The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2006

J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 Albright in the Limelight Former Secretary of State Madele- ine Albright has been rivaling Condo- leezza Rice for face time with the media lately. A round of late-April interviews centered on her new and timely book, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs (Harper- Collins), released on May 1 ( www. amazon.com ). “I have looked at foreign policy and international relations issues all my life and I’ve never seen the world in such turmoil,” Albright told Time magazine. “What I’m looking at is whether there are elements within all religions that allow us to work to solve problems rather than using religion as a divisive issue.” Albright told Reuters that Presi- dent Bush’s religious absolutism has made American foreign policy more rigid and more difficult for other countries to accept. “Some of his lan- guage is really quite over the top,” she states. “When he says ‘God is on our side,’ it’s very different from [former President Abraham] Lincoln saying ‘We have to be on God’s side.’” But it’s not all heavy-duty policy study for the former Secretary of State. She had some fun in a “guest star” cameo role on the WB series “Gilmore Girls” that aired last Oct. 25. “If you think she seems brilliant and sassy strutting around the Middle East, you should try talking to her in person,” executive producer Amy Sherman- Palladino told the press. More recent- ly, a May 11 appearance on Comedy Central’s “Stephen Colbert Show” showcased Albright’s pointed and refreshing repartee. The legendary formidable pres- ence of America’s first female Secre- tary of State was further boosted with the revelation in a New York Times Magazine interview that at age 68 she works out three times a week and can still leg-press up to 400 pounds. Who knew that Condi Rice was not the first female physical-fitness buff in Foggy Bottom? — Susan Maitra T-Bureaus Reorganization “Hijacked” by Political Appointees: An Inside View The first detailed account of the controversial “stealth” reorganization of the State Department bureaus in the “T family” that handle arms con- trol and international security issues is now in print in the June issue of Arms Control Today , the monthly magazine of the Arms Control Association ( http://www.armscon - trol.org/act/2006_06/ReorgRunA mok.asp ). In “Reorganization Run Amok: State Department’s WMD Effort Weakened,” arms expert Dean Rust, who saw the reorganization unfold as an acting deputy director in the Nonproliferation Bureau, gives a blow-by-blow account of the process. “What started as an ostensibly routine inspection of the arms control, non- proliferation, and verification and compliance functions at the State Department,” Rust states, “has ended with a restructuring that has led to a net loss of the department’s effective- ness in these areas.” Rust adds: “Frankly, one could argue that this reduction in State’s role is precisely the outcome some were seeking.” Last November AFSA wrote to Secretary of State Rice expressing con- cern over the reorganization, which was already negatively affecting work- ing conditions for Foreign Service members in the T bureaus (“What’s Happening to the ‘T’ Family?,” AFSA News , January 2006). AFSA’s request to review, comment on and, where appropriate, negotiate the reorganiza- tion plans in writing before they were implemented was ignored. Rust retired from the State De- partment in September 2005. He told Knight Ridder he was “very dis- mayed” by the decisions made by political appointees, but would have retired at that time anyway. — Susan Maitra Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank: A Status Report Paul Wolfowitz, former U.S. depu- ty defense secretary and lead architect of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion, took over as president of the World Bank Group on March 31, 2005. Picking up on his predecessor James Wolfen- sohn’s anti-corruption campaign, Wolfowitz has made it his number- one issue. He has targeted graft among the recipients of World Bank loans, in particular sub-Saharan Afri- ca, as well as within the Bank’s man- agement structure. A spate of reviews, surveys and analyses of Wolfowitz’s nearly 18- month tenure issued over the past C YBERNOTES