December 2011

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NORTH AFRICA

International Criminal Court Comes Into Its Own

Tyler Cowen, a prolific author and professor, elucidates dense economic subject matter while also unearthing fascinating connections between economics and humanity, which are peppered throughout his latest book, whose title says it all: “The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.” PAGE 6

DIPLOMACY

U.S. Military Exits Iraq, But Work Just Starting For State Department As the State Department formally assumes responsibility for Iraq from the U.S. military this month, the unprecedented transfer of power will be a critical test of whether diplomacy can stand on par with defense in American foreign policy. PAGE 13

Native Bond Between Humans and Horses “A Song for the Horse Nation” traverses the complex relationship between Native American Indians and their horses. PAGE 31

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Cowen Picks Apart America’s Low-Hanging Economic Fruit

The steady drumbeat of repression in Syria and elsewhere seems to belie the notion that this is the most just world we’ve ever known, but advocates for international justice say we may be on the precipice of a new era when bad actors have no place to hide. PAGE 8

culture

P rffect Pe P t 2011 ■ DECEMBER

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

EGYPTIAN EVOLUTION

R

Egyptian Ambassador Sameh Shoukry urges patience and perspective despite the turmoil engulfing his nation, saying it is not only a “time of transition but also a time of nation-building.” But the whole world is watching to see what kind of nation will really be built — a revolutionary Arab democracy or more of the autocratic same. PAGE 15

Representing Afghanistan’s Achievements As accomplished, highly educated Afghans who had to flee their homeland after its descent into violence, Sultana Hakimi and her husband, Ambassador Eklil Hakimi, represent the best and worst of Afghanistan’s past, as well as its hope for the future. PAGE 32

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December 2011

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

December 2011

13 Iraq

[ news ] 6

Visions of the Orient

18

32

19

13

15

[ luxury living ]

POLITICS 21

27

COVER PROFILE: EGYPT “This whole year has been an experience,” says Egyptian Ambassador Sameh Shoukry — an experience that could very well determine the direction of the entire Arab Spring.

[ culture ] 31

17

DIPLOMACY Suzan Johnson Cook puts her faith in finding common ground around the world as the State Department’s ambassador at large for international religious freedom.

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ART The National Museum of the American Indian’s newest exhibition, “A Song for the Horse Nation,” is a lyrical tribute to the bonds between Native Americans and their horses.

PHOTOGRAPHY After the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, China’s empress dowager tried to make her image more positive, turning to negatives and using portraits as an early 20th-century PR tool.

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DINING Pearl Dive Oyster Palace is riding a wave of popularity thanks to its Southern-inspired seafood in a setting that melds rustic fish shack with urban chic.

SPA TREATMENTS Traditionally a time of comfort and joy, the stress of the holiday season can also take a toll. Fortunately, local spas have just the treatments to replenish your holiday spirit.

ART American feminist interpretation of Eastern mystique comes alive in “Visions of the Orient” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

2011 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE If you’re still on the hunt for the ideal gift for friends and family, we have a bounty of ideas, from sweet cupcakes to a decadent $43,400 bracelet.

DIPLOMACY The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is the largest diplomatic mission in the world, and the State Department faces one of its biggest tests as it steps up for the U.S. military in Iraq.

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MEDICAL

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES Sultana Hakimi, who holds an engineering degree from Kabul and has worked as a banker and accountant, wants to extend the same kind of educational opportunities she had to today’s Afghan women.

The use of antidepressants during pregnancy carries some risk, although for certain women, toughing it out without medications is even riskier.

RULE OF LAW

The question of who’ll be Russia’s next president is no longer a question, but this month’s legislative election could still be a key barometer of Kremlin politics.

VANTAGE POINT For years, the buck of government overspending stopped with Leon Panetta, but now as defense secretary, Panetta’s done a disappointing about-face when it comes to the Pentagon’s bloated budgets.

The International Criminal Court had a banner year in 2011 as the wheels of justice grinded forward and fundamentally shifted the global community’s concept of impunity.

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2011 holiday gift guide

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE “The Great Stagnation,” the latest opus by Tyler Cowen, encapsulates the George Mason professor’s ability to present economics in a way that both entertains and enlightens.

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EVENTS LISTING

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DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

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WORLD HOLIDAYS / APPOINTMENTS

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CLASSIFIEDS

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REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS

COVER: Photo taken at the Egyptian Residence by Lawrence Ruggeri.

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December 2011

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Tyler Cowen

Academic Livens Up Economics With ‘The Great Stagnation’

by Patrick Corcoran

T

rying to get a bead on the U.S. economy is neither easy nor particularly uplifting at the moment. So book-buyers in search of some light reading tend to avoid the economics section, but that instinctive rejection is a mistake in the case of “The Great Stagnation.” The latest opus by Tyler Cowen, a prolific author, professor and popular blogger, is the rarest of things: an economics book that entertains and enlightens.

Whether penning a column for the New York Times, teaching at George Mason University, or writing in his daily blog “Marginal Revolution: Small Steps Toward a Much Better World,” Cowen manages to elucidate dense economic subject matter for the layman, not only tying in larger forces such as globalization and innovation, but also unearthing fascinating and sometimes obscure connections between economics and humanity.

The Los Angeles Times, for instance, praising the Harvard-trained economist’s grasp of culture and society, called Cowen a man who “can talk about Haitian voodoo flags, Iranian cinema, Hong Kong cuisine, Abstract Expressionism, Zairian music and Mexican folk art seemingly with equal facility … [in books] about culture, markets and the pessimists who plague them.”

Checking in at less than 100 pages, Cowen’s latest book can be consumed entirely during a brief flight or rainy afternoon, though digesting its implications is a matter of days, if not weeks.

“The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better,” which was released as an e-book in January before hitting the shelves a few months later, is built around a simple concept.“For the typical family in America, living standards haven’t gone up that much in the last 40 years, and this is because the rate of technological progress has slowed down. My grandmother saw a lot of big changes in her life; in my life, other than the Internet, there hasn’t been as much,” Cowen explained during an interview with The Washington Diplomat.

The book tracks a century of “low-hanging fruit” in the form of free land, immigrant labor and powerful new technologies that drove up living standards but began drying up over the last 40 years, leaving the United States in a multi-decade stagnation as it fails to recognize the plateau it has reached. Meanwhile, politicians of all stripes have failed to offer any innovative solutions to pull America out of its economic quagmire, with Democrats trying to increase government spending without any plan to rein in entitlement growth,

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while Republicans tout the mantra that tax cuts raise revenue and often create bigger fiscal disasters than their counterparts.

When Cowen begins to tick off some of the advances brought to the masses from 1880 to 1940, the list truly is staggering: electricity, powerful motors, cars, airplanes, household appliances, indoor plumbing, television and many others that redefined modern life.

In addition to this technological progress, the George Mason academic mentioned two other pieces of “low-hanging fruit” that fueled the enormous increases in American wages from the latter portion of the 1900s through the first half of the 20th century: the development of America’s unsettled territory and the exploitation of its vast natural resources, as well as giant gains in education. It is primarily thanks to these three advances that the U.S. median

PHOTO: MERCATUS CENTER AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

“

For the typical family in America, living standards haven’t gone up that much in the last 40 years, and this is because the rate of technological progress has slowed down. My grandmother saw a lot of big changes in her life; in my life, other than the Internet, there hasn’t been as much.

”

— TYLER COWEN, economics professor at George Mason University family income doubled from 1947 to 1973.

In contrast, from 1973 to 2004, the increase was a mere 22 percent. And over the last decade, income has regressed.

The problem, Cowen argues, particularly with regard to the territory and the educational system, is that they can’t easily be repeated.The exploitation of the American frontier was a one-off event. And while further educational gains are certainly possible, the returns have diminished because, compared to a century ago, we no longer have so many uneducated yet smart citizens toiling in poverty. (Among the more striking of the many stats packed into the book: The proportion of Americans with a high school diploma skyrocketed from 6

percent in 1900 to 80 percent in the late 1960s.)

That leaves technology as the most likely driver of future prosperity. According to Cowen, one key is for this generation’s major technological achievement — the Internet — to become a revenue-generator, job-creator, and growth-producer that can fill the void for the innovations of the last century that have been exhausted.

That clearly hasn’t happened yet.

Compared to, say, General Motors, today’s most innovative sectors are not laborintensive and rely on mostly automated technology; even powerhouse innovators like Facebook and Google only employ a tiny number of people. Furthermore, the

benefits of the latter companies are largely intangible — we chat on Facebook and check when Julius Caesar was born thanks to Google and Wikipedia — but intellectual stimulation doesn’t translate into economic productivity, Cowen argues.

“Will the Internet usher in a new economic growth explosion? Quite possibly, but it hasn’t delivered very good macroeconomic performance over the last decade. Many of the Internet’s gains are fun — games, chat rooms, Twitter streams — rather than vast sources of revenue,” he wrote in a New York Times piece earlier this year, noting that “the Internet has benefited the well-educated and the curious to a disproportionate degree, but apparently not enough to bolster median income.”

Moreover, the real gains are going to a handful of people, so unless your name is Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin — or one of the rich Wall Street financiers who backed them up — chances are that trolling around online won’t make you substantially wealthier. It wouldn’t be fair to say that technology has failed us — it has enriched our lives immeasurably — but Cowen argues that it’s just not taking us as far as it once did.Wikipedia may open up a world of instantaneous knowledge, but it won’t boost a country’s economic activity

December 2011

or hire the unemployed.

Cowen is the general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he also holds the Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics. Described as a libertarian, he has earned bipartisan respect and a mainstream following. That recognition outside the realm of academic economics predates “The Great Stagnation.” His writing for the New York Times, Slate and other mainstream media outlets connects him with millions of readers. Similarly, most of Cowen’s previous books examined aspects of economics that appeal to general readers — or at the very least won’t scare them off the same way that, say, a discourse on various trade models would.

His 2002 book “Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World’s Culture” tackles just what the title promises, touching on everything from Parisian cuisine to Mongolian music. In 2007’s“Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist,” Cowen offers a guide for using economic principles to squeeze a little more out of your daily routine.

Finally, as one of two writers behind the blog Marginal Revolution (his George Mason colleague Alex Tabarrok is the other), Cowen is also something of a titan among web-savvy economists. Marginal Revolution kicked off in 2003, the blogosphere equivalent of the stone age. In those days, Cowen said his colleagues didn’t quite know what to make of his online publication. “I think they thought it was wacky, but … a lot of them followed suit.”

Now an established leader in the cyber realm of economics blogs, Cowen enjoys a level of popularity among his colleagues that he might not otherwise have had. “If I link to [an academic] paper on Marginal Revolution, it gets the authors more downloads than they’ll get in their whole life, even if they’re someone well known, and people love that,” Cowen said. “Its influence, and it means people are pretty nice to me.”

Cowen’s prominence also reflects a broader shift in the relationship between economics and journalism. There used to be a gaping chasm between what a mainstream publication would publish on economics and what the economic scholars were saying. That gap still exists, but it is shrinking. Academic experts like Cowen — and others who blog on a daily basis, including J. Bradford DeLong, Mark Thoma and, most famously, Paul Krugman — are influencing popular opinions on economic issues to a degree that was simply not possible two decades ago.

Cowen says this shift has “completely changed economic and financial journalism, which now starts through the blogosphere.”The overall effect is a more informed debate on one of the most important issues of the day, with academics like Cowen having a greater impact on the national policy debate, and mainstream journalists embracing their work. “With blogs, you can write at a level above what used to be everyman’s economics,” Cowen said. “That’s a good niche for me. I think one should try to make popular economics smarter.”

Of course, blogging is a world unto itself — an immediate new form of communication, but one that ranges from serious academic debate to nonsensical narcissism to bellicose combativeness, which Cowen sometimes sees among hyper-educated bloggers. For example, DeLong, a former Treasury official and professor at the University of California, recently wrote a post whose title included the question, “Are WSJ OpEd Writers Clueless or Liars?” — referring to the Wall Street Journal — which he followed with,“The answer is ‘yes.’”

Cowen steers clear of that kind of commentary. His disagreements are made clear, but there is very little venom. Rather than drawing blood, Cowen gently nudges adversaries in the opposite direction.

“It is a conscious decision, but not one which needs much if any enforcement,” Cowen, who displays a similarly agreeable physical presence, told The Diplomat of his rhetorical

December 2011

approach to blogging.“It is also my natural temperament,” he added. “At the end of the day if I was being so polemical, I would end up disliking my own writing and I don’t want to be in that place, so to speak.”

His writing also goes well beyond economic policy and politics.An avid traveler who spends roughly a quarter of each year on the road, Cowen’s reflections on both popular and high culture regularly pepper Marginal Revolution; one recent post called for a book examining what the career of composer Franz Liszt shows about the decline of mainstream classical liberalism. He even has his own D.C.-area ethnic food guide.

Cowen infuses that light, approachable writing style into his economic assessments, which in part has contributed to the critical success of “The Great Stagnation.” That’s not to say everyone has been bowled over by Cowen’s lowhanging fruit observations. Timothy Noah, writing in Slate, for example, praises the book for being “lucid in its interpretation of past economic trends,” but adds that Cowen “makes an ambitious argument whose chief present advantage (and greatest eventual liability) is that it’s impossible to assess in real time.”

Noah criticizes what he views as holes in Cowen’s theories — on territory, for instance, he points out that for “most of the frontier-less 20th century, economic growth was both brisk and widely shared.” Noah also suggests that computer technology, rather than putting the brakes on middle-class incomes, still holds untapped promise for generating future growth, as well as jobs.And he largely discounts Cowen’s policy prescriptions for reversing America’s economic stagnation — encouraging free trade and scientific research — calling his views on government consumption, health care and education “pretty vague.”

Yet “The Great Stagnation” has generally won plaudits from commentators on both sides of the political aisle.The Wall Street Journal’s Kelly Evans wrote that “in terms of framing the dialogue Tyler Cowen may very well turn out to be this decade’s Thomas Friedman,” while the liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias called it “a bravura performance by one of the most interesting thinkers out there.”

For his part, Cowen defines himself as a libertarian on economics and liberal on social issues, but his opinions are varied enough to defy easy characterizations — reflected in his views on government regulation, for instance. “I would much more strongly regulate leverage in the financial sector, and I would much more strongly regulate and tax carbon,”he told The Diplomat.

“And I would deregulate literally almost everything else,” he added.“I would massively deregulate everything I could get my hands on.”

Likewise, he says that politicians have taken a myopic view on income inequality. He admits that America’s wage gap has been widening and that wealth has been concentrating at the very top, largely because of the financial sector. And he criticizes the dangerous risk-taking that’s being fueled by “an unholy dynamic of shortterm trading and investing, backed up by bailouts and risk reduction from the government and the Federal Reserve,” he wrote in the American Interest analysis “The Inequality That Matters,” in which he admits that no one has yet figured out how to “limit major banks from repeatedly going short on volatility at social expense.”

At the same time, he points out other nuances often overlooked in the debate about inequality — for instance, that many top earners do indeed work longer hours than other Americans, and that there is less of a discrepancy in overall well being.

“Bill Gates is much, much richer than I am, yet it is not obvious that he is much happier if, indeed, he is happier at all. I have access to penicillin, air travel, good cheap food, the Internet and virtually all of the technical innovations that Gates does,” he wrote.“I don’t have a private jet or take luxury vacations, and — I

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RULE OF LAW

International Criminal Court

New Era for International Justice, Though Verdict Still Out on ICC

by Luke Jerod Kummer and Anna Gawel

T

he constant drumbeat of ever-bloodier repression in Syria and elsewhere seems to belie the notion that this is the most just world we’ve ever known.

But advocates for international justice say that while the concept and implementation of their cause are works in progress, there have been a number of encouraging signs recently that the world is on the right track — and we may be on the precipice of a new era when bad actors have no place to hide.

Perhaps nothing in this regard was more significant than the birth of the International Criminal Court almost a decade ago. Since then, it’s been clear that the ICC still has room to mature, but 2011 seems to be the year that it finally completes its transition from fledgling to flight, which will have broad implications to come and, some say, fits into an evolution that’s centuries or more in the making.

Ruti Teitel, a professor of comparative law at New York Law School and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, speaks of a major recent “paradigm shift” in her book,“Humanity’s Law,” released in October.

“What we’re seeing is a turn away from a traditional emphasis in international affairs from state security to human-centered security — not just in terms of enforcement, but also in terms of protection — and a greater role for international law to play in this individualized enforcement,”Teitel told The Washington Diplomat.

She writes in her book about a new set of international legal and conceptual norms that are increasingly being used to prosecute or prevent certain heinous crimes when the state is unable or unwilling to do so, superseding national sovereignty in the name of international justice.

In a year when autocrats from Libya, Egypt, Syria,Yemen and elsewhere seemed to be facing their own judgment day as the Arab Spring rolls forward, this shift toward accountability may seem patently obvious, but that belies just how drastically the international community’s thinking about impunity has changed.

In about a century, our notion of humanity has evolved from a time when atrocities like ethnic cleansing were all but considered the right of a sovereign state, says Teitel, to being considered a casus belli for international military action to protect people. In theory, a government can no longer turn a blind eye to certain egregious crimes or turn against its own people without international repercussions.

And more recently, Teitel points out, there has been increasing consensus that individuals who have committed such crimes should be held personally responsible on an international level, instead of in the past where the state might be punished at the end of a conflict but a war criminal might be free to walk unless the country of that person’s citizenship was interested in pursuing prosecution.

WORLDWIDE RECKONING Of course, the Arab Spring has most vividly reinforced the perception that today, a dictator’s days can be numbered. It has also given teeth to the Responsibility to Protect doctrine — whereby the international community has a responsibility to prevent genocide and other crimes against

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PHOTO: VINCENT VAN ZEIJST

“

I think what we’ve seen is a dramatic increase of expectations for justice because of the International Criminal Court…. That to my eye is really the hallmark trend of the last 12 months.

— RICHARD DICKER international justice program director at Human Rights Watch

”

humanity when a state fails to do so — while sparking a contentious debate that R2P will be used to justify future foreign military interventions (also see “Will the Responsibility to Protect Usher in New Global Paradigm?” in the June 2011 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

But the push for accountability has been gaining steam for the past two decades, crystallizing in recent years — and not just in the Arab world. Notably, Latin America has been coming to grips with the region’s legacy of political repression and military abuses.

In late October, for instance, Uruguay’s Congress overturned an amnesty law that had protected officers from prosecution for crimes committed during military rule from 1975 to 1983. That same month, Brazil approved a truth commission to investigate abuses during that country’s military regime from 1964 to 1985.

A movement in Argentina is unearthing the 1976-83 military dictatorship’s systematic attempts to snatch babies from perceived enemies and raise them as their own, one of the more enduring traumas of that country’s “dirty war.”

Likewise, a group of former Salvadoran soldiers is facing charges for killing six Jesuit priests in one of the most notorious acts of violence during El Salvador’s civil war — a trial

Since its inception in 2002, the International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued more than two dozen indictments, including arrest warrants for two sitting heads of state on charges of crimes against humanity, although it has yet to fully complete a trial.

that was spurred by the soldiers’ indictment in Spain under the country’s universal jurisdiction law, which holds that some crimes are so grave that they can be tried anywhere.

The international community is demonstrating that there is no statute of limitations on some of the worst officially sanctioned sins — in particular genocide — a reality that governments are recognizing, albeit begrudgingly in some cases.

For years, the U.N.-backed tribunal in Cambodia has tried to prosecute top officials from the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime for war crimes but has been perpetually hamstrung by government interference. In contrast, an international tribunal based in Tanzania has made steady progress in tackling the vestiges of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, handing down dozens of verdicts over the years, including the first genocide conviction against a woman by any international tribunal.

After his arrest in 2006, former Liberian President Charles Taylor awaits his fate in a U.N.-backed court for Sierra Leone based in The Hague, where he faces war crimes charges of large-scale atrocities perpetrated by rebels under his command.

The arrest earlier this year of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general accused of massacring some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, was a landmark step in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where Mladic’s one-time boss, Radovan Karadzic, is also being tried for genocide. Mladic’s capture not only removed one of the biggest obstacles to Serbia joining the European Union, it turned the page on one of the bloodiest chapters in European history since World War II. Granted, the wheels of justice may be slow (nearly 15 December 2011

years passed between Mladic’s ICC arrest warrant and his capture), but they’re grinding forward on a scale never seen before. And those who commit the most world’s most unspeakable acts are feeling the heat from what was once an unlikely place: The Hague.

LONG DRIVE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY Many experts say this tidal change in accountability was solidified with the creation of the ICC, based in The Hague.

Efforts to establish such a body, where heinous crimes could be prosecuted without regard to national jurisdictions, began in the wake of atrocities committed during World War I. The epic conflict stirred a seeming awakening in people that some acts were essentially evil, even if they occurred during wartime, and that the people responsible should be held accountable after the conclusion of hostilities. Despite a nascent sense of internationalism, little headway, however, was made in establishing an international court for the purpose of trying these crimes until another estimated 50 million people died during World War II. It was the success of the Nuremberg trials and war crime tribunals in Tokyo that did more than anything to pave the way toward creating a permanent international criminal court. Still, while the 1948 Genocide Convention provided the framework for instituting such a body, Cold War politics and a reluctance among nations to submit to international legal jurisdiction caused several more decades of delay.

The next turning point was not until after the end of the Cold War and, poignantly, after two of the most brutally widespread tragedies since World War II. In 1991, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was created, followed three years later by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. More than anything preceding them, these ad hoc courts created a precedence for how to mete out international justice by contemporary standards, and within the decade, 120 countries at

the United Nations General Assembly voted for what would become known as the Rome Statute creating the ICC as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression.

The ICC officially convened in 2002. For the first time in human history there was a permanent court that would administer justice based on internationally recognized concepts that prohibited certain actions, no matter the circumstances of war, with the infrastructure and mechanism to hold individuals accountable.

Despite its lofty ambitions, the court’s track record has been mixed, though it has determinedly plowed ahead into unchartered territory. The ICC has generated more than two dozen indictments since its inception. It has issued arrest warrants for two sitting heads of state on charges of crimes against humanity: Sudan’s Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi — the latter now moot after rebels apparently took matters into their hands. Despite Qaddafi’s death, the court is still reviewing allegations of crimes committed by all sides of the conflict, including Qaddafi loyalists, rebel troops and NATO forces.

The ICC has also charged six top officials in the Kenyan government of fomenting post-election violence in 2007 and 2008 that killed some 1,300 people — a pointed rebuke after the Kenyan government dragged its feet in investigating the bloodshed (a pre-trial chamber is expected to rule next month whether the six will move onto a full trial). The new government of President Alassane Ouattara in Côte d’Ivoire even asked the ICC to probe alleged abuses committed during that country’s own bloody post-election upheaval, marking the court’s seventh investigation in Africa and the first in a state that is not a party to the treaty that set up the court. As a result, the man Ouattara toppled, Laurent Gbagbo, who adamantly refused to concede defeat in the presidential election, could be the next one-time head of state in The Hague hot seat, joining an increasingly crowded court.

“When Argentina’s Luis Moreno-Ocampo began

work as the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in 2003, he had a few staff members, a gaggle of interns, and a superpower, the United States, that feared the court was out to politicize international justice,”wrote David Bosco, assistant professor at American University’s School of International Service, in the Atlantic magazine’s most recent “Brave Thinkers” annual report.

“Eight years later,” Bosco wrote, “the ICC has issued arrest warrants for two heads of state, earned the confidence of the United Nations Security Council, and largely won over Washington.”

AFRICA ON TRIAL? Yet the ICC hasn’t won over Washington to the point where it’s actually signed onto the idea.

Indeed, some of the most powerful nations in the world, including the United States, Russia, China and India, are not among the 119 signatories to the Rome Statute and thereby don’t recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, mostly out of fear it would encroach on their sovereignty.

Ironically, many African governments that signed onto the court now complain that their continent is being unfairly singled out. So far, all of the officials or rebels charged with crimes by the ICC have in fact been African.

Moreover, the court lacks any police powers, forcing it to rely on member nations to voluntarily carry out its orders — a tall order. For example, a number of mostly African nations have refused to enforce the ICC arrest warrant for Sudanese President al-Bashir, allowing him to travel relatively freely and thumb his nose at the court.

Yet the fact that Côte d’Ivoire’s government actually requested the ICC to investigate the country’s bitterly disputed election, which led to a U.N.-supported military intervention, was a clear boost to the court’s credibility — and a clear message to African leaders that flout the will of their people.

“Although after the genocide in Rwanda the United Nations had been embarrassed into adopting the ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine — the

idea that countries lose their sovereignty when they kill their own people — it had remained a dead letter. Partly as a reaction to the Iraq war, most governments have been hyperallergic to international interference in other countries’ internal barbarisms,” wrote Paul Collier in the Foreign Policy article “Bad Guys Still Matter.”

“In Africa, autocrats saw that they could not just resort to skullduggery to win elections; they could hold their heads high while doing so,” said Collier, an economics professor at Oxford. “In 2011, the international community was at last faced with actions that it found intolerable. In Ivory Coast its interventions, while far short of heroic, were sufficiently resolute to weaken Gbagbo to the point at which the modest military force available to the winning candidate, Alassane Ouattara, was sufficient for victory. One might quibble with the pace of intervention, but the amazing thing was that sufficient action was taken to trigger the regime’s downfall. The world has drawn a new line in the sand. And it happened just in time: In the coming months Africa faces 19 elections. Incumbents will now be more cautious about overriding election results.”

ICC prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo, who visited Côte d’Ivoire in mid-October, echoed that sentiment, saying his office would be closely monitoring election-related developments in other African countries, including neighboring Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Electoral violence can result in the commission of crimes falling within our jurisdiction. No one should doubt our resolve to prevent crimes or, if need be, prosecute individuals, as we are doing in Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire,” warned Moreno-Ocampo, who’ll be stepping down next year after a high-profile tenure that elevated the ICC’s stature.

ONLY A MATTER OF TIME Of course, as with any penal system, law and

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Continued from previous page punishments are imperfect deterrents for crimes.

Moreover, the ICC’s deterrent effect on dictators has yet to be proven, for two main reasons: the somewhat haphazard nature of its prosecution, and the speed — or lack thereof – of that prosecution.

International justice doesn’t come swiftly. To date, not a single case at the ICC has actually been completed. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, for instance, dragged out the proceedings for five years and often made a mockery of the court, dying in 2006 before a verdict was reached and denying his victims closure.

Yet the tortuous pace of justice overshadows the ICC’s landmark achievements, according to David Scheffer, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues and author of “All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals,” out this month.

“International judicial intervention — a term I introduced to Foreign Policy in an article of the same name 15 years ago — has succeeded in its plodding way at humbling and bringing to justice one tyrant after another, along with their partners in genocide, crimes against humanity, and massive war crimes. Yes, international justice takes time; indicted leaders threaten and bully and defy tribunals as a matter of course (even though the bravado rarely lasts); and there is always the risk that an international prosecutor might scrutinize one of your own,” Scheffer wrote in the FP piece “Justice League.”

“But if international justice requires patience and some risk, it also holds more lasting rewards.

Most of the surviving top leaders who orchestrated atrocities in the Balkans, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone in recent decades have been apprehended and brought to justice before international criminal tribunals,” he pointed out, arguing that peace prevails in these places in part because “important historical lessons about justice and the rule of law have taken root, particularly among younger generations.”

“I think what we’ve seen is a dramatic increase

of expectations for justice because of the International Criminal Court,” Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, told The Diplomat. “That to my eye is really the hallmark trend of the last 12 months.”

Dicker also noted that with the recent capture of Bosnian Serb fugitive Ratko Mladic, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is entering a final phase.

“I think with the apprehension of all but one of its approximately 160 indictees at the ICTY, there is both a sense of closure and also a cause for encouragement as to the prospects for the permanent international court, the ICC. The ICTY provides rich lessons learned for the ICC as it furthers its missions and mandate, and absorbing and distilling the experience of the ICTY will be important for the ICC as the expectations and demands on it grow.”

Dicker though cautioned that circumstances surrounding the ICTY were unique and not all of its findings would be applicable in other cases.

“There are lessons to be learned, but it’s not a matter of cutting and pasting those lessons into other situations. There will be different situations and different challenges for the ICC, but I think there are trends and principles from the ICTY experience that can be put to good use by the ICC and its assembly of state parties that created it and supported it.”

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, also cited the case of Mladic as proof that sustained international pressure does bear fruit, it just takes a while.

“International tribunals do not have police or military forces at their disposal. To achieve their promise of justice and deterrence, they depend on international cooperation. Absent military intervention (rarely a realistic or advisable option), capturing war criminals requires sustained, principled pressure on governments that harbor suspects,” he wrote in the Foreign Policy article “No Safe Haven?” earlier this year.

“If the pressure is kept on, governments that

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safeguard accused official killers ultimately conclude the cost is simply too high,” he added, noting that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh “may have figured that they can hunker down at home and avoid future indictments that may be cast their way. But their calculations are only as good as the international community allows.”

ARAB SPRING ACCELERATES JUSTICE The instability roiling the Arab world has galvanized the international community around the ICC and lent a newfound momentum to the court.

Throughout the Arab Spring, protesters have called for entrenched leaders to be hauled off to The Hague. Likewise, the international community, wary of further military force, may increasingly turn to the ICC as a vehicle to squeeze recalcitrant Arab rulers while bolstering their opposition.

The U.N. Human Rights Council is currently investigating the Syrian government for excessive use of force and possible war crimes. (Al-Assad would also become the first leader outside of Africa to be indicted by the ICC if the case against him ever goes that far.) Libya was handled with lightening speed by ICC standards: It took less than three months between Libya’s referral by the U.N. Security Council to the court and the issuing of indictments and arrest warrants for Qaddafi, his son and intelligence chief.

Also unprecedented was the international consensus on Libya. Even though several members of the Security Council, notably the United States, Russia and China, India and Lebanon, are not members of the ICC, the body unanimously empowered the court to investigate Libyan atrocities. And the subsequent indictments were used to help build a case for the NATO-led military intervention — further evidence that world bodies and non-member nations such as the United States have come to accept the validity of the court and its mandate.

Yet Libya also raises thorny questions about the ICC inserting itself into global crises while still figuring out its place on the world stage.“With the U.N. Security Council injecting the court into one of the year’s biggest stories, the ICC may seem to have become an indispensable international player,” said David Kaye, executive director of the International Human Rights Law Program at UCLA in a piece in Foreign Affairs in June. “But a closer look suggests that the ICC’s sleek office building on the outskirts of The Hague houses an institution that is still struggling to find its footing.”

“My concern is really about the Security Council using the ICC as a tool and really not having a clear idea of how it would support the case even after it referred it to the ICC,” Kaye told The Diplomat. “One of the risks out there is that the ICC is increasingly seen as a useful tool in different sorts of conflicts, but only as a tool and not putting justice front and center as an end unto itself,” he said.

Indeed, some legal scholars worry that using the court as a pretext for military intervention muddies its purpose, and moral prestige. Scheffer, writing in “Justice League” in late June before Qaddafi had been killed, argued that bringing the mercurial leader to the ICC would have sent a strong message that the United States was moving past its post-9/11 “cowboy behavior” and embracing the rule of law. “[A] Tomahawk missile is no doubt a more expedient means of dispatching Qaddafi and his cohorts than a drawn-out courtroom battle in The Hague. But if there’s one lesson to draw from the post-9/11 decade of conflict — defined as it has been by unilateral military action and an emphasis on force over law — it’s that in war the means determine the ends to a not-insignificant degree.

Arrest warrants from international criminal tribunals can delegitimize tyrants before their own people and certainly before the international community; unilateral wars have, if anything, had the opposite effect.”

But others worry that ICC arrest warrants have a different kind of opposite effect: inducing autocrats to dig in their heels in the face of an impending trial that removes the possibility of exile, and

thereby the incentive to peacefully relinquish power.

In the New York Times op-ed “Peace for All or Justice for One,” Mark S. Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, acknowledges the inherent conflict between accountability and diplomacy.

“Diplomats would contend that the promise of immunity has proven to be a powerful tool in resolving political and humanitarian crises. The impunity originally extended to Taylor clearly spared further carnage in Liberia, while the I.C.C. indictment against Bashir exacerbated the human suffering when the Sudanese president in retaliation expelled Western relief organizations,” Ellis wrote.

“Unfortunately, contradictions and competing agendas undermine the credibility and effectiveness of prosecutors and diplomats alike,” he concluded, arguing that all players must coordinate to find “common ground for the common good.”

Contradictions within the ICC itself also abound. To be effective, justice must be applied uniformly, but the court’s detractors often point to the seemingly indiscriminate nature of its indictments.After all, the world is full of bad guys, but the scales of justice seem to tilt toward certain bad guys more than others.Why Qaddafi and not Kim Jong-il of North Korea or Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe — or, as some have even suggested, why not former U.S. President George W. Bush for launching the Iraq war under false pretenses?

David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, admits the court can be arbitrary and selective, but that doesn’t mean it selects the wrong people.

“The international community singled [Qaddafi] out and has starkly and apparently unabashedly ignored far worse violations by Bashir al-Assad, to pick just the most egregious case of a double standard,” he wrote June 27 in his “How the World is Really Run” blog. “That’s the problem with the administration of international justice. It’s not that the Qaddafis and the Mladics of this world don’t deserve to end up in the slammer. It’s not that they are not getting their just desserts. It’s that justice is not applied equally around the world.

“The greater problem may well be that there are not enough judges, not enough jails, to accommodate all those who have abused their political power to commit the most unconscionable of crimes,” Rothkopf concludes. “That said, there is no harm in starting with Qaddafi, provided we have the appetite and the intention to get to the others as soon as space on the docket and jail space allow.”

Whether the world has the appetite to expand the ICC’s docket remains to be seen.The court of public opinion is also far from settled.The ICC has demonstrated an increasingly assertive, and relevant, role in confronting the most egregious of crimes, but its maturity has been awkward as it lumbers through a minefield of issues, from allegations of bias to questions of effectiveness. Its list of indictments may be growing but the court has yet to conclude a single case.

While the ICC’s place in the annals of history is far from assured, there’s no doubt of the growing recognition that accountability is fundamental to any functioning society, including a global one.

And for the first time in human history, a consensus is emerging that sovereignty is no shield against inhumanity, backed by a set of basic legal principles and consequences.

Experts such as Kaye, Dicker and Teitel say that while imperfect, the ICC is a giant step in a long march toward advancing international law to enshrine human rights and individual accountability.

“Sure, there are derogations and enforcement isn’t perfect, and the path hasn’t been completely linear,” says Teitel,“but the fact that it’s case by case doesn’t undermine that normative development.”

Anna Gawel, managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, contributed to this report.

Luke Jerod Kummer is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

December 2011

POLITICS

Eurasia

Tandem Shifts Back to Putin, But Russia’s Problems Unchanged

by Patrick Corcoran

R

ussia-watchers all have the date of the next presidential election, March 4, 2012, circled on their calendars, though the outcome probably won’t be a nail-biter after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent announcement that he will stand for re-election and replace his “tandem” cohort, current President Dmitry Medvedev.

But the nation’s next electoral landmark actually comes on Dec. 4, when voters select members of the State Duma, the lower house of the national legislature and a barometer for Russian politics.

Opinion polls — and longstanding tradition — suggest that United Russia, the party of Putin and Medvedev, will roll to a decisive victory: Most recent polling gives the party levels of support hovering around 50 percent.

Nevertheless, that’s sharply down from the 60 percent mark just the previous week. The poll numbers also suggest that United Russia could lose its twothirds majority in the lower parliament house — the minimum threshold to approve constitutional changes, a prospect that unnerves a party accustomed to 60 percent-plus victories. (Putin’s own numbers took a recent dip, although he remains the most popular figure in the country, with a 61 percent approval rating.)

“

With Putin coming back, that’s going to be a serious problem….

He certainly is not going to forget that our government would have preferred Medvedev.

”

— HARLEY BALZER associate professor at Georgetown University

Despite some of the uncertainty, Putin’s political juggernaut is sure to cement its grip on government. United Russia’s most popular rival, the Communist Party, typically fails to exceed even 15 percent of the vote, while a handful of smaller parties check in with paltry ratings.

With United Russia’s first-place finish all but assured, the party’s success will be measured by secondary determinants. In the previous State Duma election in 2007, United Russia came away with just under 65 percent of the total votes; a victory in which its support erodes by one-third — that is, an election in which the party receives just 40 December 2011

percent of the votes — will seem like anything but. On a related note, United Russia will also be focused on reaching the 300 seats necessary in the 450-seat chamber to amend the constitution.

Perceptions of fairness will also help determine whether the election is a success. If United Russia reaches 300 seats only through blatant fraud, the legitimacy of the party could be tarnished. Such a concern is not merely academic, as various electoral monitors denounced the 2007 contests as unfair.

The State Duma election comes less than three months after Putin announced that he will again stand for the presidency, a post he held twice from 2000 through 2008 (and was barred from holding a third consecutive time). Medvedev, whose relationship with Putin is subject to an enormous amount of speculation, will now step aside, paving the way for his old political patron to return (though most say he never really left, pulling the strings of Medvedev’s puppet presidency), while Medvedev would become prime minister under Putin.

The job swap bolsters the view that Putin was always the most important man in Russia, despite earlier hopes that Medvedev might come into his own occupying the weightiest position in the Kremlin. “Putin’s decision sure seems to confirm that impression, and the fact that Medvedev never established a patron-client network in the halls of power suggests that no one at the top thought he was a serious alternative source of power,” said Eric Lohr, a Russia expert who teaches at American University.

While Russia analysts have long assumed that Putin’s return to the presidency was inevitable, the timing of the announcement was a bit sooner than expected. Medvedev was declared United Russia’s presidential candidate only after the 2007 legislative election.

According to Harley Balzer, an associate professor whose work at Georgetown University focuses on Russian politics and governance, this was intentional.

The State Duma election had previously been used as a sort of informal primary to gauge interest in various

PHOTO: THE PRESIDENTIAL PRESS AND INFORMATION OFFICE / WWW.KREMLIN.RU

candidates. Balzer says the acceleration of this selection process may reflect concerns that Russia’s opaque political climate was hurting the economy.“The uncertainty was getting to people; capital flight is getting worse,” he said.

“They decided they’d better go ahead and clarify what was going to happen.”

ECONOMY: ENERGY-FUELED, INNOVATION-STARVED The economy will indeed be the foremost challenge for Putin, who transformed the chaotic post-Soviet landscape of the 1990s with oil riches that raised standards of living (and even made Moscow the wealthiest city in the world in recent years). Medvedev tried, at least superficially, to wean Russia off its energy-fueled boom by pushing economic innovations, which included trying to replicate California’s Silicon Valley — reforms Putin has hinted he would pursue as well.

That’s because not only is Russia suffering from the weak European economy next door, but the nation is also burdened by deeper, structural flaws.

The two biggest are efficiency-draining corruption and the enormous depen-

dence on hydrocarbons and raw materials as revenue-generators — especially as oil production levels taper off in the next few years.

Medvedev broke rhetorical ground by calling on the need to remove obstacles to modernization and diversify Russia’s economy beyond oil and natural gas. For example, in August he called on an audience of government officials to spur new investment in Russia. “We have been fighting on and on against administrative barriers, but new ones keep cropping up again and again,” Medvedev was quoted as saying

by Reuters. “If we don’t improve the investment climate, we will not be able to move forward.”

Unfortunately, while his willingness to criticize the economic path laid in large part by Putin, as well as his focus on rule of law and government transparency, have all been welcomed, Medvedev has no significant legislative accomplishments to accompany his rhetorical shift. “He will admit himself that he talks a good game but very little has happened,” said Lohr.

Consequently, economic reforms are

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 11

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long overdue, but few experts see them happening under a Putin administration, which could in theory run until 2024 under the new six-year terms. For one thing, all business goes through the Kremlin, where the ex-KGB official has consolidated his power. Foreign investors have long been wary of Moscow’s crony-driven business environment, where bribes are routine and connections, not merit, make the contract. And crossing Putin can have dangerous repercussions. Moguls such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky have paid a heavy price for challenging his authority.

An even larger problem could be that the dependence on hydrocarbons is largely a product of Putin’s own doing. He was instrumental in the growth of behemoth state companies like Rosneft and Gazprom, which today dominate the economy.There is also some evidence that the emergence of this monopolized system was not a matter of expediency, but rather the result of Putin’s deepest economic convictions. He used to speak regularly about hydrocarbons paving the way for Russia’s future, and, as the New York Times reported in September, his master’s thesis was on the need for stateowned companies as a vehicle for growth.

Indeed, Putin has disparaged the fall of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century.

Despite his apparent distain for Westernstyle capitalism, most analysts see Putin as a pragmatist more than an ideologue, and don’t think his philosophy will be the primary obstacle to Russia’s modernization. Putin was thought to be supportive of Medvedev’s reformist push, under the logic that without Putin’s tacit support, Medvedev never would have dared to call for a change of course. Putin himself has also given some signals that he will continue plans to diversify the economy. Of course, with the prospect of a new recession

PHOTO: THE PRESIDENTIAL PRESS AND INFORMATION OFFICE / WWW.KREMLIN.RU

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, walks with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during Russia’s National Unity Day. Next March, the political “tandem” will switch roles, with Putin almost certain to reclaim the presidency and Medvedev then becoming his prime minister, although many observers say Putin has always been the man in charge.

threatening to send oil prices tumbling, and with increased worldwide shale gas production eating into Russia’s advantages in natural gas, he has little choice.

Yet pessimism lingers that Putin, while enjoying greater prestige than Medvedev, will not be determined or even able enough to overcome the bureaucracy’s entrenched barriers to modernization.“I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see another round of reform attempts,” Lohr said.

“The problem is that he seems unwilling to push them hard or to really challenge corruption at the highest levels.”

Another significant problem facing the next administration is demographic: Russia is confronting a population decline that threatens to tip into catastrophe. In a recent essay for Foreign Affairs, demographer Nicholas Eberstadt, who labeled the issue a “devastating and highly anomalous peacetime population crisis,” laid out the problem in stark detail.

“Between 1987 and 1993, the number of births in Russia dropped precipitously, from 2.5 million to 1.4 million, and it ultimately fell to 1.2 million in 1999, before commencing a turnaround of sorts,” Eberstadt wrote. “In 2010, Russia celebrated 1.79 million births, the highest national total in 20 years. Even so, this total was 25 percent lower than a quarter century earlier and represented a pattern that, if continued, would average out to a long-term fertility level of just over 1.5 births per woman, which is 27 percent below the level required for longterm population stability.”

Such alarming statistics, which reflect a real-

ity that has not received sufficient attention from Putin and his clique, are peppered throughout Eberstadt’s piece. And aside from sliding birth rates, mortality rates in Russia are extremely high for a country of its level of development, thanks in large part to the prevalence of vices like smoking, alcoholism and drug abuse.

One solution to alleviate the declining population while generating economic growth is, of course, immigration. However, United Russia is allied with nationalist groups whose virulent xenophobia complicates any potential push for greater immigration flows.

Lohr says that Putin bears much of the responsibility for the depth of Russia’s stagnation because he has permitted “anti-immigrant nationalist groups to rant pretty freely against the immigration that Russia desperately needs for economic growth. Nothing can be done about declining birth rates. It has happened in every modern industrialized country. The only answer is more immigration.”

REASSESSING THE RESET Putin’s return to the scene also promises to complicate America’s dealings with Russia. The oft-cited “reset” policy pursued by the Obama administration helped the two nations overcome many of the tensions that prevailed during the later stages of the Bush administration and has led to some tangible achievements.The most prominent of these was the New START nuclear treaty, which halved the number of strategic missile launchers in each nation.

However, much of this improvement seems to have been based on the personal rapport between Obama and Medvedev. It would be a stretch to say that the Obama administration tried to sideline Putin — it more than likely knew full well who was running the show — but it conspicuously sought to deal with Medvedev rather than Putin, perhaps in a bid to shore up the former, despite the latter’s centrality to Russian politics and his not-insignificant formal position of prime minister.

Now, the man in the background is going to be back front and center once more.

“Unfortunately, they based [the reset policy] on a gamble that they could bolster Medvedev and play him up as an alternative to Putin,” Balzer observed.“With Putin coming back, that’s going to be a serious problem…. He certainly is not going to forget that our government would have preferred Medvedev.”

Patrick Corcoran is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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December 2011

DIPLOMACY

Middle East

State Takes Over for Military in Iraq — And Takes on Its Biggest Test

by Larry Luxner

W

ith roughly 32 million people, Iraq ranks 38th in global population. And based on its 2010 GDP of $113.7 billion, the Iraqi economy is only the 63rd most important in the world; the economies of Belarus, Ecuador and Slovakia are all bigger.

Yet Iraq already boasts the largest embassy on Earth.The U.S. mission in the middle of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone covers 104 acres, making it roughly the size of the Vatican.

And never mind the pending departure of U.S. troops by the end of the year.

As the last of the remaining 40,000 troops stream out of Iraq this month, the American diplomatic presence in Iraq is about to ramp up dramatically, with the State Department soon to employ more than 16,000 people across the country (though not all will be U.S. citizens and many will be security and support staff for the diplomats).

For the State Department, Iraq marks a historic transfer of power from the U.S. military to the U.S. Foreign Service in what is still essentially a war zone — a critical test of whether diplomacy can stand on par with defense in American foreign policy.

Yet this unprecedented transfer of power is already raising troubling questions. The idea of elevating the State Department’s relevance sounds good in theory, but is the diplomatic bureaucracy really capable of taking on responsibilities in a war-torn country from highly trained U.S. military forces that have already been on the ground for years? Will security conditions simply confine diplomats to their bases, unable to interact with the Iraqi people? And will the gigantic diplomatic presence in Iraq suck money and resources from the cash-strapped State Department, shortchanging American diplomacy in other important areas of the world, from Africa to Asia?

In addition to the sprawling city-within-a-city compound in Baghdad, Basra, Iraq’s oil-rich southern port, will be home to one of the largest U.S. consulates in the world, with a workforce of 1,200 — making it bigger than most embassies. Most of them will be security contractors and civilian officials from State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. It’ll also house personnel from the Office of Security

December 2011

PHOTO: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

“

We have a very delicate, difficult and complex situation in Iraq, but the price tag is minute compared to what’s been expended by the Defense Department. State is going to be judged and blamed for all sorts of faults and negative consequences, when in fact we won’t be in the position to influence events as we were before.

— EDWARD GNEHM

”

professor at the George Washington University

Cooperation, which supervises security training and lucrative weapons sales to Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the U.S. consulate in Erbil, a relatively quiet city in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, will be even larger.

According to the National Journal, it’ll have the largest concentration of American men and women in Iraq outside the embassy itself, with at least 1,400 staffers, including more than 100 troops.

Is all this overkill, not to mention a diplomatic debacle waiting to happen (imagine the headlines if a high-ranking U.S. official is injured or killed, or if one of their security contractors creates an international incident). Or is it the minimum price to pay for maintaining an American footprint in a nation where the military has waged an eight-year campaign, at a cost of more than 4,400 American lives, by some estimates more than 100,000

Iraqi civilian deaths, and hundreds of billions of dollars, an amount that’s nearing the trillion-dollar bracket?

The State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton often touts its ability to do more for less. State officials note that as the military drew down in Iraq this year, the overall Pentagon savings for 2011 was roughly $45 billion from 2010 levels, while the State Department’s warrelated expenses rose by less than $4 billion. Clinton has pointed out that every business owner she knows would gladly invest $4 to save $41.

But can State even afford to shoulder that amount? Foggy Bottom’s annual spending of roughly $50 billion in recent years is dwarfed by the Pentagon’s budget, with a proposed defense base budget for the 2012 fiscal year of around $530 billion (with another $100 billion-plus for the Afghan and Iraq wars).Yet State is set

John Dunham of a Provincial Reconstruction Team, left, meets with the director general for agriculture in Salah Ad Din outside of Tikrit, Iraq, in 2009. In December 2011, the State Department will formally take over responsibility from the U.S. military in Iraq.

to take a disproportionate hit in the upcoming round of government spending cuts, with the House looking to slash 18 percent from State’s 2012 funding bill.

Clinton has warned the House Foreign Affairs Committee that planned budget cuts would be “devastating” to her agency.

“Savings squeezed from the State Department and foreign aid — which together are less than a tenth of the basic Pentagon budget — would be a tiny share of the $3.8 trillion federal budget.Yet the effects would be hugely damaging to American foreign policy,” wrote veteran diplomatic correspondent Carol Giacomo in an Oct. 8 opinion piece in the New York Times.“Washington needs resources to support new democracy movements in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. This is also a critical time in Iraq and Afghanistan, where demands for diplomatic resources are growing. National security has always depended on more than military strength.

We need diplomats to anticipate problems and find non-military solutions. The drive to cut diplomatic resources and foreign aid seriously harms our ability to do just that.”

Yet by the same token, as the National

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 13

Continued from previous page Journal’s Yochi J. Dreazen writes, “the ongoing expansion of the diplomatic facilities [in Iraq] — including two smaller outposts in Mosul and Kirkuk — is deeply controversial in Washington, where many lawmakers have questioned whether it makes sense for the U.S. to devote such an enormous percentage of the State Department’s total budget to one country.”

Steve Kashkett — former head of the American Foreign Service Association — complained at Clinton’s first town hall meeting as secretary of state that Iraq will drain State’s already dwindling coffers, taking people away “from all of our other diplomatic missions around the world, which have been left understaffed and with staffing gaps.”

In fiscal 2012, the State Department has requested $8.7 billion for its Iraq,Afghanistan and Pakistan operations, including $5.2 billion for Iraq, which would indeed eat up a disproportionate share of its global operations budget. Just consider that the entire U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) saw its fiscal 2012 request dropped from $1.5 billion to $900 million by the House panel.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has also said the State Department could spend $25 billion to $30 billion in Iraq over the next five years.

But James Jeffrey,Washington’s current envoy in Baghdad, has insisted that the United States cannot abandon Iraq during this long-awaited transition. In February, the ambassador testified on Capitol Hill that “to not finish the job now creates substantial risks of what some people call a Charlie Wilson’s war moment in Iraq, with both the resurgence of al-Qaeda and the empowering of other problematic regional players.”

Edward “Skip” Gnehm, a retired Foreign Service officer who served as U.S. ambassador to Kuwait and Jordan, agrees that “the investment we’ve made in Iraq since 2003 really necessitates a substantial American presence. Iraq will continue to face a lot of pressures, and many of the factions within Iraq will look to the United States” for guidance.

At the same time, Gnehm says he doesn’t envy Jeffrey and what he’s up against in Iraq.“Jeffrey is a very competent professional. If anyone can do it, he can,” Gnehm told The Washington Diplomat. But managing such a monstrosity will be a “horrific job” because the embassy is so large, everything will have to be delegated to managers and section heads.

In addition, he predicted, working there will be quite unpleasant, given that diplomats generally look forward to traveling around a country, meeting local people and exchanging ideas — not being trapped within the walls of a fortified compound, consigned to writing internal reports and feeling frustrated and afraid to venture outside.

“What I’m alarmed about is that the State Department is being severely cut, as are other government agencies,” added Gnehm, who now teaches a course on diplomacy at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

“We have a very delicate, difficult and complex situation in Iraq, but the price tag is minute compared to what’s been expended by the Defense Department. State is going to be judged and blamed for all sorts of faults and negative consequences, when in fact we won’t be in the position to influence events as we were before.”

As a result, said Gnehm, the U.S. mission in Iraq will no longer have the resources to engage in soft power diplomacy, student exchange programs, commercial opportunities and other things he says “would keep the economic and social situation in Iraq moving forward in a positive direction.”

Ned Parker, the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, agrees.

“There are definitely Iraqis who are open to American culture, who want what America has to offer in terms of developing Iraq’s economy and its education system,” he said.“They hunger for these things. But others resent the U.S. presence. I don’t think Iraq has really worked out what it wants from the Americans.”

To that end, Parker pointed out that while Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for the most part seeks close ties with the United States, Muqtada al-Sadr — the Shiite Islamic cleric who

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exerts a great deal of political influence in Iraq despite his lack of any official government position —has issued statements labeling the hulking U.S. Embassy and its consulates an occupying force.

“America has to ask itself what type of relationship it wants with Iraq,” said Parker, former Baghdad bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. “Does it want to move Iraq on a path toward a democratic government accountable to its citizens, one that provides its citizens with transparency and a fair judiciary? And if Iraq does want America’s help, how do the two sides go about achieving that?

Because frankly, troop presence alone was never going to achieve that. If the United States is going to help Iraq, then it needs to find effective ways to provide soft power.”

But for America’s diplomats to provide that soft power, it’s going to require a whole lot of hard power to protect them.The security requirements in Iraq are so stringent that 160 active-duty military officers will be needed just to guard the Baghdad complex; experts say it could ultimately range as high as 500 troops. In addition, the embassy and its consulates will require armored vehicles, helicopters and other expenses not normally associated with embassies; all told, this means thousands of paramilitary security contractors. (Thousands of U.S. troops also still remain in the region. As a hedge against the sharp pullout of soldiers after the U.S. and Iraqi governments couldn’t come to an agreement on whether some U.S. forces should remain in the country after December, the Obama administration is significantly bolstering the military presence in neighboring Kuwait.)

Staffers under the authority of the U.S. ambassador to Iraq will double from 8,000 to 16,000, with one State Department official recently telling the Huffington Post’s senior Washington correspondent Dan Froomkin that about 10 percent of the total would be in the form of core programmatic staff, 10 percent management and aviation, 30 percent life support contractors and 50 percent security.

All of those figures add up to a private army, leaving diplomats either insulated within their compounds, or surrounded by a security entourage whenever they go out, impeding their contact with normal Iraqis on the street. Many observers also worry the enormous embassy itself will give average Iraqis, who still face constant struggles, from unemployment to ongoing violence, the impression that America’s intervention is just entering a new phase of occupation.

Looking at the imposing embassy, which cost $750 million to build and is the size of 94 football fields, Iraqis may see more hubris than humility.

Within the blast-resistant walls surrounding the complex that most Iraqis will never see is the embassy itself, 20 other buildings, a swimming pool, a gym, commercial facilities, a power station, a water-treatment plant and a 17,000-square-foot commissary.The world’s largest diplomatic mission even has outdoor water-misters to keep people cool in the blazing Baghdad heat, reported the Huffington Post’s Froomkin.

It’s so big that it makes the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan — which cost more than $500 million and has 1,200 employees — small by comparison. Other unusually large U.S. embassies are located in Beijing, Berlin and, curiously, Port-auPrince, Haiti.

There is a precedent for this building boom: During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Embassy in Saigon was one of the largest American diplomatic missions anywhere — though the new behemoth in Baghdad clearly sets a world record.

