We’ve Been Had! - A State Department Spy

June 5, 2009

It seems Walter Kendall Myers was arrested today.  He and his wife have apparently been spying on the U.S. for the Cubans for the last thirty years. 
According to the State press release, Myers taught at the Foreign Service Institute for several years before getting a civil service job at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research [...]

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A Few Words from My Boss

June 4, 2009

This is the first video I’ve included in this blog, but I wanted to urge you to listen to Obama “speaking the truth as best [he] can.”  People frequently deride diplomacy as just talking, as words rather than deeds.  In country team meetings, military and law enforcement representatives roll their eyes as FSOs argue about whether “happy” or [...]

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The Foreign Service Exam in 1953

June 3, 2009

Renee Earle, in Joining the Foreign Service: Then, Now and In-between, has a phenomenal quote that may interest officers and prospective officers alike:
Ed Williams, FSO-retired, recalls taking the written exam in 1953, after a year of graduate school at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Fulbright Scholarship in New Zealand. The exam lasted [...]

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Dealing with Hostages, Captives, and Prisoners

June 2, 2009

Last week, AmericanDiplomacy.org ran an interesting article by Dominic Tierney on American hostage policy.  While I don’t agree with a lot of his article (his claims that “the United States probably worries about its reputation more than any other country…” and “…Americans are unusually supportive of retribution against offenders…” spring to mind as somewhat dubious), [...]

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The Hegemonic Conspiracy

June 1, 2009

I was piddling about the internet today and read Stephen Walt’s piece, Taking it to the Taliban.  After worrying that the massive costs involved in Pakistan’s fight against the Taliban may actually feed it in the long run, he asks, “And given that we helped egg the Pakistani government into this, are we likely to [...]

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Discussion: Ambassadorial Qualifications

May 29, 2009

Much of the press is let down that Obama, despite his attitude of bringing change to Washington, has nominated some apparently unqualified people for ambassadorships.  I’m planning to write a bit about this next week, but I’d like to hear your opinions.  Many of the current nominees are Obama fundraisers, with limited foreign policy experience, [...]

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Isolate or Integrate?

May 28, 2009

In President Obama’s Statement on North Korea, he said,
“Such provocations will only serve to deepen North Korea’s isolation.  It will not find international acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.”
I’ve been thinking about that quote all week (ever since I edited it out of Monday’s post).  [...]

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A Quick IR Link

May 27, 2009

Part of the Foreign Service lifestyle is frequently moving.  I’m getting to crunch time, that point when I couldn’t care less about my current job and in which moving details begins to take up much of my attention and time.  Anyway, as I search for an apartment in DC, trust that I haven’t forgotten about [...]

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FS Interviews: Digger

May 26, 2009

When I was moving the blog, I realized I’d done a disservice to both my readers and Digger, a fellow FS blogger, by accidentally replacing her interview with another one.  I’d been trying to figure out how to rectify it, when over the weekend I saw this Washington Post article.  (Some doubts apparently remain.)  It [...]

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Quit Rewarding North Korea for Nuclear Tests

May 25, 2009

Last night North Korea tested a nuclear weapon again.  It was much more successful that last time.  I have previously indicated that I think we need to ignore North Korea.  I still do.  A Huffington Post article entitled “North Korea will Not Be Ignored” says, “Obama’s strategy of ignoring the country has failed.”  That statement [...]

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