The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

comings. We always strive to present a wide range of perspectives — posi- tive, negative and mixed — in our pages and let readers make up their own minds. Balancing Security and Openness The Journal ’s September edition on Diplomatic Security is an impor- tant service to the foreign affairs com- munity, and especially to the Foreign Service, but its contents are chilling and the policies described potentially self-defeating. It is true that foreign affairs professionals, both overseas and in Washington, are working in a dangerous world. It is also a world in which their effectiveness in their jobs is crucial to our nation’s long-term security. I’m afraid that the mind-set described by David Jones and others in that issue undermines that effec- tiveness. Walling ourselves off over- seas will make the United States more vulnerable, because it will undermine our ability to understand and commu- nicate with the societies with which we are dealing. Paranoia about losing a security clearance will also discour- age Foreign Service personnel from understanding and communicating with these societies. It was therefore encouraging and refreshing to read Jane C. Loeffler’s article about the need for both securi- ty and openness in embassy design. If Karen Hughes’ mandate to re-ener- gize our public diplomacy is to have a lasting and positive impact, this bal- ance has to be maintained. In the personnel arena, as AFSA General Counsel Sharon Papp argues, there is a need for a stronger system of checks and balances, one that protects the rights of employees threatened with loss of their security clearances. The Foreign Service has known times when security fears dictated policy and treatment of its employees. The nation’s interests were not served then and will not be served now if such fears dominate our decision- making and our policy implementa- tion. Pierre Shostal FSO, retired Alexandria, Va. One Service? Two points were not touched upon in the series of articles in the September FSJ dedicated to Diplo- matic Security. One, which ought to be a sore point within AFSA, is that DS officers are unique among Foreign Service professionals for their ability to earn overtime pay for doing their job. I always found it inexplica- ble, for instance, that embassy and department FSOs expect and accept the need to work long hours without compensation to prepare and execute a visit by the Secretary of State — while the Secretary’s DS protection detail earns overtime pay for sitting outside a hotel room. The other point is that DS service seems to attract a different kind of person than is drawn to traditional Foreign Service work. I joined the Service because I was interested in international affairs and wanted to experience life in other cultures. I have been struck that many DS offi- cers appear to have little interest in the substance of the work done by their Foreign Service colleagues, but see themselves primarily as law enforcement personnel whose job is to separate official Americans from the world at large. This would per- haps not be so important if DS simply played a supporting role, but now that it is in a position to make or affect major department policies, we see this narrow perspective having a neg- ative impact on key decisions such as embassy design, location and access. Stephen Muller FSO, retired Troy, N.Y. Good but Dark Fiction I took the fiction issue of the FSJ with me to Baghdad and found it very enjoyable. In addition to being an appreciative reader of short fiction, I had submitted a story for considera- tion. Since it wasn’t selected, I was curious to see my vanquishers. Taken as a group, the stories are interesting and well-told. They cer- tainly reflect a Foreign Service per- spective, set as they are in exotic for- eign places. But with the exception of “The Allemande Left Plan” and, to a certain extent, “The Interview,” the events recounted were set in the for- eign society at large, not in the insular world of diplomats and their diploma- cy. I was also struck by two motifs that run through almost all the stories: they take place in a dark, malevolent world, and women are treated abu- sively. In next year’s fiction issue I’d like to see a greater range of subject mat- ter and more relief from the oppres- sive mood set in most of them. I’d also like to see at least one or two sto- ries told in a less conventional narra- tive style. Of course, that depends to a considerable degree on what gets submitted. I pledge to do my part to offer something along the lines I’m recommending. Larry Lesser FSO, retired Washington, D.C. A Ranking Error Thanks for making me an ambas- sador (Letters, “Squandered Pro- mise,” September FSJ ). Too late, alas. That honorable title belongs to my 8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 L E T T E R S u