The Washington Diplomat - June 2019 by The Washington Diplomat

Luxury Living Special Section

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Luxury Living A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

June 2019

VOLUME 26, NUMBER 06 Extremism

Islamic State Makes Its Way To South Asia

The Sri Lanka Easter attacks demonstrated again that violent Islamic extremism is a growing threat in South and Southeast Asia, as the Islamic State shifts its strategy to focus on rebuilding and recruiting in new regions. PAGE 6

JUNE 2019

WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

EU-U.S. RESILIENCE

Middle East

U. S. Funding Cuts Squeeze Palestinians

Fashionable Trend

Embassies Embrace Universal

Language of Fashion

PHOTO: MYNOR VENTURA

In March, the embassies of the Czech Republic, Malta and Slovenia hosted “Fashion Night Ignites,” an evening runway show at the historic Perry Belmont House to showcase from their native countries. designs Above, a model showcases by Charles & Ron presented a dress by the Maltese Embassy.

as Public Diplomacy Tool

etter known for high tempers than high fashion, Washington, D.C., has seen catwalks pop up in the unlikeliest of places recently: embassies, historic buildings and even the State Department.

•

BY STEPHANIE KANOWITZ

Three days later, the Embassy of Uzbekistan presented Marhamathon Umarova, founder of the MarU brand and one of the country’s leading fashion designers. She spoke That’s because people in the about the evolution of ikat, diplomatic community are a textile, and presented her realizing — and relishing latest collection. — fashion’s role in diplomacy. it can have such a strong impact on people because Much as food, art and sports we are “The style and the patterns can say a lot about a nation’s watching, particularly those that are high up in that they used and the cloth govern- that they created from culture, fashion does, too. ment.” their own country was fascinating “There’s tremendous power to learn about,” Du Plain said. Du Plain recently worked with Indira Gumarova, wife Du Plain, president and chief in what we wear,” said Jan Czech Ambassador of In March, the embassies Hynek executive Global Enterprises, an international officer of Du Plain of the American Foreign Kmoníček, and the Associates Slovenia hosted “Fashion of the Czech Republic, Malta and Service Worldwide (AAFSW) Night Ignites” featuring several public relations and events company that helped deto signers, including Burnett launch Cultural Tourism DC’s host “Glamour & Diplomacy,” a fashion show at New York; Charles & Ron; the State Doux; Maja Stamol; Passport DC program. “If Dur Department. The April 9 and Poner. After the show, one of our high-level women cocktails and or dors and ambassadors’ event featured female ambassa- cuisine from each country men wears something that is inappropriate or can be were served. More than 250 seen temporary designers wives wearing ensembles by con- ple attended the event as questionable, fashion speaks. peofrom around at the historic When we wear something, dozen countries and five continentsthe world. More than a Gumarova — a PR consultant Perry Belmont House. who were represented. previously hosted a showcase of designer shoes 30 | THE WASHINGTON by Manolo Blahnik, whose DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019 fa-

Diplomat Events

WHCD Pre-Party Celebrates Journalism Over 800 people attended the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Pre-Party hosted by Qatari Ambassador Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani and The Washington Diplomat at the U.S. Institute of Peace — a fitting venue to emphasize the critical role that today’s media plays in supporting a peaceful world.

As Palestinians brace for President Trump to unveil his long-awaited Mideast peace plan, Trump’s earlier decision to end U.S. funding to the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees is already being felt on the ground — away from the spotlight. PAGE 10

PAGE 20

Culture

People of World Influence

‘Queens of Egypt’:

China has become the frontline in President Trump’s trade wars, but former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman talks about two other consequential trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership that he helped craft and NAFTA’s replacement, neither of which are done deals.

Rules Washington

The National Geographic’s latest blockbuster exhibit takes a familiar subject, ancient Egypt, and resurrects it by placing women and power at the center. PAGE 34

Froman Talks About Trade And Trump

In an exclusive interview, Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s new ambassador, talks about everything from trade, China, Iran and NATO to human rights, climate change and populism. While he admits that the EU and U.S. don’t see eye to eye on many of these issues, he insists that transatlantic relations have finally turned the corner. PAGE 15

PAGE 4

"Essential and entertaining reading." —Betty K. Koed, Historian

RISING STAR, SETTING SUN: Volume 26 "Essential and entertaining reading." —Betty K. Koed, Historian

RISING STAR, SETTING SUN: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and the Presidential Transition that Changed America

Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and the | Presidential | Changed America Issue 06 | Transition June 2019 that www.washdiplomat.com

Rising Star, Setting Sun is a riveting new history that explores the complicated, poignant, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Victor Shiblie and consequential transition of power from Dwight D. Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy.

Director of Operations

Fuad Shiblie

The exchange of leadership between the thirty-fourthEditor and thirty-fifth presidents of Managing Anna Gawel the United States marked more than a succession of leaders. It symbolized—and News Editor Larry Luxner triggered—a generational shift in American politics, policy, and culture.

Graphic Designer

Cari Henderson

Drawing extensively from primary sources,

Account RodofCarrasco includingManager memoirs and memos the time, Rising Star, Setting Sun paints a vivid Photographer picture of what Time calledLawrence a "turning point in the twentieth century."

Contributing Writers

Ruggeri

Paige Aarhus, Deryl Davis,

"The presidential transition from Eisenhower to Kennedy starkly contrasted the Jonathan Gorvett, parties, temperaments, and generations of the two leaders, yet the transfer of power proceeded amicablyStephanie in the national Kanowitz, interest. John Shaw's Rising Star, Setting Sun slips behind the veil of civility to take the measure of both men and Ryan Migeed, Kate Oczypok, assess their personal antagonisms."

—Donald A. Ritchie, Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate and Gail Scott, John Shaw, author of Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932

Aileen Torres-Bennett, Pegasus Books, hardcover, May 2018, ISBN: 9781681777320 Lisa Troshinsky, Mackenzie Weinger

Editorial Interns

Clara Longo de Freitas, 1/4 page print Samantha Subin

address 1921 Florida Ave. NW #53353 • Washington, DC 20009 phone 301.933.3552 • fax 301.949.0065

web www.washdiplomat.com • editorial news@washdiplomat.com Rising Star, Setting Sun is a riveting new history that explores the complicated, poignant, and consequential transition of power from Dwight D. Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy. The exchange of leadership between the thirty-fourth and thirtyfifth presidents of the United States marked more than a succession of leaders. It symbolized—and triggered—a generational shift in American politics, policy, and culture. Drawing extensively from primary sources, including memoirs and memos of the time, Rising Star, Setting Sun paints a vivid picture of what Time called a "turning point in the twentieth century." Praise: "The presidential transition from Eisenhower to Kennedy starkly contrasted the parties, temperaments, and generations of the two leaders, yet the transfer of power proceeded amicably in the national interest. John Shaw's Rising Star, Setting Sun slips behind the veil of civility to take the measure of both men and assess their personal antagonisms." —Donald A. Ritchie, Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate and author of Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932

"Shaw vividly portrays the generational clash between the upstart former lieutenant and the iconic general. Following a campaign marked by raw personal attacks, they overcame their disdain, with a passing of the torch and stirring rhetoric that became a high point in each president's career." —Richard Cohen, Chief Author of The Almanac of American Politics

Where to Buy:

Pegasus Books, hardcover, May 2018, ISBN: 9781681777320

advertising sales@washdiplomat.com

The Washington Diplomat is published monthly The Washington Diplomat assumes no responsibilby The Washington Diplomat, "Essential Inc. The newspaper ity for thereading." safe keeping or return of unsolicited manand entertaining is distributed free of charge at several locations uscripts,—Betty photographs, artwork or other material. K. Koed, Historian throughout the Washington, D.C. area. We do offer subscriptions for home delivery. Subscription rates The information contained in this publication are $29 for 12 issues and $49 for 24 issues. is in no way to be construed as a recommenby the Publisher of any kind or nature Dwight D. Eisenhower,dation John F. Kennedy, and the To receive The Washington Diplomat at your emwhatsoever, nor as a recommendation of any inTransition that Changed bassy or businessPresidential or to receive past issues, please dustry standard, nor as anAmerica endorsement of any call Fuad Shiblie at 301-933-3552. product or service, nor as an opinion or certification Rising Star, Setting Sun is a riv- regarding the accuracy of any such information. If your organization employs many people from the eting new history that explores international community, you may qualify for and free All rights reserved. No part of this publication may the complicated, poignant, bulk delivery. To see if you qualify, please contact consequential transition of pow- be reproduced in whole or part without explicit er from Dwight D. Eisenhower to permission of the publisher. Fuad Shiblie. John F. Kennedy.

RISING STAR, SETTING SUN:

The exchange of leadership between the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth presidents of the United States marked more than a succession of leaders. It symbolized—and triggered— a generational shift in American politics, policy, and culture.

Drawing extensively from primary sources, including memoirs and memos of the time, Rising Star, Setting Sun paints a vivid picture of what Time called a "turning point in the twentieth century."

ON THE COVER

Photo taken at the European Union Delegation to the United States by Lawrence Ruggeri of RuggeriPhoto.com.

"John Shaw's Rising Star, Setting Sun slips behind the veil of civility to take the measure of both men and assess their personal antagonisms." —Donald A. Ritchie, Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate and author of Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932

1/2 page vertical print 2 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Contents

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

13 NEWS 4

PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Ex-U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman talks about Trump’s other trade battles.

6 CREEPING EXTREMISM

With its territory gone, the Islamic State is extending its tentacles into South Asia.

10 PALESTINIAN PLIGHT

U.S. cuts to UNRWA have squeezed the Palestinians on all sides.

PRIVILEGED TERRORISTS

The Sri Lanka attacks challenge the narrative that disenfranchisement drives terrorism. COVER PROFILE: EU In an exclusive, the EU’s new envoy insists the U.S. and Brussels will weather the transatlantic storm.

BOOK REVIEW

William Burns praises the unsung heroes of U.S. foreign policy: its diplomats.

MEDIA IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Over 800 people celebrated journalism at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Pre-Party.

LUXURY LIVING 30

FASHION STATEMENT

Embassies embrace the universal language of fashion as a public diplomacy tool.

CULTURE 34

ANCIENT FEMALE POWER

“Queens of Egypt” looks at 1,400 years of history — through the eyes of the other half. DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES Slovenia’s Ljiljana Vidovič, a former translator, is a refreshing voice on the diplomatic circuit.

36 FITTING FAREWELL Michael Kahn’s swan song is an ode to a timeless ancient Greek trilogy and a storied D.C. career.

LOST AND FOUND Folger takes Shakespeare’s meandering “Love’s Labor’s Lost” and turns it into a fun romp.

A NATION’S IDEALS By the People returns to explore life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the nation’s capital.

ALL THE JAZZ! The 15th annual DC Jazz Festival celebrates the music genre’s local roots and global impact.

REGULARS 40

CINEMA LISTING

42 EVENTS LISTING 45 IN MEMORIAM 45 APPOINTMENTS 46 CLASSIFIEDS 47 REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 3

WD | People of Wor ld Influence

Trade Turmoil Trump’s Fight with China Overshadows Other Consequential Trade Developments BY AILEEN TORRES-BENNETT

hina has become the frontline in President Trump’s trade wars, as the world anxiously watches to see whether the two superpowers will resolve their differences or upend the global economy. Meanwhile, another major trade deal in Asia, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has long since faded from the headlines after Trump withdrew from the sweeping trade agreement in January 2017. But the deal is far from dead. Trump’s exit may have formally killed TPP, but it’s been reincarnated as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which is made up of the 11 remaining countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The Obama administration saw TPP as a cornerstone of its strategic pivot toward the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region. China was noticeably from TPP — nor is it part of CPTPP — because one of the underlying motives behind both trade agreements is to keep Chinese dominance in check by creating a new economic bloc. The original TPP trading bloc would have been formidable, encompassing 12 Pacific-Rim nations that together accounted for about 40 percent of global economic output and a third of world trade. With the U.S. out of the picture, CPTPP has been criticized as lacking strength. Yet the resurrected agreement still wields significant clout, representing 495 million consumers and 13.5 percent of global GDP. CPTPP has also been quietly working to fulfill part of its original mandate — providing a counterweight to Chinese hegemony in the region. Many economists say that by withdrawing from TPP, Trump lost a key source of leverage in his fight to curb unfair Chinese trading practices. TPP, which took over a decade to negotiate and struck down thousands of tariffs, included unprecedented environmental, labor and intellectual property protections. In doing so, it addressed many of Trump’s chief complaints against China such as state subsidies and IP theft. Most important, it would’ve served as a model to establish rules of the road for Asian businesses that meet American, not Chinese, standards. Ironically, Trump used those high standards as a blueprint for updating NAFTA. Like TPP, the battle over NAFTA faded from the headlines once Trump declared victory last November with the signing of NAFTA’s replacement, the United States-Mexico-Canada

4 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY CHUCK KENNEDY

President Obama talks with Mike Froman, then-deputy national security advisor for international economics, and Penny Pritzker in the Oval Office on May 2, 2013. The president later announced Pritzker’s nomination as secretary of commerce and Froman’s nomination as U.S. trade representative in the Rose Garden.

“

In my view, it is quite possible that the decision to withdraw from TPP may well be seen as one of the most significant strategic blunders in recent American history. MICHAEL FROMAN

former U.S. trade representative

Agreement (USMCA). But it’s not a done deal. Congress still has to approve USMCA, a high hurdle given Democratic opposition to the agreement and the short window for passage before the 2020 presidential race goes into full gear. The Washington Diplomat asked former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, one of the architects of TPP and currently a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and vice chairman and president of strategic growth at Mastercard, about his thoughts on TPP, plus his take on NAFTA’s successor, which borrows from the Asia-Pacific trade deal he helped craft. THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT: Tell us about your role in negotiating TPP. MICHAEL FROMAN: Negotiations toward a TPP started before I was U.S. trade representative, but I think it’s fair

to say that when I took on that position, it became a major focus of my efforts. The TPP had been launched by four Asia-Pacific countries, but once the United States joined, the U.S. took a leading role. These types of agreements are extraordinarily complex and difficult to negotiate. You not only need to develop and advocate for your country’s perspective on the issues, but you need to understand the politics of the issues in every one of the other countries around the table. At one point, my staff calculated that there were approximately 1,000 critical issues outstanding in the negotiations, and we just worked, month by month, to resolve all of them to ensure the American people got the best deal possible. In the end, we reached an agreement that significantly improved international rules of trade and opened markets and did so among developed and de-

”

veloping countries, rich and poor, large and small — all contributing to the definition of a high-standard agreement. TWD: Trump pulled the U.S. out of TPP. If you had the chance to influence him, what would you have said to him to try to convince him to keep the U.S. in the agreement? MF: In my view, it is quite possible that the decision to withdraw from TPP may well be seen as one of the most significant strategic blunders in recent American history. My argument to the Trump administration would have been that, whatever one thinks of any individual provisions — and every administration seeks to negotiate better outcomes than their predecessors — TPP itself was strategically important in terms of cementing the role of the United States as a Pacific power.

Every country in the region needs to have a positive and constructive relationship with China, historically the largest regional power, but our allies and partners there very much want the U.S. to be engaged, to lead as well. TPP was one of the key ways of doing so, and our decision to pull out created a void that China was fully prepared to fill through the Belt and Road Initiative, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and other aspects of its regional strwategy. TWD: TPP has rebranded itself as CPTPP, but some say it has no “bite” without the U.S. How effective do you think the new agreement can be? MF: I think it is important that the vast majority of the rules negotiated in TPP are being implemented by the remaining 11 countries and that additional countries are seeking to join the agreement. That means that the high standards we helped formulate will see themselves integrated into the global trading system. One of the important aspects of TPP was that all of the major obligations, including on labor and environmental issues, were fully enforceable. The U.S. tends to be the country most committed to enforcing those obligations, but I am hopeful that other TPP countries will take up the responsibility to do so in our absence.

PHOTO: SOFIA TERZONI / PIXABAY

People walk the bustling streets of Tokyo. After President Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Japan and the 10 other remaining countries chose to stay in the sweeping trade deal, renaming it the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

TWD: TPP was part of Obama’s “pivot to Asia” and a way to counterbalance China’s rising economic power. What does the U.S. no longer being part of TPP mean for U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region, economically and politically? MF: TPP was never directed against China per se, but it was intended to raise the standards in the region in such a way that China would have to raise its game as well. The Asia-Pacific region is perhaps the most important region in the world. It is home to the bulk of the world’s population and most of the fastest-growing economies. We are a Pacific power and have a strong interest in how that region evolves. TPP was a key component of an overall strategy that recognized the importance of the region. With our withdrawal, the need remains for a converted and comprehensive regional strategy to further our economic, political and security interests. TWD: Shifting to another key trade deal, Trump has renegotiated NAFTA into USMCA. What do you think of the new agreement in terms of U.S. interests? MF: NAFTA dates back to the early 1990s and was certainly in need of updating. President Obama called for the renegotiation of NAFTA, and we did that through TPP, as Canada and Mexico were members of TPP. It is comforting to see that the renegotiated NAFTA builds significantly on the foundation laid by TPP, although of course the Trump administration has put its

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

Above, President Donald Trump is joined by then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on Nov. 30, 2018, in Argentina. With a renegotiated NAFTA deal in place, Trump set his trade sights on China, at right, but USMCA is not a done deal and still must pass a skeptical Congress.

own stamp on it. Without getting into specifics, I think some of the changes are positive, some are negative and some remain to be seen. But I think the fundamental need to update NAFTA is one that has been articulated for some time, and the USMCA certainly reflects that. TWD: The Democrats insisted that labor law enforcement be part of USMCA, and Trump has to play nice with them to get USMCA to pass. How do you think this will play out? Will USMCA pass? MF: This is a very dynamic issue,

PHOTO: WOONG HOE / PIXABAY

so it is hard to predict, particularly at this point in the political cycle. Trade agreements are always difficult to get through Congress, even under the best of circumstances. With the start of the 2020 presidential campaign, this is even more complicated. One question is whether House

Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi will spend political capital to push a trade agreement that a majority of her caucus is likely to oppose (though perhaps a smaller majority than has been the case on other agreements) in order to deliver a win for President Trump. And, if she is willing to do so, what the price of her support

will be. Will she insist on changes to the agreement or supplemental agreements on the enforcement of labor and environmental rights? Will she press for increased infrastructure spending or a domestic policy package to help American workers prepare for and succeed in a rapidly changing economy (whether that change comes from trade or, more likely, technology)? Right now, it’s unclear, but she certainly sounds like she wants to cooperate with the administration to get this done. The Trump administration has a separate issue with some Republicans and moderate Democrats concerned about its use of tariffs on steel and aluminum and its threatened use of tariffs on imported autos. There has been some progress, but there’s a lot of work to do to get between where we are and a signing ceremony. I know [U.S. Trade Representative Robert] Lighthizer is working hard on that right now. TWD: Trump favors bilateral trade deals over multiparty agreements. What’s your opinion on bilateral versus multiparty trade agreements in general? Specifically, what are your thoughts on Trump looking to set bilats with Japan, China and the U.K.? Will such deals be effective? MF: There is nothing inherently wrong with a bilateral agreement, and there might be circumstances in which it would be appropriate, but it would be a mistake to assume that a series of bilateral agreements is easier to negotiate than a multiparty agreement. Ultimately, you want a consistent set of rules to be adopted across multiple markets. That’s important, particularly for small- and medium-sized businesses who find the complexity of navigating a web of different trade rules bewildering. By the way, this is not just an issue for governments. There is an increasingly important role for the private sector, particularly in the context of governments turning inward, to address frictions in the global trading system. For example, Mastercard and others are developing innovative solutions to help facilitate trade and ensure that smalland medium-sized businesses can fully participate in and benefit from the global economy. When the WTO reached a Trade Facilitation Agreement in 2013, there were estimates that eliminating frictions at the borders could add up to $1 trillion to the global economy. There’s a lot that can be done by the private sector to be a partner and problem solver in addressing these challenges. Trade is just too important to leave to trade ministers. WD Aileen Torres-Bennett is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Follow The Diplomat Connect at www.washdiplomat.com.

JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 5

WD | South Asia

Extremist Infiltration With Its Territory Gone, Islamic State Makes Inroads in South and Southeast Asia BY PAIGE AARHUS

here had been warnings, but no one saw it coming. On April 21, a series of coordinated suicide bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, killed 258 people. Diplomats had warned of rising Islamic extremism in the country since 2007, and in late 2016, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told parliament that 32 Sri Lankan nationals had joined the Islamic State (ISIS). Intelligence and security forces had received multiple warnings of an imminent attack in the lead-up to Easter. But political paralysis following a recent constitutional crisis kept security forces from taking any preventative action. Exacerbating the situation was the perception that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers), which fought a 26-year civil war against the government until 2009, was the only real threat to national security. “Security services never believed the Muslims were capable of organizing this. It was a well-coordinated, highly sophisticated series of attacks. They thought only the LTTE were capable, despite the warnings,” said Robert O. Blake Jr., a career diplomat and the former American ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 2006 to 2009. The Sri Lankan government later announced that an obscure domestic militant Islamist group called National Thowheeth Jama’ath was responsible for the Easter bombings, although evidence indicates that the Islamic State had a hand in the bloodshed.

