The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

M A R C H 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 Iran Project ( www.iranproject.org ), an unofficial initiative that has been suggesting diplomatic strategies and encouraging direct U.S.-Iran discus- sions for nearly a decade. For the past three years, the Iran Project has pro- posed specific ways to contain Iran’s nuclear program and wall it off from developing weapons, and to engage Iran in a dialogue on other regional is- sues. — Susan Brady Maitra, Senior Editor An Ounce of Prevention The Center for Preventive Action, part of the Council on Foreign Rela- tions, recently released the results of its fourth annual preventive priorities survey. It lists 30 potential interna- tional conflicts that could erupt during 2012 ( www.cfr.org/conflict-preven tion ), gr ouped into three tiers of di- minishing severity in terms of their ef- fect on U.S. interests. At the top are potential conflicts that would directly affect the U.S, such as intensification of the European sov- ereign debt crisis, a cyberattack on U.S. infrastructure and an Iranian nu- clear crisis. Other contingencies in this first tier include a large-scale attack on U.S. soil or a treaty ally, a North Ko- rean crisis, political instability in Saudi Arabia, and increased turmoil in Mex- ico due to drug trafficking. C Y B E R N O T E S WWW.AFSA.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. AFSA Insurance Plans hirshorn.com/afsa AFSA FAD www.afsa.org/fad AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com Arlington Court Suites Arlingtoncourthotel.com Clements Worldwide clements.com McGrath Real Estate Services McGrathRealEstate.com ProMax promaxrealtors.com SDFCU sdfcu.org Tetratech Tetratech.com WJD wjdpm.com SITE OF THE MONTH: www.thehungersite.com We featured TheHungerSite.com , which focuses the power of the Internet on the eradication of world hunger, as our Site of the Month in the January 2011 edition of Cybernotes. But given this issue’s focus topic, it seems only appropriate to spot- light it again. Since its launch in June 1999, the site has established itself as a leader in on- line activism. More than 300 million people from around the world have donated more than 808 million cups of staple food by clicking on the yellow “Click Here to Give — It’s Free” button. (Though you can only donate once a day from any sin- gle computer, you can access the site from home and work to double your contri- bution if you wish.) The donations are paid for by site sponsors and distributed to those in need by Mercy Corps ( www.mercycorps.org ); Fee ding America ( www.feedingharvest.org ), formerly America’s Second Harvest; and Millennium Promise ( www.millennium promise.org ). As the site notes, 100 percent of sponsor advertising fees goes to the site’s charitable partners to aid hungry people all over the world, including the United States. As a bonus, The Hunger Site acts as a portal to seven sister sites, which gen- erates donations to fight breast cancer, promote child health and literacy, feed and assist homeless and hungry veterans, treat children with autism and raise aware- ness of the issue, protect rainforests and support animal rescue initiatives, re- spectively. (Icons for each site are prominently displayed at the top of The Hunger Site homepage.) Visitors can help even more by shopping for items displayed on each of the eight sites. Each online store offers a wide array of fair-traded, handcrafted items from around the world. — Steven Alan Honley, Editor