U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE StateStateSEPTEMBER 2004 MAGAZINE LUANDA POST OF THE MONTH A group of students practice using cameras in preparing their personal documentaries. IN OUR NEXT ISSUE: Looking through the lens of Romania’s HIV-positive teens State Magazine (ISSN 1099–4165) is published monthly, except bimonthly in July and August, by the U.S. Department of State, 2201 C St., N.W., Washington, DC. Periodicals postage State paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing locations. MAGAZINE Send changes of address to State Magazine,HR/ER/SMG, SA-1, Paul Koscak Room H-236, Washington, DC 20522-0108. You may also ACTING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF e-mail address changes to [email protected]. Dave Krecke State Magazine is published to facilitate communication WRITER/EDITOR between management and employees at home and abroad and Bill Palmer to acquaint employees with developments that may affect WRITER/EDITOR operations or personnel. The magazine is also available to per- David L. Johnston sons interested in working for the Department of State and to ART DIRECTOR the general public. Lauren Bayton INTERN State Magazine is available by subscription through the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Office, Washington, DC 20402 (telephone [202] 512-1800) or Sylvia Bazala on the web at http://bookstore.gpo.gov. CHAIR For details on submitting articles to State Magazine,request Jo Ellen Powell our guidelines, “Getting Your Story Told,” by e-mail at EXECUTIVE SECRETARY [email protected]; download them from our web site at Kelly Clements www.state.gov;or send your request in writing to State Tom Gallo Magazine, HR/ER/SMG, SA-1, Room H-236, Washington, DC Pam Holliday 20522-0108. The magazine’s phone number is (202) 663-1700. Joe Johnson Deadlines: Sept. 15 for November issue. Tom Krajeski Oct. 15 for December issue. PHOTOGRAPHS: (ABOVE): KARA McDONALD; (OPPOSITE PAGE): PAUL KOSCAK PAUL PHOTOGRAPHS: (ABOVE): KARA McDONALD; (OPPOSITE PAGE): CONTENTS SEPTEMBER 2004 14 TO INSPECT AND SERVE Management Officer Kurt Luertzing, left, and Facilities Manager Scott Willard, right, show inspectors Janet Wilgus and Timothy Wildy some renovated buildings. NUMBER 482 8 POST OF THE MONTH: LUANDA 2 From the Secretary A war-torn nation begins to build a promising future. 3 Letters to the Editor 14 OFFICE OF THE MONTH: OIG The inspectors get a close inspection. 4 In the News 18 EMBASSY TEAM HELPS RESCUE HUNTERS Snowmobiles help response team rescue helicopter crash survivors. 7 Direct from the D.G. 20 LIKE DAUGHTER, LIKE MOTHER 32 Medical Report A daughter inspires her mom to join the Foreign Service. 34 People Like You 22 LANGUAGE IMMERSION ENRICHES ASSIGNMENT New arrivals learn language and culture in historic Zanzibar. 35 Appointments 24 MILITARY COLLEGES PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES At this school, security is the priority subject. 37 Personnel Actions 26 SECURITY FOR SOFT TARGETS 38 Obituaries Prudent moves make our overseas communities safe. 28 WOMEN WAGING PEACE Palestinian and Israeli women search for a role in the peace process. ON THE COVER A young Angolan woman looks out the 30 OVERSEAS CHILDREN SEE EMBASSIES IN ACTION window at a beach near the capital city of Posts celebrate Take Your Child to Work Day. Luanda. Photo by Christopher Dell. FROM THE SECRETARY SECRETARY COLIN L. POWELL Diplomacy in a Democratic Age As autumn arrives, we store away free peoples empathize with each other and with those our summer paraphernalia and fond who yearn to be free. In short, the spread of freedom has memories of vacations and rededi- broadened the awareness that we all live within a global cate ourselves to work. At such human community. moments it’s good to take stock of The policy implications of that awareness are manifest. the broader context of our diplomat- Decades ago communicable diseases were not seen as ic labors. When I do that, what threats to international stability. Failing states in remote strikes me is how much that context has changed in only regions were not thought capable of constituting core a few decades. threats to international security. The repression of It’s not the end of the Cold War to which I refer, but women and minorities within state borders or trafficking more what the end of the Cold War has enabled. We now in persons across those borders, were considered margin- live in an era in which human capital, social trust and al issues when more traditional politico-military threats institutional capacity define national success far more faced us, nuclear arsenals and all. than the sinews of heavy industries and iron-bound war Today we grasp the relationship between repression, machines. We shouldn’t exaggerate change. Contrary to bad governance and the violent reactions they invariably what some claim, military