ISLAMIC STATE SUPPORT

responsibility for the Easter attacks. Its media release included a video showing Sri Lankan extremist preacher Mohammed Zaharan pledging loyalty to the group. In addition, reports have emerged that the group may have played an active role in both inspiring and helping the suicide bombers. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe implied that the attackers — nine Sri Lankans, many of whom were from wealthy upper-class families — had traveled abroad for training. The Islamic State also released a recording of its elusive leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi — his first such video in more than five years — in which he claimed the attacks in Sri Lanka were a response to the group’s recent defeat in Baghouz at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces and their Western allies. The battle of Baghouz drove the Islamic State from its last stronghold in Syria and marked a turning point in the

6 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

PHOTO: ABDULLAH SHAKOOR / PIXABAY

Worshippers pray at the House of Allah in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, in Saudi Arabia. Since the 1980s, a number of educational institutions, mosques and NGOs funded by Saudi Arabia have opened in South Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, often exporting the puritanical version of Islam known as Wahhabism.

“

ISIS will reach out anywhere there are Muslim populations, and countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh offer existing jihadi extremist movements to pull from. RITA KATZ

executive director of SITE Intelligence

group’s grand strategy. “The loss was a major blow to the so-called caliphate and a staple of some leaders’ narratives of the group’s ‘defeat.’ However, immediately upon its defeat, ISIS began to spin it into a recruitment narrative of the world’s war against ISIS and, by extension, against Islam,” said Rita Katz, executive director of Bethesda-based private firm SITE Intelligence. The group had already begun reinventing itself in response to the steady loss of its territory. It morphed back into a more traditional terrorist organization, launching guerrilla-style attacks while its fighters went underground or blended into the local population to regroup. In addition, the Islamic State has actively cultivated ties with loosely affiliated networks and offshoots in other countries such as Afghanistan and the Philippines to spread its ideology. According to Katz, this means that

”

countries like Sri Lanka are now facing a rising threat of violent extremist attacks. “The Sri Lanka attacks mark a significant development in ISIS’s targeting of Christians, which has been legitimized by the group in its official publications. It’s part of an increasingly clear game plan by the group after losing its hold on Iraq and Syria: expand in vulnerable countries — even those not involved in the anti-ISIS coalition — by stoking religious tensions,” she said.

EXTREMISM RISING

While Sri Lanka’s Easter attacks are the most high-profile recent example of the Islamic State making inroads in South and Southeast Asia, they are only the latest in a string of attacks linked to the group elsewhere in the region. In June 2016, SITE reported that the Islamic State had claimed responsibility

for 21 terrorist attacks reported in Bangladesh over the previous 10 months. The following month, five attackers from the domestic extremist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen stormed Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery in Bangladesh, taking dozens of hostages. A protracted standoff and military raid killed 29 people, including 20 hostages. Again, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, although Bangladesh’s government has denied the group has a presence in the country. In the Philippines, the Marawi siege in the autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao saw government security forces wage a five-month battle, beginning in May 2017, against Islamic Stateaffiliated militants from groups such as Abu Sayyaf. The U.S., Israel, Australia, China and Russia supported the Philippines in what would become the longest urban battle in its modern history. More than 1,000 people were killed and more than 350,000 displaced, 73,000 of whom still had not returned home as of January 2019. “ISIS was always interested in South and Southeast Asia,” said Katz. “Calls to set up a branch in the Philippines were seen all the way back in 2015, and in recent years, this enthusiasm has manifested into major attacks and militant activity in the region. ISIS will reach out anywhere there are Muslim populations, and countries like the Philippines,

Indonesia and Bangladesh offer existing jihadi extremist movements to pull from.”

several times in April and May, and authorities have also announced plans to monitor mosque sermons with CCTV cameras, as well as ban wearing the hijab in public. Experts fear this heavy-handed response will only fuel more resentment and radicalism, but populist strongmen have deftly exploited people’s fears and grievances to re-emerge as major political players. As a result, just 10 years out from its devastating civil war, Sri Lanka is now at risk of returning to a police state, with right-wing populist Gotabaya Rajapaksa expected to make inroads during the next elections, which are scheduled to be held before Dec. 9, 2019. Rajapaksa, a former defense minister, stands accused by human rights groups of war crimes during the long-running conflict with Tamil Tigers. “This a rather combustible environment right now and tensions are high. I think it is important for religious leaders to take action, because political leaders have lost credibility,” said Blake.

EXTREME RESPONSES

As the Islamic State shifts its focus to new markets, some fear that the real threat facing target countries is severe backlash against Muslim minority populations, occurring against a backdrop of rising populism, minority persecution and an erosion of civil liberties that is already affecting countries across South and Southeast Asia. The after-effects of Sri Lanka’s Easter attacks exemplify this threat. “It was an opportunity for ISIS as it looks for places to re-organize — do a bombing and sow discord between Christians and Muslims. If there was an overreaction against Muslims, it would give them an opportunity to expand their presence,” said Blake. The group has been successful in stoking religious and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, where around 70 percent of the population is majority-Buddhist Sinhalese and 10 percent is largely Hindu Tamil. Muslims comprise another 10 percent of the population, and the country is also home to a Christian minority within both the Tamil and Sinhalese groups. A May 5 article in The New York Times recently highlighted a long history of violence in the country that “popularized the use of the suicide bomber vest, a place far more compact than the Balkans yet cleaved by more divisions: ethnic, religious and class,” wrote Hannah Beech. “If it is renowned for its beauty, Sri Lanka has become equally defined by its hate.” This has led to decades of intercommunal clashes, including an attack on one of the world’s holiest sites by Tamil separatists. During the 26-year war against the Tamil Tigers,

PHOTO: PEMERINTAH PROVINSI DKI JAKARTA (PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF JAKARTA)

Despite attacks on his religious credentials, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a moderate Muslim who is seen above visiting a neighborhood in Jakarta, recently won re-election against a former army strongman.

Sinhalese Buddhists destroyed Christian churches and Hindu temples where Tamil rebels were thought to be hiding, following which the Tamils infiltrated two mosques, killing more than 100 Muslims. After the war with the Tamils ended in 2009, extremist Buddhist monks turned their attention to Christians and Muslims. Dozens of mosques and churches have been attacked by Sinhalese mobs, causing resentment among the two minorities. And in the weeks since the Easter bombings, anti-Muslim sentiment

has soared. By mid-May, rights groups were warning the international community about escalating violence, as mobs attacked mosques and Muslim-owned houses and businesses, while more than 1,000 people in Colombo and Negombo had been forced from their homes. The Sri Lankan government response has been equally strong: Authorities intermittently blocked social media platforms and declared a national state of emergency that allows military and police forces to arbitrarily arrest suspected terrorists. A nationwide curfew was instituted

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DANGEROUS NARRATIVE

Other Islamic State-targeted countries, particularly those where democracy and religious pluralism are already fragile, are at risk of falling into a similar crisis. As highlighted by human rights NGO Civicus in its 2019 State of Civil Society report, many countries in South and Southeast Asia are at various stages of democratic transition that leave them vulnerable to populist politics — from Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei, which have a history of military and authoritarian rule, to Bangladesh and Pakistan, where democratic institutions are too weak to ensure elections’ legitimacy. SEE EX T R EM IS M • PAGE 8

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202 people. But observers now worry that Indonesia, where pro-Islamic populism has already impacted the political landscape, is at risk of fresh Islamic State-supported extremist violence. In May 2018, a series of coordinated attacks were carried out on three churches in Surabaya, killing 28 people in the worst attacks since Bali. Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, the Southeast Asian branch of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility. More recently, Indonesian police arrested over two dozen militants — many of whom had traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State — for allegedly planning terrorist attacks to disrupt Indonesia’s April 2019 presidential election. That election raised widespread concerns about the role that Islamic extremism and populist politics will play in Indonesia’s future.

Extremism CONTINUED • PAGE 7

Others, including India and the Philippines, have seen inclusive democratic values come under pressure from right-wing populist leaders. “The governing style of these leaders is quite similar to that of others around the world such as Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu in Israel, President Trump in the U.S., President [Jair] Bolsonaro in Brazil and Prime Minister [Viktor] Orbán in Hungary. They seek to maintain power by the appealing to the interests of population blocs that most support them, rather than society as a whole. Anyone who calls them out is labeled as undermining national security and economic development,” said Mandeep Tiwana, chief programs officer at Civicus. Tiwana argued that the increasingly popular narrative of Islamic extremists targeting Christians in the region is dangerous, as the problem spans many religions. “Right-wing populist politics has created huge challenges for minority populations in South and Southeast Asia, as it has in other parts of the world. Religious fundamentalism is not limited to any one religion or Islam. India’s democracy is being undermined by Hindu extremists, Buddhist extremists are undermining social cohesion in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and Islamic extremists are negatively influencing politics in Indonesia,” he said. “In each of these countries, divisive political parties and their leaders … have sought to stoke religious sentiments of majority populations by targeting ethnic and religious minorities.”

8 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

ELECTION EFFECT

PHOTO: BY MARK JHOMEL - OWN WORK, CC BY-SA 4.0

A building in the autonomous region of Marawi is set ablaze by airstrikes carried out by the Philippine Air Force. Beginning in May 2017, Philippine security forces waged a five-month battle during the so-called Marawi siege against Islamic State-affiliated militants from groups such as Abu Sayyaf.

ALL EYES ON INDONESIA

Indonesia occupies a unique position in this context. Home to more than 260 million people, 225 million of whom are Muslim, it is the world’s largest Muslim country by population. Indonesia is often viewed as unique in the region, benefiting from a history of tolerance and moderation, as well as relatively stable democratic institutions that set it apart from many of its neighbors. The country’s foundational political philosophy, Pancasila, emphasizes pluralism and moderation, and in

addition to Islam, the country also officially recognizes Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. “Indonesians in general have always been moderate and tolerant. The archipelago is made up of 17,000 islands,” said Blake. “They have always had Chinese and Arab traders coming in, and all of these differences were absorbed with relative ease. And that has a lot to do with the moderation that we’re seeing now.” Until recently, the country seemed largely immune to headline-grabbing terrorist attacks, with the notable exception of the 2002 al-Qaeda-backed Bali bombings that killed

Moderate centrist incumbent Joko “Jokowi” Widodo handily beat his opponent, Prabowo Subianto, a former army general, to capture the presidency. Subianto framed himself as a devout Muslim during the campaign and ran on a populist agenda railing against elites in Jakarta. Subianto’s supporters also falsely accused Joko, a technocrat who does not hail from the country’s elite, of secretly being a Christian. Jokowi’s choice of running mate — influential Islamic cleric Ma’ruf Amin — raised eyebrows and was widely viewed as a way to burnish his Muslim credentials in response to rising fundamentalist rhetoric on the political stage. “It was the only way to secure Jokowi’s political position. The way they viewed it was, ‘There is no other option,’” said Asmiati Malik, SEE EX T R EM IS M • PAGE 46

JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 9

WD | Middle East

Palestinian Squeeze U.S. Cuts to UNRWA Compound Dire Situation in Mideast Tinderbox BY JONATHAN GORVETT

n Gaza, calm has returned after rocket fire between Palestinian militants and Israel in early May killed over two dozen people, marking the deadliest outbreak of violence since a 2014 war. Desperately needed Qatari aid has begun flowing to the isolated coastal strip of territory ruled by Hamas, although everyday Gazans continue to struggle. In Israel, the clashes largely faded from the headlines as Tel Aviv hosted the Eurovision song contest, although for those in Jewish settlements near Gaza, tensions remain high as the possibility of Palestinian protests at the border or renewed rocket fire pose constant threats. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the Fatah-led government has maintained a relatively stable security relationship with Israel. But the aging leadership has failed to reconcile with its political rival, Hamas, and U.S. aid cuts have taken a heavy economic toll on Palestinians there as well, potentially leading to another combustible situation. But elsewhere, a very different slowmoving humanitarian crisis is brewing — one that hasn’t received as much attention but has wrought just as much misery for Palestinians. Some 20 kilometers north of Jordan’s capital, Amman, lies a 1.4 square-kilometer block of land that was once little more than a fold in the hills but is now home to 119,000 people. This jumble of ramshackle buildings and narrow, mostly unsurfaced streets make up Baqa’a, the largest refugee camp in Jordan. Here, a sign on a traffic circle on the way in from Amman reads “#❤BAQAA,” yet there seems to be little love for this overcrowded and impoverished place. Starting in 1968 as a field of 5,000 tents for Palestinians who left Gaza and the West Bank after the 1967 ArabIsraeli War, Baqa’a quickly evolved into rows of prefabricated shelters, then into gimcrack ash block and concrete houses as the years — and then decades — rolled by. Today, this is home to an intergenerational refugee and political crisis that has dragged on for more than seven decades. “I was born in 1957 in a Palestinian refugee camp on the road between Jerusalem and Ramallah,” said lawyer and Baqa’a political kingpin Khalid Arar. “In 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, we came here. I have seven daughters and two sons and 19 grandchildren. So, four generations now, from my parents to my grandchil-

10 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

PHOTO: HOSNY SALAH / PIXABAY

A boy waves a Palestinian flag in the Gaza Strip. Last August, President Trump announced he was ending U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides assistance for over 5 million Palestinian refugees, along with other aid cuts for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

“

UNRWA is our hope. While it is here, the Palestinians have hope that they will one day get justice. If you get rid of it, what then? What hope is there? BASHAR AZZEH

”

manager at the Baqa’a refugee camp and founding owner of Tatweer Development Group

dren, all born in camps, all refugees.” All of these generations, too, went to school, had their health checked and gave birth in institutions run by a single international organization: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

UNRWA’S ROLE IN MIDEAST PEACE

Set up in 1949 to help the generation of Palestinian refugees to which Arar’s parents belonged, UNRWA continues to be responsible for education, health, social and other municipal services in Baqa’a and dozens of other camps like it across the region. In total, it assists some 5 million registered Palestinian

refugees with voluntary funds from U.N. member states. Yet, in a controversial move last August, President Trump announced that he was ending U.S. funding for UNRWA — a cut of some $360 million a year, or 25 percent to 30 percent of the agency’s total budget. (The president also cut other forms of aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.) The administration called UNRWA an “irredeemably flawed operation” and criticized other member states for not sharing more of the financial burden. Trump tweeted that the U.S. has given billions of dollars to the Palestinians but receives “no appreciate or respect” from them, arguing that they are “no longer willing to talk peace.”

Critics countered that the move would in fact derail peace efforts and spark a humanitarian crisis that could lead to radicalization in the refugee camps. Even some officials in Israel worried that the drastic cuts could potentially destabilize the region and leave Israel on the hook for caring for Palestinians in the event of a total collapse in services. While predications of a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe did not come to pass, nearly a year later, the effects of those cuts are nevertheless strikingly clear in downtown Baqa’a. The U.S. budget cuts slashed the camp’s rubbish collectors from 180 to 60, leaving piles of garbage uncollected. A freeze on new recruitment and a switch to temporary employment contracts have meant that the camp’s solitary health center has lost a quarter of its staff. Teachers who leave are also not replaced, meaning class sizes in UNRWA schools have jumped, while equipment and facilities are scarce. Yet the effect of the cuts is not only felt in the camp’s physical infrastructure, but also in the minds of many of its inhabitants. “UNRWA is our hope,” said Bashar Azzeh, a manager at the camp’s center for the disabled. “While it is here, the

Palestinians have hope that they will one day get justice. If you get rid of it, what then? What hope is there?” The question of justice is why UNRWA is far more than just a relief organization to many Palestinians. To its detractors, however, that’s exactly why UNRWA is an impediment to peace. U.N.-registered refugees maintain an internationally recognized “right of return” to the homes and lands from which they were expelled — a central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But according to the U.N., this definition includes the descendants of refugees, meaning that the number of Palestinians eligible to return to their land if peace is ever achieved continues to multiply. For Israel, the prospect of absorbing millions of Palestinian refugees would amount to a demographic disaster for the Jewish-majority nation of 8.7 million. The Trump administration wants to dramatically reduce the number of refugees eligible to return to Israel in the hopes of resolving one of the core disputes in the long-stalled Mideast peace talks, even though most Palestinians consider the so-called right of return an inalienable right. Politics also may have played a role in the administration’s decision to financially squeeze UNRWA and the Fatah-led government in the West Bank. Trump likely hopes the cuts will force Palestinians to the ne-

A boy receives health services at Jordan’s Baqa’a refugee camp, which began in 1968 as a field of 5,000 tents for Palestinians who left Gaza and the West Bank but quickly evolved into rows of prefabricated shelters, then into gimcrack ash block and concrete houses as the decades rolled by.

gotiating table when he unveils his long-awaited “deal of the century” to resolve one of the most intractable conflicts in the world.

TRUMP’S VISION OF PEACE

Reports speculate that Trump’s Mideast peace plan — engineered by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner — will focus heavily on security for Israel, the status of Jerusalem and economic development for Palestinians, while skirting around the

long-envisioned two-state solution that Palestinians have pinned their hopes on for 70 years. Kushner has said the plan will be a realistic starting point to potentially break the stalemate in peace talks and help Palestinians “start living a better life.” But that promise may not be enough to win over frustrated Palestinians, who no longer see the administration as an honest broker given Trump’s controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and his chummy rela-

tionship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently won re-election with the support of hardline far-right parties that continue to push for the annexation of Jewish settlements. It also remains to be seen how the plan will go over among America’s Arab allies. That includes Jordan, which is now home to around 40 percent of all those who currently qualify as Palestinian refugees. On the one hand, The Washington Post and other outlets have reported that under Trump’s peace plan, Jordan (and Egypt) could receive billions of dollars more in aid, alongside the Palestinians inside Israel. But that would still leave Jordan with the question of what to do with the Palestinians inside its own borders — refugees who, absent a comprehensive peace plan, could become a permanent fixture in Jordan with no hope of ever leaving.

Jordan from areas that have never been “Jordanian territory,” such as the Gaza Strip and other former Arab towns and villages in what is now Israel. Both types of refugees qualify for UNRWA services, however. A complicated local governance structure exists in places like Baqa’a, with a local committee under the Jordanian government’s Department of Palestinian Affairs (DPA) responsible for some services, while UNRWA runs education, health and social welfare programs and garbage collection. This structure arose out of the camp’s origins as an emergency response to the sudden arrival of refugees back in 1967 and 1968. It followed the structure also in place at camps that UNRWA had been running elsewhere since 1948, when the first mass displacement of Palestinians occurred with the creation of the state of Israel.

TURBULENT PAST

AN OUTDATED PRESENT?

Most of these refugees are the descendants of people who fled across the Jordan River into the kingdom following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Because this territory had been annexed by Jordan in 1950, the majority of these refugees and their descendants have Jordanian citizenship. But there is also a minority who do not because they fled to

The question for many now is whether this “temporary” structure is still relevant today. “UNRWA was set up in response to the 1948 war,” said Dave Harden, managing director of the Georgetown Strategy Group and a former USAID assistant administrator acSEE UNRWA • PAGE 12

JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 11

UNRWA CONTINUED • PAGE 11

tive in Israeli-Palestinian issues. “It’s big, expensive, has a lot of employees and is clunky, as clearly it wasn’t envisaged to be still going after 70 years.” Since the start of the Trump administration, criticism of the agency has risen in volume in Washington, too, with Kushner leading the charge. “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” he wrote in emails revealed by Foreign Policy magazine in January 2018, just before an initial freezing of U.S. funds. It was a line Kushner repeated when finally cutting that funding altogether last August. UNRWA has long been dogged by criticism that it perpetuates an anti-Israel agenda. This includes longstanding allegations that its facilities were used by Hamas to store weapons and its funds were diverted to the terrorist group. Critics also charge that UNRWA schools use materi-

PHOTO: U.N.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres visits a school run by UNRWA at Baqa’a Camp in Jordan, one of many camps run by the U.N. agency that has felt the effects of the Trump administration’s decision to ending funding to UNRWA.

als that delegitimize Israel and that its employees have praised martyrdom and violence against Jews. Criticism of UNRWA also centers around the fact that

refugee status is inherited, swelling the numbers of those who qualify. While in 1948, the number of Palestinian refugees was around 750,000, it now stands at over 5 million,

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according to the agency. Today, the vast majority are descendants of those who were displaced by the 1948 war. In many cases, this includes third-generation Jordanian citizens who are still considered Palestinian refugees. In the corridor of an UNRWA boys’ school in Baqa’a, the dilemma of who has the “right of return” to Israel — one of the main sticking points in peace talks for decades — is abundantly clear. In a large picture frame, there is a drawing of a key, along with a map. “Home,” says Arar, pointing at the picture. “All of us still have the keys to the homes our families were forced to leave, all those years ago. One day, we will return. I don’t know how, but we will.” For Israelis, however, the prospect of resettling millions of Palestinians within their nation’s narrow boundaries is simply “a nonstarter,” said Harden. Yet UNRWA’s existence continues to perpetuate the refugee status of these people, along with their right to go home. In doing so, Kushner argues that UNRWA is giving millions of Palestinians false hope that they will one day be able to reclaim land in Israel, while at the same time fostering a culture of dependency in the refugee camps. In a way, Harden says that through UNWRA, “the international community has been subsidizing the dysfunctionality of Israeli-Palestinian relations. If the Israelis and Palestinians had to face this, they might make different decisions.”

