The Foreign Service Journal, June 2008

health issues —was a subject of partic- ular concern to the subcommittee, which cited the FSJ ’s groundbreaking coverage of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among FS employees serving in war zones ( FSJ , December 2006 and January 2008). All agencies should be required to establish policies for pre- and post-deployment medical assess- ment, with a mechanism to oversee implementation, the subcommittee recommends. (The Government Ac- countability Office would assess their effectiveness.) The subcommittee also recom- mends that the Office of Personnel Management issue guidance to all departments for developing robust screening, diagnosing and treatment of deployable civilians’ mental health and, in particular, traumatic brain injuries. Further, it recommends that the agencies be required to ensure that diagnosis or admission of a men- tal health condition does not limit or end an individual’s career. Other recommendations focused on the need to adopt an adequate in- centive and benefits package that would apply to all civilians deployed to war zones. The committee will contin- ue to study these issues during the year. “The Search for Mr. X” — An Innovative Survey As anticipation builds for Wash- ington’s 2009 regime change, the search for a compelling national secu- rity doctrine to replace postwar con- tainment becomes more urgent. A provocative contribution to this endeavor appeared in January in the form of a research report from the Council for Emerging National Se- curity Affairs, “The Search for Mr. X: A CENSA Member’s Survey on National Security Doctrine after Containment” ( www.censa.net ). The Council is a nonpartisan, non- profit research organization that was established in 1999 by a group of 40 rising professionals (now 165) to con- tribute to the ongoing policy dialogue through formal discussion series, graduate-level teaching programs and collaborative research projects. CENSA’s activities draw on the talents of its midcareer membership, a diverse, international group of public sector foreign policy specialists, mili- tary officers, private sector profession- als and accomplished academics. Survey Director Keith Mines, an FSO, sets the context for the survey in his introduction. “Six years after the 9/11 attacks we are in the middle of two wars, have gone through a major military transformation, are in the midst of a halting conversion of our diplomatic tools and foreign assis- tance, and are challenging core consti- tutional principles as we attempt to keep our society safe. And yet we still have no compelling doctrine to pro- vide that overarching, synthesizing concept [that containment gave the postwar era],” states Mines. “This failure may be remembered 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 8 C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... A lthough personal contact between the desk officer and the Secretary of State has seriously diminished, for obvious reasons, it is an untruth to say no policy guidance is given by department leaders to desk officers. Equally untrue is the myth that leaders are unaware of what desk officers are thinking (even though their thoughts may occasionally be ignored). — From “Country Desk Officer: Low Man on the Totem Pole,” Part II, by Robert E. Elder, FSJ , June 1958.