The Foreign Service Journal, April 2011

A P R I L 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 ties at both the Office of Management and Budget and the National Security Council; • Creating a “J-10” position at the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide a focus on contingency contracting, which is currently subsumed under the Joint Chiefs’ logistics organization; • Increasing competition among contractors to promote savings; and • Ensuring that training for military and civilian officials who manage and oversee contingency contracts is made more consistent and effective. Commission Co-Chair and former Representative Chris Shays, R-Conn., says, “If our proposals are enacted, we can save billions of dollars, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but in the next contingency operation.” In a Feb. 23 Washington Post arti- cle about the commission’s findings, Associated Press reporter Richard Lardner notes an additional facet of the issue that was not part of the com- mission’s mandate. U.S. intelligence agencies also employ contractors, an arrangement that in recent weeks has produced a serious diplomatic head- ache. Raymond Allen Davis was working as a Central Intelligence Agency secu- rity contractor in Pakistan when he shot and killed two armed men in La- hore back in January. Davis’ connec- tion to the spy agency has seriously complicated the Obama administra- tion’s efforts to free him from jail, and continues to strain relations between the U.S. and Pakistan. Created by Congress under Section 841 of the National Defense Authori- zation Act for Fiscal Year 2008, the eight-member Wartime Contracting Commission has broad authority to ex- amine wartime spending, including military support contracts, reconstruc- tion projects and private security com- panies. The new report is the panel’s fifth to date. The commission is slated to disband after issuing its final report this July. — Steven Alan Honley, Editor Stake Your Claim! The Internet address system is currently based on 21 “generic top- level” domains, of which the top two— .com. and .net—account for about half of the world’s 202 million Internet ad- dresses. (Many of the rest are named for countries; e.g., .fr for France.) Since 2000, the list of generic do- mains has expanded only twice, and the new options (e.g., .biz, .jobs) have not attracted huge audiences. But that C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... T he policy formulation process is badly served if only those ideas are entertained that happen to correspond with the pre- vailing climate of opinion. Let there be, then, within the limits of loyal service to the United States, a free play of ideas in the Foreign Service. [This] is only possible, however, if the president and Secretary of State will actu- ally defend those of their subordinates who may some day, with the benefit of hindsight, prove to have been wrong. In giving our best judgment we cannot al- ways be right, particularly since politics involves constant change, and a judgment made two years ago may look foolish today even though it was quite reasonable at the time it was made. — Editorial, “Daring and Dissent,” FSJ , April 1961. WWW.FSJOURNAL.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. Click on the Marketplace tab on the marquee AFSA Insurance Plans hirshorn.com/afsa AFSA Legacy afsa.org/FAD AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com Arlington Court Suites arlingtoncourthotel.com Clements International clements.com Diplomatic Automobile Sales diplosales.com Inside A U.S. Embassy afsa.org/inside/ ProMax Management Inc. promaxrealtors.com SDFCU sdfcu.org TetraTech tetratech.com WJD wjdpm.com