Brett Schaefer and James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation agree, arguing that Trump made a bold move in breaking with decadeslong U.S. policy to sustain UNRWA. “Continuing the status quo will only ensure that UNRWA and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continue their current dissatisfactory trajectories,” they wrote in a September 2018 brief for the think tank. “Although it will likely cause short-term ramifications, the decision to defund this agency will, hopefully, force all parties to reevaluate their underlying assumptions and refocus attention on what is necessary to end this protracted dispute.”

UNSTABLE STATES

Yet these arguments fail to convince supporters of UNRWA. The criticism of passing down refugee status to descendants is based on “a faulty assumption that UNRWA is the only U.N. agency that allows this,” said Ghaith Al-Omari, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “UNHCR does this too, for example,” he said, referring to the U.N. agency for refugees. “The other faulty assumption is a mistaken understanding of what UNRWA can and cannot do. This [refugee status] is not a definition set by UNRWA, but by the U.N. General Assembly.” At the same time, while acknowledging that UNRWA was created for an emergency that took place decades ago, for many, that is still an accurate description of the world around them today.

“The emergency still exists for us,” said Younis AlHawi, a retired professor and a Baqa’a resident. “We are still refugees, still people who were forcibly turned out of our homes and are determined to get them back.” UNRWA also strenuously denies U.S. allegations that it is corrupt and inefficient. “Over 65 years, U.S. governments have been the major supporters of UNRWA,” Amjad Obaid, UNRWA’s acting field public relations officer in Amman, pointed out. “The U.S. government has consistently commended UNRWA’s high impact, transparency and accountability, with this reiterated during the UNRWA commissionergeneral’s visit to Washington in November 2017.” In Baqa’a, and in Jordan more generally, the U.S. move is thus often seen not as part of an effort to reform the way Palestinian refugees are handled, but more as an attempt to eliminate them altogether. “They simply want to get rid of us,” Azzeh said. “The U.S. thinks that if they abolish UNRWA, they can abolish our status as refugees and therefore our right to return.” This right to return is also vital for the Jordanian government, as it maintains an often uneasy relationship with the Palestinians — one that in the past has erupted into violence. If the Palestinians are no longer a “temporary” population, then this poses major demographic and political challenges for Jordan’s rulers, who rely on the support of East Bank Jordanians, many of whom fear becoming a minority if the Palestinians become permanent. “There seems to be very little appreciation of the unintended consequences for other actors,” said Al-Omari, “particularly Jordan, a key U.S. ally that is very sensitive to the refugee issue.” Meanwhile, in Baqa’a itself, there is a growing sense of despair. As one doctor in the camp health center, who spoke on condition of anonymity, put it: “I don’t know what they expect us to do. We were 42 staff here; now we are 30 following the cuts. We have to see 900 patients a day and we have only very basic medicines and equipment. Public health is deteriorating because of the uncollected garbage and because the camp in any case is in a terrible condition. Where are we supposed to go from here? That’s what they don’t say.” WD Jonathan Gorvett (jpgorvett.com) is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in Near and Middle Eastern affairs.

Security | WD

Rich Breeding Ground Affluent Terrorists Challenge Narrative that Poverty Drives Extremism BY DERYL DAVIS

he Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 250 people sent shockwaves around the world, not only for their brutality, but also because of who carried them out. The bombers weren’t impoverished, uneducated or clearly disenfranchised in any particular way. Rather, they were affluent, well-educated and, in some cases, even extremely wealthy. Two were sons of a millionaire spice merchant with connections to the country’s political and social elite. “It’s not surprising,” terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman said. “Throughout history, key members of terrorist organizations and persons with operational responsibility have often come from comfortable middle-class or upper middleclass backgrounds.” This challenges the prevailing wisdom that terrorists are driven by poverty and lack of opportunity — a narrative that many experts say oversimplifies a complex phenomenon. Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, explains that individuals from more well-todo backgrounds have the education and skills that terrorist groups seek. They are usually the ones best-suited to articulate a group’s goals and ideology. And ironically, the very economic freedom they enjoy gives them the “luxury” to devote their time and energy to a terrorist cause. “When you’re faced with the day-to-day reality of survival, of just figuring out how to put food on the table for your family, you don’t have the time or opportunity to pursue grievances or the more intellectual things that can potentially lead to violence,” Hoffman said. Terrorism, by its very nature, relies on the resources of time, money, education and ideas. Hoffman points to the familiar facts of the 9/11 hijackers. Of the 19 involved, nearly three-quarters had higher degrees. The lead hijacker, Mohamed Atta, was study-

PHOTO: BY MIRWAIS BEZHAN (VOA) - MORE THAN 240 IS MILITANTS SURRENDER TO AFGHAN GOVERNMENT FORCES

Islamic State fighters surrender to Afghan government forces in July 2018. While terrorist groups such as the Islamic State often recruit young, uneducated men to join their rank and file, experts say terrorist leaders and operatives are often well educated and come from comfortable middle-class backgrounds.

“

This is what has sustained terrorism over the centuries. That terrorist organizations, like the societies they come out of, draw people from all walks of life. BRUCE HOFFMAN

”

professor at Georgetown University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations

ing for a Ph.D. in Germany. Then there is the “underwear bomber,” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker and was studying at the prestigious University College London at the time of his bombing attempt in 2009. And everyone knows that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, was the privileged son of a Saudi construction millionaire. Hoffman said similar types of profiles — if not as extreme as bin Laden — can be found among members of the Red Brigades in Italy in the 1970s, terrorist groups in West Germany during the Cold War and even early members of the Irish Republican Army. In our own hemisphere, the celebrat-

ed Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was a trained medical doctor from a middle-class, intellectually oriented Argentine family.

‘NON-MATERIAL MOTIVATIONS’

“The implicit assumption is that poor people are more disposable, so it surprises us when we see affluent people participating in [terrorism],” said Jessica Trisko Darden, a professor in the School of International Service at American University and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “I think this really says more about our own value system than about terrorism. We have a hard time understanding non-material motivations.”

Trisko Darden stresses that terrorism and terrorist recruitment must be understood as context-specific. What drives either in Turkey or Latin America may be quite different from what drives them in Nigeria or Sri Lanka. But regardless of geography, common factors can include limited economic opportunities for young people, systematized discrimination and corruption on a governmental or societal level. “We have a mismatch in our understanding of terrorism,” Trisko Darden contends, “because we want to understand an individual terrorist’s background, but not the country-level factors driving their disenfranchisement. The Sri Lankan bombers were very

well-off people, as was bin Laden and many 9/11 attackers. Why wouldn’t we expect them to engage in political violence? We have to start by looking at what’s going on in the places they come from.” Saudi Arabia, home to bin Laden and many of the 9/11 hijackers, is an affluent country with a government known to have little tolerance for dissent. Recently, it has come under attack for its possible connections to the murder of Washington Post columnist (and Saudi dissident) Jamal Khashoggi. On the other hand, Trisko Darden says there is “lots of evidence” that economic incentives drive participation in African terrorist SEE TERRORISTS • PAGE 14 JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 13

Terrorists CONTINUED • PAGE 13

groups. As an example, she cites Nigerian-based Boko Haram, which offers small business start-up loans in return for participation in, or support of, their movement. Trisko Darden and other experts point to the groundbreaking work of the late Princeton economist Alan Krueger, who was among the first to apply the tools of economics to the study of terrorism. In his 2007 book “What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism,” Krueger, former chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, argued that contrary to the popular stereotype, “the uneducated, impoverished masses are particularly unlikely to participate in political processes, through either legitimate or illegitimate means.” Rather than looking only to economics to explain the phenomenon of terrorism, Krueger suggested that “to understand what makes a terrorist we should ask: Who holds strong political views and is confident enough to try to impose their extrem-

PHOTO: BY UNKNOWN, VIA ARTICLE "THE 'FUTURIST' AESTHETICS OF ISIS" DISTRIBUTED UNDER CC-4.0 - HTTP://WWW.TANDFONLINE.COM/DOI/FULL/10.1080/20004214.2017.1271528

Islamic State fighters parade through Raqqa, Syria, in a caravan of pickup trucks in 2014. Today, the group has lost all of its territory, although it has adapted into a guerrilla-style terrorist organization.

ist vision by violent means?” Most terrorists, he argued, “are not so desperately poor that they have nothing to live for. Instead they are people who care so deeply and fervently about a cause that they are willing to die for it.”

IS RELIGION THE PROBLEM?

Another common refrain

is that religious extremism is behind most terrorist attacks. The 9/11 attackers were famously (or infamously) given a set of religiously themed instructions and encouraged to see their deadly mission as a form of religious martyrdom. The Muslim perpetrators of the recent bombings in Sri Lanka, which included attacks on three churches, were imme-

diately identified as religious extremists by that country’s defense minister. Although the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for those attacks, the exact nature of its relationship with the bombers has yet to be determined. However, Georgetown University terrorism expert Daniel Byman urges caution when ascribing labels or profiles to terrorists. By-

man, who also is a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, has written that war, rather than religion or economics, may be “the richest soil” for growing terrorists and their organizations. War is violent, disruptive and opportunistic; it creates the social and political vacuum, as well as the social and political motivators from which ter-

rorism can arise. In an opinion piece on the dynamics of terrorism, Byman writes that, “Religion matters, but only as a badge of meaning and belonging rather than for its specific ideological content.” Referring to recruitment by the Islamic State, Byman gives the example of a young Muslim male who, by professing his religious beliefs, “can go from marginalized and alienated in his home country to part of God’s army, defending his people with his own sex slaves to boot.” In fact, many terrorists who kill in the name of their religion often don’t know much about it, although they still exploit their faith to bolster their credentials. A 2009 article published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point suggests that many jihadist leaders are patently “[a]ware of their lack of theological literacy and legitimacy.” As a result, the authors suggest these leaders attempt to “adorn themselves in the regalia of religion” and adopt “a superfluous religious-canonic rhetoric” so as to mask “what are often highly political or worldly aims.” In America, for instance, SEE TERRORISTS • PAGE 29

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Cover Profile | WD

EU Resilience European Union’s New Envoy to U.S. Says Bloc Will Weather Transatlantic Storm BY ANNA GAWEL

e spoke to Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s new ambassador in Washington, just hours after he presented his credentials to President Trump on April 8 — a ceremony he described as a “symbolic milestone” for anyone in politics or diplomacy. But there was symbolism of a different kind a few months earlier at the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush when Lambrinidis’s predecessor, David O’Sullivan, was unceremoniously relegated to the back of the line when the list of ambassadors was called out. Why was O’Sullivan’s name called last when protocol dictated that the order be based on how long an ambassador has served? Because earlier, the Trump administration had downgraded the diplomatic status of the EU Delegation to the U.S. — only it didn’t bother to tell the EU. The quiet snub spoke volumes about the frayed state of transatlantic relations. The irony was that it was done with little fanfare, whereas Trump has taken every opportunity to very loudly and very publicly lambaste the EU — whether it’s on trade or defense spending. But Lambrinidis, like his predecessor, seemed relatively unfazed by an incident that at any other time might have caused a major diplomatic rift. But these are not normal times, and today, insulting a critical ally — which is home to 500 million people and constitutes the world’s largest trading bloc — is just another day in Trump’s Washington. “I think everyone was surprised. No one was expecting it,” Lambrinidis admitted. “But it became clear very quickly that it was a glitch that would be fixed and it was fixed, and I think that everyone is very happy about that,” he said, noting that the EU’s diplomatic status has been fully restored. That’s good, because the veteran envoy will need all the tools at his disposal in the face of Trump’s transactional diplomacy, which is often conveyed via tweet at break-neck (and at times schizophrenic) speed. But Lambrinidis — a former foreign minister of Greece who served as the EU’s human rights chief for seven years before coming to Washington — seems ready for the ride, rooted in the steadfast belief that the U.S. and EU can weather the current political turbulence on both sides of the Atlantic. “We have more commonalities than points of contention,” he told us in a sweeping interview that touched on trade, China, NATO, Iran and populism.

PHOTO: LAWRENCE RUGGERI

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Europe is remarkably strong and resilient, especially in crises…. [B]et on a strong, democratic, human rights-based, economically vibrant Europe remaining the United States’s biggest friend and biggest ally. STAVROS LAMBRINIDIS

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ambassador of the European Union to the United States

Lambrinidis conceded that since Trump took office, the U.S. and EU have not seen eye to eye on many of those issues, but he said that ties have turned a corner and today, the transatlantic relationship is “stable and it is improving.” A pivotal moment, he said, took place last July, when Trump met with EU Commission President JeanClaude Juncker. Four months earlier, Trump announced that he was imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on a number of countries, including allies such as the EU, on the dubious grounds of national security. In response, the bloc slapped tariffs on iconic American brands such Levis jeans and bourbon. Juncker himself called the tit-for-tat tariffs “a stupid process.” But the July meeting produced a

trade détente, which Lambrinidis says is working. “That was in many ways a historic meeting because they both highlighted how our economic relationship is unparalleled in the world, our values relationship is unparalleled in the world and how we have to work together, not just in a win-win relationship as they said for ourselves, but also to try to ensure that this world remains a peaceful one and an open one,” he said, adding that the EU “is implementing every one of its commitments” from that meeting. This includes increasing exports of American liquefied national gas to the EU, which have skyrocketed by over 270 percent since that meeting. This surge “hasn’t happened accidentally,” Lambrinidis said. “It has happened because Europe has been

placing emphasis on diversifying its energy mix. We are investing billions in energy terminals in different parts of Europe.”

THE TRADE IMPASSE

But whether this will be enough to satisfy the man who once called the EU a “trade foe” and who has made eliminating trade deficits his personal mission remains to be seen. Preliminary trade talks between the EU and U.S. have only just begun and major sticking points remain, notably over agriculture. (Trump and members of Congress want access to the EU’s coveted agricultural market, while the bloc is determined to keep the contentious issue off the table.) And in April, Trump threatened to levy tariffs on $11 billion in European goods in response to a long-running trade dispute over alleged EU aircraft subsidies. But that is nothing compared to the president’s proverbial trump card: hitting European car imports with tariffs of up to 25 percent, which would wreak havoc on the global automotive market and spark a full-blown trade war. Despite Trump’s repeated threats of automobile tariffs to force concessions from the EU, Lambrinidis insists there SEE EU • PAGE 16 JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 15

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is little enthusiasm in the U.S. for another trade fight. “I can tell you for a fact that I do not see on the part of U.S. interlocutors a great appetite to escalate trade tensions,” he said. “But don’t take it from me. Look at the testimonies of the U.S. auto industry itself, from trade unions, from car dealers, from politicians. There’s virtually no one who does not understand [that automotive tariffs] will be extremely harmful on the United States economy and also on the European economy.” Lambrinidis’s intuition has proven right so far. With the president immersed in an increasingly heated trade showdown with China that has rattled markets, almost no one in Washington wants another trade battle — including Trump. In mid-May, he announced that he is giving the EU (and Japan) a sixmonth grace period to resolve disputes over their auto shipments before any tariffs kick in. Trump also said he would lift his controversial tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico in a bid to push his renegotiated NAFTA deal through Congress. Lambrinidis — who from 1988 and 1993 worked as an attorney at a D.C. law firm specializing in international trade and arbitration — cited those steel and aluminum tariffs as an example of misguided economic policy. Most economists agree that while such tariffs may benefit a narrow set of businesses, they hurt a wider array of downstream industries and raise

PIXABAY

prices for consumers. “Frankly, all indications are that those tariffs did not result in some great overall economic boost to the U.S. economy or some great catastrophe elsewhere. This makes a lot of sense because our economies are so interrelated that something you can gain in one part of the economy, i.e. jobs, you could automatically lose in another part of the economy.” He added: “I have found, in my discussions in these first two months, a very high realization of the fact that we are dependent on each other for jobs, for investments, frankly for food on our families’ tables and success in our communities.” On that note, Lambrinidis said this interdependence is far deeper than many realize. He pointed out that 15 million jobs rely on the transatlantic alliance, 8 million of which are created by EU companies in the U.S. That 8 million, in fact, “is more jobs than the 10 largest employers in America create,” the ambassador noted. Together, the U.S. and EU represent half of the world’s GDP and form the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world. And while Trump largely focuses his ire on America’s trade deficit with the EU in terms of goods, which stood at $170 billion last year, the U.S. enjoyed a $60 billion trade surplus with the EU in services, which many economists say are just as important, if not more so, than manufactured goods. “You see that not only are there a lot of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. created in the industrial heartland by European investments such as major car companies, but you see that thousands of jobs are created in tourism, in banking,

16 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

PHOTO: EUROPEAN EXTERNAL ACTION SERVICE

Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, attends a U.N. General Assembly ministerial meeting in September 2017 to discuss the Iran nuclear deal. While the Trump administration pulled out of the deal two years ago, the EU has remained committed to the landmark nuclear accord.

PHOTO: KUANISH SARSENOV / PIXABAY

President Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on European car imports if the European Union does not agree to trade concessions, although he recently announced he would delay imposing them for another six months. Substantial tariffs would cause pain on both sides of the Atlantic given how intertwined the U.S. and EU economies are.

in all those things that we call services, which are in many ways the huge economy of the future — as the U.S. itself has taught us,” the ambassador said, referring to the innovations of Silicon Valley. “And then you have to look at foreign direct investment — in other words the money that U.S. companies make by opening subsidiaries in Europe, by buying companies in Europe, by doing work in Europe and vice versa,” he said. “All these generate money, all these generate jobs, all these generate wealth, and all these in the context of the European Union-United States relationship are unparalleled. “More money is made by American companies investing in the EU today than anywhere else in the world. More direct investment — in other words jobs — comes to the U.S. from European Union companies than from any other country in the world,”

he added. “China is being touted by some as allegedly the biggest new economy in the world. The foreign direct investment of China in this country is nowhere near that of the EU.”

THE CHINA CONUNDRUM

While Chinese investment in the U.S. and in Europe may be overhyped, it’s grabbed the lion’s share of headlines and caused more than its fair share of handwringing in the West. Lambrinidis said that one of the main reasons why the U.S. and EU should cooperate on trade is because they share the same concerns about China — namely “intellectual property theft, egregious industrial subsides and mandatory joint ventures,” he said. Another shared grievance is China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious plan to

invest $1 trillion in infrastructure projects in some 60 countries that U.S. officials have called a form of debttrap diplomacy. Belt and Road made its way to Europe recently when Italy inked a $2.8 billion package of deals with Beijing, becoming the first G7 nation to sign onto China’s vision of a modern-day Silk Road. U.S. and EU officials worry about the security implications of China acquiring access to key sectors of an EU member state’s economy. (In Lambrinidis’s homeland of Greece, for example, China bought stakes in the port of Piraeus, eventually gaining control of the strategic waterway.) But officials from Italy’s euro-skeptic government counter that the Chinese deal has nothing to do with politics or security. Rather, they say it’s a win-win arrangement that will inject badly needed

money into Italy’s stagnant economy after years of EUled austerity. And they’re not alone. About a dozen EU member states have signed Belt and Road pacts. Sidestepping the question of whether the deal will pay off for Italy, Lambrinidis dismissed fears that China’s foray into Europe will jeopardize security, pointing out that both Rome and Brussels screen investments for security risks. He added that the EU and its member states also monitor investments to ensure they comply with the bloc’s stringent labor standards. “So a lot of the concern that one has looking at Chinese investments elsewhere in the world are not necessarily concerns in the EU precisely because the European Union is strongly united and has its own internal market and laws,” he said. The EU also consistently raises its own concerns directly with China. The ambassador said the bloc made some headway at a recent summit with Beijing on the subject of Chinese industrial subsidies and that he hopes there will be more progress at the G20 summit in Osaka later this month. But Brussels — like Washington — has so far failed to make a major breakthrough with China. “The progress is steady but it is not fast. And this is not too surprising, but we have told China publicly that we’re not willing to wait ad infinitum,” Lambrinidis said. He added that there are areas where the EU and China can cooperate, including on sustainable development and climate change. But Lambrinidis warned

that the EU draws the line at efforts by Beijing to export its “governance values” to other countries under the guise of investment. “So we have said that in addition to being a ‘cooperation partner,’ China is for the European Union a ‘systemic rival’ when it comes to issues of values and human rights around the world,” he told us. “We will in every instance with China use a different toolbox to address those issues.” Lambrinidis also cautioned against inflating the importance of Chinese investment in Europe, which is still miniscule compared to investment from the U.S. “This does not mean that China does not have an increasing engagement in Europe, but the roots of that engagement are rather shallow,” he said. Nevertheless, given China’s growing economic clout, the EU is ensuring that “its own industrial base is more protected. We are not for protectionism, but we are most certainly for protection when it is justified, when market conditions are not equitable and are not balanced.” The need to protect against unfair trade practices — a priority for the Trump White House — is another reason why Lambrinidis said the U.S. and EU must work together, not against each other. “There simply is no better alternative than the United States working together with the biggest development aid donor and the biggest foreign investment creator around the world, which is the European Union.” But when asked whether Trump, by picking trade fights with the EU, missed an opportunity to team up with the bloc and confront China as a united front, the ambassador demurred. “I focus on the present and the future on this, and I see that in fact we haven’t lost any opportunity in addressing this now, together.”

