The Foreign Service Journal, December 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2016 17 Questions for the Foreign Service W e [the association] have a very genuine role to fill in seeking to promote our professional compe- tence as individuals and as a Service, and our welfare. The Journal , I think, carries a very important role, particu- larly in promoting our professional competence. The Journal has moved from being a house organ … in the direction of an organ of opinion in which exchanges of views can be aired. I think there is a real role for the Journal to fulfill—a role not only of exhortation but a role of debate. … I would look to the Jour- nal moving more and more toward a professional organ of debate as between professionals. … Going back to our role as an association, there is a real role for active members of the asso- ciation to fill in encouraging and developing our profes- sional competence so that we can better serve the future and meet the challenges that face us. Those challenges are going to be very, very great indeed, and all of you who have the opportunity be associ- ated with meeting them are going to have a very satisfying time. —Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson speaking to AFSAOct. 27, 1966, on passing on the AFSA presidency, excerpted from the December 1966 FSJ . 50 Years Ago are angry that a cartoon figure has been selected to represent women’s issues. Anne Marie Goetz, a professor of global affairs at New York University and a former adviser on peace and security issues to the agency U.N. Women, said that election of the character as a repre- sentative for women is “frivolous, it’s fatu- ous and it reduces an extremely serious human rights problem experienced by half of the world to a cartoon.” Maher Nasser, the U.N. official who brokered the appointment, says the U.N. was aware of concerns about the appropriateness of Wonder Woman as a representative for women and girls, particularly with regard to her iconic but skimpy costume. But Mr. Nasser defended the deci- sion, saying, “The focus [of the U.N.] was on her feminist background, being the first female superhero in a world of male superheroes, and that basically she always fought for fairness, justice and peace.” The U.N. is not the first to use a cartoon character as an ambassador. In 2008, Japanese Foreign Minister Masa- hiko Komura commissioned an anime cat named Doraemon as an “anime ambassador” with a mission to deepen people’s understanding of Japan. The character had films screened at Japanese diplomatic missions in China, Singapore, France and Spain. n —Gemma Dvorak, Associate Editor