The Foreign Service Journal, November 2013

14 NOVEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA Scholarship AFSA.org/Scholar AFSPA Afspa.org AFSPA CIGNA Dental www.afspa.org/dental AKA StayAKA.com American Red Cross redcross.org Blue Cross Blue Shield Extras.FEPblue.org Clements Worldwide clements.com Embassy Risk Management Embassyrisk.com The Hirshorn Company hirshorn.com/afsa Mary Lowry Smith, Real Estate agent www.dcredlinehomes.com McGrath Real Estate Services McGrathRealEstate.com WJD Management wjdpm.com productivity, pro-social behavior and bet- ter overall health. Factors that the SDSN takes into account in compiling the data include the feeling of having individual freedom in life decisions, social support and the perception of corruption. These influ- ences, among many others, are combined to create a bank of statistics that measure happiness on a day-to-day level as well as overall life satisfaction. Not surprisingly, international conflicts and crises are important factors in the happiness of a region; this correlation is particularly clear in the euro zone and Middle East. Yet despite these hardships, overall global happiness has been on the rise in recent years, and people around the world have become more generous toward others. Among other valuable feedback for policymakers, the report emphasizes the importance of mental health care. The message that emotional health is just as important as physical well-being is especially welcome since that factor is often underrepresented, if not completely ignored, in other global development studies. An easy-to-read map generated by the Washington Post brings the findings to life, illustrating where high levels of happiness are having the greatest impact around the globe. For development scholars who tra- ditionally rely heavily on economic and political indicators, the World Happiness Report not only offers a different perspec- tive, but a refreshing one. —Valerie Sanders, Editorial Intern VOA’s New App G etting the latest news from the Voice of America’s many language services just got easier with the launch of newmobile and tablet apps that work on iPhones, iPads and Android devices. “Everything is available in one place 50 Years Ago I do not pretend to foresee the future course of Soviet policy. I do suggest, however, that the trend over recent years, as evidenced by the rejection of Chinese importunities for a more adventurous policy, has been toward rela- tive moderation by the Russians, and that it is within the power of the West to encourage and reinforce this tendency. If it is ingenuous to predict the “mellow- ing” of Soviet policy, it is equally ingenuous to regard Soviet policy and goals as absolutely intractable. Powerful forces for change are at work within the Soviet Union. Soviet policy and the Soviet economy are becoming highly complex, too complex to be com- pletely controlled by a highly centralized dictatorship. Many of the same factors are at work within Russia as those which over many centuries shaped the evolu- tion of the free societies of the West. Modernization, writes Walter Lippmann, is “changing the character of the Soviet state—changing it from a Byzantine despotism into what might be described as a Western state in the very earliest stages of its development.” —Excerpted from“Russia and the West” by Senator J.W. Fulbright; FSJ , November 1963.