PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION DECEMBER 2019 AFSA HONORS EXCELLENCE ON USAID’S TRANSFORMATION EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT: ALL ABOUT INTERNSHIPS FOREIGN SERVICE December 2019 Volume 96, No. 10 Focus on AFSA Awards: Honoring Excellence and Constructive Dissent Cover Story 24 FS Institution Builder 20 and Africa Hand USAID Transforms A conversation with Ambassador Hank Cohen, the recipient of AFSA’s Here are the highlights of Award for Lifetime Contributions USAID’s ongoing Transformation to American Diplomacy. initiative, undertaken to better meet the development challenges of the 21st century. AFSA/JOAQUIN SOSA 35 By Chris Milligan 2019 Awards for Constructive Dissent Features 39 2019 Awards for 52 Outstanding Performance Lessons on Dissent BOULOS ANNA OF COURTESY CHARBONNET LAURENT OF COURTESY from a Navy Ship A sailor shares valuable FS Know-How lessons on dissent that apply in any enterprise. By Jimmy Drennan 59 2020 Tech Guide to Foreign Service Life Here’s the skinny on some of the new but lesser-known communication technologies that can make living abroad easier. By Daniel Morris Education Supplement U.S. NAVY/DALE MILLER NAVY/DALE U.S. 55 75 80 Americans’ Welfare: Demystifying & All About Internships It’s All in a Day’s Work Discovering the U.S. Pointers on how to get A consular officer remembers Foreign Service an internship and make it the personalities he encountered an effective career-builder. on the job. A unique “immersion” program offers students insight into By Jacob Borst By Charles “Tom” Owens a career in diplomacy. By Mariette A. Boutros 83 Schools at a Glance THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2019 5 FOREIGN SERVICE Perspectives 7 98 President’s Views Local Lens Departments Back to the Gilded Age? Romania By Eric Rubin By Caitlin Hartford 10 Letters 9 12 Talking Points Letter from the Editor 90 Books Foreign Service Excellence and Silver Linings By Shawn Dorman 17 Marketplace Speaking Out In Support of Professional Nonpartisan Diplomacy 92 Real Estate 97 94 Classifieds Reflections 96 Index to Advertisers Living Two Lives By Josh Glazeroff AFSA NEWS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION 62 AFSA Awards Honor Foreign Service Excellence 72 AFSA Dues Change for 2020 and Constructive Dissent 72 Governing Board Attends Visioning Retreat 66 State VP Voice—Understanding Why 73 Support for AFSA’s Legal Defense Fund People Leave the Foreign Service 67 USAID VP Voice—Never Let a Transformation Go to Waste 68 Retiree VP Voice—10 Steps to Manage Your Retirement 69 AFSA on the Hill—Prosperity, Security and Global Power Competition 69 Governing Board Meeting, October 2019 70 The Right Fit: Hiring the Right Person for the Right Job 71 AFSA Welcomes Incoming FSO, 62 FSS and USAID Classes AFSA/JOAQUIN SOSA On the Cover—2019 recipients of AFSA awards for lifetime contributions to American diplomacy, exemplary performance and constructive dissent. Photo: AFSA/Joaquin Sosa. 6 DECEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Back to the Gilded Age? BY ERIC RUBIN he 19th century was a time of is so emphatically un-American and ment officials, including the president’s excess in our country. Acute undemocratic, and is so potent a force political appointees,” O’Mara continues. partisanship and violence led for degradation in our public life that “Merit-based hiring diversified the work Tto a bloody civil war that killed it is difficult to believe that any intel- force, making the career Civil Service more than 600,000 Americans, based on ligent man of ordinary decency who outpace the private sector in representa- division over the evil institution of slav- has looked into the subject can be its tion of women and minorities, especially ery and the compromises our Founding advocate.” in executive roles.” Fathers had made to accommodate it. Serving as U.S. Civil Service Com- Is all that starting to slip away? And there was an excess of political cor- missioner and later as president, he Here we are today, almost 100 years ruption and politicization that led to the eradicated the spoils system and laid after the creation of the career, pro- so-called Gilded Age in which federal the groundwork for our national merit- fessional Foreign Service and almost jobs were treated as the spoils of politi- based Civil Service, the Foreign Service 140 years after the spoils system was cal victory. and other career federal services. (mostly) abolished. Starting with President Andrew Jack- Reform of the diplomatic service took a In the context of a highly polarized son, federal jobs were treated as rewards bit longer. Representative John Jacob Rog- political environment, the loss of excep- for partisan supporters and as a way to ers of Massachusetts led the way, stating tional diplomatic talent to retirement ensure that loyalists were in every key in 1923: “Let us strive for a foreign service and resignation has further removed the position. President James A. Garfield’s which will be flexible and democratic; Foreign Service from its leading role in assassination in 1881 by the disgruntled which will