The Washingon Diplomat - April 2020

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VOLUME 27, NUMBER 04

APRIL 2020

Health

WHO Applies Ebola Response to Covid-19 Pandemic

The World Health Organization was sharply criticized for its response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. Today, however, the early reviews of the WHO’s response to coronavirus are much more nuanced, as the U.N. agency fights alongside governments to contain the spreading pandemic. PAGE 10

North Africa

Egypt and Ethiopia Tussle Over Control Of the Nile River

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam along the Nile River could be a game-changer for Ethiopia’s 100 million people, transforming their country into Africa’s biggest power exporter.

But for Egypt and its 100 million people, the Nile Dam is an existential threat to their livelihoods and identity. PAGE 13

Culture

‘Rich and Rare’ Down Under

“Beauty Rich and Rare” is a historical look at Australia’s natural treasures and a timely reminder to preserve them. PAGE 30

AUSTRALIA As coronavirus grips Australia, the country has barely recovered from another crisis: the catastrophic wildfires that consumed parts of the continent. But Australia’s new ambassador, Arthur Sinodinos, is no stranger to crisis, having successfully battled stage-four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and he is ready to tackle the challenges in this next chapter of his life. PAGE 17

HELLISH ORDEAL

People of World Influence

Diplomatic Spouses

Ex-Pentagon Official Worries About World

Colombian Couple Weathers Life’s Ups and Downs

Michèle Flournoy, one of the highest-ranking women to serve in the Pentagon, talks about the litany of security crises facing the world, but when asked what keeps her up at night, one worry stands out: the Yes Men surrounding President Trump as he makes critical decisions in a time of crisis. PAGE 4

Maria Victoria García has been by her husband’s side for nearly 35 years, from his kidnapping by drug traffickers to his election as vice president of Colombia. All throughout, she’s been a forceful human rights advocate for her homeland while raising their four children and starting her own art career. PAGE 31

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ON THE COVER

SIGNATURE PARTNERS Asia Heritage Foundation European Union Delegation to the United States U.S. Department of State All Hallows Guild Flower Mart at Washington National Cathedral

2 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

Photo taken at the Australian Residence

by Jessica Knox of Jessica Knox Photography.

Contents

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

32

10 24

17

25 NEWS 4

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Top U.S. defense specialist Michèle Flournoy offers her take on the world’s biggest security challenges.

10 CONTAGION LEARNING CURVE

The WHO is using lessons learned from Ebola to guide its response to coronavirus.

13 RIVER OF RESENTMENT

Tensions escalate between Egypt and Ethiopia over the contested Nile Dam.

17

COVER PROFILE: AUSTRALIA

A season of catastrophic wildfires leaves Australia with lasting scars, and lessons.

24

IN MEMORIAM

Yoko Sugiyama, wife of Japanese Ambassador Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, dies at the age of 66.

25

DIPLOMATIC TRAILBLAZER

32

34 GRACIELA’S MEXICO

For America’s first female ambassador, it was all about the job, not the gender.

Graciela Iturbide’s black-and-white photos capture the many colors of Mexico.

27 MEDICAL The risk of contracting coronavirus at a hospital may force some cancer patients to delay their treatment.

33

Antoinette Nwandu’s doesn’t discriminate in challenging both whites and blacks about preconceived notions of race.

CULTURE

34

30

‘BEAUTY’ DOWN UNDER

“Beauty Rich and Rare” at the Natural History Museum unearths Australia’s distinctive flora and fauna.

31

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Colombia’s Francisco Santos Calderón and his wife Maria Victoria García have fascinating backstories, although hers has played out behind the scenes.

EQUAL-OPPORTUNITY ‘PASS OVER’

‘NEW LIGHT’ ON DIVERSITY

“A New Light: Canadian Women Artists” is an effort by the Canadian Embassy to promote diversity.

REGULARS 36 38 39

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT CLASSIFIEDS REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 3

WD | Pe ople of World Influence

Quiet Warrior Michèle Flournoy Hopes U.S. Takes Pragmatic Path to Navigate National Security Challenges

BY ANNA GAWEL

Michèle Flournoy has served in top positions at the Pentagon, including as undersecretary of defense for policy.

M

ichèle Flournoy speaks in calm, measured tones about some of the world’s most terrifying crises, from coronavirus and nuclear weapons to Afghanistan and Iran.

But that doesn’t mean her words carry any less weight or urgency.

Her level-headed yet deeply thoughtout approach to the litany of national security threats facing the United States propelled her to the top echelons of the Pentagon. It’s also made her a popular moderate voice among both Democrats and Republicans and — if there’s any truth to current rumors — could make her America’s first female secretary of defense under a Biden administration.

Flournoy — who served as undersecretary of defense for policy under the Obama administration, making her the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history — was also expected to become defense secretary had Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Even though Donald Trump won, she was still offered a top-ranking position at the Pentagon by newly appointed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — a position she turned down (although it wasn’t clear if Trump would’ve approved her appointment).

Asked whether she regrets not taking the job, Flournoy said she doesn’t.

“It makes me sad. I have a very deep sense of duty. I have the utmost respect for Jim Mattis and it was very hard not to jump in with both feet and help him. But what I was aware of was how much I differed from candidate Trump and then-President Trump on so many issues,” Flournoy told us in an interview at WestExec Advisors, the firm she cofounded with other prominent Obama national security alumni.

“And I think the moment that clinched it, that epitomized this for me, was Jim Mattis’ swearing-in ceremony … right there in the [Pentagon] Hall of Heroes. And to his surprise, the president announced and signed the first Muslim travel ban in that ceremony,” she said, referring to the controversial executive order that Trump rolled out in early 2017 restricting travel from Muslim-majority countries (a ban that has since gone through several iterations and multiple legal challenges).

“That was the moment when I said, ‘I can’t possibly be part of this,’” she told us.

“And I regret it in the sense that I wish the circumstances were different…. But you just can’t be part of something that is at odds with your core values.”

Yet Flournoy is no idealist. She is clear-eyed about the tortuous give and take between values and interests.

On that note, she subtly laughed when we referred to a 2011 profile of her in The Washington Post that described her

4 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

PHOTO: ERIN SCOTT / WESTEXEC ADVISORS

“

… I don’t think this president has allowed or empowered a support structure to make sure he makes good decisions…. And so he comes to these very consequential decision points without the benefit of a team that’s going to speak up, warn him and going to help him think about things he hasn’t thought of.

MICHÈLE FLOURNOY, former U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy

as a “liberal realist” who “supports the principled use of force but is wary of being blindly interventionist.”

In response, Flournoy said she’s simply “a pragmatist.”

“I believe our foreign policy should reflect first and foremost our interests but also our values, and sometimes those things come into tension and need to be resolved, and those create hard choices for leaders. But we have to start with a real-eyed assessment of actual facts on the ground,” she said, warning: “I don’t think we can be successful with this very tactical, transactional approach that the administration seems to be taking at the moment.”

As an example, she cited the U.S.China trade dispute. While she agrees with the administration’s position that China’s unfair trading practices — including intellectual property theft and

massive state subsidies — need to be addressed, she disagrees with the unilateral approach the White House is taking.

“It would be far more effective if we went to our Asian and European friends who have the same exact issues with China and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we work together and why don’t we leverage shared institutions like the WTO to make our case collectively and to put pressure on China?’”

Flournoy’s support of multilateralism largely echoes the Beltway consensus that the U.S. needs its allies and shouldn’t isolate itself with a Trumpian “America First” retrenchment.

In that way, Flournoy can either be seen as a reassuring return to normal foreign policymaking, or a creature of the Washington establishment that Trump voters see as out of touch and out of fresh ideas.

”

Flournoy — who’s married to W. Scott Gould, a former U.S. deputy secretary of veterans affairs — certainly boasts a resume that reads like a type-A, insidethe-Beltway success story.

In the mid-1990s, she served as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction, earning multiple awards and recognitions. She then taught at the National Defense University and was a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies before co-founding the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a bipartisan think tank, in 2007. She served as CNAS’s president until 2009 and returned as CEO in 2014.

Flournoy — who holds a bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard University and a master’s in internaSEE F L OUR NOY • PAGE 6

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who just had this very divisive election — needs to step back and think about what is his role in history. And [Abdullah Abdullah, Ghani’s opponent who is contesting the presidency] has to think this, too. The election aside, what’s really at stake here is whether they’re going to take their country on the path to peace and be remembered, both of them, as the fathers of ending the war in Afghanistan and protecting the gains that have been made, or are they going to get to a situation of dysfunction that could descend back into civil war.

Flournoy CONTINUED • PAGE 4

tional relations from Oxford — also helped lead President Obama’s transition team at the Defense Department, where she would go on to serve in top-ranking positions such as principal adviser to the secretary of defense. She serves on various boards such as Booz Allen Hamilton and CARE and makes regular appearances on major news outlets such as NBC and BBC. Beneath the appearances and accolades, however, this mother of three broke the mold in the male-dominated E Ring of the Pentagon, earning the respect of figures such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and tackling some of the thorniest national security challenges facing the U.S. — from counterterrorism threats to Russian aggression — many of which are just as relevant today as they were a decade ago.

As the Post noted in its 2011 profile: “At the Pentagon, her portfolio includes overseeing the deployment of U.S. special forces to help train the Ugandan military to fight rebel groups, responding to the unfolding turmoil in Yemen and Syria, implementing widespread defense budget cuts and, on top of it all, engineering the drawdown of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan.”

Flournoy said she wishes that President Trump would surround himself with people who have firsthand experience navigating these types of crises — and aren’t unafraid to give advice based on that experience.

In fact, when we asked the proverbial “what keeps you up at night,” Flournoy didn’t list trade disputes, nuclear brinkmanship, civil wars or even coronavirus. Rather, she cited the growing number of Yes Men in the Oval Office.

“The thing that keeps me up at night is that I don’t think this president has allowed or empowered a support structure to make sure he makes good decisions. So he’s created a command climate that does not tolerate dissent, does not solicit different views, does not have a regular, disciplined process for developing options, examining them, thinking through costs, risks and unanticipated consequences,” she said.

“And so he comes to these very consequential decision points without the benefit of a team that’s going to speak up, warn him and going to help him think about things he hasn’t thought of.”

She added: “We’ve been fortunate that we haven’t come to a full crisis point with North Korea. We almost came to one with Iran and then things calmed down. But I worry that in a true going-to-war-or-not kind of moment, the way in which he’s conducted his decision-making will not serve him well and will not serve the country well, and we can stumble into something we never should have stumbled into if we’re not careful.

That’s what I worry about.”

But there are lots of other things she worries about. We talked to her about some of them:

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY D. MYLES CULLEN

President Trump and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force hold a briefing on the pandemic with reporters on March 18. Michèle Flournoy argues that the president’s initial attempts to play down the crisis may have worsened the health and economic impact of coronavirus on Americans.

Americans and industries.

CREDIT: U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY SGT. JOE CONROY / WWW.DVIDSHUB.NET

An Afghan commando sweeps the road looking for mines in Afghanistan’s Farah province on May 24, 2018. The U.S. military has spent several years training and assisting Afghan forces but President Trump hopes to withdraw all U.S. troops from the country in 14 months if a peace deal with the Taliban holds.

Below are selected excerpts from our interview that have been condensed for clarity and space.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT: Let’s start with the subject that’s on everyone’s minds — one that is all about health but also potentially has tremendous national security repercussions — which is of course coronavirus. Any thoughts on the administration’s handling so far of the pandemic?

MICHÈLE FLOURNOY: What con­ cerned me about the White House’s initial response was the president’s tendency to play down the severity of the Covid-19 crisis. As a result, the administration lost precious time to mobilize the federal government’s response at sufficient speed and scale.

Consequently, the ultimate health and economic effects of this crisis are likely to be much more dire for Americans than they might have been had the White House moved more quickly.

In addition, at a moment like this, it is imperative to maintain public trust and that requires transparency and truthfulness. If people start thinking, ‘Oh, they’re spinning us. They’re not telling us how seri-

6 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

ous it is. They’re trying to downplay it because the president’s concerned how it reflects on his administration going into an election’ — if you start sowing doubts like that, you can lose the ability to have the public with you as you take the difficult steps to try to contain and mitigate the impacts.

Given the continuing absence of widely available testing, I think most experts believe that the number of cases in the U.S. have been underestimated or underreported so far.

And the spike is still coming. I was glad to see the administration finally embrace social distancing and other measures to try to flatten the curve of cases.

That said, I think the level of economic disruption and impact is going to be far greater than what people imagine. We’re already seeing it in the stock market, travel industry, major manufacturing, restaurants and hospitality, retail and small businesses and other sectors, along with huge disruptions to international supply chains.

So, along with the public health response, the administration and the Congress need to step up and put in place a substantial economic stimulus and mitigation package focused on shoring up the most vulnerable

TWD: You recently spoke at the U.S. Institute of Peace on Afghanistan.

The White House just struck a deal with the Taliban, which agreed not to allow Afghan soil to be used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks. In return, the administration announced it would bring down the number of troops in Afghanistan from 12,000 to 8,600 over the coming months, with a goal of removing all troops in 14 months if the Taliban upholds its commitments.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government, which had been excluded from the talks in Doha, is now supposed to engage in negotiations with the Taliban, but already the Taliban has resumed its attacks because a ceasefire was never a part of the U.S.-brokered deal, and President Ashraf Ghani has disagreed with the agreement’s timeline for a prisoner swap.

So what are your thoughts on the agreement and what do you think the U.S. should do moving forward to ensure that intra-Afghan talks take place?

MF: I think the first thing is to recognize that it’s very difficult to see how this war ends without some kind of political settlement. It’s been made clear now to both sides … that neither side can win on the battlefield.

We think of this as a 20-year war.

For Afghans, it’s been a 40-year war.

There’s exhaustion on both sides.

So this has to get to a political settlement at some point. I think the U.S.-Taliban agreement is highly conditional, meaning there are a number of things that have to happen for the U.S. withdrawal to take place. The first is … getting to a negotiating table where not only the Afghan government, but the Afghan opposition and Afghan civil society, particularly women and youth, are represented across the table from the Taliban. That diverse representational delegation is essential to actually negotiate a peace and then have it stick.

And I think President Ghani —

TWD: Do you think there’s a possibility that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may have to intervene, as John Kerry had to do last time there was an election dispute between Ghani and Abdullah? (Since our interview, Pompeo visited Afghanistan and said the administration is slashing $1 billion in U.S. aid after Ghani and Abdullah failed to form a new government. They have also yet to agree on who should represent the Afghan delegation in negotiations with the Taliban.)

MF: I certainly hope that there’s a multipronged diplomatic effort right now to reach Ghani and Abdullah to try to get them to see that this is far greater than the election outcome.

But even if they come to that realization and decide to work to­ geth­er on this, which I think is a big if, it’s a very rocky road, as we’re seeing with the prisoner exchange.

It’s not going to be done in a matter of weeks. It’s going to take time, but that’s how complex peace negotiations work. It’s still the best path forward.

My worry quite frankly — given the president’s statements, his campaign pledges, his behavior in Syria — is that he’ll get frustrated and impatient and could pull the plug and say, ‘Forget it, we’re just pulling out.’ If he does that, I think we will doom the Afghan government to collapse and the country to a return to civil war, and I think that would be foreign policy malpractice.

TWD: President Trump’s national security strategy identifies the reemergence of great power competition with China and Russia as our biggest threat. Do you agree with this shift in thinking?

MF: I think the shift actually began in the Obama administration with what you call the pivot or the new balance to Asia, and it was premised on an understanding that if you look at both the defining challenges and opportunities of the next 50 years, Asia will be the most important region for American prosperity and American security.

Having been focused for so long on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in the greater Middle East, we have to free up some thinking and bandwidth to focus on Asia because it’s so impactful on our interests and well-being.

So that is a correct hypothesis for both administrations. I think the debate is over how do we compete effectively with China and how do we get them to cooperate where we need them. In my view, there is certainly a military element that’s about

deterring Chinese aggression and coercion and protecting our allies and our interests.

But the primary way for us to compete effectively with China, in my view, is to invest in the drivers of our competitiveness and performance here at home — so science and technology, research and development, 21st-century infra­structure, access to higher education, particularly STEM education, and a smart immigration policy that attracts the best and brightest from around the world and then convinces them to stay here and become Americans.

These are the policies that will help us compete with China and make sure we maintain our technological edge.

I like to remind people that if you look at Silicon Valley and the founders, more than 50% of them are either immigrants or first-generation Americans. We need that talent that comes here for education to stay here and invest in our innovation ecosystem, rather than going home to China or India or wherever.

[A]nd we have to recognize that on issues of climate change, nonproliferation, pandemics, we need cooperation from China, so we can’t paint them into the corner as an enemy.

TWD: You mentioned immigration as a domestic priority. Looking internationally, with the administration so focused on China and Russia — coupled with its efforts to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and, possibly, Africa — are there areas you’re con-

policeman, but using our soft power is something we should be doing far more than we seem to be doing now.

TWD: President Trump famously pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal that his predecessor negotiated with Iran and launched a maximum pressure campaign to bring Iran back to the bargaining table. Instead, in recent months we’ve seen a sharp uptick in hostilities capped by the U.S. killing of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

Do you think we’ve stepped back from the brink of full-scale conflict and, more generally, what would you say have been the repercussions of the withdrawal and subsequent pressure campaign?

CREDIT: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PHOTO BY R.D. WARD

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy attends a meeting at the Pentagon with, from left: Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey; South Korean President Lee Myung-bak; and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Oct. 12, 2011.

cerned might fall through the cracks?

MF: I’m worried we are giving away our position and influence. We’re about to celebrate the 75th anniversary of World War II. In the wake of that conflict, we constructed this rules-based order … and that has served the United States so well for 75 years, and our allies and the free

democracies of the Western world.

Now you have countries like China and Russia that are challenging that order, and without U.S. leadership to help defend it where it needs to be defended and adapted to new circumstances, there’s a huge vacuum that’s being created. So you have suddenly Vladimir Putin back in the Middle East, holding the cards on

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Syria; you have China gaining influence in Africa, in Latin America — historically areas of U.S. influence.

How do we respond? What’s our answer to One Belt One Road? What’s our answer to Putin’s use of fake news and propaganda throughout Europe?

We’re just sort of missing in action in a way that’s very damaging to the U.S. We don’t want to be the world’s

MF: The repercussions of the withdrawal from the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] is it took us from a situation where we had put 10 to 15 years on the clock between now and when Iran would be in a position to produce enough fissile material to get a bomb. Now, as we see in the latest IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] reports, they are starting to take steps to ramp up their enrichment. They’ve installed new, better centrifuges. They are inching toward a sort of breakout capability again.

The thing I worry about in that scenario is actually Israel. Israel has been consistent that there’s a certain SEE F L OUR NOY • PAGE 8

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nies — they do better. The same is true in government.

Flournoy

TWD: You’ve talked about groups such as Women in International Security. What do you think are some strategies to bring more women into top national security roles?

CONTINUED • PAGE 7

point at which it cannot tolerate Iran being too close to a bomb and if the U.S. doesn’t act, Israel will. And so I worry that … we won’t give some clear off-ramp for how Iran goes from the victim of maximum pressure, unconstrained in a nuclear domain, to actually a negotiating constraint that will stick. We have to show them that path and I don’t think the administration has been clear about what exactly Iran has to do to get on that path.

I don’t think the provocation cycle is over. I think it was interrupted with the retaliatory attack launched against our bases in Iraq, but I think [Iran] will respond in a time and place of their choosing. That’s what they’ve always done. They wait until their proxies are positioned to take a shot, and that’s what they’ll do in the future. And I think like North Korea, they will use provocations to try to get the administration to pay attention and to come back to the negotiating table.

PHOTO: PIXABAY / WOONG_HOE

President Trump has slapped tariffs on most Chinese imports in a bid to curb Beijing’s unfair trade practices, but Michèle Flournoy argues that China can’t be painted “into the corner as an enemy” and that Chinese cooperation is still necessary on issues such as climate change, nonproliferation — and pandemics.

verse the efforts of the chain of command to hold its own accountable.

I have yet to find a single person in the SEAL community or in the Navy or in the military more broadly who agreed with the president intervening on behalf of someone who their own military justice system had convicted for war crimes.

So I think there’s a lot of concern and you couple that with the number of vacancies underneath the secretary of defense and the roles to which the military gets pulled in to fill because of the lack of a deep bench on the civilian side — it’s a real problem and it will need to be addressed and corrected by a future administration.

TWD: On that note, Iran has consistently been in the news this year, but something that has faded from the headlines is North Korea, even though it has by some estimates 20 to 60 nuclear weapons and has successfully tested an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Do you think it’s still possible to engage Kim Jong-un in negotiations or does the U.S. need to take a tougher approach?

MF: The two go hand in hand. I do think you want to have an open negotiating channel below the level of the two leaders. It’s great to have photo-ops, but that’s not going to get you a nuclear deal. You’ve got to have experts negotiating in good faith.

The North Koreans are tough.

You’ve had multiple administrations conclude partial deals, try to conclude deals, try to not have them constantly being walked back or violated.

This is a tough situation.

At the same time, we need to be taking the steps to make sure that we, first of all, defend ourselves. I think the DoD is investing in the missile defenses to protect ourselves should North Korea actually get an ICBM, [as well as] the measures we need to try to disrupt their program.

And so I think you need a whole suite of tools. You need, most importantly, to get Chinese cooperation.

The only country with real leverage over North Korea is China, and again, taking this purely bilateral approach without getting China involved and trying to pressure North Korea to come to the table is just not very effective.

And the country most at risk from North Korean provocations and aggression is South Korea, our close ally, and we need to be hand and glove with them — again, as opposed to having them be a bystander.

TWD: You had mentioned that one of your biggest worries is the lack of feedback the president re­ceives. Looking outside the current administration, what are some of the long-term

PHOTO: BY BJØRN CHRISTIAN TØRRISSEN - OWN WORK BY UPLOADER, HTTP://BJORNFREE.COM/KIM/, CC BY-SA 3.0

North Koreans bow at the statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il at the Mansudae Grand Monument in Pyongyang. While North Korea has faded from the headlines, it’s estimated the communist regime has 20 to 60 nuclear weapons.

threats that deserve more attention?

MF: Number one is climate change as a national security issue. This administration is whistling past the graveyard. The Department of Defense understands climate change is a national security issue. They’ve written reports that have subsequently been censored on the issue. So that’s number one.

The risk of miscalculation with China. I don’t think China wants a war with us. I don’t think we want a war with them. But the lack of strategic, consistent dialogue to avoid unintended incidents, when our military forces brush up against each other — the risk of miscalculation is higher than it should be.

TWD: You mentioned that climate change has been a huge focus of the Defense Department but that it has been swept under the rug by this administration. So on the issue of civil-military relations, initially when President Trump came to office, he appointed senior military officers in roles that are typically reserved for civilians. Most recently, the president reversed the demotion of a Navy SEAL accused of serious war crimes

8 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

despite the objections of military leadership. Obviously as commanderin-chief, the president has the power to make these decisions, but what are your concerns moving forward on the longer-term implications of blurring the lines between military and civilian roles?

MF: It’s dangerous. I think it’s very important in a democracy to ensure civilian leadership and command and control over the military, and I would challenge you to find an officer in uniform who doesn’t agree with that.

This is a military where every time an officer is promoted, they pledge their faith to the Constitution. They understand the importance of the military as an institution remaining apolitical and serving the Constitution and no one leader, no one political party.

So I think they find it disturbing when the military is used politically, whether it’s having recently retired four-star officers speak at national political conventions; whether it’s putting military officers in uniform in political positions; whether it’s having the White House reach into the military justice system and re-

TWD: When you were undersec­re­ tary of defense for policy, you were the highest-ranking woman in the Pentagon. What has it been like moving up the ranks in such a maledominated field?

MF: I will say it gets easier over time.

When I first came to the Pentagon in the Clinton administration, I was in my early 30s, female, civilian, Democratic, political appointee — that’s a lot of strikes against you in that culture.

The one saving grace was I was also a Navy wife, so I got some forgiveness for that.

But it’s very tough when you’re a junior person coming into that environment, but I think over time, as you gain expertise and experience and build relationships … I did not find it to be an issue when I was undersecretary. And part of that was I had bosses, first [Robert] Gates and then [Leon] Panetta, who were incredibly empowering of my position.

But more progress needs to be made. First and foremost because you don’t want to leave half the talent pool off the table. In a democracy, you want a national security cadre that looks like America. And all the business literature is very clear that when you put more diversity in the C-suite, in the boardroom, the actual bottom-line performance of compa-

MF: There’s a new organization called LCWINS — the Leadership Council for Women in National Security — and the first thing they did was they went to all the candidates, including President Trump, and said, ‘Will you pledge to aim for full gender inclusion and diversity in appointing the future national security team at all levels?’

Almost all of the Democratic Party campaigns signed up and I think they’re still waiting to hear from the administration.

The second thing they’re doing is — remember Mitt Romney’s binders of women — they’re actually building slates. They’re looking at all the top jobs, from the senior level down to the mid-career manager level, and they are identifying unquestionably qualified women who could serve in those positions and should be on any slate going forward.

And so they’re trying to do that hard spadework that they can hand off to a transition team and say, ‘Here you go. This will make it a little bit easier to make sure you’re actually hiring in a way that is fully cognizant of the talent that’s out there.’

TWD: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

MF: On an optimistic note, when I go up to the Hill, when I talk to Amer­ icans, there’s a fundamental appreciation that we need a full toolbox of instruments — not just the best mi­litary in the world, which I fully sup­port, but we also need a robust diplomatic corps. We need smart development programs that help lift people out of poverty, create economies that become our trading partners and contribute to global prosperity and stability.

TWD: On that final note, any thoughts on the president’s proposed fiscal 2021 budget? Pentagon spending would be relatively flat at $704 billion but it again proposes deep cuts to the State Department and USAID. MF: Thankfully you’ve had a bipartisan firewall in Congress to stop some of those draconian cuts. Again, I think it’s fundamentally unbalanced and shortsighted. We’re living it right now — part of the draconian cuts in this administration have been to our public health infrastructure. The only way we deal with bio-threats and pandemics is through our public health infrastructure. That’s the surveillance system, it’s the early warning system and it’s the early response system.

And we have starved the CDC, we have starved NIH, we have starved a number of biodefense programs and we may now be about to pay the price for that. WD Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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Contagion Learning Curve After Botched Ebola Response, WHO Fights to Do Better with Coronavirus Pandemic

BY DERYL DAVIS

T

he World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. agency responsible for leadership on matters of global health, was sharply criticized for its response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. Health care providers argued that the WHO had been too slow to sound the alarm and was unprepared for the challenges that the deadly disease presented. Then-WHO Director-General Margaret Chan acknowledged her agency’s shortcomings and promised important reforms. Fast forward six years to another, more widespread and arguably greater, global health crisis — coronavirus — and early reviews of the WHO’s actions are much more nuanced.

Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now president and CEO of the public health initiative Resolve to Save Lives, said the WHO’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “has been much better than the Ebola response.”

“This is an unprecedented situation,” Frieden told us via email, “and the WHO is generally doing a good job,” although he noted that the agency’s formal designation of the outbreak as a pandemic on March 11 “was slightly overdue.”

Frieden added that, given how rapidly the new disease is spreading, it’s difficult for any entity to keep up, especially one with the bureaucratic complexity of the WHO. “We are a more interconnected world,” he said. “That allows diseases to spread quickly, making WHO’s job, and everyone else working on preparedness and response, more difficult.”

LIFE UNDER LOCKDOWN

Difficult is an understatement for world bodies such as the WHO, national governments and local authorities grappling with how to contain Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Some countries (South Korea) have handled it better than others (Italy), although everyone has stumbled and struggled to tackle what President Trump called “an invisible killer.”

The United States has now joined Europe and Asia in essentially shutting down in a bid to flatten the curve and stop the number of Covid-19 cases from increasing exponentially. In countries around the world, the cascading pattern has become a familiar, and frightening, one: Borders have closed, transportation and entire industries have ground to a halt, stocks have cratered, businesses large and small have shuttered, grocery store shelves and streets have emptied, schools have closed, people are sheltering indoors and social distancing has become the norm for an unspecified period of time as hospitals gird for a coming onslaught of patients for which they are scarcely prepared.

As of March 27 when we went to press, nearly 550,000 cases of Covid-19 and nearly 25,000 deaths had been confirmed on every continent except Antarctica. That includes nearly 90,000 cases in the U.S., although those figures are likely to surge as testing ramps up. One jarring report by British researchers warned that without any action, 2.2 million people in the U.S. could die. Meanwhile, the economic toll is incalculable. Fearful of a collapse even worse than the Great Depression, the U.S. government is propping the economy up with more than $2 trillion in 10 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

PHOTOS: UN / EVAN SCHNEIDER; INSET: ALISSA ECKERT, MS; DAN HIGGINS, MAMS

A customer wears a mask while looking at bare store shelves in New York City on March 18.

“

Right now, Italians are dealing with Italians, Chinese are dealing with Chinese, the U.S. president is concentrating on the U.S…. It’s the kind of environment where disease flourishes.

TOLBERT NYENSWAH

senior research associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

stimulus spending — with potentially more to come.

The costs of coronavirus will be felt for years to come — as will the lessons we learn from our handling of the crisis, which will likely reshape our thinking about public health, just as 9/11 reshaped our approach toward national security.

But the crisis should not have come as a surprise.

For years, experts have been warning about the possible emergence of a global pandemic that not only fundamentally alters our way of life, but also tests the very notion of 21st-century globalization.

In fact, as Politico reported in a March 16 article, shortly before Trump’s inauguration, members of the Obama administration held a transition exercise in which they gave the incoming president’s team a briefing on a theoretical new pandemic that could wreak havoc on health care systems around the world.

It was a scenario Obama faced six years ago when the country was gripped by panic over another disease that, like coronavirus, also had the potential

”

to spread worldwide but was, in some ways, even more terrifying: Ebola.

TWO TERRIFYINGLY DIFFERENT DIAGNOSES

While both Ebola and Covid-19 pose enormous health challenges, they do so in different ways.

The coronavirus, whose symptoms largely mimic the flu, is transmitted through droplets in the air, often by infected people coughing or sneezing nearby (generally within six feet). Droplets can also land on surfaces, where the virus can live for up to several days. It is not known to what degree the virus can be spread by people with no symptoms — and experts say that a large portion of people infected with the coronavirus may have little to no symptoms. But older people and those with pre-existing health conditions are more at risk of developing severe symptoms such as trouble breathing that require hospi-

Nyenswah pointed out that it talization. Experts have estimated the took the WHO nearly six months to mortality rate of Covid-19 at anydeclare Ebola an international public where from 1.4% to 3.6%, although health emergency following the the figure is likely lower given that outbreak in 2014. many people with mild or no sympThis time, the global health body toms aren’t tested. “made a very positive move” in In contrast to the coronavirus, formally declaring a public health Ebola can only be spread by direct emergency of international concern contact with an infected person’s (PHEIC) within weeks of China’s blood or other bodily fluids such acknowledgment of coronavirus urine and sweat — and only after outbreak last December. That they have already developed declaration was followed by the symptoms (although the disease creation of a global response plan can also be spread by contact with calling for $675 million in donor the body of a deceased patient). funding targeted toward fighting While transmission is greater with the virus. As of mid-March, only coronavirus, a diagnosis of Ebola is far a portion of that total had been more bleak. The disease is often fatal. received, although on March 13, In addition to flu-like symptoms, it the WHO announced the creation causes vomiting, diarrhea, decreased of a Solidarity Response Fund that liver and kidney function, black would raise money from both public stools and both internal and external and private sectors to help countries bleeding, including the oozing of with less advanced health systems blood from the gums and whites of respond to the pandemic. Facebook the eyes.

CREDIT: UN PHOTO / ELMA OKIC and Google are among the global The extreme symptoms and high corporations lined up to support the fatality rate of Ebola caused wide­ World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — seen above briefing journalists about an Ebola outbreak in May new fund. spread panic in 2014 that prompted 2018 — has urged “countries to take urgent and aggressive action” against coronavirus, although the WHO has no mechanism the WHO and governments to move to enforce its recommendations. aggressively — albeit belatedly — to nearly 25,000 health care workers. returned to the U.S. for treatment. Of pared” to what happened with Ebola BOUND BY BUDGETS, tackle the outbreak. a few years ago.

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Coronavirus CONTINUED • PAGE 11

pansive and includes tackling communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer. It works to improve access to essential health services in some of the world’s poorest countries and supports initiatives ranging from polio eradication to maternal health. In addition, it monitors an array of health-related issues such as food security, climate change, drug use and road safety. It’s also responsible for setting international health standards and coordinating global responses to emergencies such as the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet experts say the WHO’s staff — 7,000 — and its budget — $4.4 billion for 2018 and 2019 — are not commensurate with such a broad mandate.

Dr. Jennifer Huang Bouey, senior policy researcher at the Rand Corporation, says that in addition to budgetary and workforce constraints, the majority of WHO’s budget comes from voluntary contributions, making it more or less beholden to its donors. Huang Bouey suggests that the health agency can provide important medical guidance and coordinate vital technical support, but there are limits to what the WHO can, or perhaps dares to, do. “[C]an it criticize countries for their lack of action or mistakes?” she asked via email. “Not really, especially [with regard] to its donors.”

A background report on the WHO created by the Council on Foreign Relations says that the WHO has become “increasingly dependent on voluntary contributions” over the past decade and that this, in turn, has increased pressure on the organization to respond to donor interests.

In the case of the United States, historically the WHO’s largest contributor, Huang Bouey pointed to “ups and downs” in recent support for the global health agency. She cited significant declines in U.S. financial support from 2017 to the present and the Trump administration’s plan to further slash U.S. contributions to the world body in its proposed fiscal 2021 budget (also see “Show Me the Money: Congress Giveth What the President Keeps Trying to Taketh Away” in the March 2020 issue).

While Congress is likely to reject the most extreme proposed cuts, any reduction in U.S. contributions “will further reduce the WHO’s capabilities,” Huang Bouey said.

Like many of her colleagues, Huang Bouey believes the WHO is “doing its job” with regard to Covid-19, providing almost daily situation reports in addition to virus prototype research, test kit dissemination and supplying medical expertise through its regional offices. Still, the Trump administration’s proposal to cut overall global health spending by as much as $3 billion from the $9 billion that was authorized last year will “almost certainly hurt pandemic preparedness and response,” including that of the WHO. Frieden, who is also affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations as senior fellow for global health, agrees that the WHO “needs much more financial support.” Similarly, individual countries, particularly those with weaker health systems, need help building their preparedness for outbreaks like Ebola and the coronavirus. “What we lack now is sustained financing to close those gaps,” Frieden told us.

Huang Bouey emphasized that, given chronic funding and occasional management problems, the WHO has to rely on individual countries and donors in marshalling resources to address global health crises. This means that, in actuality, the agency “has a limited role in global pandemic response.”

PHOTO: MARC A. HERMANN / MTA NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT

Above, New York City Transit personnel sanitize a train in the Coney Island Yard on March 3 as a precautionary measure in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Below, shoppers in Singapore clear out supermarket shelves on Feb. 8.

PHOTO: CATHERINE POH HUAY SUEN

In the case of coronavirus, the WHO had to wait for China to report the outbreak on Dec. 30, 2019, although people may have begun falling ill to the disease weeks earlier. An international team of disease experts sponsored by the WHO did not arrive in China until mid-February, too late in the estimation of some health leaders, including U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Azar told news outlets that the U.S. had offered to send disease experts to China as early as Jan. 6, but had not received permission to do so.

“No country wants to say, ‘My country has this disease,’” Nyenswah acknowledged. “We saw in West Africa how all of us barricaded ourselves from the rest of the world. So, China delayed a bit in responding to this outbreak.”

What was needed, he argues, was more forceful action from the WHO. “The WHO should have moved directly,” he said. “They should have insisted and moved in and gotten things going.”

Instead, Nyenswah said WHO experts went into China “when the outbreak was already out of control and had become a global problem.

Now, everyone’s afraid.”

Nyenswah argues that his experience fighting Ebola in West Africa highlights the central problem: The WHO does not have any way to hold individual countries accountable, whether for financial support (beyond a basic assessment from member states), disease reporting or in terms of instituting WHO protocols during an outbreak.

“The WHO requires countries to report out, but that’s not binding on countries. The WHO says countries should or should not close their borders, but [enforcement of] that level of political decision-making is not there,” Nyenswah told us.

“Right now, Italians are dealing with Italians, Chinese are dealing with Chinese, the U.S. president is concentrating on the U.S. This kind of outlook is stretching world peace,” he added.

“If the world was together, we would know how to deal with testing, with airlines, with travel.

But now, everybody is confused. It’s the kind of environment where disease flourishes.”

In fact, on the day that WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the agency’s designation of the coronavirus as a pandemic, he both defended the WHO’s actions and acknowledged that some countries were not heeding its directives.

“WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases,” Ghebreyesus said. “And we have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action.

We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”

Ghebreyesus said that while some countries are struggling with a lack of capacity or resources, others “are struggling with a lack of resolve.”

LEADERSHIP IN THE FACE OF LIMITATIONS

PHOTO: BY FARS NEWS AGENCY, CC BY 4.0

Coronavirus patients are treated at the Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran. Iran has become a global hotspot in the pandemic.

NO TEETH

Perhaps the biggest limitation of the WHO is that it has no enforcement authority. It can issue recommendations on policies such as travel restrictions and medical exports, but countries can ignore them. It can call for global unity but

12 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

cannot compel countries to work together. And it relies on governments to report outbreaks and share information, but it cannot hold them accountable if they keep the WHO in the dark.

And because it relies on donor support, it cannot publicly shame donors that have flouted their obligations.

Nyenswah suggested the answer lies with the U.N. Security Council, which can exert greater pressure than the WHO can to hold nations accountable during times of crisis. He cites the success he and other leaders in the fight against Ebola had in getting the Security Council to pass a resolution declaring the virus “a threat to international peace and security.”

The resolution called on member nations to send health care workers and supplies to the hardest-hit areas of West Africa. In addition, then-U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon established a United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) to increase the WHO’s operational and logistical capacities. Importantly, the secretary-general also appointed a special Ebola envoy to coordinate the work.

“I don’t see that kind of cooperation right now,” Nyenswah lamented. “During Ebola, SEE COR ONAVIR US • PAGE 39

Africa | WD

Contested Waters U.S. Races to Broker Egypt-Ethiopia Deal as Controversial Nile Dam Plows Ahead

BY ANNA GAWEL AND RYAN R. MIGEED

O

n Feb. 28, U.S. mediators announced they may have finally struck a deal among Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on a dam along the Nile River that has seized politics in the region and raised the specter of military action in one of the world’s tensest water conflicts.

Just a few days later, however, Ethiopia backed out, saying it needed more time to study the draft agreement.

Egypt promptly accused Ethiopia of deliberately dragging out the U.S.-brokered negotiations and is now seeking the support of Arab nations to bolster its case.

It’s just the latest setback in the longrunning saga over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa when it is completed. Construction began in 2011 and reports suggest it is 70% done.

The $4.6 billion dam has become one of the most contentious and consequential projects in Egyptian and Ethiopian history, but for different reasons. Ethiopia’s progressive prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, touts the dam as a symbol of the country’s modernization — a source of national pride that will not only provide badly needed electricity for the country’s 100 million people, but also potentially transform Ethiopia into Africa’s biggest power exporter.

But for Egypt and its 100 million people — who view the Nile as central to their national identity — the dam is an existential threat that could choke the downstream flow of the river, which provides the desert country’s with almost all of its fresh water supply.

Making matters worse, population growth in the region, particularly in Egypt, is fueling the demand for more and more water even as climate change and decades of mismanagement have depleted water resources.

An influx of refugees from various regional conflicts and migrants — often farmers whose lands have dried up as a result of climate change — are inundating Nile Basin countries, whose populations are projected to almost double to over 400 million by 2050, according to a Feb. 4 report in World Politics Review by Peter Schwartzstein.

At the same time, researchers at Dartmouth College published a study last year estimating that the flow of the Nile will regularly fail to meet demand, and between 20% and 40% of the population will face water scarcity even during “normal years.”

That’s why an agreement is so critical. Yet despite the urgency, Mirette F. Mabrouk, director of the Egypt Program at the Middle East Institute (MEI), said she’s “disappointed but not particu-

PHOTO: PIXABAY / EGYPT TOUR PACKAGES

A traditional dhow boat sails along the Nile River in Egypt. While the Nile is synonymous with Egypt, its waters largely flow to the country from Ethiopia, which is building the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa in its quest to become the continent’s biggest power exporter.

“

There is no doubt that the dam might be an energy boon to the region, nor is there any doubt that it has the capacity to turn off the taps on Egypt, a desert nation which gets a mind-numbing 97% of its water from the Nile.

MIRETTE F. MABROUK, director of the Egypt Program at the Middle East Institute

larly surprised” by the latest diplomatic setback.

“These negotiations have been dragging for the better part of a decade. It’s only since the intervention of the U.S. that the issue has made international news,” Mabrouk told us via email. “Egypt has been requesting international participation since 2017 and Ethiopia has consistently refused, insisting that the negotiations remain tripartite. The only agreement that has been signed on this matter is the 2015 Declaration of Principles in which, in a nutshell, the participants agree to agree. It should not have come as huge surprise, however, since Ethiopia has shown a preference for unilateral decision-making in relation to transboundary water projects.”

She added: “There is no doubt that the dam might be an energy boon to the region, nor is there any doubt that it has the capacity to turn off the taps on Egypt, a desert nation which gets a mind-numbing 97% of its water from

the Nile. Any claim that a dam that holds the entire capacity of the Nile Basin’s annual flow, if not managed responsibly and equitably, does not have the capacity to create untold havoc is simply disingenuous.”

VITAL LIFELINE

Eleven countries, in fact, rely on the Nile’s waters: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

But they all need the Nile for different reasons. While Egypt relies on the Nile for almost all of its water needs, Ethiopia — quenched by lakes and other freshwater sources — needs the Nile’s hydropower to satisfy its energy needs.

The current dispute centers around the critical Blue Nile tributary, which originates in Ethiopia, crosses Sudan and then flows north to the Mediterranean, leaving in its wake the fertile Nile Delta in northern Egypt. Almost 95% of

”

Egypt’s population lives along this delta region, where two-thirds of the country’s food supply is cultivated, according to a New York Times report titled “For Thousands of Years, Egypt Controlled the Nile. A New Dam Threatens That.”

Egypt argues that the dam not only threatens its food and water supply, but also could potentially put millions out of work and jeopardize an alreadyfragile economy — a prospect experts fear could spark the type of instability that led to the 2011 Egyptian uprisings.

In a Nov. 15, 2019, article for Foreign Policy, Imad K. Harb, director of research and analysis at the Arab Center Washington DC, estimated that the dam could take at least seven years to fill, which would decrease the river’s flow by 25% for at least that period.

Never before has Egypt faced such a significant man-made reduction in the Nile’s flow, which is why it wants Ethiopia to slow the rate at which it fills the SEE NIL E • PAGE 14 APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 13

Nile CONTINUED • PAGE 13

reservoir. Ethiopia claims Egypt is demanding that it be filled over a period of 12 to 21 years (a claim Cairo denies). Meanwhile, Ethiopia says it has already compromised by offering to fill the dam over four to seven years, as opposed to the two to three years it originally envisioned.

Ethiopia has also balked at Egypt’s demands over how much water it should guarantee flows to Egypt.

But Mabrouk says the situation is more complicated than that. “This is not simply a case of a dam being built. While articles usually present the problem as a matter of the filling period for the dam, there are myriad factors: how long the dam would take to fill — the shorter the period, the less water available to the downstream countries — the time of year, which has to take agriculture into account, [and] what happens during times of shortage or drought, none of which Ethiopia wants to commit to, essentially asking that Egypt take it at its word that it will release water responsibly,” she explained.

Mabrouk argues that Ethiopia has refused to budge on the issue. “The GERD, built with Ethiopian money, is extremely important to Ethiopia, which has huge plans for a hydropower network extending past the region.

Egypt, which has a more advanced power grid infrastructure, has offered to help but Ethiopia has not been receptive,” she said.

To that end, Ethiopia says it will start filling the dam this July, insisting that any talks can happen “in parallel” with the dam’s construction. Further complicating matters is the fact that Abiy doesn’t want to appear weak on the

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

President Donald Trump, joined by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, right, meets with, from left, Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Asma Mohamed Abdalla, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry and Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gedu Andargachew on Nov. 6, 2019, in the Oval Office, where Trump expressed his support for Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan’s ongoing negotiations to reach a collaborative agreement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. After a promising breakthrough was announced on Feb. 28, however, Ethiopia backed out of the U.S.-brokered draft agreement — marking another bump in the years-long diplomatic logjam over the Nile Dam.

issue because in August, Ethiopia will hold national elections that will be a major test of Abiy’s sweeping reforms, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize last year.

DRIP DRIP DIPLOMACY

But “talks” over the Grand Ethiopian Renai­ ssance Dam have been anything but peaceful.

Egypt and Sudan initially greeted the GERD’s construction with dire warnings. Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and other politicians at one point suggested the military conduct an airstrike or engage in

14 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

covert tactics to halt the dam’s progress.

Abiy hasn’t hesitated to fire back, recently warning that “no force could stop Ethiopia from building a dam” and even suggesting that Ethiopia could mobilize “millions” of troops to defend the project.

Meanwhile, Sudan, which has historically sided with Egypt, withdrew its opposition to the dam after receiving assurances from Addis Ababa.

Increasingly isolated and pressed for time as construction plowed ahead, Cairo eventually pivoted from saber-rattling to dialogue and called for international mediation in 2017

— to no avail. Since then, the tripartite talks among Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have gone nowhere.

Last fall, Russia stepped into the fray to try to broker a solution, but when that failed, Egypt invited the U.S. to mediate the dispute.

In November, President Trump, perhaps eager to prove his deal-making chops, agreed.

Despite some bumps, the talks — led by the U.S. Treasury Department with technical assistance from the World Bank — did yield significant progress.

A joint statement released in mid-January by all the parties involved “included three vital points: that filling would occur over stages and take into account the hydrological conditions of the Nile, that it would take place during the wet season, and that it would address Ethiopia’s electricity generation needs while providing for mitigation avenues for Egypt and Sudan in times of prolonged dry spells or drought,” Mabrouk wrote in a Jan. 21 MEI brief.

Then, on Jan. 31, ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met in Washington, where they said a final agreement would be signed by the end of February.

The next round of meetings, however, ended in stalemate on Feb. 13. In yet another blow, during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Ethiopia a few days later, Pompeo said it could take “months” to resolve the dispute and that “a great deal of work remains.”

But on Feb. 28, a major diplomatic break­ through seemed imminent when the Treasury Department announced that the parties had achieved a draft agreement that “addresses all issues in a balanced and equitable manner,” according to a statement.

Egypt was ready to sign the deal. Ethiopia apparently wasn’t and skipped the next scheduled meeting. According to a statement from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the text of the draft agreement “is not the outcome of the negotiation or the technical and legal

discussion of the three countries.”

Ethiopian Ambassador to the U.S. Fitsum Arega was more blunt, declaring on Twitter that “Ethiopia will never sign on an agreement that will surrender its right to use the Nile River.”

According to Reuters, Trump told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a close ally, that Washington won’t give up trying to find a resolution to the impasse.

“President Trump emphasized that the U.S. administration will keep up tireless efforts and coordination with Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over this vital issue until the three countries sign an agreement over the Renaissance Dam,” the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

But Ethiopia’s water and energy minister recently said Trump “was given inadequate and inaccurate information on some issues regarding our dam.”

Addis Abbas also rejected Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s statement that filling should not take place without an agreement, calling it “unacceptable and highly partisan.”

“The situation will only be solved via compromise and agreement,” Mabrouk told us.

“There is absolutely no room for a unilateral decision here. Egypt, which has never objected to the dam but has insisted on an operational framework, has said that it has already compromised on various matters — which the U.S. and the World Bank appear to agree on, considering that they drafted the agreement Egypt has initialed, but neither Ethiopia nor Sudan have signed.”

DAMMED IF YOU DO…

Yet even before the most recent talks collapsed, Addisu Lashitew, a fellow with the Brookings Institution, warned that Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan should plan beyond a “rushed, Washington-brokered Nile Treaty” and negotiate a comprehensive water-sharing

PHOTO: PIXABAY / NADINE DOERLÉ

The iconic Pyramids of Giza tower over the Egyptian desert. For Egyptians, the Nile River is both central to their identity and their survival, with the downstream flow of the river providing the desert country’s with almost all of its fresh water supply.

agreement for managing the Nile’s resources.

“The main problem is that this agreement is borne out of a rushed negotiation process and may carry unintended future risks,” he wrote in a Feb. 18 brief for the think tank. “One major source of risk is the lack of an independent, mutually accepted mechanism for monitoring and enforcing the agreement. Since any agreement on the GERD requires strong cooperation, it will have to be founded on strong buy-in from signatories to have any chance of success.”

He added that because climate change will affect the dam’s waters in ways experts can’t predict, “a binding agreement that does not have any exit options in the context of high uncertainty is likely to create a deadlock in the future.”

In a recent article for Foreign Policy, Lashitew also argued that the U.S. erred in supporting Egypt in the recent talks because “it has already thrown its weight behind a draft agreement that Ethiopia rejects. Ethiopia’s buy-in is crucial for the success of a Nile treaty, especially considering the difficulty of externally enforcing such an agreement,” he wrote, adding that “a Nile agreement will have to be a part of a cooperative framework for greater regional and economic integration.”

On that note, Lashitew suggested that the Nile Basin Initiative Comprehensive Framework Agreement, which has not yet been endorsed by Egypt and Sudan, could be modified to serve as a basis for a future agreement.

There is actually no lack of water treaties

in the region, but they all date to the colonial era and there is no comprehensive treaty that includes all the relevant parties. The 1959 Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and Sudan entitles them to 100% of the Nile’s waters, but upstream countries like Ethiopia (whose highlands supply over 80% of that water) reject it because they were not party to it.

The 1959 agreement is based on a previous 1929 version signed by Egypt and Great Britain that “gave Cairo the right to veto projects higher up the Nile that would affect its water share,” according to Reuters. Cairo has sought to maintain that veto ever since.

The Nile Basin countries established the Nile Basin Initiative in 1999 to manage disputes such as the current one between Ethiopia and Egypt, but the dialogue group has been rendered impotent by Egypt’s insistence on retaining its veto from previous agreements, according to Lashitew.

The initiative now largely serves an information-sharing function, generating water management best practices and helping member states “identify and prepare investment projects,” according to its website.

But Lashitew told us that the initiative could lay the groundwork for future comprehensive agreements on managing and developing the shared resources of the Nile, including the GERD. He pointed out that it is Egypt that has “pushed for more discussions about the longterm operations of the dam.”

So, in theory, given Egypt’s lack of success in altering the trajectory of the Nile Dam, Cairo may finally be motivated to drop its opposition to expanding the mandate of the Nile Basin Initiative.

REGIONAL RIVALS

But it is Ethiopia that may have more leverSEE NIL E • PAGE 16

Serving DC, Maryland, and Virginia

CHUCKCARES.COM APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 15

Nile CONTINUED • PAGE 15

age over any future treaties. After years of political and economic decline, Cairo is no longer the regional heavyweight it once was, whereas Ethiopia is a rising power eager to make up for decades of Egyptian dominance of the Nile.

Further complicating the prospects of an agreement over the dam is the fraught history between Egypt and Ethiopia, two of the region’s most powerful and populous states. As Lashitew points out in his Brookings report, Ethiopia’s former prime minister, Meles Zenawi, announced plans to build the GERD in 2011 — when Egypt was engulfed in turmoil following the ouster of PHOTO: BY JACQUES DESCLOITRES, MODIS RAPID RESPONSE TEAM, NASA Hosni Mubarak at the height of the Arab Spring.

The fertile Nile Delta in northern Egypt is seen from space.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian officials have accused Egypt of lending support to ethnic groups that fueled various sectarian conflicts Almost 95% of Egypt’s population lives along this delta region in the country, including unrest in 2016 that killed an estimated and two-thirds of the country’s food supply is cultivated there. people. every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and NOTE:500 Although At thecontent time, Ethiopia’s information minister accused “all kindsto make unlikely,the ” although tensions are likely to remain high, even if an it is ultimately up to the customer final proof. of elements in the Egyptian political establishment” of arming agreement is eventually signed. and financing tribal groups, according to an Oct. 10, 2016, BBC He added that if a comprehensive agreement is ever reached, The firstreport. two Cairo faxeddenied changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, changes any involvement. ideally it wouldsubsequent find “a more optimal way of using the resources” will be billed at a rate ofalso $75tugs per alteration. ads are considered approved.

The current dispute at emailed national pride.

For Egypt, Signed of the Nile. the dam threatens its supremacy over the Nile, which has been On that note, many experts suggest that while policymakers quintessential to its check identity this and livelihood dating Mark back toany the changes should focus on preventing an escalation of tensions, they need Please ad carefully. to your ad.

Pharaohs. For Ethiopia, which for years was widely associated to be more concerned about the long-term health of the Nile povertysign and and misery, represents an opportunity itself. the ad iswith correct faxthe to:dam (301) 949-0065 needs changes to become an energy exporter and assert itself as an influential player in the geostrategic Horn of Africa. It also sees the dam as he Washington (301) 933-3552 a course Diplomat correction after colonial-era agreements favored Egypt BATTERED NILE For decades, Egypt, Sudan and the other Nile Basin counat the expense of other Nile Basin countries.

Meanwhile, climate stressors are exacerbating these long- tries have stressed the Nile’s resources with water-intensive pproved __________________________________________________________ standing regional rivalries, as populations are expected to surge farming and ambitious megaprojects that have diverted the hanges ___________________________________________________________ while water resources are expected to dwindle, a recipe for com- river’s water. Egypt itself built the first major dam along the __________________________________________________________________ Nile at the start of the 20th century — the Aswan Low Dam — petition and conflict.

But Lashitew told us that “a direct military confrontation is to control seasonal floodwaters and provide year-round irriga-

tion. More recently, Egyptian President el-Sisi has proposed a multibillion-dollar scheme to build a new administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo that would further suck precious water from the Nile.

Climate change will also have a perverse effect on Egypt’s portion of the Nile. On the one hand, hotter weather and reduced rainfall will lead to drier conditions that could cripple Egypt’s agricultural productivity. On the other hand, rising seas will also hurt agricultural production because it will push saltwater into the Nile, killing crops along its fertile delta.

Ethiopia in fact argues that because the Blue Nile’s flow is dependent on a brief and increasingly unpredictable rainy season and thus prone to heavy flooding, the dam could benefit Egypt by regulating the flow of water downstream.

At the same time, the rainy season’s newfound unpredictability due to climate change could lead Ethiopian farmers — who rely on rainfall, not the river — to demand access to the Nile’s waters if their crops are threatened, shortchanging Egyptian farmers downstream in times of scarcity.

The problem is compounded by pollution. In Khartoum, factories dump toxic waste into the river. Cairo’s surging population stretches the government’s waste management capacity to its limit, leading to the short-term “fix” of using the river as a sewer.

Urban sprawl in every major city along the Nile sends litter into gutters that eventually finds its way to the river.

So while there is less and less water to use because of climate change, there is even less of what’s left that’s clean.

Because all of the Nile Basin countries have contributed to the Nile’s demise — and all are feeling the effects — ultimately everyone will have to work together to keep their shared lifeblood alive. This basic truth offers a spring of hope that Egypt and Ethiopia can overcome their differences, if for no other reason than sheer self-preservation.

But, as the famous British novelist William Golding wrote in “An Egyptian Journal,” a travelogue of his 1985 journey down the river, “He who rides the sea of the Nile must have sails woven of patience.” WD Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat. Ryan R. Migeed (@RyanMigeed) is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

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16 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

Cover Profile | WD

Australia’s Boiling Point Catastrophic Wildfires Leave Lasting Scars — and Lessons — on the Continent

BY ANNA GAWEL

I

magine arriving in Washington, D.C., for your first ambassadorial (or even diplomatic) posting during one of the most unpredictable presidencies in modern U.S. history — in the midst of an election year no less — all while an unprecedented crisis rages back home. Oh, and a month after arriving, the entire world is reeling from a global pandemic.

It’s enough to unnerve the steeliest of public servants.

But Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s new ambassador to the U.S., isn’t easily rattled — at least not after facing down a diagnosis of stage-four nonHodgkin’s lymphoma that had him fighting for his life for nearly two years.

Yet Sinodinos, a former senator in the Australian Parliament, is thoughtful and measured — even at times matter-of-fact — about his battle with cancer, never once describing it in life-or-death terms.

