The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 15 [The Iraq War] was one of the great strategic decisions of the first half of the 21st century, if it proves not to be the greatest. Stephen Cambone, under secretary of Defense for intelligence during the GeorgeW. Bush administration, responding to a question during the Aspen Security Forum’s July 27 “Lessons Learned from Iraq”panel discussion. NOTEWORTHY “B ureaucracy in Crisis: How the State Department Responded to 9/11” is the title of Darina Shtrakhman’s March 28 honors thesis featured in the University of Penn- sylvania’s College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal . Shtrakhman’s summer 2011 public diplomacy internship at the State Department inspired her to research the topic. In her thesis abstract, Shtrakhman poses the question: “What if the enormous and complex federal structure we’ve created is so large and entrenched that it resists change, even when faced with an emergency?” She begins by reviewing the U.S. response to the various al-Qaida attacks preceding 9/11, with special emphasis on the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. She then looks briefly at how State’s structure and mission expanded during the ColdWar and its aftermath, before assessing changes since 2001. Shtrakhman concludes that while State “has improved its public diplomacy efforts in theMuslimworld and its approach to counterterrorism, an absence of outside pressure from commissions and a lack of funding have prevented the depart- ment frommaking dramatic changes to the bureaucratic structure. This, in turn, has negative consequences for how diplomats carry out theirmissions in a technologically sophis- ticated and multipolar world.” Visit U. Penn’s Undergraduate Journal site, at http://reposi tory.upenn.edu/curej/155, to read a detailed, insightful les- son on what it means to never forget. —Emily A. Hawley, Editorial Intern and China but tend to circulate within these countries for years rather than being imported directly from producing countries. The survey also confirms that a high volume of even antiquated weapons can be very effective, especially in countries where government arsenals are also behind the times (e.g., Afghan police forces facing the Taliban). More encouragingly, however, the data also suggest that efforts to limit the spread of technologically sophisticated arms and newer generations of weapons have been successful. Founded in 1945, the Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan think-tank that works to find solutions for science and security policy challenges. —Emily A. Hawley, Editorial Intern LOST at Sea? T hirty years ago, the Law of the Sea Treaty (formally known as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) was completed after negotiations lasting from 1973 through 1982. Replacing four 1958 agreements, the treaty defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans, and establishes guidelines for businesses regarding environmental protection and the management of marine natural resources. In 1982 President Ronald Reagan called for renegotiation of some of the treaty’s deep seabed mining provisions, a process that led to the 1994 Agreement Relating to the Implementation of Part XI (the mining regime). That agreement, which the United States signed, makes the treaty’s terms significantly more favorable to the United States; in fact, some of its provisions went even further than what Washington had sought. Yet no U.S. administration has submitted the treaty for Senate ratification, though they have all have abided by its terms. Meanwhile, the convention entered iStockphoto.com/Nataliya Peregudova