The Foreign Service Journal, April 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2018 9 about why one after another senior- level diplomat has walked or been pushed out the door. Is the U.S. Foreign Service as misunderstood as that? Its founda- tion is the oath diplomats take to the Constitution and a commitment to serve the United States through the administration in power. That’s what career diplomats do, making loyalty testing an alien concept. In the Journal Timeline, we have pulled fascinating excerpts from each decade that offer glimpses of the rich legacy of diplomacy. Frequent contributor and unofficial Foreign Service historian Harry Kopp leads the focus with the sur- prisingly lively story of the Journal ’s first 100 years. Steve Dujack and Steve Honley share their stories of steering the Journal through the 1980s and the 2000s. I started reading the Journal a quarter-century ago, when I joined the Foreign Service and AFSA in 1993. At my first post, Bishkek—where mail came only when we drove over the mountains to Kazakhstan to pick it up, email was just getting going (and all our messages were routed through the Kyr- gyz president’s server!), and a call home cost $3/minute—the Journal was a lifeline. It was a connection to home, to Washington, to friends and colleagues around the world, and to the issues that concern us all. Of course, we now have virtually unlimited options for connecting. But I LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Launching the FSJ Centennial BY SHAWN DORMAN A s we go to press with this issue celebrating the start of The For- eign Service Journal ’s centennial year, I am thinking about the editor 100 years from now looking back on this edition. I hope she can gain a sense of the times from each issue of the magazine, as we can today looking back. And I hope she is at her post in a powerful AFSA head- quarters, compiling bright voices from a strong Foreign Service. Poking around in the incredible archives of a century of Journals for high- lights to share in this issue and during the coming months, I am pulled in; I can feel history come alive through the com- mentary, the letters, the photos and ads. In another 100 years, what will people make of the challenging time for diplomacy we find ourselves in today? As I write, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has just been fired by presidential tweet. His under secretary for public affairs released a statement about that firing, and was himself fired just hours later. The headlines today, March 15, include stories about new evidence of efforts to “clean house” at State of those suspected of being “disloyal” to the Donald J. Trump administration. Representatives Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the White House and the Deputy Secretary of State request- ing information about reports of political attacks on career employees at State. Rumors have swirled for months Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal. would argue that the purpose and utility of the Journal endures—in both hard copy form that arrives by old-fashioned mail or pouch, and digital form that is sharable and can boost engagement. A bridge between history and the present, it tells the story of our Foreign Service. Most magazines do not last, and almost none make it to 100. Please join the FSJ Centennial Celebration by send- ing us a note to fill in the blank regarding your connection to the Journal : The Jour- nal is _____. Or send a photo of yourself (or a friend or family member) reading the Journal wherever you are—the more distant from D.C., the better! Send sub- missions to journal@afsa.org . n FSJ house ad that ran in multiple issues in the late 1960s.