The Foreign Service Journal, March 2007

M A R C H 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 n November 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Mosul to inaugurate the first Iraq Provincial Reconstruction Team. “I know that it is not easy work,” she said, while announcing the official opening of this latest diplomatic outpost in the capital of Ninawa province. “I know that it is, at times, dangerous work. I just want to assure you that it is understood in America that it is also really, really important work. Indeed, it is work that is crucial to our own freedoms.” And yet, as Iraq Provincial Action Officer Robert Pope, an FSO who was serving there at the time, F O C U S O N W A R Z O N E D I P L O M A C Y I RAQ PRT S : P INS ON A M AP W HAT ROLE , IF ANY , CAN THE F OREIGN S ERVICE PLAY IN ACTIVE WAR ZONES ? H ERE IS A LOOK AT THE REALITY OF SERVICE ON I RAQ P ROVINCIAL R ECONSTRUCTION TEAMS . B Y S HAWN D ORMAN I Hugn Syme