| The
Newsletter IT IS PROBABLY difficult for any American to be optimistic at this particular juncture of events in the Middle East, but diplomats - by tradition, training, and instinct - usually find it difficult not to be. The Secretary of State, Colin Powell – an Academy member – likes to remind us of that, often commenting that “optimism is a force multiplier”. With that goes as well the essential of resolve, the need for patience, effective intelligence and the reality of force as critical components in the practice of diplomacy. We will surely need all of these in good measure in the difficult days ahead.
On February 12, the Academy launched its first in a new two-year series of dialogues to enhance public understanding of US foreign policy objectives and the role of diplomacy. The series is made possible by generous underwriting from Hushang Ansary of Houston, Texas. The program has the purpose of enhancing public understanding of US foreign policy objectives, focusing on the opportunities presented by diplomacy as well as its limitations. The February 12 session, held at Preston Hall of the World Bank with the Bank’s fullest cooperation, featured presentations by Richard Perle and Richard Holbrooke on “Two differing perspectives of US foreign policy in 2004.” A transcript of the presentations is available from the Academy upon request. At the luncheon that followed, Henry Kissinger led in an informal question and answer period with the approximately 175 guests. A second in this series of dialogues will take place, again in the Preston Hall of the World Bank, on Thursday, May 27, which will discuss “The Axis of Evil Revisited; Policy Choices in Iran and North Korea,” with a particular focus on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Ellen Laipson, president of the Stimson Center, will make a presentation on Iran, and Don Oberdorfer, Journalist in Residence at SAIS, will speak on North Korea. An open discussion period moderated by Sam Lewis will follow, and Zbigniew Brzezinski will speak at the noon luncheon. Invitations and press notices will be forthcoming. Tony Quainton is joining the staff of the Academy this month to serve as Program Coordinator for this Foreign Policy Dialogue Series. GEORGE KENNAN’S CENTENARY The Academy was pleased to join with a throng of admirers in remembering George Kennan on his 100th birthday, February 16, 2004. Secretary of State Colin Powell joined with Kennan’s alma mater, Princeton, in honoring him in a ceremony in the school’s Richardson Auditorium. In his remarks, the Secretary inter alia said:
ELECTION OF NEW MEMBERS The Following is the complete list of new Academy members, following elections conducted in November 2003 to fill vacancies in the By-Law prescribed limit on membership: Avis Bohlen –
former Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Ambassador to Bulgaria. AMBASSADORIAL NOMINATIONS Constance Berry Newman, of Illinois, is to
be the next Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Connie has
held many positions around town, including Director of OPM in the first
Bush Administration. Mitchell Reiss, of Virginia and current Director of Policy Planning, is also to serve as the Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. Edward (Skip) Gnehm is reported to be retiring this summer from his present post as ambassador to Australia. Tom Korologos (NC) is to be the next ambassador to Belgium. He most recently served as a senior advisor to Jerry Bremer in Baghdad. Ron Neumann (C), ambassador to Bahrain, also serves currently as senior advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad. Ron is a son of Robert Neumann, now deceased, who served as ambassador in Kabul, Riyadh and Morocco. Craig Kelley (C), who has been special assistant to Marc Grossman, has been nominated for Chile, replacing William Brownfield. Other nominations include: John Campbell (C), as ambassador to Nigeria, John Danilovich (NC) to Brazil, M. Teel Bivens (NC) to Sweden, John Ordway (C) to Kazakhstan, and Earle Mack (NC) to Finland. According to the Office of Presidential Appointments at State, as of March 1, of the 167 currently serving Chiefs of Mission, 110 were career, 49 were non-career, with 8 missions vacant. FOREIGN AFFAIRS FUNDING Foreign Affairs funding figures for FY 2005 are some distance from reality at this point. When Congress returns the week of April 19, debate will continue on the President’s Budget request of $2.355 trillion, of which about two-thirds is for mandatory programs (social security, Medicare, debt, etc.) and one-third for discretionary spending. The latter includes defense ($402 billion, or 49.12%), homeland security ($30 billion, or 3.5%), and non-defense ($386 billion or 47.17%). The latter figure includes the International Defense Account at $31.519 billion (3.85% of the discretionary or 1.34% of the total federal budget proposal). Of Department spending, the Department of State figure would go up by 11%, the largest increase over FY 2004. The bulk of the increase, however, is for the Global AIDS Initiative, at 222%, the Millennium Challenge Account, at 150%, and the Andean Counter Drug Initiative, at 157%. AAD members will find of interest the following analysis by AFSA’s Congressional Affairs Director, Ken Nakamura: “Previously, funding received in 1985 was the high point in funding for the international affairs account. That was the result of funding to support governments in Latin America fight an insurgency, provide funds for famine relief in Africa, and a special economic aid package to Egypt, Israel, and Jordan. However, this was followed by a decade-long decline in funding that left the Foreign Service decimated; with the infrastructure unable to support the implementation of U.S. Policy, and 80% of our posts and missions abroad unable to pass the State Department’s minimum-security standards. By the end of the 20th century, consensus was that the U.S. foreign affairs infrastructure was near a crisis point. “Since 1998, funding has increased in various programs. However, the War in Iraq and the War on Terrorism have brought new resources, albeit very directed resources, to foreign affairs funding. While these new funds are welcomed and needed, care must be taken not to ignore established programs.”