Indeed, Peter Van Buren, a career Foreign Service employee who’s just released the book “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People,” says the message America is sending is: “We’re still here and we’re still running the show.”

Indeed, Gnehm said Washington has its priorities all wrong, funding big buildings at the expense of the small-scale programs that can have a tangible impact on the ground.

“In the grandiose plans that were on the table a year or two ago, there were some well thought-out soft power programs that were going to sustain

See IRAQ, page 46 December 2011

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Sameh Shoukry

Sameh Shoukry Hails ‘New Egypt,’ But Will Old Habits Die Hard?

by Larry Luxner

T

he last time Sameh Shoukry graced the cover of this newspaper in February 2009, Israeli troops and Hamas militants were locked in fierce fighting throughout the Gaza Strip, with angry protesters across the Arab world urging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to open up the Rafah border crossing so that Palestinians could flee the bloodshed.

Nearly three years later, the once-feared Mubarak is barely a footnote in history — as images of the ailing ex-dictator being rolled into a Cairo courtroom on a gurney are now seared into the Egyptian consciousness. Today, the real focus is on the country’s military rulers, who earned the admiration of 83 million Egyptians for refusing to shoot anti-Mubarak demonstrators earlier this year but have now drawn their fury for resisting efforts to bring genuine democracy to the Arab world’s most populous nation.

“This whole year has been an experience,” said Egypt’s ambassador to the United States, in typically understated fashion. “I’ve been totally consumed hour by hour, trying to keep up with all the developments. In the past, I used to watch Egyptian news once a day. Now I’m watching TV news five, six times a day.There’s not a newscast I miss.”

Shoukry, 58, spoke to The Washington Diplomat as demonstrators rallied in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square to protest efforts by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to retain full government control even after the cumbersome process of electing a new parliament was set to begin Nov. 28. Since then, Egypt has been engulfed in its worst violence since the initial uprising earlier this year, with crowds of protesters and police clashing in fierce street battles, resulting in dozens of deaths, and the country’s military facing the gravest challenge yet to its authority.

As of press time, the military leadership had pledged it would speed up the political transition and hand over power to a civilian government no later than July 1, 2012, at least a year earlier than expected, in a bid to mollify demonstrations that had swelled to include more than 100,000 people. The deal — which calls for a new constitution and a presidential election by next June, as well as a new civilian cabinet to be led by a technocrat prime minister — was brokered by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, further casting doubt whether the concessions would be embraced by the throngs of skeptical, secular protesters.

The ambassador, while stressing that the situation remains fluid, says he hopes the moves will stem the volatility.

“We hope that the latest statement by

December 2011

Field Marshal [Mohamed Hussein] Tantawi indicating acceptance of the resignation of the cabinet and reiterating the rights of Egyptians to demonstrate peacefully will defuse the situation,” Shoukry said a few minutes after watching Tantawi’s Nov. 22 speech live on Egyptian TV. “We hope that the commitment to hold free and fair elections on time — as well as bringing up the date of the presidential elections so that the military can hand over authority to a civilian government — will have an impact on the protesters.”

Egypt’s military council also discussed the possibility of appointing presidential hopeful and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei to head a new government after the cabinet’s resignation, though Shoukry said the situation remains unclear.

“It was rumored that he might be asked PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER

“

It’s a time of transition but also a time of nationbuilding. By virtue of our size, the experience Egypt is undertaking, and the degree of success it will be able to achieve, and its ability to transform and establish a new system of governance, will have positive repercussions not only on Egypt but also its neighbors.

”

— SAMEH SHOUKRY, ambassador of Egypt to the United States to form a transitional government, but that now seems not to be the case,” Shoukry said. “He continues to be a prominent figure, and he has various associations and consultations with various segments of Egyptian political life.”

Shoukry added that “most of what we’ve picked up is that this is a demonstration related purely to conditions in Egypt, election issues, activities of the police force in disrupting the demonstration, and the role of the military council and when it would return power to a civilian government.The field marshal extended his condolences and said there is no room for any form of violence in opposition to peaceful protests.”

Yet Tantawi, who leads the Egyptian Armed Forces, also lashed out at protesters for “insulting” the military, insisting it never “killed a single Egyptian, man or woman,” and that it would “go back to our barracks

if the people ask us to do so.”

In response, people in Tahrir Square did just that, chanting “get out.”

The turmoil has thrown the parliamentary election — a seminal event in Egypt’s autocratic history — into disarray. Even if the vote does go forward, for months it has been provoking as much consternation as it has been optimism. For one thing, under the current staggered schedule, parliament still wouldn’t hold its first session until March 2012, more than a year after protests toppled Mubarak in 18 days, with the tentative promise of a presidential election in June. In the meantime, the civilian government would still fall under military control.

The latest backroom bargaining and pending election have also raised widespread fears that the Muslim Brotherhood will dominate the ballot box as the bestorganized political party in the country,

sidelining the secular liberals who sparked the revolution. Above all, Egyptians worry that after 60 years, the military won’t truly relinquish power, frustrating the aspirations of the revolution altogether. And as the linchpin of the Arab Spring, all eyes are on Egypt to see if democracy can truly find a home in the Arab world — or if perpetual instability becomes the new norm.

Marina Ottaway, a scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Diplomat that a string of bad miscalculations by the 18-member council fueled the most recent bout of upheaval, starting from its initial insistence on appointing Egypt’s prime minister and cabinet, with parliament remaining in a subordinate role similar to Mubarak’s former parliament. “[T]he military has really put its cards on the table, in terms of their intention to maintain control over the country’s political life and the process of writing the constitution. They’ve made clear that they will not submit to civilian oversight,” said Ottaway.

She adds that Field Marshal Tantawi and his underlings “want to recreate the Mubarak regime without him” — and that Washington must not stand by idly. “Up to this point, the United States has not been protesting against what is a clear demonstration by the military that they want to remain in control,” she said. “I think that if

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 15

Continued from previous page we’re interested in democracy in Egypt, we should be extremely concerned about what is going on.”

Michele Dunne, director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, agrees. She told National Public Radio’s Melissa Block that the current scenario is exactly what many had feared back in February.

“The Egyptian demonstrators decided back in February not to carry out a full revolution but really to provoke a military coup, and then to entrust the military with leading things toward free elections. What they’ve seen over the ensuing nine months is that while the military is willing to hold parliamentary election … they want to postpone holding a presidential election until they get certain guarantees in the constitution of a continued political role for the military,” she argued. “In addition to that, the military council has badly mismanaged many aspects of the transition, whether it is security, economic, sectarian violence.

Really, they’re getting bad reviews all around on how they’ve handled things.”

Ambassador Shoukry conceded that the debate over Egypt’s proposed constitutional principles — which he likened to the U.S. Bill of Rights — is “contentious.” Yet he added that parliamentary elections are absolutely critical,“because the forthcoming legislature will be responsible for selecting the constitutional committee, which will rewrite the constitution. It’s a step on the road to normalcy and regaining the legitimate part of government that had been bestowed on the military council.”

In the meantime, he argues that Egypt’s generals “have been doing their utmost to administer the country and rectify some of the mistakes of the past, like increasing salaries and creating social justice. And this has been a challenge, especially during a time when the perception of instability and lack of total control in the security sector has adversely affected the economy through the decline of tourism.”

Indeed, the resurgence of violence has been a further blow to Egypt’s all-important tourism sec-

tor, which had already been reeling from nearly a year of instability. Yet despite fears that Egypt is plunging yet again into chaos, some experts counsel patience and perspective, saying the road to democracy is a long one for any nation, let alone a sclerotic dictatorship like Mubarak’s 30-year regime.

“Everyone seems to be struggling with the complexities of the present moment. Egyptian liberals are despondent over what they fear will be a Muslim Brotherhood rout in the November elections,” wrote Steven A. Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations in the article “Egypt’s Identity Crisis”for Foreign Policy.“And the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces seems to be staggering under the pressure of a political role for which they were never trained.”

“So, is the revolution over?” he asks.“Beyond the ‘hopes dashed’ narrative, however, Egypt’s seemingly tortured present actually reveals something relatively healthy — the normalization of politics.

Egyptians have long conducted an intense national debate about what Egypt is, what it stands for, and its place in the world. However, this conversation was always conducted within the circumscribed contours of an authoritarian political system….

Now, for all the problems and complexities of the new political order, Egyptians are getting an opportunity to debate the central questions of their national life in a free and unfettered manner.”

Shoukry, a career diplomat who’s been back to Egypt twice this year, also strikes a cautiously hopeful tone.“Egypt is transitioning to a full democratic government, with freedom for all ideologies to actively and openly compete in the political arena with no restrictions, conditions or controls,” he told us.“There’s been a proliferation of independent newspapers and satellite TV stations. The atmosphere is one of vibrant dialogue and debate.

Everything has been undertaken within a healthy, peaceful environment.”

Healthy would certainly not be a word used to describe Mubarak, who was ousted last February after massive street protests inspired by the overthrow of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in

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neighboring Tunisia. Since then, Mubarak has been confined, under heavy guard, to a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he’s reportedly suffering from cancer, heart ailments and a variety of other illnesses — though none of them have been confirmed. Like Ben Ali, he’s suspected along with his family of stashing in foreign bank accounts untold billions of dollars in embezzled state funds.

The trial of Mubarak, who’s charged with complicity in the killing of some 800 anti-government protesters, began in August but has been postponed until Dec. 28. If convicted, Egypt’s former president — whose co-defendants include his two sons, security chief and six top police officers — could face the death penalty.

“This trial is important because of the desire to bring closure to the very tragic incidents related to the revolution,” said Shoukry, declining to speculate on Mubarak’s fate.“People are watching it very closely for its symbolism.The message is: No one is above the law; everyone will be accountable sooner or later.”

It’s easy to forget though that for three decades Mubarak was indeed above the law,and Washington didn’t quibble much when it came to its go-to man in the region.The White House though broke with its longtime ally, but since then it has remained relatively silent on Cairo’s progress, or lack thereof.

Whether that’s the result of not wanting to meddle in the formation of Egypt’s future government or sheer uncertainty as to how to respond to fastchanging events is unknown.

Regardless, Egypt continues to rank second in the world in U.S. foreign assistance (only Israel gets more), receiving $1.5 billion every year from American taxpayers, the bulk of which goes to the military. To spur much-needed economic development, President Obama in May offered the country $1 billion in debt relief through a debt-swap mechanism that aims to invest the money to boost youth employment and support small- and medium-size businesses in Egypt.

According to Shoukry, contrary to what many Americans may think, Egypt has not distanced itself in any way from the United States since Mubarak’s ouster.

“Bilateral relations are based on mutual interests, and there are many areas where our interests coincide,” he said.“U.S. aid has reinforced our army and has contributed to peace and stability in the region, and has supported the Egyptian economy at a time when it was under enormous stress.”

But U.S. assistance has been predicated on supporting the military, which is now the one under fire. Dunne of the Atlantic Council, speaking to NPR, said,“It’s extremely important that the United States stand clearly for a real democratic transition in Egypt.The United States has had a longstanding assistance relationship with Egypt including a great deal of military assistance, $1.3 billion a year.

That makes Egyptians assume that the United States would be happier to see the military in control. That’s not necessarily the U.S. government’s real position, but I think the U.S. government has been a bit ambivalent in the way it has expressed its position.”

She adds: “I think it’s time for the United States to say clearly both to the Egyptian military privately and also publicly that we would like to continue our support, but we can only do that in a situation where the military is really helping a democratic transition go forward.”

David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Eric Trager, the institute’s Ira Weiner fellow, write in a recent policy watch report that whatever happens, the current situation in Egypt is a “nightmare” for Washington.

“Contrary to popular impressions, the Obama administration did not embrace the anti-Mubarak protestors last February but rather supported the Egyptian army in facilitating a change from Mubarak’s rule to an uncertain military-led transition. Since then,Washington has vacillated on who its allies in Egypt really are,” they argue.

“Is it the military, with whom the administration shares certain strategic understandings on key national security issues? Or the Muslim Brotherhood, which many in Washington view as both the authentic voice of the people and, given

its ‘inevitable’ electoral victory, a faction America should court? Or the secular liberals, who — despite being the most ideologically congenial to America’s democratic spirit — have shown themselves to be poor political organizers often too willing to cooperate with illiberal forces (e.g., Salafists) for short-term gain? The absence of clarity on this issue has paralyzed U.S. policymaking.

“In fairness, Washington’s policy options would be limited even in the best of diplomatic circumstances,” they add, noting that “the forces at play throughout Egypt may still be in such a revolutionary fervor that even Washington’s best ideas wind up having little impact.”

Shoukry doesn’t underestimate the dangers ahead, but says that “despite the initial vacuum that occurred, and despite the challenges and economic difficulties, Egyptian society in general has held together. There’s been a degree of solidarity, and political participation is very high, as demonstrated by the referendum on constitutional amendments.”

He adds:“It’s a time of transition but also a time of nation-building. By virtue of our size, the experience Egypt is undertaking, and the degree of success it will be able to achieve, and its ability to transform and establish a new system of governance, will have positive repercussions not only on Egypt but also its neighbors.”

As for those neighbors, Shoukry agrees that the popular revolt that brought down Mubarak played a direct role in the eventual ouster and killing of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi after 42 years in power — and could yet inspire similar protesters trying to oust Bashar al-Assad, whose increasingly ruthless regime has ruled Syria for the last 11 years.

“We’re very satisfied with the developments in Libya.We were, from the outset, in close communications with the interim government in Benghazi, and we’ve just received the president of the interim government in Cairo, opening channels of cooperation and doing whatever we can to help Libya through its transition,” he said.

Ali Aujali, who resigned earlier this year as Libya’s ambassador to the United States to protest Qaddafi’s iron-fisted rule, was quickly reinstated once Washington recognized anti-Qaddafi rebels as the official government of Libya.

“Both the Egyptians and the Libyans were inspired by what happened in Tunisia,” Aujali told The Diplomat. “These revolutions were started by the young, and they feel it’s their responsibility to get rid of these regimes.”

Aujali noted that “if the Egyptian revolution had not succeeded, there would be no revolution in Libya, because Qaddafi would have been able to crush the Libyan people.” The important thing now, he said, is for “these dictatorships to be brought to justice for what they did to their people. Otherwise, they will return.”

Case in point: Syria, where the Assad regime has killed more than 3,500 people since anti-government protests began in mid-March.“In Syria, we’ve taken a position that this is an issue which cannot be resolved militarily,” said Shoukry. “We deplore the loss of life and we’ve called for the cessation of military actions and the opening of a dialogue and reform process that will respond to the demands of the Syrian people.”

But it’s Egypt’s ice-cold relations with neighboring Israel that concern most Americans, and in particular Israel’s supporters in Congress. In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state; Jordan’s King Hussein followed suit in 1994.

“Egypt honors its international commitments, among them the peace treaty with Israel. It has provided Egypt with the ability to focus its efforts on economic development, and it continues to impact the region positively,” said Shoukry. “This constant question of [the future of Egyptian-Israeli relations] has been clarified over and over again.

The long-term potential of this relationship is contingent upon the degree to which the treaty serves the interests of both parties.”

But the chilly peace was never warmly welcomed by average Egyptians, and deals under which Egypt sold natural gas to Israel were harshly criticized after Mubarak’s departure. Israel gets about 40 percent of its natural gas from Egypt,

See EGYPT, page 47 December 2011

DIPLOMACY

Washington, D.C.

Ex-Pastor Preaches New Mission: International Religious Tolerance

by Martin Austermuhle

S

itting in her office at the State Department on a bright and unseasonably warm November day, Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook explains the little detail of how her childhood home in the Bronx prepared her to serve as the current U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom.

“I was exposed to a number of faiths as a child growing up. On my apartment building’s floor there were 17 apartments; 11 of them were different ethnicities and religions. We grew up as friends, so really having an advantage in terms of understanding that we have to live together and respect one another’s differences, but always looking for common ground,” she said with a smile.

Navigating the politics and personalities of the Bronx might be child’s play though compared to what Johnson Cook, a prominent Christian pastor, faces as America’s chief proponent of religious freedom abroad, a job fraught with sensitivity that requires a deft diplomatic touch to effectively manage.

Johnson Cook leads the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, which was created by Congress in 1998 in response to growing concerns of religious persecution throughout the world. The office publishes an annual report on global religious freedom, provides grants to nonprofits for religious freedom programming, and engages diplomats and civil society in discussions on how best to promote religious freedom.

Johnson Cook was sworn in May 16, only a day after she left her 21-year-long posting as chaplain in the New York Police Department. She also retired as senior pastor and CEO of the Bronx Christian Fellowship Baptist Church in New York City shortly before she was selected by President Barack Obama in April 2010 to lead the Office of International Religious Freedom. A holdup in the Senate though delayed her confirmation for a year. Some critics charged that she lacked the diplomatic experience to head up the office; others say the Obama administration itself wasn’t in a rush to fill the post, which had been vacant for two years — a reflection of the ongoing ambivalence within the U.S. government over how high a

December 2011

PHOTO: GEDIYON KIFLE / U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

“

[S]ince so much of the world is in transition, that presents challenges but it also presents opportunities for discussion, for urging governments as they become democratic to put into place laws that won’t discriminate.

— SUZAN JOHNSON COOK

”

U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom

priority religious freedom, including the persecution of minorities, should be on the foreign policy and human rights agenda.

Regardless, since taking office, Johnson Cook says she’s had a full plate in front of her, though she isn’t daunted by the task of promoting religious freedom globally in the closing year of Obama’s first term — with limited State Department resources, in world of heightened religious tensions since the attacks of Sept.

11, 2001.

“You start when you start — you’re ready to do it. We’re committed to this issue,” she said, brushing off any concerns that her late arrival to the State Department would hinder the administration’s commitment to promoting and protecting religious freedom around the world.

Since arriving, she has traveled to four countries, including Turkey, where she joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in advocating for the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1618, which seeks to combat religious intolerance. To that end,

Johnson Cook will be hosting a meeting of international experts in Washington in December — 20 countries have so far committed to attend.

She has also launched a strategic dialogue with civil society on the intersection between religion and foreign policy, engaged her diplomatic counterparts in Washington (she attended five Iftar dinners during the month of Ramadan), and worked with her 13-person team to raise the office’s profile.

But to her, much of the job is about listening to what government officials, religious leaders and representatives of civil society have to say — and listening is something she does well.

“Most of the time, I don’t do much of the talking because people have been ready to share. So just as we’ve been willing to have a conversation, there has been an ongoing conversation. What happens is that we’re now looking for bridges of common ground.They have been excited that there’s someone who is ready to not judge, but someone who is ready to receive and listen,” she said.

Suzan Johnson Cook, U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, center, spoke at the dedication of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington.

Her professional experience lends itself well to the task. Not only did she attend to religious needs and concerns for the New York Police Department’s 50,000 members, the only woman to hold that role, but at the same time she remained active at the Bronx Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, which she founded in 1996. She’s also the first woman and African American to hold her current posting.

“Both my past and my immediate past actually taught me how to build bridges and how to reach across waters where people may not be as familiar but where there are pragmatic openings where I can be given a chance to actually share my story. It’s in the sharing of the stories and finding common ground that doors have been opened.Those are the tools that you need in diplomatic relations,” she said.

Her substantial religious background and the symbolism of her appointment have enabled her to be more effective at her job, she added.

“They know, no matter what the faith is, that there is a collegiality, that there is an understanding of how religions work and there’s a respect. It has been embracing, I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of time and spirit that I have received. I have not had a bad meeting.”

But resistance to religious freedom around the world remains deep-seated.

See COOK, page 20 The Washington Diplomat Page 17

GLOBAL VANTAGE POINT OP-ED

United States

Panetta’s Blind Eye to Bloated Pentagon Reveals Disappointing Fiscal About-Face

by Jordan Michael Smith

I

n Washington, cabinet secretaries who ask for less funding from Congress are as rare as waiters who ask for smaller tips. Robert Gates, defense secretary to President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, did not always match his actions to his words.

But Gates was at least willing to mouth the obvious, which is that the Pentagon is bloated and overfunded, especially in comparison with the resource-starved State Department.

“As part of America getting its financial house in order, the size of our defense budget must be addressed,” Gates said, a theme he continually hit. Gates worked closely with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to boost America’s lagging commitment to diplomacy and called for the State Department to take over some of the jobs that have fallen to the military in recent years, such as nation-building. It was an impressive performance, at least rhetorically, coming from the Cold Warrior Gates.

All of which makes the tenure thus far of Gates’ successor as defense secretary, Leon Panetta, so disappointing.

One reason some were excited about Panetta’s appointment to the top Pentagon job was that he had often been willing to take on typical Washington ways. In “So Damn Much Money:The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government,” written by veteran Washington Post reporter Robert G. Kaiser, Panetta emerges as one of the few Beltway insiders frank about the corruption inherent in contemporary American politics.“Legalized bribery” is the apt phrase Panetta uses in the book to describe the tremendous influence of money in politics.

“Legalized bribery has become part of the culture of how this place operates,” Panetta is quoted as saying. As former House Budget Committee chairman and budget director and chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, he showed himself willing to acknowledge the costs-andbenefits analyses that any serious government official must consider. Kaiser praises Panetta as doing “something that is now rare for Washington players who relinquish their official office: he went home. He turned down several bigmoney offers to become a Washington lobbyist…. He quit the game.”

In a recent article, the Post further highlighted Panetta’s about-face. “I think the most dangerous threat to our national security right now is debt, very heavy debt,” Panetta lectured then-Defense Secretary Richard Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a hearing in 1992.“I don’t question anything you’re saying in terms of the role that this country ought to perform. My problem is how the hell are we going to pay for it?”

What the hell happened to that guy? The blunt, occasionally foul-mouthed Panetta is clearly back in the Washington game, and playing it with gusto. President Obama has declared that national security spending will be reduced by $450 billion in the next 10 years. But because the congressional “super-committee” couldn’t agree to a deficit reduction of $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Defense Department faces an additional $500 billion or more in sequestration cuts.

Panetta has described that scenario as a “crazy dooms-

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CREDIT: DOD PHOTO BY U.S. AIR FORCE TECH SGT. JACOB N. BAILEY

day machine” and has raised the rhetorical alarm, lambasting the super-committee cuts as a form of “shooting ourselves in the head” that would “lead to a hollow force” and even invite aggression. Panetta also suggested that a very modest trimming of the defense budget would cause unemployment to rise a full 1 percent, a dubious notion even before one realizes that whatever money is cut from defense could be spent on more useful programs supporting employment.

Of course, the adroit Washington insider, respected on both sides of the aisle, is also simply doing his job — protecting the Pentagon’s turf. More recently, he’s backtracked on some of his more dire warnings, acknowledging that cuts are inevitable and could fall on long-cherished initiatives, possibly reducing the number of American troops based in Europe, closing down U.S. bases, and even revamping the military’s generous heath care for retirees.

But Panetta’s insistence that further cuts would “hollow out” the military with “a goofy meat-ax approach” glosses over just how inflated the Pentagon’s coffers have become.

The numbers speak for themselves, and they aren’t on Panetta’s side. Estimates for the true costs of the post-9/11 “war on terrorism,” including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, vary from $1 trillion all the way up to $6 trillion — a fortune that’s directly contributed to America’s explosive deficits. Moreover, defense spending has doubled since 2001, averaging between $500 billion and $700 billion annually in recent years, higher in real terms than at any point during the Cold War — despite the fact that statistically speaking, this period has been one of the most peaceful in world history. Just returning to Reagan-era military spending levels, when the world faced the prospect of nuclear Armageddon, would shave $250 billion a year in savings.

Let’s consider how incredible the current U.S. defense spending levels really are compared to other nations.Today, America’s military spending accounts for just under half of

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta delivers remarks at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s 50th anniversary celebration at the Joint Anacostia-Bolling Base in D.C. in September.

Over the last few months, Panetta has been warning lawmakers that cutting the defense budget too deeply could jeopardize national security.

what the entire world spends on defense. The United States spends on defense about six times as much in absolute dollars than does China, its closest competitor. In fact, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan combined do not equal America’s defense spending. And few in the Pentagon seem to consider the provocative nature of America’s unrestrained defense budgets in spurring rival nations to beef up their own spending.

The Pentagon currently has 1.5 million active-duty military personnel, the same number of reservists and National Guardsmen, as well as about 800,000 civilian employees. It maintains more than 800 locations overseas, from sprawling army bases to naval support facilities on remote islands, whose tentacles are spread out over nearly 50 nations and U.S. territories — a modern-day military empire.

This financial burden, not surprisingly, means American taxpayers spend the most on defense as a percentage of GDP than any other developed nation in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Meanwhile, we spend the least when it comes to foreign assistance. In fact, the United States allocates about 1 percent of government spending toward the State Department and foreign aid budget — yes, our entire non-military outreach to the world clocks in at a meager 1 percent of total spending.

Yet what’s striking is that State is poised to take a much bigger budgetary hit than the Pentagon — and is scram-

See PANETTA, page 44 December 2011

MEDICAL

Pregnancy

Baby Blues: Is It Safe to Take Antidepressants While Pregnant?

by Gina Shaw

e adopted our oldest daughter, who’s now a brilliant and charming 5-year-old, in a domestic adoption at birth.

W

And one of the things we knew, or thought we knew, from the start was that she would have to be in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) — or at least something a little less intense called the “step-down unit” — for a short while right after she was born.

She wasn’t a preemie, nor had she been diagnosed in utero with a heart condition or any other kind of medical problem. But her birth mom was taking a couple of prescribed medications designed to help her manage depression and anxiety. Doggedly, she had tapered herself down to the lowest dose she could take, but the medications were pretty essential to her well being and it wasn’t wise for her to go off them entirely. Her doctor had assured her that the drugs were safe as far as the baby’s development went, but perinatologists expected that our daughter would be born with at least some dependence on them, and need to “withdraw” in the NICU. That didn’t happen.With Apgar scores of 9 and 9, a solid weight of just over seven pounds, and a healthy eagerness to eat and cuddle, our daughter showed no signs of having ever been exposed to anything stronger than a prenatal vitamin. Not another word of the NICU was mentioned.

Like our daughter’s birth mom, around 13 percent of women take antidepressant medications during pregnancy, according to statistics from the American Psychiatric Association and American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. But despite some risks, the fact is that just like our daughter, most babies exposed to antidepressant medication in utero show no sign of being negatively affected by it.

It’s not that antidepressant use during pregnancy has no risks to the baby whatsoever. For example, some studies have found that two antidepressants (Prozac and Paxil) are associated with a small (about 1 percent) increased risk of heart defects in the baby when taken during pregnancy.

Other studies suggest that taking Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft during the third trimester of pregnancy can increase the risk for a condition called persistent pulmonary hypertension, in which not enough oxygen reaches the baby’s bloodstream and breathing difficulties ensue. Other studies, though, show no such link.

Finally, taking medications close to the time of delivery can increase the risk of withdrawal symptoms, like jitteriness and irritability (the kind of thing we were warned to expect with our daughter). A recent study also suggested there may be an association between antidepressant use in pregnancy and autism.

But many of these studies establish association, not causation. That is, are women who take antidepressants during pregnancy slightly more likely to have babies who eventually develop autism because the medications cause autism, or is there some other factor involved that links prenatal depression and autism?

