The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

12 OCTOBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL t seemed apt to borrow Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s title for his memoir for this message. For, as you can see just from the magazine’s cover and first few pages, we have not only rebranded The Foreign Service Journal (as it will henceforth be known) but given it a comprehensive makeover, the first since 1994. To make that transformation possible, a working group comprised of members of the AFSA Governing Board, Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board and AFSA profes- sional staff met regularly with Eason Associates, the firm that carried out the redesign project, for most of the past year. My thanks to all who devoted their time, creativity and support to this initiative. The process began with the creation of a new logo that explic- itly identifies the FSJ as the American Foreign Service Associa- tion’s flagship publication, and a cover design that enables us to spotlight several different topics in a balanced, engaging way. As a corollary, we will gradually move away from our traditional reliance on a focus section devoted to a single theme toward a flexible approach that offers a variety of articles each month. Next came a revamped Table of Contents and masthead, and imaginative treatments for our standing departments and focus and feature sections, as well as a new, more integrated look for AFSA News . As part of the redesign, our decade-old Cybernotes department is now known as Talking Points . However, its pur- pose remains the same: to present useful, interesting and offbeat items on subjects pertinent to Foreign Service members, drawn from all forms of media. You’ll also find in this issue the debut of a new department, Local Lens , which is intended to spotlight the wealth of photo- graphic talent among Foreign Service personnel and their fami- lies. This talent, combined with the unique international backdrop that Foreign Service life provides, will make for some great images. Our goal in making all these changes is to produce a clean, colorful design with lively page formats that pull the different components of the magazine together into an appealing, coherent and dynamic reflection of AFSA’s activities and members, as well LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Present at the Creation BY STEVEN ALAN HONL EY I