The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2019 19 50 Years Ago A professional group develops its own code of ethics—its values, ideals, pre- scribed behavior. …A Foreign Service officer must: 1) Follow political decisions fully even when he personally disagrees. 2) maintain proper dress and manners. 3) Place the “good of the Service” over his own personal good. 4) Be ready to serve anywhere in the world in any job at the discretion of the Secretary of State. So said the overwhelming major- ity of 588 senior and middle grade FSOs polled by John E. Harr in 1966. An identical survey of 550 junior officers taken … in 1967 … revealed similar priorities. Both young and old emphasize conformity. I take it on faith that the best policy is developed in an atmo- sphere which encourages a free exchange of ideas; where competing alternatives are expressed on their merits; where decision-makers have the benefit of the difference of opinion. Conformity here can be destructive, leading consciously or subcon- sciously to stacking the deck in favor of the policy believed acceptable or to dropping prematurely out of contention. —Edward S. Walker Jr., a member of AFSA’s Board of Directors serving on the Policy Planning Council, excerpted from his article of the same title in the September 1969 Foreign Service Journal . Profile in Conformity is a former director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Meanwhile, a new iteration of the conservative group, Committee on the Present Danger: China, is calling for a new Cold War against China, according to The Washington Post ’s Josh Rogin on April 10. The group—which includes Reagan administration Assistant Secretary for Defense Frank Gaffney, former White House chief strategist and executive chair of Breitbart News Steve Bannon, and several former defense and intel- ligence officials—is sounding an alarm about the China threat. It frames the U.S.-China relationship as an existential struggle between two civilizations that have irreconcilably opposed plans for the world order. State Climate Change Testimony Barred from Record S tate Department senior intelligence analyst Rod Schoonover resigned in protest in July after the Trump admin- istration blocked portions of his written congressional testimony about climate change and its implications for national security, The Wall Street Journal reported on July 10. Schoonover, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, cited peer- reviewed scientific articles and intel- ligence reports in arguing that climate change could lead to increased resource competition, humanitarian crises and political instability. While the White House allowed Schoonover to give public testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, it barred him from including evidence supporting his conclusions in his written testimony, The Wall Street Journal reported. “In blocking the submission of the written testimony, the White House trampled not only on the scientific integrity of the assessment but also on the analytic independence of an arm of the intelligence community,” Schoonover, who worked in State’s Bureau of Intel- ligence and Research, wrote in a July 30 New York Times opinion piece. “That’s why I recently resigned from the job I considered a sacred duty, and the institu- tion I loved.” “When a White House can shape or suppress intelligence analysis that it deems out of line with its political mes- saging, then the intelligence community has no true analytic independence,” he added. “I believe such acts weaken our nation.” GRACE—A New Christian Affinity Group at State S tate Department employees have established a new Christian affinity group, GRACE, with the goal of promot- ing a support network for Foreign Service professionals and their families. GRACE works to promote the ability of employees to manifest religious beliefs in general, and Christianity specifically, in the workplace.