The Academy will meet in its annual meeting at 12:00 noon, Tuesday, June 1, with Senator John Warner of Virginia as our guest. Further information will follow.
- Carnegie International is holding its 2004 Non-proliferation Conference on “A New, Effective Non-proliferation Strategy” on June 21 and 22 at the Ronald Reagan Center in Washington. Over 600 participants from all over the world are expected to attend. For further information check www.ceip.org. Attendance fees are required. - The Council of American Ambassadors (CAA) invites members of the Academy to attend “Public Diplomacy and America’s Image in the World,” a conference in the Council’s American Ambassadors Forum Series. This Forum will be held on Tuesday, April 20 from 2-4:00pm, at the Intercultural Center (ICC) auditorium at Georgetown University. The event is cosponsored with the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Kenton Keith of the Meridian Center and Andrew Kohut, Director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, are among those making presentations. - The American Committees on Foreign Relations will hold its ninth annual conference on May 13-15 in Washington. The theme will be “Next Steps: Rebuilding the Alliance of Western Democracies and Refining the War on Terror.” Registration is due by April 23, and more information can be found at www.acfr.org. - Throughout 2004, the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Great Decisions, the oldest foreign policy teaching and discussion program in the nation. A major goal this year for WACA is to bring more councils into the system, expanding upon the 27 that currently participate. Their January conference focused in depth on strained trans-Atlantic relations. Highlights included presentations by Zbigniew Brzezinski, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, French Ambassador Jean David-Levitte, Theo Sommer of Die Zeit, and Dan Yergin. WACA is putting on a National Program Series entitled “What Americans Need to Know about the European Union,” which is being funded by the EU. WACA is also in the second year of a program honoring journalists, founded on the concept that many local issues have a significant international component. The stated goal is to give enterprising reporters a chance to find and develop these stories, thereby increasing international content in small and medium-sized papers and encouraging readers to develop greater interest in world affairs. These “World Affairs Journalist Fellowships” are funded by the Knight Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. This year’s designated Fellows number 11, chosen from among 70 applicants with newspapers across the country. The first group of Fellows from last year’s inaugural year have already won 11 awards in their neighborhoods. - The Foreign Service Entry Exam this year will be held on Saturday, April 24. Visit www.careers.gov to register online. RECENT EVENTS Senator Richard Lugar, speaking at the Brookings Institution on April 5, outlined an ambitious agenda for political, economic, and educational reform in the Middle East. His proposal calls for the establishment of what he terms the Greater Middle East 21st Century Trust, that would pool money from G-8 countries and rich countries in the Middle East. THE ACADEMY’S MONTHLY SEMINARS These Seminars are continuing monthly, the
most recent on April 6, with our guest being Ambassador Tom Weston, Special
Coordinator for Cyprus. Weston briefed us on the current UN-led negotiations
directed towards agreement on a confederal governmental arrangement for
the Greek and Turkish Cyprot communities on the island. Separate referenda
on a final status are to be conducted on April 24. NEW ACADEMY BOOK A new book by the Academy, Commercial Diplomacy and the National Interest, is scheduled for publication in July 2004. Work on this book, a joint undertaking by the Academy and the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), began with a major conference on the subject held at the Boeing Center in Washington in May 2003. OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS Joe Nye’s new book Soft Power: The Means and Success in World Politics was published on March 16th. The book is a follow-up to his earlier book, The Paradox of American Power. The Fall 2003 issue of Mediterranean Quarterly had as its lead article one by Joe Sisco on “The Challenge for the US in the post-11 September Era; an Overview.” Robert Gallucci has a new book, co-written with Joel Wit and Daniel Poneman, called Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis. There will be a book launch with author’s remarks from 6-7 PM on April 28 at CSIS on 1800 K St. Call 202-775-3105 for more information. Since 1995 Robert Keeley has been running a small, independent publishing enterprise called the Five and Ten Press. After a hiatus, the Press has resumed production of its original paperback booklets with three titles, bringing the output to 20 books, all priced at $5 to $10 a copy (hence the name of the press). A list of past publications can be seen at www.fiveandtenpress.com. Two recent titles may be of interest to Academy members. One, entitled From the Heartland, is by retired ambassador Carl Coon, and includes a memoir of his service as consul in Tabriz, Iran, plus a long travelogue of a trip he and Jane Coon took in 1993 through Kyrgyistan, Chinese Turkestan, and Tibet. A second new book, entitled One of the Very Best Men, is a memoir by retired ambassador Robert Sherwood Dillon, focused mainly on his service in the CIA in the early 1950s conducting paramilitary operations from an island off the coast of communist China. Henry Kissinger has written the foreword message of A World Challenged: Fighting Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, written by Yevgeny Primakov. Strobe Talbott wrote the forward message to Isaiah Berlin’s The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture Under Communism. The Institute for National Strategic Studies
at the National Defense University published a paper in March titled “The
US-ROK Alliance: Building a Mature Partnership,” by James J. Przystup
and Kang Choi. James E. Goodby has written a new book in cooperation with Sidney D. Drell entitled The Gravest Danger: Nuclear Weapons. Richard Holbrooke’s book, To End A War, is now available in paperback. Zbigniew Brzezinski’s new book, The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership, was published March 2 by Basic Books. The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings has published an analysis paper titled “All Quiet on the Eastern Front? Israel’s National Security Doctrine after the Fall of Saddam,” written by Gal Luft. The author, a Lt. Colonel in the IDF reserves, is Executive Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. A biography of Senator Mike Mansfield by Don Oberdorfer, entitled Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat, was published in October 2003 by The Smithsonian Institution. We hope all Academy members have been keeping a close E-mail watch on a series of articles running currently on the Foreign Service in the Washington Times under the caption “America’s Other Army.” The articles appear on Mondays in the Times and are written By Nicholas Kralev. In writing these articles, Mr. Kralev conducted interviews with five past and present secretaries of state and close to 300 other diplomats, residing in several different US missions. This project is funded by the Una Chapman Cox Foundation. CONSULAR STATISTICS One of the articles in the Kralev series focused on Consular issues. It quotes Assistant Secretary of Consular Affairs, Maura Harty, as saying that “People who come to our consulates…should have a dignified experience…That doesn’t mean that they have a right to get a visa, but I have called officers off visa lines when I’ve found them to be rude to people.” Mrs. Harty stated that the refusal rate is “still around 25 percent worldwide, as it was in 2000.” However, the number of applications has decreased by nearly 35% since September 11th. Closely related is the impact of the tighter visa restrictions that have been put in place in the aftermath of 9/11 on student travel to study in the United States. In a March 31 op-ed titled “International Relations 101,” printed in the New York Times, former CIA Director and now president of Texas A&M, Robert Gates noted that the result is a growing number of the world’s brightest young people are deciding to remain at home or go to other countries for college or graduate education. Gates notes reports from The Chronicle of Higher Education which state that applications from China are down by 76% and from India by 58%. He writes that “We simply cannot tolerate a visa process that fails to differentiate quickly and accurately between legitimate scholars and students – and individuals who may pose a genuine security risk.” Gates writes that post 9/11 visa policies and procedures have been badly hamstrung by a lack of resources, unrealistic deadlines and shortcomings in scanning technologies and background checks, adding that “there are too many people in visa offices who are indifferent to the importance of these students to America.” Gates concludes, “We have to win the war of ideas; beyond the risk to economic, scientific and political interests, we risk something more; alienating our allies of the future.” NEWS OF MEMBERS Hank Cohen is a member of the Board of Advisors of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Inc. (founded by Hans Morgenthau) and Tom Pickering is a trustee. This year the Committee gave him its Kennan Award and Richard Haass its Morgenthau Award. On March 11, Anthony Quainton gave the keynote speech on “American Primacy” at Lexington, Kentucky’s annual Rotary Worldview Banquet. The following day he was a speaker and panelist at the 2004 Worldview Conference sponsored jointly by the Lexington Rotary Club and the University of Kentucky’s School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. Julia Chang Bloch spent the academic week of February 23rd – 28th at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota lecturing on “Preventative Diplomacy,” under the auspices of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation. She also took part in several programs at the college during the week of the annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum, held annually by five Lutheran colleges in that area to follow-up the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 2002 to Jimmy Carter. A planning committee hopes to include the 2003 Nobel Laureate, Ms. Shirin Ebadi of Iran, in the 2005 Forum, held at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Tony Gillespie is spending the week of April 18th – 23rd at St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, speaking under the auspices of the Woodrow Wilson International Fellowship Foundation. The Center for the Student of Intelligence held a conference from September 10-11, 2003 at Charlottesville on “Intelligence for a New Era in American Foreign Policy.” Bent Scowcroft was among the 85 participants. The Academy has a copy of its 21-page report. Dan Simpson now has a weekly-signed column (in addition to his role as associate editor) at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. George Shultz delivered the 3rd annual Kissinger lecture on “A Changed World,” on February 11th at the Coolidge Awards, located at the Library of Congress. Pat Gates Lynch is at work on a memoir entitled My World Affairs: High Adventures in Journalism and Diplomacy. Nicholas A. Veliotes was appointed Vice Chair on the AMIDEAST Board of Directors, while Robert H. Pelletreau is also a board member. Al Friendly, former managing editor of the Washington Post, and Anne Garrels, of NPR, spoke at the memorial service for Warren Zimmermann on February 17th at St. Albans Church. Bruce Laingen
spoke to students regarding Iran at St. Olaf College on March 1st and
to the AFSA Midwest group on March 2nd. Laingen also spoke to 32 high
school teams participating in the World Affairs Councils of America’s
second year of its Academic World Quest 2004 competition, March 26-27. Robert Keeley spoke in a panel discussion on March 17th at the National Press Club, focusing on the Accountability Acts and the draft of an “Israel Accountability and Security Act.” He also currently serves as a trustee for the Hellenic Studies Program at Princeton. Joseph Nye was awarded the Woodrow Wilson award, an annual award, which is presented to an undergraduate alumnus or alumna of Princeton University whose career embodies the call to duty, included in a speech by President Wilson entitled, “Princeton in the Nation’s Service.” Thomas Boyatt spoke at a lecture entitled “The Hundred Years War of the Twentieth Century,” which took place in Cleveland, Ohio on March 23rd. Robert S. McNamara is featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary film about his life, entitled The Fog of War. The documentary explains the problems that arise when a policymaker is committed to a policy that is unsupported by intelligence. Richard Solomon, president of the United States Institute of Peace and Virtual Diplomacy Initiative Chief together with Institute CIO Sheryl Brown, delivered conference presentations on the subject, “Creating a Common Communications Culture: Interoperability in Crisis Management,” to the September 12th, 2003 Conference on Crisis Management and Information Technology held in Helsinki, Finland. Colin L. Powell spoke at the 2004 Annual Dinner in honor of founding Chairman Ambassador George F. Kennan’s 100th birthday and the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Kennan Institute. Washington, DC’s well-known parody group, The Capital Steps, began in 1981 at former Senator Charles Percy’s office Christmas party. Brandon Grove spoke before the Washington Studies Group on April 6 about US-Israeli Relations. David Newsom was on a panel with retired Indian Major General Indar Rikhye, who led UN troops in the Gaza and the Congo and was Head of the International Peace Academy for several years, at the Charlottesville-Albremarle League of Women Voters on March 23rd. The panel received front-page attention in the Charlottesville Daily Progress. Nicholas Platt will be retiring as president of the Asia Society after serving in that role for 12 years. He will be succeeded by Vishakha Desai, the first woman and first