attract and retain the best men the policy process—a role mandated by Charles J. Guiteau—who believed he we have; which will offer reasonable pay, the 1980 Foreign Service Act. helped get Garfield elected and thus reasonable prospects for promotion, [and] The painful experiences of our col- deserved a consul position in Vienna or reasonable provision against want when leagues who have been pulled into the Paris—marked the low point for our gov- old age comes to a faithful servant.” impeachment inquiry as witnesses, at ernment’s ability to serve the American The Rogers Act of 1924 created great professional risk and personal people and not simply the elected politi- the U.S. Foreign Service. (It was later expense, is illustrative. The historic defi- cians of the moment. updated by the Foreign Service Act of cit in career appointees to assistant sec- Against the toxic brew of corruption, 1946 and then 1980.) retary positions and ambassadorships concentrated wealth and partisanship The decades that followed saw adds further to this negative direction. came a wave of talented reformers, led the expansion of professionalization, We at AFSA will continue to do by the ambitious New York Republican writes historian Margaret O’Mara in everything we can to stand firm in politician Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. an opinion piece for The New York defense of our profession, our Service As he wrote in The Cosmopolitan Times on Oct. 26, 2019. “Creation of the and our colleagues. At this difficult time in May 1892, “the Foreign Service established a rigorous for our country, for diplomacy and for spoils system of entry examination and raised pay. The the Foreign Service, we must stay true to making appoint- diplomatic corps was no longer limited our oath and commitment to serve the ments to and to rich young men with time and family American people. removals from money to take overseas postings. Join us in supporting our profession office is so wholly “The Hatch Act placed sweeping and the ideals that underlie our profes- and unmixedly evil, restrictions on political activity by govern- sional and nonpartisan Service. n Ambassador Eric Rubin is the president of the American Foreign Service Association. THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2019 7 FOREIGN SERVICE Editor-in-Chief, Director of Publications Shawn Dorman: [email protected] www.afsa.org Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra: [email protected] Managing Editor CONTACTS Kathryn Owens: [email protected] AFSA Headquarters: ADVOCACY Associate Editor (202) 338-4045; Fax (202) 338-6820 Director of Advocacy Cameron Woodworth: [email protected] State Department AFSA Office: Kim Greenplate: [email protected] (202) 647-8160; Fax (202) 647-0265 Publications Coordinator USAID AFSA Office: BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Dmitry Filipoff: [email protected] (202) 712-1941; Fax (202) 216-3710 Director of Finance and Facilities Business Development Manager— FCS AFSA Office: Femi Oshobukola: [email protected] Advertising and Circulation (202) 482-9088; Fax (202) 482-9087 Manager, HR and Operations Molly Long: [email protected] Cory Nishi: [email protected] GOVERNING BOARD Controller Art Director President Kalpna Srimal: [email protected] Caryn Suko Smith Hon. Eric S. Rubin: [email protected] Administrative Assistant and Office Manager Editorial Board Secretary Ana Lopez: [email protected] Alexis Ludwig, Chair Ken Kero-Mentz: [email protected] Hon. Robert M. Beecroft Treasurer COMMUNICATIONS AND MEMBERSHIP Daniel Crocker Virginia L. Bennett: [email protected] Director of Communications and Membership Joel Ehrendreich State Vice President Ásgeir Sigfússon: [email protected] Harry Kopp Thomas Yazdgerdi: [email protected] Senior Manager of Programs and Member Jess McTigue USAID Vice President Christopher Teal Engagement Jason Singer: [email protected] Joe Tordella Christine Miele: [email protected] FCS Vice President Vivian Walker Manager of Outreach and Internal Hon. Laurence Wohlers Jay Carreiro: [email protected] Communications Dinah Zeltser-Winant FAS Vice President Allan Saunders: [email protected] Michael Riedel: [email protected] Online Communications Manager Retiree Vice President Jeff Lau: [email protected] THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS John K. Naland: [email protected] Coordinator of Member Relations and Events PROFESSIONALS State Representatives Ashley Baine: [email protected] The Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), Joshua C. Archibald 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is Coordinator of Member Recruitment published monthly, with combined January-February Matthew Dolbow and Benefits and July-August issues, by the American Foreign Service Holly Kirking Loomis Perri Green: [email protected] Association (AFSA), a private, nonprofit organization. Kristin Michelle Roberts Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the Retirement Benefits Counselor writers and does not necessarily represent the views of Tamir Waser Dolores Brown: [email protected] the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA.