The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2009

This is my last column as AFSA president. On July 15, the 2007-2009 AFSA Govern- ing Board finishes its term and a new group of active-duty and retired colleagues takes over the responsibility for fighting to ad- vance your interests. I urge all mem- bers to give our new board your support. Send them your suggestions, kudos and constructive criticism. In doing so, we will be continuing the proud tradition of mutual support dat- ing back to 1924. And the Foreign Service will be the better for it. As an AFSA officer for six of the past 10 years, it has been my honor to work in this organization that so vigilantly promotes the interests of the Foreign Service. I particularly enjoyed working alongside AFSA’s talented professional staff. It is they who do the bulk of the work for our members. I thank them for their dedicated service. One of my final acts as AFSA presi- dent was to participate in Foreign Af- fairs Day. After Secretary Clinton and I fulfilled the sad duty of unveiling the new names inscribed on the AFSAMe- morial Plaques, I participated in a luncheon hosted by the State Depart- ment for its retirees. The main speaker was retired Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who gave an informed tour d’horizon of current for- eign policy issues. However, he closed with some worrisome comments about the future of the Foreign Service. After lauding the dedication of FS members who have joined since 9/11, Amb. Crocker criticized mid-level members who, he claimed, do not “get it” about the requirements of today’s diplomacy. In his view, they are not stepping up to the plate to serve in dan- gerous postings where “the real work” of the Foreign Service is being done. So he looks forward to the replacement of that older generation by the supposedly more “expeditionary” new generation. There are two fallacies in this rea- soning. First, U.S. diplomacy does not begin and end with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and a few other crisis coun- tries. The Foreign Service also works to advance vital national interests in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and else- where. If promotions and senior as- signments only go to those who excel in atypical crisis countries, thenU.S. diplo- macy in the world’s other 250 nations will suffer. Secondly, if there are differences in the degree of war-zone volunteerism between new and veteran employees, it is because of demography, not dedica- tion. It has always been true that, on average, junior employees are less en- cumbered than veteran employees. More senior members are more likely to be married or have a life partner, to have school-age children (some with disabilities), to face child-custody issues, to have a medical limitation (often a re- sult of previous unhealthy overseas serv- ice), to have a parent in failing health, or to face other constraints resulting from having a life outside of work. A flippant commentator might re- spond that “If the StateDepartment (or USAID, FCS, FAS or IBB) had wanted you to have a family, they would have is- sued you one.” But the old military adage echoed in that statement is no longer used. Everyone from the Secre- tary of Defense on down agrees that military families are dangerously stress- ed by repeated unaccompanied tours. Thus, it makes no sense to argue that the Foreign Service (which lacks DOD’s family support structures) should be more like the military. My fervent hope is that the coming years do not see our Foreign Service morph into a diplomatic Foreign Le- gion. To avoid that fate, we need a larger cohort to share rotations into ex- treme hardship posts. And we need to reverse recent trends that have made the FS less family-friendly. If we can instead make the Foreign Service a better supported and more satisfying place to spend a career and raise a family, we will be strengthening U.S. diplomacy. ■ John K. Naland resigned the presidency of the American Foreign Service Asso- ciation in June to transfer to Iraq to lead a Provincial Reconstruction Team. P RESIDENT ’ S V IEWS Past, Present and Future B Y J OHN K. N ALAND J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 5