Asian-American to head the organization. The appointment was announced by Richard Holbrooke, who serves as chairman of the Asia Society board. As President of the National Council for Science and the Environment, Richard Benedick led the organization’s national conference in January at Washington’s International Trade Center on the theme of “Water for a Sustainable and Secure Future.” Over 800 participants attended 17 breakout sessions and heard plenary speakers including Bruce Babbitt, former EPA Administrator William Reilly, and UN Under-Secretary General Klaus Toepfer. Conference sponsors included federal agencies and such companies as AT&T, Dow, and 3M. IN MEMORIAM The Academy records its regret at the loss of one of its most distinguished members; Warren Zimmermann, who died February 3rd, at the age of 69. Warren, an outstanding advocate for human rights, served as a leader in the Foreign Service for over three decades, holding positions in posts in Austria, France, Spain, the Soviet Union, Switzerland, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. Warren was also chairman of the United States delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and was a deputy in negotiations with the Soviet Union over nuclear arms and space. He was also our last ambassador to Yugoslavia. Warren authored several books, the last of which, entitled First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made their Country a World Power, was honored with the Academy’s Douglas Dillon Book Award. In 1997, he won the same prize for his Origins of a Catastrophe: Yugoslavia and its Destroyers. In a Foreign Service Journal piece written by Roscoe Suddarth, Warren’s life is cited as “a model of the foreign affairs professional that our nation needs to produce and nurture in the coming generation.” A statement by Colin Powell recalled Warren as having been “among our finest Career Ambassadors.” NOTABLE STATISTICS - The new State Department eBid system, which notifies diplomats about job postings and displays a running tally of applicants and what jobs they are seeking, has shown that about 200 Foreign Service officers have placed more than 800 bids for Baghdad. Current plans call for filling 131 jobs at the new US embassy in Baghdad, said to total something like 3,000 persons in its entirety when in place. - The new Iraqi Fulbright program has brought 25 Iraqi young leaders to the United States for a year of study. - USAID is starting an excursion program in conjunction with the State Department. It is starting on a small scale, with five officers on each side going over to the other organization for a two-year assignment, all assignments being in Washington, DC. With HIV/AIDS, global terror, conflict mitigation and democracy activities all sharing importance in both organizations, the excursions are intended to foster greater cooperation and understanding between AID and State. - The Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, sponsored by the Una Chapman Cox Foundation and located at Howard University in the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center, is providing several fellowships and internships for both graduate and undergraduate students. Throughout the duration of their fellowships and internships, recipients will receive mentoring from a Foreign Service Officer. - Current statistics on the State Department: 3,767 Foreign Service in Washington, 6,822 Foreign Service overseas, 7,762 Civil Service in Washington, 10 Civil Service overseas and 9,897 Foreign nationals overseas. QUOTABLE QUOTES “Keep strong, if possible. In any case, keep cool. Have unlimited patience. Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save face. Put yourself in his shoes – so as to see things through his eyes. Avoid self-righteousness like the Devil – nothing is so self blinding.” -ROBERT F. KENNEDY Foreign Service officers “need to understand the value of political appointees,” because “…no matter how brilliant they all are, a political appointee, when strategically placed, represents the views of the president. In another life, I would have been a Foreign Service officer. I come from a diplomatic family… I have the highest respect for the Foreign Service, but they are not the sole keepers of America’s diplomacy.” -MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT “The political activity prevailing in the United States is something one could never understand unless one had seen it. No sooner do you set foot on American soil than you find yourself in a sort of tumult; a confused clamor rises on every side, and a thousand voices are heard at once, each expressing some social requirements. All around you everything is on the move...” -ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE THE NEWSLETTER
|
||||||||
| AMERICAN
ACADEMY OF DIPLOMACY |
|