The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2016 11 tion. A July 30, 1989, Los Angeles Times article offered that “Bloch was disap- pointed that his prospects for being named an ambassador seemed slim.” Discussing personnel dissatisfaction was nothing new at AFSA in 1989, but hearing it offered as a motive for espionage was. I learned that “disgruntlement” is considered one tick on the standard profile for a spy’s potential motives. As explained in “Espionage Against the United States by American Citizens 1947- 2001,” by Katherine L. Herbig andMartin F. Wiskoff, disgruntlement as a motive for espionage “usually refers back to the workplace, where disappointment, anger, frustration, or alienation can arise from interactions among co-workers or between employees and supervisors.” As I research the Bloch case, I am outraged that the difficulty of the “up or out” Foreign Service personnel systemwas presented in a questionable media story as a primary excuse for espionage that was never proven. Despite the tarnish of being selected out, all the FSOs I knewwho had to go through the painful career-severance experience consistently spoke about the dedication they felt to their profession. As Albert Camus said, “It is necessary to fall in love—the better to provide an alibi for all the despair we are going to feel anyway.”The State Department needs to develop antidotes to the potential for such despair, the way they inoculate personnel going into areas where vulnerabilities to health and well-being can be anticipated. State can do this through an ongoing commitment to building resilience via personnel training that helps employees and their families overcome the potential need for love as an alibi. n Ann Luppi FSJ Editor, 1988-1990 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania