The Foreign Service Journal, June 2007

FAA’s original drafting in 1961. Despite several major revisions, the legislation still does not envision the close coordination and collaboration now becoming the norm with the mil- itary, or accommodate the need for special operational requirements in some environments. Updating the FAA will obviously take time and effort and should not be undertaken lightly or hurriedly. In the meantime, funding appropriated for countries like Afghan- istan and Iraq should contain “not withstanding authorities” that will pro- mote programmatic flexibility and responsiveness—key qualities of assis- tance from the military’s perspective. If the Millennium Challenge Ac- count is the Bush administration’s for- eign assistance legacy, then let the next administration’s project be new institutional arrangements targeting countries at the other end of the “development continuum” from the MCA. These will include a subset of societies where reconstruction and stability operations, not development per se, are paramount, and where the Foreign Service–military partnership is therefore of critical importance. In such places, increased innova- tion and risk-taking must become the norm. In short, a new business model to help achieve the goals of transfor- mation diplomacy is required. As a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( Breaking Point: Measuring Progress in Afghanistan ) noted, staying the course, even with additional re- sources, will not be enough. At the heart of any such model must be a carefully considered, balanced part- nership between the Foreign Service and the military. Such cooperation may never be easy to maintain, given the institu- tions’ different perspectives, cultures and competencies. But the experi- ence of the Vietnam-era Combined Operations Rural Development Sup- port program (described in the March FSJ by John Graham) demonstrates that FSOs can successfully perform development and political liaison work in conflict zones — when they have adequate resources, authority and security provided by their part- ners in the armed forces. ■ Thomas E. Johnson Jr. is a USAID program officer in Kabul. Since join- ing the Foreign Service in 1987, he has served in Bangkok, Tegucigalpa, Maputo, Washington and Bogota. His next assignment is to Jerusalem. J U N E 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 19 S P E A K I N G O U T