The Foreign Service Journal, January 2011

12 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1 journ that took the president to In- donesia, South Korea and Japan. Starting in Mumbai, where Pres. Obama reiterated Washington’s com- mitment to cooperation to stop the kind of terrorist attack that took place there two years earlier, and moving on to NewDelhi, the presidential visit was intended to demonstrate that the strategic relationship— in the words of a Foreign Policy Initiative analyst, “one of the great bipartisan U.S. foreign pol- icy success stories of the past decade” — had not stalled. On the contrary, the Obama admin- istration aims to take the U.S.-India re- lationship, which the president calls “one of the defining relationships” of the 21st century, to a new level. As the president pointed out, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been his first foreign guest, and the three-day stay in India was the longest of his own foreign visits to date. Announcement of some 18 joint initiatives in economic, scientific, po- litical, educational, energy and secu- rity areas conveyed the breadth of the relationship and its benefits for both countries and the world. The jampacked itinerary included interactions with businesspeople, tech- nologists and agricultural scientists, as well as government officials. In addi- tion to Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake and Special Assistant to the Pres- ident for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights Samantha Power, the Obama entourage included Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, Secretary of Agriculture TomVilsack, White House Chief Technical Officer Aneesh Cho- pra and several hundred corporate CEOs. A high point was Pres. Obama’s ad- dress to the Indian Parliament, where he described “the future that the United States seeks in an intercon- nected world,” and explained why he believes that India is indispensable to this vision. He sought, he said, a “truly global partnership—not just in one or two areas and not just for our mutual benefit, but for the benefit of the world.” Part of that vision, Pres. Obama said, is “a reformed United Nations Se- curity Council with India as a perma- nent member.” While the Security Council en- dorsement staked out a long-term vi- sion for the relationship, material building blocks were put in place — and obstacles removed — to strength- en ties in the near term. Most signifi- cantly, perhaps, Pres. Obama announ- ced that the Commerce Department will lift decades-old sanctions on two of C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... A s the foreign news trickled in during December from Laos, Ecuador, Cuba and the Congo, showing the members of the Foreign Service under fire, it became abundantly clear that today’s diplomats are indeed in the front lines. To the thousands of young people taking the written examinations, the news reports must have underlined again that a career in the Foreign Service offers an adventurous and challenging life, not to be assessed in the too-usual pattern of income, security and things acquired. — Gwen Barrows, “Washington Letter,” FSJ , January 1961. WWW.FSJOURNAL.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. Click on the Marketplace tab on the marquee AFSA Legacy afsa.org/CFCFAD.cfm AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com Clements International clements.com Diplomatic Automobile Sales diplosales.com Fox Hill foxhillseniorcondominium.com Georgetown Suites Georgetownsuites.com Hirshorn Company, The hirshorn.com Inside A U.S. Embassy afsa.org/inside/ ProMax Promaxrealtors.com SDFCU sdfcu.org TetraTech Tetratech.com WJD wjdpm.com