The Foreign Service Journal, November 2008

Power and Influence: Lessons Learn- ed and Best Practices” was issued on Oct. 2 ( www.rand.org/pubs/conf_ proceedings/2008/RAND_CF251. pdf ). The 79-page comprehensive report defines the problem and pre- sents detailed proposals that — except for the call to increase funding for nonmilitary national security activities — can be implemented without either changing the National Security Act or enacting major legislation. “These recommendations offer practical guidelines for the nation’s next administration to deal effectively with the kinds of U.S. military inter- ventions — and their aftermath — that have become prevalent,” said Robert Hunter, former U.S. ambas- sador to NATO, the report’s lead author and a senior adviser at RAND. Hunter adds that the report also serves as a blueprint for implementing pro- posals made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to create civil- ian capabilities that are sufficiently robust to help offset the need for mili- tary force. Co-chairing the study with Hunter were Edward W. Gnehm Jr., a retired FSO and former ambassador who now teaches at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, and General George Joulwan, former commander, U.S. Europe Command and NATO’s 11th Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Besides calling for Foreign Service positions at State and USAID to be increased well beyond the 1,100 called for in the Bush administration’s FY 09 budget request, the report recom- mends balancing the skewed 17:1 ratio of military spending to nonmilitary spending for national security. It also recommends delegating spending authority to the field level, requiring that civilians and military officers gain extensive cross-agency experience in one another’s disciplines and radically enhancing training for both military and civilian personnel in foreign cul- tures, history and languages. This edition of Cybernotes was compiled by Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra. N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 C Y B E R N O T E S Site of the Month: www.whyfiles.org With interactive fun for kids and resources for teachers (and parents), The Why Files explores the science, math and technology underlying the news of the day, and presents these topics in a clear, accessible and accurate manner. Recents posts addressed the facts behind the toxic baby-formula crisis in China, the role of testosterone in the stock market and research on lie detec- tion (How can you tell if a politician is lying?). Besides a new story each week, there is a biweekly column by science reporter Tom Siegfried, a series of interactive science animations, “Cool Science Images” and a series of Teacher Activity Pages linked to the national science standards. Kids with more questions are directed to the five Web sites that entertain individual questions. The site’s archive is a gold mine, as well. Based at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, The Why Files was launched in 1996 as part of the National Institute for Science Education, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Since 1998, it has been sup- ported through the university’s graduate school. The site has been used by researchers to study Web use and learning in science, and has won numerous awards for excellence in science journalism and achievement in online and broadband motion picture production.