The Foreign Service Journal, November 2011

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 Recognizing Young Leaders in Foreign Policy The Diplomatic Courier ( www. diplomaticourier.com ) an d Young Professionals in Foreign Policy ( www. ypfp.org ) re leased their joint “Top 99 Under 33 Foreign Policy Leaders” list in the Fall 2011 issue of The Diplo- matic Courier. This generation, commonly known as the “Millennials,” is old enough to vividly remember 9/11 and young enough to have a fresh outlook on in- ternational affairs and appreciate glob- alization. Many of them have already started nonprofits, organizations or foundations. Each profile includes excerpts from an interview commenting on issues ranging from poverty in Kenya and South Africa to the crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge era in Cam- bodia, to name just a few. Matan Chorev, a stabilization and governance FSO with USAID, made the “top 9” list. Other USAID and De- partment of State employees on the list of 99 include Andrew Albertson, Courtney Beale, Jane M. Mosbacher, Rob Lalka, Ronan Farrow, Sarah King and Sarah Labowitz. In his interview, Chorev explains that working at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and Inter- national Affairs showed him that “by providing analytic rigor, historical con- text and academic provocation, the re- search community can have a major impact on policy.” He believes that the United States “needs a strong, smart, principled and realistic foreign policy that resists the cynicism of fear, the chimera of power, and the timidity of irresolution.” He identifies the greatest foreign policy issue facing his generation as the threat of nuclear terrorism. And he argues that fellow foreign policy practitioners “need to do a better job of explaining to our fellow citizens why events abroad bear so heavily on their daily lives.” Also on the Top 99 list is Marisa Cochrane Sullivan, who said the per- sonal contribution to foreign policy she’s most proud of is her “role in building the Institute for the Study of War and the contributions ISW has made in shaping key U.S. policymak- ers’ and military leaders’ perspectives on the way ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Rachel Hoff, director of external af- fairs at the Foreign Policy Initiative, identified the greatest policy issue fac- ing her generation as the question of America’s role in the world. But Josh Rogin, a staff writer for Foreign Policy, and Elbridge Colby, a research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, both cited the rise of China as the greatest foreign policy issue facing their gener- ation. Drew Sloan, a retired U.S. Army captain who is now a client solutions associate for Opower, an energy effi- ciency company, urges foreign policy leaders to “balance a global under- standing of culture and context with an increasingly isolationist heartland.” C YBERNOTES 50 Years Ago... T he Foreign Service has been gratified to observe that the old cliché — of the Ivy League, striped-trousered FSO — is at last losing currency. It would be pleasant to think that we shall henceforth be viewed as we are. This apparently is not to be. Another stereotype is spreading and seems likely to become well entrenched un- less vigorously combated. This new cliché, worse than the last, identifies the FSO as a cautious traditionalist with a bias toward timidity and conformity. … The ascription of “timidity” to FSOs is an outgrowth of the McCarthy era, and the Service itself must accept some of the blame. In outraged reaction to the at- tacks on the Service at that time, many FSOs complained bitterly that honest and objective reporting would henceforth be impossible. These complaints were widely publicized, and the image of the oppressed and timorous FSO was launched. — Elbert G. Mathews, “The FSO and High Policy;” FSJ , November 1961.