what I am often asked why someone like me would go to most of us deemed a war of choice in Iraq. Afghanistan. As a friend recently put it, “You can go any- The nation’s economic recovery from the attacks and where, do anything. Why would you volunteer for such their ripple effects also played a significant role in mold- a dangerous assignment?” My answer is simple. I am ing my generation’s outlook. After graduating at the proud and honored to be the face of my country abroad. height of the subsequent economic boom, less than four Seeing someone like me — an “all-American girl” — is years after the collapse of the World Trade Center tow- precisely what signals our commitment to an Afghan-led ers, nearly half of my college classmates entered into ca- reconciliation and peace process. It symbolizes our will- reers in finance or management consulting. Fewer than ingness to share the best of what America has to offer a half-dozen of them entered military service and, as far with the rest of the world. as I know, none went into the Foreign Service. But many The story of Afghanistan over the past few decades has of my peers have gradually gravitated toward careers in been saturated in blood and punctuated by displacement public service, some explicitly to prevent another tragedy and destruction. I hope that our work here will ensure like 9/11. that the next chapter is one of hope, reconstruction and After reliving those frantic moments during my first reconciliation. week of college, my mind moves forward to President Erin Rattazzi Barack Obama’s announcement of the death of Osama FSO, Public Affairs Section bin Laden. His rise and fall bookend the decade. Embassy Kabul I

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 29 EXPEDITIONARY DIPLOMACY FROM THE GROUND UP

HAMMERING THE SQUARE PEG OF EXPEDITIONARY DIPLOMACY INTO THE ROUND HOLE OF STATE DEPARTMENT REGULATIONS CAN BE A COMPLICATED PROCESS.

BY SCOTT MCFADDEN

t starts with a simple e-mail asking for a few facil- things like “We have this excellent opportunity for you to ity managers to work for a few months in Iraq. excel,” “This is the department’s top priority,” and “Nothing Wow, what an opportunity to be on the “front like this has ever been done before.” (My “Spidey sense” of lines,” the “tip of the spear”! impending danger began to tingle at “opportunity to excel,” Your post is reluctant to let you go, but the front for I’ve heard that phrase before, and it was never good.) office wants some “street cred” for supporting the The meetings finish with “You will be heading to Mosul,” department’s number-one priority. So you submit which was billed as a little slice of paradise in northern Iraq. your name and wait. IThe call comes, and now you prepare to leave post for four Planning Embassy Branch Office Mosul months (December 2010 to March 2011, in my case). You After a series of helicopter and fixed-wing rides, you ar- spend the first month taking care of administrative matters rive at Contingency Operating Site Diamondback in Mosul back in Washington, D.C., filling out forms and attending (formerly known as a Forward Operating Base). You are classes. The highlight of your training is the 2½ days spent in met by a facility manager who is thrilled to see you, if only West Virginia at the evasive driving course (familiarly known because it means now he can leave. He takes you to a glo- as “Crash and Bang”). rified Conex box called a containerized housing unit, which Then it’s “planes, trains and automobiles” until you finally is your new home. It’s as close to camping as you can get arrive at the embassy in Baghdad, which is rather surreal. without a tent. You’d heard all the stories about how hard life was in Iraq; You can’t help but be awestruck by the sheer force of the now here you are, walking the grounds of the Green Zone. resident U.S. Army brigade, full of “green suiters” (soldiers); It’s a beautiful new embassy compound, full of armored mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles; elevated sensors Suburbans, apartment buildings and recreation facilities, not (mini-Goodyear blimps with cameras on them); and a coun- to mention Subway, Pizza Hut and Green Bean Coffee out- terartillery rocket and mortar. lets, among many others. And most of the Locally Engaged Everywhere you go, the buzzword is “expeditionary diplo- Staff are from other U.S. embassies around the world. You macy.” The concept is pretty simple. The State Department feel more like you’re part of “It’s a Small World,” Department creates an FOB-like embassy branch office, referred to as an of State–style, than a foreign country. EBO. (Every time I hear that term, I start having “Star Wars” You’re quickly whisked into consultations, where you hear flashbacks, expecting Boba Fett or Chewbacca to show up from Tatooine. But I digress.) Scott McFadden, a Foreign Service facility manager since After you review a master plan depicting the EBO foot- 2006, volunteered for a 90-day temporary duty assignment in print, the now-euphoric departing facilities manager takes Mosul, Iraq, while serving in Lome. He recently began a new you through the phased plan for construction. After a quick assignment in Kabul. question-and-answer session, you realize you are under-

30 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 staffed, outgunned and underfunded — but you’re also ready scattered around the facility. If you’re lucky, you hear a muf- to grasp your “opportunity to excel.” fled explosion in the distance — if you’re less lucky, you hear Now the fun starts. You attend a meeting in a room filled one close to you. But soon you get back to work. with 30 to 40 Army majors and lieutenant colonels, eagerly The process is labor-intensive and frustrating at times, awaiting the State Department’s plan for taking over post se- but at the end of the day, we facility managers in the field curity. These green-suited col- are laying the groundwork for a leagues, most of whom are on revolutionary new concept. State their fourth deployment to Iraq, has always been on the front lines are excited because the timing of Far from being “risk-averse,” in unstable parts of the world; but the plan directly affects their final now we are no longer confined to departure date. the Foreign Service is operating major cities, or hidden in fortress- You bravely stand up and brief es out in the countryside. your colleagues. As they ask ques- in areas it never even imagined before. tions, the plan rapidly turns un- Making It Work recognizable because of all the Brief as my time in Mosul was, holes blown into it. But rest easy: I believe my experience is a It’s only Monday. You have six more working days until you glimpse into the future. Far from being “risk-averse,” the have to go through the process again. Foreign Service is operating in areas it never even imagined before. The need to conduct surge operations in places like Doing Our Part Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and so on only reinforces the need After a week goes by, you look around and suddenly real- for expeditionary diplomacy. ize that you are the only State employee for 100 miles. When State has proven it can sustain operations in Iraq even your phone rings, the person on the other end almost always under the most challenging conditions. And we Foreign gives his military rank and name, followed by some letter and Service facility managers will be regularly called upon to numbers (USF-I J-4, 4th ID G-4, 4/1 Cav. S-9, etc.) that end make it work, as we have done so many times in the past. I with “LNO” (liaison office). You are bombarded with logistical and security consider- ations until your head is spinning. You capture the moment to excel, make a decision, hang up the phone and say to your- self, “So that is how it is done.” Next thing you know, your e- mail inbox blows up with messages that half-thank you and half-threaten to report you if you ever do that again. On the surface, the project appears to be a straight-up landlord (U.S. Army)-approved renovation, something facilities managers do every day. But the construction is only a small piece of the pie. Once you start to hammer the square peg of expeditionary diplomacy into the round hole of De- partment of State regulations, the process becomes quite complicated. After all, State doesn’t build “CHUvilles,” as communities made up of containerized housing units are familiarly known, on forward operating bases every day. You have to figure out how to comply with fire safety codes, the Ameri- cans with Disabilities Act and many other regulations. Combine that with the logistical complexities of transferring Defense Department equipment to State, which has never been done before, and your days are filled with a multitude of issues that were missing from the brochures you read before coming here. Periodically a horn sounds, followed by an announcement: “Incoming, Incoming!” You immediately drop what you’re doing and scramble for one of a hundred bunkers

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 31 BLOOMSDAY IN BAGHDAD: READING JOYCE IN IRAQ

ULYSSES IS A SPRAWLING, CONFUSING, DIFFICULT NOVEL, WITH A NARRATIVE ARC THAT NEVER SEEMS TO MAKE MUCH PROGRESS. A PERFECT CHOICE FOR BAGHDAD.

BY WILLIAM V. ROEBUCK

eading off for a yearlong assignment guess, given that the novel is full of weird parallels between in Baghdad in 2009, I decided to in- its Irish, Jewish anti-hero and ancient Greek myth. Iraq is a clude a little self-improvement, or at big, sprawling, complicated country, made up of 18 provinces, least high-class distraction, as a part with its capital, Baghdad, dominated — like Dublin on the of the experience: “Get a reading Liffey — by the Tigris River. It has a complicated, fractured project. Pick some hard-ass novel narrative, told from multiple Shi’a, Sunni and Kurdish per- you’ve always wanted to read and spectives, with subplots peopled by Christians, Turkomen, never got around to.” I chose James Joyce’s Ulysses, not ex- Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandean Sabeans, among others. Hactly a hot date of a book, but rather a big, sprawling, con- Ulysses uses disparate Irish voices — pulled from different fusing, difficult novel, with a cacophony of points of view historical and literary traditions, social classes and occupa- and a narrative arc that never seems to make much progress. tions — to weave the fabric of the novel. Initially the choice had nothing to do with the assignment Like Joyce’s sprawling novel, whose 18 long chapters at hand in Baghdad. I told myself at the outset that the fa- launched decades of critical and legal catfights and mous Joyce novel would just be an escape from Iraq, since it hermeneutic hairsplitting before it assumed its current sta- was so completely unrelated in terms of literary tradition or tus as a largely ignored, but still influential giant (especially history and culture. What, after all, could Ulysses’ quests — among literary specialists), we, too, will continue to debate struggling with Cyclops, resisting Circe’s enchantments and for years what our venture in Iraq stands for, what it has Sirens’ songs, fending off cannibals, avoiding whirlpools, and meant for Iraq and for our influence in the region, and what all the other efforts to return to his beloved Penelope — that it says about America’s international role in the 21st century. form the mythic backdrop for a (very long) day in the life of modern-day Dubliner/main character, Leopold Bloom, have The Journey Begins to do with Iraq, or with my service there in Embassy Bagh- I remember one friend, who claimed to have read a lot of dad’s political section? Irish literature, telling me that Ulysses would not be that dif- But as I began my messy, diverting reading affair, a few ficult. I told him I had read the first chapter and found it loopy parallels began to emerge. That’s not so strange, I fairly easy going. “It won’t get any more difficult,” he assured me. He lied, of course. Although Ulysses greeted me in its William Roebuck, a State Department Foreign Service officer opening pages as the latest reader/liberator, it soon pulled in since 1992, is currently director of the Office of Maghreb Af- the welcome mat and started harassing the flanks of my men- fairs in the Bureau of Near East Affairs. From 2009 to 2010 tal concentration and the supply lines of focus and compre- he served as deputy political counselor in Baghdad; other hension that I thought I had deployed with such skill. postings include Kingston, Tel Aviv, Damascus and Jerusalem. I was definitely taking casualties by the time I finished the

32 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 first few (easy) chapters and plowed into — let’s admit it — That repeated sensation reminded me of our weekly pol- horrific slogs in chapters like “Cyclops” and “Oxen in the icy videoconferences with Washington, which often seemed Sun,” some of the true mudflats of modern literature. (Not to resemble a cacophony of drunken stories colliding in a bar, to throw stones at a literary master, but if even fellow novel- together with enough certainty and considered policy views to ist Vladimir Nabokov, no slouch at composing difficult, fill a universe of beer mugs or briefing books. opaque novels, could call Ulysses “needlessly obscure” in places, I think I might be permitted to cast a pebble or two Great Obsessions Joyce’s way.) As I continued reading Joyce, another great mythic slog of I settled into my job, accompanying the ambassador to a novel, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, came to mind. Many hear the latest from senior Iraqi political leaders, offering con- of us in Embassy Baghdad over the years have felt like first dolences to a shocked minister of foreign affairs who’d had mates, or sometimes just galley helpers, on this rocking, pitch- his ministry blown up by al-Qaida, or negotiating in smoke- ing Pequod, as we pursued our great obsessions: to bring and filled backrooms with members of Parliament for the last- entrench democracy, to deal a death-blow to Arab rejection- minute compromises on an election law necessary to organize ism and so on. There have been captains who knew what they the critical March 2010 national elections. (While the elec- were doing, assuming command midway through; those who toral process was successful, the post-elec- scaled back the distance of the voyage and tion government formation saga con- used knowledge of the dangerous shoals, tinued for nine long months, partially re- talented dead reckoning or good instincts opening questions about the future of The novel has lots gained from previous ventures to navigate. democratic governance in Iraq we One more novel, William Faulkner’s thought the elections had answered.) of sentences that don’t Absalom, Absalom, comes to mind in re- I enjoyed my job and also savored my flecting on our project in Iraq — or it did opportunities — severely constricted by seem to hang together once while I was jogging around our out- security concerns — to get out and about, sized compound, listening with typical whether for a dinner of masgouf (flame- or offer much meaning iPod eclecticism to Jimi Hendrix and seared carp from the Tigris) with an Iraqi Justin Bieber, during a lull in the mortar artist at his gallery, or flying upcountry in — much like our weekly rounds that periodically rocked the em- Black Hawk helicopters to Diyala bassy. province with a group of U.S. senators on policy videoconferences Like Ulysses, the Faulkner novel is a a fact-finding trip. great, fractured piece of storytelling that And I continued to read Joyce, usually with Washington. describes on a mythic scale an obsessive, for an hour or two on weekend mornings. hubristic — and in this instance, doomed It became my refuge, a place to go when — attempt to conquer the land and plant there were no trips on the itinerary and the seeds for future prosperity. Like when I couldn’t face the dreary embassy compound (with an Thomas Sutpen’s plantation, the embassy rises up from the architectural ambiance that combined the look of a rundown flat, dusty earth at a still point in the Green Zone, a monstrous community college with that of a maximum security prison), slab of brown stone and steel, imperial and brooding. the 120-degree heat or my overflowing inbox. Like the situation we find ourselves in here in Iraq, Initially seduced by the novel’s reputation, then challenged hemmed in and defined by facts on the ground and grainy, by its complexity and daunting charms, I eventually fell for stubborn realities, so, too, Joyce’s Ulysses, despite its vast Ho- its lusty modernist elegance and allusive sass. A similar tra- meric parallels and elaborate architecture of symbol and al- jectory (minus the elegance and sass) would describe my lusion, is a book of pungent earthiness and facts. evolving feelings toward Iraq during my stay. It features a famous scene where the hero, Leopold There is a fuzzy, sometimes maddening quality to Joyce’s Bloom, sits on Sandymount Beach, trying to look up Gerty writing. You are never quite sure where you are. You have McDowell’s skirt. Like Bloom on the beach, there is a certain the sense of what is going on — a chat over breakfast, an ar- reality we find ourselves in right now. Regardless of the gument at a newspaper office, an academic lecture on Shake- grandiose ambitions that spawned this sprawling, seemingly speare, drunken conversations in numerous Dublin bars — never-ending project, it has also been shaped by gritty, insis- but it is never completely clear. You can spend lots of time tent realities that sometimes mugged the beautiful theories reading sentences that don’t seem to hang together so well or justifying the initial adventure. And like Leopold spotting offer much meaning. And yet the sense of Bloom’s thoughts Gerty’s undies, we have our interests, things we are looking and concerns comes across. out for, so to speak.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 33 Evil,” there may be a re-release in 50 years with a new ending, as critics, an- Two other novels, alysts and historians continue to argue about which version was originally in- Melville’s Moby Dick tended and about who is responsible for messing up the original production. and Faulkner’s Absalom, It is true that we have marched through Iraq as Ulysses did through Absalom, also come to Greek myth, conquering enemies, es- caping snares and temptations, navi- mind in reflecting on gating treacherous ethno-sectarian whirlpools and slaying terrorist mon- our presence in Iraq. sters. But as Joyce understood, times have changed since Greek myth informed our sense of the heroic. At the conclusion of Ulysses (spoiler alert!), Leopold returns home after all Slouching Toward his day’s mighty (OK, puny) adventures the Arab Spring and crawls into bed with his wife, But as Joyce makes clear, Gerty has Molly. For a variety of reasons, he does her own interests and dreams. Iraq not exactly receive a triumphal wel- may yet benefit tremendously from come as he returns to his modern-day our sometimes overwhelming focus on Penelope. her, if she is able, for example, with our In the real world of diplomacy and help, to resist Iranian influence, defin- the aftermath of war (unlike in the itively defeat and delegitimize al-Qaida world of the reader, seduced by a good here and establish a reasonably sturdy novel), the hero rarely gets to settle democratic political culture. down with his Penelope and walk off Those developments would likely into the sunset. We are more likely to reverberate positively in the region and be disappointed suitors in Iraq, which could help weaken the stranglehold will bestow some of her affection on us that radical Islamist ideology has had without ever fully reciprocating the on certain aspects of thought and po- mad rush of both well-intentioned pol- litical culture in this region over the icy affection and reckless geopolitical past several decades. The recent pro- passion that we have showered on her. democracy developments associated In that respect, we are like Leopold with the Arab Spring — whose myriad Bloom, who returns home and finds sources include a Mesopotamian himself stuck in an ambiguous, am- Spring — may, with spooky serendip- bivalent relationship. James Joyce de- ity, provide a more positive sociopolit- picts him lying at the foot of the marital ical regional environment for Iraq’s bed amid the traces in the bed sheets fragile democratic institutions and help of the lover Molly has entertained in facilitate its reintegration into the Arab his absence, even as she decides world. There are no guarantees, of whether to get up and head down to course; in the end, something much the kitchen to make Leopold his re- slighter, just the geopolitical equivalent quested breakfast. of a glimpse at Gerty’s bloomers, may In a world of diplomacy and of be all this project ever amounts to. coolly calculated, often conflicting in- Unlike the well-known conclusion terests and disappointed ambitions of Ulysses, we don’t know how our that might have to pass for a suitable project in Iraq will turn out. Like the outcome — even if it falls short of a old Orson Welles’ movie, “Touch of hero’s welcome home. I

34 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 HIPPIE CONTROL OFFICER

AN UNCONVENTIONAL APPELLATION LEADS TO UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES FOR A NEW FSO.

BY LARRY LESSER

n 1968, while other young Americans were Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. There was a constant stream of protesting the Vietnam War and evading the draft, mostly young Americans and other, non-Indian people going I was the junior officer in the consular section of to ashrams, staying sometimes for months on end. They lived Embassy New Delhi. (At full strength the section on very little, smoked charas and ganja, and sometimes got consisted of two American officers plus six ad- sick or arrested, lost their passports or wound up destitute. mirable and essential Indian employees.) In fact, These low-budget visitors were called hippies (although I was the youngest and most junior officer in the they generally didn’t call themselves that). Generally, they entire gargantuan embassy. preferred to have nothing to do with the embassy, which they IBefore joining the Foreign Service, I had been a Peace saw as a symbol of the reactionary and oppressive govern- Corps Volunteer teaching British economic history and Eng- ment fighting an immoral war in Vietnam. But if they were lish in Nigeria. And growing up on the streets of New York in distress, they didn’t hesitate to ask for — or demand — City had helped foster a smart-ass attitude (some would say) help from the American Citizens Services unit. (They were that carried over into my adult persona. taxpayers — in principle, anyway — which meant that con- After I got to New Delhi, I grew a beard. While there sular officers and Indian assistants were really working for were many beards in India, no other American in the em- them. We were there to help them, even if it was their own bassy had one. That and other characteristics gave me a rep- foolish behavior that got them into a fix.) utation as an unconventional character, prompting an My first supervisor got an early transfer by volunteering to embassy wag to dub me the Hippie Control Officer. The ap- serve in Vietnam, and there was no one lined up to replace pellation caught on: “Let me introduce you to Larry Lesser. him. So for the next year my primary job was adjudicating He’s the embassy’s Hippie Control Officer.” non-immigrant visas for Indians who wanted to go to the This was relevant because in those days India was a prime United States for a visit, for business, for higher education … destination for Westerners seeking spiritual enlightenment. or forever. (The Indian employees were far more knowl- The Beatles came to India that same year as followers of the edgeable than I, of course, but didn’t have the authority to issue visas or passports.) Larry Lesser is a retired Foreign Service officer whose over- As a result, even within that immense embassy I acquired seas posts included New Delhi, Ouagadougou, Brussels, Kigali a high profile, mostly because of my role as the gatekeeper and Dhaka. Since retiring from the Service he has had nu- for visas to the United States. Smart, ambitious Indian men merous short-term and part-time assignments with the De- (hardly any women) wanted to attend American universi- partment of State, the Organization for Security and ties, and many of them ended up staying here, marrying, be- Cooperation in Europe, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the coming business leaders and, eventually, becoming U.S. Peace Corps. citizens.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 35 Colorful Characters India, I told him I had no idea, for the Despite my nickname, I rarely saw reasons I had just laid out for him. a hippie. Here’s some of what we did In the late 1960s India For that matter (I pontificated), see in the consular section: there wasn’t a standard definition of • An elderly American missionary was a prime destination hippie; it wasn’t exactly a technical lady came back to India after a visit to term, after all. Did it fit any young the States and told me she had re- for Westerners seeking tourist who didn’t stay at a posh hotel? turned to end her life in her beloved Every spiritual seeker following a guru India. She did just that a few weeks spiritual enlightenment. to a Hindu retreat? Or just the ones later, without designating anyone to dressed a certain way and smoking il- dispose of her meager possessions: a licit drugs? wheelchair, a few other personal items “And besides,” I added, “not all the and the urn containing her remains. • And there was the Maryland state hippies are American. They come Those items stood in a corner of my of- legislator who secretly absconded to from all over: Germany, Scandinavia, fice for several weeks until we sorted India and Nepal with a woman who Britain, France, Australia … and other out who could legally take possession was not his wife. After his where- places, such as Japan. You can’t tell of them. abouts and secret life were discovered their nationalities just from looking at • Another American woman came (“Assemblyman by Day, Hippie by them.” I also encouraged the reporter to India as a master of Indian Bharatiya Night” was the headline in his home- to interview some of my counterparts dance. Her involvement with a mar- town paper), he was followed to India in other embassies. ried Indian parliamentarian led to an and Nepal by two machine politicians “That’s an interesting angle,” the expulsion order after the parliamen- from Baltimore who had a cocka- guy said. “What percentage of the hip- tarian’s wife discovered the dalliance. mamie plan for the fugitive legislator pies are Americans?” By then, however, the dancer had been to come back to Maryland in triumph, This was the only point in the con- tentatively diagnosed with a life-threat- declaring he had been investigating a versation when I expressed a little an- ening disease that was paralyzing her drug ring all along. He could then re- noyance. I had already told him I legs. We negotiated an agreement that sume his climb through state politics didn’t know much about the American she could stay at a local hospital for a and advance to the national stage. (In- hippies, so obviously I would know few days instead of being put on the stead, he went to jail back home in even less about the non-Americans. first available flight out of India. (Once Maryland.) “Your guess is as good as mine,” I said. back home in California, she was diag- But the AP guy demurred. Com- nosed with the nutritional disease Playing the Guessing Game pared to me he knew nothing at all, he beriberi, and soon recovered with pro- One day the embassy press attaché told me. He wheedled and flattered per diet.) came to my office to tell me that the me before reframing the question: • Then there was the wife of an local Associated Press representative What percentage would I say if I had to American journalist stationed in New was doing an article about hippies in venture a guess? For instance, say I Delhi who refused to go back to the South Asia and wanted to interview was at a dinner party and my hostess States when her husband departed on me. I told him it was just a joke that I insisted on an answer. a transfer. She turned violent and, was the hippie control officer; in actual Well, I was enjoying the interview. after an incident where she hurled fact, I knew very little about them. In It was a slow news day, and it was evi- bricks down from her fourth-floor fact, I wasn’t even sure what a hippie dent that the AP guy was in no hurry. apartment on kids playing noisily in was. But he insisted that I must know So against my better judgment I told front of the building, she was arrested more about them than did anyone else him that maybe 40 percent of the hip- in a pre-dawn swoop by a bunch of In- in the embassy, which was probably pies in India were Americans. dian police officers. They took her into true. So the appointment was made. (Actually I was being a little disin- custody kicking and screaming, and The AP guy wasn’t much older than genuous in picking that number. My naked except for the blanket she had I — maybe in his early 30s. Kind of a honest guess would have been that well been sleeping under. She ended up wiry little guy with a pleasant manner. over half of the hippies in New Delhi being repatriated to the U.S. for treat- He wasn’t in a big hurry, either. I told — and by extension in India — were ment somewhat against her will, under him that we didn’t see many hippies at Americans.) sedation and with medical escort — the embassy, and explained why. When But I had already said that nobody partly stage-managed by yours truly. he asked me how many hippies were in knew, and I thought it would be better

36 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 as a matter of policy not to present the bassy could and could not do for them. hippie problem — to the extent it was Specifically, we could contact their a problem — as a predominantly Despite my nickname, families in the States if they requested American phenomenon.) it — but most of them asked us not to When the article came out a week I rarely saw a hippie, do that. We could give them a list of or so later, that’s exactly what it said. local attorneys who might be willing to Only it wasn’t expressed as an estimate for they preferred to have represent them in court — but very but as fact. “Only 40 percent of the few hippies could afford to hire a hippies are Americans. The rest come nothing to do with the lawyer. And we followed their cases to from all over Western Europe — es- see whether they were treated worse pecially Germany and Scandinavia — embassy — unless they than an Indian arrested for the same with others from Britain, Australia, offense — but that was never a prob- Japan and elsewhere.” were in distress. lem, because arrested Westerners Still, the report didn’t cite any were invariably treated better than In- source for this intelligence. Nor did it dian common criminals. mention me or the embassy. So I was off the hook — or so I thought. on bills at cheap hotels and hostels. The End of the Matter The police normally informed the em- One day the consular section got a A Timely Report bassy when an American citizen was call from the New Delhi police. The Hand it to the AP for timeliness. In being held in jail, and we would send officer in charge of dealing with of- the following months more hippies got our hippest consular assistant, Frank fenses by foreigners wanted to talk in trouble in New Delhi, enough for Fernandes (an Indian Christian from with us about the rising hippie prob- Indian newspapers to cover the stories: Goa), or his senior colleague, Ven- lem. When I informed the front office drug busts, vandalism, sleeping on the kataraman Ramamurty, to visit the of the request for an appointment, the streets, public indecency, running out prisoners and explain what the em- deputy chief of mission told me with a

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 37 smile that I was the official who should a kind of census. We counted them.” meet with him: “You’re our hippie con- “The police did a hippie census by trol officer, Larry.” And I was still the My police interlocutor nationality?” I asked, expressing in- only officer in the consular section. credulity. “I don’t think so. Let me tell The police officer was probably just clearly did not enjoy you where I think that figure came a few years older than I, and impres- from.” And I proceeded to tell him sive looking in his starched uniform listening to my story as about the AP interview and the article and short pants: a smart outfit. He was that followed. I admitted that the 40- a tall man with a short haircut and ex- much as I enjoyed telling it. percent figure was based on nothing cellent posture. His English was good more than a wild-ass guess wheedled enough to conduct our conversation out of me by a charming but un- without anyone interpreting. scrupulous journalist. He was a no-nonsense guy. He told trouble. And I mentioned that not all My police interlocutor clearly did me the number of crimes committed hippies were Americans, anyway. not enjoy listening to my story as much by hippies was rising — though he “Oh, we know that,” said my inter- as I enjoyed telling it. At the end he conceded they were almost entirely locutor. “Only 40 percent of them are told me stiffly, “No. Your guess was ac- petty incidents, nothing violent. But Americans.” curate. We did a count and it matched the New Delhi police department had I couldn’t resist following up. your guess.” decided it should try to develop more “That’s very interesting,” I said. “How I wouldn’t leave it alone even then, cooperation with the U.S. embassy in do you know that’s the percentage?” although I should have known that was an effort to stop the crime wave or at The policeman’s manner changed not the way to cultivate a cooperative least greatly reduce it. subtly. He probably wasn’t used to relationship with the New Delhi po- I explained to the cop that very few being asked to back up his statements lice. I told him I would love to see the hippies ever made contact with the with documentation, and he didn’t like study he was citing; it would help the embassy unless and until they got into it. He answered defensively. “We did embassy to cooperate with the police. But, I added, it was hard for me to imagine why or how the police — or any agency of the Indian or municipal Find State Department and government or any academic institu- AFSA Reading Lists Online at tion, or anyone at all — could devote scarce resources to undertaking a cen- www.afsa.org/fs_reading_list.aspx sus of hippies by nationality. “What would be the methodology? What’s Buy all your travel guides, language your definition of ‘hippie’? And how books and pleasure reading would you identify them to count through the AFSA bookstore. them?” The cop soon ended our conversa- Buy the Amazon Kindle and download and read first tion. He thanked me for my time and chapters for free before you I walked him to the door, where we decide to purchase that new book. shook hands. And that was the end of the matter. He didn’t send me the hip- When you access Amazon.com pie census study. Nor did we ever dis- through our bookstore all your cuss how we could work together to purchases will benefit AFSA deal with problem hippies. at no additional cost to you. If you want to know how many hippies actually were in India in the late 1960s, and what percentage of them Start your purchase were American, your best source is this story, augmented by the AP article. on our site: My 40-percent estimate still sounds www.afsa.org/fs_reading_list.aspx about right to me. Maybe on the low side. I

38 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 FS FICTION DRIVING IN PARK

QUICK THINKING AND REFLEXES GET A U.S. EMBASSY EMPLOYEE OUT OF A JAM.

BY PETER BRENNAN

he exposures were not all that impor- where for a 25-kilogram bag of maize flour, known as mealie tant in their content. At this point, their meal. Most were old knock-offs. importance lay in their very existence, Having men with rifles standing about gave the illusion hidden in the false 28th page of his of security, but Vance suspected they were about as well diplomatic passport, tucked into the equipped as the guards outside the bank at Manda Hill Mall glove compartment of the embassy’s in Lusaka. They’d probably had just a week of training and Chevrolet Suburban. Seated in the received a daily ration of five rounds of ammunition — and passenger seat and staring at the closed glove compartment the cost of any rounds not returned at the end of the day Twith beads of sweat the size of fingernails forming on his would be taken out of their pay. If any real danger was to forehead, Vance gave silent thanks for a fact he had been present itself, these guards were as likely to run with the rest cursing moments before: he was driving an American car. of the crowd as to put up any resistance. This was pretty much what Vance’s cable to Langley had Vance had photographed the entrances to the Kitwe cop- said. No beefed-up security; no visible countermeasures; a per mines from a fairly low-tech camera hidden in his base- low probability of a secret plutonium mineshaft within ball cap. No one paid him any mind. Americans always Kitwe’s copper mines. The cable was already in the hands wore baseball caps, after all. The guards outside the mines’ of his superiors; the negatives in his passport were simply entrances carried the same decades-old Kalashnikov rifles as documentation. the three men now in the process of hijacking his car. Vance was what some self-serving politicians would have Kalashnikovs were more numerous than phones in much of called a “real American.” He was born and raised in the Col- sub-Saharan Africa, and one could get them just about any- orado countryside, where long stretches of empty road were common and people stopped for disabled cars on the road- Peter Brennan, a marine-structural engineer based in side. Vance grew up playing football and baseball, but his Philadelphia, spent the majority of his life stationed abroad 5’8” frame had never allowed for much advancement in ath- with his father, Ambassador Martin G. Brennan, whose three- letics. His grades had been fine, but not exceptional. Only decade career spanned four continents. Peter spent nine of his dogged work ethic stood out. It was the kind of work those years in East Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda and Zambia), ethic that gets passed down from generations of sore hands and is drawing on those experiences to write a collection of pushing plows through early winter frosts. It often led to short fiction under the theme “Growing Up Mzungu,” adopt- arthritis at the age of 30, and a vocabulary devoid of the term ing the nearly universal East African term for “white man.” “retirement age.” He is also working on a novel-length work of speculative fic- When Vance was a boy and his father had pinched his tion about the world after oil starts to run out. cheeks at the end of each day before sitting down for supper,

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 39 the fingers felt like roughened con- The next five seconds confirmed crete against his skin. Vance hadn’t the danger his brain had been trying to wanted his father’s hands: stiff to open He hadn’t told them identify since he had crested the small and painful to close. His parents had hill and spotted the cars. First two never understood his desire to leave that his position as the men, then a third, leapt from the Pa- behind those empty roads and clear jero brandishing Kalashnikovs. skies, let alone to leave them for parts political-military officer The first two pointed their rifles di- unknown in the U.S. Foreign Service. rectly at him, while the third stayed a Of course, he hadn’t told them that at the U.S. embassy in few steps behind, holding his own rifle his position as the political-military of- loosely at his waist like some modern- ficer at the U.S. embassy in Lusaka was Lusaka was a cover day cowboy. The men appeared to be a cover for the CIA — and not a par- Zambian, and from the overly cine- ticularly good one at that. His official for the CIA. matic way they held their rifles, Vance duties, as he’d recently been forced to guessed that they were not military. explain to the ambassador’s obnoxious Vance killed the engine as soon as son, were to liaise with the Zambian he saw the rifles. Leaving the car in military on matters of security, like drive, he got out slowly with his hands landmine abatement programs. The on his head: the universal sign of sur- kid was all of 16 years old, and drunk at But he was not in Colorado. render. He didn’t want to give the hi- the time, but his glassy eyes had still He should have kept driving when jackers an excuse to open fire. seen through the lie. he saw the two disabled cars sitting With a gun trained on him, Vance It was Sunday, and Vance was only just off the road. A dusty Mitsubishi stood next to the couple while two of four hours south of Kitwe and its cop- Pajero sat behind a small pick-up the hijackers disabled the Pajero as per mines, with a long way yet to go truck with its hood open. It was the they had disabled the pick-up, by cut- before he could enjoy a small pour of sun flashing off the hood that got ting the fuel line. Not terrible damage, whiskey on two rocks. He never al- Vance’s attention. Then he saw an to be sure, but enough to prevent ei- lowed himself enough whiskey to get elderly white couple standing next to ther vehicle from giving pursuit. With drunk. the pick-up. Vance’s brain had not the Kalashnikov’s muzzle hovering He was making good time at 140 fully registered the scene; he was on near his face, Vance felt that small talk kilometers per hour. Zambia had bet- autopilot, cruising through the long with the other victims was unwise. So ter roads than its neighbors. Free drive. His upbringing was already he merely looked at them. from severe potholes and explosive firmly in control of the situation, and The wife confined her fear to shell- pockmarks, the road was confirmation he started to slow down as soon as he shocked eyes, but the husband re- that the country had never been rav- saw the cars. turned Vance’s gaze unflinchingly, aged by the inhumanities of civil war. The Pajero flashed its brake lights clenching and releasing his jaw at pace This peaceful legacy of self-gover- at him, which struck Vance as odd. as if trying to chew his way out of the nance, dating back to independence That the elderly couple were not wav- situation. The couple seemed even from Britain in 1964, was truly unique ing him down was also odd. The car paler up close, the shadows cast by among African nations with multi- crept forward, kicking up little plumes their straw hats precluding any tan tudinous tribes. of dust. Vance edged his own car off they might otherwise have obtained. The Zambians had achieved it the road, loose gravel crackling under Vance could not have imagined a through an emphasis on unanimous his tires like popcorn. The couple still more awkward silence, but he wel- consent, an emphasis that often hadn’t moved. comed it. Experiencing awkwardness pushed the legislature into the dual After 30 or 40 yards the Pajero amidst such tension was actually quite realms of unobtrusiveness and ex- stopped suddenly, kicking up more amusing. Vance had a brief, horrifying treme lethargy. Zambia was almost as dust, and slammed hard into reverse. urge to laugh, and then the moment proud of its roads as it was of its lack The white reverse lights seared into was over. of landmines. Here in the north, near Vance’s brain like interrogation lights, The two hijackers dumped Vance’s Kitwe, the road reminded Vance of illuminating the holes in the picture duffel bag unceremoniously from the the highways in Colorado: long and his upbringing had wrought. But it trunk and piled into the embassy’s Sub- narrow as they passed through breath- was too late. He was only 20 yards be- urban. The third hijacker kept his rifle taking nature. hind the truck now. sight trained on the erstwhile mo-

40 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 torists. The silence had given Vance Colorado in shame, a prodigal son from the glove compartment and tried time to think, but he hadn’t been able who never even spent his share of the to look calm. The leader had an ugly to. It was only with the smack of the inheritance. Contemplating that grim scar zigzagging from just below his left duffel bag on the dusty asphalt, like a prospect, he felt adrenaline surging eye to the edge of his lips. Vance muffled alarm clock, that his brain through him, pushing against the con- thought that the scar probably made again kicked in. His diplomatic pass- fines of his body, urging him to move. the man look even more terrifying if port, along with the negatives, was still Just then a shout came from the he smiled. in the Suburban’s glove compartment. Suburban. One of the hijackers “And why can I not take out the key Vance panicked, the possibilities stepped down from the passenger from the ignition, Mzungu?” he spat. thundering through his brain like seat, and motioned for Vance to come His use of ‘mzungu’ was firmly water over Victoria Falls. The hijack- forward. grounded in derision. Apparently this ers were not military, not professional. was one hijacker who preferred not to Perhaps they would miss the negatives. The leader of the hijackers looked deal with foreigners. A poor business He quickly dismissed that comforting livid, sitting in the driver’s seat and jig- decision, in Vance’s opinion, because thought; even rank amateur thieves gling the key uselessly in the ignition. mzungu undoubtedly offered bigger would recognize the value of a United Vance slid into the front passenger prizes than most locals. States diplomatic passport — and once seat. Vance instantly saw the problem: they brought it to the black market, the “Why is it not starting! Why can I the Suburban would not start unless negatives would surely be found, as not start it?” he shouted. The ques- the automatic transmission was set in well. Those negatives would cause tions were fired at Vance like bullets. ‘park.’ Vance had left it in drive when tremendous embarrassment to the They may as well have come from the he killed the engine, and now the key United States government, to say muzzle of the Kalashnikov in the man’s would neither turn, nor come out. nothing of ending Vance’s career. lap. Which gave him an idea. Vance did not want to go back to Vance turned his attention away “It won’t start because it’s not in

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 41 park,” Vance explained, letting his and the engine sparked and turned voice take on a drawl, more of his own over with a loud roar. The man’s eyes making than of any actual Southern The hijacker’s eyes lit up with glee and again missed state. He wasn’t sure why, but he Vance’s fingers as they retrieved the thought that a Southern accent might followed Vance’s fingers to passport from the glove compartment. be placating. Or perhaps he just hoped “It’s just an automatic transmission,” that disguising his voice would disguise the dashboard, and missed Vance said, smiling as his fingers gen- his actions. tly closed the glove compartment. “What are you saying, Mzungu? We the glove compartment The hijacker turned to look at are not in a park; we are on the road!” Vance, still smiling, and Vance realized The hijacker’s features remained cold, cover as it edged open. that he’d misjudged the scar. It actu- but Vance thought he could see plead- ally added to the smile, connecting the ing in the man’s eyes. This hijacker had man’s eyes to his pearly whites. The obviously never driven an automatic. smile retreated an instant later. “Get “Here, let me show you,” Vance out, Mzungu,” the man shouted at said, turning in his seat and sliding for- at the ‘P’ marked with the red triangle him, and Vance obliged. ward so that his elbow could push the on the dashboard. The hijacker’s eyes The three hijackers sped off in a button to open the glove compart- followed Vance’s fingers to the dash- flurry of dust and gravel, and the Sub- ment. With his other hand he grabbed board, and missed the glove compart- urban was gone. But Vance had his the steering-wheel mounted shifter. ment cover as it edged open. “Now it passport. He opened the glove compartment should start, just fine,” Vance said, He turned to look at the elderly just as he engaged the shifter and hanging onto the ‘ahhh’ of the south- couple again, making sure they were moved it to park, using the noise to ern ‘fine’ as his fingers held the glove not statues. cover his movements. compartment door. “Hi,” he said, relief pushing his lips “See, that’s park,” he said, pointing The hijacker tried the key again, into a grin. The husband’s name was David. He was from England, retired from the Foreign Office, and vacationing Watch for the October FSJ’s annual through old stomping grounds. His roundup of books by current and wife was Dutch. David explained that he and his wife had seen the pick-up former members of the Foreign Service on the side of the road with its hood and their families. up, and had pulled over, just like Vance, only to meet the hijackers. Ap- parently people outside Colorado also 2011 ANNUAL had proper upbringings. The hijackers had just been pulling away from the FS AUTHORS ROUNDUP scene when Vance had crested the hill. “They must have figured on liking your car better, I suppose,” David said. “Guess you were just a bit unlucky, mate.” “I guess so,” Vance said, shrugging. “What was that you were rooting around for in the glove compartment, then, eh?” Vance was taken aback, but he mus- tered passable nonchalance into his voice. “Oh, just my passport,” he said. David gave him a knowing look, one side of his lips curled ever-so-slightly upward into a smirk. I

42 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 BOOKS

celebrities like Bono, stateless states- New Diplomacy for I particularly men like George Soros, nongovern- New Diplomats encourage entry-level mental organization leaders and FSOs to read this public-private sector changemakers. How to Run the World: These would work alongside tradi- Charting a Course to the book and start tional practitioners who have been Next Renaissance practicing what empowered and trained to carry out Parag Khanna, Random House, Khanna calls their work very differently — though 2011, $26, hardcover, 256 pages. megadiplomacy. the author is skeptical that many of them can make that transition. REVIEWED BY KEITH MINES Khanna’s world could be what international affairs will look like when In a 2009 survey of contemporary Generation Y wrests control from the foreign policy thinkers conducted by ure, for managing global challenges. baby boomers. His system is not a the Council on Emerging National His one-word answer for how to run rigid panoply of nation-states but a Security Affairs, Parag Khanna placed the world is diplomacy, albeit a kind network of resilient, yet flexible, sys- second to Francis Fukuyama as a po- of “megadiplomacy” that is not where tems. It is an autopoietic world — tential new “Mr. X” for his original most of us spend our time. self-regulating and re-creating. thinking in The Second World: Em- His worldview sees us in the midst Generation Yers, he believes, intu- pires and Influence in the New Global of a kind of new Middle Ages, with itively work this way, treating diplomacy Order. rising powers, multinational corpora- not as vertical and hierarchical but as a That book asserted that the emerg- tions, powerful families, humanitari- distributed network in which individual ing multipolar world — one of intense ans, religious radicals, universities and participants are connected without a competition by China, the United mercenaries all part of the landscape. center. As such, they are primed for the States and the European Union for the Success in this new world order de- demands of megadiplomacy. resources and allegiance of key Second pends on forming coalitions that can The problem, of course, is that World countries in Latin America, the quickly move global resources to solve while Generation Y FSOs may come in Middle East, and Central and East local problems with new technologies. wired this way, we quickly crush those Asia — would best be managed Bottom-up except for certain high- traits out of them with the demands of through an active division of labor by level facilitation, the approach stresses contact work and the layered structure that Big Three. information and empowerment over of reporting — if entry-level officers Khanna’s new offering, How to conventional development, and is less are allowed to do any contact work or Run the World: Charting a Course to concerned with democracy than ac- reporting, that is. the Next Renaissance, goes in a differ- countability and effectiveness. Reading Khanna’s work is a bit like ent direction by laying out a new ar- Rather than new organizations, reading a novel: it requires a willing chitecture, or rather a non-architect- Khanna calls for “new diplomats”: suspension of disbelief. He some

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 43 B OOKS times strays fully into the quixotic, as essarily the panaceas he posits, they when he urges the creation of cross- could prove helpful — at least in border wildlife preserves in Africa so Generation Yers, some places for some problems. that the new slogan there can be With that in mind, I particularly “make safari not war.” he believes, intuitively encourage entry-level FSOs to read Slogans come a bit too easy for this book and start practicing mega- Khanna, in fact, and tend to be a bit work this way, diplomacy! too cute. For instance, he asserts that “America’s universities can drain the treating diplomacy Keith Mines, a Foreign Service officer swamp better than any invasions.” since 1991, is currently the director of That may well be true, but can come not as vertical and the narcotics affairs section in Mexico across as painfully naïve. City. His previous assignments include Still, if one can get beyond the slo- hierarchical but as a Tel Aviv, San Salvador, Port-au-Prince, gans and focus on its creative, fresh Budapest, Ottawa and Washington, approach, this book could elicit new distributed network. D.C. He has also done short tours in thinking within our organization. Mogadishu, Kabul, Ramadi and Dar- While fresh perspectives are not nec- fur.

edited by Clarence R. Wyatt, covers to understanding the role of propa- Good As Far the period from World War I through ganda in American history, contempo- As It Goes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To- rary students of public diplomacy will gether, the work presents the views of be disappointed to find that the U.S. Encyclopedia of Media and more than 35 academics and experts, Information Agency — which for more Propaganda in Wartime America along with numerous illustrations and than four decades was the leading Martin J. Manning and Clarence R. photographs of the events covered propaganda agency of the U.S. gov- Wyatt, editors; ABC-CLIO, 2011, and individuals who participated in or ernment — is not even listed in the $180, 2 vols., hardcover, 860 pages. publicized them, and samples of the index! Hopefully, the next printing will propaganda products used to influ- correct that sin of omission. REVIEWED BY ALLEN C. HANSEN ence public reactions. Each section is Similarly, USIA’s seminal contribu- replete with references inviting fur- tion to ending the Cold War hardly re- This two-volume encyclopedia is a ther study. ceives mention in this otherwise valuable research tool for all those in- Martin Manning, the U.S. Infor- excellent encyclopedia. This may re- terested in how U.S. media and the mation Agency archivist for many flect the editors’ unfortunate accept- U.S. government viewed and pre- years and currently the State Depart- ance of the false claim that long sented to the public most of the ment’s guardian of public diplomacy before 1999, when the agency was events that occurred in, or affected, documents, is the author of The His- disbanded and folded into the State the United States. As Martin Man- torical Dictionary of American Propa- Department, it was no longer needed. ning, the editor of the first volume, ganda (Greenwood, 2004). Perhaps USIA was not quite as im- states in his preface, his intent “is to Clarence Wyatt is a professor of portant as those of us who served our highlight individuals and events that history at Center College in Danville, country by “telling America’s story to were noteworthy for the media and Ky. Among his many published arti- the world” like to believe. However, propaganda that they generated.” cles on the Vietnam War is “Paper Sol- this otherwise outstanding book Volume 1 covers the period from diers: The American Press and the would have better served its readers the North American colonial wars to Vietnam War.” by saying more about that small but the Spanish-American and Philip- While this monumental work influential government agency. pine-American wars, while Volume 2, makes a highly beneficial contribution Those wishing to know more about

44 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 B OOKS A time of service…a time of need Help for Seniors May USIA’s role during this period should read The Cold War and the U.S. In- formation Agency: American Propa- Be Just a Phone Call Away— ganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945- The Senior Living Foundation may be 1989 by Nicholas J. Cull (Cambridge, able to help you or someone you know. 2009; for a review, see the July-August Some examples of assistance are: 2010 FSJ.) Nicholas Cull was also a N Home Health Care co-author, along with David Culbert and David Welsh, of Propaganda and N Adult Day Care & Respite Care Persuasion: A Historical Encyclope- N Prescription Drug Copayments dia, 1500 to the Present, which, like N Transportation to Medical Appointments the Manning-Wyatt encyclopedia, was N Durable Medical Equipment published by ABC-CLIO (in 2003). That encyclopedia covers some of For more information, please contact the the same period as the subject of this SENIOR LIVING FOUNDATION review but goes back much further, is OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE 1716 N Street, NW N Washington, DC 20036-2902 more global in its outlook and stops Phone: (202) 887-8170 N Fax: (202) 872-9320 eight years earlier. With regard to E-Mail: [email protected] N Web Site: www.SLFoundation.org

