The Foreign Service Journal, April 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2018 59 DEFINING DIPLOMACY for YEARS Above inSILVERFOILonCover FSJ November 1984 A Foreign Service Filament One who looks no further than the contemporary outside of the Foreign Service Journal thinks of it simply as a magazine, a mere appurtenance of the Service. But one who carefully examines its insides over its 60-year span is impressed by how much more it is than that. It is not only a vehicle of thought with respect to U.S. foreign relations, and, more particularly, overseas experience, but a means of expressing professional perspectives. … –Smith Simpson, a retired FSO and the author of Anatomy of the State Department and The Crisis in American Diplomacy FSJ October 1985 War of the Present The hijacking of TWA Flight 847 brought home a stark real- ity of the 1980s. We are engaged in a war with international terrorism that promises to be longer, bloodier, and more difficult than anyone predicted. Over the past few years a number of western leaders, including French President Mitterand, British Prime Minister Thatcher, and President Reagan, have publicly declared war on terrorism in the wake of murderous attacks on their own institutions and citizens. –Howard R. Simpson, retired FSO FSJ December 1985 The $4.2-Billion Man: An Interview with Robert E. Lamb As for the question of professionalism, it is essential that we create a Bureau of Diplomatic Security that has a highly professional cadre of security officers. By professional, I mean well-trained, well-equipped, adequately financed to do what needs to be done. One of the problems has been that during the last twenty years SY has been given additional functions without really being given the structure, training, or resources to take them on. I think that the Inman panel proposals will correct that. –Robert Lamb, as coordinator for diplomatic security, is responsible for designing the $4.2 billion plan to safeguard embassies and missions mandated by the Advisory Panel on Overseas Security (the Inman panel) in the wake of the 1983 Beirut bombings FSJ May 1986 Charting FSI’s Course: An Interview with Stephen Low FSJ November 1987 The Perils of Perestroika It is clear, however, that within these Russian terms lies the poten- tial renaissance of a powerful nation- state and the metamorphosis of the political organization that has held power for 70 years. Neither word is an empty slogan, a bluff, though we have yet to see the general secre- tary’s full hand. Far beyond the bor- ders of the Soviet Union, the unfold- ing of perestroika and glasnost may affect the whole Eastern bloc. On the other hand, if the reforms implicit in these terms are not realized, then both perestroika and glasnost could be harbingers of political entropy, with egre- gious consequences for the Soviet people as a weakening superpower senses its own peril. –Daniel L. Nelson, professor of political science at the University of Kentucky and the author of books on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe July 1961 FSJ