The Foreign Service Journal, May 2003

Brady is a remarkable man. We met 12 years ago when he was a political officer at Embassy Athens; he served as my control officer when I, as a desk officer for Greece, visit- ed in 1991. During that visit, I learned that Brady is a classics schol- ar, which I assume is why he liked serving in Greece and returned there. That training also probably helped him to analyze the internal logic (however absurd, sometimes) of the political dynamics in the Balkans. Soon after my visit, Brady returned to Washington as desk offi- cer for Romania. He and I watched from our respective Romanian and Greek sidelines, as Yugoslavia disin- tegrated and war broke out in Croatia and then Bosnia. That crisis was compounded by a diplomatic quarrel with Greece, which objected strenuously to the U.S. intention to recognize the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. I still remember several of us mid-level desk officers in EUR meeting infor- mally in Brady’s office with bag lunches to try and make sense out of this unfolding disaster and to exchange ideas on what, if anything, we could do at our level to mitigate the worst of this process. Several colleagues evidently thought it was in their best interest to resign. In November 1992, I, too, resigned from the Foreign Service but for personal reasons, to accept a job at the Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. still had not recognized Macedonia, but it appeared to be moving slowly to do so. When I told Brady about my imminent departure, I remember joking that this was my opportunity to score points with my Greek friends by asserting publicly that I was resigning because of American insensitivity to Greek concerns about Macedonia. If I did so, I sug- gested to Brady, I would probably be decorated by the Greek foreign minister! Of course, I had no intention of making a mockery of the honorable act (too rarely exercised) of resigning as a matter of principle. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance did it in 1980 when he disagreed with the abortive mili- tary operation to rescue the American hostages in Tehran. A few colleagues did so in 1992 when they disagreed with U.S. inaction in the Balkans, and now Brady has done it. For better or worse, U.S. policy on Iraq has clearly not been altered by Brady’s resignation. However, as a scholar of ancient civilizations, perhaps he can find solace in the longer view of things. After all, over the past decade, the U.S. led a suc- cessful air war against Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic is now on trial in the Hague as a war criminal, American troops have been deployed as peacekeepers in Bosnia and Macedonia, and Greek irritation about recognizing Macedonia has subsided. In fact, EPA Administra- tor Christine Whitman recently met with the Macedonian ambassador to the United States to discuss bilateral cooperation to control industrial pollution. The wars in what once was Yugoslavia were a humanitarian disaster, and life is not all that great in any of the Yugoslav successor states — but things could still be a lot worse. Let us hope for a similar outcome in Iraq. Paulo Almeida FSO, retired Bethesda, Md. Back to Twain Discussions of the Holy Land in the Foreign Service Journal gener- ate a considerable amount of pas- sion, even among staid Foreign 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 3 L E T T E R S Join the Journal Õs Editorial Board! Active and retired Foreign Service employees from all foreign affairs agencies are invited to nominate themselves or colleagues for a two-year term on the Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board beginning in September. Because of normal turnover and moves abroad, the Board seeks to fill at least three slots this year. Board members set the general edi- torial direction of the Journal , in consultation with the editorial staff. Meeting monthly at AFSA HQ (over a free lunch!), they evaluate submit- ted manuscripts, decide on future focus topics, and weigh in on other matters affecting the Journal ’s style, substance and process. Board members must be able to attend monthly midday meetings in Washington and should be able to devote at least a few hours a month to reading articles and considering other Journal -related matters. If interested, please get in touch by June 1 with FSJ editor Steve Honley (e-mail: honley@afsa.org), sending some information about yourself (or the colleague you are nominating) and explaining why you are interested in serving on the Board. For more information , you may also call (202) 944-5511, fax: (202) 338-8244, or write: Editorial Board Search, Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, DC, 20037-2990.