The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 5 AFSA NEWS AFSA Celebrates High School Essay Contest Winner / 57 State VP: Staying in Place in an Up-or-Out System / 58 FCS VP: Water Under the Bridge / 59 FAS VP: The Mid-Level Staffing Gap / 60 FSOs Help Bosnian Street Dogs Survive / 60 Ambassador Chas Freeman Gives Adair Lecture / 61 AFSA Bylaw Amendments Pass / 63 TLG Intern Has “Fantastic” Summer at State / 63 COLUMNS President’s Views / 7 Diplomatic Capacity Needs Professional Institutional Leadership BY SUSAN R . JOHNSON Letter from the Editor / 12 Present at the Creation BY STEVEN ALAN HONL EY Speaking Out / 18 Achieving Work-Life Balance at State BY L I L L I AN C. WAHL-TUCO Reflections / 81 You Want to Join the What …? BY JAMES TALALAY DEPARTMENTS Letters / 9 Talking Points / 14 Books / 64 In Memory / 66 Local Lens / 82 MARKETPLACE Classifieds / 75 Real Estate / 78 Index to Advertisers / 79 FOCUS THE NEW FOREIGN SERVICE GENERATION Today’s New Hires: What They See, What They Say / 22 The hiring wave that began in 2008 with State’s Diplomacy 3.0 program and USAID’s Development Leadership Initiative increased these agencies’ Foreign Service ranks by 17 and 54 percent, respectively. Here’s a look at the new hires’ thoughts and expectations about their work. BY SHAWN DORMAN The Hiring Pendulum / 25 The boom and bust hiring cycles at State and USAID have created serious staffing problems. BY SHAWN DORMAN Gen Y, and On to Z / 28 A retired ambassador shares her impressions of the new generations. BY E I L EEN MAL LOY What I Wish I Had Known … / 38 New hires talk about what they wish they had known before joining the Foreign Service. ED I TED BY SHAWN DORMAN Bridging the Foreign Service Generational Gulf / 42 More than half of the current Foreign Service has joined since 9/11. But differences in age and experience do not have to divide FS members. BY BRANDON POSS I N AND LARRY BUT L ER FEATURE “Argo”: How Hollywood Does History / 50 The covert operation that extracted six American diplomats from Iran in 1980 is now a film starring Ben Affleck. Even if it’s a great story, a “dramatization based on true events” is not history. But maybe that’s OK. BY MARK L I J EK Cover photo by Mikkela Thompson: Entry-level officers from Embassy Dhaka visit the National Parliament of Bangladesh. Full image is found on page 22-23. October 2012 Volume 89, No. 10 FOREIGN SERVICE As we went to press, we received news of the deaths of four members of the Foreign Service in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Please see p. 67 for AFSA’s statement.