USIA, it simply notes, “America’s in- SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION tegrated overt propaganda agency was established by President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) in August 1953 and operated until its reabsorp- tion into the State Department in 1999.” QUESTIONS? Not sure whom to contact? Despite that regrettable lacuna, the Encyclopedia of Media and Prop- LETTERS TO MEMBERSHIP For changes of address and other aganda in Wartime America is well THE EDITOR Printed letters may be edited for questions about AFSA membership, I worth reading. space. E-mail to [email protected] or e-mail [email protected]. mail to FSJ, 2101 E Street NW, Allen C. Hansen, a 32 year Foreign Washington DC 20037. ADVERTISING Service veteran of the U.S. Information For details about placing either FasTrax Agency who served in nine countries, E-CLASSIFIEDS a display or classifed ad, is the author of USIA: Public Diplo- In AFSA News: e-mail [email protected], macy in the Computer Age (Praeger, www.afsa.org/afsa_news.aspx [email protected]. 1989) and Nine Lives: A Foreign Serv- COPYRIGHTS & ice Odyssey (New Academia, 2007). FSJ REPRINTS Have something to say? To obtain permission to reproduce The FSJ wants to know! FSJ material, e-mail [email protected]. Send us your Letter to the Editor or FSJ ONLINE Speak Out about something www.afsa.org/foreign_ that’s on your mind! service_journal.aspx E-mail: [email protected] All submissions are edited for style, format, grammar and punctuation, and must meet F mSJ editorial guidelines.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 45

AFSAAmerican Foreign ServiceNE Association • September 2011WS AFSA Presents Awards for Dissent and Performance BY ASGEIR SIGFUSSON, AFSA MARKETING AND OUTREACH MANAGER DONNA AYERST DONNA

(left to right) Susan Johnson, Joel Ehrendreich, Amb. Roz Ridgway, Brianna Chaudhry, Larry Fields, Rishan Chaudhry, Mike Vining, Terry Farrar, Ann Rehme, James Bayuk and Ian Houston.

omeofthemostoutstandingmembersoftheForeignService the Nelson B. Delavan Award for an Office Management communitywerehonoredatAFSA’sannualawardsceremony, Specialist; Mike Vining, Embassy Ulaanbaatar, who took home the SheldonJune23intheStateDepartment’sBenjaminFranklin M. Juanita Guess Award for a Community Liaison Officer; and Diplomatic Reception Room. For the 44th time, AFSA spotlight- Terry Farrar, U.S. Interest Section Havana, and Charla Chaudhry, ed those who have exhibited courage through constructively dis- Embassy Chisinau, who shared the Avis Bohlen Award for eligi- sentingfromsetpoliciesorperformedaboveandbeyondtheiroffi- ble family members. cial duties. The ceremony ended with presentation of AFSA’s awards for Before a large crowd of well-wishers and supporters, AFSA constructivedissent. JoelEhrendreichreceivedtheWilliamR.Rivkin President Susan R. Johnson presided at this year’s ceremony. Award for dissent by mid-level officers for his yearslong campaign AmbassadorBillBurns,undersecretaryofStateforpoliticalaffairs, to change a longstanding policy that he felt had a negative impact presentedtheLifetimeContributionstoAmericanDiplomacyAward on U.S.-Japanese relations. The F. Allen “Tex” Harris Award for toAmbassadorRozanneL.“Roz”Ridgway. Amb.Ridgway’smany FS specialists was given to Maurizio Visani for his advocacy for career highlights include her role as top negotiator during all five OpenNetaccessforU.S.consulatesaroundtheworld. Andthisyear’s U.S.-Soviet summits in the 1980s. She accepted her award to loud recipient of the Christian Herter Award for senior officers was Dr. applause,andgenerouslyacknowledgedhermentorsandcolleagues James W. Bayuk, who was recognized for his dedicated campaign in her remarks. for organizational changes within the Office of Medical Services. AFSA’s performance awards were presented to Larry Fields, Please visit www.afsa.org/awards for more information on the Embassy Kathmandu, who was honored as AFSA Post Represen- AFSA dissent and performance awards, and see pages 52 and 53 tative of the Year; Ann E. Rehme, Embassy Pretoria, who received for more photos from the ceremony. ❏

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 47 A F S A N AFSANEWSBRIEFS E W AFSA BOOK NOTES: FARISHTA FSYF Welcome-Back Picnic S Our next Book Notes program will be on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 3 Don’t forget this year’s Foreign Service Youth Foundation Welcome- p.m., when retired FSO Patricia McArdle discusses her new novel, Back Picnic for FS families who have recently returned from overseas. Farishta, which won the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The picnic will take place on Sun., Sept. 18, from 4 to 6:30 p.m., The title of the book means “angel” in Dari. In the book, McArdle at Nottoway Park in Vienna, Va. Please join us even if you are not draws on her experience as a diplomat to tell the story of a woman a recent returnee. who is posted to Afghanistan and disguises herself in a burka to pro- FSYF will provide hot dogs and hamburgers (including a vegetarian option) and drinks. Please bring a salad, side dish or dessert to share. vide aid to refugees in the wartorn region. Books will be available for The picnic will have a carnival theme, with fun for children of all ages, purchase and signing at the program, which will take place at AFSA including face painting, a magician and carnival games. RSVP to headquarters (2101 E St. NW). Please RSVP to [email protected]. [email protected] by Wed., Sept. 14.

AFSA WELCOMES AFSA SCHOLARSHIPS BESTOWED AFSA is proud to announce that 68 children of Foreign Service TWO NEW STAFF MEMBERS employees will receive need-based AFSA financial aid scholarships total- We are happy to welcome Clint Lohse as our new Legislative ing $181,850, to help them attend college during the 2011-2012 school Assistant. Clint has a wealth of experience on legislative issues, and year. This is the largest amount of scholarship money AFSA has ever most recently worked for Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi. Clint will bestowed! work with Director of Policy Ed Dickens to further strengthen our Thanks to all of the organizations and individuals who have given donations, and to the AFSA Committee on Education: Amb. C. Edward legislative efforts and Hill advocacy. You can reach Clint at Dillery, chairman, and Carolyn Connell, Evelyn Colbert, Joyce Namde, [email protected] or (202) 944-5515. Stefan Geyer has also joined Deborah Odell, Kate Snipes, Carol Sutherland and Andrew Winter for AFSA our new USAID Staff Assistant. A recent graduate of the their tireless service. Half of the above funds were disbursed to colleges in University of California Santa Barbara, Stefan was our legislative August, with the remaining support to be sent in December. intern this past spring. He now joins our USAID office team to Applications for the 2012-2013 high school senior academic and art ensure continued service for our USAID members. Stefan may be merit awards and the 2012-2013 financial aid scholarships will be available beginning Nov. 15 at www.afsa.org. For details, please contact Lori Dec, reached at [email protected] or (202) 712-1941. AFSA Scholarship director, at [email protected] or (202) 944-5504.

WRITE FOR US! AFSA seeks submissions from talented writers in the Foreign Service community for AFSA News. We want to hear from our members and their families, so please send us content for any of the following departments: Post Rep Corner, From Our Members, Retiree Concerns, Family Life Matters, Memo of the Month and Eligible Family Member/Member of Household Issues. Articles should be no more than 500- 600 words long, and should be sent to AFSA News Editor Donna Ayerst at [email protected]. Cartoons are also welcomed. We can’t promise that every submission will be published, but we will do our best! All submissions are subject to editing prior to publication.

AFSA HEADQUARTERS: (202) 338-4045; Fax: (202) 338-6820 Staff: Governing Board: Executive Director Ian Houston: [email protected] STATE DEPARTMENT AFSA OFFICE: (202) 647-8160; Fax: (202) 647-0265 PRESIDENT: Susan R. Johnson Business Department USAID AFSA OFFICE: (202) 712-1941; Fax: (202) 216-3710 Director of Finance Femi Oshobukola: [email protected] STATE VP: Daniel Hirsch FCS AFSA OFFICE: (202) 482-9088; Fax: (202) 482-9087 Controller Kalpna Srimal: [email protected] USAID VP: Francisco Zamora Assistant Controller Cory Nishi: [email protected] FCS VP: Keith Curtis PRESIDENT: [email protected] Labor Management FAS VP: David Mergen General Counsel Sharon Papp: [email protected] STATE VP: [email protected] RETIREE VP: Robert Houdek Deputy General Counsel Zlatana Badrich: [email protected] SECRETARY: Susan Shultz RETIREE VP: [email protected] Labor Management Specialist James Yorke: [email protected] TREASURER: Andrew Winter USAID VP: [email protected] Labor Management Counselor Janet Weber: [email protected] Senior Staff Attorney Neera Parikh: [email protected] STATE REPS: Matthew Asada FAS VP: [email protected] Staff Attorney Raeka Safai: [email protected] William Bent FCS VP: [email protected] Staff Attorney Andrew Large: [email protected] Grace Choi Office Manager Christine Warren: [email protected] Mary Glantz AFSA News USAID Senior Labor Management Adviser Douglas Broome: [email protected] Les Hickman USAID Staff Assistant Stefan Geyer: [email protected] Kenneth Kero-Mentz Editor Donna Ayerst: [email protected] Member Services (202) 944-5516; Fax: (202) 338-6820 Member Services Director Janet Hedrick: [email protected] Kimberly Krhounek Member Services Representative Kristy Pomes: [email protected] Elise Mellinger Foreign Service Journal Administrative Assistant and Office Manager Ana Lopez: [email protected] Joyce Namde FSJ: [email protected] Communications, Marketing and Outreach David Zwach Editor Steven Alan Honley: [email protected] Retiree Counseling & Legislation Coordinator Bonnie Brown: [email protected] USAID REPS: Michael Henning Director of Communications Thomas Switzer: [email protected] Senior Editor Susan Maitra: [email protected] VACANT Director of Policy Edward Dickens: [email protected] FCS REP: Steve Morrison Associate Editor Shawn Dorman: [email protected] Legislative Assistant Clint Lohse: [email protected] Ad & Circulation Manager Ed Miltenberger: [email protected] Executive Assistant to the President Patrick Bradley: [email protected] FAS REP: Andrew Burst Art Director Caryn Suko Smith: [email protected] Scholarship Director Lori Dec: [email protected] IBB REP: Andre De Nesnera Scholarship Program Assistant Jonathan Crawford: [email protected] RETIREE REPS: Mary Ellen Gilroy On the Web Road Scholar Administrator Bernard Alter: [email protected] Edward Marks

How to Contact Us: Contact to How AFSA WEB SITE: www.afsa.org Marketing & Outreach Manager Asgeir Sigfusson: [email protected] Hugh Neighbour FSJ: www.afsa.org/fsj Special Awards & Outreach Coordinator Perri Green: [email protected] Molly Williamson Web and IT Assistant Jeff Lau: [email protected]

48 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 A F V.P. VOICE: STATE ■ BY DANIEL HIRSCH S A N QDDR: Changing the Game E and Changing the Rules W S

very administration seems to have its own vision for the quences. Foreign Service training, when available, is already on future of American diplomacy. Old-timers remember a an“asneeded”basis. Willincreasedrelianceon“outside”experts Enumber of earlier — sometimes very different — diminishincentivestoprovideemployeeswiththelong-promised visions, and expect that each new vision will have that same rel- kinds of training aimed not at filling an immediate need, but atively short shelf life. One vision that may be here to stay, how- at developing more versatile FS members? Will increased flex- ever, is the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, ibility in mid-level hiring and staffing impede promotion and which is both a process and a planning document that has a assignment opportunities for members of an up-or-out FS per- number of implications for Foreign Service careers. sonnel system? How will encouragement to view FS employ- As the name implies, the QDDR is a process under which ees as being “one among several possible tools” affect the value American diplomatic efforts writ large are reviewed every four of a Foreign Service career? Will FS members be adequately years to assess their success, efficiency and responsiveness to apprised of changing expectations or terms of employment? The America’s needs. That assessment forms the basis for future answers to these questions may not be immediately apparent, planning, budget requests and continuous tweaking of the way and the consequences to FS members may be significant. we do business. Washington is beginning to implement a series of recom- Risk-Taking Is Okay mendations that would, in theory, integrate the work of dis- Similarly, in an effort to get away from the staid, bureau- parate agencies and bureaus, empower key personnel to lead, cratic conservatism of much of the Service, the QDDR encour- and focus resources more narrowly on achievable goals. This ages “risk-taking.” In fact, a group has been tasked to develop involves restructuring some bureaus, creating others and using ways to recruit less risk-averse employees, “out-of-the-box” each agency’s expertise to greatest advantage. thinkers who will approach missions with imagination and goal- Not every agency is equally on board, but the State orientation. Department has been moving steadily toward implementing While we agree that the department can be too conserva- what it can. Changes are being made both to procedures and tive for its own good, we hope that it will stand behind its peo- to the Foreign Affairs Manual, responsibilities are being realigned ple if risk-taking fails. The reason that higher-level employees and resources are being redistributed. are risk-averse is often not that they started out that way, but that State has made it clear that the architects of failed ideas are Slippery Precedents punished, and that those who judge are fairly intolerant of imag- AFSA generally supports these efforts. On the whole, the ination. Will somebody tell the Office of the Inspector General QDDR makes sense, and would tend to increase the effective- that risk-taking is okay, and if so, will the terms be defined? ness of American diplomacy. Our concerns, where we have Despite these and other concerns, the QDDR is already being them, are more about scope and the setting of certain “slippery” implemented. Candidates for chief of mission, principal offi- precedents than they are about the concepts themselves. cer and deputy chief of mission positions are already being Two key elements of the QDDR are flexibility and integra- reviewed for experience leading or coordinating interagency and tion. Both involve identifying the best agency, bureau or per- NGO collaborations, out-of-the-box thinking and willingness son — or combination thereof — for a given mission, tasking to take risks to achieve results. Anyone who has hopes of becom- themand coordinating efforts. Washington leaders and chiefs ing a DCM or COM someday should begin now to think about of mission at posts would be similar to chief executive officers, jobs that expose them to other agencies, NGOs or pangovern- choosing from the tools available to them to best position mental entities. Certainly, these factors will be considered in resources and abilities. These tools would include all agencies other assignments and promotions as well, and all employees under COM authority, nongovernmental organizations, Civil should bear in mind these new expectations. Service personnel and private contractors. This constitutes a Making our government function better and more efficiently broadening, strengthening and codification of authorities already is a primary responsibility of every employee. We want to be implied by the “plenipotentiary” in the ambassador’s title. certain, however, that as good ideas are implemented, all con- Our concerns in this regard pertain to long-term conse- sequences are considered. ❏

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49 A F S V.P. VOICE: USAID ■ BY FRANCISCO ZAMORA A N E W S QDDR: Closing the Experience Gap?