TRUMP GOES IT ALONE

But the two sides remain far apart in how they fundamentally view the world, as Europeans fight to preserve a liberal international order that Trump sees as anachronistic to his America First agenda. Even when it comes to confronting China, the two sides diverge, with Trump preferring a bilateral approach while Lambrinidis says such disputes should be dealt with in a multilateral context through the World Trade Organization. “The EU strongly believes in the importance of preserving a rulesbased multilateral system — not out of some ‘romantic attachment’ to it, but based on the pragmatic understanding that internationally binding and well-enforced rules are the best way to promote our interests in the world, to support each other and our allies, and to stop those who increasingly try to substitute their ‘might’ for what is ‘right,’” Lambrinidis said. But the U.S. president has not only repeatedly disparaged international institutions such as the WTO and United Nations, he has also withdrawn from key agreements such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and the Paris

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MEMBER STATES AND STILL GROWING

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IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE EU 1.

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508

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98%

OF TRADE BETWEEN THE EU AND US IS DISPUTE-FREE

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CLOSE TO

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EU-U.S. CONTRIBUTED TO OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE IN 2013

APPROXIMATELY

4 TRILLION

European Commission

APPROXIMATELY

IN TOTAL TRANSATLANTIC COMMERCIAL SALES A YEAR

$ $

- Used in more than one-third of all foreign exchange transactions.

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KEY

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ambitious set of climate and energy targets anywhere in the world.

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climate change accord. Lambrinidis said the EU regretted Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris agreement, although that decision — which does not take effect until December 2020 — doesn’t spell the end of the agreement. Rather, he said it made “the rest of the world even more united and determined to work towards its implementation” Trump’s decision to abandon another landmark international agreement, however, has visibly strained EU-U.S. relations. It’s been just over a year now since the president ditched the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Since then, the EU has fought to salvage the agreement, despite Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign to squeeze Iran and force the regime to renegotiate the deal — a prospect most experts say is far-fetched. Trump complained that the deal did not address Iran’s other malign activities, such as its support of proxy militant groups and ballistic missile development. But Lambrinidis, like many experts, counter that the agreement was never meant to do

that. Rather, it was intended to take the most immediate threat — Iran’s nuclear weapons — off the table. And on that score, Iran has held up its end of the bargain. Lambrinidis pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency has certified more than a dozen times that Iran is complying with the agreement, “as did the U.S. intelligence community.” “And this is precisely what that agreement with Iran intended to do. It did not intend to resolve all the issues in the world. It intended to resolve the most important issue, which is developing and having nuclear weapons. This is the most important issue today that is being discussed with North Korea. This is the most important issue that was being discussed yesterday with Iran,” he said. “Now, are there other issues with Iran? Absolutely. The issue of ballistic missiles. The issue of terrorism. The issue of its actions in Syria and elsewhere. On all these issues, the European Union today both has sanctions in place against Iran and, because of the nuclear agreement, has opened the door for direct and very hard negotiations.”

For instance, Lambrinidis said that as the EU’s special representative for human rights, he consistently raised the issue of human rights during negotiations with Tehran. “So under no circumstances has the Iran deal in any way limited either our ability or our commitment to address these other issues. So the real question is, does withdrawing from the agreement make it easier to address those issues? Would an Iran that today would be running to develop nuclear weapons uncontrolled by the strictest and most invasive review regime ... be an easier partner [to talk to] or a tougher one? We think it would be a tougher one.” The administration doesn’t agree and has blasted the EU for setting up a so-called special purpose vehicle called Instex to allow barter-based trade with Iran of medicine, food and other humanitarian goods that are exempt from sanctions. But Washington says this payment channel still undermines its sanctions, which have hammered Iran’s economy, slashing oil revenue and causing inflation to soar. Trump’s refusal in May to grant any more waivers to countries such as China and India that import Iranian

oil — coupled with his designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization and the deployment of more U.S. military assets to the Persian Gulf — has further tightened the noose around Tehran. Meanwhile, many Iranians are just as unhappy with the EU, arguing that Instex doesn’t go far enough in helping the country’s battered economy, which is toxic to many European companies that fear being shut out of the U.S. market. The debate may be moot regardless. With frustrations mounting, Iran recently declared that it would stop complying with two of its commitments under the nuclear deal, although it would refrain from abandoning the agreement — for now. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gave Europe 60 days to find a way to bypass U.S. sanctions and allow Iranian oil sales and banking transactions or else Tehran will resume enriching unlimited amounts of uranium, which would mark a dangerous return to the nuclear standoff. Lambrinidis said the EU rejects “any ultimatums” from Tehran. Much to the dismay of the administration, however, the bloc still refuses to give up on the nuclear deal. During a mid-May visit with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini urged the White House to exercise “maximum restraint” in its “maximum pressure” campaign that has ratcheted up tensions in the Gulf. “We’re doing what we said we’d do from the moment we signed this agreement,” Lambrinidis told us. “We said we would get rid of sanctions … and we said that we will continue focusing on Iran’s violations in other areas, and we are doing both. “We strongly urge Iran to continue to implement its commitments under the JCPOA in full as it has done until now and to refrain from any escalatory steps,” he added. “We remain fully committed to the preservation and full implementation of the JCPOA, a key achievement of the global nuclear nonproliferation architecture, which is in the security interests of us all.”

SECURE IN ITS ROLE IN THE WORLD

The issue of security — and who pays for it — has been another irritant in the transatlantic relationship. Trump has repeatedly ripped into NATO member states for not spending enough on defense and even threatened to walk away from the security alliance that has served as a pillar of post-World War II stability. In a Feb. 17 New York Times article, a senior German official put it bluntly: “No one any longer believes that Trump cares about the views or interests of the allies. It’s broken.” Not surprisingly, the ambassador had a very different take. “I think the United States cares deeply about NATO and I think President Trump does so himself,” Lambrinidis said, citing the warm welcome NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg received by members of SEE EU • PAGE 18

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tection and privacy; delivering on our climate pledges; restoring sound public finance; implementing a trade policy with major countries and regions that is more open, transparent and values-based; cutting unemployment and now reaching a recordhigh employment rate of nearly 75 percent. So the EU is both working and delivering, every day.”

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Congress during an April 4 visit. But that bipartisan invitation to address a joint session of Congress was made specifically to counter Trump’s anti-NATO bluster and reassure member states that the U.S. stands behind them. In fact, many observers say Stoltenberg was elected to serve a second term as secretary-general in part because he has deftly credited the U.S. president with prodding NATO members to devote 2 percent of their GDP spending to defense (even though members already committed to that target prior to Trump’s election). Lambrinidis said Europe has been spending more on its defense, noting that “almost $100 billion more in European Union investments in their armies will occur by the end of this year or next year,” and that collectively, EU member states spend more on military procurement than any other country in the world after the U.S. However, it’s not just about the dollar figures, Lambrinidis said, but on spending the money “smarter and better.” He pointed out that NATO’s 29 member states have improved their coordination and stepped up efforts to combat hybrid security threats such as cyber hacks and online disinformation campaigns, especially those linked to Russia. “Look, the security threats that we face around the world today are entirely different than a few years back. We have proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, for example. We have new arms races. We have terrorist fighters coming back from conflicts. We have artificial intelligence — a huge security threat if it’s not managed collectively. We also have cyber threats. And the need to reconstruct devastate war zones to allow people to return peacefully…. Now, all these are threats require to some extent a military component to address them, but to a very large extent, they require other components,” Lambrinidis said. And this is where the European Union, the world’s largest aid donor, can play a unique role, by leveraging both its newfound hard power and its traditional soft power. “Take Syria, for example, take Libya, take Yemen,” Lambrinidis said. “To resolve those conflicts, you obviously need a military presence. But it is impossible to [resolve them] unless you take a wartime country and a wartime economy and turn it into a peacetime country and a peacetime economy. This requires a tremendous amount of investment, including business investment and development aid. It requires humanitarian aid to ensure that people who are destitute can return home and will not be radicalized somewhere else. It requires building institutions in those countries that have been entirely destroyed.” On that note, the ambassador said the EU “made it clear that international support for reconstruction in Syria will only be possible once a credible political solution” in line

PLACE YOUR BETS

PHOTO: CC-BY-4.0: © EUROPEAN UNION 2019 – SOURCE: EP

The Europe à Coeur statue sits outside the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France. Parliamentary elections set for May 23 to 26 have become a pivotal battle between traditional political parties and anti-establishment populist parties.

with U.N. peace efforts is underway. That requires, among other things, “a democratic and inclusive government guaranteeing people’s safety and security, an agreed conflict-sensitive development strategy, reliable and legitimate interlocutors, as well as guarantees in terms of funding accountability. None of these conditions are yet fulfilled in Syria.”

THE MIGRATION DILEMMA

Likewise, Lambrinidis said the EU is taking a multipronged approach to migration, an issue that sparked a political furor in 2015 when over 1 million asylum-seekers from poverty-stricken and war-ravaged nations flooded Europe’s shores. While the crisis has since abated, the ambassador said it is still a priority for the EU. Among other things, the bloc set up a European Union Emergency Trust Fund to address the root causes of migration. “We work with 26 partner countries, which are facing growing challenges in terms of demographic pressure, extreme poverty, weak social and economic infrastructure, internal tensions and institutional weaknesses, insufficient resilience to food crises and environmental stress,” Lambrinidis said, adding that the bloc is also encouraging European businesses to invest in African countries to create jobs and discourage migrants from making the dangerous trek across the Mediterranean in the first place. Lambrinidis admits that this strategy won’t create “immediate, magical results. But if you want to truly address this issue, in the medium and long term, this is the way to do it.” In the meantime, he said Brussels is trying to support front-line countries such as Greece and Italy, “helping them quickly determine whether or not asylum-seekers are entitled to refugee status [and integrating] people who deserve that status.” The EU is also targeting the human trafficking rings that prey on desperate migrants while saving lives at sea.

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“Tens of thousands of lives have been saved — not 1,000, not 2,000, but tens of thousands — because we think of it as our obligation to ensure that those people are treated like human beings and not like the ‘disposable commodities’ that others treat them as, either in their countries or by the human traffickers,” Lambrinidis said. “Europe stands by human rights and will defend every life that it can save and it is doing so.”

POPULISM’S ENDURING POWER

But in doing so, Europe created a political backlash, as anti-immigrant, populist parties grew in strength partly in response to the refugee crisis. Today, far-right, euro-skeptic parties hold sway in countries ranging from Austria and Italy to even migrant-friendly countries such as Germany and Sweden. And with European Parliamentary elections set for May 23 to 26, many fear that if these nationalist parties, which have coalesced into a new alliance, gain a significant foothold, they will try to gut the EU from the inside. Lambrinidis — who himself served as a member of the European Parliament for the Greek Social Democratic Party from 2004 to 2011 — called the elections “one of the largest democratic exercises in the world.” While populist parties have stoked nationalist fervor that has led to a rise in far-right extremism across the continent, Lambrinidis said the EU has been addressing xenophobia and racism through its laws. But he added that traditional political parties also need to address the legitimate grievances that the populist movement has tapped into. At the same time, populist parties that were swept into power on vague promises need to adapt to the harsh realities of governing. “I think everyone is learning from the other quite frankly,” he said. “You see mainstream political parties developing and evolving their programs, focusing often on those who have been left behind by globaliza-

tion and economic inequalities — an issue that is coming up a lot in the United States as well. “But at the same time, we as Europeans place tremendous importance on ensuring that no matter what stresses we have in our societies and in our economies, we are based on values, we are based on human rights, we are based on democracy. We do not compromise on those values,” the ambassador declared. “In fact, we think those values are the solution to many of our issues because we discuss — we don’t suppress voices. We don’t reach a point where people just explode. You always have your extremes everywhere. But it is the strength of our democracy that actually should be praised in these difficult times.” Lambrinidis pointed out that if Europe were such a terrible place with “no freedom, no hope and no economic prospects,” millions of people would be trying to escape the continent. Instead, millions are trying to come to it — “precisely because they see in Europe a harbor of human rights and a harbor of equality, even with all our problems.” And despite those problems, Lambrinidis noted that polls consistently show that support for the EU is as high as ever. “Isn’t that amazing? Wouldn’t you expect from what you often hear here about Europe that people would say, ‘Well, given all the financial crises and the immigrants and this and that … I don’t like Europe?’” Instead, people are reporting that the European project “has been good for their countries and for their lives. And I think that says a lot about the European Union, its resilience and its strength.” He added: “Just look at only the last few years of achievement, during quite turbulent times for Europe and the world. We have had massive progress in stepping up protecting our external borders; strengthening our defense and, through that, NATO; ensuring that the digital world is not an anarchical place through our leadership in data pro-

Lambrinidis recalled serving as Greece’s foreign minister during the country’s economic meltdown just over a decade ago. “And I remember most people at the time were basically asking me, “OK, so come on Mr. Foreign Minister, when is the euro going to collapse? When is Greece going to leave the European Union? Come on, be honest. “And I said I’ll be honest with you. If you want to lose it, put your money exactly on those predictions, because I’m going to tell you right now it’s not going to happen, and of course it didn’t happen.” “Europe is remarkably strong and resilient, especially in crises,” he continued. “We have our way of dealing with them. Some people in this country find it frustrating. ‘Oh, you take so long. Oh, you discuss so much.’ I understand that. But please bet on a strong, democratic, human rightsbased, economically vibrant Europe remaining the United States’s biggest friend and biggest ally.” On a more personal note, the ambassador told us that he’s been struck by the “innate openness, generosity and kindness” he’s encountered during his many stints in America, including as a self-described “nerdy kid” at Amherst College and at Yale Law School. “I was a typical college and law school student I suppose. I was studying and working, but I wasn’t quite typical after all because I was in fact a Greek kid who came to this country deeply appreciative of the opportunity it gave me. So I took all this very seriously. Then I came to Washington and I was a lawyer at a big law firm, doing international trade and arbitrations. “My friends and I were in the office from early in the morning to late at night,” Lambrinidis added, laughing that he doesn’t remember if D.C. had much of a social life back then, although he knows the city has undergone a dramatic transformation since then and he hopes to explore those changes — assuming he can carve out some free time in his current position. “After a whole month of being immersed underwater, adjusting to this job, I did my first bicycle ride around Rock Creek Park. It was absolutely stunning. So I look forward to that a lot,” he said. “But I can tell you what hasn’t changed — my friends. It’s remarkable how the people that I studied with and worked with so many decades ago became my family. When it was decided that I was going to come back as an ambassador, I felt in a way like I was returning to my second family.” WD Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

Book Review | WD

Unsung Heroes Burns: U.S. Diplomacy Is Sometimes Thankless but Always Critical Job BY JOHN T. SHAW

illiam Burns looks like a diplomat from central casting. He is tall, elegant and refined. It is not hard to imagine him operating smoothly and negotiating skillfully at the Congress of Vienna in 1814 or the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 or at the recent Iran nuclear talks — which he did. In addition to looking the role, Burns is widely regarded as one of the most successful American diplomats of his generation. “The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal” perfectly reflects its author. The book is thoughtful, balanced and witty. Burns does not come from the school of memoir writing in which the author is always the wisest person in the room or constantly offers the most prescient advice. He records his mistakes and misjudgments. “The Back Channel” is strikingly free from self-aggrandizement or score-settling. It is honest, informative and deeply interesting. It is also timely. The book provides a tour of American diplomacy and foreign policy since the early 1980s, but it also touches on some of the most pressing foreign policy issues of the day, including Syria’s civil war, Asia’s rise, the Iran nuclear deal that Burns helped orchestrate through back channel diplomacy (hence the book’s title) and the erosion of the liberal world order under Donald Trump. In that sense, the book is a hymn of praise to the diplomatic profession and a stern warning that America’s standing in the world has deteriorated dramatically during Trump’s presidency. “My goal is not to offer an elegy for American diplomacy but a reminder of its significance, and of the wider value of public service, amid the mistrust and disparagement so willfully sown by so many,” he writes. “In the age of Trump, America is diminished, the president’s worldview smaller and meaner, the world full of difficult currents. The enlightened selfinterest at the heart of seventy years of American foreign policy is disdained, and the zero-sum joys of mercantilism and unilateralism are ascendant. Seen from the Trump White House, the United States has become hostage to the international order it created and liberation is long overdue,” he writes. Burns has been president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace since 2015. He joined the think tank after a stellar career of more than three decades in the U.S. Foreign Service in which he served in such important positions as deputy secretary of state; undersecretary for political affairs; ambassador to Russia and Jordan; assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs; and principal deputy director of

PHOTO : PEN GUIN RAND OM H OUSE

“

Diplomacy is one of our nation’s biggest assets and best-kept secrets. However battered and belittled in the age of Trump, it has never been a more necessary tool of first resort for American influence. WILLIAM BURNS

”

author of ‘The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal’

the State Department’s policy planning staff. Burns worked with, or at least carefully observed, every secretary of state from Alexander Haig to John Kerry. He describes the working styles of each, focusing on the positive. Burns clearly respects the methodical approach of George Shultz, President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state. Shultz likened diplomacy to gardening in which it is

essential to regularly cut back weeds and plant seeds. Shultz viewed diplomacy as an endeavor that usually yields incremental progress. “As I was learning, diplomatic triumphs are almost always at the margins,” Burns writes. Burns depicts Colin Powell as a strong and charismatic leader who projected confidence and competence. “Straightforward, demanding and well organized, he was also warm, good

humored, with a ready smile and easy charm,” Burns writes. Powell began meetings with a clear statement of objectives, focused on an orderly discussion of options, and concluded with a concise summary of conclusions or recommendations. Burns lavishes his most fulsome praise on James Baker, President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state and the man who played a central role in helping bring the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion. Baker, according to Burns, was adept at navigating the complex world of international politics. “He was a superb problem solver and made no pretense of being a national security intellectual or grand strategist. He was cautious by nature, and always attuned to the risks of unforeseen second- and third-order consequences. He was unchained by ideology and open to alternative views and challenges to convention. He was as good a negotiator as I ever saw, always thoroughly prepared, conscious of his leverage, sensitive to the needs and limits of those on the other side of the table, and with a lethal sense of when to close the deal.” Baker played a major role in assembling the international coalition to remove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991 and then prepared the Madrid Peace Conference to try to forge peace in the Middle East. “Baker was not especially interested in the arcane details of Arab-Israeli issues, or the history and culture of the region,” Burns writes. “He had an enormously retentive mind for what he needed to know to navigate a negotiation and bridge differences, a gift for managing complicated personalities. He lowballed public expectations, always convinced that it was better to underpromise and overdeliver.” Burns believes that if President George H.W. Bush had won a second term in 1992, Baker might have been able to broker a Syrian-Israeli agreement and perhaps even an Israeli-Palestinian accord. Burns recalls the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 as the moment when modern American diplomacy and power reached its apogee. Global and regional leaders attended the meeting less because they expected a peace deal than because of their deep respect for American power and influence. “It marked a time of uncontested American primacy in a world no longer bound by Cold War rivalry — when history seemed to flow inexorably in America’s direction, the power of its ideas driving the rest of the world in a slow but irresistible surge toward democracy and free markets.” If Madrid marked the zenith of recent American power, the Iraq War in 2003 SEE B OOK R EVIEW • PAGE 44 JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 19

THE EMBASSY OF QATAR AND THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

CELEBRATING JOURNALISM HUNDREDS ATTEND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER PRE-PARTY Hosted by the Embassy of Qatar and The Washington Diplomat at the U.S. Institute of Peace on April 26 Over 800 people celebrated the importance of journalism at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Pre-Party on April 26 hosted by Qatari Ambassador Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani and The Washington Diplomat media company at the U.S. Institute of Peace — a fitting venue to emphasize the critical role that today’s media plays in supporting a peaceful world. Guests included ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps; top-ranking U.S. officials from the White House, Capitol Hill, Pentagon and other agencies; members of the media from outlets such as ABC, NBC, CNN, BBC and Fox; captains of industry; Hollywood celebrities; and other VIPs to support the importance of journalistic freedom and integrity in today’s divided political climate. The festivities featured entertainment and live music by DJ HEM and DJ Spider from Los Angeles — along with appearances by celebrities such as Sonja Morgan and Karen Huger of Bravo TV’s “Real Housewives” series — as well as elaborate cuisine and cocktails in one of the city’s most dramatic venues. The party, which ran well past midnight, was sponsored by DC United and Long & Foster |Christie’s International Real Estate. This invitation-only event follows last year’s successful “Come Together” pre-party bash co-hosted

Photos: Jessica Latos Photography

Sonja Morgan of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York” and Ambassador of Qatar Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani.

SEE W H C D • PAGE 22

James Clark, ticketing director for D.C. United; James Arnold, ticketing director for D.C. United; Luke Mohamed, senior director of partnerships for D.C. United; Andy Bush, chief revenue officer for D.C. United; Nick Sidorakis, general manager of the Southern Hills Country Club; Harry Hardy, vice president of events and marketing for D.C. United; and Greg Burie, vice president of finance for D.C. United. Robert McLeod, Ambassador of Albania Floreta Faber, Sally McLeod of the State Department and Ambassador of Malta Keith Azzopardi.

Dipka Bhambhani of the United States Energy Association, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and Serita Ham.

20 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER PRE-PARTY

The team from Long & Foster | Christie’s International Real Estate, a sponsor of the event, enjoy the festivities: Fouad Talout, Theresa Talout, Elena Solovyov, Christopher Hoey, Shelly Miglani and Gaurav Bounds.

DJ Spider from L.A. Victor Shiblie and Rod Carrasco of The Washington Diplomat.

DC Councilmember Jack Evans, Ambassador of Qatar Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani and Willee Lewis. Jill Kelley of Military Diplomacy Strategies and Joe Uddo, deputy secretary of the Department of Energy.

Left, Karen Huger of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Potomac.”

Mike Manatos, Laura Evans Manatos, a PR and media relations consultant, and Matt Glassman, assistant news director for NBC Washington.

Above, Kasper Zeuthen of the EU Delegation to the U.S., Jennifer Jose of the National Association of Broadcasters, Barbara Plett Usher of the BBC and Stefan Gudjohnsen of GlobeScope.

Cassandra Campbell of Progress Humanity, Rod Carrasco of The Washington Diplomat and Katharine Seiler.

Ambassador of Qatar Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, third from right, greets guests.

At left, artists and partners José Alberto Uclés and Tom Noll.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT |

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THE EMBASSY OF QATAR AND THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT Photos: Jessica Latos Photography

WHCD CONTINUED • PAGE 20

by The Washington Diplomat at the British Ambassador’s Residence that included administration officials such as Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Miss Universe 2018 Demi-LeighNel-Peters; and Grammy Award-winning DJ Paul Oakenfold. An independent monthly publication and media company with a readership of more than 200,000, The Washington Diplomat has served for 25 years as the flagship newspaper of the diplomatic and international community in Washington D.C., and New York. It is the only publication distributed to all 185 foreign embassies in the nation’s capital, as well as the World Bank, the IMF, the IDB, lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, various Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, think tanks and various points of influence in Washington, Virginia, Maryland and New York.

Neil Grace of the Federal Communications Commission; Miranda Green of The Hill; Shannon Pettypiece, White House correspondent for Bloomberg; Nikki Schwab of the New York Post; and Kevin Cirilli, a political reporter for Bloomberg.

Nuha Shiblie of the Autism Society of America, Victor Shiblie of The Washington Dipomat, Ambassador of Qatar Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani and Lamia Rezgui of Al Jazeera.

Ambassador of Mauritius Sooroojdev Phokeer, Miriam Hooker, wife of the Nicaraguan ambassador; and Leilani Campbell.

Neil Grace of the Federal Communications Commission; Byron Tau of the Wall Street Journal, Miranda Green of The Hill and Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast.

DC Councilmember Jack Evans, Jayne Visser and Dan McCarthy.

Jamie Kraut, senior advisor for terrorist financing and financial crimes at the Treasury Department, and Mike Keon.

Reverend Marcia Dyson, Karen Huger of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Potomac,” Reta Jo Lewis of the German Marshall Fund and Robin Barron.

Kit Shonk and Colin Shonk of the Canadian Embassy.

22 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Rita Cosby of CBS’s “Special Edition” and Tomaczek Bednarek.

Leo Ayala of the Department of Commerce, Fuad Shiblie of The Washington Diplomat, Isabel Cabezas of the University of Notre Dame Keough School of Global Affairs and Jenna-Leigh Hoffmann.

Victor Shiblie, Anna Gawel and Rod Carrasco of The Washington Diplomat.

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER PRE-PARTY

Gaurav Mehra and his wife Shelly Miglani of Long & Foster | Christie’s International Real Estate.

Mark Del Rosso, president of Audi of America, Teresa Del’Rosso and Scott Thuman, chief political correspondent for the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Ambassador of Qatar Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani and Emmy Award-winning actor Vincent De Paul.

At left, Michael Costello and XiXi Yang of CNN.

Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, now president of CareJourney; Rohini Chopra; Kaivan Shroff; and coach Kathy Kemper, founder and CEO of the Institute for Education.

Puru Trivedi of the Meridian International Center and Joe Felter, deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia.

Supporting journalistic excellence in the Capital Region for decades. We were thrilled to sponsor the WHCA Pre-Party, as well as many other events like this one, which celebrate achievements and tradition in the most recognized and respected media market in the world.

Our trusted agents have served the diplomatic community and the Capital Region for over 50 years; and our partnership with Christie’s provides you with unparalleled opportunities and services created exclusively for discerning global clientele. Discover your next home at longandfoster.com/luxury.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT |

JUNE 2019 | 23

THE EMBASSY OF QATAR AND THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Marcos Stancanelli, head of political affairs at the Embassy of Argentina; Belen Sorzana; Argentine Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Gerry Díaz Bartolomé; and Ana Umaran.

Kellen Dunning of Wonder Women Tech, Lamia Rezgui of Al Jazeera and Aaron Manaigo of Potomac International Partners.

Interior designer Barbara Hawthorn, retired U.S. Lt. Col. Michael Heuer, Leila Beale and Cary Pollak, senior assistant attorney general for the D.C. government.

Congressional Fellow Dr. Jennifer Wong; Congressional Fellow Lauren Bangerter of Mayo Clinic; Congressional Fellow Shae Allen; Katharine Seiler, formerly with the Swiss Embassy; Hajdi Cenan, co-founder of PWN Zagreb; Heather Gough of PM Pediatrics; and photographer Jennifer Knox.

Portrait artist Blake Jamieson, singer Lauren Mayhew, Blake Jamieson, actress Cameron Goodman and Keith Carr.

Rabia Kazan, president of the Middle Eastern Women’s Coalition, Christianné Allen, president of D.C. Digital, and Arwa Sawan.

Jasmine Wyatt of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Fuad Sahouri of Sahouri Insurance, Taweel Tawil and Jennifer Tawil.

Photos: Jessica Latos Photography

Shannon Pettypiece, White House correspondent for Bloomberg, and Kevin Cirilli, a political reporter for Bloomberg.

Hope Hukkeri, Alivia Roberts, Stacie Hartman, Miss District of Columbia Allison Farris, Jenna-Leigh Hoffmann and Faith Jackson.

24 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Sonja Morgan of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York.”

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ASSOCIATION DINNER PRE-PARTY

Elaine Neumann, former U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, and former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

Cassandra Campbell of Progress Humanity, Matthew Neal Miller of Red Hat, Sepideh Khameneh and Herb Sutcliffe.

Sarah Logan of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Constantin Sauvage of Accenture Federal Services.

Gillian Bayer of SmartBrief and Victoria Pierce of the European Union Delegation to the U.S.

Kathleen Donahue and Vitessa Del Prete, chief of Afghanistan and Pakistan Grants and Programs at the State Department.

James Harris of the British Embassy; Gianna Hylton of the Baltimore MBDA Business Center; Meridith McGraw, White House correspondent for ABC News; and Jordan Humphreys of the British Embassy.

Lanna Gabor and Vida Gabor, managing director at Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.

Cindy and Alan Behar, vice president of the Carlton Group.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, now with Extra TV, and Ambassador of Qatar Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani.

James Dillard of Bloomberg and Britt McHenry of Fox 5 DC.

Isaac Gerhart of the Washington Nationals and Julie Frank.

Brian Kouassi of Curtis, MalletPrevost, Colt & Mosle LLP and Youssif Debala of the office of Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Md.). Jason Isaacson of the American Jewish Committee and Esma Isaacson.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT |

JUNE 2019 | 25

THE EMBASSY OF QATAR AND THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Ambassador of Malawi Edward Sawerengera and Ambassador of Nicaragua Francisco Obadiah Campbell Hooker.

Ryan Williams of Targeted Victory; Sally Ein; Mark Ein, owner of the Washington Kastles; Jackie Rooney of Facebook; and John Arundel of Washington Life.

Surat Suwannikkha, Congressional Fellow Shae Allen, Erlinda Aliaj and Menna Hanna. At left, Wayne Fortune, vice president and senior client advisor at PNC, and Brandon Clay.

Katharine Seiler, Congressional Fellow Lauren Bangerter of Mayo Clinic and Heather Gough of PM Pediatrics.

Abid Saeed of the Pakistani Embassy.

Evan Caplan, Matt Hagan of Bulldog Public Relations and Amy Campbell of Fannie Mae.

Brittney Bounds and Col. Donnie Holloway of the National Defense University. Tonya Kinlow and Eugene Dewitt Kinlow, director of the Office of Federal and Regional Affairs for the D.C. government.

Catherine Carlstedt of Hanover Research; Andrea Scaggs of Reston Dermatology & Cosmetic Center; Alex Keedy; Tabasum Luft; Dana Lea of Lutheran Social Services; Mariel Arata; and Molly Johnson.

Ladeene Freimuth of the Wilson Center and Rhoda Margesson of the Congressional Research Service.

26 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Barnette Holston of the DCFashion Fool.

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER PRE-PARTY

Laurie Mattioli, Joseph Mattioli, general manager of the St. Regis in Washington, D.C., and Debbie Drell of the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

Hajdi Cenan, co-founder of PWN Zagreb, and Dalyce Semko of Open2America Open2Europe.

Architect Travis Price and Theo Adamstein of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty.

Susan Sadigova and Ambassador of the Philippines Jose Manuel Romualdez.

Tucker Barnes of Fox 5 DC; Hudson Barnes; Erin Como of Fox 5 DC; Chris Smith; Stephanie Watson; and Steve Chenevey of Fox 5 DC.

Alan Behar, CEO of Ike Behar Apparel and Design, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and Emmy Award-winning actor Vincent De Paul.

Bash Kazi, founder of KIG, a defense and security technology investment and consulting firm, and Crystal Martin.

At left, Jill Grifhorst, event coordinator at the Supreme Court, and Sydney Darwin.

Photos: Jessica Latos Photography

Richard Ponzio of the Stimson Center and Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance and Kimiko Ashisawa, adjunct professor at American University.

Will Todman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Ian Goldin.

Kinosha Soden and Dr. Cylburn Soden of Soderma Dermatology.

Dan McCarthy and author James Swanson.

At left, Ali Wyne of Rand Corp. and Leslie Prado of Children’s National.

Arwa Sawan of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Michael Khalifeh of REI Systems.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT |

JUNE 2019 | 27

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER PRE-PARTY

Artist José Alberto Uclés, Elizabeth Webster and artist Tom Noll.

Sam Nassar of Metropolitan Realty LLC and Shadia Nassar.

Alex Wayner and public affairs and legislative affairs strategist Raul Alvillar.

Photos: Jessica Latos Photography Above, George Braun, D.C. bureau chief of 560 KBLU News Talk Radio, and Ambassador of Qatar Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani.

Leonard Tao of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Dipka Bhambhani of the United States Energy Association, a guest, Serita Ham and Eric Ham of Sirius XM.

Eric Garcia, Madeline Will of Education Week and former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

Fritz Fougy Sr. and Pascale Lemaire of T.H.E. Artist Agency.

Rebecca Chin of BCW Global and Camron Brown.

Emmy Award-winning actor Vincent De Paul and Neeraj Bindas.

Wynne Anderson of Ditto Development and Peter Williams of the International Monetary Fund.

Anne Speckhard of Georgetown University and Ardian Shajkovci of Homeland Security Today.

28 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Aazeen Meraj of KPMG and Sabrina Abbas of W Magazine.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, now with Extra!

Cassandra Campbell of Progress Humanity and Katharine Seiler.

Lydia Das of La Di Das Lifestyle.

Terrorists CONTINUED • PAGE 14

the theological illiteracy of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen was widely publicized when it was revealed that he apparently did not know the difference between the theologies espoused by the various terrorist groups that he claimed to represent. Trisko Darden argues that rather than speaking of religious extremism as a possible cause of terrorism, we should think in terms of “religiously inspired terrorism.” The two are different. “In Myanmar, you do have extremists who identify as Buddhists attacking other religious minorities,” Trisko Darden said. “And in India, you see some Hindu groups attacking minority Muslim populations. So, different interpretations of religion can drive violence. That is certainly relevant. “But it’s hard to determine how much of this is ideology — instrumental in helping shape a message, in mobilizing people — and how much is sincere. How much of this is [terrorists] really using religion as an ideology to their own advantage, as something you can market, as opposed to seeing their way of life and their religion under threat. Practically, it doesn’t matter much whether they are sincere or not,” she added. Mia Bloom, a terrorism expert and professor of communication and Middle East studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, suggests a link between terrorism, ideology (religious or otherwise) and the hard sciences. She too looks to the work of Alan Krueger for context in the debate about where terrorists come from. “His argument is that people are drawn to the hard sciences, things like engineering, because they have a right answer and a wrong answer,” Bloom said. “Jihadi violence likewise offers a black-and-white solution. It isn’t shades of gray. People attracted to simple answers might be attracted to ideology that doesn’t permit ‘on the other hand, on the third hand,’ etcetera. That’s part of why we see a high correlation with the hard sciences.” Bloom noted that many al-Qaeda leaders were trained in engineering or in medicine, as was the current head of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who received training as a surgeon. Knowledge and specialized skills such as these are and always have been very attractive to terrorist recruiters, she says, going back to the 19th century. “You can see these groups really calculating things in a very rational way: ‘We’ve got these very educated people who can do special things. Let’s use them,’” she said.

WHAT ABOUT THE POOR? Bloom and Hoffman both emphasize the need to distinguish between terrorist leaders and operatives and the rank and file. “What happens is that terrorist leaders choose the more educated individuals to plan and carry out their [attacks],”

PHOTO: PASJA1000 / PIXABAY

Pedestrians and bicyclists cross a busy street in Sri Lanka, which was hit by a series of bombings on Easter Sunday that killed over 250 people and which has a long history of religious and ethnic strife. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were carried out by 19 hijackers, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, below, who, prior to his flight training, studied architecture at Cairo University and was working toward a degree at the Hamburg University of Technology in Germany.

Bloom said. “An educated Palestinian probably speaks Hebrew and can get through the checkpoints. An educated Saudi can learn how to fly a plane. It’s partly about access and who is best-suited to complete the mission.” Bloom adds that the “operative,” usually the individual or individuals identified by name with an attack, “are just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the support network is ‘under the water.’” The latter may be drawn from “the teeming poor in places like refugee camps” who are, often erroneously, most identified with global terrorism. Hoffman observes that recruitment from the ranks of the poor usually coincides with periods of growth in the life of a terrorist organization. “That’s when they need foot soldiers,” he said. “They’re looking for people from poor backgrounds to supply their cannon fodder.” Hoffman asserts that the notion of poverty causing terrorism is a “prejudice” borne out of “the American idea of doing good — that if we can find the reason for a problem, then we can fix it.” But “as a means to combat terrorism, it will sorely disappoint.” “This is what has sustained terrorism over the centuries,” he added. “That terrorist organizations, like the societies they come out of, draw people from all walks of life.”

ment has now become “an operational profile” that the Islamic State is pursuing because of its proven effectiveness. “There’s really no easy answer to it,” Hoffman acknowledged. “It shows us not only that the terrorist threat is not going away, but PHOTO: U.S. NAVY / CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER’S MATE ERIC J. TILFORD that it’s actually becoming more complex.” ALL IN THE FAMILY Trisko Darden agrees that the Hoffman, like other terrorism exnew threat of family-related terrorperts, says there is no single profile ism is serious. The real news out of for a terrorist, and that the reasons the Sri Lanka attacks, she says, is not a person might join a terrorist orgathat the bombers were wealthy, but nization are usually “deeply personal that they were connected by family. and often very idiosyncratic.” “We haven’t been good at looking But the recent spate of family- at family ties,” she said. “When you related terrorist attacks should suspect someone of being a terrorgive analysts and counterterrorism ist, we assume you’ll call the FBI. experts pause. The Easter Sunday But what do we do with radicalizabombings in Sri Lanka were carried tion when it’s happening within the out by a group that included two family? We tend to only look at indibrothers and a wife; the 2015 San viduals and at terrorist groups, not Bernardino shooters were husband at what’s in between.” and wife; the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers were brothers; and before any of these were three pairs of IS THERE A SOLUTION? brothers among the 9/11 hijackers. Just as there is no single terrorist “This is really a new phenom- profile, there is no single solution to enon,” Hoffman said, “and that’s one the problem of terrorist recruitment. thing that stands out now. Entire Most experts suggest a multipronged families are willing to lay down their strategy that may vary from country lives.” to country. Bloom would like to see Hoffman suggests that family re- a “Marshall Plan” for the Middle cruitment — and the recruitment of East that would address many of bourgeois families in particular — is the root causes of conflict there, and a new tactic that the Islamic State thus, some of the drivers of terrorhas begun to employ. As its caliph- ism in that region. But she does not ate in the Middle East has all but see much appetite in America today disappeared, the terrorist group has for such big solutions. sought new ways to frustrate secuSpecifically, she believes that the rity forces. way to combat terrorism, especially “It’s hard to interdict terrorist the kind with roots in the Middle communications if they’re all within East, is by better systems of law, gova family,” Hoffman said. “There’s not ernance and accountability in the even much need to communicate.” countries that give rise to terrorists. He believes that family recruit“If you do that,” Bloom argued,

“then these university-educated kids in those countries, if they’re unhappy, they can vote for change and socially channel their energies. Right now, they feel that the only way to channel these energies is through subversive activities, because the governments have shut down political opposition.” Trisko Darden, who recently authored an American Enterprise Institute report on combating the terrorist exploitation of youth, suggests that what is needed is a combination of education, social media outreach, community building strategies and better targeting of potential terrorist recruits. She says that the education systems in many nations have failed to teach critical thinking skills essential to distinguishing between propaganda and real facts, although the United States is supporting efforts to change that. Also important is a better understanding of how social media platforms can be used to share messages of tolerance and understanding, rather than hate and division. Trisko Darden believes that many of the gang prevention strategies successfully employed in the U.S. can be applied to youth populations in countries vulnerable to radicalization. These might include the development of new sports leagues, poetry slams or arts classes. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she argues that better targeting of vulnerable youth populations is needed. “A big piece of the challenge moving forward is to define what portion of the youth in each country is most likely to be recruited by terrorists,” she said. That, too, differs from country to country, whether it is college-educated Bangladeshis frustrated by limited opportunities at home or Albanians in Kosovo attracted to online content in their native language, which was formerly supplied by the Islamic State. One thing Hoffman believes is that “throwing bottomless amounts of money” won’t resolve the more complex issues that underlie the challenge of terrorist recruitment. Hoffman believes we must “fully absorb” the disturbing changes apparent in the recent Sri Lankan attacks. First, that small and seemingly inconsequential extremist groups now have the ability — through external support from the Islamic State, alQaeda or other organizations — to quickly become consequential and lethal. And second, that the face of terrorism may be changing and becoming harder to recognize. It’s not just the face of a single, disenchanted and angry young man, but also his father, his brother, his sister or his wife. The highest priority for a terrorist group, Hoffman concludes, is survival. Unfortunately, the recent attacks in Sri Lanka, and the revelation of the identities of the attackers, reminds us that the scourge of terrorism is both constantly evolving and stubbornly resilient. WD Deryl Davis is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and an adjunct professor of drama, literature and film at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT |

JUNE 2019 | 29

Luxury Living A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

June 2019

PHOTO: MYNOR VENTURA

Fashionable Trend

In March, the embassies of the Czech Republic, Malta and Slovenia hosted “Fashion Night Ignites,” an evening runway show at the historic Perry Belmont House to showcase designs from their native countries. Above, a model showcases a dress by Charles & Ron presented by the Maltese Embassy.

Embassies Embrace Universal Language of Fashion as Public Diplomacy Tool •

etter known for high tempers than high fashion, Washington, D.C., has seen catwalks pop up in the unlikeliest of places recently: embassies, historic buildings and even the State Department.

That’s because people in the diplomatic community are realizing — and relishing — fashion’s role in diplomacy. Much as food, art and sports can say a lot about a nation’s culture, fashion does, too. “There’s tremendous power in what we wear,” said Jan Du Plain, president and chief executive officer of Du Plain Global Enterprises, an international public relations and events company that helped launch Cultural Tourism DC’s Passport DC program. “If one of our high-level women or men wears something that is inappropriate or can be seen as questionable, fashion speaks. When we wear something, 30 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

it can have such a strong impact on people because we are watching, particularly those that are high up in government.” Du Plain recently worked with Indira Gumarova, wife of Czech Ambassador Hynek Kmoníček, and the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW) to host “Glamour & Diplomacy,” a fashion show at the State Department. The April 9 event featured female ambassadors and ambassadors’ wives wearing ensembles by contemporary designers from around the world. More than a dozen countries and five continents were represented.

BY STEPHANIE KANOWITZ

Three days later, the Embassy of Uzbekistan presented Marhamathon Umarova, founder of the MarU brand and one of the country’s leading fashion designers. She spoke about the evolution of ikat, a textile, and presented her latest collection. “The style and the patterns that they used and the cloth that they created from their own country was fascinating to learn about,” Du Plain said. In March, the embassies of the Czech Republic, Malta and Slovenia hosted “Fashion Night Ignites” featuring several designers, including Burnett New York; Charles & Ron; Dur Doux; Maja Stamol; and Poner. After the show, cocktails and cuisine from each country were served. More than 250 people attended the event at the historic Perry Belmont House. Gumarova — a PR consultant who previously hosted a showcase of designer shoes by Manolo Blahnik, whose fa-

ther was Czech — had a hand in all three events and said more fashion shows are in the works. She is working with the Alliance Française Washington DC on a program at the French Embassy in September, and she has been approached about doing shows in New York and London. Now is the right time for fashion to take its place in Washington because people are less judgmental of cutting-edge clothing, said Gumarova, founder of the newly formed group Diplomacy & Fashion. “Now with the Trump administration, you actually can wear color, you can wear anything you want and you will be less judged,” Gumarova said. “And also, the money is here. The uber rich people are here and they don’t want to wear the same dress that was already in the magazine, so they start to pay more attention.” While D.C. has traditionally been a fairly conservative city dress-wise — and still is to a large extent — Gumarova said it is an ideal hub for innovative, unconventional fashion given its international character. “Washington is the right place because we have almost 200 embassies and every embassy promotes their culture so why not promote through fashion when they already promote through food or through sport?”

