The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4 Embassy Baghdad Opens: And Now for the Hard Part… On June 30 Embassy Baghdad became one of the largest diplomatic posts in the world. While Embassy Cairo and our missions in Bangkok employ more staff, the new embassy in Iraq is the largest diplomatic mis- sion of the United States. The new American ambassador, John Negro- ponte, and his team of nearly 200 courageous Foreign Service employ- ees now face the difficult task of help- ing Iraqis rebuild their country and make it secure without acting as an overlord of the emergent Iraqi gov- ernment. The kidnapping of a senior Egyptian diplomat in Baghdad on July 23, an escalation in the wave of kid- nappings that began in April to enforce demands for foreign troops and businesses to leave Iraq, under- scores the dangers the diplomats face. The new embassy, located inside the “Green Zone” of Baghdad, is the first official U.S. diplomatic presence in Iraq since the eve of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The embassy will have a budget of $1 billion for Fiscal Year 2005, and will oversee the distri- bution of $18.4 billion in congression- ally-mandated aid to Iraq. There are currently more than 700 Iraqis employed by the embassy alongside nearly 1,000 American per- sonnel. Over time many jobs current- ly filled by American contractors, such as security guards and cooks, are expected to be turned over to Iraqi workers. Staff from at least 12 agen- cies and departments will work in the new embassy. More than 190 FS officers and spe- cialists will be posted to Baghdad and the four consulates in Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk and Hilla. In the long term, the embassy will have approximately 60 Marine guards and will make use of more than 140 armored vehicles. However, until the security situa- tion improves in Iraq, the work of U.S. officials will be hampered by an inability to make meaningful contacts beyond the embassy walls. Public diplomacy, in particular, faces tremen- dous obstacles, and will depend heav- ily on the work of FSNs. All person- nel must deal not only with a danger- ous environment but must also devise outreach programs while overseeing the more than 130,000 American troops who continue to be the face of the United States for most Iraqis. Though FS employees in Iraq serve just one year, after months of liv- ing, showering and sleeping in con- verted shipping containers under the constant threat of rocket attack, many will no doubt feel like they have been in the country much longer. For their brave efforts, they receive 25-percent hardship and 25-percent danger pay. There are several Web sites that are useful for tracking the reconstruc- tion efforts in Iraq. The official Web site of Embassy Baghdad is http:// C YBERNOTES H ave you ever been frustrat- ed trying to find informa- tion about the Swedish embassy in Manila or the Pakistani embassy in Athens? Are you curious about what the outlet voltage is in Turkey? Have you ever wasted time trying to figure out how to make a telephone call from Bolivia to Botswana? For most people, the answer to these questions is probably “no,” but in that rare moment when you need information about that odd embassy relationship or telephone code, Embassy World ( www.embassy world.com ) ha s it covered. Embassy World provides links to nearly every diplomatic office of every country in the world. It offers links to American posts abroad, as well as links to foreign embassies and consulates in the United States. The Web site also provides a comprehen- sive collection of links to foreign mis- sions across the globe. In addition, Embassy World offers useful information for those living abroad, including an international voltage directory, a collection of coun- try maps and a telephone code listing for all of your international calls. There are also valuable links to other sites offering international employ- ment and real estate resources. Begun in 1996, Embassy World is a network of seven major Web sites, two magazines based on internation- al investment, the largest relocation network in the world, the largest overseas employment database, the largest international real estate data- base, and the largest Caribbean real estate database. — Kristofer Lofgren, Editorial Intern Site of the Month: www.embassyworld.com