The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2014

56 JULY-AUGUST 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS AFSA Holds First Post Rep Webinar On April 29, AFSA hosted its first webinar with AFSA post representa- tives from around the world. Presi- dent Robert J. Silverman joined State Vice President Matthew Asada to provide an overview of labor-manage- ment relations, post representative responsibilities, and current AFSA labor management and congressional priorities. A lively discussion followed. AFSA Bestows the 2014 Kennan StrategicWriting Award At a June 6 ceremony on the campus of the National War College at Fort McNair, AFSA President Robert Silverman and Commandant Brigadier General Tom Cosentino announced this year’s win- ner of the George F. Kennan Strategic Writing Award. AFSA has long sponsored this award, which recognizes the best paper written by a State Department employee at the War College. This year’s winner is Foreign Service Officer Mark Libby, who was nominated for this honor for his essay, “Hedging, Cooperation and Prestige: British and French Nuclear Deterrence (How We Can Stop Worrying & Learn to Love These Bombs),” written as part of a course focused on European and transatlantic security issues. Libby, who lived and studied in France, has always been intrigued by French nuclear policy. This class at the National War College, he said, gave him the perfect opportunity to finally explore that interest in depth. “More recently, having worked with European security issues, I found my inter- est in France and French nuclear policy rekindled,” he said. A political officer, Libby’s overseas assign- ments have included tours in Warsaw, Nassau, Nicosia and, most recently, Baghdad, where he served as political counselor. He has also had temporary duty assignments in Minsk, Riga and Basrah. His Washington, D.C., assignments have included tours as a watchstander in the State Department Opera- tions Center, line officer on the Secretariat Staff under Secretary of State Colin Powell, deputy director in the Office of Central European Affairs, deputy director and Libby, who lived and studied in France, has always been intrigued by French nuclear policy. crisis management coordina- tor in the Operations Center, and director of the Secretar- iat Staff under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In July, he will begin his next assignment as director of orientation at the State Department’s Foreign Ser- vice Institute. Mr. Libby has a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and a Certificat d’Etudes Politiques from the Insti- tut des Etudes Politiques (“Sciences-Po”) in Paris. He is fluent in Polish and French, and has a working knowledge of Russian, Turkish and Ger- man. The winner of the Kennan Award receives a certificate and a prize of $250, which is intended for the purchase of scholarly books. To learn more about the award, please go to www.afsa.org/kennan. n —Evan Bulman, Awards and Outreach Intern ELIZABETHLEE FSO Mark Libby, center, receiving the 2014 George F. Kennan Strategic Writing Award. At left is AFSA President Robert J. Silverman; Commandant Brigadier General Tom Cosentino is at right. COURTESYNATIONALWARCOLLEGE