STYLE, SUBSTANCE AND DOUBLE STANDARDS

The idea of using fashion as a public diplomacy tool has been building for quite some time. Over the years, various D.C. embassies have hosted fashion or jewelry shows to promote their native designers — among them Estonia, Lebanon, the Philippines and Canada, just to name a few. Former Secretary of State John Kerry also recognized the power of fashion. In 2016, he welcomed ambassadors and diplomats from about 80 countries to “Diplomacy by Design,” an event hosted by the U.S. Department of Protocol and ELLE Magazine that highlighted fashion as a diplomatic platform (also see “‘Diplomacy by Design’ Examines What Clothes Say About Us” in the December 2016 issue). “The clothes we create, the food we eat, the sports we play and the traditions that we honor are all part of a nation’s identity and therefore an integral part of how countries relate to one another,” Kerry told the audience via video link. “We know that America’s standing in the world isn’t determined solely by political and security policies,” he added. “On many occasions, cultural diplomacy can achieve what traditional diplomacy cannot because it speaks a universal language.” But sometimes that message can get lost in the clothes we wear. Also, with greater freedom in fashion choices comes greater responsibility — and scrutiny, especially for women. Take first lady Melania Trump’s $39 “I really don’t care. Do u?” jacket that she wore in June 2018 to McAllen, Texas, the site of many family separations of illegal immigrants. The media, and many others, had a field day trying to discern whether the former fashion model’s choice held a hidden message. Was it a rebuke of her husband’s immigration crackdown, or a show of support that she didn’t care what his detractors thought? The topic of Melania’s mysterious jacket came up at another discussion on fashion called “Diplomacy X Design” sponsored by the Meridian International Center and held the National Museum of Women in the Arts last November. There, Robin Givhan, fashion critic for The Washington Post, said first ladies in particular can send powerful messages via the clothing they wear — but only if there’s a clear strategy behind it. In Melania’s case, however, the message seemed muddled. “I haven’t seen much evidence of Melania Trump having a real, clear message behind her tenure of first lady, thus far,” Meredith Koop, Michelle Obama’s stylist and one of the panelists, said at the discussion. “I hesitate to analyze it because I feel like it gives it too much weight.”

But times are gradually changing as people venture out of their closet comfort zone. And part of that evolution is due to a greater appreciation of fashions from other countries, both traditional and up-and-coming, among Western consumers and designers. American designers are increasingly incorporating elements of signature styles from abroad, such as Indian saris, Japanese kimonos and Nigerian headdresses. This international trend was on full display at the “Glamour & Diplomacy” runway show at the State Department, an event that itself symbolized how far a modestly dressed government city like Washington, D.C., has become. “Let’s face it, when is the last time you had a DJ in the State Department,” joked Czech Ambassador Kmoníček at the show. “Glamour and diplomacy has arrived in Washington, D.C.” said Marie Royce, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs,” opening the program to loud cheers. “It’s cutting-edge designs,” she continued. “It’s innovation, it’s entrepreneurship. These are all important values that we promote in the United NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your is free mistakes in spelling and States andad around the of world. ” PHOTO: MYNOR VENTURA content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. “Each costume that these lovely women Indira Gumarova, wife of the Czech ambassador and co-chair of “Fashion Ignites,” center, poses wore had its own special motif, ethnic in oriwith the Poner design team of Nikol and Jakub Poner. The first two faxed changes will be made at no to the advertiser, subsequent gin cost and international in style,” Gumarova said,changes “and eachSigned costume recaptures with elegance being andper powerful. will beperceived billed atasaauthoritative rate of $75 faxed” alteration. ads are considered approved. Vanessa Friedman, writing in a July 2016 the modern and sophisticated style of each decountry.to ” your ad. piece in The New Yorkcheck Times, this said ad thatcarefully. high- signer’s Please Markrespective any changes level women often tone down style in favor For example, Arikana Chihombori-Quao, of substance and “that for a woman to wield ambassador of the African Union, burst onto If thepower ad isincorrect sign and faxato: (301) 949-0065 needs changes what was historically man’s world, the stage donning a yellow robe, with pearl acshe had to pretty much dress like a man — but cent jewelry, that represented a Selma design The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 brighter!” from Ghana. Meanwhile, Changu Newman, wife of the ambassador of Botswana, wore a number designed by Isabel dos Santos, wife GLOBAL IMPRINT Approved __________________________________________________________ of the ambassador of Mozambique, who plans Female political figures continue to play it Changes ___________________________________________________________ to develop her own fashion line in her home PHOTO: TINA KROHN safe, as evidenced by the bland button-down ___________________________________________________________________ Of course, Koop might be a bit biased given suits worn by every single female candidate country (also see “Mozambican Wife, a Former her close relationship to Michelle Obama, but in the current race to become the Democratic there’s no doubt that as first lady, Obama en- presidential nominee. SEE FAS HION • PAGE 32 dured her fair share of fashion scrutiny, both positive and negative. Obama worked to highlight emerging American designers and break the mold of $4,100,000 10301 Firefly Circle, Fairfax, VA staid skirts and suits. She wore everything from striking pink silk suits, to intricately patterned wrap dresses, to bold red off-the-shoulder ball gowns. At the time, even wearing dresses that bared her shoulders and toned arms caused a stir. Looking back, the shock of seeing bare shoulders on a first lady seems quite tame compared to the risqué attire Melania wore as a top model. But as first lady, even Melania has hewed close to tradition, often opting for elegantly restrained, though still eye-catching, gowns reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy’s classic style. But perhaps no other woman in politics has had to navigate the minefield of fashion more than the woman Melania’s husband beat for the presidency. Long before becoming the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, Hillary Clinton struggled against the fashion microscope she found herself under as first lady in the 1990s. She was often criticized for her bulky, dowdy suits and various hairstyles. Once she entered the presidential race, however, her look evolved Approximately 17,000 sq. ft. on 5 acres. to embrace more form-fitting, sleeker suits, although her overall style remained minalimist One of a kind property! and unmemorable as she fought to keep the focus on her politics and not her appearance. Clinton’s cautious clothing choices serve as Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage a reminder that in the top echelons of politics, Dupont/Logan Circle where people take notice of smarts and savvy, clothes are still an afterthought and design cell/text: (202) 257-2339 shouldn’t serve as a distraction. Yet Clinton mhagen@cbmove.com • sbergstrom@cbmove.com is also a prime example of the double fashion standards applied to women, who often feel pressured to look attractive but not too attractive in a professional environment. Givhan agreed that American women tend Residential Brokerage Residential Brokerage to sacrifice style for being taken seriously. www.hagenbergstrom.com 202.333.6100 202.333.6100 “There often seems to be a sublimation of the pleasure and delight in fashion in exchange for JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 31

Trudeau did, diplomats can opt for simpler gestures such as wearing the national color of a country as a sign of respect.

Fashion CONTINUED • PAGE 31

FASHION STATEMENT

It’s these kinds of tricky subtleties Diplomat, Enters World of High Fashthat can speak volumes, particularly ion” in the May 2019 issue). Other noin the protocol-dictated world of ditable models included Hemal Shringla, plomacy, where public interactions wife of the Indian ambassador, and and events are carefully orchestrated Ivonn Szeverényi, wife of the Hungarian to avoid any faux pas. ambassador. The dresses and designs PHOTO: TINA KROHN “Fashion — what we wear — at spanned from lesser-known labels like [diplomatic] events is a big stateCarolina Estefan of Colombia to Ro- A look by Dur Doux is presented at “Fashion Ignites.” ment to the other country as well as berto Cavalli and Lilly Pulitzer. For countries large and small, breaking into the world of high what we want to represent of our country,” Du Plain said. “Fashfashion is critical, both from a financial and cultural standpoint. ion speaks. Fashion has a language all its own.” It makes a statement to others about not only how we feel Today, fashion is a $2.4 trillion global industry that employs tens about ourselves, but how we feel about othof millions of people. For decades, it was — and ers — and that we’ve taken the time to dress still is — dominated by luxury Western fashion appropriately, she added. houses. But as developing nations such as India “Diplomacy, for me, is really the art of inand China increasingly enter the middle class and teracting with others and the art of making become fashion consumers, the industry is poised others feel comfortable because from the infor change. teraction that we have with people, then we It’s also key for countries to export their own can trade with them, then we can talk about brand of fashion to raise awareness of their cultures the political strife, then we can discuss and growing economies in a globalized world. Guthings of, shall we say, more challenging levmarova often mentions the struggles that countries els,” Du Plain said. “If the setting is right and face trying to overcome inherent prejudice and stethe food and the dress and all of that comes reotypes when it comes to foreign designers, with together and sets an atmosphere for people traditional national attire often overlooked by the to have really good diplomacy … all of that mainstream fashion industry. is, I feel, what diplomacy is about.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, the PHOTO: JOE DAVID Gumarova said she frequently fields trend of cultural appropriation can go too far if Ambassador of the African Union questions about what to wear to diplomatic it’s not handled carefully. events. It can be confusing because counFor instance, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Arikana Chihombori-Quao, wearing tries have different protocols. She noted Trudeau and his family were ridiculed by Indians a dress from Ghana, right, poses with a guest at the “Glamour & that “business casual” can mean very difafter wearing elaborate traditional outfits that the Diplomacy” fashion show held at ferent things in two places. BBC called “Bollywood-style bling.” Gumarova, the State Department. For instance, the most popular outfit speaking at the “Diplomacy X Design” event, said choice in D.C. for an event that requires the problem with Trudeau’s attire was that many viewed it as a cheap public relations stunt that didn’t convey authenticity. Au- “smart casual” attire is a black dress with pearls for women, she dience members pointed out that instead of going all-out like said, but in Prague, that means a jacket and high heels or flats.

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32 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Attendees also have to be mindful about the designer of the clothes they wear to events. “If you go to a Palestinian reception and wear a dress made by a Jewish designer, it can be offensive,” Gumarova pointed out. Additionally, it’s a sign of disrespect to wear gloves in Asia because it impedes handshaking, she noted. “On the diplomatic level, we have to follow diplomatic protocol, but we also want to follow fashion protocol,” Gumarova said.

HATS OFF TO POWER OF FASHION

Fashion and diplomacy aren’t new bedfellows. When Benjamin Franklin traveled to France in 1776 to present his ambassador credentials to King Louis XVI, he wore a fur hat to keep his head warm. The French so admired his “rugged American frontiersman” look that he ordered more hats to wear during his visit. While Franklin choose the hat out of necessity (his head was cold), his choice was a breath of fresh air in a country fed up with the gilded excesses of Marie Antoinette’s court. Fashion has come a long way since Ben Franklin’s time, although fur hats of all varieties remain in vogue today. Moreover, just as Franklin’s hat symbolized a newly independent country’s grit and Over 250 guests attended break with tradition, fashion con- the “Fashion Ignites” tinues to convey a country’s heri- runway show. tage and values — whether it’s America, Azerbaijan or Argentina — while also serving as a cultural bridge. It’s a jumping off point to help people relate to one another, Du Plain said. Ultimately, that lays the foundation for relationships that can withstand differences when they arise. “I love the idea of people learning about different cultures and countries and therefore when we do, we have more empathy and understanding,” she said. “If we’re ultimately talking about a better world, a perfect world, a peaceful world, it’s going to come from our relationships and our ability to interact with people.” WD

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. Editorial assistant Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

Culture arts & entertainment art

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diplomatic spouses

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theater

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photography

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music

The Washington Diplomat | June 2019

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history

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dining

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film

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events

DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES

Natural Appeal

HISTORY

Ljiljana Vidovič takes a down-to-earth ap-

proach to diplomacy but still works to

promote and highlight the beauty of Slove-

nia, from its natural wonders to its sustain-

able foods to its creative fashions. PAGE 35

THEATER

Timeless Wisdom The ancient Greek trilogy “The

Oresteia”

still offers us wise lessons

today, namely that violence

begets violence and that justice and retribution are not synonymous. PAGE 36

MUSIC

ROYALLY OVERDUE “Queens of Egypt,” the National Geographic

Festive Encore

Museum’s latest

blockbuster exhibition,

By The People

takes a familiar subject

is back with

— ancient Egypt — and

an expanded

re-energizes it by plac-

festival lineup

ing women and power

of blockbuster

at the center. PAGE 34

art instal-

lations and

dialogue programs exam-

ining the theme of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — and it’s all free. PAGE 38

This bust of Nefertiti is a life-size reproduction of one of the most famous pieces of Egyptian art ever discovered.

PHOTO BY MARK THIESSEN / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 33

WD | Culture | History

Egypt’s Other Half ‘Queens of Egypt’ Takes New Look at Ancient Civilization Through Eyes of Women •

BY MACKENZIE WEINGER

Queens of Egypt THROUGH SEPT. 15

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MUSEUM 1145 17TH ST., NW

(202) 857-7700

| WWW.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.ORG

he National Geographic Museum’s new exhibition takes what may strike some as a familiar subject — ancient Egypt — and reframes and transforms it by placing women and power at the center. “Queens of Egypt” takes visitors on a journey through 1,400 years of history, with about 350 stunning artifacts on display. Goods found in the tomb of Nefertari, a papyrus scroll detailing an ancient conspiracy to kill a pharaoh and grand statues of goddesses are just a few of the remarkable objects found throughout the massive exhibition. And, of course, there are the mummies. “When you look at the official history of Egypt, it’s written for the pharaohs, by the pharaohs, about pharaohs. So it’s like a guy’s story,” curator and archaeologist-in-residence Fredrik Hiebert told The Washington Diplomat. “And you sort of think, at what point are we going to talk about the queens? They’re not written down. But through archaeology, through the artifacts and through context, we can actually tell the untold story. So we really wanted to do that at National Geographic.” It makes for a revelatory, blockbuster show. The show does a splendid job of highlighting the queens chosen by curators, beginning with Ahmose-Nefertari, who reigned from 1539 to 1514 B.C., and closing with Cleopatra, whose legacy was largely obscured and destroyed by Octavian’s propaganda. These royals are the focus, as one would expect in a show called “Queens of Egypt,” but the lives of everyday women are also explored and reconsidered. “Women in ancient Egypt, unlike other civilizations in the classical world, they did enjoy some rights that were not found in ancient history. It was a very patriarchal society. We don’t PHOTO COURTESY OF MUSEO EGIZIO, TURIN want to by any means suggest that it wasn’t, but women could own property, they could divorce their husbands, they were often portrayed in art side by side in the same size. And particularly at the royal level, there were many women who were actually ruling Egypt during a period of their life,” Kathryn Keane, the director of the museum, said. Art, science, archaeology, history and technology weave together throughout the exhibit, providing many threads to dive in and study — all through the fascinating frame of female power in ancient Egypt. National Geographic researchers detail in videos how they’ve made new discoveries about life in ancient Egypt. Guests can put on 3-D glasses and step inside an immersive theater to be transported through Queen Nefertari’s tomb. You can lift the lids of perfume jars to get a sense of the scents women may have used in ancient Egypt, or try your hand at the ancient Egyptian game senet. And some rooms feature music and highly detailed projected backdrops from a recent “Assassin’s Creed” video game that takes place

34 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

PHOTO BY REBECCA HALE / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Monumental statues of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet are among the highlights in “Queens of Egypt.”

in Egypt to evocatively set the scene. But there’s no question that the stunner is the array of artifacts on display, many from the outstanding collection of the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy. “These things are all transported by art movers. The boxes, by tradition, aren’t labeled, because you don’t want your treasures to say, ‘Hey, treasures here.’ So we don’t know what’s inside of the boxes. So that week where we spend opening the crates for me is magical. Because it’s like, box number 14? What’s it going to be?” Hiebert said. “It’s like a kid being here for the grand reveal.” A particularly memorable section features glorious monumental statues of Sekhmet, the goddess of battle who appears as a lion-headed woman. They’re PHOTO COURTESY OF MUSEO EGIZIO, TURIN breathtaking works of art, exquisitely Among the 350 objects on display in carved. “Queens of Egypt” are statues of the Galleries also explore typical life for Goddess Mut, above, and the Goddess women, whether it was in a pharaoh’s Sekhmet, below, as well as a funerary stela harem or in a village, Deir El-Medina, from the Deir el-Medina craftsmen village made during the reign of Ramses II. that was home to those working on royal projects like the tombs in the Valley of the Queens. “We wanted to have an example of some of the everyday artifacts people used — the spoons and the mirrors and the perfume bottles and the jewelry,” Keane said. And near the close of the show is a moving and strikingly beautiful section that examines ancient Egyptian rituals related to death and the afterlife, feaPHOTO BY CAROLINE THIBAULT turing ancient funerary texts and impressive sarcophagi. “By the numbers, this was sort of an astonishing coup to get this collection, because a lot of these have never traveled to the United States before,” Hiebert said. “We ended up at about 350 artifacts. They are amazing. It’s mainly New Kingdom, but we did go and add Cleopatra, because you have to have Cleopatra. You will see 350 artifacts that really do tell the story of ancient Egypt from a woman’s perspective. You won’t see anything like this in any other museum.” This is a special, can’t-miss exhibition. Supported by the Italian and Egyptian embassies, showcasing spectacular artifacts from a number of museums and highlighting National Geographic’s particular flair for employing interactive elements in their exhibitions, it’s an essential show for anyone in Washington this summer. WD Mackenzie Weinger (@mweinger) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Diplomatic Spouses | Culture | WD

Natural Appeal Well-Versed in Diplomacy, Down-to-Earth Slovenian Wife Also Enjoys Lighter Side of Life •

BY GAIL SCOTT

the diplomatic spotlight, he was enhe is fun. She is positive. She couraged to come in and say hello. is authentic. And according to Karlo is now in the 10th grade and her admirers, she radiates a realready speaks several languages like freshing brand of all three athis parents. Since he went to the Brittributes, which can at times be hard to ish School in Slovakia, his English is find in Washington’s stuffy, protocolimpeccable with no foreign accent or laden world of diplomacy. pitch pattern. “I like everybody. I am honest. I can’t Slovenia — the only country with pretend,” said Ljiljana Vidovič, wife of “love” in its name, which has become a Stanislav Vidovič, Slovenia’s ambassatourist slogan — is a popular tourism dor to the U.S. destination thanks to its picturesque Her husband, who has an equally capital Ljubljana and abundance of carefree, down-to-earth sense of humountains and lakes, including the mor, was attracted by her authenticity, famous Lake Bled. But Slovenia has too. “When I first met her in Brussels,” also distinguished itself as a leading he recalled, “there was never any hidadvocate of sustainable living and is den agenda with her.” now promoting “sustainable tourism” Besides her husband of 15 years, as part of its emphasis on green well her number-one diplomatic fan and being. sidekick is Indira Gumarova, wife of The connection is a natural fit: At Czech Ambassador Hynek Kmoníček. just under 8,000 square miles, SloveThe two have teamed up for a series nia constitutes less than 0.4 percent of fashion shows in D.C. to showcase of the Earth’s surface yet is home to 2 designs from their native countries percent of all land-based species. and promote the power of fashion diOn that note, the ambassador plomacy (also see related story in the wants everyone to know that Slovenia Luxury Living section). is called the heart and soul of bee“Washington, D.C., is often more keeping in Europe. “We are the only about titles than personalities,” Indira EU member state to have protected surmised. “Yet, you need your own its native bee, the Carniolan gray bee. circle of authentic people. Here comes Two hundred thousand Slovenians Ljiljana who knows how to live without have their own beehives.” pretension. It is important to have real In Slovenia, beehives are covered people around you if you live for real.” with colorful panels and drawings deBorn and raised in Karlovac, Croapicting various folk stories, examples tia, a city close to the capital of Zagreb, of which were on display at the emLjiljana graduated from the University bassy for the European Union Open of Zagreb with a focus on English and House showcase in May. In addition, German languages and literature. After “Honey breakfasts” are held in kinher studies, she worked as a professor dergartens and elementary schools and translator. She speaks Slovene, throughout the country to introduce English, German, Croatian, Slovak and the importance of bees to the next French, plus a bit of Danish and some generation. Italian. In fact, Slovenia, along with other “I continued my career in diplomacy Ljiljana Vidovič, a former professor and translator, is pictured with her husband, Slovenian countries, has proposed for the U.N. in Brussels, where I met my husband Ambassador Stanislav Vidovič, their 15-year-old son Karlo and the family’s beloved dog Mickey. to declare May 20 as World Bee Day. in 2001,” she said. It would be an important reminder of At the time, Stanislav Vidovič was the importance of bees, which have deputy head of Slovenia’s mission to We are the hidden jewel of Europe…. experienced a dramatic decline in reNATO. He later headed the NATO cent years — part of an overall climate Unit and the Security Policy DepartWe have been all over the internet and change-fueled loss of biodiversity that ment at the Ministry of Foreign AfU.N. estimates could trigger the fairs, eventually rising to secretarytravel magazines. We have a natural beauty the extinction of 1 million species. The general before coming to Washington. collapse of bee colonies in particular He also previously served a stint as with mountains and beaches and caves. could cause widespread agricultural ambassador to Slovakia. losses, because crops are pollinated by During our interview with Ljiljana, LJILJANA VIDOVIČ honey bees, which in turn could result her husband — who lived the first part wife of Ambassador of Slovenia Stanislav Vidovič in significant economic repercussions. of his life in what was then communist “Slovenia hopes to raise awareness Yugoslavia — left the office to stop by their self-described “home above the store.” Slovenia’s residence is just an elevator of how important bees and other pollinators are for the survival of planet Earth and ride above the contemporary embassy on California Street in the swank Kalorama survival of the human race itself,” Stanislav said. “We are also the only country that guarantees, in our constitution, fresh drinksection of Northwest Washington. I asked the ambassador if he still meets many Americans who get Slovenia and ing water as a right to its citizens,” the ambassador proudly added, reciting that Slovakia confused. “More people know the difference now,” he said, appreciating constitutional pledge: “As a priority and in a sustainable manner, water resources the irony of his previous assignment as Slovenia’s ambassador to Slovakia from shall be used to supply the population with drinking water and water for household use and … shall not be a market commodity.” 2009 to 2013. Ljiljana is especially proud of Slovenia’s culinary scene. One of the country’s selfAlong with her husband, there was someone else with us for the whole interview: Mickey, their beloved Malagasy Coton de Tulear, a white snowball of a little taught chefs, Ana Roš, was named the best female chef in the world in 2017 by dog. Hypoallergenic and continually happy, this canine companion not only goes Restaurant magazine. Her Netflix documentary, “Chef ’s Table,” has become a cult everywhere with the family, he also accompanies the ambassador to his office, at- hit. Besides her restaurant, Hisa Franko, she is also a well-known sports and travel tending meetings and “sitting” in on interviews, obviously. Although Ljiljana has been careful to keep their 15-year-old son Karlo out of SEE S POUS ES • PAGE 44