age168of theQuadrennialDiplomacyandDevelopment conferred on State colleagues with whom we work more and more Reviewreportstatesthat“yearsof understaffinghavepro- closely? We have tried to get the agency to, at a minimum, adopt Pduced a significant mid-level experience gap at both State the same criteria used by the State Department to determine entry and USAID.” The “solution” proposed for USAID is to triple level salaries for junior officers — start at the FS-5, Step 5 level, mid-level hiring from 30 to 95 per year. This is an example of and then consider higher salary steps depending on relevant expe- the wrong solution for the wrong problem. rience and previous salary, if applicable. Thissimplisticapproachignorestherealityattheagency. Were In my opinion, continuing to pay junior officers substandard it not for a dearth of promotions,there would be no need to fill salaries borders on institutionalized abuse. Ironically, the QDDR mid-levelpositions. TojointheForeignService,asignificantnum- and USAID Forward reports both address talent management ber of junior officers took a substantial cut in salary — in the and retention of talent at the agency. However, current USAID tensof thousandsof dollars—duetoself-imposedUSAIDrules policies do not support the latter objective. restricting new entries to the FS-6 grade. These are profession- The agency’s solution to solve the misperceived problem of alswithadvanceddegrees,manyof whomhavesevento10years a gap in mid-level talent is to hire a huge number of new offi- of previous relevant experience. cers at the FS-2 and FS-3 levels. This will only add salt to the The State Department, by contrast, has a much more rea- wounds of those who sacrificed and accepted lower grades and sonable junior officer policy,hiring talent up to the FS-4 salary are now being leapfrogged by others with the same or, in some level. The main difference between the two systems is that State cases, even less previous professional experience. considers education and experience in setting starting salaries, In addition, the policy of hiring mid-level professionals from while USAID insists on using complicated formulas to eval- outside USAID will block promotion opportunities for those who uate previous earning history. In almost all cases, USAID’s have been patiently waiting their turn, because the agency strives entry-level FS employees get much lower starting salaries,which to maintain a staffing pyramid with fewer salary grades at the almost seems to be a punishment for those who took the time top. AFSA, of course, supports all Foreign Service employees hired and spent the money to get advanced degrees or gain valu- by the agency, including those at mid-levels. In fact, the mid- able experience working for low-paying organizations such as levels who are currently hired were brought into the agency with the Peace Corps or nongovernmental organizations. the full support of AFSA, based on an analysis of hiring needs We have heard reports of new USAID FSOs sleeping in their at that time. cars, seeking roommates, or asking friends, families and banks But again, the problem at USAID is not a gap of mid-level for loans just to survive during their time in Washington, D.C. talent — the talent it is already there. Rather, USAID needs to junior officers are constantly visiting my office, reporting that they promote more of those who are already on staff and deserving are close to bankruptcy due to the fact that they, their spouses of promotion. This addresses the right problem and is the right (unemployed), and their children must live on a barebones income solution. while waiting to be deployed overseas. Many have families who AFSA recently sent a letter to the director general of the pulled up roots from other parts of the country, tried to sell or Foreign Service, Ambassador Nancy Powell, requesting that rent their former homes, had spouses quit their jobs, and gave the Board of the Foreign Service take up this issue but was up day-care or education options for their children to move to deferred back to the agency. We will continue meeting with this new environment. USAID management to change this unacceptable situation. The question has to be asked — why don’t USAID junior In the meantime, I welcome your comments; please send them officers receive many of the same employment benefits and rights to [email protected]. ❏

50 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 A F S 2011-2013 Report from the AFSA-PAC Treasurer A Governing Board Dear Colleagues: heAFSACommitteeonElections N ispleasedtoannouncetheresults E of the 2011-2013 AFSA Govern- I am delighted to report to you that 2010 was AFSA-PAC’s best fundraising year since W T S ing Board election. 2005, and the second-best ever. Both in terms of having the resources to meet our daunt- President: Susan Johnson ing tasks on the Hill and sustaining the morale of those of us who spend a lot of time on Treasurer: Andrew Winter this effort, it was a very good year indeed. Secretary: Susan Shultz Retiree Vice President: In round numbers, 600 donors contributed $40,000, and the average contribution was Robert Houdek $65.55 — almost 10 percent higher than last year. The percentage of active duty donations State Vice President: Daniel Hirsch increased markedly over previous years, as did our support from overseas. Both develop- USAID Vice President: ments are indicators of increasing momentum and improving health. At the same time, Francisco Zamora FCS Vice President: Keith Curtis our PAC has continued to enjoy FAS Vice President: David Mergen The percentage of active duty donations strong and consistent support Retiree Representatives increased markedly over previous years, from retired members. Molly Williamson as did our support from overseas. Increasing support from our Edward Marks active-duty members — particu- Hugh Neighbour Both developments are indicators of Mary Ellen Gilroy increasing momentum and improving health. larly those serving overseas — is State Representatives the key to our success at a time Matthew Asada when the congressional environment has never been more stressful or more threatening William Bent to those serving at our embassies and consulates. Grace Choi In 2010, we distributed $23,000 on a bipartisan basis to the chairs and senior members Mary Glantz Les Hickman of the relevant authorizing and appropriating committees and subcommittees in both the Kenneth Kero-Mentz House and Senate — $12,000 went to Democrats and $11,000 to Republicans (the small Kimberly Krhounek imbalance will be corrected this year). In addition, we supported friends of the Foreign Elise Mellinger Joyce Namde Service regardless of committee assignment, such as Chris Van Hollen Jr., D-Md. David Zwach None of us should doubt that the debt crisis is real. Major structural reforms, I believe, USAID Representatives are inevitable. State and even Defense face significant budget reductions. We have a strat- Michael Henning egy to deal with these challenges. Our priority is people over programs. Vacant Recently, the 150 Account (international) budget has been around $55 billion. Of that, FCS Representative $14 billion is the “people” budget and the rest is programs. Our goal is to protect and even Steve Morrison enhance the “people” budget. Programs can be reduced without too much damage and FAS Representative increased later. In contrast, any segment of our trained work force that is eliminated (for Andrew Burst example, an Arabist) takes at least a decade to replace. IBB Representative Because the impact of AFSA-PAC, like similar organizations, is cumulative, we are for- Andre P. De Nesnera (in the absence of candidates, tunate that we are in our 11th year of activity. We will need every asset we can acquire in De Nesnera volunteered to represent the the struggles we now face and will face for the next several years. Your continuing support IBB and was appointed by the board) is absolutely critical to the outcome.

Congratulations to the winners, as well as to all who demonstrated their dedi- Respectfully submitted, cation to AFSA by standing as candi- Thomas D. Boyatt dates. Treasurer, AFSA-PAC

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 51 A F S A 2011 AFSA Awards Celebrate Dissent N E W S

(Left to right) Amb. Charles H. Rivkin with Joel Ehrendreich, (Left to right) Amb. William Burns, under secretary for political affairs, with winner of the William R. Rivkin Award. Amb. Roz Ridgway, winner of the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award; Susan Johnson, AFSA president; and Ian Houston, AFSA executive director.

(Left to right) Amb. William C. Harrop with Ann E. (Left to right) Susan Johnson with James W. Bayuk, winner of the Christian Rehme, winner of the Nelson B. Delavan Award. A. Herter Award. PHOTOS BY DONNA AYERST DONNA BY PHOTOS (Left to right) Jon B. Clements with Michael L. Vining, winner of (Left to right) F. Allen “Tex” Harris with Catherine Ebert Gray, the M. Juanita Guess Award. accepting for Maurizio Visani, winner of the F. Allen “Tex” Harris Award.

52 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 A F S And Performance A N E W S

(Left to right) Amb. Avis T. Bohlen with Marie T. Farrar, winner of the Avis Bohlen Award, and Susan Johnson.

(Left to right) Susan Johnson with Lawrence A. Fields, winner of the AFSA Post Representative of the Year Award.

(Left to right) Amb. Avis T. Bohlen with Rishan and Brianna Chaudhry, accepting for their mother, Charla Chaudhry, winner of the Avis Bohlen Award.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 53 A F S Witness to Tragedy: A A Reflection on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 N BY DONNA AYERST E W n silence we headed to the embassy’s er had out-of-towners staying in his apart- employees,familymembers,locallyengaged S lobby where one of our two televisions ment, so he felt it his duty to cook them staff and two U.S. Marines ―boarded the Iwith cable hook-up was located. Others pancakes for breakfast instead of arriving two boats that took us from the dusty park- were already there. No one said a word. at his World Trade Center office at his usual ing lot where we left our cars to a river camp People sat or stood in their places, staring time of 8:30 a.m. noted for good food and excellent bird at the images of the World Trade Center Wherever we went, people offered watching. On that September morning, ― ablaze. their condolences and expressed shock at thoughts of the World Trade Center, the The announcer’s voice quivered as he the loss of life. Local English-speaking Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania were reported a plane had hit the north tower, churches held memorial services. Potluck replaced by the desperate need to get away. mid-building, at 8:46 a.m. At 9:03 a.m., a meals were organized to get people togeth- The camp was owned and operated by second plane crashed into the Center’s er. Our community grieved. an engaging family from South Africa. As south tower, a third plane hit the we scrambled up the bank to the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. and a fourth large, thatch-covered dining gaze- plane crashed into the ground in bo jutting out over the river, the rural Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. voices seemed particularly ani- On Sept. 11, 2001, the United mated and excited. States came under attack. “Lunch will be served shortly, One week later, outside the but how about some drinks,” the U.S. embassy in Maputo, Graça camp owner shouted out. Jona- Machel, the former first lady of than Gross and Sgt. Alejandro San- Mozambique and wife of Nelson chez (a fellow U.S. Marine) stop- Mandela, arrived to sign the con- ped long enough to take a couple dolence book. Framed by the of sips from their Cokes before American flag and bouquets of heading to the kayaks sitting at the flowers, she offered her sympa- river’s edge. thies. Private Jonathan Gross, a

member of our Marine Security AYERST DONNA A Strong Wind Guard detachment, stood guard, Ambassador Sharon P. Wilkinson watches as Graça Machel signs a con- Someone came up to me and dolence book, while Pvt. Jonathan Gross stands guard. mimicking a grenadier: no eye said,“ItlooksliketheMarinesare contact, no movement, just perfect stillness in trouble.” The wind had blown them to in his U.S. Marine dress blues. the opposite shore, where they somehow I snapped this photo of Gross standing flipped the kayak. Without life vests, they guard. The embassy’s weekly newsletter ran struggled to stay afloat, but disappeared it on the front page; 10 copies were given as the rescue boat approached. In less to Jonathan to send to his folks back home. thananhour,ourtwoMarinesweregone. Itwasaweekbeforetheirbodieswererecov- Away from Home ered. ForForeignServiceemployeesandfam- The regional psychiatrist met with ily members, being away from home hit AYERST DONNA those who had witnessed the accident. A U.S. Marines carry their comrades’ coffins to particularlyhard. Manyofussufferedfeel- the plane waiting to take them home. memorial service was held at the ambas- ings of confusion, anxiety and fear. There sador’s residence, followed by a small cer- wererumorsthatU.S.embassiesmightbe Two weeks after the bombing, a day-trip emonyattheairporttoseethemoffasthey targeted. out of town took folks away from the returned home to the U.S. For some, there was relief at news of a embassy to the banks of the Incomati River. As we mourn the thousands who per- family member or friend had somehow It was a welcome chance to unwind and ished, for the 30 people who left the river managed to avoid the death and destruc- embrace our friends and colleagues. bankthatday,twomoredeathswillbefor- ❏ tion by a quirk of fate. One FSO’s broth- Thirty-two people ― Foreign Service ever linked to Sept. 11, 2001.

54 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 A F Book Notes: Washington Rules: require a global military presence; that U.S. S forces be configured for global power pro- A America’s Path to Permanent War jection; and that existing or anticipated BY ASA MACLAY HORNER, FSJ EDITORIAL INTERN threats must be countered by a policy of global interventionism. N n Friday, June 24, AFSA’s Book full impact of our influence, for such pur- The premise of Washington Rulesis that E Notes 2011 program welcomed Dr. posesasweseefitandbysuchmeansaswe these assumptions are no longer valid, if they W OAndrew J. Bacevich, who spoke see fit.” ever were. Blind adherence to them has led S about his latest book, Washington Rules: This proposition, says Bacevich, was the to a situation of permanent war, setting the America’s Path to Permanent War. First basis for the “Washington U.S. on a course to bank- published in 2010 by Metropolitan Books, Rules” that have dominated ruptcy, both financial and it was released in paperback this year. His American statecraft since What is needed, Bacevich moral. presentation drew a large audience of active the end of World War II. believes, is a fundamental What is needed, Bace- and retired Foreign Service personnel, along Bacevich explained that re-evaluation of our approach vich believes, is a funda- with academics, journalists and former mil- the “rules,” as they have mental re-evaluation of our itary personnel. since evolved, have two to national security. approach to national secu- He began his talk by referring to his habit components: rity. We need to develop a of collecting old issues of Life Magazine, then • A “credo” that the U.S. is summoned, new credo focused on fulfilling the aspira- highlighted one article, “The American alone, to lead, save, liberate and transform tions of our founding documents and Century,” written by publisher Henry R. the world, a notion he traces in the attending to our prosperity. A new trinity Luce in February 1941. The article exhort- American psyche as far back as John Win- should emphasize that the primary duty sta- ed Americans “to accept wholeheartedly our throp’s “City upon a Hill” sermon of 1630. tion of the American soldier is America duty and our opportunity as the most pow- • A “trinity” of beliefs and habits at the (meaning we should “surgically trim” our erful and vital nation in the world and in core of U.S. national security policy: that the vast network of bases); U.S. forces should consequence to exert upon the world the minimum essentials of peace and order be configured to defend U.S. soil and a very limited list of our most vital interests; and that, consistent with the principles of a “just AFSA Honors Kennan Award Winner war,” military action must only be used to BY ASGEIR SIGFUSSON, AFSA MARKETING AND OUTREACH MANAGER defend the U.S. or as a very last resort. Newsweek calls Washington Rules nFriday,June3,AFSAPresidentSusanR.Johnsonparticipatedinaceremonyhon- “tough-minded, bracing, and intelligent.” oringgraduatesoftheNationalDefenseUniversity’scampusatFortLeslieJ.McNair David M. Kennedy writes, “Bacevich lays Oin southwest Washington, D.C. AFSA’s role at this annual ceremony is to present bare the dogmas and shibboleths that have theGeorgeF.KennanAwardtotheStateDepartment animated national security doctrine for the graduatewhosefinalpaperhasbeenchosenasthebest last half century. This passionate, often dis- essay on strategy or policy. comforting book brings rare clarity to a sub- This year’s winner is Todd Holmstrom, an eco- ject of urgent importance to Americans.” nomicofficerwhoselastpostwasasthedeputydirec- A review of the book appeared in the March tor of the State Department’s Office of Israel and Foreign Service Journal. Palestinian Affairs. He previously spent three years Andrew Bacevich is a retired U.S. army in Damascus and earlier served in Tunis, Ottawa, colonel and professor of history and inter- Paramaribo and Washington. Prior to joining the national relations at Boston University. He DONNA AYERST DONNA Foreign Service in 1995, Todd was an officer in the is the author of The Limits of Power: The End AFSA President Susan Johnson and Kennan Award winner Todd Holmstrom. U.S.ArmyandwasdeployedoverseastotheBalkans, of American Exceptionalism (Metro- Somalia, the Sinai, Honduras and Germany. He will politan Books, 2008) and The New American next travel to Chad to become the DCM at Embassy N’Djamena. Todd’s essay was titled Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by “Acknowledging a Threat: Countering the Syria, Iran, Hamas, Hizballah Axis.” War (Oxford University Press, 2006), and The prize is a check for $250 and a certificate from AFSA. The prize money is intend- holds a Ph.D. in American diplomatic his- edforthepurchaseofscholarlybooks. TheawardisnamedfortheFSOauthorofthe“Long tory from Princeton University. Telegram” from Moscow in 1946 that outlined the U.S. Cold War policy of containment. Our next Book Notes program will take GeorgeF.Kennanservedin1947asthefirstdeputycommandantoftheNationalWarCollege, place on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 3 p.m., when which established the award. For more information on the Kennan Award, please visit the retired FSO Patricia McArdle discusses her AFSA Web site at www.afsa.org/kennan_writing_award.aspx. ❏ new novel, Farishta. ❏

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 55 A F S Foreign Service Youth Award Recipients Announced A BY GABRIELLE HAMPSON, COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH OFFICER, FAMILY LIAISON OFFICE

N Ages 9 to 12 E First place: Caitlin Chaisson, 10, Embassy Tashkent W Second place: Katharine Schlachter, 11, Washington, D.C. S Third place: Sydney Selam Domaingue, 11, Washington, D.C.

