The Foreign Service Journal, December 2007

A FSA is calling for nominations for the 2008 Constructive Dissent Awards and Exemplary Perfor- manceAwards. TheConstructiveDissent Awards honor and recognize thosemem- bers of the Foreign Service who dare to standup to conventional wisdom, toques- tion the status quo or to offer an unpop- ular or contrary view on policy or opera- tional procedures. The AFSADissent Awards are unique, bothbecause theyarebasedon integrityand professional courage rather than perfor- mance of duties, and because no other organization or agency in the U.S. gov- ernment has such a program. A Foreign Service employee who dissents is taking a risk that could jeopardize his or her career. However, that is all the more rea- son to honor that courage. Describing several tenets of good lead- ership, former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued the followingchallenge: “Dare tobe the skunk at the picnic. Every organ- ization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes … make the toughdecisions, confront peoplewhoneed it, reward those who performbest. Speak your mind, work toward consensus- O n Friday evening, Oct. 26, Amb. Harry K. Thomas Jr., the director general of the ForeignService, sent out aworldwide unclassified cable, “ACall toService” (State 149670), announcing that theStateDepartment had identified“prime candidates” for 48 positions (out of a total of 252positions) at EmbassyBaghdad and on the Iraq Provincial Reconstruction Teams that didnot have any qualifiedbid- ders for summer 2008. An accompanying cable, “Details and Procedures Associated with Directed Assignments” (State 149682), spelled out the process for identifying and assigning prime candidates to Iraqand stated that the Human Resources Bureau would notify these candidates by e-mail immediately. The identificationof prime candidates is the prelude to directed assignments. Due to the Friday evening timingof the ALDAC messages, many Foreign Service members learnedabout thedecision to ini- tiate directed assignments from press reports over theweekend. AFSAhadurged the department not to time the announce- ment that way, to no avail. By Monday morning, AFSAwas being inundatedwith e-mails andcalls frommembers around the AFSA staff members (from left) FSJ Business Manager AndrewKidd, Advertising Intern Loes Wierstra and Membership Rep. Cory Nishi. AFSA’sheadquartersbuilding, at 21st and E Streets NW, is being renovated. The staff has been relocated to tempo- rary offices on the 12th floor of State Annex 15 at 1800 N. Kent St. in Rosslyn. TheLaborManagementOffice in theTrumanBuildinghas notmoved. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses remain the same for all AFSA staff. American Foreign Service Association • December 2007 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR DISSENT AND PERFORMANCE AWARDS Are There Any Dissenting Voices Out There? BY BARBARA BERGER, PROFESSIONAL ISSUES COORDINATOR IRAQ SERVICE AND DIRECTED ASSIGNMENTS DG Announces “Prime Candidates” for Iraq BY SHAWN DORMAN In This Issue: BRIEFS: APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS ..................................54 VP STATE: IRAQ: THE BLAME GAME..55 VP USAID: WHO’S ON FIRST?...........56 ISSUE BRIEF: TELLING OUR STORY...58 CLASSIFIEDS .......................................60 AFSA NEWS Continued on page 57 Continued on page 60 DE C EMB E R 2 0 0 7 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 53 SHAWN DORMAN