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JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 35

WD | Culture | Theater

Timeless ‘Oresteia’ Michael Kahn’s Farewell Does Justice to Ancient Greek Trilogy and to a Storied Career •

BY DERYL DAVIS

The Oresteia THROUGH JUNE 2

SHAKESPEARE THEATRE’S SIDNEY HARMAN HALL 610 F ST., NW

(202) 547-1122

| WWW.SHAKESPEARETHEATRE.ORG

mazing, isn’t it, how much we still have to learn from the Greeks. The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s inspired production of Greek playwright Aeschylus’s “Oresteia” — the earliest dramatic trilogy in the Western canon — reminds us that we have only partly learned the lessons this ancient theater originator (who was also a soldier) had to impart. Chief among them are that violence begets violence and that justice and retribution are not synonymous. You might think we would have come further since “The Oresteia” premiered in Athens some 2,500 years ago, but a look at almost any newspaper (or internet) headline tells a different story. Fitting, then, that retiring STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn — who has spent a PHOTOS: SCOTT SUCHMAN / THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE CO. three-decade-long career reminding us of the power and relevance of live theater — should take us back to the Above from left, Simone Warren as Iphigenia, Kelley Curran as Clytemnestra (also seen below) and Kelcey Watson very origins of the genre to mine its lessons as he exits the as Agamemnon star in “The Oresteia,” Michael Kahn’s final production at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. stage. His vision and leadership will be greatly missed. The Shakespeare’s production of Aeschylus’s classic trilogy is an adaptation by Kahn’s occasional collaborator Ellen McLaughlin, condensing the three plays (“Agamemnon,” “The Libation Bearers” and “The Eumenides”) into a powerful single three-act evening. One is immediately struck by the monolithic structure that dominates Susan Hilferty’s set and provides the background to all of the action: the House of Atreus, which is a character in itself, glowing red when blood is shed, as it often is in this story of vengeance, retribution and the search for justice. While McLaughlin has of necessity fectly droll delivery are a highlight of the evening, making the injured queen a eliminated some elements and figures of the trilogy — Queen Clytemnestra’s lover Aegisthus is absent, and the gods play a smaller role in human affairs — she has sympathetic, even likeable, figure despite her distasteful designs. By contrast, Bania’s Orestes takes no joy in plotting his mother’s death as venkept a steady focus on the deadly cycle of vengeance and its effects both on those who perform it and those upon whom it is performed. Chief among these are geance for the murder of his father. Driven to psychotic fits by the god Apollo, he, Kelcey Watson’s Agamemnon, just returned from the Trojan War; Agamemnon’s like his father, is forced to do a terrible thing he does not want to do. Like both longsuffering wife Clytemnestra, played by Kelley Curran; and Agamemnon’s psy- Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, he is trapped by circumstance. Through Bania’s chologically tortured son Orestes, played by Josiah Bania. In this epic story of a sympathetic portrayal, Orestes’s awful dilemma comes to life: We see a man almost wife’s revenge on her husband and a son’s revenge on his mother, McLaughlin adds literally divided against himself, knowing there must be another way out, but incaa flashback to what began it all more than 10 years earlier: General Agamemnon’s pable of seeing it. The furies of his conscience simply will not let him go. As Orestes’ surviving sister, Electra, Rad Pereira brings earthiness and solidity sacrifice of his and Clytemnestra’s daughter Iphigenia in return for the gods’ favor to Orestes’s geographic and psychological peregrinations. She tends her father’s in the war against Troy. From the very beginning, we are drawn into the shock and poignancy of the di- tomb, just in front of the House of Atreus, and honors his memory through the lemma these parents face. Agamemnon must choose between disaster in the war “long sweaty job of keeping hatred alight.” Yet she acknowledges that her hatred and his daughter’s life; Clytemnestra between revenge for what her husband has has blocked out the blue of the sky and the stars at night, while hinting that vendone or acceptance of the gods’ demand. Watson movingly presents Agamemnon geance may not be the panacea she has imagined. Pereira endows the orphaned as a good man forced into an untenable situation, with no way out. Curran’s Cly- figure with a nuance and complexity that is tamer but no less powerful than Ortemnestra, by contrast, is all fury and deliberation, a mother stripped of mother- estes’s own. It may be the Chorus, that staple of Greek drama infrequently seen in modern hood, who will exact a terrible price for the loss of a child and of her power. The first half of the evening belongs to Curran, whose nightmare-haunted theater, that most commands our attention as the story progresses. It is they who yet majestic Clytemnestra plots, curses and shares the intimate, surprisingly hu- offer a primal wisdom we all recognize, and they who pepper the universe with morous, moments of an over-taxed mother’s life — one whose partner has been SEE OR ES T EIA • PAGE 41 AWOL for the past 10 years. Clytemnestra’s dark, caustic humor and Curran’s per-

36 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Theater | Culture | WD

Fun Frolic Folger Finds Direction and Folly in Shakespeare’s Over-the-Top ‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ •

BY LISA TROSHINSKY

Love’s Labor Lost THROUGH JUNE 16 FOLGER THEATRE

201 EAST CAPITOL ST., SE TICKETS ARE $42 TO $85.

(202) 544-7077

| WWW.FOLGER.EDU/THEATRE

t’s hard to tackle “Love’s Labor’s Lost,” one of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies, for a variety of reasons. The play’s complicated wordplay, harebrained plot, pedantic humor and obscure literary allusions are some of them. But Folger Theatre’s current production rises to the occasion of making this play an enjoyable romp thanks to its inventive direction, superb acting and gorgeous costumes and set. The tale is as such: The King of Navarre and his three lords swear an oath to scholarship, which includes fasting, study and, most importantly, no contact with women for three years. Knowing Shakespeare’s preference for romantic mix-ups, one can guess how that last promise plays out. Almost immediately it is put to the test when the love-starved men are visited by the fetching Princess of France and her three lovely courtiers. As can be expected, the men succumb to their temptations and pursue the women — all while each trying unsuccessfully to hide their fall from grace from their cohorts. Although there’s not much meat to the plot, the Bard makes up for this fact with over-thetop antics — naturally there are hidden identities and lost letters — sophisticated rhymes and entertaining characters. For example, devoted bachelor Berowne — arguably the most engaging of the king’s lords —has issues with the strictness of the oath and makes a long speech in which he argues that to look at a woman is the best way to learn beauty, and that their collective scholarship oath has led them further away from true study. The king buys his logic and the men all resolve to openly pursue the women. His reasoning is infectiously adorable. In an effort to bring fresh life to the play, director Vivienne Benesch has set the comedy in the 1930s, when Depression-era folk sought out gay amusement to forget their troubles — a theme that syncs perfectly with this play’s plot. In the ’30s people would escape to the movie houses as a temporary distraction from their monetary woes. In the play, the men use the distractions of women to ignore their monastic vows, finding ways to rationalize their pursuit of the forbidden gender. Instead of a king’s castle, set designer Lee Savage stages the play inside a beautifully refined library that replicates the Folger Library’s Paster Reading Room. The well-appointed reading room — spot-on for the king and his lords’ three years of study — is adorned with floor-to-ceiling wooden bookcases, a second-floor stained-glass window and warm lighting. Tracy Christensen’s elaborate costumes for the women capture the imagination of the 1930s with glamourous, well-tailored, bias-cut dresses, tilt hats and gloves, as well as glitzy beaded flapper dresses. The men don classic ’30s smart suits of broad shoulders, thin waists and tapered wide legs, topped off with snazzy bow ties. The acting in this production is accomplished, but the performance that stands

PHOTOS: BRITTANY DILIBERTO

Above, the King of Navarre (Joshua David Robinson, top) proclaims his court as a place of scholarly pursuit to his companions (Zachary Fine, Jack Schmitt and Matt Dallal) in Folger Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s comedy “Love’s Labor’s Lost.”

out the most is from Zachary Fine, who plays Berowne. Shakespeare has written him to be the most outrageous of the lords and Fine personifies this characterization with relish. Berowne stands out as the lord not eager to sign the abstinence pledge and tries to talk his way out of parts of the oath he doesn’t like. He calls the requirements “barren tasks, too hard to keep … not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep,” but finally agrees to a decree that “can be forsworn on mere necessity.” Fine steals the stage while making the king and others look foolish trying to honor vows that are impossible for them to keep. Berowne later refers to his friends as “wretched fools,” even though he finds himself in exactly the same position of trying to secretly profess his love to Rosaline, one of the princess’s ladies. Another overly conspicuous character is Don Armado, played by Eric Hissom. Armado, a Spaniard visiting the court, sends a letter to the king, informing him that he has caught Costard, a comic country bumpkin, and Jaquenetta, a sensual maiden, consorting together and thus has sent them to the king for punishment. The twist comes when we realize that Armado is in love with Jaquenetta himself. Hissom portrays Armado comically with a thick accent and histrionic gestures, so much so that the other men mock his inferior intellect and criticize his pronunciation and written letters, saying they “abhor such rackers of orthography.” Although Hissom overplays this role as bit, one must admit he is hilarious. This play gets its charm from its dichotomies. The men, who are self-professed cerebral academics, fall madly in love with the women on first sight — clearly not for intellectual reasons. Their images of themselves and their actions make a mockery of what they think they stand for. At the same time, they use heady language and word play, which contradicts their personalities and actions. Here, Shakespeare is clearly poking fun at the upper class, scholarship and masculine desire as the women take the upper hand in their courtship, and ultimately reject their offers. Were the men’s hot pursuits all for naught? Maybe for the gentlemen in question, but not for the audience who gets to enjoy every moment of their debacles. WD Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat. JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 37

WD | Culture | Festivals

People Power By The People Is Back to Explore Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness •

BY MACKENZIE WEINGER

By The People JUNE 15 TO 23

THROUGHOUT WASHINGTON, D.C. WWW.BYTHEPEOPLE.ORG

y The People is back in Washington, D.C., this June with an expanded lineup of blockbuster art installations and dialogue programs examining the theme of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — and it’s all free. The festival made a splash with its introduction to Washington’s arts scene in 2018, bringing dozens of artists, speakers, musicians and dancers to town (also see “By The People Pursues Ideals, Innovations in New Citywide Festival” in the August 2018 issue). The goal is to connect different people and cultures and foster open, civil discourse about timely issues such as equity and justice. Last year saw over 26,000 visits to the festival’s eclectic mix of events, which ranged from interactive art installations to go-go performances to an augmented reality art hunt. Now it’s returned for a second year from June 15 to 23 for an even bigger exploration of the theme at the heart of this citywide ART BY DAN STEINHILBER arts extravaganza organized by Halcyon, a nonprofit with a stage series and arts incubator to its name. “Our 2018 inaugural festival went far beyond our expectations. Building on the success of last year, this year’s festival will once again be in every quadrant of the city,” Kate Goodall, CEO of Halcyon, told The Washington Diplomat in a statement. Goodall said there is “tremendous excitement” this year around several new additions, including a river barge that will move up and down the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. “The floating art installation by For Freedoms co-founder Hank Willis Thomas, titled ‘THEY ARE US, US IS THEM,’ will stop in Georgetown’s Washington Harbour, Capitol Riverfront and Anacostia. Just as the festival is intended to connect people, the barge will create moments of connection, joy and engagement,” she said. This year’s festival is curated by Jessica Stafford Davis, a McLean, Va., resident and founder of The Agora Culture, an online multicultural arts platform that supports emerging artists of color. The inclusion this year of the river-based installation is especially relevant to her interpretation of the theme, she said. “The Anacostia River, in particular, has been a symbol of division between ‘the haves and the have-nots,’” Stafford Davis said. “I look forward to the discussion this may bring about how we sometimes unknowingly isolate communities around us.” On that note, a series of dialogues, co-produced with Politics and Prose, will examine the city’s burgeoning arts scene and its long history of civil discourse. Other events range from photographs by João Pina of Portugal, to a large-scale outdoor net sculpture at CityCenterDC, to a program series that examines the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation presented by the Spanish and Mexican embassies. There are four main hubs for those looking to participate in By The People: the Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building, Union Market, CityCenterDC and the river barge. Other locations include the Anacostia Arts Center, IA&A at Hillyer, DC Arts Center and several additional locations scattered throughout the city. And like last year, together with the Smithsonian, the festival will host a “Solstice Saturday” on June 22, with free programs and performances at Smithsonian museums open until midnight. Throughout the nine-day festival, these spots will showcase site-specific installations, interactive works, artist talks and pop-up performances. “My work focuses on people and communities that have been muted. I am shining a light on voices that find themselves on the sidelines,” Stafford Davis said. “I aimed this year on bringing together artists that would make people think and contemplate on how they see the world and what people outside their community face.” Artist Kahlil Joseph — perhaps best known for his collaboration with Beyoncé on her “Lemonade” album — is presenting his new audio-visual installation “BLKNWS,” which

38 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

PHOTOS: CHRIS FERENZI PHOTOGRAPHY

By The People will bring dozens of artists, speakers, musicians and dancers to various D.C. venues, including the Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building, to connect different cultures and foster civil discourse.

emerged as a major hit at the Venice Biennale. The two-channel video broadcast imagines a cable news network that resembles what viewers might come across on CNN, Fox News or MSNBC in the real world. But Joseph manipulates the power of film and incorporates samples of popular culture, archival material and ART BY LINDA HESH filmed news desk segments to blur the lines between journalism, art and cultural criticism. Throughout the festival, visitors will be able to find the installation at Union Market, at Mason’s Barbershop on H Street, NE, and on TV monitors at the Eaton Hotel, with minimal signage suggesting what is playing. “I wanted different vantage points and lenses in which to look at the world, ultimately helping us move toward unity and empathy,” Stafford Davis said. “Artists are joined together under this theme by making the viewer see the present and contemplate the future. For example, we have Kahlil Joseph’s new work, ‘BLKNWS,’ which critiques Western civilization through the lens of the African American experience.” For returning guests, there are a few new additions to the By The People festival this year that were spurred by laessons learned in 2018, Goodall noted. “We heard from many people that the festival wasn’t long enough, so we’ve expanded to nine days this year. We also heard how much visitors enjoyed the art installations, but they also wanted the opportunity to purchase art. So this year we’ve added an art fair, in partnership with Monochrome Collective, featuring the work of 31 emerging D.C. area artists who deserve to be showcased along with international superstars such as Kahlil Joseph. The fair, which kicks off a week before the festival on June 8, will undoubtedly generate excitement for what’s to come,” she said. With this year’s theme exploring the country’s founding principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through the lens of justice and equity, Stafford Davis added that it should be a particularly vibrant event for those in the diplomatic community. “Having spent my entire life in the Washington region, I know how engaged the diplomatic community is in the DMV’s rich cultural offerings,” she said. “D.C.’s embassies host film festivals, art installations and performances. Here is another opportunity to celebrate the arts and artists that make our city an arts destination and a wonderful place to call home.” WD Mackenzie Weinger (@mweinger) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

Music | Culture | WD

All That Jazz! Citywide Festival, Now in Its 15th Year, Sings Jazz’s Praises on the World Stage •

BY KATE OCZYPOK

2019 DC Jazz Festival JUNE 7 TO 16

THROUGHOUT WASHINGTON, D.C. WWW.DCJAZZFEST.ORG

azz originated in the African American communities of New Orleans but quickly spread to became a global sensation, inspiring international offshoots ranging from Afro-Cuban jazz to acid jazz in the U.K. So it’s only fitting that the 15th edition of the DC Jazz Festival celebrates both the local roots of this distinctly American art form as well as its enduring influence around the world. To that end, the popular festival presented by Events DC has teamed up with the embassies of Finland, Australia, Denmark, South Africa, Italy, Russia, Luxembourg and Canada, among others, to showcase a broad array of international talent. In fact, the festival’s opening ceremony will be held on June 6 at the residence of the ambassador of Denmark, a country that Sunny Sumter, executive director of the D.C. Jazz Festival, says has an amazing jazz scene right now. Stefon Harris and Sharón Clark will be featured at the event. A special segment of the festival, the Charles Fishman Embassy Series, will be devoted entirely to exploring how jazz has evolved into a global musical phenomenon. In all, there will be 160 shows throughout the festival featuring some 300 artists from the U.S. and around the world planned for 40 venues in 22 neighborhoods around the city. Last year, a record-setting 110,000 people attended the citywide jazz extravaganza. “Jazz is such a thriving art form right now,” Sumter told us. “It’s being taught at both the high school and college level and there are so many great musicians making careers out of music.” The roster of DC JazzFest artists ranges from 14-year-old José Andre Montanho, a blind pianist from Bolivia; to up-and-coming innovators such as the Texas-bred/New York-based quasi-collective known as Snarky Puppy; to established veterans who have been performing for decades. Sumter encourages Washingtonians to experience this diverse lineup that will take place in every quadrant of the city and cater to a broad range of audiences, from the novice to the expert. For instance, there will Jazz ‘N Families Fun Days at the Phillips Collection along with special date night events. Meanwhile, the Jazz in the ‘Hoods series is a partnership with local clubs, restaurants, hotels, galleries, places of worship and performing arts spaces to celebrate and honor jazz in the nation’s capital. Among the eclectic venues are the Anacostia Playhouse; Bistro Lepic & Wine Bar; Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens; Howard Theatre; the Kennedy Center; Madams Organ; Rumba Café; Sixth & I Historic Synagogue; and local mainstays Blues Alley and Twins Jazz. The series will illustrate not only the vitality of jazz, but also the vibrancy of D.C. as a constantly evolving and eclectic cultural hub. Other highlights include: an event honoring the great masters of jazz hosted by Nick Cannon at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall; the Anat Cohen Quartet at Hamilton Live; the Chuck Brown Band at the Gateway DC Pavilion; the Capitol Hill Jazz Jam at Mr. Henry’s; Louisiana-born Jordon Dixon at the University of the District of Columbia JAZZAlive; Etienne Charles Creole Soul at City Winery DC; and Chris Potter exploring the Billy Strayhorn Collection at the Library of Congress. Many of the performances will take place at The Wharf, the city’s newest development complex that is home to restaurants, shops and a major concert venue along the Southwest Waterfront. The finals of the DC JazzPrix annual international band competition will be held there on June 15 at Pearl Street Warehouse. That weekend, The Wharf will also serve as a stage for an array of international talent such as Yannick Rieu of Canada; Cinema Italia; Danish bassist Anee Mette Iversen; and the Olli Soikkeli Trio of Finland. As part of the festival’s

PHOTOS: FRITZPHOTOGRAPHICS

The 15th annual DC Jazz Festival, which will be held at The Wharf, seen above, regularly brings a diverse array of jazz artists to Washington, D.C., such as Ben Williams, far left, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

marquee weekend, the international artists will perform at one of three outdoor stages and an indoor stage at The Anthem. The festival took place at Yards Park in the Southeast neighborhood of Capitol Riverfront for four years but eventually outgrew the space, choosing The Wharf as its new home. The festival is currently in a five-year partnership with the burgeoning neighborhood. “The Wharf is brilliantly constructed and designed,” Sumter said. “The piers offer a great experience for us to have music stages — we have a floating stage, too.” With The Anthem, the festival will utilize the 6,000-seat warehouse-chic venue for indoor performances. “Jazz has always been a part of cultural diplomacy,” Sumter said, citing the State Department’s 1956 Jazz Ambassadors Program. The first 10-week tour of that program saw prominent artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman visiting countries like Pakistan, Turkey and Greece to foster relations and improve America’s public image. Sumter was a traveling jazz musician herself who has experienced the power of music to bridge cultural and political differences. She traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg without knowing anything about the Russian language. Artists prepared her music in advance and when she arrived in the country, she said “it was like we were best friends.” “It was such a fantastic experience. I still hold it with me this very day,” Sumter said. “Some of the greatest ways we can communicate every day is around music and culture. It really speaks to the whole spirit of diplomacy and our own humanity to be able to reach across what may be our divides and find our common ground.” Sumter calls herself a fan of jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, a civil rights activist who passed away in 2010. She also loves the “Great American Songbook,” the canon of some of the most seminal American jazz standards from the early 20th century that includes pieces like “Love Is Here to Stay.” Sumter noted that John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” is still one of her favorite songs to sing. Another key player who has made the festival such a success is Artistic Director Willard Jenkins. Jenkins helps set the tone for the festival in terms of themes and artists represented. He also books the talent. Jenkins works on the ongoing, year-round Embassy Series program, named after the festival’s founder, Charles Fishman, who was the personal manager and producer of jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie. “Many countries have their own jazz artists and have educated their own jazz artists through their own music education system,” Jenkins told us. “Jazz has evolved into an international language. It makes sense for us to have relationships with embassies.” WD Kate Oczypok (@OczyKate) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 39

WD | Culture | Film

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

CZECH Dukla 61

Directed by David Ondříček Czech Republic, 2018, 150 min.) In this gripping drama based on true events, college student Petr brings home his pregnant girlfriend Jana, deciding to abandon his studies and become a miner like his father. But failure to comply with safety protocol and the pressure to produce results results in one of the country’s greatest mining tragedies. THE AVALON THEATRE WED., JUNE 12, 8 P.M.