“I never got to the stage of thinking I’m gone, this is the end,” he told us as we sat with him in his official residence for his first media interview since arriving in early February. “I did worry initially, but then I just kept going through the treatment, just put my head down, and I suppose the attitude I took was just to get through each day.”

At the same time, the ordeal reminded him to appreciate each day — a message he imparted to his staff on his first day at work. “I said, as you go through life, just try and enjoy every day as well. It’s about the journey, not just the destination, because too often people [get so focused on where] they want to go that they forget to appreciate the way there.”

Sinodinos — who has been in remission since late 2018 after receiving a bone marrow transplant — was reminded of how fleeting life can be just one day after landing in Washington, D.C., when he greeted the widow of one of the three American firefighters who died battling the recent wildfires that consumed large swathes of Australia.

“I arrived on a Tuesday and on Wednesday afternoon I went out to Dulles Airport to meet the widow who’d come back with the coffin of one of those three firefighters,” he said.

That firefighter, Paul Clyde Hudson of Arizona, had served for 20 years in the Marine Corps. The ambassador noted that Hudson had just retired, was only in his early 40s and that he and his wife Noreen “had the rest of their lives together — and suddenly it’s all taken away.”

“He died in a foreign land, doing what he loved,” Sinodinos added, “but that doesn't take away from the tragedy of what happened. And it was very

“

PHOTO: JESSICA KNOX PHOTOGRAPHY

[W]hen you see mother nature in its full fury, it’s really humbling for us as human beings.

moving to be with her and I made sure she understood that whatever support she needed in the future … we would provide that because these firefighters create an enduring link with our country by what they did.”

A NATIONAL TRAGEDY

It was another somber reminder of both the physical and emotional toll of the catastrophic wildfires that tore through parts of Australia in late 2019 and early 2020, scorching over 12.6 million hectares, killing at least 34 people and destroying over 3,000 homes.

To put that into perspective, Australia itself is over 760 million hectares (the same size as the continental U.S.), with around 143 million hectares of forest, equivalent to 17% of its total land mass.

While fires are a regular part of life in the Australian bush, a prolonged drought, strong winds and recordbreaking temperatures — at one point described by a government official as a

ARTHUR SINODINOS

ambassador of Australia to the United States

“blast furnace” — fueled a hellish wildfire season that began last September.

As fires coalesced in the southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, the scenes that unfolded stunned both the country and the world: bloodred skies hanging over towns and tourist destinations; rescue workers on the side of the road pouring water over semi-burnt koalas; shell-shocked evacuees staggering off naval ships during the country’s largest military deployment since World War II; burnt wasteland littered with the charred corpses of kangaroos, cattle, horses and other animals that hadn’t been able to escape the flames; once-lush forests blackened and bare; once-busy neighborhoods desolate or decimated; smoke in Sydney so thick it clogged hospital MRI machines; and a cloud of ash so large it could be seen from space and even turned glaciers over 1,000 miles away in New Zealand brown.

While the shock of the fires has subsided — as have the fires themselves,

”

thanks to torrential downpours in mid-February, another manifestation of the extreme weather patterns plaguing the country — Australia is still collectively mourning one of the worst natural disasters in its history.

“It has affected I think the psyche of a lot of Australians,” Sinodinos told us. “I know when people go through bushfires, or are near bushfire events, they can be very affected by them. I was in Canberra in 2003 when there was a major fire that went through in January of that year. And the fire in effect stopped about a street up from where I was living at the time,” he recalled. “[W]hen you see mother nature in its full fury, it’s really humbling for us as human beings.”

The same can be said of all living creatures. The University of Sydney shocked the world when it put out an estimate that more than 1 billion animals were killed by the fires. Professor SEE AUS T R AL IA • PAGE 18 APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 17

PHOTO: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR / NEAL HERBERT

Post-bushfire recovery in Australia: An epicormic shoot on a burned eucalyptus tree along the Great Alpine Road in Victoria is seen regenerating after the fires. These shoots allow the tree to continue photosynthesizing while the tree canopy regrows.

Australia CONTINUED • PAGE 17

Chris Dickman said that Australia already suffered from the world’s highest rate of extinction for mammals — a process the fires may have accelerated.

“I was quite taken aback when I heard estimates of 1 billion animals affected in one way or another. I shouldn’t have been. It was a reminder that given the nature of Australian flora and fauna, given we have mammals that you don’t have in other parts of the world, and the extent of our forests and natural areas, I should have realized how big an issue it was going to be, but initially a lot of people were focused on the people being affected,” the ambassador explained. “But then you start to see the images of koalas and others being affected, and you see the impact on their habitats. There’s clearly a lot of work that will have to be done on that as well. It’s not just about the people. It will be about the animals as well.”

To that end, the gov­ ernment will provide re­ sources to wildlife rescue groups now, with an eye on how to help threatened species moving forward. It’s part of the multipronged approach the government is taking to address both the immediate needs after the fires and the longer-term recovery.

“The government’s priority at the national level has been to back up the state governments, which bear the frontline responsibility for emergency management. And that has meant essentially providing grants and assis­ tance to communities, to bus­ inesses and to individuals and families who are affected by the fires,” Sinodinos said. “And then the more long-term support is through the National Bushfire Recovery Agency, which has been set up with an initial $2 billion to oversee the recovery of these communities, and that will involve things like rebuilding infrastructure, finding ways to make com-

munities more resilient, more able to cope with these sorts of emergencies in the future.

“So it’s very much a short-, medium- to longer-term approach that the government is taking,” he added. “And one of the most important parts of that is to encourage people to go back into those communities because the fires are largely out now … visit those communities as tourists, start to get business as usual going again.”

PHOTO: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR / NEAL HERBERT

American and Australian firefighters flood hotspots at the Peat Fire near Cape Conran Coastal Park in the Australian state of Victoria, one of the regions hit hardest by the fires.

At left, the Orroral Valley fire is seen from the district of Tuggeranong in the capital of Canberra.

UNDER FIRE

But it may never be business as usual again for Australia given the far-reaching impact of the fires. In fact, long before the smoke even cleared, the recriminations began, most of them directed at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s clumsy handling of the crisis.

Morrison first drew the public’s wrath when he quietly went on vacation to Hawaii as the fires escalated back home, prompting hashtags like #Wherethebloodyhellareyou.

Morrison expressed “regret” for the decision, but he came under increasing criticism for what many saw as a hands-off, tone-deaf national response to a crisis that pushed local resources to the brink — notably Australia’s predominantly vol­ unteer firefighting force.

Several firefighters were killed by the blazes and hundreds went months working 12-hour shifts in deadly conditions without pay. Morrison, however, initially said that compensating firefighters was not a priority, sparking widespread anger.

Sinodinos told us that there are a lot of misconceptions about Australia’s state-based firefighting service, which is composed of nearly 200,000 volunteers.

These volunteers operate mostly in rural areas (career firefighters generally work in the cities) because they’re familiar with the bushfire season that happens annually in their backyards — and thus, Sinodinos says, have a “volunteer ethic” whereby they manage the fires themselves.

“I think because the ethic of the rural fire services has

18 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

LEARNING CURVE

PHOTO: BY NICK-D - OWN WORK, CC BY-SA 4.0

PHOTO: BY U.S. FOREST SERVICE - HURON-MANISTEE NATIONAL FORESTS

PHOTO: NASA EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM DATA AND INFORMATION SYSTEM

Above at left, a Huron-Manistee National Forests employee holds a rescued kangaroo joey.

Above at right, imagery from the NASA Aqua Satellite shows the Australian bushfires from space.

Highlighted in red are the bushfire locations, along with the major cities.

always been a volunteer ethic, there has been in the past a hesitation about trying to create a different sort of force because the volunteers have been very passionate and very successful at what they do, and they’re well-trained.

The main challenge has been to make sure they have the resources they need. So there was some hesitation about the

idea of compensation,” the ambassador said.

But with fire seasons becoming longer and more severe because of climate change, Sinodinos said the federal government “is looking at our disaster management arrangements to see what changes need to be made so we’re better prepared for future seasons.”

Morrison has launched an inquiry into the government’s handling of the fires that will presumably examine issues such as compensation.

He’s also set aside $58 million to support families in traumatized communities, and he’s acknowledged “there are things that I could have handled on the ground much better.”

Morrison seems to have learned a lesson from the previous disaster that he’s carrying over to the current one: coronavirus. Last month, his government moved to quickly approve a $17.6 billion stimulus package to cushion the blow from the global pandemic, which he said could be a greater economic shock than the wildfires (forecasts indicate Australia could go into recession this year — its first in nearly three decades).

The package includes a one-off payment of $750 for 6.5 million lower-income Aus­tralians; up to $25,000 in tax-free cash-flow assistance for small- and medium-size bus­ inesses; incentives to encourage businesses in­ vest­ ment; and $1 billion to support regions most affected by the virus.

The quick response gave Morrison a slight bump in his approval ratings after they plunged in the wake of the fires.

Sinodinos said he under­ stands what he calls the “outrageous fortunes” of politics, having spent over 40 years serving in prominent roles such as senior economic advisor and later chief of staff to Prime Minister John Howard; cabinet secretary; assistant treasurer; minister for industry, innovation and science; and, most recently, senator for New South Wales — the region hit hardest by the fires — from 2011 to 2019. He said that as a longtime politician himself, he can relate to the

difficulties of responding to fast-moving crises like the fires.

“My impression is that because the states were always at the frontline of this, I think we’ve all been caught a bit short by how quickly the flames not only developed, but joined up to create more of a national emergency than we had anticipated,” he told us. “But having now absorbed that fact, the prime minister and the government are moving quickly to do whatever we can to help to address that. So yes, it’s been a learning experience.”

He added that “the big lesson we’ve taken out of all of this is that the severity and the extremity of these events is going to be increasing potentially over time because of climate change and other factors…. So from an Australian government perspective, the thinking now is there’s this initial phase of helping communities recover, but then we have to make them more resilient over time.”

PROVERBIAL CANARY IN THE COAL MINE

The mere fact that, barely a few minutes into our interview, Sinodinos acknowledged the role climate change played in the fires is in and of itself notable considering that for years, his boss was loath to mention climate change — except perhaps to mock it.

In 2017, the future prime minister famously came to Parliament and tossed up a softballsize piece of coal in the air, telling lawmakers, “This is coal. Don’t be afraid! Don’t be scared!

Won’t hurt you.”

The theatrics were meant to illustrate Morrison’s argument that coal is essential to the Australian economy, providing it with jobs and affordable energy.

But the prime minister’s unapologetic embrace of coal has come back to hurt him. The bushfires intensified calls for the government to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels — a hugely sensitive issue given that Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal.

Therein lies Australia’s climate quandary. As Chris Richardson, the chief Australia economist at Deloitte, succinctly put it in a Jan. 3 article in The New York Times: “[O]ur economy is vitally dependent on fossil fuels, and yet our landscape is relatively exposed to climate change.”

Indeed, Australia is often referred to as the proverbial canary in the coal mine — a bellwether for the world if it doesn’t curb the greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet.

There’s no denying Australia is feeling the effects of manmade global warming. It experienced its hottest year ever in 2019, which capped off the hottest decade ever (including a record-setting temperature this January of 120 degrees Fahrenheit in a Sydney suburb, making it the hottest place on earth). Before that, three years of extreme drought laid the conditions for the recent inferno.

Yet Australians aren’t in denial about what’s happening around them. Unlike in the United States, where some Americans still doubt the existence of climate change, there is no such debate in Australia. The overwhelming majority of the country accepts the scientific consensus that climate change is driven by fossil fuels.

Even Prime Minister Morrison acknowledges as much.

Rather, the debate is over how to deal with the problem — and that’s where things get dicey because any solution would entail weaning Australia off the fossil fuels that have powered its stellar economic growth over the last three decades.

Sinodinos used to track attitudes on climate change for the respected Lowy Institute. He told us that for Australians, it’s not a question of science; it’s one of sacrifice.

“What we found over time is that even though people were concerned about climate change, their willingness to pay to do something about it tended to go down over time, particularly in the context of the [2008] global

Australia at a Glance

Flag of Australia

Independence Day Jan. 1, 1901 from the federation of U.K. colonies Location Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean Capital Canberra Population 25.6 million (as of March 19, 2020) Country of birth Australia 66.7%, England 3.9%, New Zealand 2.2%, China 2.2%, India 1.9% Religious groups (percentage of population)

Catholic 22.6%, Anglican 13.3%, other Christian 16.3%, Islam 2.6%, Buddhism 2.4%, Orthodox 2.3%, Hinduism 1.9%, other 0.4%, none 30.1%, unspecified 9.6% (2016)

GDP (purchasing power parity) $1.29 trillion (2018)

GDP per-capita (PPP) $51,663 (2018)

GDP growth 2.94 percent (2018) Unemployment (percentage of total labor force) 5.29 percent (2018)

Population below poverty line No data available FDI Mining and quarrying, manufacturing, financial and insurance activities, real estate, wholesale and retail trade Industries Mining, wealth management, education, tourism and agribusiness

SOURCE: AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS / WORLD BANK

PHOTO: PIXABAY

Wildfires in the Australian bush are a regular part of life, but because of climate change and other factors, fires have become fiercer and more frequent.

financial crisis and other factors,” the ambassador told us. “And I think one of the things we have to be upfront with people about is that there are costs of change. Yes, there are costs of not changing, but often what happens in politics, people tend to say, ‘Don’t worry, the cost isn’t too much.’ You can’t deal with the public like that. You’ve got to give the public the facts and let them make up their own mind.”

And up until now, the public has punished politicians calling for more aggressive climate action. The center-right Liberal Party came to power in 2013 after voters rejected the idea of a carbon tax. Morrison himself won a surprise victory last May, propelled in part by voters from mining-dependent regions who feared that the opposition’s climate policies would endanger jobs. The election also revealed a growing divide between younger, urban Australians who want bolder climate action and their older, rural counterparts (who paradoxically are more affected by extreme weather patterns).

‘TIPPING POINT’

Still, the fires may be shifting attitudes. Even before they broke out, a poll by the Lowy Institute released last May found that 64% of Australians ranked climate change as the top threat facing the country in the next 10 years. More notably, 61% said global warming should be tackled even if involves “significant costs.”

“I think for the public, there has been a tipping point because of the extent and the severity of what’s happened,” Sinodinos said. “What it’s done for the government is underline the

need to continue taking actions to implement our commitments around climate change — mitigation, but also a focus on adaptation and resilience, recognizing that it’s not business as usual.”

But like the prime minister, Sinodinos said change must be gradual to avoid jeopardizing Australia’s strong economy.

He argues that the government cannot “close the coal industry down overnight.” Rather, it needs to invest in renewables such as hydropower and technologies such carbon capture and storage, while also relying on less-carbonintensive fuels like natural gas. (According to the U.N., Australia is the fifth-largest investor in renewable energy worldwide.)

“So what we’re trying to do here is have a path of least economic cost where possible, and that involves making adjustments to the economy but in a way which the economy can digest, while transitioning to this low-emissions environment,” Sinodinos said.

That means controversial projects like the Carmichael Mine, which will tap the world’s largest reserves of thermal coal, will go ahead, even though critics say it poses an existential threat to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Sinodinos said that as long as projects like the Carmichael Mine meet the country’s environmental laws, they will move forward. “But the future of those projects will be in a more carbon-constrained world,” he said, suggesting that the onus is on other countries to curb their appetite for coal and that “the future of the industry ultimately will be a function of market forces.”

“Therefore, the issue will be [whether] our major trading partners and others in the future have the demand that they’ve had in the past.

And every indication is, going forward, that’s going to be a very changing environment and a very challenging environment for fossil fuel industries.”

In the meantime, Morrison has said Australia will stick to its Paris pledge to reduce emissions by 26% to 28% from 2005 levels by 2030.

Environmental groups, however, say the government is not on track to meet those targets and that they are too low anyway. The ambassador said Morrison is open to increasing those commitments — an idea he’s resisted before — although he does not want “to provide a target without the program of how you get there.”

But critics counter that Morrison’s cautious approach is an excuse to avoid tackling climate change and that his conservative government is beholden to the powerful fossil fuel industry.

The prime minister’s own words suggest he has little interest in upping his Paris commitments.

“We don’t want job-destroying, economydestroying, economy-wrecking targets and goals, which won’t change the fact that there have been bushfires or anything like that in Australia,” he said in the wake of large protests denouncing his climate policies.

The prime minister insists that because Australia is only responsible for a tiny fraction of the world’s emissions, reducing those emissions would not have made any difference in the recent wildfires. But environmental activists say that argument is misleading.

While it’s true that Australia only accounts for about 1.3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, its carbon footprint is much larger because its coal feeds energy-hungry Asia, the region most responsible for warming the planet (and by extension Australia).

Morrison’s longstanding argument that coal supports the nation’s economy is also increasingly being challenged in the wake of the huge economic toll that the fires wrought on industries such as tourism, agriculture and insurance — costs that experts warn will only increase as fires and droughts become more ferocious.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull — who lost his job to Morrison — told the BBC earlier this year that at some point, Australians will have to reconcile themselves to the fact that more greenhouse gases simply means more extreme weather.

“The fundamental problem that we face is that in too many places — the United States in particular and also in Australia — is that this issue of global warming … has been turned into an ideological issue or values issue when it’s simply a question of physics,” he said, adding that President Trump is the world’s “leading climate denier.”

TRUMP AND THE CHINA CONUNDRUM

Of course, Turnbull and Trump weren’t exactly on the best terms (the two clashed early on when Trump angrily refused to abide by a refugee swap negotiated by President Obama).

In sharp contrast, Trump and Morrison, an evangelical Christian, share plenty in common, not only on climate change, but also on issues such as curbing immigration and social spending.

At his credentialing ceremony on Feb. 6, Sinodinos said Trump asked how “his friend” the prime minister was doing and mentioned that he’d just been on the phone with Australian golfer Greg Norman.

Unlike his boss, though, Sinodinos doesn’t at first glance appear to have much in common with the U.S. president. The former Liberal senator (who’s not big on golf) has long been a proponent of free trade, globalization and the international rules-based order that Trump has SEE AUSTRALIA • PAGE 20

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 19

PHOTO: PIXABAY / ANGELO GIORDANO

Over 1 billion animals are estimated to have died because of the Australian wildfires, including the country’s iconic koalas.

Australia CONTINUED • PAGE 19

railed against.

But the ambassador insists there is no contradiction between his stance and the president’s, saying that while he still believes in the benefits of globalization, Trump has shined a light on those who have yet to see those benefits.

“I think the president’s been very skilled at being a voice for those people who felt they had been left behind,” he said.

“And I think it’s been a wakeup call not just to Australia, but to countries around the world — that when it comes to things like globalization, you can never take it for granted that there will be linear progress.

You always have to keep making the argument about why it’s important for the world to be open.

“The other thing I think that’s happened on [Trump’s] watch is … his muscular approach to dealing with China. That’s something which I think reflects a concern on both sides of the aisle here.