Ages 13 to 18 First place: Jillian Luoma-Overstreet, 17, Washington, D.C. Second place: Olivia Doret, 14, Embassy Paris Third place: Castilleja Kuzis, 16, Embassy Colombo

DONNA AYERST DONNA ENVIRONMENT CONTEST: Winners of the FSYF Awards: Front row (left to right): Emma Keller, Cassie Alex Moreno, 13, Embassy Dar es Salaam Vining. Back row (left to right): Alex Moreno, Chungdhak Sherpa, Alexandra Ike, Jared Gibson, Jillian Luoma-Overstreet, Oliva Doret, Katie Schlachter and KIDVID CONTEST: Drew Turner. First place: Latham Wright, 15, n July 15, Director General of the Foreign Service Nancy Embassy Manila Powell, the Family Liaison Office and the Foreign Service Joint second place: Kelli Wilson, YouthFoundationco-hostedthe2011ForeignServiceYouth 13, and Cassie Vining, 10,

O AYERST DONNA AwardsceremonyintheBenjaminFranklinDiplomaticReception Embassy Ulaanbaatar, and Drew Turner’s KidVid showing life Room. Foreign Service children were honored for their artwork, Peter Huson, 12, Embassy in Kathmandu. video production, essay writing, community service and an envi- Krakow, Poland ronmentalproject. Childrenwhoseparentsareservingorhaveserved Third place: Drew Turner, 14, Embassy Kathmandu at an unaccompanied post were also recognized. To learn more about each award, please visit www.fsyf.org. COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD: Jared Gibson, 16, Embassy Tunis Alexandra Ike, 18, Embassy Accra

ESSAY CONTEST: Middle school First place: Andriy Etcheverry, 14, Consulate General St. Petersburg Joint second place: Anna Bailey, 14, Embassy Riga, and Olivia

Mozdzierz, age 11, Embassy La Paz AYERST DONNA Medal recipients: Front row (left to right): Webb Barcus Nims, Jem Barcus High school Nims, Zea Barcus Nims, George Mathews, John Mathews, Taogh Keane, Ricana First place: Chungdhak Lhamo Sherpa, 19, Washington, D.C. Walker, Sidona Walker, Kiran Keane, Joseph Henzel, Brendan Henzel, Claire Second place: Castilleja Kuzis, 16, Embassy Colombo Henzel. Back row (left to right): Melissa Mathews, Claire Mathews and DG Nancy Powell. ART CONTEST: Ages 5 to 8 UNACCOMPANIED POST MEDALS First place: Braden Bitner, 8, In 2006, the department began sending medals and certificates Washington, D.C. of recognition to children of parents serving at unaccompanied Second place: Gabriel Hastings, 9, posts. Designed and distributed by the Family Liaison Office, the Embassy Yerevan medals and certificates acknowledge the sacrifice children make. Joint third place: Emma Keller, 8, In 2011, more than 500 children have received medals and cer- DONNA AYERST DONNA Embassy Kathmandu, and Zea Barcus Nims admires Katherine tificates. FormoreinformationaboutFLO’sUnaccompaniedTour Hannah Ha-Eun Kim, 8, Schlachter’s “An American in Recognition Program, please visit the FLO Web site at www. Embassy Ouagadougou Johannesburg.” state.gov/m/dghr/flo. ❏

56 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 A F AFSA to Collaborate with MSU AFSA-FPA Events S A BY TOM SWITZER, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Spread Awareness

t the invitation of the Dean of Michi- of FS Work N gan State University’s Department BY DANIELLE DERBES, E Aof International Studies, AFSA BOOK MARKETING ASSOCIATE W Communications Director Tom Switzer or the spring 2011 academic semes- S visited the East Lansing, Mich., campus ter, AFSA teamed up with the from June 13 to June 15. Switzer met with FForeignPolicyAssociationUniversity Jeff Reidinger, dean of international stud- toco-sponsorseminarsoncareersininter- ies, and Prof. Charles Gliozzo, director of national affairs. The nonprofit Foreign international programs, to discuss increased AYERST DONNA Policy Association began the FPA (left to right) Jeff Reidinger, Tom Switzer, Prof collaboration between AFSA and the uni- Charles Gliozzo. University program in spring 2010 with a versity. seminar on the Foreign Service career. In MSU is planning to enhance its inter- attractive Foreign Service career opportu- fall2011,FPAexpandedtheofferings,hold- national programs and exchanges, and is nities offered by the State Department and ingmorethan20internationalcareerssem- specifically interested in working with AFSAthe U.S. Agency for International Develop- inars in New York City. For the spring to recruit more retired Senior FSOs to ment. He also provided anecdotes illus- semester,FPAheldseminarsoncareersin speak. Switzer highlighted AFSA’s exten- trating what FSOs actually do in missions international development, the United sive national speaker program, which around the globe. NationsandtheForeignService. Allthree involves more than 500 retired FSOs, and The audience reaction was enthusias- Washington, D.C., events were held at offered these resources to MSU. tic, with many attendees asking for more AFSA. Switzer also met with the Department information on the Foreign Service. of International Studies program planning Switzer presented copies of AFSA’s book, One participant commented committee to discuss several areas of pos- Inside a U.S. Embassy, to the dean of inter- later that: “Hearing from FSOs sible collaboration, and suggested a num- national studies and several faculty member of expert FSO speakers who might par- bers. is fantastic — something you don’t ticipate in MSU programs over the next The visit served to further AFSA’s goal get on the various Web sites.” year. of expanding its outreach and increasing On June 14, Switzer spoke before a partnerships with universities nation- ShawnDorman,editorofInsideaU.S. regional faculty association on the many wide. ❏ Embassy, served as instructor for both the Washington and New York seminars on the Foreign Service, dividing the presen- TRANSITION CENTER SCHEDULE OF COURSES tation into a discussion of the Foreign for September, October, November 2011 Service career and the hiring process. Sept. 9 MQ803 Realities of Foreign Service Life Approximately 60 students and profes- Sept. 10 MQ802 Communication Across Cultures sionals attended each of the FS seminars. Sept. 16 MQ703 Post Options for Employment/Training Guests from the State Department and Sept. 17 MQ116 Protocol USAIDwereonhandtoanswerquestions Sept. 27 MQ115 Explaining America from the audience about their careers. Sept. 29-30 MQ104 Regulations, Allowances & Finances Diplomat-in-Residence Ambassador Eunice Reddick attended the Foreign Oct. 13 MQ704 Targeting the Job Market ServiceseminarinWashington,alongwith Oct. 15 MQ116 Protocol & U.S. Representation Abroad StateFSOsSteveandKellyAdams-Smith, Oct. 19 MQ500 Encouraging Resilience in FS Children Oct. 26 MQ203 Singles in the Foreign Service while USUN Political Counselor Jim Donegan, Diplomat-in-Residence Tom Nov. 2-3 MQ107 English Teaching Seminar ArmbrusterandFCSOfficerSteveKnode Nov. 5 MQ116 Protocol & U.S. Representation Abroad attended the New York session. For the Nov. 15 MQ115 Explaining America development seminar in Washington, Nov. 30 MQ801 Maintaining Long-Distance Relationships BrianLeveyandJonDorseytookquestions To register or for further information, please e-mail the FSI Transition Center at FSITCTraining@ about their careers at USAID. The atten- state.gov. Continued on page 58

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 57 A F AFSA-FPA • Continued from page 57 S dees appreciated the chance to meet AFSANEWSBRIEFS A active-duty FSOs. One participant commented later that: “Hearing from FSOs is FS High School Student Wins Hard-Language Scholarship fantastic — something you don’t get on the Jason Kazi, son of Foreign Service employee Pamela Kazi and general services office N various Web sites,” while another said that employee Towhid Kazi, has been awarded one of 650 National Security Language Initiative for Youth Scholarships for the 2011-2012 school year. E the seminar was “Very in depth, the best The merit-based scholarships are for eligible high school students to learn less commonly W information session for FSO careers that S taught languages in summer, semester and academic-year overseas immersion programs. I've been to.” Funded by the Department of State, the NSLI-Y program is administered by a consortium of The enthusiastic question-and-answer nonprofit organizations led by American Councils for International Education and includes sessions covered everything from general American Field Service-USA, international Educations And Resource Network-USA and inquiries about the various specialist posi- Concordia Language Villages. tions at State to detailed questions on the The NSLI-Y scholarship enables Jason to study Hindi in India for the summer. The merit- Foreign Service officer selection process. At based scholarship covers all program costs for participants including domestic and interna- each event in Washington, audience tional travel; tuition and related academic preparation; support and testing for language members signed up to receive more study; educational and cultural activities focused on language learning; orientations; applica- information about AFSA, picked up ble visa fees; three meals per day; and accommodations, preferably in a host family. copies of the FSJ, purchased copies of Inside The NSLI-Y program aims to spark a lifelong interest in foreign languages and cultures among a corps of young Americans with the skills necessary to advance international dia- a U.S. Embassy: Diplomacy at Work, and logue by building on the foundations developed through person-to-person relationships. discussed the work of the Foreign Service NSLI-Y offers overseas study opportunities for summer, semester and academic-year lan- with AFSA staff and the seminar guests guage learning in Arabic, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Persian, Russian and Turkish. ❏ from State and USAID. NSLI-Y scholars are between 15 and 18 years old. Applications for 2012-2013 NSLI-Y programs will be available at www.nsliforyouth.org in the early fall. In the article, “Work-Life Balance in the Foreign Service,” in the July-August issue AFSA/TLG Intern (p. 50): Faye Barnes, not Judy Ikels, quot- Every year, AFSA and the Thursday Luncheon Group sponsor a minority college student ed former Secretary of State Colin Powell. for a summer internship at the Department of State. This year’s intern is Matthew Thompkins, whose name we misspelled in the June edition of AFSA News our apologies! Please look for We regret the error. ― an article on Matthew and his summer experience in the October issue. ❏ CLASSIFIEDS

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60 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 IN MEMORY

Edward West Burgess, 91, a re- fied as a parachutist, a military instruc- pines, the University of Kentucky, tired Foreign Service officer, died on tor, a civil affairs officer and a foreign Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University May 7 from complications of Parkin- area officer with a specialization in and Northern Virginia Community son’s disease. He served in the U.S. Southeast Asia. College. Army during World War II and then Mr. Dance retired from the mili- In the diplomatic arena, Mr. Dance joined the Foreign Service in 1947. tary in 1986, and later that year he was recognized for his achievements in His assignments included Syria, Egypt, joined the Foreign Service. A Span- the area of international public out- South Africa, Burma, Yugoslavia, ish speaker by training, he served in reach. But he was also a music afi- France and Czechoslovakia. public diplomacy positions in Port of cionado, amassing 6,000 CDs repre- He retired in 1976 to become assis- Spain, Caracas, San Salvador and Bo- senting artists from Miles Davis to tant director of world affairs at the Uni- gota, and also served in Lilongwe. His Hugh Masekela; a connoisseur of versity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He last overseas assignment, in 2002, was South African wines; and an avid col- loved riding his motorcycle and play- as deputy chief of mission in Mba- lector of arts and crafts from around ing tennis, bridge, chess and a rousing bane. the world. He always loved to enter- game of hearts with his family. In Washington, Mr. Dance served tain people at his home, colleagues re- as the director of career development call. and training and as the deputy direc- Among Mr. Dance’s avocations, his tor of public diplomacy and public af- favorite was broadcasting: he worked Robert Lawrence Dance, 68, a fairs in the State Department’s Bureau as a radio disc jockey in the U.S., retired Senior Foreign Service officer, of African Affairs. He retired from the Philippines, El Salvador and Colom- died on Jan. 2 following a battle with Foreign Service in 2007. bia, promoting the American genres of systemic scleroderma and pancreatic During the course of his military jazz and R&B. He loved traveling and cancer. and diplomatic careers, Mr. Dance working around the world, interacting Mr. Dance was born in Lexington, earned several higher degrees: an M.A. with people from different cultures Ky., to Anna Corinne Rice and Sher- in English and literature from Indiana and giving to local and international man Dance. He entered government University, an MBA from Embry-Rid- charities. But his favorite pastime was service as an enlisted soldier in the dle Aeronautical University in Daytona spending time with his family. U.S. Army and attended the Philippine Beach, Fla., and an M.S. in national se- Mr. Dance is survived by his wife, Military Academy in Baguio City, grad- curity from the National War College Claris Xiomara Dance, a native of uating in 1968 with a B.S. in general in Washington, D.C. He also com- Caracas who now resides in Spring- engineering. He is one of only four pleted the Flag Officers Joint Forces field, Va.; three sons, Robert II (and his Americans, and also the last American, Maritime Component Commander wife, Missy) of Cincinnati, Ohio; Adrian to graduate from that academy. Course at the U.S. Naval War College of Washington, D.C.; and Kristoffer Upon graduation, Mr. Dance was in Newport, R.I. (and his wife, Michelle) of Baguio City, commissioned in the U.S. Army and He taught at the U.S. Military Philippines; and two grandchildren, served in various capacities at Fort Academy, the Philippine Military Robert III and Sarah Dance of Cincin- Knox, Ky., and in Vietnam. He quali- Academy, the University of the Philip- nati.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 61 I N M EMORY

Lawrence S. Eagleburger, 80, Ambassador Eagleburger serv- a member of the Iraq Study Group. the only career Foreign Service offi- ed as assistant secretary for European He also led the International Com- cer to become Secretary of State, affairs until 1982, when he was con- mission on Holocaust Era Insurance died on June 4 of pneumonia at the firmed as under secretary of State for Claims. University of Virginia Medical Cen- political affairs. He held that position In a statement from the White ter in Charlottesville, Va., where he until 1984, when he retired from the House, President Barack Obama eu- had lived since 1990. Foreign Service to become the pres- logized the former Secretary of State: Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger ident of Kissinger Associates. “Lawrence Eagleburger devoted his was born on Aug. 1, 1930, in Mil- In 1989 Amb. Eagleburger was life to the security of our nation and waukee, Wisc., and was a 1952 grad- persuaded to return to the State De- to strengthening our ties with allies uate of the University of Wisconsin. partment by Secretary of State James and partners.” Following a two-year stint in the U.S. Baker to serve as Deputy Secretary. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Army, he returned to the university, He became acting Secretary of Clinton hailed him as “a strong voice receiving a master’s degree in politi- State when Mr. Baker stepped down and stalwart champion for America’s cal science in 1957. in 1992, and was confirmed to the values. He was outspoken, but al- After seeing a notice on a campus position on Dec. 8 of that year. His ways the consummate diplomat. bulletin board, he took the Foreign tenure as Secretary ended on Jan. 20, Even in retirement, Larry remained Service exam — he had never even 1993, when President Bill Clinton a staunch advocate for the causes he thought of the Foreign Service be- was sworn in. believed in. He never stopped car- fore then, he told the Washington ing, contributing and speaking out.” Post in 1984 — and began a 27-year “Lawrence Eagleburger Secretary Eagleburger received career with the State Department in the Presidential Citizens Medal from 1957. was a strong voice and President George H.W. Bush in Mr. Eagleburger’s first post was 1991. And in 1998, AFSA conferred Honduras. Following language train- stalwart champion for its Lifetime Contributions to Ameri- ing at the Foreign Service Institute, America’s values.” can Diplomacy Award on him. he was assigned to Yugoslavia in He was a member of the board of — Secretary of State 1962. There he organized a human- directors of the International Repub- Hillary Rodham Clinton itarian relief effort, including con- lican Institute, chairman of the board struction of a full-scale U.S. Army of the Forum for International Policy, field hospital in Skopje, after a large Ambassador Eagleburger was- and a member of the Washington In- earthquake struck Macedonia in known as a troubleshooter, a straight- stitute for Near East Policy Board of 1963. He became known locally as talker with an independent mind and Advisers. “Lawrence of Macedonia.” a rapier wit who specialized in crises. A brief first marriage, to Muriel After assignments in Washington, President George H.W. Bush called Saul, ended in divorce in 1963. He D.C., at the Department of State and him “one of the most capable and re- married Marlene Ann Heinemann of at the National Security Council, he spected diplomats our Foreign Serv- Milwaukee in 1966. She predeceased served as political adviser to the U.S. ice ever produced.” him in 2010, after 44 years of mar- Mission to NATO in Brussels in 1969. After leaving the State Depart- riage. He returned to Washington in 1973 ment, he was an international adviser Mr. Eagleburger is survived by to become Secretary of State Henry to the Washington law firm led by three sons, Lawrence Scott of Madi- Kissinger’s executive assistant. Pres- former Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn. son, Wisc., and Lawrence Andrew ident Jimmy Carter appointed Mr. President George W. Bush asked him and Lawrence Jason, both of Char- Eagleburger ambassador to Yu- to lead the U.S. delegation at the fu- lottesville, Va.; three grandchildren; goslavia in 1977. neral of Zoran Dhindjic, the Serbian and a sister, Jean Case of Las Vegas, Returning to Washington in 1980, prime minister. In 2006, he served as Nev.

62 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011 I N M EMORY

Nathaniel Davis, 86, a retired commission as an ensign in the U.S. there he returned to Washington, D.C., FSO and former ambassador, died on Navy in September 1944, but was a for an assignment at the Peace Corps, May 16 in Claremont, Calif., where he member of the Class of 1946. He was where he was special assistant to the di- was professor emeritus of political sci- on active duty on the USS Lake Cham- rector, R. Sargent Shriver, and later ence at Harvey Mudd College. plain until 1946, after which he earned deputy director for program develop- Mr. Davis was born in Cambridge, a master’s degree and, ultimately, a ment and operations. Mass., on April 12, 1925. His father, Ph.D. in 1960 from the Fletcher School Mr. Davis was named U.S. envoy to Harvey Nathaniel Davis, taught at of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts Univer- Bulgaria in 1965, after which he served Harvard University and his mother, sity. on the staff of the National Security Alice Rohde Davis, was a research Mr. Davis began his Foreign Service Council in the White House, where he medical doctor. In 1928, the family career in 1947 with an assignment in was responsible for Soviet and East Eu- moved to the campus of Stevens Insti- Prague, where he witnessed the com- ropean matters as well as the United tute of Technology, in Hoboken, N.J., munist takeover less than a year later. Nations. where Harvey Davis was president. Subsequent postings took him to Flo- In 1968, he went to Guatemala as Nathaniel Davis attended the Stevens rence, Rome and Moscow before he re- ambassador, and in 1971 to Chile. Mr. Hoboken Academy and graduated turned to Washington, D.C., to work on Davis was ambassador in Santiago dur- from Philips Exeter Academy in 1942. the Soviet desk in the State Department ing the presidency of Salvador Allende He then attended Brown Univer- in 1956. That same year he married through the coup that deposed him, sity, where he served in the U.S. Navy Elizabeth Kirkbridge Creese. and would later write a history of that Reserve. He received his degree and His next posting was Caracas. From period called The Last Two Years of

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 63 I N M EMORY

Salvador Allende (Cornell University Los Angeles, Calif., James Creese to the beach, nature walks around the Press, 1985). Davis of Barrington, R.I., and Thomas farm and fishing together. Ambassador Davis returned to the Rohde Davis of Boston, Mass.; eight Mr. Dozier is survived by his wife of State Department in 1973, where he grandchildren; two great-granddaugh- 61 years, Nancy, of Marion; a son, Billy was director general and then assistant ters; and two sisters. Dozier of Marion; daughters, Carolyn secretary for African affairs. He re- Dozier of Annandale, Va., and Eliza- signed from the latter post over a policy beth McCollom of Matthews, N.C.; difference with Secretary of State and three grandchildren. Henry Kissinger regarding covert ac- William B. “Bill” Dozier, 85, a re- tion in Angola. Davis was subsequently tired Foreign Service officer, died on appointed ambassador to Switzerland April 29 from complications of Alz- in 1976. heimer’s disease in Marion, S.C. Patricia Gordon Erickson, 84, a In 1977 he moved with his family, Mr. Dozier was born on Aug. 24, former Foreign Service specialist and which by then included four children, 1925, in Marion County, S.C. He re- widow of the late FSO Elden Erickson, to Newport, R.I., where he taught at ceived a B.S. in engineering from the died at her home in Solomons, Md., on the Naval War College for six years as University of South Carolina and an March 29. diplomat-in-residence. In 1983, he re- M.A. in economics from Yale Univer- Mrs. Erickson was born on Sept. 7, signed from the Foreign Service and sity. He was a World War II veteran 1926, in Vallejo, Calif. She grew up accepted a position as the Alexander with the 58th Seabee Battalion. there and, later, in France, where she and Adelaide Hixon Professor of Hu- In 1947 Mr. Dozier joined the For- was sent to live with her grandmother. manities at Harvey Mudd College in eign Service. His overseas posts in- During that sojourn, she fell in love Claremont, Calif. He taught there until cluded Jordan, France, Aruba, Italy, with all things French. She attended retiring in 2002, at age 77. Sweden and Israel. His last position in college at the University of California During his tenure at Harvey Mudd Washington, D.C., was as director for in Berkeley, where she graduated with College, he wrote a book, using re- regional affairs in the Bureau of Near a major in political science. During search he had been compiling since Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Prior World War II, she worked in Honolulu, 1947, called A Long Walk to Church: to that he served as counselor for eco- with a security clearance that would A Contemporary History of Russian nomic and commercial affairs at his protect her underground in the event Orthodoxy (Westview Press). A second posts in Europe and the Middle East. of a nuclear attack. edition of the book came out in 2003. While in Jordan, he met his future Following the war, she joined the A skier, Davis was also skilled at wife, Nancy Dimmig, who was then on Foreign Service as a secretary. While white-water canoeing and mountain assignment to the consulate general in on assignment in Tokyo in 1956, she climbing, for which he won several Jerusalem. They were married on the called Elden Erickson, an economic of- awards. His most notable accomplish- Mount of Olives in Jerusalem in 1950. ficer, long distance to tell him he would ment was a “first ascent” of Mount Mr. Dozier retired from the Foreign not be able to get out of his assignment Abanico in the Venezuelan Andes with Service in 1979, and the couple settled in Laos. It was the beginning of what George Band, a member of the team in North Myrtle Beach, where he own- would be a 50-year marriage and a long that had first successfully climbed Mt. ed and operated ERA Dozier Realty. joint diplomatic career. Everest. He also was a political activist, In 1992, they moved to his childhood In 1961, before Mr. Erickson’s as- starting in the 1960s in the civil rights farm in nearby Marion, S.C. There he signment to Kobe-Osaka, the couple movement. He held positions through- dusted off the farming skills he had adopted a son, Mark, whom they out his life in the Democratic Party, learned as a young man and raised cat- whisked across the country to Kansas both in California and nationally. tle and horses. to meet the extended family before de- Amb. Davis leaves his wife, Eliza- Bill Dozie enjoyed gardening, golf- parting overseas. After braving a bliz- beth of Claremont; four children, Mar- ing and being close to family members. zard in Kansas, they arrived in Cali- garet Davis Mainardi of Boonton He loved nature and the outdoors, and fornia, where they set off by ship, stop- Township, N.J., Helen Miller Davis of his family has happy memories of trips ping in Hawaii on the way to Japan.

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Later assignments took the family as friends and family recall, continued he had held a summer job in 1939. In to Beirut and Rotterdam, with several learning, studying and working to de- 1942 he joined the War Production tours in Washington in between. Fam- velop and maintain an open mind spir- Board, and in 1943 moved to the Of- ily members recall that Mrs. Erickson itually and emotionally. fice of Strategic Services in Washing- took all the new assignments in stride, Mrs. Erickson is survived by her ton, D.C. From 1944 to 1945, he was devoting herself to studying the ways son, Mark Erickson, of Tampa, Fla. posted in London, working on eco- and languages of each country. Mind- nomic bombing targets in Germany. ful of diplomatic protocol, she also He married Carolyn Berry in 1945. made sure that the whole family took Mr. Jacobs joined the State Depart- in as much of the local art and culture George Robert Jacobs, 92, a re- ment in 1945 and worked on German as possible. tired Foreign Service officer, died of and Austrian affairs and on the Mar- During her experience abroad, congestive heart failure on April 13 at shall Plan until 1956, when he received Mrs. Erickson found that families his home in Washington, D.C. his Foreign Service commission. moving overseas needed information Mr. Jacobs was born on March 15, During a 17-year career as an FSO, available while traveling and began 1919, in Chicago, Ill., and attended the Mr. Jacobs served overseas in Bangkok writing travel guides, first for Holland Francis W. Parker School there. He as an economic officer working with and, later, for Germany. She contin- graduated from Harvard University in the Economic Commission for Asia ued writing during retirement in 1940 with a degree in economics. and the Far East (1956-1958); in Lon- Calvert County, Md., where she After college, Mr. Jacobs joined the don, where as a first secretary he penned articles about local issues and, Work Projects Administration, where worked on international agreements on

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 65 I N M EMORY shipping, rubber and tin, and on the deputy assistant secretary for interna- Richard E. Johnson, 90, a retired British economy (1959-1963); and in tional resources and food policy (1964- Foreign Service officer, died on April Manila, where he served as alternate 1968). He retired in 1973 after service 20 in Washington, D.C. U.S. director of the Asian Develop- as a deputy examiner on the Board of Mr. Johnson was born on Oct. 5, ment Bank (1968-1972). Examiners for the U.S. Foreign Service. 1920, in Evanston, Ill. He grew up in In Washington, D.C., Mr. Jacobs at- Mr. Jacobs is survived by his wife, Winnetka, Ill., attending the Montes- tended the Senior Seminar (1963- Carolyn, of Washington, D.C.; a son, sori School in his early years and grad- 1964). Until 1968 he served as deputy Michael B. Jacobs of Groton, Mass.; a uating from North Shore Country Day director and then director of the Office daughter, Deborah Jacobs of Takoma School in 1938. He graduated summa of International Resources, and as act- Park, Md.; three grandchildren; and cum laude from Harvard in 1942, and ing deputy assistant secretary and, later, three great-grandchildren. did graduate work in economics at

Alice S. Pickering, 80, a former where he served as ambassador: was deeply devoted to America’s FSO and wife of retired Senior For- Geneva, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, ideals, our values and the importance eign Service officer and former career Amman, Lagos, San Salvador, Tel of service. All of us who were fortu- ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, Aviv, the United Nations in New York, nate enough to know Alice appreci- died on June 23 at Goodwin House in New Delhi and Moscow. ated her outstanding commitment. At Falls Church, Va. Mrs. Pickering was also a member every post, she took special pride in Born on June 15, 1931, in Sharon, of the League of Women Voters, the welcoming the new Foreign Service Pa., to George Chesney Stover and American Association of University staff and made every effort to ensure Alice Gill Stover, Alice Pickering was Women and the Associates of the that their families felt at home, and an honors and Phi Beta Kappa gradu- American Foreign Service World- were part of our collective mission.” ate of Swarthmore College. She re- wide. She was also a member of St. Alice Pickering is survived by her ceived master’s degrees in inter- Luke’s Episcopal Church in Alexan- husband of 55 years, Thomas of Great national relations from the Fletcher dria, Va., for more than 50 years. Falls, Va.; her son, Timothy R. Picker- School of Law and Diplomacy and in Family and friends recall how ing (and his wife, Carolyn) and her library science from the Catholic Uni- deeply she cared for people in need, daughter, Margaret “Meg” Schmidt versity of America, where she was a whether in her own neighborhood or (and her husband, John); four grand- member of the Beta Phi Mu Interna- around the globe; her love of country; children; and two great-grandchil- tional Library and Information Stud- and her passionate belief in the power dren. She is also survived by her ies Honor Society. of education to transform people’s brother, Charles Chesney Stover and Mrs. Pickering served as a Foreign lives. sister-in-law, Marcia Pickering Hunt. Service officer at the U.S. Information “All of us who were lucky enough Contributions in Alice Pickering’s Agency from 1954 to 1955 and was to know Alice understood her com- honor may be made to the Frends of posted to The Hague. Later, she mitment and appreciated her love for Sherwood Hall Library, 2501 Sher- worked as a reference librarian at the her family and her country,” said Sec- wood Hall Lane, Alexandria VA Sherwood Hall Regional Library in retary of State Hillary Rodham Clin- 22306; the American Center for Ori- Fairfax County, Va. ton in offering condolences. “For four ental Research, Amman, Jordan, 656 Following her marriage, Mrs. Pick- decades, in posts ranging from Russia Beacon St., 5th floor, Boston MA ering resigned from the Foreign Serv- to El Salvador, she and Tom served the 02215; the National Parks Conserva- ice, as female FSOs were required to United States with great distinction.” tion Association, 777 6th St., NW, do at that time. She accompanied her In offering condolences on behalf Washington DC 20001; WETA, 3636 husband to his naval assignment in of AFSA, President Susan R. Johnson Campbell Ave., Arlington VA 22206; Port Lyautey, Morocco, and thereafter stated: “Like so many members of the or W AMU 88.5, 4400 Massachusetts to 10 diplomatic posts, including seven extended Foreign Service family, Alice Ave., NW, Washington DC 20016.

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Georgetown University. — where Mr. Johnson served, first, as a After retiring from the Foreign During World War II Mr. Johnson political officer under Ambassador Service in 1980, Mr. Johnson became served as a lieutenant commander in George F. Kennan (1962-1963) and president of the International Federa- the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Bagley later as deputy chief of mission under tion on Aging (1981-1983), followed by in the South Pacific theater from 1942 Ambassador Malcolm Toon (1971- stints as president of the U.S.-Yugoslav to 1944. Following the war, he worked 1974). He served as DCM in Bulgaria Economic Council and then as presi- for the Clow Corporation. (1963-1965) and as minister counselor dent of the Council for Southeastern In 1947, he entered the State De- and chargé d’affaires in Brazil (1974- Europe. partment’s Civil Service, serving in the 1978). There he hosted a state visit by Mr. Johnson is survived by his wife Office of Chinese Affairs until 1951, President Jimmy Carter. He also of 56 years, Patricia Brown Johnson, of when he joined the Foreign Service. served as political counselor in Rio de Washington, D.C.; his brother, Robert His first overseas assignment was as a Janeiro (1969-1971). M. Johnson of McMinnville, Ore., and consular officer to the U.S. legation in In the department he served as Pol- his sister, Elizabeth Dale DePeyster of Hong Kong. There he met his future ish and Baltic States desk officer and di- Orange City, Fla.; his son, Richard F. bride, Patricia Rose Brown, who was rector of the Office of Regional Political Johnson of Maple Park, Ill.; his daugh- working as consular assistant. The cou- Programs. He was also assigned to the ter, Elizabeth C. Craig of New York, ple married on July 14, 1954. U.S. delegation to the United Nations, N.Y.; and six grandchildren: Silas, El- Subsequent assignments included where he served on the U.N. Commit- speth and Nathaniel Johnson and Car- Canada, Poland and, twice, Yugoslavia tee on Decolonization. oline, Hilary and Cecily Craig.

