The Foreign Service Journal, June 2017

10 JUNE 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Defense University from 2013 to 2016. Her advice to Foreign Service colleagues is clearly stated in the title of her article, “Working with the Military: Let’s Take Full Advantage of Opportunities.” (Excerpts from a find in the FSJ Archive, “Educa- tion for the National Security,” provide a relevant snapshot from 1960.) In “Killer Drones and the Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy,” former FSO and Army colonel Ann Wright offers a scath- ing review of the U.S. government’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct targeted killings since 9/11. Seeming to offer an efficient middle way between war and peace, she argues, the drone program actually has significant, negative long- term consequences for U.S. policy and for communities in places where these killings occur. With a critique of State Department priorities and missed opportunities since the end of the Cold War, Ambassa- dor (ret.) Larry Butler shares suggestions for the way forward in “Creeping Mili- tarization of Foreign Policy or Creeping State Department Irrelevance?” Ambas- sador (ret.) Ryan Crocker’s country team in Iraq 2007, he says, is a model of how cooperation can work. Finally, in a fascinating piece from the FSJ Archive, “Defense and Security: Opposite Sides of the Same Coin,” we LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Where Diplomacy and Defense Meet BY SHAWN DORMAN A t this moment, when so-called soft-power budgets for State and USAID are threatened withmajor cuts, we findmilitary leaders to be the ones pushing back hardest in defense of diplomacy and development. This month we present perspectives on the ways that diplomacy, development and defense overlap. We are not calling this set of articles a “focus,” but rather “perspectives.” It became clear in review- ing the articles that there is almost no truly objective way to approach the subject. Every author brings a particular lens to writing on civilian-military relations and the appropriate balance between civil- ian andmilitary activity and initiatives in foreign policy. All the pieces we share here represent individual perspectives from authors with an understanding and unique experiences working with the military. In his opening article, “Special Operations and Diplomacy: A Unique Nexus,” Senior FSO Steve Kashkett offers an overview of how the expanded work and mission of U.S. Special Opera- tions today—the “indirect” activities such as providing medical services, disaster relief, agricultural develop- ment—intersect with the work and mission of U.S. diplomacy. The Foreign Service would be well advised, in Kash- kett’s view, to embrace this convergence. Ambassador Wanda Nesbitt served as senior vice presi- dent of the National share a 1988 interview with former FSO and then-Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci. He explains how the line between State and Defense becomes increasingly blurred and why that’s not a bad thing, and describes the “never been better” working relationship between State, Defense and the National Security Council at the time. You will not agree with all you read in this issue, and we look forward to your responses to the perspectives shared. Send letters or follow-on articles to journal@afsa.org. I close with a reminder to check out the digital archive of 99 years of The Foreign Service Journal at www.afsa.org/archive. We launched the online archive at a May 11 event at AFSA headquarters. The Journal over time offers a unique window into diplomatic history as it unfolds. Now it’s all online and discover- able, a bridge from the past to the future, offering a chance to learn from the past, see what’s been tried before, how certain issues come around again and again, see howmuch things change and how little. The archive can be accessed by aca- demics and other researchers worldwide, and should raise awareness and appre- ciation for the critical role of the Foreign Service and U.S. diplomacy. Also, the more you click on the archive, the better the search will become, so please, click away, share and enjoy! n Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal. We findmilitary leaders to be the ones pushing back hardest in defense of diplomacy and development.