And he’s taken action about that,” Sinodinos said, noting that “that there are many areas where what the president is doing is now becoming conventional wisdom.”

Sinodinos himself has force­­ fully called out China for not playing by the global rules. But he cautions that Australia’s relationship with Beijing is complicated.

China is Australia’s largest trading partner, so while Australia should “push back” when China is overreaching, Sinodinos says it also needs to find ways to collaborate and “not throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

As for Trump’s tariff war against Beijing, “while it was a tough approach, [it] did bring China to the table and get a more explicit debate about some of the issues around how China … participates in the global economy and on what terms,” Sinodinos said.

“But the important thing is to keep engaging because a strong and prosperous China

is important not only to the Chinese people, but to the world.”

The ambassador said Aus­ tralia is still monitoring the spillover effects of the trade war, but for now, coronavirus is the more immediate con­ cern given Australia’s close ties with China, not only in terms of trade, but also tourism, student exchanges and other areas.

On that note, Sinodinos acknowledges the risks of becoming too dependent on Beijing. “So we’re also looking at our prospects in the region, including with fast-growing economies like Vietnam.

India is also a big potential market for Australia — just as the Chinese would be looking to diversify their sources of supply for commodities and other things,” he said. “I think it’s a natural thing. I think we both recognize it’s not always prudent to have all your eggs in one basket.”

It’s a delicate balancing act because Australia’s prosperity is so closely tied to China, yet its security is so closely tied to the United States.

So far, Australia is sticking with its longtime ally — at least when it comes to the dispute over Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant that the Trump admin­ istration is urging other nations to exclude from their 5G networks because of the security threats it alleg­edly poses (also see “5G Geopolitics: U.S. Hammers Huawei, But Struggles to Catch Up to China in ‘Race’ to Dominate 5G” in the February 2020 issue).

Australia is the only member of the Five Eyes — the intelligence-sharing alliance among the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand — to have completely banned the use of Huawei in its 5G rollout. Recently, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the U.K. will allow Huawei equipment in “non-essential” parts of its 5G infrastructure, drawing the ire of Trump, who has threatened to withhold intelligence sharing with allies who use the Chinese firm.

Huawei argues that it is being unfairly caught up in Trump’s trade war and that

20 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO

BY JOYCE N. BOGHOSIAN

Australian Prime Minister and President Donald Trump shake hands at a joint press availability on Sept. 20, 2019, at the White House. The two leaders see eye to eye on many issues such as climate change and immigration.

we regard as foreign interference, and as part of that, this 5G decision was inevitable given the security advice.”

LOOKING UP TO THE WONDER DOWN UNDER

CREDIT: U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. CHRISTOPHER GIANNETTI / WWW.DVIDSHUB.NET

Above, U.S. Cpl. Ryan Dills communicates with other assault amphibious vehicles while traveling from the USS San Diego to the Royal Australian Navy Canberra class amphibious ship in the Pacific Ocean on July, 18, 2016, as part of a multinational military exercise. Australia and the U.S. have worked closely together to monitor China’s military buildup in the South China Sea, where it claims disputed territory as its own.

Below, the famed Sydney Opera House is seen overlooking Sydney Harbour. Australia has experienced a record-setting 28 years of economic growth, earning it the nickname “Wonder Down Under,” but the recent wildfires and the coronavirus pandemic may put the country into recession.

PHOTO: PIXABAY / PATTY JANSEN

the U.S. has yet to produce any tangible evidence of its supposedly malicious behavior.

But the ambassador coun­ ters that just because the proof hasn’t been made public doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Sinodinos said Australia based its decision to ban Huawei on the advice of its intelligence agencies — information that remains classified — and that it didn’t take the decision lightly.

“Now, clearly the U.K. believes based on I guess its professional advice that it can go another way. That’s their sovereign decision. But we have been, from early on, on the front foot in dealing with what

When it comes to immigration, though, both Johnson and Trump may be looking to Australia’s skill-based system that awards points based on var­ious criteria and only permits foreigners who meet certain thresholds in terms of education, age and adaptability.

A major component is to attract people who can address skill shortages in cer­tain professions, the ambass­ ador explained.

“It’s not a way of absolving the government from its responsibility for training the domestic population, but it’s acted as a bit of a safety valve,” he said, adding that the country’s immigration-fueled population growth has increased demand and pro­ ductivity.

“It’s a good way to transfer overseas know-how and technological capacity into the economy as well.”

Sinodinos said Australia has been able to accommodate this population surge because the government adopted reforms to make the economy more flexible and resilient, “so it can absorb external shocks.”

That in turn has helped Australia experience a recordsetting 28 years of growth, earning it the nickname “Wonder Down Under.”

But Australia’s hardline stance on refugees has come under fire from human rights advocates who say the gov-

ernment regularly turns away boats carrying asylum-seekers or packs them into crowded, unsanitary detention centers in Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Christmas Island for indefinite amounts of time.

Even former Prime Minister Turnbull, a moderate, once said that, “If you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you are the best person in the world, even if you are a Nobel Prize-winning genius, we will not let you in.”

After a global outcry, the government shut down Christmas Island, but Morrison has flirted with the idea of reopening it.

Sinodinos argues that hardline immigration policies actually encourage the public to support more immigration.

“What’s been important about that is if you want the public to support a generous or high-immigration program, you’ve got to demonstrate that it’s under control. And it’s not under control if you're allowing a situation to develop where people can get to Australia by boat and claim refugee status that way,” he said. “There are millions of people in camps overseas who are waiting to be processed, so people getting into boats to get around that process is unfair to those other people who are trying to do it by going through the system.”

FROM POLITICIAN TO PATIENT

Sinodinos’s predecessor, Joe Hockey, was widely praised for touting Australian policies that fit with the administration’s agenda, forging bonds that withstood the ups and downs of Trump’s presidency. (Australia, for example, was one of the few U.S. allies that was exempt from Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs.)

In a Jan. 31 article for the Lowy Institute, Alan C. Tidwell wrote that Hockey “has been

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE

Australian Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos presents his credentials to President Trump on Feb. 6, two days after arriving in Washington, D.C. The day prior he visited the widow of one of the three American firefighters who died battling the blazes that consumed parts of Australia earlier this year.

an extraordinary marketer of ‘mateship.’ His access to the inner circle of the White House has been impressive, but also a hard act to follow.”

Tidwell described Sinodinos as more of a policy person, but that doesn’t mean Australia’s newest ambassador won’t add his own unique touch to the position, especially given his powerful personal story of cancer survival.

That story began innocuously in 2017 when, on his way to a cabinet meeting in Canberra, Sinodinos “noticed that my lower lip was numb — a bit like when you go to the dentist. I was at an airport in Sydney and I thought, ‘Am I having some sort of a stroke?’” he recalled. “I got

to Canberra and I felt anxious. I could feel my heart beating more quickly … so I admitted myself to Canberra Hospital.”

After running tests that came up empty, the doctor advised Sinodinos to go on a diet and lower his blood pressure.

“But over the next couple of months, I found I was feeling quite weak. My appetite was starting to go, and I was losing more weight than you could attribute just to the diet. And I said to the doctors, ‘Look, I think there’s just something wrong. I don’t feel right.’”

Sinodinos was right. Further tests confirmed he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma along

the trunk of his body. The doctor told him that, paradoxically, the prognosis was good because his cancer was aggressive, meaning it might be very responsive to the right treatment.

“So pretty quickly I went from being a fully functioning minister and politician to being a patient and having my first round of chemo.”

What followed were the setbacks and successes that many cancer patients are all too familiar with — including a bout of septicemia that landed Sinodinos in intensive care.

While a bone-marrow transplant would eventually put him into remission, it took a year of essentially having zero immunity for the transplant to take hold.

“It was a pretty rigorous process,” he said, admitting that he wondered whether he’d still be around for his wife Elizabeth and their three children. “I suppose looking back, I feel a bit exhausted thinking about it. But when you’re going through it, you’re just sort of so focused on getting through it.”

And he did, returning to Parliament in February 2019. Shortly afterward, Sinodinos was offered the ambassadorship in Washington.

“I think it’s good to have a new job, a new challenge,” the ambassador told us. “Politics was fine … but it’s good to have a job where you’re not on the frontline of politics and subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

“I feel very privileged to be here,” he added.

“I also recognize that sometimes you get judged by how your previous ambassadors did the job.

But in that regard, I think you can learn the lessons of the past, but everybody has to do the job in their own way. You’ve got to be true to yourself, for better or worse, and you just act on that basis.” WD Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 21

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Fight for Freedom

Azerbaijan Commemorates 30th Anniversary of ‘Black January’

Azerbaijan recently marked the 30th anniversary of one of the saddest episodes in its history — Jan. 20, 1990 — the night 26,000 Soviet troops rumbled into Baku and attempted, but failed, to crush the country’s dream of independence.

In downtown Baku, the Alley of Martyrs — located on a hill overlooking the Caspian Sea — stands as a solemn reminder to the 147 people killed and 744 injured in what has come to be known as “Black January.” It’s common for citizens to place flowers on the graves of the fallen, and each year precisely at noon, the country observes a minute of silence accompanied by the horns of cars and passenger trains as well as ships in the Bay of Baku.

In Washington, D.C., this year, the Embassy of Azerbaijan remembered the tragedy with an event at the Women’s National Democratic Club. About 100 ambassadors, dignitaries, journalists and members of the public listened intently as the embassy’s political counselor, Vugar Gurbanov, explained how the massacre, ordered by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, ended up triggering the end of the embattled Soviet Union itself.

“This operation against the people of Azerbaijan backfired. Soviet rule lost its moral ground for legitimacy, and after that tragedy, our determination to regain our independence got even stronger,” Gurbanov said. “I would make this bold statement that the struggle and sacrifices made by our people enormously contributed to the collapse of Soviet communism.”

Comparing Moscow’s military operation against his country to the S oviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and its crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, Gurbanov said there was no justification for any of these actions.

The Soviet invasion of Baku was triggered by an earlier decision by the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR to include the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in its budget and allow its residents to vote in Armenian elections — infuriating Azerbaijani citizens. Soviet troops entered Baku to supposedly restore order, after having destroyed the

22 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

Photos: Embassy of Azerbaijan

Above, Vugar Gurbanov, political counselor at the Embassy of Azerbaijan, welcomes guests to a commemoration marking the 30th anniversary of what is known as Black January — the night 26,000 Soviet troops launched a violent crackdown on Baku to crush Azerbaijan’s independence movement. At left, the Alley of Martyrs in Baku memorializes those killed in the Black January assault and during Azerbaijan’s 1992 war with Armenia.

Photo: Larry Luxner

Above, Ambassador of Montenegro Nebojša Kaluđerović talks with historian S. Frederick Starr.

At left, Andres Vosman of the Estonian Embassy (with Yaroslav Brisiuck of the Ukrainian Embassy next to him) listens to the Black January discussion.

central TV station and cut all phone and radio lines, but then began attacking unarmed protesters and firing into crowds. On the third day, more than 2 million Azerbaijanis came to bury their dead.

“The 20th of January reminds us of our duty to stand for the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Gurbanov said. “I would like to thank our colleagues from other former Soviet republics — and especially our Ukrainian, Georgian and Estonian colleagues who are present here. Over the last 50 years, we have all shared similar tragedies.”

Before being treated to musical performances by Azerbaijani classi-

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Photo: Larry Luxner

Samaya Jafarova places red carnations on the graves of young men killed both during the 1990 Black January crackdown on Baku by Soviet troops and during Azerbaijan’s 1992 war with Armenia. The graves are located at the Alley of Martyrs complex overlooking the Caspian Sea.

cal pianist Nargiz Aliyarova and Grammynominated violinist Azer Damirov, guests heard from historian S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Washington-based Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

“I don’t want to minimize the suffering, but this event marked a hugely important end and an equally important beginning — and that’s why it deserves to be memorialized not just in Azerbaijan, but on a global scale,” said Starr, who’s also distinguished fellow for Eurasia at the American Foreign Policy Council.

According to Starr, the 1990 uprising had its roots in the early Soviet anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s and, later on, Moscow’s attempts to destroy Azerbaijani identity.

In 1976, Heydar Aliyev was appointed a non-voting member of the Soviet Politburo and a full member six years later.

He became first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers — the highest position ever attained by an Azerbai- Above, Azerbaijani jani in the USSR. The undis- classical pianist Nargiz Aliyarova performs puted leader of Azerbaijan, for the audience.

Aliyev was nevertheless forced to resign from this position in At right are Deputy 1987 by Gorbachev. MeanChief of Mission of the Saudi Embassy while, unrest was intensifying Samer Alkharashi, not only in Azerbaijan, but also Ambassador of Myanmar in Georgia, Ukraine, KazakhAung Lynn and pianist stan and various other Central Nargiz Aliyarova.

Asian republics.

“Brezhnev kind of made a deal with each republic,” said Starr, referring to former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who served as general secretary of Communist Party from 1964 until his death in 1982. “He said, ‘You’ll give us what we need, and we’ll lay off. In Central Asia, it became virtually a sovereign state, except it didn’t have its own foreign policy or army. The leaders of those various republics under Brezhnev used this opportunity to advance their cause. But with the appointment of Gorbachev, this deal fell apart. He was absolutely out to get those national leaders who had taken advantage of the deal.”

After the events of Black January, Aliyev returned to Azerbaijan. By December 1991, the Soviet Union itself had ceased to exist, and Azerbaijan had formally declared its independence. In October 1993, Aliyev was elected president; he ruled until his shortly before his death 10 years later, having appointed his son, Ilham, as his party’s presidential

Above, Ambassador of Montenegro Nebojša Kaluđerović and S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Washington-based Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, listen to the presentation.

Pictured below from left are U.S. Army Col. Remso Martinez; Italian Naval Attaché Capt. Gianfranco Vizzini; Turkish Defense Attaché Maj. Gen. Kadircan Kotash; and Azerbaijani Defense Attaché Col. Seyidov Jafar.

candidate.

President Ilham Aliyev has led Azerbaijan since 2003.

“In the end, all of the Soviet efforts to keep Azerbaijan under Soviet rule proved worthless,” wrote Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Katarina Hall. “The Soviet Union’s attack on Baku had the opposite effect. Instead of suppressing dissidents and eliminating the independence movement, it further encouraged Azerbaijanis in their drive for freedom from communist rule.”

In an interesting footnote to history, in 1995, Gorbachev apologized to the people of Azerbaijan, stating that “the declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career.”

It also marked, as much as any single event, the rebirth of an independent Azerbaijan.

“I see guests here from other countries that weren’t even found on the map then,” Gurbanov said in thanking all for their attendance.

“Yes, this was a terrible event in which good people suffered. But those of us who respect sovereignty, self-determination and open systems of government all have a reason to rejoice.”

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 23

WD | In Memoriam

Yoko Elizabeth Sugiyama, Wife of Japanese Ambassador, Dies at 66

BY ANNA GAWEL

Y

oko Elizabeth Sugiyama, the wife of Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, died Feb. 10 of apparent sudden heart failure at the couple’s home in Tokyo at the age of 66.

The Sugiyamas have been married for over 40 years and have two grown children: a son, Shunsuke (“Shun”), who runs his own company in the Japanese prefecture of Hyogo, and a daughter, Reina, who works as a fashion designer in New York and Los Angeles.

“In just under two years as an Ambassador’s wife in Washington, Yoko had done about five years’ worth of work, and maybe at the end it was a little too much,” Ambassador Sugiyama said in a letter about his wife following her death. “She went back to Japan to rest for four to six weeks and recover from a stomach ulcer. She told me she wanted to rest a bit and then come back and help me in Washington. She was at home when the Lord called her back.”

Throughout their life together, Mrs. Sugiyama accompanied her husband on assignments to Oxford, U.K.; Abuja, Nigeria; Washington, D.C.; Seoul, South Korea; and Cairo, Egypt. During their time in Tokyo, she worked to educate students about the Holocaust, including through an Anne Frank exhibition and the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center.

Born in Kanazawa, Japan, Mrs. Sugiyama graduated with a degree in Spanish studies from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, where she also studied linguistics at the graduate level.

In an interview with The Washington Diplomat in 2018, Mrs. Sugiyama recalled how she met her husband.

“We attended the same prep school.

We had assigned seats — I was near the front of the room and he was near the back. One day, the boy who sat next to me was absent. Shinsuke took the opportunity to move up and sit next to me,” she told our reporter Gail Scott for the November 2018 article “Japanese Ambassador and Wife Enjoy Nearly 40 Years of ‘Happily Ever After.’”

“We started talking and he asked me out. Then, he started showing up at the school gate, waiting for me to come out.

I guess you could say he was a pretty aggressive suitor,” joked the affable wife.

They dated on and off in prep school and college. “He kept asking me to marry him,” Mrs. Sugiyama said, telling us that she eventually broke off the relationship because he was leaving to study at Oxford and she wanted to stay in Tokyo and attend graduate school.

“But after we stopped seeing each other, I felt so lonely. I realized I was in

24 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

Despite longstanding health problems, Yoko Elizabeth Sugiyama — seen above giving a speech and at right with her husband, Japanese Ambassador Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, at the National Cherry Blossom Parade — continued to help her husband during his posting in the U.S.

love with him,” she said. He contacted her one last time before his departure to Britain. They met and then, as she simply said, “It was happily ever after.”

Mrs. Sugiyama, whose personal interests included opera, music and bridge, spent several years in Washington, D.C., during her husband’s previous posting here from 1989 to 1992.

“It is a unique opportunity to be here in Washington. We get the chance to meet people from all over the world,” she told us.

“This is such an important post and an honor for us to represent Japan to the United States, our longtime and indeed single-closest ally. The United States and Japan have had such a beautiful, mutually beneficial relationship for many, many decades. I think we are living in a time when we have to constantly work together to make the world safe and prosperous, so I would be happy if I could remind people of all the wonderful things that have come out of this relationship and continue to work to build upon that friendship and

PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF JAPAN

strengthen it for the future,” said Mrs. Sugiyama, who along with her husband supported events such as celebrations for the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s 40th annual Ambassadors Ball.

But she also revealed to us that she had been suffering from severe chronic back pain for over 20 years. “Thanks to treatments and consultations with specialists in various medical fields, I have learned how to manage — and managed to live with — the back pain because I

want to do what I want to do, including supporting my husband as ambassador of Japan as much as possible.”

Ambassador Sugiyama said he is stunned by his wife’s sudden passing and still trying to process the loss.

He was in Connecticut giving lectures at Harvard and Yale when neither he nor his children were able to reach Mrs. Sugiyama by phone.

“So my son called the Yotsuya MediSEE IN M EM OR IAM • PAGE 28

United States | WD

Quiet Trailblazer For America’s First Female Ambassador, It Was All About the Work, Not the Gender

BY STEPHANIE KANOWITZ

O

ne of the first things that stands out in the book “Mrs. Ambassador: The Life and Politics of Eugenie Anderson” is that history really does repeat itself. Were America’s first woman ambassador to return to the job today, she would find herself on somewhat familiar ground: shaky relations with Russia and isolationist sentiments.

What can’t be repeated is Anderson’s role as a trailblazer for women in the public sector and in the workplace more generally — although that was not her primary focus.

“She was proud, obviously, to be the first woman appointed as an ambassador, but she didn’t want to be remembered or thought of always as the first woman,” said Mary Dupont, the book’s author and Anderson’s granddaughter.

“She wanted to be a good ambassador.”

Born in 1909 in Iowa and a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York, where she studied piano, Anderson came to call Minnesota home. She took her first trip to Europe in 1937 and what she saw prefacing World War II piqued her interest in international affairs — and her strident opposition to the totalitarianism that she saw rising in Germany.

The experience motivated her to join the League of Women Voters, where she spoke out against isolationism and became an early supporter of the United Nations.

In 1944, she met Hubert Humphrey, who would serve as President Harry S. Truman’s vice president from 1965 to 1969. That same year, she joined the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, and in 1947, she took part in the establishment of Americans for Democratic Action, which was formed by the Democratic Party’s anticommunist liberal wing. Anderson was also a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1948 and a campaigner for the re-election of President Truman.

In 1949, Truman appointed her ambassador to Denmark. In that capacity, Anderson helped negotiate the Greenland Pact that allowed the United States to use air bases in Greenland, and she became the first American woman to sign a treaty — the Treaty of Commerce, Friendship and Navigation with Denmark, which she drafted.

Anderson returned to the United States in 1953 and continued her political involvement. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy appointed her minister to Bulgaria — a communist ally to the Soviet Union at the time — making her the first female chief of a U.S. mission behind the Iron Curtain.

While in Bulgaria, she and her hus-

PHOTO: EUGENIE M. ANDERSON PAPERS, MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Eugenia Anderson, America’s first woman ambassador, is profiled in Quick Look Magazine in 1950.

“

She was proud, obviously, to be the first woman appointed as an ambassador, but she didn’t want to be remembered or thought of always as the first woman. She wanted to be a good ambassador.

MARY DUPONT

”

author of ‘Mrs. Ambassador: The Life and Politics of Eugenie Anderson’

band reportedly had to write notes to each other because the residence was bugged. Meanwhile, rocks were thrown at the U.S. legation during demonstrations organized by the government.

At one point, Bulgarian police tried to prevent her aides from handing out American leaflets at an event. “That got my dander up,” Anderson told the Associated Press at the time. “So I went out front and handed them out myself.

You can bet your life the police didn’t take any from me.”

After her stint in Bulgaria, Anderson served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations and became the first woman to sit on the Security Council.

Throughout all this, she was wife to John Pierce Anderson, an artist, and

mother to Johanna and Hans, each of whom had three children of their own.

At the time of her death in 1997, Anderson had six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Dupont writes that her grandmother was a champion of democracy, human rights, tolerance and civil rights who “did not allow her gender to alter her message, change the course of her ambition, or narrow the global scope of her vision.”

We spoke with Dupont to get a better sense of who Anderson was.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT: Tell me about your grandmother.

MARY DUPONT: When she would go back and forth between travel and staying home, both things strengthened the other. She loved being home. I could sense that when I was younger … but her main passion was world travel and meeting people and understanding people and, truthfully, it sounds a little nerdy, but foreign policy and international relations. It was her chief interest.

Beyond her diplomatic appointments and the work she did, she and her husband, my grandfather John, traveled throughout their lives.

TWD: In the author’s note, you wrote that you opted to forgo your personal stories about her and instead let others’ words tell her story. Take the time now to share some stories in your own words.

MD: She was always well dressed. Even when she was being casual, she was very well put together. Her hair was done every week. She was a really good mixture of dignified but also loved being with her family, especially her grandkids. She’d always give us paper dolls and books.

I remember getting … coloring books when I was young. Most people give little girls coloring books that are about SEE EUG ENIA • PAGE 26 APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 25

Eugenia

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

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CONTINUED • PAGE 25

Disney princesses. We got the kind that were about American history. I’m sure I thought they were a little strange when I was young, but now I think of them as cool. She was very warm and friendly and always reading to us, but she had a side that believed in discipline for kids.

If you came down for breakfast and your hair was a mess, she’d make you go back and brush it before you could sit down at the table.

TWD: You didn’t know much about her service before writing the book. Why is that?

E M B A S S Y R O W, D. C .

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MD: Even though I was 30 years old by the time she died, I remember it was just around the time that I was finishing high school that she started to have trouble with memory loss and health problems, so for most of the time when I would have liked to sit with her and talk about everything and learn about it, she just wasn’t healthy enough or able to do that.

She and John both died in the late 1990s, and that was when I was starting to have kids, so even though I had the curiosity for a long time, I didn’t get to the writing until my kids were much older.

TWD: Now that you know more, what about her work stands out?

MD: I was so impressed by the number of different kinds of events from the 1940s through the 1960s that she was either directly involved in or it was part of the atmosphere. I read a lot of books about Minnesota history, the Democratic Party history, the presidents she worked through their administrations. I honestly had no idea of both the depth and the

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PRESS PHOTO - ANDERSON FAMILY COLLECTION

U.S. Ambassador Eugenia Anderson signs the North Atlantic Treaty in October 1951.

breadth of things that she had either affected or been affected by.

TWD: Such as?

MD: In the chapter about her development with the Minnesota DFL, I talk about her collaboration with Hubert Humphrey. Based on threads of information from about five or six different sources, I realized that she was key to Humphrey’s 1948 speech at the Democratic National Convention. It’s one of his most famous speeches about coming into the sunshine and toward civil rights. [“The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights,” he said.]

She was instrumental in the closing of that speech, which tied Harry Truman to the presidential ticket and reinforced the change in the Democratic Party from being the old Southern Democrats arena to the more progressive civil rights initiative that it ended up taking. I know this is a huge what-if, but those are fun: I just like to think that if she had not insisted on the closing at that speech, things may have turned out very differently.

TWD: What example did Anderson set for her children, Johanna and Hans, your father, and how did that affect you and her other grandchildren?

MD: When Eugenie went to work, the kids were pretty young. I think my dad was about 2 or 3 years old, so when she first started spending significant time away from the house during business hours on weekdays, they had a lot of help. They had nannies. That’s still a controversy today. I could talk for another hour about the fascination with the difference between views about women going to work 80 years ago versus now and so much of it is the same.

No, it was not completely happy and it didn’t set a 100% example of women’s empowerment.

However, it certainly made a huge difference in both of the kids’ points of view that both their parents were in reverse sex roles because their mother went to work and their father was an artist. He worked all the time — he wasn’t in the house taking care of them, so he wasn’t a house husband — but he was also what you would call self-employed. I think those two things affected Hans and Johanna very strongly, and I know it affected all of us grandkids very much also.

TWD: How so?

MD: The most positive thing to come out of

looking at Eugenie’s legacy is that a marriage can last and careers can be successful even if both people are doing something nonconformist. You can have a relationship, a marriage, whether it’s with a man or a woman, and a career that you feel strongly about. I think in a lot of families there’s strong pressure on one of those things — either honor the family at any cost versus what you personally want to do.

TWD: Anderson didn’t consider herself a rep­resentative of women necessarily, but she was conscious of how people perceived her.

For instance, you wrote that she used more benign words such as “amused” for annoyed so as not to seem like a ranting woman.

What would she think today, with women running for president, serving as governors and speaker of the House, etc.?

MD: I would think she would be extremely gratified that you can finally include the conversation about women’s rights in the bigger conversations. This is one of those cases where my brain stops and says, “Don’t speak for her,” but at the same time reading through the writing she knew would become public some day and the writing that was in her correspondence between family members, it was very clear that she understood that to keep her job or to keep making progress in her career, she had to keep women’s rights on the backburner. She couldn’t be vocal about it. She certainly couldn’t insist on it. Her tactic for remaining credible was to deny them and say, “It’s too aggressive. It won’t get you anywhere. Let’s just move on and do the work.

Let’s not talk about gender.” It was about staying at the table.

TWD: What do you hope that readers take away from this book?

MD: I hope they take away a recognition that work like this was being done by women earlier than it’s more generally known. I think about 20th-century history, and there are two eras that are usually emphasized in women’s history: the suffrage era and the women’s movement of the 1970s. Eugenie’s career happened dead center of that. There was no women’s movement, there was no support for women in leadership roles, and I think besides Eleanor Roosevelt and two or three other names, it’s hard for anyone to think of a strong woman in politics at that time. The takeaway is that even during times when it seemed like no progress was being made, there were people working and history being established. WD Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Medical | WD

Covid-19 and Cancer Risk of Contracting Coronavirus May Force Some Cancer Patients to Delay Treatment

BY E.J. MUNDELL

E

arly findings involving cancer patients from Wuhan, China — the original epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic —- suggest that many contracted the coronavirus while undergoing treatment in the hospital.

That could mean that this vulnerable population might need to discuss delaying cancer care to help minimize their odds of infection, the study authors said.

“We propose that aggressive measures be undertaken to reduce frequency of hospital visits of patients with cancer during a viral epidemic going forward,” wrote a team led by Dr. Conghua Xie of the department of radiation and medical oncology at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.

The research, which focused on 12 cancer patients treated at the hospital in January and February, was published March 25 in the journal JAMA Oncology.

It’s long been understood that cancer, as well as its therapies, have the unfortunate side effect of weakening a patient’s immune system. That can leave a patient more vulnerable to infectious illness, including Covid-19.

In the new study, Xie’s team tracked infection incidence among more than 1,500 patients with cancer admitted to Zhongnan Hospital.

Twelve of those patients were later diagnosed with Covid-19, and the infection rate of the cancer patients was more than double that of the general population of Wuhan.

That’s probably because people with cancer are often “immunocompromised,” Xie’s group wrote, and many may contract the new coronavirus during visits to the hospital for cancer care.

As seen in the general population, the risk of developing Covid-19 among cancer patients tended to rise with age: eight of 12 patients were over 60. Seven patients had lung cancer.

Three of the patients — two with lung cancer, another with pancreatic cancer — went on to develop severe Covid-19 requiring ICU care. All three died.

Of the remaining nine patients, six have recovered and have been discharged from the hospital, the team said.

According to the researchers, the take-home message from this small, early study is that during the Covid-19 pandemic, decisions may need to be made on curtailing cancer care.

And if patients do require in-hospital

“

PHOTO: PIXABAY / FERNANDO ZHIMINAICELA

[T]ough decisions have to be made during this Covid-19 crisis whether to delay [cancer] treatment or simplify the treatment.

”

DR. WASIF SAIF, medical director at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute

treatment, “proper isolation protocols must be in place to mitigate the risk of [viral] infection,” they said.

Three cancer specialists in the United States who reviewed the report agreed that cancer treatment may require patient-doctor discussions at this time.

Amy Moore directs science and research at the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer in Washington, D.C. She believes that lung cancer patients, especially, “may have elevated risk [of coronavirus infection] compared to other cancer types.”

Also, Moore said, “hospital admissions and recurrent visits increase risk, reinforcing the importance of patients talking to their physicians regarding their own personal treatment plan.”

Dr. Wasif Saif is medical director at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute in Lake Success, N.Y. He stressed that the study population was very small, so the findings must be considered preliminary. But certain patterns emerged.

“Cancer patients were deemed to be at highest risk for severe compli-

For More Information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus at www.cdc.gov/ coronavirus/2019-ncov/.

cations, including admission to the intensive care unit requiring invasive ventilation, or death,” Saif noted.

“Additionally, diagnosis of cancer was associated with a shorter time to development of severe events when compared to non-cancer patients.”

Because hospitals are especially potent venues for coronavirus infection, Saif believes that “tough decisions have to be made during this Covid-19 crisis whether to delay [cancer] treatment or simplify the treatment.”

But Dr. Adil Akhtar, director of inpatient clinical operations at Karmanos Cancer Institute at McLaren Oakland in Michigan, took a slightly different view.

He agreed that cancer patients ap-

pear to be at higher odds of coronavirus infection, but added that “cancer programs across the U.S. have already implemented robust infection and environmental controls, as per the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines.”

Akhtar added that, as per guidelines from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, at this time “there is no direct evidence to support changing or withholding chemotherapy or immunotherapy in patients with cancer.”

He believes it’s tough to determine on an individual patient basis whether the risk of contracting Covid-19 outweighs the benefit to be gained from continued cancer care.

So “clinical decisions should be individualized that consider factors such as the risk of cancer recurrence if therapy is delayed, modified or interrupted; the number of cycles of therapy already completed; and the patient’s tol­­­ erance of treatment,” Akhtar said. WD E.J. Mundell is a HealthDay reporter.

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 27

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In Memoriam CONTINUED • PAGE 24

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cal Cube next to our Tokyo condominium. Dr. Kurokawa, who is the director there, was a classmate of mine in high school and is also our family doctor. He entered our Tokyo flat around 12:30 p.m. on the 12th and found Yoko lying on the floor beside the bed. She had already passed away. A police autopsy found no evidence of foul play or of disease, and we could only conclude that she had suddenly died from an unknown cause,” the ambassador explained in his letter.

“I left my hotel at 2:00 a.m., took a car to Boston, flew to Washington and arrived in Narita on the 13th.

When I saw Yoko’s body, she looked almost asSound if she & Video Services Video Streaming Services Lighting & Event Staging were still alive. I couldn’t find words — I just burst into tears,” Ambassador Sugiyama wrote. “The inside of our little Nibancho condo and our Washington Video production, equipment rentals and live event residence still look as if she is living in them, with her staging is all we do at AV Actions. We have been serving clothes and kimono there just as they were in our ev- Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Maryland for years. eryday life. It was really so sudden. There’s no way to Yoko Elizabeth Sugiyama, seen above with her friend take it in.”

Susan Pompeo, wife of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, He added: “I’m Anglican, so I believe this is all accompanied her husband on diplomatic assignments somehow God’s will, and I have to accept it. Sometimes, to Oxford, U.K.; Abuja, Nigeria; Washington, D.C.; Seoul, God’s plans are beyond our understanding. My son South Korea; and Cairo, Egypt. and his family, my daughter and I are all trying to keep moving forward. Even so, it’s difficult.” children: WANT Sakunosuke, and ABOUT KonoTORyunosuke, KNOW Yuika MORE AVA? The family held a small funeral on Feb. 17 at their suke. church in Roppongi, where Mrs. Sugiyama’s body In his letter, the ambassador thanked everyone was cremated. On March 6, they held an Episcopal for their “heartwarming outpouring of support” (703)“God 751-1010 service for her in Washington, D.C., at the ambassa- and quoted the words of 1PHONE Corinthians: does dor’s official residence. A final service for Mrs. Sugi- not give us trials that are too difficult for us to overEMAIL info@avactions.com yama was held March 30 at her church, St. Andrews come.” WD Tokyo.

Mrs. Sugiyama is survived by her husband Shin- Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is the managing Diplomat. suke, son Shunsuke, daughter Reina and four grand- editor of The Washington 1/4 page - print

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28 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

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PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF JAPAN

Culture arts & entertainment art

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diplomatic spouses

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theater

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music

The Washington Diplomat | April 2020

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history

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“Beauty Rich and Rare” at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is both a fascinating window into the flora

and fauna that are unique to Australia — one of the most biodiverse countries in the world — and a stark reminder

of the months of devastating wildfires that ravaged Australia and killed more than 1 billion animals across the continent. PAGE 30

FRAGILE

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Colombian Solidarity

BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY

Complex Picture

Maria Victoria García, wife of Colombian Ambas-

For 50 years, Graciela Iturbide has been

her husband’s side through many highs and lows,

contemporary photographers, producing

sador Francisco Santos Calderón, has stood by

including a kidnapping and a vice presidency —

all while forging her own path as a human rights advocate, mother of four and artist. PAGE 31

one of Latin America’s most acclaimed

visceral, haunting images that paint a nu-

anced picture of Mexico — and the women in it — in all their rich complexity. PAGE 32

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 29

WD | Culture | Nature

Rich and Rarer Recent Fires Cast Stark Light on Exhibit Documenting Australia’s Unique Flora and Fauna •

BY MACKENZIE WEINGER

Beauty Rich and Rare THROUGH JULY 5

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

10TH STREET AND CONSTITUTION AVENUE, NW

(202) 633-1000

WWW.NATURALHISTORY.SI.EDU

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bright orange poster is the first thing visitors see before entering “Beauty Rich and Rare” at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

“Would you like to assist victims of the devastating bushfires in Australia? Please visit https:// usa.embassy.gov.au and select News,” the sign says.

It’s a stark reminder of the months of devastating wildfires that ravaged Australia and killed more than 1 billion animals across the continent (also see cover profile).

PHOTOS: RICHIE DOWNS / ASICO PHOTO / EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA Thus, “Beauty Rich and Rare” is both an enlightening window into the flora and fauna that are “Beauty Rich and Rare” marks the 250th unique to Australia — one of the most biodiverse anniversary of Captain James Cook’s arrival countries in the world — and a sad reminder that in Australia, where botanist Sir Joseph Banks created detailed illustrations of the continent’s the continent also has the world’s highest rate of distinctive flora and fauna. mammal extinction.

Climate change, which is making the continent’s wildfire seasons more frequent and ferocious, is “The Embassy of Australia and the likely to accelerate that process. And because over NMNH have a long history of collaboration.

300 species are native to Australia, once they beThe museum holds over 2,000 Australian come extinct, they will be forever wiped off the objects/specimens, including the permanent planet.

Australian mammals display,” Allen said.

So, while “Beauty Rich and Rare” had been in “‘Beauty Rich and Rare’ was an opportunity the works for years, the timing of its D.C. debut in for the museum to exhibit a technologically January — just as the fires in Australia raged out innovative piece that brings botanical speciof control — lent an added sense of appreciation mens to life. The embassy will be partnering for the country’s flora and fauna, and a newfound with the museum on public program activiurgency to preserve it. ties throughout the life of the exhibit. We are also collaborating The immersive and visually stunning multi-channel video on ongoing repatriation efforts of human remains and secret/ NOTE: Due to the coronavirus projection (which will be on view through July, so hopefully sacred objects.” pandemic, all Smithsonian Washingtonians can catch it once museums in the area reopen) The display box of artifacts outside the immersive show is a bit museums have been temporarily has toured around Australia and will continue to travel in the of disappointment, but it does have a unique treasure within it. As closed. Visit naturalhistory.si.edu northern hemisphere over the next two years, said Bec Allen, the the exhibition points out, the British Museum gave the Smithsonfor updates on closures.

Embassy of Australia’s cultural affairs manager. ian over 350 specimens from the voyage. But all that’s shown here “2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Captain [James] Cook’s are four items — two illustrations and two historic specimens. arrival at Botany Bay. Acclaimed botanist Sir Joseph Banks was aboard the Endeavour The exhibition quotes David Attenborough as saying that “no journey has brought on this voyage and undertook the first European documentation of Australia’s rich back such treasures,” and it’s a misstep there’s not more documents to explore after the flora and fauna. Many of the specimens he collected on this journey now reside in visual experience of “Beauty Rich and Rare.” Still, as Allen noted, what is on offer — an cultural institutions around the world, including the Smithsonian National Museum of add-on by the NMNH — is special.

Natural History,” Allen said in an email to The Washington Diplomat.

“The Embassy of Australia was thrilled to find out that the NMNH held, in particuThe 20-minute video uses maps, journals and gorgeous illustrations to showcase lar, a banksia specimen — a flowering plant Joseph Bank’s named after himself. This the continent’s distinctive flora and fauna. Although it highlights the voyage of Banks specimen is on public display for the very first time in association with ‘Beauty Rich and the HMB Endeavour from England to Australia 250 years ago, the audio-visual and Rare,’” Allen said. display opens with a map made of stars to reference the continent’s indigenous peoples.

The exhibition hints at the fragility of the landscape and allows visitors to step into It quickly moves to the central focus of the video, the 18th-century voyage of Cook, the shoes of Banks and his team of European naturalists as they saw Australia for the Banks and his team of scientists and illustrators as they explored the Pacific aboard first time.

Endeavour in their search for Terra Australis incognita (the unknown south land).

In doing so, it reminds us of the responsibility we all have to protect Australia’s Sydney-based AGB Events uses a mix of sound, color and light to bring to life Cook’s unique biodiversity. As shown in the exhibit, 93% of Australian flora and fauna is found 1770 expedition, which marked the first recorded European contact with the eastern only on the continent. coastline of Australia.

“Our island home requires exceptional protection strategies, which is a priority of It’s beautiful and packed with fascinating details and history, but the video projec- the bushfire recovery effort,” Allen wrote. “‘Beauty Rich and Rare’ is also a timely retion doesn’t quite stand alone as an exhibition. That’s really no surprise — in 2018, the minder of the importance of institutions such as NMNH. The cataloguing and study National Library of Australia commissioned “Beauty Rich and Rare” for presentation of specimens enables scientists to examine the past in order to learn and protect the alongside a major exhibition, “Cook and the Pacific.” future. Never has that been more important for our generation and our children’s The video piece that’s here in D.C. still makes for a good reason to stop by the Na- generation.” WD tional Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Although there’s no major exhibition connected with it, the video is a fun excuse to go on a search of Australia-centric hold- Mackenzie Weinger (@mweinger) is a contributing writer ings in the museum after the 20-minute experience wraps. for The Washington Diplomat.

30 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

Diplomatic Spouses | Culture | WD

Life’s Ups and Downs Colombian Ambassador, Wife Serve as Longtime Human Rights Advocates for Homeland •

BY GAIL SCOTT

C

“They killed his driver. It was very hard. I had olombian Ambassador Francisco two babies, one and one half [years old] and six Santos Calderón has one of the months,” she remembered. “Somebody called me, more interesting backstories in a friend, to tell me. In those days, even the wives Washington, D.C., having been and children of journalists could be in danger. a former prominent journalist who was kid“For eight months, he was in captivity, and I napped on the orders of drug kingpin Pablo didn’t know what would happen. He could have Escobar for his work. been killed … other journalists were.”

His wife, Maria Victoria García, has an After her husband was released, together they equally fascinating backstory, although hers started the world’s first NGO dedicated to fighthas played out more so behind the scenes. ing kidnapping. Their Fundación País Libre proThat includes enduring her husband’s eightmoted Colombia’s Anti-Kidnapping Statue and month captivity; working alongside him to provided humanitarian assistance and support to protest kidnapping and promote human rights the victims of kidnappings and their families. in their homeland; raising their four children; “From the foundation, I was able to generate starting a career in painting; and learning how high-impact actions such as the great national to be the wife of a first-time ambassador. march which was held in our five major cities,” That latter role was supposed to be comGarcía said. “Thirteen million people went to the ing to a close this month, but coronavirus has streets to demand peace … which led to a recchanged the ambassador’s plan. ognized civil movement, ‘No More’ and ‘For the Santos had resigned and he and his wife country that we want, no more kidnapping.’” were looking at options for the next stage of Less than a decade later, between 2000 and their lives, but because of the pandemic, he’s 2002, Santos was forced to leave the country been asked to stay on in Washington for now. while working as assistant director of the newsIt’s the latest twist in a tumultuous ride for paper El País due to threats from the RevolutionSantos. ary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerilla In November, a recording was leaked of a group. private conversation in which Santos critiWhen he returned in 2002, he became vice cized the State Department as weak in the president of Colombia under the Uribe adminface of an unpredictable White House, calling istration, where he created policies against corit “non-existent.” Santos apologized and was temporarily recalled before coming back to ruption, extortion and kidnapping. He also led Washington, D.C., where he resumed his dipColombia’s international promotion of trade, inPHOTO: COURTESY OF MARIA VICTORIA GARCÍA lomatic duties, traveling for instance recently vestment and tourism. to Atlanta to drum up tech investment and to García had her own office in the vice president’s Philadelphia to speak about the Venezuela crioffice. “I acted behind the scenes … without seekI acted behind the scenes … sis that has sparked unprecedented migration ing any prominence for the human rights [work to Colombia. on behalf] of the most vulnerable and marginal without seeking any prominence During our November 2019 cover story populations of the country — people with dis“Colombia’s Commitment: Envoy Says Gov- for the human rights [work on abilities and victims of antipersonnel mines,” she ernment Is Sticking by FARC Peace Deal — behalf] of the most vulnerable said. “I also worked within the government and and Venezuelan Refugees,” Santos freely said with the art and business communities to … help that he never expected his life to take the turns and marginal populations those Colombians, especially the children, in ruit has — from straight-talking journalist, to of the country. ral areas whose life and dignity were threatened human rights advocate, to serving as vice every day.” president of his country. He said that when MARIA VICTORIA GARCÍA García said her early experiences growing up then-presidential candidate Álvaro Uribe helped her develop a sense of empathy for the less asked him to be his running mate, he was wife of Colombian Ambassador Francisco Santos Calderón fortunate. “When I was a little girl, we lived in the stunned. “Crazy he is to offer me and crazy me suburbs of Bogotá near an orphanage which my to accept it,” he joked. father helped a lot. I became friends with many of Throughout his career, however, Santos has made fighting the rebel groups and the children,” she said. “One of the most important lessons that I received from my drug traffickers that wreaked havoc on his country a priority, along with touting the family … is the concept of passion and compassion.” tremendous strides Colombia has made in recent years. Even as ambassador, he was That compassion grew as García witnessed the devastation that narco-trafficking unapologetic about his blunt style. “I don’t stand quiet against injustice. I don’t stand wrought on her country. quiet against violence. That’s been part of my life,” he told us.

“A majority of Colombians have suffered because of illegal activity and want it Santos has not said whether the recording played any role in his resignation, al- to be over, of course. However, it is not that simple,” she said. “We fight every day though he released a statement thanking President Iván Duque “for the offers you against drug trafficking, but it is a huge challenge, especially because of our geogmade to continue in your government. I think that the time has come for me to raphy. The same geography that makes Colombia such a beautiful country makes recover the possibility of giving my opinion freely on the interesting and challenging guerrilla members and drug dealers more difficult to catch. The complexity of the situation our country is going through and which calls for full frankness. I wish to illegal drug business is hard to understand, even for Colombians.” continue serving the Colombian people through my unwavering struggle for demoDespite the challenges, the government has made significant strides to stamp out cratic ideas and for truth.” drug violence and transform the economy. In fact, Colombia’s per-capita GDP has For now, however, that means guiding U.S.-Colombia relations in the wake of an doubled since 2000, and poverty has declined from one in five to one in 25. unprecedented global pandemic that has upended everyone’s lives.

This transformation has resulted in a major tourist boom, as travelers visit picAs an example of how fast the situation has changed, we interviewed García as she turesque colonial cities such as Cartagena and the country’s rich natural landscape, started packing to head home (only to have to unpack now). which is home to the Andes mountain range, a Pacific coastal region and the AmaDespite the ups and downs, García was jovial and, like her husband, easygoing zon rainforest, along with a plethora of wildlife (bird-watching is a huge draw). and fun.

“You can always find the weather you want in Colombia,” García said. “If it is gray When we asked what name she would like us to call her, she animatedly joked, “I and cold in Bogotá, in a few hours you can get to Girardot and enjoy a sunny day. tell people to think of me as either the Virgin Mary or Queen Victoria!”

Weather depends on the altitude and not so much on the time of year. We don’t have But Maria Victoria García is anything but glib. She is one serious lady who has seasons the way you know them in the United States…. You can enjoy the beach all been through a lot. year round.

“My husband, who was a journalist at the time, was kidnapped in 1990 at the “Colombia is a very rich country with a huge biodiversity and a lot of culture,” hands of the drug traffickers [working for] Pablo Escobar,” she said. Santos was captured at the end of the day as he rode home from the office.

SEE S POUS ES • PAGE 35

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APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 31

WD | Culture | Photography

Mexican Complexity Graciela Iturbide Captures a More Nuanced Portrayal of Her Homeland •

Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico THROUGH MAY 25

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS 1250 NEW YORK AVE., NW

(202) 783-5000

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BY ANNA GAWEL AND KATE OCZYPOK

During her 50-year career, Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, seen far left, produced haunting images of her homeland, as seen in works such as from clockwise top: “El Baño de Frida, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México (Frida’s Bathroom, Coyoacán, Mexico City)”; “Novia Muerte (Death Bride)”; and “Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas (Our Lady of the Iguanas).”

t the start of 2020, Mexico became one of only three countries in the world to adopt a feminist foreign policy, which puts gender equality and the rights of women and traditionally marginalized groups at the heart of all levers of power in government, from trade to humanitarian aid to defense.

Yet barely two months later, tens of thousands of women took part in nationwide strikes throughout Mexico to protest the alarming rates of violence against women — and the government’s lack of action to address it. Schools, stores, buses and offices emptied out as women took to the streets to call attention to the fact PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; that 10 women are killed every single day in Mexico. © GRACIELA ITURBIDE It was a sobering reminder that even as women make significant strides around the world, tradition and discrimination continue to hold them back, sometimes with deadly results.

The dueling narratives recently seen in Mexico reflect the country’s complex tapestry of politics and culture, one that is often oversimplified by the media — and Americans. It also lends even more credence and urgency to “Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico,” the current exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA).

For 50 years, Iturbide has been one of Latin America’s most acclaimed contemporary photographers, producing visceral, haunting images that paint a nuanced picture of her homeland — and the women in it — in all their rich complexity.

“She’s a great example of the core mission of the museum, having continued advocacy for exceptional women artists,” said Orin Zahra, assistant curator for the NMWA. “We’re really honored that Graciela could come to D.C. and particularly to NMWA.” Over 140 of Iturbide’s signature black-and-white gelatin silver prints are on display in this survey organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Spanning a period from 1969 and 2007, these photographs depict indigenous and urban women, symbolism in nature, rituals and even eerie snapshots of personal items left behind after the death of iconic Mexican artist Frida PHOTO: © GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; © GRACIELA ITURBIDE Kahlo.

They offer a personal look inlife. But after an illness led to the death of her 6-year-old side lesser-known sides of Mexico daughter, Iturbide became drawn to photography, honthrough the eyes of Iturbide, who NOTE: Due to the coronavirus ing her skills as an assistant to well-known photographer prides herself on immersing herself pandemic, the National Museum Manuel Álvarez Bravo in the early 1970s. in the community she is photographof Women in the Arts has been “Bravo’s poetic style influenced Iturbide, but she ultemporarily closed. Please visit ing, capturing both its daily life and timately chose to focus on what she described as ‘photo nmwa.org/coronavirus-updates deeper soul. essays’ as opposed to individual photographs,” according for updates on closures.

“Photography for me is a ritual,” to the NMWA. PHOTO: © MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON Iturbide once said. “To go out with After traveling widely throughout Mexico, Iturbide the camera, to observe, to photograph the most mythological aswas commissioned in 1978 to photograph the country’s pects of people, then to go into the darkness, to develop, to select the most symbolic indigenous populations. images.”

Iturbide’s fascination with — and reverence for — underrepresented indigenous The exhibition at the NMWA (she’s been featured in five other shows at the mu- societies plays a prominent role in the exhibition, with three sections devoted to her seum since 1999) is divided into nine sections that illustrate Mexico’s diverse mix photographs of Juchitán, home of the matriarchal society of the Zapotec people; of cultures, social inequalities and the coexistence — and conflict — between the the Sonoran Desert, where the Seri, a once-nomadic group of fishermen, navigate traditional and the modern. a changing culture; and La Mixteca, where she documents the Oaxacan herding While Iturbide’s early work focused heavily on underrepresented indigenous community’s annual goat slaughter festival. people, she herself was born into a wealthy, conservative Catholic family — the oldest of 13 children — in Mexico City. She married young, had a daughter by age 23 SEE G R ACIEL A • PAGE 35 and initially studied filmmaking, seemingly on the path to a traditional upper-class 32 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

Theater | Culture | WD

Gutsy ‘Pass’ Amid Racial Tensions and Police Brutality, Two Black Men Wait for Paradise in ‘Pass Over’ •

BY LISA TROSHINSKY

A

ntoinette Nwandu, the author of “Pass Over,” is the epitome of gutsy. Not only did she give up her 9-to-5 paycheck to take a chance on becoming a playwright, but one of her early scripts is a powerful sucker punch that doesn’t discriminate in challenging both whites and blacks about preconceived notions of race.

The production — which recently had its D.C. premiere at The Studio Theatre, where it was directed by Psalmayene 24 — deals head-on with the hot topic but unfortunate crisis of white police brutality against young African American men.

With only three actors (one of whom plays two parts) and a sparse, darkened set denoting a decaying urban landscape, Nwandu demonstrates the concept that “less is more.”

The play starts with Moses, an African American man, waking with a scream from a fitful sleep while slouched against a lone street lamp — the site where his brother was gunned down by a white cop and is now decorated with withered flowers and an aging teddy bear. A siren is heard in the background and gets menacingly louder. Moses then begins a familPHOTOS: MARGOT SCHULMAN iar and slangy back-and-forth exchange with his buddy, Kitch, who is also African In “Pass Over,” Christopher American — a conversation they seemingly have Lovell and Jalen Gilbert, above, regularly. Their banter is rapid, at times humorstar as two friends on a street ous, at times sad and longing, and full of the Ncorner debating life as two word. young black men — their exis“You’re my nigger,” Kitch continuously tells tential musings interrupted by Moses in a declaration of loyalty and fleeting Cary Donaldson, far left, who plays Mister and Ossifer. hope. “Kill me now,” he shouts. “Bang Bang!”

Kitch responds, making light of their daily terrors. isn’t safe out here,” he says, “Call Their lonely block is the solitary location for the police!” the play, as well as their lives. Their only goal Moses and Kitch, for their — one they keep revisiting over and over again part, assume the presumably without any viable plans — is to leave this street harmless white man deep down corner to “pass over” to a better place, where they wants to call them the N-word don’t have to fear for their lives by being black and loudly gasp when he introand vulnerable. This quandary is blatantly apparduces himself as “Mister,” which ent when with every loud noise, both men duck could be mistaken for “Master,” and cover. even after he quickly explains that’s just his surThe play has been rightfully described as a cross between name. Later, when Moses and Kitch celebrate NOTE: Due to the coronavirus the dystopian “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett — a small victory against a white cop, they do an pandemic, the remaining showings of where two men spend the length of the play waiting for the impromptu dance and sing “Movin on Up,” the “Pass Over” at Studio Theatre have been mysterious Godot, who never shows — and the Exodus story, theme song from the old sitcom “The Jeffersons,” canceled. To view a filmed version of “Pass where our Biblical ancestors passed over into the promised which stereotyped African Americans as wanOver” directed by Spike Lee at Chicago’s land. Here, the two young men painfully wax poetic about nabes in a white world.

Steppenwolf Theatre on Amazon Prime, “the promised land” — they even play their made-up game The white actor returns as the long-expected visit www.amazon.com/Pass-Over-Jon“promised land top 10,” where they name their top 10 wishes violent police officer, or “Ossifer.” In uniform and Michael-Hill/dp/B07BNTC7ZM. once they leave their block — but inevitably they never make wielding a gun, he orders the unarmed Moses it. The latter is not surprising; the means in which they don’t and Kitch to put their hands behind their heads make it are shocking. for the apparent crime of “living while black.”

The fact that Nwandu can tackle a subject — in this case police brutality in the The men know the drill and automatically comply with self-degrading responses. era of Black Lives Matter — that has become so ubiquitous and deliver it with The acting in the show is strong and played with conviction. Christopher a fresh perspective is a tribute to her skill at dialogue, characterization and plot Lovell is the alpha-male Moses who has big, but fantasized, dreams with which twists. he inspires Kitch. Jalen Gilbert, as Kitch, tries to cheer up Moses with dance anTensions are ramped up when the men are met with a prim, Caucasian gentle- tics, songs and jokes. Together they are convincing as close, devoted friends and man named Mister, toting a picnic basket, who claims he has lost his way en route deliver Nwandu’s comic and serious lines with equal fervor. to his ill mother’s house, not unlike Little Red Riding Hood who encounters the Cary Donaldson as Mister/Ossifer is bigger-than-life, which serves his symwolf. The audience waits with trepidation of what will come. bolic roles in the men’s lives.

Nwandu ingeniously uses stereotypes to her advantage. By making all of her In the end, the play poses more questions than answers. But it could be the characters stereotypes, at least in part, she forces audience members to question playwright’s answer to the numbness we’ve succumbed to from sitting through their assumptions about race, and ultimately cringe in their seats. Mister, a clear the endless news stories, public outcries and, all too often, subsequent police acgeek who peppers his speech with “Gosh, Golly and Gee,” is oblivious to the rea- quittals. With “Pass Over,” Nwandu refuses to let us ignore it any longer. WD son Moses and Kitch distrust him and wonders naively why the men use the N-word so freely with each other, when not in anger. When the men tell him “it Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 33

WD | Culture | Art

More Than Décor Canadian Embassy Puts Its Art Collection in ‘New Light’ by Reinforcing Diversity, Equality •

BY DIANA OXNER

A New Light: Canadian Women Artists THROUGH APRIL 30

EMBASSY OF CANADA ART GALLERY 501 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW

WWW.TINYURL.COM/V5YKXLG

T

he Canadian Embassy is highlighting the work of 27 acclaimed female Canadian artists in the exhibition “A New Light: Canadian Women Artists,” located at the embassy’s art gallery until April 30. However, the art isn’t going anywhere.

Organizers wanted to “have all of these artworks visible, open and accessible to the general public because after the exhibit closes within three months, it will go on the walls on each of the six floors of the embassy,” public affairs counselor Denis Chouinard told us.

The exhibition is part of a larger drive to showcase Canadian diversity at the embassy, which already boasts 180 pieces of art on display throughout the expansive chancery on Pennsylvania Avenue. But for 2020, the embassy embarked on a reorganization of its art collection to make it even more diverse while also supporting the government’s largPHOTOS: EMBASSY OF CANADA er efforts to promote gender equality.

