The Foreign Service Journal, May 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2014 59 AFSA NEWS International Studies: AFSAMeets Academia This year, for the first time, AFSA set up shop as an exhibitor at the International Studies Association con- vention, the largest annual gathering of international relations academics in the world. Created to promote research and education in international affairs, ISA is the premier organization for connecting scholars and practitioners in the fields of international studies. Some 6,000 members attended the annual convention. The majority of the 80-some exhibitors at the four-day conference, held March 26–29 in Toronto, were academic and commer- cial publishers selling books and networking. A number of related organizations also had booths at ISA, including Gallup, Council on Foreign Relations and Statecraft Simulation. AFSA and ADST Our neighbor was the State Department recruit- ment office, represented by the New York region’s Diplomat-in-Residence Patri- cia Guy, D.C.-based recruiter and retired FSO Ramona Harper, and Michael Wolfe, the student program and fel- lowship division chief. AFSA shared a booth with the Association of Diplo- matic Studies and Training, although ADST did not send any staff to Toronto. Retired FSO and member of the AFSA Professionalism and Ethics Committee Robert Dry and AFSA Publications Manager and FSJ Editor Shawn Dorman were there to represent AFSA and ADST. AFSA’s reps spoke with several hundred conference participants, introducing them to AFSA and ADST pro- grams and sharing copies of The Foreign Service Journal, AFSA’s Inside a U.S. Embassy book and information about ADST—especially its oral history program (which hap- pened to be the focus of the March Journal ). Building Bridges The AFSA and ADST materials seemed a perfect fit for this audience. A few professors and Ph.D. candi- dates practically cried with enthusiasm about the trea- sure trove of primary source material that is the ADST oral history collec- tion—1,800 first-person accounts of events in diplomatic history that are searchable and available at no cost. Some two dozen profes- sors took copies of the book for possible course adoption. Several attendees who teach at military institutions The AFSA and ADST materials seemed a perfect fit for this audience. were pleased to learn about Inside a U.S. Embassy , and one from the Air Force said it was exactly what they needed for an upcoming course. The book went over well with academics teaching in the U.S., as well as those teaching in other countries. Dry and Dorman met with representatives from the Diplomatic Studies Section of ISA and with many others interested in building bridges between academia and diplo- matic practice. n –Shawn Dorman, FSJ Editor A Foreign Service candidate chats with FSJ Editor Shawn Dorman. PATRICIAGUY