The Foreign Service Journal, September 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2013 19 may differ with current orthodoxy. For if not us, who? “When AFSA issues the call for nominations for the 2014 dissent awards this fall, please consider nominating a deserv- ing colleague—or even yourself—for one of these unique awards. You will do us all a great service by honoring the best among us.” AFSA established its Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award in 1995, to honor individuals for extraor- dinary achievements to the Foreign Service and foreign affairs. Most of the winners have been career Foreign Service officers, but President George H.W. Bush, Secretaries of State Cyrus Vance, George Shultz and Larry Eagleburger (the only FSO ever to serve in that position), Senators Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn, and Representative Lee Hamilton have also received the award. Since 1999, when I became the Journal’s associate editor, it has been my pleasure to interview and profile each recipient of that award. This year AFSA honored retired Ambassador George W. Landau, a three-time chief of mission in Latin America and human rights advocate who is still an energetic advocate for diplomacy at the age of 93. You’ll find my profile of him on p. 24. Honoring Dissenters In addition to the detailed coverage of all this year’s win- ners in the AFSA News section, we invited this year’s winners of the W. Averell Harriman Award for constructive dissent by junior officers (FS-6 through FS-4) and the William R. Rivkin Award for mid-level officers (FS-3 through FS-1) to contrib- ute articles explaining the substantive policy issues on which they dissented. (This year, AFSA did not confer its two other dissent awards: the Christian A. Herter Award, honoring constructive dissent by Senior Foreign Service officers, and the F. Allen “Tex” Harris Award for dissent by Foreign Service specialists.) Theodore Lyng, political counselor in Jakarta, received this year’s William R. Rivkin Award for his tireless efforts to per- suade the State Department leadership of the need to engage with all groups within Indonesian civil society, including conservative Muslims. He describes the importance of such initiatives in “Engaging Muslim Leaders to Promote People- to-People Ties” (p. 36). This year’s recipient of the 2013 W. Averell Harriman Award for constructive dissent by an entry-level Foreign Ser- vice officer is James T. Rider, who argued that the Department of State’s interpretation of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 was effectively granting citizenship to children who would never have qualified had they applied in the United States. He and co-author Shane Myers, who supported his dissent while both served in Caracas, set forth their view of the subject in “What Makes Someone an American Citizen?” (p. 38). One concern that Foreign Service personnel sometimes express about being nominated for an AFSA dissent award is whether such recognition will hurt their career. While there is no simple, “one size fits all” answer to that question, the evidence suggests that is not generally the case. For reflec- tions from eight past dissent award winners on the impact of dissent on policy and their careers, check out Associate Editor Shawn Dorman’s article, “AFSA’s Constructive Dissent Award Winners: Where Are They Now?” (p. 44). We very much hope this issue will spark continued debate and dialogue about dissent, both within these pages and in the Foreign Service itself—and participation in AFSA’s awards program. We welcome letters, Speaking Out columns and articles from you, either responding to points our contribu- tors have made or filling in gaps in our coverage, at Journal@ afsa.org. For more detailed information on AFSA’s Constructive Dissent Award Program, including criteria and procedures for nominating recipients and lists of past winners, visit www.afsa.org/dissent_and_other_awards.aspx, or contact Perri Green, AFSA’s coordinator for awards and outreach, at green@afsa.org o r (202) 338-4045, ext. 521. n “We owe it to our country to use what we know and to give our honest views, even when theymay differ with current orthodoxy.” –JohnW. Limbert