Above, Canadian Embassy public affairs counselor Denis So, when staff noticed that two-thirds of the art in Chouinard welcomes guests to the exhibtion “A New Light: the embassy was made by men, “we thought it would Canadian Women Artists,” which features works such as Meryl be nice to reach out to be close to parity in terms of McMaster’s “Jin,” seen below right, and Christine Fitzgerald’s representation here at the embassy of men and fe“Champagne Grapes,” created using the 19th-century wet collodion photographic process. male artists,” said Chouinard.

The 38 works in the exhibition are all from three Fitzgerald also tackles more serious subject matter, includimportant collections that regularly loan works to ing photographs of wildlife illegally trafficked at the Canadian the embassy: Scotiabank, the Canada Council for border and threatened animal species. the Arts and the Global Affairs Visual Art CollecIn a sense, the Ottawa-based photographer is a prime extion, which consists of over 7,000 works in a range of ample of how women’s contributions benefit not only the media, such as painting, sculpture and fabric art, that world of art, but also the larger pocirculates among Canadian missions and residences litical discussions of the day, such around the world. as the environment and climate While each of the 38 pieces featured here are change. unique, collectively they celebrate the “light” that Since taking office in 2015, comes from nature and abstraction. That “light” Canadian Prime Minister Justin inspired the name of the exhibition, which is comTrudeau has sought to include mitted to “incorporating works which illuminate those voices in his administration, Canada’s diversity, both with regards to genres of touting himself as a proud feminist media and their artists’ backgrounds,” said Miand pledging to combat gender chelle Mahoney, a media relations officer at the violence and incorporate women embassy. into all aspects of government.

Christine Fitzgerald, a photo-based artist in OtNOTE: Due to the coronavirus pan“The day Justin Trudeau was sworn in as Canada’s prime tawa, had three pieces from her collection titled “Didemic, many events have been canceled. minister, he stood on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill flanked by the 15 versity” chosen to be a part of the exhibition. “The Please check with the venue beforehand women and 15 men he’d appointed to his cabinet,” wrote Kathpieces are fruit studies that celebrate the diversity of to see if it has closed. erine Laidlaw in a March 2019 article for The Atlantic. “A refruits and vegetables available today,” Fitzgerald told porter asked him why he felt such a gender balance was imporus. tant and Trudeau, pausing for only a beat, held his palms up to “My motivation in creating the series was to experiment with forms, compositions and colors. I used the 19th-century wet-collodi- the sky as he replied, ‘Because it’s 2015.’ It was a sound bite heard around the world.”

While the article questioned whether Trudeau’s brand of feminism could really adon photographic process, which requires daylight. The chemistry cannot ‘read’ all the colors of the light spectrum, [so] reds, oranges and yellows are developed as different dress the complexities of what gender parity entails in today’s world, at work, at home tones of black,” Fitzgerald explained. “I also experimented with light — the absolute and in society more broadly, there is little doubt that the prime minister has made best light for this process is 11:30 a.m. outdoor on a clear day. My best studio is out- empowering women and girls a priority in his administration.

“Under Prime Minister Trudeau, the Canadian government was led by the first side.”

Using these techniques, Fitzgerald transforms ordinary pears, peppers, tomatoes SEE CANADA • PAGE 35 and grapes into luminous, elegant portraits.

34 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

Spouses CONTINUED • PAGE 31

she added. “It is a lab of differences that come together in one place. We have different races, music, weather.

Because of our geography, we have so many things…. We have problems, but Colombia is a country that is always making progress. It is full of good people.”

While García has worked to support her husband in promoting Colombia in the United States, she, too, has had to adjust to the transition to diplomatic life.

“It is very different being the wife of a journalist and the wife of a diplomat,” she told us. “As the wife of Ambassador Francisco Santos, I support his job and have my own responsibilities inside the residence. I have been in charge of every event that happens in the residence, which is an important part of the [diplomatic] mission.

I also attend a lot of events — both with my husband and on my own — where I represent Colombia and want to build relationships,” she said.

“The wife of a journalist enjoys more freedom. She doesn’t have a professional role in her husband’s career. She can have her own opinion … and disagree.”

Either way, “my husband and I

have always been a team. We have been together and worked together … to achieve our goals and dreams,” she said of Santos, whose nickname is Pacho. “A mutual friend introduced us and we went to a party. The second time we saw each other, Pacho told me we were going to end up getting married! Here we are, 34 years later.”

Along the way, their four children, now between the ages of 24 and 31, grew into adults. “We are all very different. We have an artist, an economist, a doctor and a politician — a very eclectic family. All of us have very different ways of thinking and we share those thoughts and confront each other. We are probably too confrontational, but at the same time, we all support each other … in personal and professional growth,” she said, adding that all of their children have been brought up to have a passion for contributing to the greater good. “We are all on a mission.”

To that end, she encouraged their children to mature into better people “capable of taking on challenges that will lead them to build the future Colombia.”

But their four children were also reared to have fun. “We are a very adventurous family. We like to grab our backpacks and travel around the world. We are huge Africa fans, for example,” she said.

Even though she’s been the wife of a former vice president and now a former ambassador, García herself is not all work and no play either. Over

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MARIA VICTORIA GARCÍA

Maria Victoria García is pictured with her four children and her husband, Colombian Ambassador Francisco Santos Calderón, a former journalist.

the years, she has focused her time on painting, especially what she calls “plastic” art.

“You can use any and all media in one piece of art,” she said, noting that she now calls painting her profession, although it “is also the way I relax.”

García has sold her paintings in Colombia and Miami, another place she feels at home.

Along with painting, she takes pride in her gardening. For her daughter’s wedding next year, García and her 25-year-old daughter Carmen, a medical school student, are creating a garden wonderland to hold an elaborate outdoor ceremony.

“I’ve been making special gardens for

years. I also love to play volleyball. In Colombia, I invite my friends to play volleyball.”

The couple will go back home eventually, although exactly when remains up in the air. Nevertheless, García said she has enjoyed her time in Washington, D.C. “When you arrive in a city like Washington, diplomatic status opens doors immediately,” she reflected.

“You get to be a local while also having the opportunity to interact … with people from [all over the world] and from different universes — cultural, economical, political, etc. This positive thing happens to diplomats around the world.”

Canada

Graciela

CONTINUED • PAGE 34

CONTINUED • PAGE 32

cabinet with gender parity in Canadian history, but less well known is how deeply this has influenced their work across many sectors,” according to Mahoney.

She said that “from the first federal budget that implemented gender budgeting; to our Feminist International Assistance Policy to ensure benefits for women and girls in our international development work; to our inclusion of gender chapters in recent trade agreements; to our pioneering Elsie Initiative in New York to encourage more women peacekeepers in U.N. operations — prioritizing efforts to ensure gender equity has permeated every aspect of the federal government’s work in recent years.”

One of the ways that the Canadian government has done this is through a process called gender-based analysis.

Katherine Baird, minister of congressional, public and inter­ gov­ ern­ mental relations at the embassy, explained the concept as “analyzing policy impacts on gender [both men and women], but also looking at the fact that we have multiple identities. So that intersectionality of our identities is as important when you’re trying to determine the impact of any sort of a policy decision — the impact economically; impact in terms of the family; impact in terms of opportunity.

And so you see that permeating a lot of the government’s explicit policy objectives, which includes our foreign policy.”

However, there is still work to be done.

Eleanor King, a Nova Scotia-born artist based in Brooklyn who is featured in “A New Light,” praised Canada’s efforts but said the world still lags behind in achieving true gender equality.

“I’d like to say that we are in a postsexist time period but I don’t think that is true. I am very lucky to be well-supported

In one striking image, we see a slender woman wearing an embroidered sweater and skirt dirtied by blood from the goat she is killing, her knife clenched between her teeth as she grips the goat’s ankles. It’s a jarring juxtaposition but one that Iturbide renders with sensitivity as she observes the important ritual slaughter.

We also see Iturbide’s “Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas (Our Lady of the Iguanas), her portrait of a woman donning a wreath of large, protruding iguanas on her head — a powerful image of Zapotec life that was replicated by numerous other artists.

“I think people will come in thinking they’ll see a bunch of black-and-white photos [but] when they leave, they are going to be very emotionally moved and impacted by the work,” Zahra said.

“What I love about Graciela’s approach to photography is her ability to connect with her subjects,” Zahra added. “If you walk through the exhibit, you see she’s not just connecting to the various indigenous communities, but plants and animals too. Plants and plant life have a huge significance, particularly cactus in Mexican culture.”

Regarded as a national symbol, cacti are routinely used by Mexicans for food, alcohol and medicine.

In Iturbide’s work, they are living, breathing entities treated with the same respect she gives to people.

Cultural symbols and the cycles of life — including death — are omnipresent in the section “Fiestas, Death and Birds,” where we see Mexico’s proud tradition of lavish ceremonies and rituals, including the famed Day of the Dead. “Novia Muerte (Death Bride)” is one of the most arresting and eerie visuals in the exhibition. The “bride” is in fact a man wearing a death mask, his veil-covered hand outstretched as if it were wrapped around someone’s shoulder, but no one is there, a void that hints at loss and death.

Iturbide has said she photographs the deaths of others as a way of dealing with her own grief over the death of her daughter.

Iturbide is even able to imbue inanimate objects

PHOTO: EMBASSY OF CANADA

Eleonor King, one of the artists showcased in “A New Light: Canadian Women Artists,” stands next to one of her pieces from a collection titled “Wormholes.” King traced old CDs over and over with the same colored pencil until it ran out, causing her to change colors to continue constructing her wormhole.

in this community. There are systems in place in Canada to help you move forward if you are willing to work hard,” she said.

At the same time, women still face deeply entrenched societal obstacles to achieving success in all parts of their lives, especially when it comes to balancing work and family. “I think that it is tough, as a female, if you want to have a family. It seems like in order to be successful in your career, you can’t really have a family. I see colleagues who take time away from work to have a family and it negatively affects your work,” King said.

“I wish we didn’t have to have shows like this,” she added. “We shouldn’t need to have these exhibitions, but I am glad we have them. I hope it does encourage people of all kinds to continue to make their work and put it in the world. All voices need to be heard in the world.” WD Diana Oxner is an editorial intern at the Washington Diplomat.

“You get to meet people from all walks of life,” she added. At the same time, “everything moves so fast … that it’s often very difficult to build lasting relationships. You might feel you have everything, and then at the end, your world has changed and you are starting all over again.”

On that note, García said she and her husband will be taking wonderful memories with them.

“We have received and given a lot during our time at the embassy. We have met people that we appreciate….

We have established relationships with institutions like the Kennedy Center,” she said. “We are very grateful for those opportunities. We have the best memories from these experiences.

“It’s a lot of friends that we made and that will always be in this family’s heart. I hope they will also remember us, and I hope we were able to leave a warm memory as human beings and as ambassadors of this country that we love, Colombia.” WD Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; © GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

“Angelita, Sonoran Desert” is an example of Graciela Iturbide’s photographs depicting Mexico’s indigenous women.

with life — and mortality. In 2005, Iturbide was commissioned to photograph Frida Kahlo’s belongings in the bathroom at Casa Azul, the home where the painter was born and died.

The resulting “Frida’s Bathroom” series uses a strange panoply of objects — a blood-stained gown, medical supplies, crutches and other contraptions — to dramatically illustrate artist’s lifelong struggle with debilitating pain and hardship. The photographs create a sense of kinship between the two Mexican women artists, who both wrestled with tragedy in their personal lives.

Iturbide has an innate “ability to really connect with anything that appears in front of her camera,” Zahra said. “I think that is significant about her work and what makes it relatable to the viewer, no matter where they are in the world.”

While Zahra said Iturbide prefers not to be outwardly political, her work has become part of the current national conversation.

“In the very act of showing the 140 photos of the often-forgotten communities and glimpses of cultures we don’t normally see, it humanizes the place that has become so mythic and dehumanized through media and pop culture,” Zahra said. “I think it provides exposure to a place that’s our neighbor and I think it will particularly affect the D.C. community.” WD Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

Kate Oczypok (@OczyKate) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 35

WD | Culture | Spotlight

Diplomatic Spotlight International Visitor Leadership Program 80th Anniversary In honor of the 80th anniversary of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department hosted an event for embassy cultural attachés at the newly built National Museum of American Diplomacy. For the past 80 years, the IVLP has connected current and emerging leaders from around the world to the United States through short-term exchanges, with over 225,000 alumni, including Albanian Ambassador Floreta Faber and Singaporean Ambassador Ashok Mirpuri, both of whom spoke at the event.

Ambassador of Albania Floreta Faber talks about her experience as an IVLP alumni.

April 2020

Bahraini Basketball Diplomacy Ambassador of Bahrain Shaikh Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa, a fan of the Boston Celtics, invited friends to the Verizon Center to watch the Celtics play the Washington Wizards, who won the game.

Ambassador of Albania Floreta Faber, Ambassador of Armenia Varuzhan Nersesyan, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce, Ambassador of Latvia Māris Selga, Ambassador of Singapore Ashok Mirpuri and Ambassador of Croatia Pjer Šimunović.

Joon Suk Hwang, director of the Korean Cultural Center, and Sang Hwa Park, director of the Korean Embassy Education Center.

The National Museum of American Diplomacy tells the story of the history, practice, and challenges of American diplomacy.

PHOTOS: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Ambassador of Bahrain Shaikh Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa and Ambassador of Azerbaijan Elin Suleymanov.

Mary Kane, director of the National Museum of American Diplomacy, welcomes guests.

Vladislav Nastas of the Embassy of Moldova and Sofia Gegechkori of the Embassy of Georgia.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce and President of the National U.S.Arab Chamber of Commerce David Hamod stand by an original piece of the Berlin Wall that is housed at the National Museum of American Diplomacy.

Ambassador of Hungary László Szabó and his wife Dr. Ivonn Szeverényi.

Patent and Trademark Lunch Jacob Comenetz and Vera Beutin, both of the German Embassy Cultural Section.

Mary Kane, director of the National Museum of American Diplomacy, right, talks to guests.

Lara Romano, deputy chief of the Embassy of Croatia, talks to guests.

PHOTO: MICHAEL A. CLEVELAND

Jan Du Plain of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and Bauyrzhan Nurbalin of the Embassy of Kazakshstan.

36 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | APRIL 2020

The National Museum of American History next to the State Department features exhibits in a main visitor hall and a Founding Ambassadors Concourse space for students and special programs.

Secretary of the District of Columbia Kimberly A. Bassett and Popy Rufaidah of the Embassy of Indonesia.

Ambassador of Slovenia Stanislav Vidovic; Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erzhan Kazykhanov; Ambassador of Estonia Jonatan Vseviov; Ambassador of Germany Emily Haber; U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Andrei Iancu; a tour guide; and coach Kathy Kemper of the Institute for Education visit USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Va., as part of a lunch arranged by the Institute for Education.

Spotlight | Culture | WD

International Student House Awards Dinner The International Student House held its 2019 Global Leadership Awards Dinner at the historic Whittemore House to honor UNESCO Ambassador Esther Coopersmith with its Global Philanthropist Award, along with Reps. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) with its 2019 Global Leadership Award.

Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai served as diplomatic chair.

Since 1936, the International Student House of Washington, D.C. (ISH-DC) has offered housing to an international community of graduate students, interns, and visiting scholars.

Jill Allen Murray, Ann Stock of the Meridian International Center and Esther Brimmer, CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), UNESCO Ambassador Esther Coopersmith and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who was recently appointed White House chief of staff.

PHOTOS: ISH-DC

Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy Yang Xinyu, Lisa Barry and Kathryn Horlick.

Sherry Mueller talks to former Ambassador and Prime Minister of Iceland Geir H. Haarde, who’s an alumni of ISH-DC.

Philanthropist Catherine Reynolds, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Wayne Reynolds.

ISH-DC Board President Eric Melby, Ambassador of Portugal Domingos Vital and Isabel Vital.

Former Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), Mohsen Hojeij and Betty Anne Tanner.

ISH-DC Board member Shaista Mahmood and Shaikha Aisha AlKhalifa, wife of the Bahraini ambassador.

Robert Demers and Jeff Werner.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fleming and Cindy Fleming.

Rear Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal shares a laugh with her friend Esther Coopersmith.

‘Beauty Rich and Rare’ Shortly before leaving Washington, Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey inaugurated the “Beauty Rich and Rare” exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (also see story on page 30). The exhibition celebrates the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s arrival on the east coast of Australia, where botanists, scientists and illustrators captured the continent’s unique flora and fauna.

Rebecca Allen, cultural affairs manager for the Australian Embassy.

PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA

Above, Anthony Bastic, CEO and creative director of AGB Events, which created the exhibition.

Former Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey welcomes guests to the first major Australian exhibition held at the National Museum of Natural History.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce.

Mike Lawrence, assistant director of exhibits for the National Museum of Natural History.

Congressman Ed Case (Hawaii).

Guests examine herbarium sheets (dried botanical collections) that were used to create the illustrations during the expedition.

Didgeridoo player Cameron McCarthy performs for the audience.

APRIL 2020 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 37

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Coronavirus CONTINUED • PAGE 12

secretary-general appointed the envoy to mobilize resources, technology and advising, you found everything started to come together and was better organized. [The envoy] briefed the General Assembly from Monrovia [Liberia], and people saw that it was real.”

Nyenswah said that while the WHO is “taking the right steps now” and “doing all of the things necessary that can be done within [its] mandate,” it is “time for the U.N. to come in at the Security Council level and show some of the lessons learned” from the fight against Ebola.

He noted that he and colleagues at Johns Hopkins are trying to reach out to the Security Council now because “its leadership is critical” and because “the WHO has such limitations.”

Sometimes, of course, nations simply decide not to cooperate with the WHO or not use the medical advice and tools that it provides. While research firms partnering with

PHOTO: HOSSEINMERSADI / FARS NEWS AGENCY, CC BY 4.0

Representatives from the World Health Organization hold a joint meeting with officials from Tehran about the coronavirus pandemic. Iran has been criticized for vastly underestimating the number of coronavirus cases it’s dealing with, although some experts point out that the country lacks widespread testing capabilities.

the WHO produced over a million Covid-19 test kits in the month following the PHEIC announcement, the United States decided to create its own test kit through the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention. It turned out that the vast majority of those kits or their prototypes were defective, meaning that the U.S. faced a lengthy delay in virus testing, pos-

sibly losing critical ground in the fight to contain the disease.

At the same time, nations around the world were benefiting from the availability of properly working kits sent out by the WHO. Thousands of people were able to be tested when the results were most needed — a factor that experts say helped countries like South Korea and Singapore successfully curb the contagion.

Now, experts in the U.S., including Frieden, are calling for an investigation of what went wrong with the testing regimen here.

“There will always be things you look back on and wish you’d done differently in an epidemic response,” Frieden said of the WHO’s leadership on Covid-19. He praises the agency’s staff for “working hard to support countries, organizations, governments and businesses.”

As for the financial and logistical pressures the WHO faces today, and may continue to face in the future, Frieden warns: “In our interconnected world, we are only as safe as the country with the weakest system to find, stop and prevent disease threats. As Covid-19 highlights, the next epidemic is just a flight away.” WD Deryl Davis is a contributing writer to The Washington Diplomat.

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