The Foreign Service Journal, November 2015

8 NOVEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Bring On the Books! BY SHAWN DORMAN T Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal. Featured in Talking Points are two new films about diplomacy premiering this month. “America’s Diplomats” is a docu- mentary from the Foreign Policy Associa- tion. “The Diplomat, ” looks at the life and work of Richard Holbrooke through the lens of his eldest son, documentary film- maker David Holbrooke. The cover story this month is from our Icelandic-American colleague, Ásgeir Sigfússon, who offers an overview of Arctic policy and how the United States is “Getting into the Game. ” I also call your attention to the FS Her- itage article, “Taking Stock of Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes,” written by FSO father-son teamMaxwell Hamilton and John Maxwell Hamilton. This is a fas- cinating story of a lesser-known Secretary of State in the early 1920s. Sec. Hughes was a strong proponent of State Depart- ment reform and the development of a professional Foreign Service. At the time, the diplomatic career was open only to the wealthy few who could pay their own way overseas. Hughes strongly supported—and argued before Congress in favor of—the reforms devel- oped by career FSO Assistant Secretary of State Wilbur Carr and codified in the Rogers Act of 1924. The act established the Foreign Service we know today, merging the diplomatic and consular branches of the State Department, set- ting a uniform pay scale and granting representation allowances and retire- ment benefits that eliminated the need for private incomes. n he leaves are turning in Wash- ington, the air is crisp, so it must be time for the annual roundup of books by Foreign Service authors, “InTheir Own Write, ” and books “Of Related Interest” by authors outside the Foreign Service. We have a great collection for you this year, including 56 books by authors from the Foreign Service community. You will find books on a vast array of topics both related and unrelated to diplomacy— Latin American rebels in the 1800s, a “short history” of evolution, Greek urban warriors, African strongmen, climate change. You’ll find more than a dozen memoirs, from Christopher Hill, George Glass, Deane Hinton and others. This year, we received more fiction submissions than ever before: We feature 23 books of fiction by Foreign Service authors. There are cooking books, chil- dren’s books, and how-to books. In addi- tion, we introduce a special bibliography of USAID authors, courtesy of retired USAID FSO John Pielemeier. Join us in celebration of the writing accomplishments of your friends and col- leagues, and find inspiration there for your own writing and publishing endeavors. We invite our Washington-area read- ers to stop by AFSA headquarters on Nov. 19, between 1 and 4 p.m., for the Second Annual AFSA Book Market featuring more than 20 Foreign Service authors and their published works.