The Foreign Service Journal, September 2015

30 SEPTEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL after he retired. He worked closely with George Soros, another democracy promoter. Many of the people in favor of inculcating democracy over- seas tend to be neo-conservatives, interestingly enough. I think Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle and Dick Cheney are enthusi- astic about forcing democracy on other countries. On the other side, you have people like the present national security adviser, Susan Rice, and the present ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, who cite humanitarian grounds to justify using our armed forces to press proper human rights and democracy on other countries. FSJ: Let’s move on to your final assignment as ambassador to Israel. The Middle East was a completely new region for you, wasn’t it? WCH: That’s right. It was a surprising appointment; the only Islamic country I’d ever served in was Guinea. But I’d like to believe they saw me as a professional who might be able to handle it. I’m not sure I did all that well there, to be honest. The principal problem that clouds Israel’s future is the military occu- pation, a truly intractable issue. The U.S. ambassador is important in Israel, though perhaps less so than in most other countries. Much of the work is done in personal telephone calls between the U.S. president or the Sec- retary of State and the prime minister, so you’re often paddling about trying to catch up on what’s happening instead of being the one who makes things happen. And, of course, Israel is so much a part of American domestic politics that everything you say and do finds a way into the media at home. FSJ: Since you retired in 1993, you’ve stayed very busy. Tell us about some of your main endeavors and what drew you to them. WCH: I think it’s very important to keep active when you retire. A few of the nonprofit boards on which I have served have taken more time than others, such as the Washington Humane Society. I was chairman of Population Services International for a couple of years, and then remained on its board for another 12 or 14. I was also on the board of the Henry L. Stimson Center, one of the major international relations and security think-tanks in Washington and a very worthwhile enterprise. And then there’s the American Academy of Diplomacy. I was head of its program William C. Harrop and his wife, Ann Delavan, in Meru National Park, Kenya, in October 1981. COURTESYOFWILLIAMC.HARROP