The Foreign Service Journal, December 2008

war per generation, that alone will save many times the cost of our proposal.” The project organizers include Boyatt, AmbassadorThomas Pickering, Ambassa- dor Ronald Neumann, Ambassador Ed- ward Rowell, Stimson Center president Ellen Laipson and former USAIDBudget Director Richard Nygard. AFSAPresident JohnNaland, whowas one of several featured speakers at the Oct. 16 event, was an adviser for the pro- ject. He servedamong adiverse group that included former ambassadors, retiredmil- itary leaders andSenatorsPatrickLeahy,D- Vt., Richard Lugar, R-Ind. and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, among others. The study reviews fourmajor categories of foreignaffairs activ- ity — core diploma- cy, public diplomacy, economic assistance and reconstruction/ stabilization—aswell as State Department training, and finds critical personnel shortages in each of them. At theStimson event, members of the panel, who each tackledadifferent cat- egory in addition to answering questions, includedAmbs. Boy- att, Pickering and Rowell, as well as Nygard and Naland. They were joined by Dr. Gordon Adams, a distinguished fellow at Stimson, and Stanley Silverman, a former USIA comp- troller. Anever-present refrainwas theneed for increased staffing throughout America’s overseas missions in all categories. Amb. Pickeringalsounderlined theneed for addi- tional training funds andpersonnel so that we can move, particularly in danger-pay posts such as Iraq andAfghanistan, “from risk avoidance to risk management.” Naland minced no words. “Our situ- ation is desperate. The Foreign Service today does not have the knowledge, train- ing or skills for 21st-century diplomacy.” The need for greatly increased training, he pointed out, is something he is experienc- ing firsthand: he has been assigned to lead a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq starting next summer, but is being given only 3.5 hours of Arabic-language famil- iarization. Several panelmembers remarkedon the growth, over the last eight to 10 years, of authorities in security and foreignpolicy at the Defense Department that are parallel to those at State. The study advises that these authorities bebrought backunder the umbrellaof theStateDepartment andother foreign affairs agencies. TheAAD/Stimson study rolloutmarks the beginning of a vigorous campaign to convey the gravity of America’s foreign affairs policy crisis, and the attendant, crit- ical need for increased funding at all lev- els, to the next administration and the gen- eral public. Boyatt, Pickering and other study advisers were quick to point out that the Oct. 16 program was not an end result, but the beginning of intensive meetings and talks around the nation by AAD’s luminaries. The former ambassadors and others have been speaking topublic school boards, local governments, academic groups and other key opinion leaders across the country as well as to Con- gressional members and staffers. The AAD/Stimson study, “A Foreign Affairs Budget for the Future,” canbe read online at www.academyofdiplomacy.org/ publications/FAB_report_2008.pdf or at www.stimson.org/pub.cfm?ID=686. John Naland answers a question from an audience member on Oct. 16 at the Stimson Center. 64 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / DE C EMB E R 2 0 0 8 A F S A N E W S AAD/Stimson Rollout • Continued from page 59 T hroughout this session of Congress, AFSA engaged on legislation to improve parental leave benefits for federal employees. We were specifically involved early on in supporting legisla- tion offered by Rep. CarolynMaloney, D- N.Y., to provide that eight of the 12weeks of parental leave made available to fed- eral employees should be paid leave. AFSA has argued that the current out- dated federal maternity and paternity leave policy presents special difficulties for women in the Foreign Service assigned overseas. We were pleased that the legislation, H.R. 5781, passed theHouse of Represen- tatives by the comfortable margin of 278- 146. ASenate companionbill, S. 3140, was offered by Sen. JimWebb, D-Va., but the SenateCommittee onHomelandSecurity and Governmental Affairs failed to move it forward. AFSA had explained to Chair- manDaniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who chairs the Senate subcommitteewith jurisdiction over these matters, that the current bene- fits policy is insensitive to theunusual needs of the Foreign Service. In the end, Congress failed to pass the legislation but is likely to take up thematter again begin- ning in the new session in January. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Parental Leave Benefits HANS MULDER