And what are the risks of not taking antidepressant medication that a woman genuinely needs? Doctors say there are many: She might end up self-medicating with drugs, alcohol or cigarettes, which could pose a much more serious threat to the baby. She might even be at December 2011

PHOTO: YTWONG / ISTOCK

All too often, when a woman is pregnant, we think that everything about her health and well being should be secondary to that of the baby she is carrying. But the fact is that you can’t separate the two. higher risk for suicide — particularly for women who have been seriously depressed and possibly suicidal in the past, going off antidepressant medication can increase the risk of relapse. And untreated depression during pregnancy is also associated with low birth weight, preeclampsia and prematurity.

When our daughter was born, there actually were no guidelines to help her doctors walk her birth mom through the choices she was making about taking her antidepressant medication. That changed in August 2009, when the American Psychiatric Association and American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued joint treatment recommendations for depression during pregnancy.

Among other things, they said: Women on medications whose symptoms have been mild or almost nonexistent for six months or more may want to consider tapering and discontinuing their meds before getting pregnant; women with a history of severe, recurrent depression or other psychiatric illnesses probably should not discontinue their medications to get pregnant; women who want to stay on medication may be able to do so after talking about the risks and benefits with their psychiatrist and ob-gyn; and women with severe depression should stay on medication if they become pregnant, and if they insist

on stopping, their doctors should find alternative treatment options before they stop taking meds.

There are no simple answers when it comes to treating depression during pregnancy, but if experts can’t find a precise formula for what the risks of antidepressant medication are, or how they should be weighed, they all seem to agree on one thing: Depression during pregnancy should not be left untreated. Unfortunately, all too often it is. Studies have found that pregnant women who have been taking medication for depression will often deny that they are depressed once they become pregnant, and stop taking their medication without consulting their doctors or seeking additional support.

I was deeply anxious about how the antidepressants our daughter’s birth mom took might affect her once she was born. But I also knew that the risks they both faced if this smart, thoughtful, but struggling young woman went off her medication were even higher. Looking back now, I’m impressed with the wisdom and caution of the decision she made, and with the careful guidance her doctors offered her. (Of course, my perspective is no doubt biased by the fact that our daughter wound up with no health problems whatsoever.)

All too often, when a woman is pregnant, we think that everything about her health and well being should be secondary to that of the baby she is carrying. But the fact is that you can’t separate the two. A woman throwing aside needed medications in a yeomanlike effort to “tough it out” for her baby isn’t necessarily doing herself or her baby any favors.The best thing you can do to take care of your baby is to take care of yourself — and sometimes, that might mean deciding that the potential risk of antidepressant medications is less than the potential risk of going without them.

Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 19

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While Obama has spoken candidly of religion — in 2009, his Cairo speech touched upon religious tensions between the West and the Muslim world — persistent clashes between Shiites and Sunnis and others from Afghanistan to Iraq to Pakistan expose perhaps not a war within Islam, but certainly longstanding grievances among its various sects as well as a tug of war for influence.

Religious strife associated with U.S. allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia also exposes the strain that exists between America’s promotion of human rights and its broader strategic interests. (The State Department’s 2010 religious freedom report did list Saudi Arabia as a “country of particular concern,� but did not call out Pakistan or Egypt in the same way.)

Yet Johnson Cook’s office also highlights lesserknown acts of persecution and discriminatory laws and practices throughout the world, whether it’s Jehovah’s Witnesses and Scientologists facing bans on their religious literature in Russia, or the lack of legal recognition for Buddhist and Protestant faiths in parts of Vietnam, for example, all of which are highlighted in the extensive International Religious Freedom Report. “In Iran, authorities continue to repress Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, Jews, Bahais, Sunnis, Ahmadis, and others who do not share the government’s religious views,� said Secretary of State Clinton at the 2010 report’s release in September. “In China, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, ‘house church’ Christians all suffer from government attempts to restrict their religious practice. In Eritrea last year, a 43-year-old evangelical Christian died in prison; he was reportedly tortured for 18 months and denied treatment for malaria because he refused to renounce his faith.�

Still, Johnson Cook sees opportunity in a complex world. “We’re very concerned about religious minorities around the world, as both the president and

INTERNATIONAL

the secretary have articulated, but we also believe that since so much of the world is in transition, that presents challenges but it also presents opportunities for discussion, for urging governments as they become democratic to put into place laws that won’t discriminate and take care of those that have been violators. Make sure that not only is justice served, but that people can live freely with their expression with what they want to believe,� she said.

Johnson Cook cited both Liberia and Morocco as examples where different religious groups were able to overcome differences. In Liberia, she pointed out, women from various faiths were vital to brining peace to the war-torn West African nation. Morocco, she says, has taken “a number of progressive moves in terms of elevating women both politically as well as in their religious groups.� “I am very intrigued by places that it has worked, that it is done well. We want to look at promising practices where people have resolved conflicts along religious lines and come together.�

The challenges Johnson Cook faces in the next 12 months aren’t only limited to the outside world, though. On the plus side, one of the original drafters of the law that created her office, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), is seeking to make international religious freedom a greater priority at the State Department by pushing for Johnson Cook’s office to be brought out from under the umbrella of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and instead allow her to answer directly to Clinton.

On the flip side, there is continuing friction with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which was created by the same 1998 law.According to some critics, it has exceeded its stated goals, complicated (or simply duplicated) the sensitive diplomatic work of the ambassador at large’s office, and become a selfserving bureaucracy that’s outlasted its usefulness.

Ironically, USCIRF has a larger budget and staff than the office led by Johnson Cook. Though its lifespan was supposed to be five years, in 2003

USCIRF received a reprieve and was supposed to wind down its work in September 2011. At the time of this writing, Congress is again debating whether to give it another two years to work. “[T]he Commissioners are now more interested in maintaining their institution and their positions on the Commission (along with the concomitant prestige and diplomatic passports it provides them) than truly advancing the cause,� argues Joseph Grieboski, founder of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, in an article for the Huffington Post. “Furthermore, the vast majority of the Commissioners represent the most populous religious faiths in the world.Throughout the history of the Commission there has been only one Hindu Commissioner (no longer) and only one Baha’i Commissioner. The vast majority have been Christians,� he adds.“This is oxymoronic, given that it is primarily religious minorities who are persecuted for their faith around the world.Yet the religious denominations to which the Christian Commissioners belong have developed such strong ties to the Commission’s congressional patrons over the years that they can get ‘their man’ appointed repeatedly.As a result, there is little turnover on, and few new ideas coming from, the Commission.�

If she has any problems with the nine-person commission, though, Johnson Cook is diplomatically not saying so.“There are differences of opinions, but in terms of working together, we have worked collaboratively since my appointment,� she said.

For now, Johnson Cook says she remains focused on the job at hand and hopes to travel more extensively in the coming year, including to the very countries that the 2010 religious freedom report cites as having room for improvement. “There are lots of issues everywhere. It’s a complicated world,� she said.“We’re sitting with everyone that says it’s important to them.�

Martin Austermuhle is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., and associate editor of DCist.com.

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The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

LIVING L U X U R Y

■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ December 2011

The

Perfect Present

by Stephanie Kanowitz

Gift-Giving Made Easy With The Diplomat’s 2011 Guide he countdown to Christmas morning and first night of Hanukkah is officially on.

IIf you’re still on the hunt for the ideal gift for your friends and family, we’ve got some ideas, from sweet cupcakes to a decadent $43,400 bracelet. ide This yyear’s gift guide is a little different from those of years past, though. Reflecting the eclectic shopping options in a city as diverse as Washington, more than half of the goods come from local, non-chain retailers, and not all big-ticket items are wildly out of reach, a nod to the continuing worldwide economic slump. So happy holidays — and even happier shopping.

■ INSIDE: Holidays are a time of joy, comfort — and anxiety. But local spas have just the cure to relieve seasonal stresses. PAGE 27 ■

LUXURY LIVING December 2011

The Washington Diplomat Page 21

e d i u G t f i G y a d i l Ho Gifts That Give Back LOW: Founded this year by Washington native Read Wall, Read’s Clothing Project donates a book to a child in need through a partnership with Books for Africa for every purchase of the men’s shirts, ties and accessories in Read’s design collection, which feature a vintage, preppy-inspired look. The holiday collection of ties and bowties ($65) includes festively colored plaids made of tweed and wool tartan. readsclothingproject.com MIDDLE: It’s tough to see anything negative about TOMS Eyewear. Started by Blake Mycoskie as an offshoot of his wildly successful TOMS Shoes, TOMS Eyewear came out this year to offer stylish men’s and women’s frames at prices ranging from $135 for classics to $145 for aviators. For every pair purchased, the company provides medical treatment, prescription glasses or sight-saving surgery to someone in need in countries worldwide. toms.com/eyewear

Food & Drink LOW: Toast the upcoming holidays with homemade seasonal drinks at Bibiana Osteria and Enoteca through Dec. 25. The $12, female-named cocktails include concoctions such as the Samantha, made with VSOP cognac, homemade biscotti liquor, lemon juice and a dash of orange bitters. For the more adventurous, there’s the Vin Cotto: red wine, Saba, dry fruit and nuts along with a homemade digestive made of 27 spices, coffee and barley. bibianadc.com MIDDLE: Think the whole cupcake fad is fading? Tell that to the lines snaking out the door at Georgetown Cupcake. With a hit TV show — “DC Cupcakes” on TLC — the sister-owned bakeries in Georgetown and Bethesda Row in Maryland continue to thrive. See what the fuss is all about by ordering a single cupcake or a dozen. The company offers five holiday-centric dozen boxes ($29 or $55 with nationwide overnight shipping). For the most variety, try the Christmas Collection, which has flavors such as white chocolate peppermint, Rudolph red velvet, Christmas caramel and holiday hazelnut. georgetowncupcake.com

HIGH: The holidays are a time to think of those less fortunate, and there was no shortage of natural disasters this year, such as Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, that put plenty of people at a disadvantage. Oxfam America provides a chance to do more than make a small donation that you can’t track. For $5,000, you can provide food, shelter, clothing, blankets, fuel, mosquito nets and more to an entire village in need. Oxfam also offers an extensive catalogue of charitable gifts in a range of prices, like giving a pair of sheep to help people make local textiles for $90 or training a midwife for $150. oxfamamericaunwrapped.com

HIGH: Ring in 2012 with Bourbon Steak Executive Chef Adam Sobel’s six-course tasting menu — $175 per person or $270 including wine pairings — at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. The menu includes Osetra caviar sandwiches with toasted blini and fried quail egg, Chinese roast squab with foie gras, and grilled bison tenderloin with black truffle gnocchi and toasted hazelnut. Dessert includes pineapple treats from confit to soup to sorbet and the restaurant’s signature brownie with bourbon cordial and chocolate cremeux. www.fourseasons.com/washington/dining/bourbon_steak/

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LUXURY LIVING The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

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LOW: This winter, bring some of the outdoors in. H. Bloom offers a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly orchid subscription for $85 available in purple or white. Set the day and time for delivery that works best for the recipient and plant the seed for a gift that gives all year-round. hbloom.com MIDDLE: The Nebula Grande bowl by Tony Wurman, $220 at Room & Board, is a handmade swirl of emerald green and earth tones so beautiful it shouldn’t be kept in a cupboard or even covered by food. The bowl, which looks like blown glass but is made using hot glue, can hold its own as a table centerpiece or in a display cabinet.

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HIGH: “High-fashion” and “bathroom” aren’t terms that often go together, but Porcelanosa, a tile, kitchen and bath shop that hails from Spain and has a new 9,000-square-foot showroom in Bethesda, Md., seeks to change that perception.

The Lounge Negro (visit store for pricing) is a stunning wall-mounted sink with a quilt effect on the front and a spacious counter area topped with a large white bowl sink and streamlined faucet to create a very modern, clean, black-and-white look. porcelanosa-usa.com Another recent store opening is the home goods and jewelry store Dalton Pratt at 1742 Wisconsin Ave., NW, offering unique items such as Waylande Gregory handmade ceramics from Peru. A set includes a square plate with a bright gold-and-orange tiger on it ($250), a large giraffe plate ($585) and a tiger bowl ($765).

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MIDDLE: Actress Angelina Jolie has been seen several times on the red carpet sporting big, sparkly green bling, and she’s made a classic look trendy. The Aura earrings by Mark Patterson fit this category well. With 15.67-carat green tourmalines set in white gold with diamonds at the Tiny Jewel Box ($15,665), they become an instant heirloom while looking modern and fresh. tinyjewelbox.com HIGH: A wrist stacked high with bracelets is a popular look, but this bracelet is made to stand alone. And at $$43,400, you’ll want it to be notic noticed. Chanel’s 1932 bracelet in 18-kara 18-karat white gold with two strands of cultured pearls connected by a stunning bow of black-and-white diamonds epitomizes the combination of class and femi mn femininity that was the pearlobs ob obsessed Coco Chanel.

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LUXURY LIVING December 2011

The Washington Diplomat Page 23

e d i u G t f i G y a d i l Ho

Women’s Accessories LOW: There’s no reason why a woman can’t be techie and trendy. The cushioned nylon interior of the Stephanie Johnson iPad case ($63 at Nectar Skin Bar) will keep the precious Apple product safe and sound while looking like a million bucks with a glittering exterior. It accommodates Apple’s iPad skin for iPad and iPad 2.

Continued from previous page

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Men’s Accessories LOW: D.C.-based Taylor M. Llewellyn started Tucker Blair to marry high-end, preppy needlepoint patterns with full-grain leather and brass buckles to create men’s belts ($65 to $95) that represent your personality. Available prints include American and G8 flags, beer bottles, fish, Frosty the Snowman, and “Santa’s Taxi.” tuckerblair.com MIDDLE: Practical yet stylish, UGG Australia genuine shearling gloves ($160) keep fingers warm on frigid days. Available in black, bomber chocolate and chestnut, the gloves share the same famous seaming of the well-loved boots. nordstrom.com HIGH: Ideal for the world traveler in your life, the JaegerLeCoultre Master Geographic watch at $11,200 keeps track of the time in 24 time zones. It features a classic stainless steel case, white face and alligator strap. tinyjewelbox.com

MIDDLE: Animal prints are huge this fall, but a shirt or dress can be a big commitment to the pattern. For something subtler, try Pietro Alessandro’s animal print purse at South Moon Under ($124), which has several area locations. The faux fur cheetah print is trimmed in black with a gold closure and chain for wearing on your shoulder or across the body. southmoonunder.com M29 Lifestyle (2800 Pennsylvania Ave., NW), owned by the same company that owns the Georgetown Four Seasons hotel next door, bills itself as a lifestyle store, offering women’s jewelry and accessories, fun home décor, and goodies for children and pets, too. Among the finds are cashmere and silk scarves by the well-loved designer Chan Luu ($195 to $245) and thick shawls by Jess Brown ($325) that are handmade in Bolivia using baby alpaca.

HIGH: Through the Ostsee coat ($528), Leifsdottir has made the standard mid-calf black coat sexy and modern with a zipper and large leather buckle closures instead of buttons, a wide collar, and a sleek silhouette. It’s available at Anthropologie, which has locations throughout the area. anthropologie.com

PHOTOS: BELTS – TUCKER BLAIR; WATCH – TINY JEWEL BOX; IPAD CASE - STEPHANIE JOHNSON; COAT - LEIFSDOTTIR / ANTHROPOLOGIE

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LUXURY LIVING The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

Holiday Gi Girls & Boys

ft G uid e

Vision

The Difference is LOW: The hottest toy on the toddler market this year is straight off the street — Sesame Street, naturally. That beloved fuzzy red sensation is back with Let’s Rock Elmo at $54.88, which comes with a microphone, a tambourine and a drum set.

Preschoolers can choose which instrument Elmo plays and let him sing, too. amazon.com MIDDLE: Throw the ultimate holiday party for the little doll in your life and her friends by booking an event at the American Girl toy store. To see just how hot American Girl dolls are right now, you need go no farther than Tysons Corner mall, where the new store outside Bloomingdale’s is buzzing with shoppers — and girls waiting for salon appointments for their dolls.

Dining options include lunch or dinner ($16.50 per person), brunch ($15.50 per person) or afternoon teas ($11 per person). Go for the food and stay for an appointment at the salon, where stylists do dolls’ hair ($10 to $20) and pierce their ears ($14). www.americangirl.com/stores/ location_wdc.php

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Choose from the Nutcracker Tea ($70 per person), whereby members of the Creative Dance Center present a shortened, modern version of the classic holiday story, or the Princess Tea ($70 per person), where Cinderella, Tiana, Jasmine, Belle, Snow White and Chef Gusteau will sing and dance to Disney hits. A third option is the gingerbread house decorating class ($65 per person for children ages 3 to 12), which includes a treat to take home and hot chocolate to sip for inspiration.

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LUXURY LIVING December 2011

The Washington Diplomat Page 25

e d i u G ft i G y a d li o H Continued from previous page

Staycations & Local Events LOW: The Gaylord National Resort’s annual “Christmas on the Potomac” extravaganza is exactly the kind of local excursion to get you primed for the holiday season. Overnight packages start at $149 a person and include tickets to the “ICE! featuring DreamWorks’ Merry Madagascar” show at the sprawling resort complex. Highlights include a 60-foot glass tree and holiday decorations in the main atrium that looks out over the Potomac River and an indoor snowfall and winter wonderland sculpted from ice, as well as interactive experiences with DreamWorks characters from such films as “Shrek,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “Madagascar,” who apparently even do special wake-up calls for guests. www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-national/christmas-on-the-potomac/

MIDDLE: If this hotel was good enough for President Abraham Lincoln to call home in the weeks before his inauguration, it’s lavish enough for you.

The Willard InterContintenal Washington is offering winter weekend getaways until Dec. 25 for $299 per night or $377 per night including breakfast for two and valet parking. On New Year’s Eve, $479 buys you a deluxe guest room, a bottle of Moët & Chandon Brut Imperial Champagne, valet parking and breakfast for two. One more perk is the Willard’s annual “Holiday Lobbying” program, now in its 10th year. Nightly through Dec. 23, the hotel offers choral concerts by local groups ranging from the Grammywinning Washington Chorus to the Arlington Children’s Chorus in its grand lobby from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. washington.intercontinental.com HIGH: The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. and its signature restaurant, Westend Bistro

by Eric Ripert, is teaming up with Ripert’s famed four-star New York restaurant, Le Bernardin, to offer guests a decadent East Coast culinary travel combo. Starting from $1,025 a night, the package features a three-course lunch at Le Bernandin, including a meet-and-greet with chef Ripert, two roundtrip tickets on Amtrak’s Acela Express train from New York to Washington, D.C., three-course dinner at The Pass at Westend Bistro, and club-level accommodations at the Ritz-Carlton in D.C. www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/WashingtonDC/ PHOTOS: ARLINGTON CHILDREN’S CHOIR – WILLARD INTERCONTINENTAL WASHINGTON; ERIC RIPERT AND LE BERNARDIN – THE RITZ-CARLTON

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Page 26

LUXURY LIVING The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

[ spas ]

Seasonal Stress To Melt Away Holiday Tension, Treat Yourself to a Spa Treatment

PHOTO: NECTAR SKIN BAR

T

Nectar Skin Bar in Georgetown, above, offers products not typically available in D.C., such as LashDip, a semi-permanent treatment for eyelashes.

Aura Spa at VIDA Fitness, left, offers a Detox Body Cocktail that uses essential oils such as rosemary, echinacea, lemon, figwort, eucalyptus, orange, watercress and geranium to calm the senses and sweat out toxins.

by Stephanie Kanowitz

he Thanksgiving leftovers may finally be finished, but the anticipation of the holiday season is just getting started.Traditionally a time of comfort and joy, all the stress associated with party hopping and pleasing family and friends can take a toll. If worrying about finding the perfect gift or the perfect outfit to bid 2011 adieu has you feeling more Grinchy than cheery, local spas and salons have just the pick-me-up you need to re-energize this holiday season.

SOLE-SOOTHING What: Absolute Pearl Pedicure ($75 for 70 minutes) Where: Nectar Skin Bar, 1633 Wisconsin Ave., NW www.nectarskinbar.com Why: Nectar owners Amy and Brian Thomas know all about putting your best face forward.

Their jobs — she’s director of protocol for Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba of the United Arab Emirates and he’s the chief of staff for Texas Republican Rep. Kenny Marchant — require them to look good under pressure. Which is how they came to have their second side career as salon and spa owners.

The longtime Washingtonians bought Ipsa for Hair (1629 Wisconsin Ave., NW; www.ipsaforhair.com) in Georgetown two and a half years ago and added Nectar this summer.

“Originally the idea came about in my travels,” Amy Thomas said.“I traveled quite a bit with President [George W.] Bush and Mrs. Bush, and as I traveled the world, I really had an opportunity to see remote places as well as highfashion centers of the world. I realized we really don’t have many opportunities in the United States to get to some of the products that are abroad.”

To that end, Nectar offers products available nowhere else in D.C., such as LashDip, a semi-permanent treatment for eyelashes that leaves them looking like they have a fresh coat of mascara for up to six weeks.

Thomas draws on what she’s learned in diplomacy and protocol to run the beauty-centric spa. “It is a similar form PHOTO: POWERS & CREWE of business because basically what we’re doing is spreading the trends, talking a lot about what’s in the industry as far as beauty is concerned, what the trends of the season are, how women can feel confident with themselves and have ease getting themselves ready in the morning.”

The two-level 20th-century rowhouse is part shop, part manicure-makeup salon on the first floor, and all spa on the second, with two treatment rooms for facials, microdermabrasion and LED light treatments, as well as three pedicure stations.

For feet dry from the wintry air and tired from pounding the Georgetown cobblestones in search of that perfect holiday gift, your best bet is the organic

LUXURY LIVING December 2011

Continued on next page

The Washington Diplomat Page 27

Continued from previous page Absolute Pearl Pedicure, which combines soothing scents such as rose, vanilla and orange, with a hot-water soak and foot massage.

Choose a polish color from the OPI and organic SpaRitual lines (dark earth and jewel tones are popular this season), and then sit back like royalty on plush purple mini sofas, listen to the pop music, and plop your pooped piggies into a silver bowl of warm water. No standard black massage chairs and plastic jets in sight at this posh spot.

Noemi Luna, who took care of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s nail needs for eight years, starts the pedicure with the requisite toenail trimming and filing.Then she applies a hydrating oil and exfoliates up to the knee, sloughing away dead cells to reveal brightened, fresh skin. Next, she massages in a mask and wraps your foot and lower leg in plastic to promote hydration.The mask sits for 10 minutes before she removes it with hot towels.The best part? Even after the relaxation ends, you have perfectly polished, party-ready nails for several weeks to last you until the New Year.

BLOW WORRIES AWAY What: Therapeutic shampoo and blow-dry ($50) Where: One80salon, 1275 K St., NW one80salon.com Why: Holiday stress got you pulling your hair out?

Take a deep breath and head to One80, a bustling salon just off K Street. It hums with hairdryers and gossip, making it the ideal place to tune into someone else’s problems or unload yours onto the unofficial psychotherapists of the world: hairdressers.

Whether you’re trying to look good for a party or are sick of fighting winter static, putting your head in someone else’s hands lightens the weight on your shoulders, said Amy Putens, a stylist at One80.

PHOTO: ONE80 SALON “Instead of sitting at home and worrying about which A therapeutic shampoo and blowdirection you’re pulling the hair and getting hot and both- dry using organic Davines products is ered by blow drying — we can never do our hair as good available for $50 at One80 salon off as a hairdresser can — it gives you that moment of serenK Street. ity,” Putens said.

The treatment starts with shampooist Lalla Ismaeli, who greets you at the hair-washing station.

Shortly after you tilt your head back, you realize this is not just an exercise in cleanliness. She checks that the water temperature is to your liking before slathering on an organic Davines product suitable for your hair type.Then the bliss begins as she methodically massages your scalp, lingering on pressure points, such as the temples, and draining tension. She rinses and repeats with a conditioner before escorting you to the stylist’s chair.

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What: Detox Body Cocktail ($120 for 75 minutes or $170 for 90 minutes with a massage) Where: Aura Spa at VIDA Fitness, 1517 15th St., NW, and the Renaissance Washington Hotel, 999 9th St., NW www.auraspa.net Why: Eat, drink and be merry are the three tenets of the holiday season.

The first two can wreak havoc, though, on your body. The Detox Body Cocktail uses Biotone products infused with essential oils, including rosemary, burdock, echinacea, lemon, figwort, eucalyptus, orange, watercress and geranium, to calm the senses in a warm room that sweats out the toxins.

“We use an aromatherapy that has different herbs such as geranium, eucalyptus, a variety of essential oils that have detoxifying properties,” said Elaine Perhach,Aura Spa director.“It will be very aromatic and really get deep inside of the pores.The smells get you back in balance.”

This three-step treatment is not for the modest. Because of the scrubs and creams involved, Perhach asks you to don nothing but a paper bikini bottom and a towel. She starts by scrubbing your arms, legs, feet and back with a cream-based scrub featuring ground apricot before using a brush to paint on a mask made of black mud from the Baltic Sea. Once every exposed crevice is filled, she wraps you in a cocoon of plastic on the heated table to sweat out the impurities and let in the oils.

It sits for 15 minutes before Perhach removes it with warm towels and begins the customized massage using shea body butter to maximize hydration, which she said lasts about a week.

“It definitely will help with the removal of the food and alcoholic toxins,” Perhach said. “It’s a good treatment for the wintertime to come in and warm up with.”

Holiday Specials: Aura Spa is offering a seasonal Peppermint-Pedi Scrub ($65 for 30 minutes) that involves a scrub followed by European Rose Mud to moisturize and hydrate the feet, all infused with relaxing — for the skin and nose — peppermint essential oils.

GENTLEMEN PREFER MASSAGE What: Just for Gentlemen Therapeutic Massage ($125 for 50 minutes, $185 for 80 minutes, and $250 for 110 minutes)

Why: Men aren’t known for pampering themselves at spas as much as women, but they deserve extra care, too.

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Next, Putens grabs a hair dryer and combs and brushes your mane into submission. By the time she’s done, you have silky, styled locks where your frazzled strands once were without ever having to lift a finger.

“You walk in one mood and you pretty much walk out in another. You’re ready to go,” Putens said.

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The best part about the Ritz Carlton’s Day Spa is that it’s located inside the Tysons Galleria mall, so when holiday shopping starts to take its toll, you can dip into the Ritz for some instant rest PHOTO: THE RITZ-CARLTON, TYSONS CORNER and relaxation.

At the Ritz-Carlton “The male population is trying things they didn’t try before,” said Aidan Kachemov, spa director, such as body scrubs and pedicures.“It’s Day Spa in Tysons Corner, men can not being seen as a woman’s retreat. It’s for overall wellness.”

Fundamentally, the massage techniques for men are the same as they treat themselves are for women. “The main big difference between traditional spa ser- to some holiday vices and male services is really the description,” Kachemov said.“Men indulgence with the are more operation-based when they think about things. For example, Just for Gentlemen if a gentleman is going to go in for a massage, they’ll go,‘Oh, therapeu- Therapeutic tic. I need therapy for my muscles.’ They want to hear terms that are Massage. going to address their issue.”

The experience begins in the warm, cozy relaxation room, appointed with a comfortable sitting area, reading materials and a tea bar with an assortment of choices. Dim lights and drumbeat-free music set the soothing mood.

To help you feel even more aligned, ask for therapist Joanne Mirabella, who has a chiropractic background. She asks what areas bother you and what causes the pain — specifics about how you stand and move. On a recent visit, she started with static compression, in which she digs her leg into the hamstrings, turning them into jelly.Then, she worked out the kinks in our back, legs, shoulders, neck and arms with deep, rolling and kneading strokes and a combination of oil and lotion.

The relaxation doesn’t have to end at the spa. Spa-goers also have access to the Ritz’s fitness center, steam rooms and indoor pool.

Holiday Specials: The Day Spa offers “Spalidays” featuring winter-inspired treatments such as a cinnamon vanilla brown sugar scrub with tension relief massage ($125 for 50 minutes), which helps to soften skin while releasing tight muscles; the hot stone and chocolate facial ($99 for 50 minutes), which involves organic chocolate and collagen-boosting vitamin C combined with a hot stone facial massage; and a self-heating herbal cinnamon pedicure ($65 for 50 minutes), which uses Hungarian thermal mud, cinnamon and sage to relieve feet weary from high-heeled party shoes.

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Page 28

LUXURY LIVING The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

culture & arts

■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

entertainment

■ DECEMBER 2011

ART

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Afghan Revival Sultana Hakimi met her husband in Kabul, where they were working on their master’s in engineering. Today, both are working to give Afghans the same kind of educational opportunities they had growing up. PAGE 32

ART

Orient Opening Four American women not only captured the beauty and allure of “the Orient,” but also found artistic liberation in a land most saw as anything but for women. PAGE 34

PHOTOGRAPHY

Imperial Image China’s Empress Dowager Cixi turned to the emerging technology of photography to rehabilitate her image — an early 20th-century PR effort documented by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. PAGE 35

DINING The Black Restaurant Group has created another gem with Pearl Dive Oyster Palace, a bastion of seafood and fun. PAGE 36

HORSE NATION “A Song for the Horse Nation” pays tribute to the complex relationship between Native Americans and their horses — a human-animal journey that left an enduring imprint on tribbal life.

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The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

[ art ]

Quite a Ride Horse-Human Bond Strengthens American Indian History

by Kaitlin Kovach

S

[

ome relationships seem like they have always existed. The one between Native American Indians and horses is among those. But as visitors to the National Museum of the American Indian’s newest exhibition, “A Song for the Horse Nation,” will discover, that relationship is only about as old as European contact with native tribes.

Despite the animal’s origins in the Americas about 40 million years ago, horses had become extinct here because of migrations to Europe and Asia. It wasn’t until Christopher Columbus’ second voyage to the Americas in 1493, when he left behind a herd of 25 horses, that the animals returned for good.

Not only did horses reappear, they would forever redefine life for American Indians. For a long time though, horses were a symbol of the power held by European explorers over native peoples, who had never before seen the animals.

They wouldn’t fully claim them as their own until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when the Spanish fled from what is now New Mexico, leaving about 1,500 horses behind. Within 20 years, nearly every native tribe was mounted.

From that point on, horses galloped their way into tribal culture, revolutionizing the way American Indians lived, notably on the Great Plains. They made hunting easier, battle more efficient, travel eatu es more oe faster and traditions richer. Before long, a “A Song for Horse Nation” features than 120 items that illustrate ate the important deep connection between human and animal had been forged that would never be role horses play in Native American sociove, painted broken, despite many attempts by settlers to ety, as seen in the tipi above, drum from the 1860s, below, ow, and a sever it. whawk — “A Song for the Horse Nation” illustrates horse mask by Jim Yellowhawk this complex relationship through a mixture all from the Lakota tribe. of 122 photographs, artifacts and interactive displays that touch on the animal’s wide-ranging imprint on native life, from the spiritual to the economic to the artistic.

“When American Indians encountered horses — which some tribes call the Horse Nation — they found an ally, inspiring and useful in times of peace, and intrepid in times of war,” said Kevin Gover, dirececA Song for the Horse Nation tor of the museum. “The exhibition ition shows how these majestic creaturess came through Jan. 7 to represent courage and freedom to many National Museum of the American Indian tribes across North America.”

4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW tipi The focal point of the exhibit iss a Lakota tipi, For more information, please call (202) 633-1000 created between 1890 and 1910 in South Dakota.The or visit www.nmai.si.edu. red-bordered structure is colorfully decorated from top to bottom with 110 hand-painted scenes of the Lakota Indians riding and entering battle with their horses. Visitors are able to walk around the entire perimeter of the 16-foot-tall, 38-foot-circumference tipi and take in the full story depicted on its exterior.

Many other items, such as a sheet of cloth called a Winter Count, depict the history of a tribe’s relationship with its horses, while interactive displays help to provide context for the objects, with easy-to-understand touch-screens that appeal to kids, too.

December 2011

]

PHOTOS: ERNEST AMOROSO, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

One interactive display features recordings of native words for “horse” and their English translations, including “big dog” in Cree and Assiniboine,“holy dog” in Lakota and “elk dog” in Siksika — a reflection of what a challenge it must have been for American Indians to name an animal they’d never set eyes on before.

The stories behind the exhibit reveal fascinating aspects about Native American culture and beliefs. Visitors for example, can learn about how a warrior would gallop astride an enemy and touch him with his hand, or that raiding an enemy’s horses was considered a proud tradition that survived even into 20th-century warfare. In fact, during World War II, Joseph Medicine Crow, an Apsáalooke Indian now in his 90s, liberated horses from the Nazi SS, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in 2009.

Many of the artifacts on display are decorative items worn by the horses themselves, both functional and ceremonial. Saddles, bridles, bags and other accoutrements all show how horses played a vital role in everyday Indian life.

Some of the most fascinating are masks made for the horses to wear as ceremonial regalia or into battle to make them appear more intimidating.Among these is a mask made by the Lakota to resemble a PHOTO: WAYNE SMITH, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN buffalo, another revered animal to many Covered in buffalo hide and decorated with buftribes. Cover falo horns horn and accented with feathers and beading, it’s as if the horse wearing it could blend right in with a buffalo herd.

Some items are for human use, but still reflect the deep reverence people held for r their horses. Clothing, tools, pipes and chilt dren’s toys often depict horses or equine scenes. A famous 1890 ceremonial dance stick of No Two Horns was created by Lakota Chief Rain-in-the-Face to honor his beloved horse that died at the Battle of Little Big B Horn.This wide variety of items attests to the th importance of horses to American Indians, both past and present.

Today, Tod many American Indian tribes still breed and care for horses, as demonstrated in the last section of the exhibit.

Intricate horse regalia is still created e for ceremonial and an artistic purposes, such as the full ensemble recently created by the Apsáalooke, or Crow peoples, displayed on a life-size horse model.

That same tribe and their horses participated in President Obama’s inauguration parade.

Though they may not serve the same hunting and other critical roles they did years ago, horses remain an enduring facet of Indian society and culture. “For some Native peoples, the horse still is an essential part of daily life,” said Emil Her Many Horses, curator of the exhibition.“For others, the horse will always remain an element of our identity and our history.”

Kaitlin Kovach is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

The Washington Diplomat Page 31

[ diplomatic spouses ]

Reclaiming Afghanistan Hakimis Embody Country’s Past Success, Its Future Hope

by Gail Scott

A

lmost every day in Washington, she can open the newspaper or turn on the TV and hear about her country. Sultana Hakimi is the wife of Afghan Ambassador Eklil Hakimi, most recently Afghanistan’s deputy foreign minister for political foreign affairs. Before moving here, the Hakimi family lived in both Japan and China while the ambassador filled Kabul’s top posts in those two nations.

“Americans are interested and sympathetic to our country, our people,” Sultana Hakimi told The Washington Diplomat.“And curious.They sometimes ask if I ever wear a scarf over my head.”

The answer: “Yes, it depends. I do respect our Afghan culture and wear a scarf for national holiday celebrations here and usually in Afghanistan when I’m not inside my own home or a home of my family or close friends,” said this Muslim mother of three who joined her husband here with their daughters in April.

“So many people have been so helpful to our country.

When they hear what life was like under the Taliban, especially for women and girls, they sometimes even cry.”

The brutal conditions Afghan women did and continue to endure helps drive Sultana’s focus here in Washington.

“With whatever free time that I have, I want to help the women and children at home, especially to empower the women. Afghan women make up 50 percent of our population and they have so much to offer to our country and their families.”

Sultana, 42, is a shining example of women’s empowerment herself. She holds a master’s degree in engineering and has worked as a banker and an accountant.To that end, she believes that education is the most important ingrediSultana Hakimi and her husband, Afghan Ambassador Eklil Hakimi, center, pose with two of ent in restoring her country to the heights of its 5,000-year history before the Soviets their daughters, Sameena, 16, a senior at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, and and the Taliban held it hostage in recent decades.“The children are our future.”

12-year-old Sabiha, who attends Edmund Burke Elementary (their third daughter, Zahra, is 18 For now, the couple’s own three girls keep this diplomatic wife busy. Sameena, 16, is a senior at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, 12-year-old Sabiha attends months). The Hakimis met while studying for their master’s degrees in engineering in Kabul.

Edmund Burke Elementary, and Zahra, only 18 months, is fast becoming a toddler. young, college-educated newlyweds, the Hakimis decided to leave Afghanistan and “I am lucky to have some help,” explained Sultana.“My mother came over with me accept his parent’s invitation to join his family in Orange County, California. She and her and the girls and stayed to help us get settled in. I also have Danny, a wonderful woman husband had met while getting their master’s degrees in engineering at the Polytechnic of Chinese descent who is great with the girls and is a fabulous cook too.”

University of Kabul and by that point he had already joined the Foreign Service.

Sultana also loves to cook and spend time with her family.“Time with our children “It had become very scary; I couldn’t go out,” Sultana is my best time. My favorite room is the kitchen. I love recalled. “The men had to go out and bring home the it when we are all home together; everything is so food. We had no electricity, no school and we, as For 30 years, Afghanistan’s peaceful then.” women, couldn’t work. Even though we had more Interestingly, to relax, Sultana turns to ping-pong. “I rooms in our home, we huddled together in one room people, way of life and grand old even have my own paddle. In fact, I have two, one for — we couldn’t relax or read because of the rockets.We my partner,” who is often her husband, also an accomdidn’t know what would happen next. We worried culture were under attack. plished player. every time a man in the family went out whether he Sultana described her own childhood as “perfect” would come back.

— SULTANA HAKIMI — but only through the sixth grade, after which “One day, the opposition forces ceased fire for the Afghanistan’s descent into war began. wife of Afghan Ambassador Eklil Hakimi diplomats to leave. We decided this was our chance,” “My mother was a teacher of science and algebra at she continued.“We only had one-day notice. I had to go Malalai High School, the famous high school I also attended. My father, who had earned and say goodbye to my parents and my brothers. That was hard. We left by car for his doctorate in Germany, was a college professor in political science,” Sultana said.

Peshawar, [Pakistan], a three-hour drive away. We each packed only a small suitcase “After that, even though it was still OK to live in Kabul at first, life out in the provbecause there were six of us in the car. We just closed the house and left everything inces became dangerous because of the civil war. Then the Russians came, and after there.” that in 1996, the Taliban” with their fundamental extremism.“For 30 years,Afghanistan’s Luckily, their home — with all its belongings and only a few broken windows and people, way of life and grand old culture were under attack.” minor damage — was waiting for them when they returned more than a decade later.

During the height of the Taliban’s reign from 1996 to 2001, Afghan women virtually From Pakistan, they flew to California to join his parents and siblings. disappeared behind society’s closed doors. Female judges, doctors, teachers and shop“From the time we left, for the next six months, we had no fax, no phone calls, no keepers were all sent home. Women and girls could no longer go to school or work. email, no mail from my family,” she remembered. “We knew nothing. And I was espeDeath by stoning, among other atrocities, was the fate that awaited those who dared to cially worried about one of my brothers and his family. At that time, he lived in an defy the Taliban’s rigid rules.

For Sultana, by 1992, daily life in Afghanistan had already become “unbearable.” As See SPOUSES, page 37

“

”

Page 32

The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

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[ art ]

Liberating Orient Women Artists Found Inspiration in Asia PHOTO: PACIFIC ASIA MUSEUM COLLECTION

A

by Fresia Cadavid

[ Page 34

merican feminist interpretation of Eastern mystique comes alive in the latest exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, “Visions of the Orient: Western Women Artists in Asia 1900-1940.”

The 125-piece exhibit, organized by the Pacific Asia M u s e u m with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Arts, introduces us to four captivating female artists: Helen Hyde, Bertha Lum, Elizabeth Keith and Lilian Miller. They all trained as painters but also designed woodblock prints while living in Japan, where they were clearly enchanted with their Asian muse.

That enchantment surfaces in dozens of visually striking woodblock prints that not only capture the beauty and allure of “the Orient,” but also challenge “pessimistic assumptions about Orientalism and gendered Orientalism developed by scholars over the past 20 years,” according to the museum, which notes that Asia served as a liberating professional space for these four women, as well as a source of artistic inspiration.

Westerners began flocking to Japan and the rest of Asia in the mid 19th century, but these four artists truly immersed themselves in the region’s folklore, landscape, customs and history. In the process, these women, who worked with Japanese teachers and colleagues, stood out among the many other Americans who left a largely paternalistic footprint on the region, which openly flared into hostility by the 1930s.

The resulting intersection of American art, East Asia, and the woodblock print movement plays out whimsically as visitors weave in and out of different suites exploring each artist. Hyde (1868-1919) was the first of the four women to have set up residence in Japan by 1900. She pays homage to the country in her stylized, tranquil prints that exude serenity as she depicts her favorite subjects, women and children. In “Baby Talk,” viewers share an intimate moment between a mother and her infant, with Asian motifs and dress adorning the scene.

One unique, insightful feature of the exhibit is that the object descriptions contain the artists’ personal thoughts along with contemporary writings about their work, bringing viewers closer not only to their art, but to the women’s experiences abroad, their career struggles and the love they had for their craft. “Japan was a gem, a revelation, a new world Visions of the Orient: with art possibilities beyond one’s dreams and comWestern Women Artists ing into Japanese life, I was overjoyed by the infinite in Asia 1900-1940 opportunities offered in color and the charming through Jan. 15 quaintness of the environment,” said Hyde in one of her letters.

National Museum of Women in the Arts “These women were intrepid. They were outsiders and did not have to live by certain scriptures that 1250 New York Ave., NW American and native women had to live by,”explained For more information, please call Jordana Pomeroy, chief curator at the National (202) 783-5000 or visit www.nmwa.org.

Museum of Women in the Arts. “One of the most remarkable things about the show is the mentality of independence. For them, Asia offered a more liberated type of life.”

For Lum (1869-1954), her aesthetic interpreted a more surreal, folkloric Japan and China brought to life from literary works. In her “Spinning Goddess,” Lum’s subject is inspired by the legend recounted by author Lafcadio Hearn of a spinning goddess who brings silk cultivation to China. In “Mother West Wind,” divinity and nature interplay in swirls of green and blue. “And when the sun goes down, Mother West Wind calls the Merry Little Breezes together and puts them to bed beyond the Purple Hills,” Lum said of the woodblock print.

]

The Washington Diplomat

PHOTO: SCRIPPS COLLEGE, CLAREMONT, CA

From top, Elizabeth Keith’s “Gentle in Ceremonial Dress,” Lilian Miller’s “Rain Blossoms, Japan” and Helen Hyde’s “The Bath” are among 125 works that capture four Western women’s impressions of life in the East in “Visions of the Orient: Western Women Artists in Asia 1900-1940.”

The Asia depicted by Miller (1895-1942) centers on mystery and romance. Born in Tokyo — the only one of the four women to have been born in Asia because of her diplomatic family — Miller brings a softness and familiarity to her work, perhaps infused from her childhood. Her “Rain Blossoms” print draws viewers in with its colorful, engaging paper umbrellas and their mesmerizing swirling patterns that obscure their owner’s faces.

Keith (1887-1956) focused more on Asian customs and traditions in works such as “Old Peking: Temple Gate with Camel,” where PHOTO: JORDAN SCHNITZER MUSEUM OF ART / UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE there’s an overarching delicateness that travels seamlessly from the temple gates, to the clothing worn by the bystanders, to the architecture that welcomes viewers to Keith’s Far East dreamland. The same picturesque treatment can be seen in “Gion Festival,” inspired by her trips to Kyoto and Osaka where she saw the festivities firsthand. In her watercolor painting, the warm yellow-glowing lanterns that stream downtown Kyoto during the important annual festival contrast with the deep blue night sky as onlookers admire the radiance.

Each artist embraced a land foreign to most Western eyes, setting them apart as pioneers whose work still resonates today. They explored a part of the world that, despite ingrained notions about the Orient subjugating women to inferior roles, gave them the freedom to pursue their art while also serving as a bridge between East and West. Perhaps the words of exhibit curator Kendall H. Brown sum it up best: “Whether we see these artists as quiet rebels against patriarchy, or as seductive agents of colonialism, their visions of the Orient comprise a compelling chapter in the making of trans-Pacific culture.”

Fresia Cadavid is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

December 2011

[ photography ]

Empress PR Imperial Image Makeover for China’s Dowager Cixi

by Stephanie Kanowitz

G

[

iving someone a picture of yourself — and in an ornate frame to boot — might seem gauche today, but at the turn of the 20th century, heads of state used such gifts as acts of diplomacy. For instance, when China’s Dowager Cixi sought to make her soured image after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 more positive, she made negatives.

The 19 life-size photographic portraits in “Power | Play: China’s Empress Dowager,” now on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, are taken from 36 original glass-plate negatives, the only surviving pictures outside China of the woman who rose from imperial concubine to reigning sovereign of 400 million people for more than 45 years. Immortalized as a narcissistic “dragon lady,” Cixi (1835-1908) takes on a new legacy through these black-and-white photos, and historians’ study of them, all of which reveals a theater-loving woman who celebrated her femininity and combined early forms of photography — and public relations — with traditional imperial portraiture to assert her place on the world stage.

David Hogge, exhibition curator and head of the Freer and Sackler Archives, divided the images into four galleries according to their presumed intended audience: the subjects of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), international figures, close friends and theater goers. The photographer, Xunling, an amateur but a relative of two of her attendants, took the pictures in 1903 and 1904.

The most interesting photos hang in the second gallery, dedicated to diplomacy.

They are interesting not for their artistry but for their history. After the Boxer Rebellion, in which peasants rose up against Christians and foreigners, including foreign legations, Cixi’s reputation foundered; many assumed she supported the movement. To ensure her power, she sought to make amends with the affected foreign community, but the male ambassadors wanted nothing of it. So she appealed to their wives, inviting them to lavish luncheons and gifting them with jades and other goods.

The first such meeting is recorded in a 1902 image of the wives outside the American Embassy.

“It is historically, I think, an extraordinary image,” Hogge said. “Photography was used both to record her attempts to reach out to the foreign community and as gifts.”

Power | Play: The effort worked. She especially impressed Sarah Conger, wife of American Ambassador Edwin Hurd China’s Empress Dowager Conger, who wrote favorably about the empress, helpthrough Jan. 29 ing to curry favor for her.A photo in which Conger and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Cixi hold hands is extraordinary, Hogge said, 1050 Independence Ave., SW because heretofore Cixi had been comFor more information, please call pletely off-limits to foreigners, let alone (202) 633-4880 or visit www.asia.si.edu. showing affection toward one.

American friendliness was crucial to Cixi.

She needed the United States to forgive China’s debts following the costly uprising. To warm up to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, she sent a photograph of herself that resembles those of the throne series in the first gallery but is greatly enlarged and cropped to exclude much of the lavishness in the other photos. Painters then retouched the image, and hints of glittering gold and greens remain, as does the original silk brocade matting.

“She’s been dramatically cropped to give a greater sense of intimacy and perhaps a sense of immediacy,” Hogge explained.“Also, this is the only photograph where she is looking straight at you, perfect for that kind of relationship that she’s trying to develop with another head of state.”

The show opens with carefully staged photos of Cixi on the throne in luxurious robes and surrounded by well-appointed furnishings as a means of asserting her authority, although her poses put that into question. In one, she informally leans on an elbow and crosses her legs. Also, her choice of global goods — a French pedestal table, Western apples and Indian paisley — are atypical of her traditional iconography.

“I think she’s really trying to show at this point, when she’s being attacked both internationally and domestically … not only her authority to the Chinese but also her ability to operate as a head of state on an international basis — basically showing she’s cosmopolitan,” Hogge said.

Also notable in this series is the absence of dragon robes, worn to signify rank and authority. She dons one in only one picture, choosing instead bold patterns of chrysanthemums and symbols.

December 2011

]

PHOTOS: FREER GALLERY OF ART AND ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY

Early 20th-century photographs of China’s Empress Dowager Cixi, including her in the guise of Avalokiteśvara, the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, above, were intended to shine a positive light on the woman immortalized as a narcissistic “dragon lady.”

“Why would she have tried so hard to create a sense of legitimacy and authority but she’s not showing her dragon robe?” Hogge asked.“My sense is that because a woman’s dragon robe was pretty much dictated by the rank of her father or her husband — basically, the ranking male in the family — as a female ruler, she wanted to reject any kind of indication that her own authority was dictated by her relationship to male members of the family.”

The image that sticks in popular memory is one of Cixi looking at herself in a mirror as she puts a flower in her hair, a pose she strikes again in another photo in which she is flanked by attendants outside one of the Summer Palace’s main gates.Assumed to show vanity, the pose is actually identical to one in a popular play at the time, making it not egotistical but her compliment to the show.

The Smithsonian acquired the images in 1944, and Hogge began researching them four years ago. He hopes the exhibit debunks some myths about Cixi, as she herself sought to shrewdly rehabilitate her image in the waning days of a dynasty, much as politicians still do today.“The amount it tells us about rich and visual traditional culture is really extraordinary,” he said.

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 35

[ dining ]

Pearl in the Rough Will It Be Sink or Swim For Blacks’ Oyster Palace?

by Anna Gawel

T

he Blacks are back with their fifth restaurant, continuing with the quality, seafood-driven concept that’s earned Jeff and Barbara Black local acclaim while venturing into new territory: the trendier urban confines of downtown D.C. The husband-and-wife chef-owners behind Black Restaurant Group, responsible for BlackSalt, Black’s Bar and Kitchen, Black Market Bistro and Addie’s, have churned out another gem with a bright future in Pearl Dive Oyster Palace and the separate bar space Black Jack along 14th Street in Logan Circle.

Having hewn closer to the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in suburbs such as Bethesda and Rockville, Md., Pearl Dive marks the Blacks’ first foray into a more up-and-coming downtown locale. Up-and-coming though is a clichéd description of Logan Circle, which in recent years has firmly established itself as a destination in its own right, very much in the youthful bohemian spirit of the U Street or H Street corridors.

Pearl Dive feeds on this energy, while staying true to its traditions. The result is a new hotspot with an established pedigree that boasts a relatively small but strong menu of Southerninspired dishes, with a focus on Gulf Coast seafood, helpful staff, and an inviting, inventive ambience that melds rustic fish shack with urban chic.

The only ingredient that throws the otherwise successful mix off is space, or rather lack thereof. The buzz that Pearl Dive has generated is justified, but the result can be long, occasionally mishandled wait times as the staff irons out the kinks of handling the initial rush of popularity.The 78-seat restaurant was bursting with people on a recent Friday night, when one would normally expect a lengthy wait, but after some wait times stretched to nearly three hours for a table, even the most eager diner’s patience wore thin. And the 14-seat bar area, while appealing, quickly gets cramped.

Diners can also head upstairs to the 98-seat Black Jack, a distinctly separate lounge that serves its own bar menu, but not everyone who wants a sit-down seafood meal is Pearl Dive Oyster Palace going to be inclined to wait in the and Black Jack decadent hangout, which is bathed 1612 14th St., NW in red-leather banquettes and vel(202) 986-8778 vet drapes with club beats pulsatwww.pearldivedc.com ing in the background (it’s even www.blackjackdc.com outfitted with a bocce ball court and spectator gallery). Plus, lines can snake out the door just Lunch: Fri., Sat. - 12 - 4 p.m.; to get into Black Jack, which is sure to become Sun. - 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. a popular neighborhood watering hole and really merits its own separate visit.

Dinner: Mon. - Thu., Sun. - 5 - 11 p.m.; Downstairs, Pearl Dive is more subdued, Fri., Sat. - 4 - 12 p.m. though no less edgy or stylish. The supermarAppetizers: $6 - $15 ket deli-esque paper tickets that guests receive Entrées: $13 - $27 when they’re put on the wait list is a quirky touch, but again, watching for your number to Desserts: $6 - $9 be called up on the screen can be a frustrating Reservations: Not accepted reminder of how far down the line you really Dress: Hipster casual are — reminiscent of those excruciating waits at the motor vehicle administration.

Some of this, of course, is beyond the restaurant’s control, although simple mistakes added to the headaches. Groups, for example, are divided into two-tops and larger parties, but we routinely saw couples being placed in the restaurant’s limited number of booths meant for four, making the wait exceedingly long for any groups of more than three people.

That being said, is the wait worth it? Yes.The crowds are descending on Pearl Dive for

want to

go?

[ ] Page 36

The Washington Diplomat

PHOTOS: JESSICA LATOS

The latest venture by Jeff and Barbara Black, Pearl Dive Oyster Palace features a maritime theme including large chain sculptures, portholes for windows and mermaid murals. The menu includes the popular mussels from the Blacks’ other restaurant Addie’s as well as other Southern-inspired seafood.

good reason — the main one being the Black Restaurant Group’s flair for fresh, locally sourced, sustainable ingredients in both classic and clever preparations.The Southerninspired menu is just that, inspired. Executive chef Jeff Black with chef de cuisine Danny Wells (who as a teenager was a line cook for Addie’s) produce smartly executed, hearty dishes that won’t disappoint aficionados of Gulf Coast, and specifically New Orleans, cuisine.

The oysters are naturally a showpiece of Pearl Dive Oyster Palace, and the selection is varied and savory. Even for the novices, staff will guide you through the myriad choices of mollusks and their accompaniments, from bacon to blue crab to spinach to no adornments at all.

Highlights among the oysters on the shell include the crisp dive juice and classic cocktail kumamoto varieties, and the choices among the oyster plates are even more extensive.

Angels on Horseback are a heavenly blend of grilled bacon-wrapped oysters with vin blanc and vinegar reduction, while the smooth, authentic sea-salt undertones of the grilled East Coast oysters are elevated by garlic, red chile, South Mountain Creamery butter and gremolata.

But the real star on the appetizer menu is actually a meat option: the braised pork cheeks with a chipotle-ham hock broth and stone grits.The tender meat explodes with taste, delicate and rich at the same time, and is perfectly accented by grits that wisely reappear elsewhere on the menu.With just the right texture and understated flavor that soaks in the sauces around it, Pearl Dive’s grits are sure to delight any discerning Southerner.

Other standouts include the barbecued shrimp with garlic bread and “messy fingers” that will have diners unabashedly licking those fingers to savor the last of those barbeque spices, as well as the Vietnamese pickled shrimp on a bed of julienne cucumbers and carrots with a punch of pickle juice aioli.

Pearl Dive has also brought over its popular mussels from Addie’s in Rockville, punctuated by garlic, shallot, fumet, butter and lemon. Though swimming in a mouth-watering broth, a few of the mussels were marred by faint rubbery notes on one recent visit.

But throughout the menu, the seafood is deftly handled. Attempts at replicating New Orleans flavor up north often fall flat, but Pearl Dive’s Louisiana crawfish etouffee, its “Que

December 2011

Above Pearl Dive Oyster Palace is Black Jack, a separate 98-seat bar lounge that has an edgier feel, with its own menu and even a bocce ball court and spectator gallery.

sical atmosphere with the gritty charm of a fish market and the meticulously planned look of an unrefined dive bar. Peeling white walls reveal exposed brick that frames the cozy 5,670-squarefoot space, which is filled with reclaimed furniture, lots of distressed wood, undersea murals and playful touches such as mermaid figurines over the four-seat raw bar in the back and a massive lighting sculpture made of anchor chain links that floats over the main bar.The noise level is high, but that’s to be expected in this kind of lively neighborhood gathering spot.

The clientele also embodies the eclectic character of the neighborhood.We spotted an ambassador dining with friends during one visit, along with a few rowdy patrons who had to be kicked out after a small brawl. That’s Logan Circle though: a fascinating brew of personalities, from diplomats to, well, drunks.

Staff is uniformly friendly and helpful to everyone who came through Pearl Dive’s doors — even the bouncers who politely had to turn people away from Black Jack when it was at capacity. And to their credit, most of the staff recognized the occasionally long wait times and went out of their way to accommodate guests patiently sitting in the bar for their number to come up.

So will Pearl Dive drown in its own success?

Not likely.The waits during the week are reasonable and the Blacks seem to have added yet another jewel to their expanding area presence, while also taking a big leap of their own by setting up in Logan Circle. Incidentally, if Pearl Dive Oyster Palace continues to ride the wave of popularity, there’s empty office space right next door just begging for the Blacks to consider a more immediate expansion of their latest endeavor.

Anna Gawel is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat and news columnist for the Diplomatic Pouch.

PHOTO BY AVE BONAR

Sueno de los Gatos (What Cats Dream Of)” seafood stew, and several choices of gumbo do the Big Easy proud, while upping the ante with imaginative twists such as braised duck. The addition of oyster though in the otherwise multifaceted seafood gumbo was overkill on the bivalve theme. Still, the gumbo entrées are big in both size and in complexity, overflowing with okra, veggies, shrimp, sharp notes of sausage and file herb for an authentic Cajun kick, although the gumbo may run on the salty side for some diners.

True to its Southern roots, portion sizes at Pearl Dive are indeed filling, though that doesn’t detract from the delicate nuance in many of the creations. The wood-grilled Gulf Coast redfish, for instance, is fairly straightforward but seamlessly pairs the flaky, well-seasoned fish with sagenative pecan butter and those oh-so sumptuous grits. The Maryland blue crab cakes with corn puree, whipped potatoes and tomato salad are a light, airy showcase of potent crab flavor.Another delectable combo is the grilled local rockfish with blue shell mussels, andouille sausage, tomato and veal jus.And for a dash of the unexpected, try the duck confit and roasted duck sausage served with smoked cremini relish, French lentils and Creole mustard duck fond.

The range of entrées is also impressive and reflects the simple goodness of Southern cooking.The C.E.B.L.T. po-boy sandwich, stuffed with fried catfish, Benton’s bacon, lettuce and tomato, is both a down-home treat and an over-the-top pleasure, with a lush, gooey farm egg at its center.

And there’s no shame in ordering the chicken at this fish joint — the Pennsylvania Amish chicken dinner commands respect among its seafood cousins.

Like the food menu, the cocktail menu by brothers Ari and Micah Wilder offers a robust range of flavors without an overwhelming list of choices, though it veers toward the pricey side.

The small selection of cocktails has surprising depth that enhances the dishes, especially the oysters. Notably, the Abalone Bellini with Boyd & Blair Vodka and Chateau du Breuil Calvados is a smooth, refreshing concoction of cucumber, sparkling water and hints of green apple, while the signature Pearl Cup has a subtle but sharp bite thanks to the inclusion of ginger beer to go with the Pimms, Plymouth Gin, lime, mint and cucumber.

Not surprisingly, Pearl Dive Oyster Palace goes a bit overboard with the nautically themed décor, though it strikes the right balance of being visually striking without becoming cheesy. CORE architecture + design has created a warm, whim-

With Emmy Winner

HOLLAND TAYLOR of Two and a Half Men

“ANN RICHARDS WAS THE GREATEST WOMAN I’VE EVER KNOWN.” —Liz Smith

from page 32

Spouses insecure region with his wife and little daughter.

They lived in a basement and didn’t have enough formula for their baby.”

Once stateside, these two young engineers quickly found work — she as a banker and then as an accountant in a law firm and he as an engineer with Liebert, a branch of the well-known American engineering firm Emerson. They also both went back to school at Saddleback College and he went to the California State University at Long Beach to enrich his foreign engineering credentials.

In the meantime, a new Afghanistan was becoming a reality. “President [Hamid] Karzai sent out a message to all Afghan ex-pats around the world to come home and be part of the new Afghanistan,” the ambassador told me as his wife left for carpool duty and he had a break in his nonstop day.

“From the day I knew my left from my right, I was taught by my family that you educate yourself and then you serve your country. It was in my subconscious. I always knew I would return

December 2011

if I had the chance,” he said.“During the Taliban, we were hopeless. Then, we had a new hope when the new government was formed. Many of us returned home to help.”

But first, he got the family together and asked his wife and his then two children for their vote.

“My wife already understood; she saw the opportunity.”

“I explained to my oldest — then only 8 years old — that I had decided to go but that I needed her support too. I told her that I wanted her to stay at home where she could go to school and eat the good food in the refrigerator. I told her I was going to help girls and boys in Afghanistan who had no school, no food and no hope for the future,” the ambassador explained.

“America understood quite well the threat of the Taliban,” he continued. “Today, we Afghans are grateful for support from the American taxpayer.This support will be remembered and stay with Afghans forever. It is part of our culture and traditions that once you receive a favor from someone, you are from then on looking for an opportunity to pay that back.”

Everything is bigger in Texas. For the late Texas governor Ann Richards, that maxim held true not only for her huge character and heart, but also her wit and hairdo. Now, Emmy Award–winning stage and screen actress Holland Taylor brings audiences a hilarious, inspiring, and no-holdsbarred look at the unforgettable Governor of the Lone Star State. Taylor wrote the play as a way to take the audience on a journey, swirling together the past and present to reunite Ann Richards with old friends and introduce her to a new generation.

Pre-Broadway engagement—see it in D.C. first!

DECEMBER 17, 2011–JANUARY 15, 2012 EISENHOWER THEATER Tickets at the Box Office or charge by phone (202) 467-4600 Order online at kennedy-center.org TTY (202) 416-8524 | GROUPS (202) 416-8400

Watch a video promo for ANN on your smart phone— just scan the tag! Download the free app at gettag.mobi

Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and lifestyle columnist for the Diplomatic Pouch.

The Washington Diplomat Page 37

[ film ]

CINEMA LISTING *Unless specific times are listed, please check the theater for times. Theater locations are subject to change.

Arabic

Miserly and mean-tempered, Scrooge is shaken to his core when he is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

December 2011 AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Dec. 8, 9:15 p.m.

Washington DCJCC Mon., Dec. 5, 8:30 p.m.

FILM COLUMNS NOTE Ky N. Nguyen’s Film columns are on a temporary hiatus but will return next month.

Directed by Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir (Israel, 2011, 72 min.)

A Clockwork Orange

AFI Silver Theatre Dec. 2 to 4

AFI Silver Theatre Thu, Dec. 1, 10:10 p.m.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick (U.K., 1971, 136 min.)

The Great Muppet Caper

Melancholia

Directed by Jim Henson (U.K., 1981, 95 min.)

Directed by Lars von Trier (Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany, 2011, 136 min.)

A teenage boy from an Arab village in northern Israel suffers severe post-traumatic shock after being brutally beaten by classmates, then slowly recovers with the help of dolphin therapy. (Arabic, French and Hebrew) Washington DCJCC Sun., Dec. 4, 1:30 p.m.

Kaddish for a Friend Directed by Leo Khasin (Germany, 2011, 94 min.)

A 14-year-old from a Palestinian refugee camp escapes to a new life in Berlin and longs to be accepted by his fellow Arab youths in the public housing project, but instead is forced to seek out the trust and forgiveness of his enemy. (Arabic and German) AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Dec. 3, 9:15 p.m.

Washington DCJCC Sun., Dec. 4, 8:45 p.m.

Czech

In future Britain, a charismatic delinquent is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society’s crime problem ... but not all goes to plan.

AFI Silver Theatre Dec. 9 to 15

David Directed by Joel Fendelman (U.S., 2011, 80 minutes)

The 11-year-old son of the Imam of a Brooklyn mosque, Daud, inadvertently befriends a group of Orthodox Jewish boys in the neighboring community, becoming drawn into a complicated dilemma inspired by the best of intentions.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Dec. 10, 7 p.m.

Washington DCJC) Sun., Dec. 11, 4:15 p.m.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas

Men in Rut (Muzi v riji) Directed by Robert Sedlácek (Czech Republic, 2009, 120 min.)

Small and big worlds clash in a remote Moravian village — so remote, in fact, that the road ends there — as politicians try to realize their dream of a new highway connecting them to Europe.

The Avalon Theatre Wed., Dec. 14, 8 p.m.

Directed by Jim Henson (U.S./Canada, 1977, 48 min.)

This is the heart-warming story of Ma Otter and her son, who both secretly enter a talent contest to win money for each other’s Christmas presents. In contrast to the typical Muppet style of puppetry, the lovable river animals are portrayed realistically.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Dec. 10, 11 a.m., Sun. Dec. 11, 11 a.m.

An Encounter with Simone Weil

English

Directed by Julia Haslett (U.S./Italy/Sweden, 2010, 85 min.)

Between Two Worlds

The filmmaker’s journey to understand the controversial French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-43) reveals a brave young woman willing to die for her convictions. (English and French)

Directed by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow (U.S., 2011, 70 min.)

Filmed in the U.S. and Israel, this first-person documentary reveals the agonizing battle over divestment from Israel on a university campus and shows the crackdown on dissent within Israel itself.

Embassy of Italy Tue., Dec. 6, 5 and 7:30 p.m.

Washington DCJCC Sun., Dec. 4, 3:30 p.m.

Fireflies (Gachliliyot)

Breath Made Visible

Directed by Gili Meisler (Israel, 2009, 82 min.)

Directed by Ruedi Gerber (U.S./Switzerland, 2009, 80 min.)

This documentary follows the career of Anna Halprin, the American dance pioneer who helped redefine the notion of modern art with her belief in dance’s power to teach, heal and transform at all ages of life.

This is a story of two brothers: Giora, the most talked about MIA of the Yom Kippur War, and Gili, the one who has been searching for Giora and himself ever since.

(English and Hebrew) Washington DCJCC Sun., Dec. 11, 2:15 p.m.

The French Connection

A Christmas Carol

Two tough New York City cops try to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France. (English and French)

Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst (U.K./U.S., 1951, 86 min.)

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The Washington Diplomat

This show-stopping musical finds intrepid journalists Kermit and Fozzie heading to London, hot on the trail of the jewel thief who stole the fabulous Baseball diamond from Lady Holiday (Miss Piggy).

AFI Silver Theatre Dec. 9 to 14

Directed by William Friedkin (U.S., 1971, 104 min.)

Two sisters find their already-strained relationship challenged during a wedding party that turns into a fiasco, with family tensions mounting while a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Hell and Back Again Directed by Danfung Dennis (U.S/U.K./Afghanistan, 88 min., 2011)

This documentary set in southern Afghanistan tackles what it’s like to lead men into war and what it’s like to come home — told through the eyes of 25-year-old Sergeant Nathan Harris who suffers a life-threatening injury when his unit is attacked by the Taliban.

The Muppet Movie Directed by James Frawley (U.K./U.S., 1979, 95 min.)

In their first foray onto the silver screen, Kermit the Frog and his Muppet cohorts Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and the gang sing their way to Hollywood, hoping to make it big.

A man’s carefully cultivated private life — which allows him to indulge his sexual addiction — is disrupted when his sister arrives for an indefinite stay, stirring memories of their shared painful past.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Dec. 2

Who Shot My Father?

The Story of Joe Alon Directed by Liora Amir Barmatz (Israel, 2011, 71 min.)

Three daughters try to uncover the secrets behind the never-solved murder of their father, Col. Joe Alon, the air force attaché at the Israeli Embassy in D.C. who in 1973 returned home from a party with his wife and was shot and killed in front of his Chevy Chase home.

Washington DCJCC Tue., Dec. 6, 6:15 p.m.

French

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

AFI Silver Theatre Dec. 2 to 8

Into the Abyss

My Week with Marilyn

Directed by Werner Herzog (Germany/Canada, 2011, 107 min.)

Directed by Simon Curtis (U.K., 2011, 120 min)

In this documentary, conversations with death row inmate Michael Perry (who died within eight days of appearing on screen) and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people — and a state — kill.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during filming of “The Prince and the Showgirl,” while also introducing Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life.

Je T’Aime, I Love You Terminal

AFI Silver Theatre Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d’un Poète)

Directed by Dani Menkin (Israel/Czech Republic, 2010, 80 min.)

One, Two, Three

Directed by Jean Cocteau (France, 1930, 55 min.)

Ben, a 29-year-old Israeli, finally gets himself on the plane to New York to begin a new life with his girlfriend only to meet the charming, outrageous and somewhat dysfunctional Emma, who always seems to fall for the wrong guys.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Dec. 3, 7 p.m.

Washington DCJCC Fri., Dec. 9, 10 a.m.

The Kissinger Saga: Walter and Henry, Two Brothers from Fuerth Directed by Evi Kurz (Germany, 2008, 87 min.)

“I never give interviews about my personal life,” Henry Kissinger told the filmmaker in 2003. Eventually she changed his mind, and the result is this surprisingly revealing story.

Washington DCJCC Sun., Dec. 4, 11 a.m.

Directed by Billy Wilder (U.S., 1961, 115 min.)

In this Cold War farce of capitalists and communists, James Cagney is in electrifying form as a Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin charged with keeping an eye on his boss’s flirtatious daughter, who has eyes for a cute commie.

AFI Silver Theatre Dec. 17 to 22

Partisans of Vilna Directed by Aviva Kempner (U.S., 1986, 130 min.)

This riveting tale of the Vilna Ghetto’s Jewish armed resistance explores the struggle to organize under anarchic conditions, and the successes and failures of the movement. (English, Yiddish and Hebrew) Washington DCJCC Sat., Dec. 10, 6:15 p.m.

Directed by Jim Henson (U.K./U.S., 1986, 101 min.)

While babysitting her brother, a teenage girl inadvertently casts him into the hands of the Goblin King, then tries to rescue him from his labyrinth.

Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) Directed by Jean Cocteau (France, 1946, 96 min.)

A 17th-century village beauty must surrender to a beast as a sacrifice for her father’s error of judgment in Jean Cocteau’s fantastical version of the classic fable.

National Gallery of Art Sat., Dec. 24, 2 and 4 p.m.

This fantasy drama, which begins when an artist’s drawing of a mouth comes to life on a statue, is just the first of many strange happenings that comprise the first part of Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy. (Screens with “The Seashell and the Clergyman”) National Gallery of Art Sun., Dec.4, 5 p.m.

Donkey Skin (Peau d’âne) Directed by Jacques Demy (France, 1970, 100 min.)

In this musical fairytale, a king agrees to his dying queen’s last wish that he should remarry at once, but only to someone more beautiful than she — and only their daughter fits the bill.

National Gallery of Art Sat., Dec. 31, 4 p.m.

Le Havre Reuniting the Rubens

Labyrinth

Embassy of Switzerland Mon., Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.

Shame Directed by Steve McQueen (U.K., 2011, 101 min.)

Dolphin Boy (Ha’Dolfin)

AFI Silver Theatre Dec. 17 to 21

Directed by Yoav Factor (U.K., 2011, 97 min.)

An uptight lawyer finally beginning to relax on a much-needed retirement cruise when his ailing mother emotionally blackmails him into a reunion with his estranged children.

Directed by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland/France/Germany, 2011, 93 min.)

When an African refugee boy arrives by cargo ship in the French port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and takes him in, standing up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation.

December 2011

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Dec. 9

tender, honest Romeo and Juliet story drawn from today’s headlines. (Hebrew, Arabic, German and English)

Silent

Heartbeats (Les Amours Imaginaires)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Dec. 10, 9:15 p.m.

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius (France, 2011, 100 min.)

Directed by Xavier Dolan (Canada, 2010, 95 min.)

Mabul – The Flood

Close friends Francis and Marie compete for the attention of Nicolas, a suave, playful and irresistibly hot new arrival in Montreal — and their oncesolid friendship becomes unhinged.

(French and English)

Directed by Guy Nattiv (Israel/Canada/Germany/France, 2010, 101 min.)

When his autistic brother, locked away for years in an institution, returns to live at home with them right before 13-yearold Yoni’s Bar Mitzvah, his already unstable family threatens to crumble.

Letelier Theatre Thu., Dec. 15, 7 p.m.

The Avalon Theatre Thu., Dec. 1, 7:45 p.m.

American University Greenberg Theatre Sun., Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m.

Orphée (Orpheus) Directed by Jean Cocteau (France, 1950, 95 min.)

Jean Cocteau’s take on the Greek myth about the musician, poet and prophet — the second part of his Orphic Trilogy — is a major allegorical work dealing with themes of death and dreams, fantasy and myth, poetry and song.

National Gallery of Art Sat., Dec. 31, 2 p.m.

The Seashell and the Clergyman (La Coquille et le Clergyman) Directed by Germaine Dulac (France, 1928, 40 min.)

Obsessed with a military general’s woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism. (Screens with “Blood of a Poet”) National Gallery of Art Sun., Dec. 4, 5 p.m.

German The African Twin Towers Directed by Christoph Schlingensief (Germany, 2006, 71 min.)

This is a documentary about Christoph Schlingensief’s last unfinished film, set in Namibia, as the director, diagnosed with cancer, attempts to find the right form of film expression after a decade in theater, performance arts and visual arts.

National Gallery of Art Sat., Dec. 3, 4 p.m.

In Another Lifetime (Veilleicht In Einem Anderen Leben) Directed by Elisabeth Scharang (Austria, 2010, 94 min.)

In this drama set near the end of World War II, a group Hungarian Jews forced into a death march to an Austrian concentration camp hope to win over the locals and ensure their safety, deciding to stage an operetta for the Nazisympathizing townspeople.

AFI Silver Theatre Tue., Dec. 6, 9:15 p.m.

Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death (Eichmanns Ende Liebe, Verrat, Tod) Directed by Raymond Ley (Germany/Israel, 2010, 90 min.)

The love affair between Adolph Eichmann’s son and the Jewish daughter of a Holocaust survivor leads to Eichmann’s dis-

December 2011

PHOTO: WJFF

“Mabul,” the opening night film of the 22nd annual Washington Jewish Film Festival, portrays a young boy’s family struggles when his autistic brother returns home from an institution just before his Bar Mitzvah.

covery in Argentina by the girl’s blind father, who recognizes him as the infamous SS lieutenant colonel and turns him over to the Mossad. (German, Hebrew and Spanish with English subtitles) AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Dec. 8, 7 p.m.

concentration camp in Poland, as a young Polish political prisoner tries to rescue his Jewish lover, who’s discovered she is pregnant. (English, German and Polish)

Caterpillar (Kyatapirâ)

This alternately heart-wrenching and heartwarming film traces the emotional journey of a young Rwandan anti-genocide activist who lost 100 members of her family in her country’s 1994 genocide.

Directed by Duki Dror (Israel, 2011, 70 min.)

German Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn, a visionary who created striking buildings and became Israel’s national architect, is the subject of this documentary. (German and Hebrew) AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Dec. 4, 1 p.m.

Mahler on the Couch Directed by Percy and Felix Adlon (Austria/Germany, 2010, 100 min.)

The beloved, headstrong wife of legendary composer Gustav Mahler is having an affair with a young architect, so the tormented Mahler tracks down Sigmund Freud in Holland and begs for treatment.

Washington DCJCC Wed., Dec. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Remembrance (Die Verlorene Zeit) Directed by Anna Justice (Germany/Poland/U.S., 2011, 105 min.)

A remarkable love story blossoms in 1944 in the middle of the terror of a German

Washington DCJCC Sat., Dec. 3, 8:45 p.m.

The Rescuers Directed by Britta Wauer (Germany, 2011, 90 min.)

Incessant Visions — Letters From an Architect

Seventy year-old Yaakov Fidelman has spent his life restoring antique furniture, but repairing the relationships in his life is far more difficult.

Japanese

Directed by Michael King (U.S., 2011, 94 min.)

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Dec. 5, 7 p.m.

Washington DCJCC Tue., Dec. 6, 8:30 p.m.

Directed by Joseph Madmony (Israel, 2011, 105 min.)

Washington DCJCC Sun., Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m.

In Heaven Underground (Im Himmel Unter Der Erde) This documentary looks at the largest active Jewish burial ground in Europe — Berlin’s Weissensee Jewish Cemetery — which has operated for 130 years continuously under Jewish authority, even during the Nazi regime. (German, Russian and English)

Restoration (Boker Tov Adon Fidelman)

Washington DCJCC Sat., Dec. 3, 6:15 p.m.

Directed by Koji Wakamatsu (Japan, 2010, 85 min.)

In this scathing look at small-town life in World War II Japan, a soldier returns home to his wife, deaf and missing both arms and legs, but his wife soon discovers that his abusive nature and brutal lust are still intact, despite his ravaged body.

Terror 2000 – Intensivstation Deutschland

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Dec.16, 7 p.m.

Directed by Christoph Schlingensief (Germany, 1992, 79 min.)

United Red Army (Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi)

In the 1988 Gladbeck hostage drama, two fugitive gangsters are unsuccessfully pursued by two detectives as they harass asylum seekers in an East German town, while West German neo-Nazis, a faith healer and local politicians try to take advantage of the situation.

Goethe-Institut Mon., Dec. 5, 6:30 p.m.

United Trash (a.k.a The Slit) Directed by Christoph Schlingensief (W. Germany, 1995/96, 79 min.)

A gay United Nations general rampages among German soldiers at a U.N. camp in Zimbabwe, as his wife gives birth to a black-skinned child who’s soon idolized as the Messiah by natives, in this comedymusical.

Goethe-Institut Mon., Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m.

Hebrew Love During Wartime Directed by Gabriella Bier (Sweden, 2010, 92 min.)

Jasmin and Assi are newlyweds, but building a life together seems impossible for the Jewish dancer and Muslim artist in this

Directed by Koji Wakamatsu (Japan, 2007, 190 min.)

This docudrama charts the trajectory of Japan’s radical left, beginning with the idealistic student movements of the 1960s and then following the rise and collapse of the far-left United Red Army group, which infamously tortured and killed its own members for not properly adhering to Communist doctrine.

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., Dec.18, 2 p.m.

Polish My Australia (Australia Sheli) Directed by Ami Drozd (Israel/Poland, 2011, 100 min.)

Young Tadek and his older brother, both fatherless, spend their days in mid-1960s Poland as part of a neoNazi gang that beats up Jews. So their mother Halina, secretly a Holocaust survivor, finally decides to tell the boys that they are, in fact, Jewish and moves the family to Israel. (Polish and Hebrew) American University Greenberg Theatre

The Artist Set in 1927, silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, as sparks fly with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

(Silent with limited English and French) AFI Silver Theatre Opens Sun., Dec. 25 Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Dec. 9

Spanish 36 Righteous Men (Los 36 Justos) Directed by Daniel Burman (Argentina, 2010, 67 min.)

Every year, a group of Orthodox Jewish friends from Argentina journeys 2,500 miles to Russia, Ukraine and Poland to visit the graves of the 36 Righteous Men, the Tzadikim, who are said to live on earth to do good anonymously in each generation.

(Spanish and English) Washington DCJCC Sun., Dec. 11, 12 p.m.

Lope Directed by Andrucha Waddinton (Spain/Brazil, 2010, 106 min.)

This spectacular romantic epic explores the life and loves of immortal dramatist and swashbuckling adventurer Lope de Vega — a man ruled by his passions, and more condemned than commended for his eviscerating wit.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Dec. 1, 4:45 p.m.

Thai Eternity (Chua fah din salai) Directed by Sivaroj Kongsakul (Thailand, 2010, 105 min.)

A forbidden affair becomes a sumptuous tale of a bond so strong that it continues beyond the grave, moving seamlessly from ghost story to love story to a touching coda.

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Dec. 9, 7 p.m.

Salsa Tel Aviv Directed by Jorge Weller (Israel, 2011, 100 min.)

A Mexican salsa dancer and poor single mom flies to Israel dressed as a nun to sneak into the country to find the father of her child but instead encounters a young Israeli scientist about to marry his girlfriend. (Spanish and Hebrew) Washington DCJCC Sat., Dec. 10, 9:30 p.m.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Loong Boonmee raleuk chat) Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand, 2010, 114 min.)

Dying of kidney failure, a man is visited by the ghosts of his wife and son, who help him to prepare for his journey to the afterlife and to remember his previous lives.

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., Dec. 11, 2 p.m.

The Washington Diplomat Page 39

[ around town ]

EVENTS LISTING **Admission is free unless otherwise noted. All information on event venues can be found on The Diplomat Web site at www.washdiplomat. com. Times and locations are subject to change.

Unless listed, please call venue for specific event times and hours of operation.

Spanish art and architecture, illustrate the skills of Juan Laurent (1816–86), a preeminent figure in the history of Spanish photography.

National Gallery of Art

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT and hand-painted canvases featuring distorted photographs of shadows generated in the artist’s studio — forms that at once suggest and mock the bravura brushwork of the abstract expressionists.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Through Dec. 30

ART Dec. 3 to 18

Home for Christmas Enjoy whimsical and authentic illustrations from the book “Home for Christmas” by Jan Brett, one of America’s most beloved and bestselling children’s author-illustrators.

Special storytelling sessions of the book for families will take place Dec. 10, 11, 17 and 18, at noon and 2 p.m.

House of Sweden Dec. 3 to March 11

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro: Are We There Yet? In the first U.S. exhibition of Australian artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro — and the third exhibition in the “NOW at the Corcoran” series showcasing emerging and mid-career artists — a gallery-transforming installation draws on American history, literature, pop culture, current affairs and the Corcoran’s architecture to explore the symbolism of space exploration and the paradoxes of food consumption.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Through Dec. 14

Urban_Landscapes

Through Jan. 15

Art from Europe and the United States imagines urban areas with great potential for diversification and transformation, playing with known architecture and structures and how the ideas behind them are often obscured by the viewer’s angle.

CHINA Town: Contemporary Ceramic Painting from Jingdezhen

Embassy of Austria Through Jan. 1

Wedding Belles Four gowns belonging to heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and those of her mother and daughters, along with bridesmaid dresses, a royal veil, and a stunning Cartier bag carried by Post’s daughter tell the story of 20th-century wedding style through the lens of one of America’s most notable and fashionable families.

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Through Jan. 2

Warhol: Headlines Andy Warhol had a lifelong obsession with the sensational side of contemporary news media, and his source materials for his artwork — headlines from the tabloid news — will be presented for comparison, revealing Warhol’s role as both editor and author.

Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible Marking its 400th anniversary this year, the 1611 King James Bible still echoes in books, movies, songs, speeches and sermons today. But who translated it? The Folger Shakespeare Library and University of Oxford draw on their deep resources to uncover the little-known story of one of the most widely read books in the history of the English language.

Folger Shakespeare Library

Through Jan. 7

Contemporary Art from Chile

A Celebration of Life

In this dual exhibition, “Traveling Light” features five contemporary Chilean artists who’ve installed site-specific work at the museum, while “Common Place” highlights the evolving subordinate relationship between Latin American housekeepers and their housewife employers.

American University Katzen Arts Center

International Visions Gallery

Through Dec. 14

Through Jan. 8

Inner Piece: Works from the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection

Degas’s Dancers at the Barre: Point and Counterpoint

Through Jan. 22

OAS Art Museum of the Americas Through Feb. 3

American University Katzen Arts Center Through Dec. 14

The Phillips Collection

Wayne Barrar: An Expanding Subterra

Through Jan. 8

New Zealand photographer Wayne Barrar traveled through America, New Zealand, Australia and France seeking the subterranean places in which people live, work, and play — depicting hidden the underground worksites of mines and universities to the surreal domestic world of the subterranean homes in an opal mining town in South Australia.

American University Katzen Arts Center

The Pastrana Tapestries—among the finest surviving Gothic tapestries—will be on view together for the first time in the U.S. and will showcase the recently restored set of four monumental tapestries that commemorate the conquest of two strategically located cities in Morocco by the king of Portugal, Afonso V (1432–1481).

National Gallery of Art

Through Dec. 30

The Solemnity of Shadows: Juan Laurent’s Vision of Spain

Through Jan. 15

Nearly two dozen rare albumen photographs and two albums, with a particular focus on

Created in the last decade of Andy Warhol’s life, “Shadows” comprises 102 silkscreened

Page 40

The Washington Diplomat

New Visions: A Selection of the Latest Acquisitions from the IDB Art Collection, 2008–2011 The Inter-American Development Bank’s art collection comprises 1,722 artworks that include paintings, sculpture, photography, works on paper, ceramics and handcrafted objects. These works showcase the region’s creativity and highlight the achievements of its distinguished artists.

Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Through Feb. 3

The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries

Andy Warhol: Shadows

National Gallery of Art

Through Feb. 12

This exhibition examines the work Louise Rosskam, an elusive pioneer of American documentary photography in the 1930 and ’40s, including her compelling photographs of Southwest D.C. neighborhoods before their destruction for urban renewal as well as her images of Puerto Rico as it developed from an impoverished U.S. possession to an industrialized commonwealth.

Bringing together about 30 works from some of the world’s finest collections, this exhibition traces ballet in Edgar Degas’s art from the 1870s to 1900, while also celebrating “Dancers at the Barre” as a crowning achievement in the artist’s four-decade career — prompted by discoveries from a recent conservation treatment of the masterpiece, which took 16 years to create.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Meridian International Center

National Gallery of Art

This selection of works comes from the private collection of Tony and Heather Podesta, widely known for their respective lobbying firms but are equally well known for being among the country’s most prominent contemporary art collectors.

Through April 8

This unprecedented exhibition of porcelain art — the sixth in a series of exhibits organized over the last decade by the Meridian Center’s Art for Cultural Diplomacy program with Chinese partners — highlights objects from Jingdezhen, a city of 1.6 million people that has produced the finest Chinese porcelain for more than 1,000 years, especially the world-renowned blue and white decorative motifs.

Elusive Pioneer of American Documentary Photography

Nigerian artist Stanley Agbontaen’s newest body of work includes 23 oil paintings and seven wood block panels featuring richly colored, vibrant scenes that celebrate Nigeria’s resilient people, the beauty in their daily rituals, and the energy of their bustling urban centers and marketplaces.

one in D.C., whereby a single photograph was sent by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio as a digital file to Muriel Hasbun, who replied by sending back one of her own. This exchange went on for months, the results of which reveal how photography can probe the possibilities of cultural and visual exchange in a digital age.

Through Feb. 10

Through Jan. 15

On the Lakeshore… and Other Stories Photographer Iris Janke’s work treads a fine line between reflection and intuition, between control and chance, as she records her daily experiences in a visual diary from which she selects the images that have the strongest narrative power.

Goethe-Institut Through Feb. 4

Conversación: Photo Works

by Muriel Hasbun and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio In conjunction with FotoWeek DC, this exhibition represents a yearlong collaboration between two artists, one from Mexico and

December 2011 Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes This exhibition is the first in the United States devoted to the Mantuan sculptor and goldsmith Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (c.

1455–1528), known as Antico for his expertise in classical antiquity.

Forces of Nature

CELEBRATIONS

Investigating the intricacies of land and sea, flora and fauna, 13 acclaimed Australian artists specializing in jewelry and small sculpture reflect on the complex relationship between contemporary Australia and its unique natural environment.

Sat., Dec. 3, 7 to 10:30 p.m.

Embassy of Australia

30 Americans Provocative and confrontational, this exhibition showcases works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades, focusing on issues of racial, sexual and historical identity and exploring the powerful influence of artistic legacy across generations.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Through Feb. 12

Weaving Abstraction: Kuba Textiles and the Woven Art of Central Africa Ingeniously woven from palm fiber, Central African textiles distinguished the wealthy and powerful. Woven art from the Kuba kingdom in particular makes playful use of a language of over 200 patterns. “Weaving Abstraction is the most comprehensive exploration of this art form to date in the U.S., with 150 objects ranging from small, exquisite baskets to monumental skirts.

The Textile Museum Through March 4

Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley This international exhibit features more than 148 objects used in a range of ritual contexts, with genres as varied and complex as the vast region of Central Nigeria, that demonstrate how the history of the area can be “unmasked” through the dynamic interrelationships of its peoples and their arts.

National Museum of African Art Through March 4

Harry Callahan at 100 Celebrate the centenary of the birth of Harry Callahan (1912–99), one of the most innovative and influential photographers of the 20th century, with some 100 photographs that explores all facets of Callahan’s art.

National Gallery of Art Through March 24

The Wild Horses of Sable Island Photographer Roberto Dutesco reveals the fascinating beauty of a fragile sliver of sand more than 100 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. Sable Island, known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” is the site of more than 475 shipwrecks since the 17th century. Yet the barren, windswept island is also home to more than 400 wild horses, abandoned there by sailors long ago — a feral herd that has managed to thrive in an unforgiving environment.

Embassy of Canada Art Gallery

CentroNía’s 25th Birthday Bash CentroNía celebrates 25 years of progress with a special tribute to its founder, Beatriz “BB” Otero, whose vision drives CentroNía in educating and guiding more than 2,500 children and families across the D.C. area, with this lavish evening featuring dinner, live music, and a live and silent auction of fine handicrafts by local artists. For information, contact Francis Keller at (202) 332-4200 ext. 1091 or email fkeller@centronia.org.

American University Katzen Arts Center Sat., Dec. 3, 4 to 8 p.m.

Holidays through History!

Visit the cherished past at Tudor Place, Anderson House, Dumbarton House and the Woodrow Wilson House as all four D.C. landmarks jointly throw open their doors for a holiday open house where guests can stroll the historic rooms, delight in period decorations and music that reflects holiday traditions from the Federal period through the Roaring Twenties, and sample seasonal treats and crafts projects.

Tickets for adults are $10 and $5 for children.

Various locations Sat., Dec. 3, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Swedish Christmas Bazaar Experience a typical Swedish “julmarknad” with vendors, food, music and the traditional Santa Lucia procession. Highlights include a market to purchase holiday gifts, a children’s activity room with Swedish crafts, Swedish Café with home-baked goods and traditional delicacies, as well as holiday carols and songs performed by children from the Swedish school.

House of Sweden Through Dec. 4

Seventh Annual Flamenco Festival at GALA “Fuego Flamenco VII” is an exploration of the diversity and depth of flamenco and its contemporary expressions; this year’s attractions include a U.S. premiere with the sultry Ana González appearing with José Barrios and Company from Madrid, as well as a world premiere by the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company from D.C. that features only male flamenco dancers from Spain and the U.S. For information, visit www.galatheatre.org.

GALA Hispanic Theatre

DANCE Dec. 8 to 11

American Ballet Theatre: The Nutcracker Magical toy soldiers, shimmering snowflakes, mischievous mice, and all the enchanting inhabitants of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s whimsical world descend on the Kennedy

December 2011

Center for the D.C. premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s “The Nutcracker.” Tickets are $45 to $150.

Kennedy Center Opera House

DISCUSSIONS Thu., Dec. 1, 7 p.m.

Le Studio: Wine Tasting 101 The French Embassy’s monthly “Wine Tasting 101” soirées — with veteran wine journalist Claire Morin-Gibourg — explore the regions and vineyards in France, as well as tasting techniques. This month’s tasting features cognacs from the Hennessy Cognac distillery. Tickets are $75.

La Maison Française Thu., Dec. 8, 12 p.m.

Ambassador Johnnie Carson Ambassador Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for the State Department Bureau of African Affairs, headlines the program “Forty Years of Dedication to Africa: A Dialogue with Ambassador Johnnie Carson.”

Dec. 13 to Jan. 15

CRAFTY DISPLAY

to learn

more

More than 185 jury-selected artists are descending on the Washington Convention Center this month for the Washington Craft Show, now in For more information, its 24th year. visit www.

From Dec. 2 to 4, the world of outdoor art fairs WashingtonCraftShow.com heads indoors to create an upscale shopping experience featuring artists and designers from across the country working in a variety of media — from handcrafted furniture and lighting, to decorative objects for the home, to jewelry and wearable art.

“Each piece represents an inspiring facet of the American spirit, transmitted from the artist’s hands to yours,” says show organizer Elizabeth Kubie. “One of the most compelling aspects of this show is the opportunity visitors have to actually meet the artist who created the work. No gallery owners, no agents; just the artists and their art.” Admission is $15.

nist Matei Varga has already performed as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist at major venues in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm and Jerusalem.

Tickets are $100, including Romanian buffet and wine; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

for his own “party” of sorts, surrounded by volume after volume of a life on tape, but what he hears from his 39-year-old self may irrevocably change his future in Samuel Beckett’s haunting play starring John Hurt. Please call for ticket information.

“The Quest for an Elusive Continental Ideal

Romanian Residence

The Shakespeare Theatre

Ricardo V. Luna, former ambassador of Peru to the United States, talk abouts the efforts of thinkers and leaders from North America and Latin America to develop a definition of a single Western culture across the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Sat., Dec. 10, 8 p.m., Sun., Dec. 11, 3 p.m.

Dec. 6 to Jan. 8

National Philharmonic: Handel’s Messiah

Thu., Dec. 8, 6:30 p.m.

World-class soloists join the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale to usher in the holidays with Handel’s 1741 masterpiece, the most-performed and beloved work in all of Western choral music. Please call for ticket information.

The Mexican Table

Woolly Mammoth artists flew to Chicago to work with the Second City’s comedians in this unprecedented collaboration. Their mission? Bring back the most gleeful anti-holiday celebration of doom ever — a mindbending and hilarious new show exploring the twists of fate that propel our universe.

Tickets start at $30.

Music Center at Strathmore

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Thu., Dec. 15, 8 p.m.

Through Dec. 11

Vienna Boys Choir: Christmas in Vienna

The Golden Dragon

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building Thu., Dec. 8, 4 p.m.

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building

The Mexican Table Cooking Series concludes 2011 with a session on the history behind the piñata tradition while savoring the treasured meal of pozole in its many variations with renowned chef Patricia Jinich. Tickets are $70.

MUSIC

Capturing the enchantment and joy of the holiday season, the Vienna Bys Choir has for 500 years been synonymous with fine choral music by some of Europe’s greatest composers. Tickets are $32, $40 or $48.

Dec. 1 to 3, 7:30 p.m.

George Mason University Hylton Performing Arts Center

Mexican Cultural Institute

A Luxembourg Christmas Toast the holidays with an array of classical, popular and Christmas music performed by chamber music groups, pianists, singers, carolers and more. Champagne, hors d’oeuvres and a buffet dinner accompany this spirited concert hosted by the Embassy Series. Tickets are $125; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Luxembourg Sat., Dec. 3, 2 & 8 p.m., Sun., Dec. 4, 2 p.m.

Manuel de Falla: El Amor Brujo PostClassical Ensemble presents a new production of Falla’s demonic flamenco masterpiece starting the legendary flamenco cantaora Esperanza Fernández in her D.C. debut. Tickets are $25.

Turkish cellist Efe Baltacıgil was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike in 2005 when he and pianist Emanuel Ax performed Beethoven’s “Cello Sonata No.1” at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert with only 10 minutes of rehearsal when a winter snowstorm prevented most of the orchestra from reaching the concert hall. After that performance, the Philadelphia Inquirer presciently wrote that Baltacigil’s “gorgeous sound, strong personality, and expressive depth suggest an artist about to have a major career.” Tickets are $150, including Turkish reception and dinner; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org.

Sun., Dec. 4, 6:30 p.m.

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano: Fiesta Navidad The Grammy-winning ensemble Mariachi Los Camperos, formed nearly 50 years ago, brings a festive, joyful holiday sound that celebrates the cultural traditions of Mexico.

Tickets are $23, $38 or $46.

Through Dec. 18

The Madman and the Nun The Ambassador Theater presents “The Madman and the Nun or, There is Nothing Bad Which Could Not Turn into Something Worse” by Polish playwright Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz — set entirely in one cell of a lunatic asylum, where the madman of the title, poet Alexander Walpurg, becomes part of a scientific experiment lead by Dr. Grun and his Freudian preconception of curing the patient with the help of Sister Anna. Tickets are $30.

Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint

Through Jan. 1

Equivocation In 1605 London, the worlds of King James and the Gunpowder Plot collide with William Shakespeare and his renowned theatrical troupe as the Bard, commissioned to create a calculated piece of propaganda, must find a way to please the king while avoiding the gallows in this cat-and-mouse game of politics and art. Please call for ticket details.

Arena Stage Through Jan. 1

Much Ado About Nothing Everyone can see that Benedick and Beatrice are meant for each other except Benedick and Beatrice in one of the Bard’s most romantic comedies ever written.

Please call for ticket information.

The Shakespeare Theatre Through Jan. 1

Through Dec. 23

You, Nero

Romeo and Juliet

As Rome collapses beneath Nero’s outrageous narcissism, a forgotten playwright tries to restore order by trying to convince the world’s most famous debaucher to choose virtue over vice. Please call for ticket details.

Synetic Theater’s “Speak No More” – The Silent Shakespeare Festival concludes with the Bard’s tragic story of love, passion and timelessness, all made stunningly physical through the lyrical choreography and movement of Synetic’s performers. Tickets are $45 to $55.

Arena Stage

Synetic Theater at Crystal City

Through Jan. 7

Through Dec. 31

This Tony and Grammy Award-winning production is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. Tickets start at $66.50.

Jersey Boys

A Christmas Carol Join the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future as they lead the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge — played by renowned Washington stage actor Edward Gero — on a journey of transformation and redemption in this music-infused production that captures the magic and joy of Dickens’s Yuletide classic.

National Theatre

Ford’s Theatre

Through Jan. 29

Through Dec. 31

In 1960s Baltimore, Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, wins a spot on the local TV dance program and, overnight, is transformed from outsider to irrepressible teen celebrity in the Broadway sensation “Hairspray.” Tickets start at $63.

Hairspray

Pride and Prejudice The willful, witty Elizabeth is taunted and tantalized by the disciplined, dashing Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s classic world of desperate spinsters, determined bachelors, nosy neighbors, embarrassing relatives, and a

Signature Theatre

CULTURE GUIDE English Conversation Classes Learn English in a friendly and supportive environment. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels available. Information about American culture is also included during classes.

Convenient location for Embassy personnel.

Only $40 for a 10 week course.

Sponsored by The Global Neighborhood Center.

3855 Massachusetts Avenue, NW (Christ Church) Washington, DC 20016

Pride and Prejudice Live on stage!

Nov. 23 – Dec. 31

202-363-4090

Plan Your Entire Weekend.

www.washdiplomat.com

George Mason University Center for the Arts

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THEATER

Matei Varga, Piano

Through Dec. 4

With his smoldering intensity and intellectual interpretations, young Romanian-born pia-

Krapp’s Last Tape

December 2011

Kennedy Center Opera House

Round House Theatre Bethesda

Sun., Dec. 18, 4 p.m.

La Maison Française Fri., Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m.

The Studio Theatre

Efe Baltacigil, Cello Amy Yang, Piano

Turkish Residence

Praised as “a marvel” by the Chicago SunTimes, French flutist Mathieu Dufour has a pure sound and flawless technique that helped to make him one of the youngest principal flutists with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Tickets are $25.

Five actors cross age, race and gender to play 15 characters in this vicious yet poetic investigation of how intertwined our globalized lives really are, by one of Germany’s most innovative and adventurous writers. Tickets are $35 to $69.

In this Tony-winning musical with heart and humor, Billy stumbles out of the boxing ring and into a ballet class, discovering a surprising talent for dance that inspires his family and his whole community, changing his life forever. Tickets are $25 to $150.

Fri., Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m.

Georgetown University Davis Performing Arts Center

Mathieu Dufour, Flute

Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies

smarmy cad or two. Tickets are $26 to $61.

Billy Elliot the Musical

Contact Dave Garber at: email: dgarber@washdiplomat.com phone: (301) 933-3552, ext. 30 fax: (301) 949-0065

240.644.1100 or

ROUNDHOUSETHEATRE.ORG

Bethesda

Alone on his 69th birthday, a man prepares

The Washington Diplomat Page 41

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT Indonesian Independence Day

The Washington Diplomat

December 2011

From left, Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée Jones-Bos, Ambassador of Indonesia Dino Patti Djalal, Rosa Rai Djalal, and Dr. Richard Huw Jones attend the Indonesian Independence Day reception.

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

Womens Diplomatic Series Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, center, joins Ambassador of Indonesia and Mrs. Dino Patti Djalal at a reception in honor of the 66th anniversary of Indonesia’s Independence Day held at the embassy.

Rosa Rai Djalal, wife of the Indonesian ambassador, center, poses with women who work at the Indonesian Embassy, dressed in traditional attire, at the Indonesian Independence Day reception.

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

From left, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sánchez, Ambassador of Cambodia Hem Heng, and Ambassador of the Philippines Jose L. Cuisia Jr. attend the Indonesian Independence Day held at the Indonesian Embassy.

American-Russian Cultural Cooperation

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) talks about U.S.-Indonesian relations at the Indonesian Independence Day reception.

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

Ambassador of the Arab League Hussein Hassouna and his wife Nevine attend the Indonesian Independence Day reception.

From left, Womens Diplomatic Series Board Member Donna Jervey, President and founder Colleen Mudlaff, wife of the Israeli ambassador and hostess Sally Oren, Tina Burns and Suzette O’Connor attend “A Morning in Israel” program for the Womens Diplomatic Series.

‘Cleopatra, A Life’ From left, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff, Suzy Shoukry, and Ambassador of Egypt Sameh Shoukry attend a reception for Schiff and her book “Cleopatra, a Life,” held at the Egyptian Embassy in collaboration with the Capitol Archeological Institute at the George Washington University.

Philanthropist Susan Lehrman enjoys the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation dinner at the Russian Embassy, which honored the legacy of U.S.Russian scientific ties.

Former CEO and cofounder of Pepsi Donald M. Kendall, left, who brought Pepsi to Russia, and Ambassador of Russia Sergey I. Kislyak attend a black-tie dinner at the Russian Embassy for the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation.

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, left, joins American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation (ARCCF) Chairman James W. Symington at the dinner for ARCCF, which for nearly 20 years has worked to increase U.S.-Russian understanding through arts and culture.

PHOTOS: RICK GAMBHIR / OPEN EYE STUDIOS

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, left, joins G. Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the evening’s special honoree, at the AmericanRussian Cultural Cooperation Foundation’s (ARCCF) black-tie dinner at the Russian Embassy in honor of “Two Giants of Science,” Benjamin Franklin and Mikhail Lomonosov.

Nyumbani Annual Benefit

Nordic Food at D.C. Schools

PHOTO: JULIE POUCHER HARBIN

From left, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Norwegian Embassy Johan Christopher Vibe, Ambassador of Sweden and Mrs. Jonas Hafström, Prince Daniel of Sweden, Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, and recently appointed Ambassador of Iceland Gudmundur Arni Stefansson attend a reception at the Norwegian Residence to celebrate Nordic Food Day in all 125 D.C. Public Schools.

Page 42

The Washington Diplomat

Prince Daniel of Sweden, right, visits Miner Elementary School in D.C. as part of Nordic Food Day, in which the Embassies of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with the D.C. Public Schools Office of Food & Nutrition Services and the DC Embassy Adoption Program, brought Nordic food to 45,000 D.C. Public School students.

From left, Joseph Novello, Nyumbani Executive Director Sister Mary Owens, and former Ambassador of Macedonia Ljubica Acevska attend the annual fundraising gala for Nyumbani — meaning “at home”— that cares for HIV-infected infants and children in Kenya.

PHOTOS: JACOB COMENETZ

Catherine Hansen, left, and Deborah Dunham attend the Nyumbani gala at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., to raise funds for the rising number of HIV-infected infants and children in Kenya.

December 2011

From left, Ambassador of Fiji Winston Thompson, THIS volunteer Michaele Battles, Queenie Thompson, wife of the Fiji ambassador and member of the THIS Diplomatic Advisory Board, and THIS volunteer Margo Kingston attend the 50th anniversary celebration of THIS for Diplomats, a nonprofit that helps diplomats and their families adapt to life in D.C.

THIS for Diplomats

PHOTO: SAMANTHA FIEN-HELFMAN

PHOTO: MARJORY HARDY PHOTOGRAPHY

From left, 50th Anniversary Committee Sponsor Helen Bing, Karen Russo of the THIS Executive Committee, Vice President Joe Biden, and 50th Anniversary Committee Chair Susan Lee attend the 50th anniversary celebration of THIS for Diplomats held at Blair House.

American Task Force on Palestine

From left, Aoko Midiwo-Odembo, a member of the THIS Diplomatic Advisory Board, her husband Kenyan Ambassador Elkanah Odembo, and THIS President Joan Keston attend the 50th anniversary celebration of THIS for Diplomats, a nonprofit volunteer organization that welcomes and assists diplomats and their families in Washington, D.C.

PHOTO: MARJORY HARDY PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO: SAMANTHA FIEN-HELFMAN

From left, Ambassador of St. Lucia Michael Louis, Etleva Galanxhi, Ambassador of Albania Gilbert Galanxhi, wife of the Barbados ambassador Leila Mol, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic Anibal de Castro, and founder and President of the Israel Project Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi attend the American Task Force on Palestine’s Sixth Annual Gala.

From left, THIS volunteer Hugh Grindstaff, Nina Burian, wife of the Slovak ambassador and member of the THIS Diplomatic Advisory Board, THIS for Diplomats President Joan Keston, and Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Peter Burian attend the 50th anniversary celebration of THIS for Diplomats at Blair House.

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of Chile Arturo Fermandois Vöhringer welcome Ambassador of Costa Rica Muni Figueres Boggs, and Ambassador of Uruguay Carlos Gianelli Derois to the Chilean National Day reception held at their residence.

Chilean National Day

PHOTO:S LARRY LUXNER

From left, wife of the Barbados ambassador Leila Mol, Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority Salam Fayyad, and Ambassador of St. Lucia Michael Louis attend the American Task Force on Palestine’s Sixth Annual Gala held at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington.

Honoring UNIDO

Ambassador of Chile Arturo Fermandois Vöhringer, left, greets Daniel Fried, the State Department special envoy to Guantanamo Bay, at the Chilean National Day reception.

South Korean National Day

From left, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Kandeh Yumkella, President of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils Deborah Wince-Smith, and State Department Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern attend a reception in honor of Dr. Yumkella and UNIDO at the home of Esther Coopersmith.

PHOTO: GAIL SCOTT

Fendi at Italy UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Esther Coopersmith, center, welcomes Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki and his wife Yoriko to a reception at her home in honor of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization.

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

From left, Anna Fendi is welcomed to a luncheon at the Italian Residence in her honor by Antonella Cinque and Ambassador of Italy Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata.

Fendi, a member of the famous Italian fashion house, was in town to receive an award from the International Women’s Forum.

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of South Korea Han Duk-soo welcome Ambassador of Cambodia Hem Heng to the South Korean National and Armed Forces Day reception held at their residence.

Budapest Festival Orchestra

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

PHOTO: MORRIS SIMON, THE SIMON FIRM FOR THE EMBASSY SERIES

Embassy Series at Israel Israeli pianist Ran Dank, left, joins Judith Terra at Dank’s Embassy Series concert performance at the Israeli Embassy.

December 2011

From left, Philip and Nina Pillsbury, Maestro Iván Fischer, Hungarianborn interior designer Aniko Gaal Schott and Susan Vipa of the Library of Congress attend a post-performance dinner at the Hungarian Residence in honor of Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

From left, Réka Gombos, assistant to the Hungarian ambassador; Ambassador of Hungary György Szapáry; Fruzsina Kacsko, wife of the Hungarian consul general in New York; Maestro Iván Fischer; and Hungarian General Consul in New York Károly Dán attend a post-performance dinner at the Hungarian Residence in honor of Fischer, former principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, following the Library of Congress concert “The Liszt Legacy and Béla Bartók: Soloists from the Budapest Festival Orchestra.”

From left, Mrs. and Defense Attaché at the South Korean Embassy Brig. Gen. Seoyoung Lee welcome Assistant Defense and Military Attaché for the Polish Embassy Tomasz Janusz Kister to the South Korean National and Armed Forces Day reception.

The Washington Diplomat Page 43

from page 18

Panetta bling to preserve a few billion dollars that will make no dent in the national debt, all while being asked to shoulder an increasing global burden.

Despite diminishing American influence around the world, U.S. diplomacy must confront a dizzying array of international challenges that don’t exactly lend themselves to a military solution, from the Arab Spring to the euro crisis to humanitarian disasters to the rise of emerging powers such as China and India.The State Department is also preparing to take over responsibility for Iraq from the U.S. military this month, which means that strategic hotspots such as Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan will take up an inordinate share of State’s alreadypaltry budget, leaving less funds for famine relief, democracy building or nuclear nonproliferation efforts, for instance.

Again, the numbers are revealing. The State Department’s annual budget comes to about $50 billion. The Pentagon’s is well over 10 times that.

For the 2012 fiscal year, Congress has largely proposed freezing DoD spending — a Senate bill would reduce it by $26 billion, for a budget of $513 billion, while the House has proposed $530 billion (the two bills now have to be reconciled).

Meanwhile, the House Appropriations State and Foreign Ops subcommittee is aiming to slash 18 percent from State’s coffers, including a 27 percent cut to USAID. Even top military officials have warned such deep cuts could jeopardize national security.

Panetta’s predecessor deserves credit for trying to reverse this trend. In a rare example of Beltway budgetary teamwork, Gates supported Secretary Clinton’s efforts to rebalance America’s foreign policy priorities and bolster the prestige of Foggy Bottom. He recognized the growing militarization of foreign policy in a way Panetta has so far failed to grasp.

Beyond the wisdom of putting defense above diplomacy and development in America’s dealings with the world, the hard truth is that war can be a profitable business, and there’s no doubt that defense spending — one of the few economic drivers in which the United States maintains a global competitive edge — provides desperately needed jobs domestically. Defense contractors also shrewdly plant those jobs in almost every congressional district they can reach, ensuring that defense is the most sacred of cows when lawmakers look to cut spending.

And while the jobs are needed, the results sometimes aren’t.The boondoggle of defense contracts — which can be exceedingly difficult to track — has sunk billions into obsolete or unproven weapons programs that even Gates and the military brass have sought to abandon,but couldn’t because of congressional opposition. (Democratic lawmakers recently leaked details of a Pentagon report that shows defense companies have defrauded the U.S. military of a whopping $1.1 trillion over the last decade.)

Gates himself admitted that,“Since 9/11, a near doubling of the Pentagon’s modernization accounts — more than $700 billion over 10 years in new spending on procurement, research and development — has resulted in relatively modest gains in actual military capability,” adding that the days of “no-questions-asked funding requests” were over.

In addition to not always improving the military’s capabilities, excessive defense spending can also crowd out more powerful engines of economic growth — and safety nets. Indeed, at the same time he has demanded every dollar he can get for the Pentagon, Panetta has argued against funding the social programs that, even as they are, leave Americans with a level of social support well below that of every other wealthy country in the world.“You cannot deal with the size deficits that this country is confronting by simply cutting the discretionary side of the budget,” which includes military spending, Panetta argued.“That represents less than a third of the overall federal budget….

You’ve got to look at the mandatory side of the budget, which is two-thirds of the federal budget.

Page 44

The Washington Diplomat

And you also have to look at revenues as part of that.”

To be sure, soaring health care costs are one of the biggest problems facing the nation. But to focus on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs (the latter fiscally solvent in the medium term) that leave Americans with some comfort in a ruthless economy while pushing for more fighter jets and cluster bombs is morally and fiscally wrong. (Do we really need three different versions of a fighter jet that has an estimated $1 trillion price tag over its 50-year lifespan?)

And what Panetta doesn’t mention is the fact that within this one-third slice of discretionary spending, more than half is consumed by defense.

That means the entire other half — the part that politicians and voters always rush to gut — goes to all those basic functions most people associate with government: education, transportation, law enforcement, energy research, children’s nutrition, housing assistance and the entire space budget, among myriad other programs. Ethan Pollack of the Economic Policy Institute describes this underappreciated segment of spending as a public investment — a “win the future” portion of the budget.

The interactive “Cost of War” tool by the National Priorities Project puts the defense-discretionary spending dynamic into stark relief. For the same amount spent on the Afghan war for the 2011 fiscal year, for instance, it shows that this money could have also paid for 1.8 million elementary school teachers for one year or converted 110 million households to all-wind energy for a year.

Moreover, core domestic appropriations have grown by 9 percent in real dollars over the last decade, which is still one-fifth of the rate of increase for the Pentagon — and doesn’t even count the additional expenditures for overseas wars.

Panetta is right that shredding non-defense discretionary is passing the buck. But he’s wrong to ignore the Pentagon’s key role in fueling the deficit that the U.S. government is now struggling to curb.

Over the last decade, the Bush administration launched two wars with borrowed money, while

from page 7

Cowen think it is fair to say — my house is much smaller than his,” he adds. “Still, by broad historical standards, what I share with Bill Gates is far more significant than what I don’t share with him.”

Moreover, Cowen is not inclined to turn economic questions into partisan debates. His analysis of the federal government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis is typical:“The problem is pretty deeply rooted. To blame Obama, to blame Bush, I think, while they’ve made their mistakes, is missing the point.”

Cowen said the positive reaction to his latest book stems in large part from the fact that it has elements both sides can agree on: the political left liked the focus on stagnating standards of living, while the right has also begun to broaden its focus beyond an undying belief in the power of economic growth to alleviate society’s ills.

He also avoided hot-button political issues and detailed policy proposals specifically to avoid provoking knee-jerk dismissals.“I wanted to write a zero policy book … but I do think there’s a lot we can do on policy,” he said.“But I didn’t want to put that in the book because I don’t want people to respond to the basic argument politically.”

That’s not to say Cowen doesn’t have strong opinions about the sorry state of today’s political gridlock on pressing economic issues. He lambasted House Republicans, for example, for needlessly pushing the United States to the brink of financial crisis during the debt ceiling

cutting taxes — an unprecedented economic combo in U.S. history. Letting both of those wars wind down and the Bush-era tax cuts lapse would alleviate much of the medium-range debt hanging over the nation.

Yet even with deficits at record levels, Panetta adamantly opposes even the most insignificant of defense cuts beyond the $450 billion rollback over the next decade that Obama has proposed. Many experts agree that there’s plenty of wiggle room to cut Pentagon waste, and the institution is ripe for a modernization that could ultimately make the U.S. military leaner, more efficient and more effective — all without compromising national security.

(In fact, top brass like former Joint Chiefs of State Mike Mullen say that unsustainable debt constitutes one of the biggest threats to America’s national security.)

Few are buying Panetta’s newfound tough-guy talk. “I’m amused because I remember Leon Panetta when he was chairman of the Budget Committee in the House and the head of the Office of Management and Budget, and he always said, ‘We’ve got to cut, we’ve got to cut, we’ve got to reduce the deficit,’ and that was before the deficit ballooned under President [George W.] Bush,” Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) told Politico. “He’s taking the view of the Department of Defense and the military. I understand where he is coming from, even though I am amused by it.”

Characteristically, Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts was even blunter: “That is not the Leon Panetta, the budget guy, that I once knew. He knows better.”

If only he did. Lest anyone think that the proposed cuts would endanger the military, as Panetta claims, Republican Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan all scaled back defense spending to a greater degree than what is currently on the table. And there was a Soviet Union around to defend America against back then, unlike today. Even as Panetta concedes alQaeda is nearly nonexistent, he insists America has “vital interests” that require astronomical levels of defense spending. Yet the proposed cuts would take us back to 2007 levels, hardly a starved budget. Even the dreaded automatic trigger of up to

negotiations this summer.“I think what they did with the ceiling was terrible, harmful, destructive. It’s yielded no gain. I’m a fiscal conservative but I think it’s yielded no gain.”

But on the Occupy Wall Street movement, he’s equally dismissive. “It seems pointless to me.They don’t know what they are doing, they don’t know what they want.”

As for the eurozone debacle, Cowen believes certain core European Union countries will be able to maintain the currency, but others will have to exit the monetary union.

Cowen adds that America’s moribund unemployment rate won’t rebound until well after the EU fixes its finances — “five years after the European troubles are over, whether that be next week or three years from now — whenever that point comes, tack on five more years, and then I think we’ll get down to the 6 to 7 [percent unemployment] range,” he predicts.

That bleak outlook is at the heart of some of the criticism behind Cowen’s book.“Maybe the economic stagnation that Cowen says is our lot in life will persist, but don’t resign yourself to it,” the Slate’s Noah argues. “If the middle class is suffering economically today — and it is — then the practical solution is to ease that suffering today. A crystal ball only gets in the way.”

But ultimately, “The Great Stagnation” is an optimistic book, and Cowen believes that the slowdown in rising living standards can and will be overcome. Two of the critical technological advances he sees on the horizon are artificial intelligence applications like the iPhone’s Siri software and new health care innovations stemming from endeavors like the Human Genome Project.Another necessary element to improving living standards would be

$600 billion in additional cuts if the super-committee fails to come to an agreement breaks down to $60 billion a year — that’s about 9 percent of total defense expenditures in 2010.

Moreover, it stands to reason that as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan draw down, the budget devoted to these conflicts should be shrunk correspondingly. A nation’s military budget, after all, should presumably be directed at specific threats, rather than being the product of bureaucratic inertia or grandiose ideas about “full-spectral dominance,” a favored Pentagon catchphrase.

Not according to Panetta. Perhaps realizing he had begun to discredit himself with his incessant scaremongering, in mid-October the defense secretary took a different approach in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He spoke of “the thoughtful debate the entire country needs to have on how to sustain the nation’s strength … in a time of growing fiscal constraint” — even though in the same breath he used the phrase “catastrophic damage” to describe what paper cuts would do to the military budget.

In his first appearance as Pentagon chief before the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee, Panetta said any defense cuts over the $450 billion currently approved for the next decade “will truly devastate our national security,” insisting, “I don’t say that as scare tactics. I don’t say that as a threat. It’s a reality.”

No it is not. Eisenhower, who knew a thing or three about war, warned that America must “maintain balance in and among national programs, balance between the private and the public economy, balance between the cost and hoped-for advantages, balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable, balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual, balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future.”The Leon Panetta of just a few years back might have been the first to agree.

Jordan Michael Smith is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., who has written for the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe.

greater investment and subsidies for scientific research, which would ideally trickle down to future stagnation-bursting innovations. He doesn’t point to a specific field that needs greater support, but rather argues for a return to the post-World War II mindset, when science was a more prestigious and popular vocation.

“Sooner or later, new technological revolutions will occur, perhaps in the biosciences, through genome sequencing, or in energy production, through viable solar power, for example,” he wrote in the New York Times.“But these transformations won’t come overnight, and we’ll have to make do in the meantime.”

So what of the other low-hanging fruit?

While the exploitation of land cannot be repeated, Cowen remains hopeful about the potential to improve the U.S. educational system, though the impact on living standards will not replicate what took place a century ago.

“Education is much better. You see a lot of experimentation, vouchers, charter schools,” he said. “Basically the terms of debate have totally shifted in the correct direction. We just don’t have the good results yet.”

And that begs the question that every economist is asking these days: What will it take to vault the United States and other stagnating developed nations out of their present morass.

It struck me while reading his book that the advances during Cowen’s grandparents’ era were far more the exception to human history than the norm. “I’m not sure we’ll ever have such a burst as we did then,” he admits. “But I also don’t think it’s over.”

Patrick Corcoran is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

December 2011

AROUNDTHEWORLD HOLIDAYS AFGHANISTAN Dec. 5: Ashura ALBANIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day ALGERIA Dec. 5: Achoura ANDORRA Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: St. Stephen’s Day ANGOLA Dec. 25: Christmas Day ANTIGUA and BARBUDA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day ARGENTINA Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 31: Bank Holiday ARMENIA Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT Send Us Your Holidays and Appointments

AUSTRALIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day AUSTRIA Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: St. Stephen’s Day AZERBAIJAN Dec. 31: Solidarity Day of Azeri People BAHAMAS Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day BAHRAIN Dec. 5: Ashura Dec. 16: National Day

BELGIUM Dec. 25: Christmas Day

BURUNDI Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Fax to: The Washington Diplomat at: (301) 949-0065

BELIZE Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

CAMBODIA Dec. 10: International Human Rights Day

E-mail to: news@washdiplomat.com

BENIN Dec. 25: Christmas Day

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CANADA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

BOTSWANA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day BRAZIL Dec. 25: Christmas Day BRUNEI Dec. 25: Christmas Day

BANGLADESH Dec. 16: Victory Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day

BULGARIA Dec. 25-26: Christmas

BARBADOS Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

BURKINA FASO Dec. 11: National Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day

BELARUS Dec. 25: Christmas Day

BURMA (MYANMAR) Dec. 25: Christmas Day

CAPE VERDE Dec. 25: Christmas Day CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Dec. 1: Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Mail to: P.O. Box 1345, Silver Spring, MD 20915-1345

Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF Dec. 25: Christmas Day

CYPRUS Dec. 24: Christmas Eve Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

December 2011

EAST TIMOR Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day ECUADOR Dec. 25: Christmas Day EL SALVADOR Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 31: Bank Holiday EQUATORIAL GUINEA Dec. 10: International Human Rights Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day ESTONIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day FIJI Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

CONGO, REPUBLIC OF Dec. 25: Christmas Day

CZECH REPUBLIC Dec. 24: Christmas Eve Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

COSTA RICA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

DENMARK Dec. 24-26: Christmas

CHILE Dec. 25: Christmas Day

CÔTE D’IVOIRE Dec. 7: Independence Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day

DOMINICA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

FRANCE Dec. 25: Christmas Day

COLOMBIA Dec. 8: Immaculate

CROATIA Dec. 25-26: Christmas

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Dec. 25: Christmas Day

GABON Dec. 25: Christmas Day

CHAD Dec. 25: Christmas Day

FINLAND Dec. 6: Independence Day Dec. 24: Christmas Eve Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

GAMBIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day GERMANY Dec. 25-26: Christmas

APPOINTMENTS Andorra Meritxell Marsa assumed the position of deputy permanent representative, counselor on Aug. 22, replacing Julia Stokes. Marsa previously served as counselor at the Andorran Embassy to Spain (2007-11) and first secretary at the Andorran Mission to the European Union and the Andorran Embassy to Belgium, both in Brussels (2003-07).

Dominican Republic Aníbal de Castro became ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the United States on July 7. Since 1968, Ambassador de Castro has held a variety of positions in the media, including editor and director of the Press Department in Radio Cristal; reporter and columnist for international affairs, editor-in-chief and editor of the newspaper Ultima Hora; producer of the television program “Triálogo”; director and host of the television program “Rumbo TV”; executive vice president of the company Ambassador Omnimedia; producer of the television program “Diario Libre A.M.”; and founding editor of the Diario Libre newsAníbal de Castro paper. In 2004, he was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom, representing the Dominican Republic as nonresident ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia (2007-11) and to the Republic of Ireland (200911). In 2009, he was distinguished as dean of the Group of Latin American Ambassadors to the Court of St. James. Over the years, Ambassador de Castro has served as a member of the board of directors for the Dominican Electricity Corporation, the Economic and Development Foundation, the Dominican Foundation for Development, the Fund for the Finance of Small Enterprises Inc. (Fondomicro), the Bank for Small and Medium Enterprises, TRICOM International and Antena Latina, as well as a member of the Board of Regents for the Technological Institute of Eastern Cibao. In 1986, he was honored by the president of the Dominican Republic with the Order of Merit Duarte, Sánchez y Mella, the highest order awarded by the Dominican Republic. He is also the published author of “República Dominicana frente a su propia Realidad” (1984), “Antes De Comenzar” (2008) and “Decir Cosas” (2010). Born in 1949, Ambassador de Castro studied journalism at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and received a first class degree in development studies in 1979 from the University of East Anglia in Great Britain.

Ghana Ebenezer Padi Adjirackor assumed the position of commercial minister on July 28, replacing Francis Addo, who departed the post July 28. Adjirackor previously served as director in charge of domestic economic activities at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Ghana.

December 2011

GHANA Dec. 1: Farmer’s Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day Rebecca Enyonam Kudekor assumed the position of third secretary on Aug. 16, having previously served as a stenographer secretary in the Middle East and Asia Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Genevieve N.L. Goode departed the post of first secretary on Aug. 29.

Guinea

GREECE Dec. 25: Christmas Day GRENADA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

Blaise Cherif became ambassador of Guinea to the United States on Sept. 9.

Ambassador Cherif previously served as a consultant on international humanitarian law (2005-11) and as special advisor to the Division of External Relations (200205) with the Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), where he’s held multiple posts since 1976, including: UNHCR representative in Côte d’Ivoire (1996-2002); principle legal adviser for the Division of International Protection (1994-96); chief of the Legal Division and UNHCR representative in Islamabad, Pakistan (1991-94); and deputy regional representative for West Africa, based in Dakar, Senegal (1986-91), among other UNHCR postings in Chad, Burundi and what was then Zaire. Ambassador Cherif holds a law degree from the University of Grenoble in France and an advanced degree in international public law from the University of Geneva. Born on Sept. 25, 1945, Ambassador Cherif is married and speaks English and French.

GUATEMALA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve

Luxembourg

HONDURAS Dec. 24: Christmas Eve Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve

Olivier Baldauff assumed the position of deputy chief of mission on Aug. 15, replacing Nicolas Mackel, who departed the post Aug. 14.

Nepal Arjun Kant Mainali assumed the position of deputy chief of mission on June 18, replacing Kali P. Pokhrel, who departed the post July 24.

Sri Lanka P.M. Bandula Somasiri assumed the position of commercial minister on July 19, replacing A.G. Nimal Karunatilake, who departed the post July 28.

K.D. Ranjith assumed the position of minister on Aug. 15.

Brig. Dudley Weeraman assumed the position of minister counselor (defense) on July 6, replacing Brig. G.V. Ravipriya, who departed the post Aug. 10.

Tanzania Agnes Lusinde assumed the position of administrative attaché on July 1, replacing Catherine Kijuu.

GUINEA-BISSAU Dec. 25: Christmas Day GUYANA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day HAITI Dec. 5: Discovery of Haiti Dec. 25: Christmas Day

IRELAND Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: St. Stephen’s Day ISRAEL Dec. 20-28: Hanukkah ITALY Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: St. Stephen’s Day JAMAICA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day JAPAN Dec. 23: Emperor’s Birthday Dec. 31: Bank Holiday JORDAN Dec. 25: Christmas Day KAZAKHSTAN Dec. 16: Independence Day KENYA Dec. 12: Jamhuri (Independence) Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day LAOS Dec. 2: National Day LATVIA Dec. 24-26: Christmas Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve LEBANON Dec. 5: Ashoura Dec. 25: Christmas Day LESOTHO Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day LIBERIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day LIECHTENSTEIN Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 24: Holy Night Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve LITHUANIA Dec. 25-26: Christmas LUXEMBOURG Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: St. Stephen’s Day MADAGASCAR Dec. 25: Christmas Day MALAWI Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

HUNGARY Dec. 25-26: Christmas

MALAYSIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

ICELAND Dec. 24: Christmas Eve Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve

MALTA Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 13: Republic Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day

INDIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

MARSHALL ISLANDS Dec. 25: Christmas Day

INDONESIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

MEXICO Dec. 25: Christmas Day

IRAN Dec. 5: Ashura

MICRONESIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

IRAQ Dec. 5: Ashura

Continued on next page

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America’s influence by supporting those elements of Iraqi society that wanted to move in the direction we thought it should go.We assumed that Iraq, with its oil revenues, would have funds to pay for those projects,” he said.

However, “as Congress shaves the budget and cuts funds for the State Department, it’s made it impossible to undertake these programs at the levels we need to have a positive impact. I just fear a setup for failure here — that in a year or two, something terrible could happen, and you’ll have members of Congress saying, ‘Why didn’t the State Department do this or that?’ And no one will take

responsibility for the fact that the budget was cut.”

Indeed, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, in a particularly blunt federal audit, said the State Department is not yet ready to take over Iraqi police training from the Pentagon.

National Journal reports that the watchdog agency said Foggy Bottom “had not adequately assessed Iraq’s needs, and had no detailed plans, benchmarks to measure progress, or ways to track costs.” Some 80 percent of the magazine’s readers who responded to an online poll agreed that the State Department wouldn’t be ready to assume control of the dangerous Iraq mission with only a handful of U.S. troops remaining in the country.

But Khairi Abaza, senior fellow at the Washingtonbased Foundation for Defense of Democracies, isn’t quite as pessimistic.

“In an ideal world, most segments of the Iraqi population would like to see an Iraq free of any foreign troops. But the reality on the ground calls for the presence of some foreign — mainly U.S. — troops, to train and support the Iraqi forces,” he said.

“Even so, Iraq will not go back to a Saddam-style dictatorship. Considering the trauma of the mid2000s, I think they are more or less immune to such a major confrontation.”

Abaza, an Egyptian, said he’s upbeat about the future of democracy in Iraq, for two reasons.

“First, the Iraqi people are tired of the violence, and they’re ready to move on,” he said. “Secondly, there are so many different sects, religions and ethnic groups in Iraq, that it’s only through some sort of democratic process that they can all work together.The U.S. withdrawal will force all the poli-

ticians to find a consensus. If they fail to do so, they are well aware that Iraq can descend into a civil war.”

Abaza also downplayed concerns that the monstrous U.S. Embassy in the heart of Baghdad will breed resentment among average Iraqis.

“I don’t think that’s such a big issue. For many years, Cairo had the largest U.S. embassy in the world, and some Egyptians took pride in that, because it showed how important Egypt was. So maybe the Iraqis will look at it this way,” he said.

“The key is for the Iraqi government to be seen as autonomous and independent — and not appear like a puppet of the Americans.”

Continued from previous page

Dec. 26: Boxing Day

Dec. 25: Christmas Day

NIGERIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

NAMIBIA Dec. 10: International Human Rights Day Dec. 25-26: Christmas

NORWAY Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

PARAGUAY Dec. 8: Virgin of Caacupe, Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day

ROMANIA Dec. 1: National Day Dec. 6: St. Nicholas Day Dec. 8: Constitution Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve

SPAIN Dec. 6: Constitution Day Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25-26: Christmas

Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

MOZAMBIQUE Dec. 25: Christmas Day

SEYCHELLES Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day SINGAPORE Dec. 25: Christmas Day

SRI LANKA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

RWANDA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

SLOVAKIA Dec. 24-26: Christmas

SUDAN Dec. 25: Christmas Day

ST. KITTS and NEVIS Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

SLOVENIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Independence Day

SWEDEN Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

from page 14

Iraq

NETHERLANDS Dec. 25-26: Christmas NEW ZEALAND Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day NICARAGUA Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day NIGER Dec. 18: Republic Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Page 46

PAKISTAN Dec. 5: Ashura Dec. 25: Birthday Anniversary of Quaid-eAzam PALAU Dec. 25: Christmas Day PANAMA Dec. 8: Mother’s Day Dec. 20: National Mourning Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day PAPUA NEW GUINEA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

The Washington Diplomat

PERU Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day PHILIPPINES Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 30: Jose Rizal Day Dec. 31: Last Day of the Year POLAND Dec. 25-26: Christmas PORTUGAL Dec. 1: Restoration of Independence Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception

ST. LUCIA Dec. 13: National Day Dec. 25-26: Christmas ST. VINCENT and THE GRENADINES Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day SENEGAL Dec. 25: Christmas Day

SOLOMON ISLANDS Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day SOUTH AFRICA Dec. 16: Day of Reconciliation Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Day of Goodwill

SWITZERLAND Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: St. Stephen’s Day

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

THAILAND Dec. 5: HM the King’s Birthday Dec. 10: Constitution Day

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Dec. 2: National Day UNITED KINGDOM Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

TOGO Dec. 25: Christmas Day

URUGUAY Dec. 25: Christmas Day

TONGA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

UZBEKISTAN Dec. 8: Constitution Day

TRINIDAD and TOBAGO Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

VENEZUELA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

TURKMENISTAN Dec. 12: Day of Neutrality

ZAMBIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve

SYRIA Dec. 25: Christmas Day

UGANDA Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

TANZANIA Dec. 9: Independence Day

UKRAINE Dec. 6: Armed Forces Day

ZIMBABWE Dec. 22: National Unity Day Dec. 25: Christmas Day Dec. 26: Boxing Day

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Egypt about 40 percent of its natural gas from Egypt, though opposition groups have long complained that the gas was being sold at preferential prices, resulting in losses of $714 million to the Egyptian state. That bitterness has begun to explode into violence. In recent months, there have been several attacks on the pipeline in northern Egypt that carries gas to Israel, and in September, Egyptian protesters ransacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, further straining what had been a cornerstone relationship in the Arab world.

“There’s a discomfort related to Israeli policies, which have not granted Palestinians their rights,” Shoukry acknowledged. “Israel remains an occupying power, and this creates a sense of anger and resentment. But this doesn’t necessarily impact the mutual interests associated with the peace treaty.”

From the Israeli rift to the growing outcry against Egyptian military control, this last year has been a constant test for the approachable, calm and collected diplomat, who’s served in Washington since 2008. Shoukry is nearing the foreign service’s mandatory retirement age and will most likely retire sometime next year. The seasoned envoy says he doesn’t feel the least bit awkward or ashamed about having represented the Mubarak regime — not only as ambassador to the United States, but also as permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva (2005-08), director of cabinet for the minister of foreign affairs (2004-05), ambassador to Austria (19992003), and as Mubarak’s secretary for information (1995-99).In addition,he’s been posted to Egyptian missions in London, Buenos Aires and New York.

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mats,” explained Shoukry, who joined the Egyptian Foreign Service in 1976, when Anwar Sadat was president. “By law, we are prohibited from being associated with any party or expressing any political inclination. So that makes us immune from any direct association with the regime. Personally, I’ve always been proud to represent my country in the various stages of its evolution.”

On that note, he praised Egyptian society, which he said “has shown its resiliency and its ability to produce four Nobel Prize winners in the last 30 years: [novelist] Naguib Mahfouz, [diplomat and opposition politician] Mohamed ElBaradei, Anwar Sadat and [Egyptian-American chemist] Ahmed Zewail.”

Shibley Telhami, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, recently singled out Shoukry for not shying away from the media during and after the daily protests at Tahrir Square that eventually ousted the hated Mubarak dictatorship.

“When Mubarak was in trouble, Shoukry tried to be analytical and push forth his own analysis in a way that was relatively credible,” Telhami, who’s also a scholar at the Brookings Institution, told The Diplomat earlier this year. “The ambassador conducted himself reasonably well, under very difficult circumstances, and he never stopped representing his government. Nobody knew what the outcome would be, but he was not an apologist [for the Mubarak regime]. Then when the transition happened, he embraced the change and went on.”

But the question of what kind of change now lies ahead for Egypt is one for which Shoukry — or anyone else — does not has an answer. Even if the military manages to regain control of the country and pushes ahead with the parliamentary election, it could just as easily further fracture the nation as usher in democracy. Although the election is expected to field some 15,000 candidates and 35 new parties, everyone knows the Islamist

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Muslim Brotherhood will have a natural competitive edge, but if it gains power, will it force Egyptians to trade in the constraints of Mubarak’s autocracy for the Brotherhood’s rigid brand of conservative religious values? Those fears were compounded by the recent deal between the military and the Brotherhood to move up the presidential race to next June, but go ahead with the parliamentary vote as scheduled — because the group has the most to gain in the election.

But some observers are voicing hope that the recent election in Tunisia could signal a new era for meshing Islam and democracy — with Turkey’s government often cited as a model — while pointing out that Islamist parties throughout the region (and even within the Brotherhood, which has nearly 90 offshoot branches in the Islamic world) are hardly monolithic. “‘The Islamists are coming, the Islamists are coming!’ is the new refrain across Western capitals. In some quarters, the Islamists’ electoral prospects have even unleashed a bit of wistfulness for the old secular dictators. But democratic politics and piety are not necessarily contradictions, even for the nonobservant,” wrote Robin Wright of the U.S. Institute of Peace in a recent Foreign Policy article.

“No question, Islamist parties are more assertive and ambitious than ever. And yes, the next decade will be far more traumatic for both insiders and outsiders than the last one, though often due more to economic challenges than Islamist politics.”

But Wright adds that “the most dynamic debate will be among the diverse Islamists, not between Islamist and secular parties. These political tensions will play out as they vie to define Islam’s role in new constitutions — and then implement it in daily life. These trends should not come as a surprise: Many Muslims share conservative values even as they push for freedoms. The right to

human dignity, Muslims believe, is God-given — a view shared by Thomas Jefferson and engraved on the walls of his memorial. The values of their religion are a starting point for all other aspects of life.”

For his part, Shoukry says that while religion is important to most Egyptians, he strenuously dismissed speculation that post-Mubarak Egypt will go the way of Iran following that country’s 1979 Islamic revolution, when Tehran’s new rulers declared Iran an Islamic state and adopted sharia as the law of the land.

“I don’t think there are really any similarities between Egypt and Iran. They are two different countries, and it would be superficial to generalize,” the ambassador said. “Egypt is a much more diverse society with many ideologies: leftist, socialist, right-wing, liberal, Islamist. There are so many divergent views and opinions that are recognizably part of the fabric of Egypt’s political life.”

Shoukry puts the Muslim Brotherhood’s popular support at between 25 percent and 30 percent, “though no serious polling has been undertaken to give us an indication.”

Joseph K. Grieboski, founder of the Washingtonbased Institute on Religion and Public Policy, which lobbies for religious freedom worldwide, agreed.“While the Muslim Brotherhood has some support, Islam has never been seen as the solution to the country’s problems, the way it was in Iran, or the way Hezbollah used it in Lebanon, or Hamas in Gaza,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean Egypt will become a multiparty democracy by December.

“I do not expect there will be [presidential] elections anytime soon,” said Grieboski.“I suspect the Egyptian military will keep things in their own control as long as they possibly can.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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