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Robert Bruce Richardson, 71, a agency’s commodity procurement ac- retired FSO with the U.S. Agency for tivities until his retirement in 1995. International Development and a for- Mr. Richardson was the only commod- mer AFSA dissent award winner, died ity officer to be promoted into the Sen- on April 24 in Charleston, S.C. ior Foreign Service. Born in Toronto, Mr. Richardson He was also the first employee of moved to the United States with his USAID to be awarded AFSA’s Chris- parents in 1957 and attended Hamil- tian A. Herter Award for constructive ton College in Clinton, N.Y. After dissent by a Senior Foreign Service of- graduating, he taught science and ficer, in 1994. math at the Utica Free Academy in After his retirement from the For- Utica, N.Y., before entering the Peace eign Service, Mr. Richardson worked Corps in 1964. He was assigned to with various consulting firms: the De- Senegal, where he was seconded to partment of Human Services of the the United Nations International city of Washington, D.C.; the United Labor Organization to design appro- Nations Peacekeeping Mission to An- priate technology for improving local gola, as chief of procurement and con- agriculture. tracting; and the World Bank, as a THE NEW EDITION OF On returning to the U.S. in 1966, certified procurement consultant. Mr. Richardson joined USAID. His In 2003, Mr. Richardson moved to Inside a first assignments were in Bamako and Charleston, S.C., with his wife Made- U.S. Embassy Kaduna as a general services officer leine, who had accompanied him to and then in Rabat, in 1968, as a Food most of his posts and worked in the IS NOW AVAILABLE. for Peace officer. embassy and department medical units Visit www.afsa.org/inside In 1973, he returned to Washing- as a laboratory technician. There he for details. ton, D.C., where he backstopped the became involved in local politics and Vietnam Commercial Import Program entertained his friends and former col- at USAID. In 1975, he drafted the op- leagues with written accounts of his Looking for Additional erations portion of the new Egypt various overseas experiences. Reading Suggestions? Commodity Import Program and went Mr. Richardson’s wife, Madeleine, to Cairo to help set it up. predeceased him in 2010. He is sur- You can find the AFSA The next year, he was sent to Kin- vived by two sons, Christopher Charles and State Department shasa to run the Commodity Import Richardson of Daniel Island, S.C., and reading lists in our online Program, and in 1978 transferred to Nicholas Yann Richardson (and his bookstore, offering a wide Niamey to create the first Project wife, Dayna) of Burke, Va.; and a selection of books on the Management Support Unit, which was daughter, Julie Beatriz Richardson of Foreign Service. later adopted by other missions in cFairfax, Va. West Africa. AFSA earns a royalty for His next tour was at the Regional every purchase you make on Office for Central America and Pana- ma in Guatemala, as regional supply Susan Ann Sutton Robinson, 66, Amazon.com when you enter management officer. In 1983 he went a retired FSO, died on June 16 in via the AFSA Bookstore. to Cairo to run the Commodity Im- Boston, Mass., following a debilitating port Program, the largest bilateral aid illness. Visit www.afsa.org/ program in the history of the agency. Susan Ann Sutton was born and fs_reading_list.aspx Returning to Washington, D.C., in raised in Yakima, Wash. She was vale- 1988, he was responsible for the dictorian of her high school class and a

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National Merit Scholar. She earned a signment (1987-1990), she served in with the people of many nations and to B.A. from Seattle Pacific University in Moscow during a period of great tran- give them a better understanding of 1965, an M.A. in English literature sition. There she used her love of cul- the U.S. She continued this pursuit in from the University of London in 1980, ture and arts to build trust and retirement, operating a painting studio and a J.D. from the University of understanding between the U.S. and and participating in numerous art and Washington in 1985. Soviet Union in the final years of the cultural exhibitions. From 1966 to 1967 she served as a Cold War. Susan Robinson is survived by her Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda. She later served in Belarus and daughter, Lisa Robinson, a child psy- When she returned to Seattle, she pur- Haiti, where she worked to bring edu- chiatrist in Newton, Mass.; her son, sued her law degree and worked at a cational and cultural opportunities to Joel Robinson, an FSO currently serv- local TV station as a copywriter. In that impoverished nation. In Wash- ing in Baghdad; three granddaughters: 1974, her husband, Max Robinson, ington, D.C., she served in the Foreign Emily Robinson and Zoe and Naomi joined the Foreign Service and they Press Center and various regional bu- Goldstein; her brothers, George and moved to Dakar and then London. reaus. She retired from the Foreign John Sutton; and her mother, V. (Jane) While in Washington, D.C., Ms. Robin- Service in 2002. Sutton of Portland, Ore. son worked as editor for the Library of Ms. Robinson was a great admirer Congress’ Copyright Office. of the arts and an avid painter. During In 1985, she joined the United her Foreign Service assignments, she States Information Agency as a For- tirelessly used the visual and perform- Bruce David Rogers, 54, a career eign Service officer. In her first as- ing arts to build strong relationships Senior Foreign Service officer, died in

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 69 I N M EMORY his sleep on June 27 in Riga, where he tion in national security and strategic dor to Tunisia, where he served until was serving as the deputy chief of mis- studies from the Naval War College in 1987, when he retired. sion. Newport, R.I. After moving to Santa Fe in 1988, Mr. Rogers joined the Department Mr. Rogers leaves behind his wife, Ambassador Sebastian remained active of State in 1985 and served in Mexico, Gale Rogers, a retired FSO, and two as a writer, frequent speaker and board Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United King- children. member of the Council of Interna- dom, Latvia, Belgium and Afghanistan. tional Relations. There, as director for provincial re- Mr. Sebastian is survived by his construction and local governance in wife, Harvel, of Santa Fe; his son, Kabul, he supervised personnel at Peter Sebastian, 84, a retired FSO Christopher, of Bethesda, Md.; and a 25 locations around Afghanistan. Pre- and former ambassador, died peace- granddaughter, Katarina, of Apple viously, he also served as the deputy fully at home in Santa Fe, N.M., on Dutch Village, near Frankfurt, Ger- political adviser at the U.S. Mission March 22. many. to NATO (2003-2006) and as politi- Mr. Sebastian was born in Berlin in cal-economic chief in Riga (2000- 1926 and educated in France and 2003). Italy before coming to the U.S., where “Bruce loved Latvia passionately, he became a citizen in 1944. He Victor Henry Skiles, 93, a re- and he loved working on U.S.-Latvian served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to tired Foreign Service officer, died on relations,” U.S. Ambassador to Latvia 1946. Jan. 20 at Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Judith Garber said in a statement from After military service, Mr. Sebastian Va. the embassy. During the six years he pursued studies at Roosevelt Univer- Mr. Skiles was born in Dayton, spent in the country, he played a major sity, the University d’Aix in Marseilles, Idaho, on Oct. 15, 1917. He gradu- role in assisting Latvia in its accession the University of Chicago, and the ated from Burley High School in to NATO and the European Union New School for Social Research. He 1935 and attended the University of and in strengthening economic ties be- married the former Harvel Huddle- Idaho, graduating in 1940. That year tween the U.S. and Latvia. ston in 1951. he traveled to Washington, D.C., to In 1991, Mr. Rogers was part of the In 1957 he joined the U.S. Foreign serve as an intern with the National team that reopened Embassy Kuwait Service and, together with his family, Institute of Public Affairs and was as- at the end of the first Persian Gulf War. began a series of diplomatic assign- signed to the U.S. Department of His domestic assignments included ments that included the Central Agriculture. two tours in State’s Bureau of Eco- African Republic, France, Morocco In 1942, Mr. Skiles enlisted in the nomic and Business Affairs, and stints and Ethiopia. Navy and was stationed as an officer as an instructor in the Orientation Di- His longest postings were in Mo- in the Pacific theater. At the end of vision at the Foreign Service Institute rocco, where Mr. Sebastian served as World War II, he was asked to join and as a regional affairs officer in the political officer and consul general and, the Quadripartite Control Council in Office of Counterterrorism. In the lat- later, as deputy chief of mission and Berlin, assisting war refugees and dis- ter capacity, he led two assessment chargé d’affaires. placed persons and continued that teams to East Africa in the wake of the In Washington, D.C., he served as a work until he joined the Department August 1998 bombing of the U.S. em- specialist in the Bureau of Intelligence of State in Greece in 1948. bassies in Kenya and Tanzania. and Research, as deputy executive sec- Following that assignment, he re- Mr. Rogers received four State De- retary in the Office of the Secretary of turned to Washington in 1950. He partment Superior Honor Awards and State, and as Algerian desk officer and, worked at the State Department on two Meritorious Honor Awards. He later, director of North African affairs. Greece, Turkey and Iran and, later, earned a B.A. in history and interna- He attended the National War College on Middle Eastern foreign assis- tional relations from San Francisco and the State Department’s Senior tance. State University and, in 2007, received Seminar. In 1958, Mr. Skiles was assigned to a master’s degree with highest distinc- In 1984 he was appointed ambassa- Israel as the deputy director for

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USAID and managed the substantial James Clagett Taylor, 76, a retired Intelligence Agency. In the spring of U.S. assistance programs in that area. FSO, died on July 10 in Sebring, Fla. 1960, he, his wife and six-month-old Next came an assignment to Mr. Taylor was born on May 20, daughter, Deborah, were sent as mis- Nairobi as the USAID East Africa rep- 1935, in Spartanburg, S.C., to Annie sionaries to Mrewa, Rhodesia (now resentative. There he established as- Laurie and J. Clagett Taylor Sr. He at- Zimbabwe). When they returned to sistance programs in Kenya, Uganda tended public schools in Sebring, Fla., the United States after six years of and Tanzania. and graduated in 1957 from Davidson service, Mr. Taylor enrolled in the Mr. Skiles returned to Washington College in North Carolina with a B.A. African studies program at the Univer- after his Africa assignments for a He obtained a master’s degree in inter- sity of Florida, Gainesville. short time, and was then assigned to national relations from American Uni- Clagett Taylor joined the Foreign Sri Lanka as USAID representative. versity in Washington, D.C., in 1961. Service in June 1967, and was posted There he initiated and directed de- Both Oxford and Princeton Press to Kingston. He next served in Wash- velopment assistance activities. published his master’s thesis on the po- ington, D.C., working on cultural ex- From Colombo, Mr. Skiles moved litical development of Tanganyika, the changes. In July 1972, he was assigned to Kabul, where he was the deputy East African territory now comprising to Lusaka. It was his last tour. director of the large USAID program Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania that Due to his father’s ill health, Mr. there. Throughout his overseas work, was an independent state from 1961 to Taylor returned to Sebring to help run Mr. Skiles focused on programs that 1964. the family businesses. He took contributed to improvements in edu- In 1958, Mr. Taylor married Patri- courses in citrus production at Polk cation, agriculture, public health and cia Kressly of Easton, Pa., and began Community College and joined Web- administration, and food security. working as an analyst for the Central ster Manufacturing, which his father In 1973 his expertise and experience led to an appointment as the USAID Representative to the United 2012 Directory of Retired Members Nations Food and Agriculture Or- ganization and the United Nations World Food Program in Rome. Mr. ARE YOU IN HERE? Skiles was the U.S. spokesman on major international food and agriculture issues of the time. Keep AFSA up-to-date In 1978 he retired from the For- eign Service and settled in Northern with your contact Virginia. An avid gardener and golfer, information in the Mr. Skiles enjoyed cultivating many flower varieties. He was a 50-year 2012 Retirement member of the International Country Directory. Club and a 30-year member of the Pinehurst, N.C., Country Club. PLEASE SEND CHANGE OF ADDRESS, NAME AND Mr. Skiles is survived by his wife of TELEPHONE TO AFSA IN ONE OF THESE EASY WAYS: 53 years, Ruth Nay Skiles of Falls MAIL PHONE Church, Va.; a sister, Amy Lou Uri- AFSA Membership (202) 338-4045 ext. 525 quen of Boise, Idaho; and several Department ONLINE nieces and netphews. 2101 E Street NW www.afsa.org/Existing He was preceded in death by Washington DC 20037 Members/Default.aspx brothers C. Stanley Skiles, James J. Skiles and Gerald W. Skiles, and a sis- DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 ter, Bonnie Stampley.

SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 71 I N M EMORY had helped found. daughter, Laura M. Valencia, would be Laura Wilson accompanied her hus- Mr. Taylor was an active member of spending this past summer in India, band on postings to Guadalajara, Mara- the Sebring Rotary Club, winning a studying Hindustani on a State De- caibo, Toronto, Santo Domingo and number of awards, serving as president, partment scholarship for critical lan- Washington, D.C., from 1950 to 1968, and devoting considerable time and ef- guage studies. when Mr. Wilson retired from the For- fort to the Rotary scholarships pro- Mr. Taylor is survived by his wife of eign Service. The couple settled in gram. He was a Multiple Paul Harris 53 years, Patricia, of Sebring; a daugh- Guadalajara, later returning to McLean. Fellow in Rotary International. ter, Debbie Valencia of Northville, Mrs. Wilson promoted various char- Among his other interests were the Mich.; two sons, J. Clagett Taylor (and itable projects to assist poor women, annual Grand Prix and, later, the Amer- his wife, Sue) of Ocoee, Fla., and John children and the disabled. She had a ican Le Mans car racing program. He A. Taylor (and his wife, Katherine) of passion for art and was a frequent visitor worked for many years at the track, Lake Placid, Fla.; and eight grandchil- to Washington’s many museums. She driving the shuttle for photographers dren. pursued several creative hobbies in- and dignitaries. He also ardently sup- cluding painting, sewing, knitting and ported the Sebring Future Farmers of writing, as well as her native Mexican America. cuisine. As friends and family recall, Mr. Laura Reyes Wilson, 83, wife of She is survived by her husband, Jack; Taylor remained very interested in for- retired Foreign Service officer Jackson five children (Elizabeth, Laura, Joe, eign affairs, particularly Africa. He was W. Wilson, died on June 24 of breast John and Tom); six grandchildren; and especially happy to learn that his grand- cancer at her home in McLean, Va. four great-grandchildren. I

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SEPTEMBER 2011/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 75 REFLECTIONS

Paying Tribute

BY MELANIE SETTJE

ne September weekend in member of another family, the family 2002, our family ventured to Domenico Pezzulo of American policemen and police- Othe Italian village of Giano Ve- had died in the World women, and every member of that tusto. You probably won’t find it on any family, himself included, held a special travel map. It’s at the top of a small Trade Center on 9/11 place in their hearts for Domenico. He mountain, just about an hour outside of while saving the lives promised her that our country would Naples. I would imagine they don’t see do all it could to ensure her Mimmo, as a lot of folks there from out of town, of two of his fellow the family called him, had not died in much less from other countries. police officers. vain. It was a gorgeous, sunny Sunday When the last tribute had been de- morning when we arrived to find the livered, we followed the uniformed whole village gathered in the central men and women on a solemn march to square. Banners and flags were flying. the spot, just a couple of hundred me- Uniformed policemen, firefighters, and cers. His wife, Jeanette, his son, Do- ters away, where a street sign bearing American and Italian military person- minick Jr., and his little daughter, Gi- Domenico’s name was unveiled. We nel stood at attention. Dignitaries anna, were there only in spirit. They were standing on the same street wearing the red, white and green bands had stayed in New York City, strug- where, 36 years earlier, his mother had of the Italian flag assembled at the gling, I’m sure, to rebuild their lives. heard her Mimmo’s very first cries. small makeshift stage. But his mother, a native of Giano Ve- Like his colleagues around the Just to the right of the stage hung a tusto, and his father, a native of Capua, world, my husband carries out a multi- larger-than-life photograph of a smiling, a larger town nearby, were in atten- tude of duties as an American diplomat. handsome young man in a New York dance. That Sunday, in a little village on a Port Authority Police uniform. People took turns telling the assem- mountaintop in southern Italy, I was My husband, Bob, took his place bly about Domenico’s life and family, witness to perhaps the most important near the stage with the Italian digni- his passion for his work, and his selfless thing he’s ever done in his service to taries as our two sons and I found seats service to others, exemplified by the America: honoring the ultimate sacri- among the villagers. A violin began to sacrifice he’d made on that terrible day fice of one of her heroes. I play, accompanying a soprano singing in September. We all got to know him “Ave Maria.” Tears appeared in the just a little bit better that morning. Melanie Settje is married to FSO eyes of many of the women, and men Among those offering tributes was Robert Settje. Since joining the For- began to shift uneasily in their chairs. my husband. His words weren’t great eign Service in 1994, Robert has Even children who had grown restless in number, but they were great in served in Santo Domingo, Munich in the heat listened intently. I could al- power. Immense, in fact. and Naples, in addition to a tour as most hear the sound of hearts breaking. He spoke, looking compassionately senior civilian Provincial Reconstruc- The young man in the photograph, into the eyes of Domenico’s mother, of tion Team representative in Zabul Domenico Pezzulo, had died in the how he’d once been a policeman in the province, Afghanistan. He is cur- World Trade Center on 9/11 while sav- United States himself. He comforted rently a regional consular officer ing the lives of two fellow police offi- her by saying that her son had been a based in Washington, D.C.

76 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/SEPTEMBER 2011