The Foreign Service Journal, April 2014

58 APRIL 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS AFSA is pleased to highlight these upcoming events: • April 2: Join us in cel- ebrating Ambassador Edward Perkins, recip ient of the UNA-NCA Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to international affairs. Amb. Perkins served as U.S. Ambassador to Libe- ria, South Africa, the United Nations and Australia and was the first African-Ameri- can Director General of the Foreign Service. The event takes place at AFSA head- quarters, 2101 E St. NW, at 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. UNA-NCA Members: $15; AFSA Mem- bers: $15; Non- Members: $20. RSVP www.unanca. org//news-events//. Upcoming Events at AFSA • APRIL 16: AFSA and the Public Diplomacy Alumni Association welcome P.J. Crowley , former assistant secretary of State for public affairs, to discuss “The U.S. Public Diplomacy Deficit.” This is the second event in the ongoing AFSA/PDAA speaker series on public diplomacy. This program is open to all AFSA and PDAA members, as well as the gen- eral public. The event takes place at AFSA headquarters, 2101 E St NW, at 2:00 p.m. on April 16. RSVP events@afsa. org. • APRIL 29 : AFSA Book Notes presents Ambassador Laurence Pope in a discus- sion of his new book, The back in July, but those were not provided until a week before this event. AFSA State Vice President Matthew Asada briefed the group on AFSA’s current strategic plan, explained the purpose of post representa- tives, and noted that this year we are celebrating the 90th anniversary both of AFSA and the Foreign Service. AFSA provided copies of the current issue of The Foreign Service Journal , as well as copies of Inside a U.S. Embassy . Notably, many of the ambassadors and nomi- nees commented that they already have the book. n AFSA Hosts continued from page 51 Demilitarization of American Diplomacy: Two Cheers for Striped Pants . Both an insider and a historian, Laurence Pope describes the contemporary dysfunction of the State Department and its Foreign Service. While the Defense Depart- ment and the American mili- tary services have reinvented themselves in a decade of failed nation-building wars, the State Department is promising to do a better job of nation-building next time, he argues. Its policy func- tions have migrated to the White House. Secretaries of State largely ignore the State Department bureaucracy, circumventing it with their personal staff. Pope contends that in the information age diplomacy is more important than ever, and that, as President Obama has stressed, without a ‘change of thinking’ the U.S. may be drawn into more wars it does not need to fight. Laurence Pope is a retired FSO who lives in Portland, Maine. He is the author of François de Callieres: A Politi- cal Life (Republic of Letters, 2010), a biography of the first proponent of professional diplomacy. His presenta- tion will take place at AFSA headquarters, 2101 E St NW, at 2:00 p.m. on April 29. RSVP events@afsa.org. n U.S. ambassadors and nominees in town to participate in the State Department’s chief of mission conference, attend a breakfast at AFSA headquarters on March 12. PHOTOBYÁSGEIRSIGFÚSSON