power and economic wealth provoke. We understand better the connection between still count and state sovereignty is not obsolete. But the justice and freedom to the one side, peace and prosperi- entire context of world affairs is shifting and Americans, ty to the other. We see that global security cannot be sep- more than most, should see why. It’s because freedom arated from global ethics, from what President Bush has and democracy are on the rise, on a global scale. called the non-negotiable demands of human dignity. When people gain a real stake in their own societies No nation can truly be safe, or rest content, when tens they begin to care deeply about the political arrange- of millions of people fear the next sunset. So with the ments that affect them. Stakeholder democracy is the President’s leadership we have devised the most generous dominant political trend in the world today, and that is and creative development policies since the Marshall what defines the contemporary formula for national Plan. We lead the global fight against HIV/AIDs. We fight power. The undeniable truth is that democracy enables a against trafficking in persons. We assemble coalitions to society to mobilize its productive assets as no other form stop collapsing governments in Liberia and in Haiti from of government can. wrecking widespread havoc. None of these efforts quali- As physical boundaries become more porous with the fies as a traditional great power’s vital interest. But they spread of the information revolution, the dynamism of are vital to both international security and to American democracy is flowing across boundaries of all kinds like interests in an increasingly democratized diplomatic never before. As it does, political leaders find that they environment. can no longer deal with each other in isolation from the Although our lives as diplomats have become more societies they serve and apart from the principles their complicated, these are complications to be welcomed. people hold dear. People power in a hundred forms, in a Free nations don’t harbor or support mass murderers thousand combinations, is changing the character of and terrorists. Free nations don’t produce concentration international politics. camps, gulags and mass graves for their citizens. This new environment raises new demands on diplo- Democratic publics, their military establishments bound macy. More issues crowd our agendas. Democratic to society under the rule of law, don’t yearn for war. publics, for example, won’t tolerate in silence massive Indeed, the new demands of our age are far overshad- violations of human rights, even those taking place far owed by the benefits that the trend toward freedom and away, in places like Darfur. democracy offers us. Despite the inherent difficulties of But the new demands on diplomacy are arising not an age of rapid and profound change, our glass is more just because citizens are more aware of wrongs to be than half full. Now that summer is over, let us renew our righted, and not just because the threats of terrorism and determination to make all cups overflow with peace, pandemic disease are so obviously transnational. These prosperity, and the true fulfillment of the human spirit. demands stem more fundamentally from the fact that Let us make the most of the opportunities before us. ■ 2 STATE MAGAZINE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Response to Baghdad obtained the information about Diary Letters this, but John Arbogast, the pro- We received many letters about the gram’s coordinator, would have told Baghdad Diary article in the July- you that the tutors come from all August issue of State Magazine. This over the Department. article does not reflect the views of the Department of State. Publication of Michelle Wood those remarks was an error of judg- Information Technology Specialist ment. We profoundly regret any offense that the article may have Getting the Area Right caused and reaffirm our commitment While I enjoyed reading the post Domenick DiPasquale to furthering gender equality in the of the month article on Athens in Retired FSO workplace and opposing sexism in the July-August issue, there is one Reston, VA any form.—The Editor mistake that needs correcting. You list the land mass of Greece at “over Many thanks for the lesson in con- Nice job....but 81,900 square miles,” whereas the version of square kilometers to square I just finished the superb article correct size is in fact 50,942 square miles. We’ll try not to make that error in the June issue on the students miles. I suspect you used the again.—The Editor who were ambassadors for a day. wrong metric conversion factor to The article was very informative but convert the 131,940 square kilome- it was inaccurate in one important ters listed in the CIA World Correction respect. It stated that the only peo- Factbook as the size of Greece.