DUTCH Yamada

Directed by Sharelly Emanuelson (Curaçao, 2018, 85 min.) Curaçao’s Grupo Serenada was formed in 1977, when a local youth rock band merged with a church choir, drawing its repertoire from the African, European and regional Caribbean influences that have shaped the country’s music. Over the years, the group has explored the boundaries of local music and experimented with voice harmonization, rhythms and musical styles (Dutch, Papiamentu and Spanish). AFI SILVER THEATRE MON., JUNE 10, 7 P.M.

ENGLISH All Is True

Directed by Kenneth Branagh (U.K., 2019, 101 min.) The year is 1613 and William Shakespeare is acknowledged as the greatest writer of the age. But disaster strikes when his renowned Globe Theatre burns to the ground. Devastated, Shakespeare returns to Stratford where he must face a troubled past and a neglected family. LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

American Woman

Directed by Jake Scott (U.K./U.S., 2019, 111 min.) In a small, blue-collar town in Pennsylvania, a 32-year-old woman’s teen daughter goes missing and she is left to raise her infant grandson alone. The story is told over the course of 11 years, from the time her daughter vanishes, through the the trials-andtribulations of subsequent years looking for closure, leading up the long-awaited discovery of the truth. ANGELIKA MOSAIC OPENS FRI., JUNE 14

Babylon

Directed by Franco Rosso (U.K., 1980, 95 min.)

Raw and smoldering, this film follows a young dancehall DJ in South London as he pursues his musical ambitions, battling fiercely against the racism and xenophobia of employers, neighbors, police and the National Front (English and Jamaican). AFI SILVER THEATRE SAT., JUNE 8, 9:30 P.M.

Being Blacker

Directed by Molly Dineen (Jamaica/U.K., 2018, 90 min.) This documentary tells the story of Blacker Dread, a renowned Jamaican-born reggae producer and record shop owner from Brixton, the traditional home of London’s Jamaican migrants. AFI SILVER THEATRE MON., JUNE 10, 9 P.M.

The Biggest Little Farm

Directed by John Chester (U.S., 2018, 91 min.) This documentary chronicles the eight-year quest of John and Molly Chester as they trade city living for 200 acres of barren farmland and a dream to harvest in harmony with nature. Through dogged perseverance and embracing the opportunity provided by nature’s conflicts, the Chester’s unlock and uncover a biodiverse design for living that exists far beyond their farm, its seasons, and our wildest imagination. ANGELIKA MOSAIC LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

Booksmart

Directed by Olivia Wilde (U.S., 2019, 102 min.)

On the eve of their high school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined not to fall short of their peers, the girls try to cram four years of fun into one night. AFI SILVER THEATRE

ATLANTIC PLUMBING CINEMA

Bruk Out! A Dancehall Queen Documentary

Directed by Cori Wapnowska (U.S., 2017, 69 min.) “BRUK OUT!” looks deep inside the raw, energetic world of Jamaican dancehall culture through the eyes of the powerful women at its heart — dancehall queens. AFI SILVER THEATRE FRI., JUNE 7, 10 P.M.

Hall

Directed by Rommel Hall (Barbados, 2017, 95 min.)

On Dec. 16, 1984, the small island of Barbados is rocked by the news of the bloody murder of a white plantation owner. The four men involved were rounded up and sent to be tried in court. But what followed were tales of daring escapes and police chases as one of the men consistently remained one step ahead of the law. AFI SILVER THEATRE SUN., JUNE 9, 3:45 P.M.

40 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

Halston

Directed by Frédéric Frowick (U.S., 2019, 105 min.) Prodigiously talented, Halston reigned over fashion in the 1970s and became a household name. But everything changed in the Wall Street era. With his empire under threat, Halston took the biggest gamble of his life. LANDMARK’S THEATRES OPENS FRI., JUNE 7

Hero – Inspired by the Extraordinary Life & Times of Mr. Ulric Cross Directed by Frances-Anne Solomon

(Trinidad and Tobago/Canada/ Ghana/U.K., 2018, 110 min.) “Hero” is the story of Ulric Cross, who in 1941 left his small island home in Trinidad to seek his fortune and become the British Royal Air Force’s most decorated West Indian airman. His life took a dramatically different course when he followed the call of history and joined the independence movements sweeping Africa in the 1950s and ’60s. AFI SILVER THEATRE THU., JUNE 6, 7:15 P.M.

Late Night

Directed by Nisha Ganatra (U.S., 2019, 102 min.) Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is a pioneer on the late-night talk-show circuit. When she’s accused of being a “woman who hates women,” she puts affirmative action in action and presto, Molly (Mindy Kaling) is hired as the one woman in Katherine’s all-male writers’ room. ANGELIKA MOSAIC OPENS FRI., JUNE 7

Long Shot

Directed by Jonathan Levine (U.S., 2019, 125 min.) Journalist Fred Flarsky reunites with his childhood crush, Charlotte Field, now one of the most influential women in the world. As she prepares to make a run for the Presidency, Charlotte hires Fred as her speechwriter and sparks fly (English, French and Russian). ATLANTIC PLUMBING CINEMA

Meeting Gorbachev

Directed by Werner Herzog and Andre Singer (U.K./U.S./Germany, 2019, 90 min.) This riveting documentary chronicles the life of Mikhail Gorbachev, the visionary last leader of the Soviet Union, who tried to make the world a safer place (English, Russian, German and Polish). LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

Pavarotti

Directed by Ron Howard (U.K./U.S., 2019) Ron Howard directs this look at the life and work of opera icon Luciano Pavarotti. ANGELIKA MOSAIC

OPENS FRI., JUNE 7

Red Joan

Directed by Trevor Nunn (U.K., 2018, 101 min.) Joan Stanley (Judi Dench) is a widow living out a quiet retirement in the suburbs when, shockingly, the British Secret Service places her under arrest. The charge: providing classified scientific information — including details on the building of the atomic bomb — to the Soviet government for decades. As she is interrogated, Joan relives the dramatic events that shaped her life and beliefs: her student days at Cambridge, where she excelled at physics while challenging deep-seated sexism; her tumultuous love affair with a dashing political radical; and the devastation of World War II. LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

The Reggae Boyz

Directed by Till Schauder (Jamaica/Germany, 2018, 75 min.) Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in the world, but on November 16, 1997, when Jamaica’s national soccer team — a.k.a. the Reggae Boyz — qualified for the 1998 World Cup, not a single bullet was fired in the country. As the Reggae Boyz embark on their 2014 World Cup campaign, a steel factory worker dreams of playing on the national team, competing in his local amateur league by night and refusing to give up his dream. AFI SILVER THEATRE SUN., JUNE 9, 1:30 P.M.

Rocketman

Directed by Dexter Fletcher (U.K/U.S., 2019, 121 min.) This musical fantasy follows the journey of transformation from shy piano prodigy Reginald Dwight into international superstar Elton John. ANGELIKA MOSAIC

ATLANTIC PLUMBING CINEMA LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records

Directed by Nicolas Jack Davies (U.K., 2018, 86 min.) Combining archival footage, dramatic reconstructions and interviews with legendary artists, RUDEBOY places the story of London label Trojan Records, which, during the late 1960s and early ’70s, became one of the most influential Jamaican record companies in history. AFI SILVER THEATRE SAT., JUNE 8, 7:30 P.M., TUE., JUNE 11, 9:20 P.M.

The Souvenir

Directed by Joanna Hogg (U.K./U.S., 2019, 119 min.) A shy but ambitious film student begins to find her voice as an artist while navigating a turbulent courtship with a charismatic but untrustworthy man. ANGELIKA MOSAIC

The Washington Diplomat LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

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Sprinter

Directed by Storm Saulter (Jamaica/U.S., 2018, 114 min.) “Sprinter” follows Akeem Sharp, a talented young athlete who is set to be Jamaica’s next big track-and-field sensation. But Akeem’s rising star is weighed down by turmoil at home: a volatile father and an unruly older brother who insinuates himself into Akeem’s career. AFI SILVER THEATRE SUN., JUNE 9, 8 P.M.

The Tomorrow Man

Directed by Noble Jones (U.S., 2019, 94 min.) Ed Hemsler spends his life preparing for a disaster that may never come. Ronnie Meisner spends her life shopping for things she may never use. In a small town, these two people will try to find love while trying not to get lost in each other’s stuff. ANGELIKA MOSAIC

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

Unfinished Sentences

Directed by Mariel Brown (Trinidad and Tobago, 2018, 95 min.) In the wake of Trinidadian writer Wayne Brown’s death in 2009, his filmmaker daughter Mariel examines his legacy and the nature of family, love, loss and art. AFI SILVER THEATRE WED., JUNE 12, 7 P.M.

Van Gogh & Japan

Directed by David Bickerstaff (Netherlands, 2019, 85 min.) In this little known story of Van Gogh’s art, we see just how important his study of Japan was. The film travels not only to France and the Netherlands but also to Japan to further explore the heritage that so affected Van Gogh and made him the artist we know of today. THE AVALON THEATRE SUN., JUNE 9, 10:30 A.M., TUE., JUNE 11, 10:30 A.M.

Walking on Water

Directed by Andrey Paounov (Italy/U.S./Germany/UAE, 2019, 105 min.) Seven years after the passing of his wife and creative partner, Jeanne-Claude, renowned environmental artist Christo sets out to realize The Floating Piers, a project they conceived together many years before. We follow his visionary quest to install a wide golden walkway floating across the scenic Italian alpine Lake Iseo, looking like a heavenly dream but sturdy enough to support hundreds of thousands of people. LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

Wild Nights with Emily

Directed by Madeleine Olnek (U.S., 2018, 84 min.)

June 2019

In the mid-19th century, Emily Dickinson, the iconic poet thought to have been a reclusive, is writing prolifically, is baking gingerbread and enjoying a passionate, lifelong romantic relationship with another woman, her friend and sister-in-law Susan. WEST END CINEMA

Wild Rose

Directed by Tom Harper (U.K., 2019, 100 min.) Rose-Lynn Harlan is bursting with raw talent, charisma and cheek. Fresh out of prison and reunited with her son and daughter, all she wants is to get out of Glasgow and make it as a country singer in Nashville. ANGELIKA MOSAIC OPENS FRI., JUNE 28

Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation

Directed by Barak Goodman and Jamila Ephron (U.S., 2019, 106 min.) Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the legendary event, this film tells the fascinating story of how the three-day Woodstock concert was conceived and, against all obstacles, put together and delivered. LANDMARK’S THEATRES OPENS FRI., JUNE 14

Yuli

Directed by Icíar Bollaín (Cuba/Spain/UK/Germany, 2018, 115 min.) Based on the autobiography of Cuban ballet superstar Carlos Acosta, “Yuli” recounts the dancer’s upbringing in Cuba, his path to Cuba’s National Ballet School, his move to the Royal Ballet in London and his relationship with his father, his family and his country (English and Spanish). AFI SILVER THEATRE TUE., JUNE 11, 7 P.M.

FRENCH César and Rosalie

Directed by Claude Sautet (France, 1972, 110 min.) Romy Schneider plays a recent divorcee who splits her time between family and the wealthy César (Yves Montand). When David (Sami Frey), an old flame of Rosalie’s, appears, the two men vie for her affections. LA MAISON FRANÇAISE TUE., JUNE 11, 7 P.M.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Directed by Alain Resnais (France, 1959, 91 min.) In Alain Resnais’s groundbreaking work of the New Wave, Emmanuelle Riva portrays a French actress researching a role in post-war Hiroshima. She enters into an affair with a Japanese architect while experiencing flashbacks of a doomed wartime tryst with a German soldier. LA MAISON FRANÇAISE TUE., JUNE 25, 7 P.M.

Film | Culture | WD My Son

Directed by Christian Carion (France/Belgium, 2019, 84 min.) After years of putting his career above his family, Julien has found himself with a failed marriage. One day he receives a distressing message from his ex-wife that their 7-year-old son has disappeared while at camp. When authorities provide little help, Julien takes matters into his own hands and begins the treacherous search alone. WEST END CINEMA

Non-Fiction

Directed by Olivier Assayas (France, 2019, 108 min.) Set amidst the bohemian intelligentsia of the Parisian publishing world, “Non-Fiction” traces the romantic and emotional fallout that results when a controversial writer begins blurring the line between fact and fiction, using his real-life love affairs — including a passionate fling with an actress (Juliette Binoche) who happens to be married to his editor — as fodder for his explosive new novel. ANGELIKA MOSAIC

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LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

HAITIAN CREOLE Douvan Jou Ka Leve

Directed by Gessica Généus (Haiti/France, 2018, 51 min.) In this textured and surprising personal documentary, Haitian filmmaker and actress Gessica Généus undertakes a journey to understand what she calls Haiti’s “illness of the soul” — the country’s fraught religious divide between Vodou and Christianity.

fiancée. The pair develop a connection that transforms them in ways they could not expect (Hindi, Gujarati and English).

LANDMARK’S BETHESDA ROW CINEMA

LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

AFI SILVER THEATRE MON., JUNE 24, 7:15 P.M., WED., JUNE 26, 7:15 P.M.

JAPANESE

Hit the Night

Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance

Directed by Toshiya Fujita (Japan, 1974, 89 min.) Our furious heroine is captured by the authorities and sentenced to death for the various killings she has committed. However, she is offered a chance to escape—if she carries out dangerous orders for the government. FREER GALLERY OF ART WED., JUNE 5, 2 P.M.

KOREAN 1987: When the Day Comes

Directed by Jang Joon-hwan (South Korea, 2017, 129 min.) This political thriller tells the true story of a student activist’s death and its subsequent cover-up, which sparked the 1987 June democracy movement that eventually ousted Chun Doo-hwan’s military dictatorship and brought democracy to South Korea. FREER GALLERY OF ART SUN., JUNE 9, 2 P.M.

The Fortress

Directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk (South Korea, 2017, 139 min.) Set in 1636, this sweeping historical epic tells the story of China’s invasion of Korea and the stalwart soldiers who waged a last-ditch defense of a mountain fortification.

AFI SILVER THEATRE SUN., JUNE 9, 12 P.M.

FREER GALLERY OF ART SUN., JUNE 16, 2 P.M.

HINDI

Grass

Photograph

Directed by Ritesh Batra (Germany/India/U.S., 2019, 110 min.) A struggling street photographer in Mumbai, pressured to marry by his grandmother, convinces a shy stranger to pose as his

we begin to wonder whether A-reum is simply recording the events around her or creating the very fiction we are watching.

Directed by Hong Sang-soo (South Korea, 2018, 66 min.) in a pleasant Seoul café, a woman named A-reum sits alone, typing on her laptop and eavesdropping on other customers. But we soon become aware that nothing is as straightforward as it appears. Scenes are out of order, and

Oresteia CONTINUED • PAGE 36

the questions we all wish to ask. “We learn nothing except through suffering,” they ruefully lament early on. Elsewhere they ominously acknowledge that “[t]he past does not forget us.” While that may be true, the Chorus does not allow itself to be bound by the past. It is the one character (or characters) that probes the walls of the House of Atreus for another way out. “Can we clean this house?” they ask in refrain several times over the evening. Dressed in drab smocks and differently colored turbans, the ethnically diverse, eight-member Chorus are

Directed by Jeong Ga-young (South Korea, 2017, 85 min.) Playing an independent filmmaker much like herself, director Jeong Ga-young invites a handsome young actor out for drinks under the pretense of interviewing him for her latest project — but her real goal is to get him into bed. AFI SILVER THEATRE THU., JUNE 13, 7:15 P.M.

Hotel by the River

Directed by Hong Sang-soo (South Korea, 2018, 96 min.) Two interconnected storylines are set in and around a quiet hotel in winter. In one, an aging poet is visited by his estranged adult sons. In the other, a young woman, with an unexplained wound on her hand, holes up with a friend to recover from a bad breakup. AFI SILVER THEATRE MON., JUNE 24, 8:45 P.M., TUE., JUNE 25, 7:15 P.M.

Little Forest

Directed by Yim Soon-rye (South Korea, 2018, 103 min.) The latest film from pioneering female director Yim Soon-rye is the heartwarming story of a young woman who abandons city life for her remote childhood home. There, she rediscovers the simple pleasures of growing and cooking her own food while reconnecting with childhood friends — and her troubled, single mother. AFI SILVER THEATRE TUE., JUNE 4, 7:15 P.M.

Microhabitat

Directed by Jeon Go-woon (South Korea, 2017, 106 min.) A musician turned cleaning woman has pared down her life to the bare essentials — whiskey, cigarettes and a roof over her head — in an attempt to drop out of Korea’s high-pressure society. But when she loses her apart-

indeed the housekeepers of this haunted place, cursed by cyclical violence. “We have to find a way forward,” they insist, and what results in Act Three, after Orestes’s murder of Clytemnestra, is not more retribution — the impulsive response to an impulsive first move — but dialogue and debate. This is the supposed historical purpose of Aeschylus’s trilogy, to explain the origins and usefulness of trial by jury and the system of law in response to ancient blood feuds and personal vendetta. Here, the propulsive momentum of the first two acts seems to slow, the turn from action to debate appearing almost premeditated. If one gets the uneasy feeling of being back in school, that may be the point. It almost certainly was for Aeschylus. This final act is in a sense teaching us: See, there’s a better way to handle our disagreements than picking up a sword. Or a gun. Or a nuclear weapon. Or even simply defaming another person. The way forward for

ment, she is forced to depend on the kindness of old friends, causing her to question whether her personal code of honor is sustainable.

AFI SILVER THEATRE WED., JUNE 19, 7:15 P.M. FREER GALLERY OF ART FRI., JUNE 14, 7 P.M.

The Running Actress

Directed by Moon So-ri (South Korea, 2017, 71 min.)

Award-winning star Moon So-ri has been one of Korea’s most famous actresses for years. Recently, she turned her talents to directing. The result is a semi-fictional self-portrait in three parts. In the first, a chance meeting with a famous producer highlights the sexism still present in the Korean film industry. The second depicts a typical week in Moon’s life. Finally, another director’s funeral becomes an occasion for arguments and reflections by Moon and two fellow actresses. FREER GALLERY OF ART FRI., JUNE 7, 7 P.M.

MANDARIN Shadow

Directed by Zhang Yimou (China/Hong Kong, 2018, 116 min.) In a kingdom ruled by a young and unpredictable king, the military commander has a secret weapon: a “shadow,” a look-alike who can fool both his enemies and the king himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the king does not want. LANDMARK’S E STREET CINEMA

SPANISH 1950: The Nationalist Uprising

Directed by José Manuel Dávila Marichal (Puerto Rico, 2017, 105 min.) Electrifying, revealing and timely, this documentary revisits a seminal event in Puerto Rico’s history: the 10 days in October 1950 when 100 people, members of the island’s Nationalist Party, took up arms to overthrow the

rule of the United States and establish Puerto Rican sovereignty.

AFI SILVER THEATRE

SAT., JUNE 8, 1:15 P.M.

Broken Island

Directed by Félix Germán (Dominican Republic, 2018, 104 min.)

When Guy, a young Haitian boy fleeing poverty, witnesses the murder of his parents at the Dominican border, he is taken in and adopted by a Haitian couple. Guy grows up working in the country’s sugar cane fields, all the while planning to avenge his parents’ murders. But the October 1937 military massacre of more than 30,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent forces Guy and his newfound love Meuda to escape Haiti in search of a new life (Spanish and Haitian Creole). AFI SILVER THEATRE SAT., JUNE 8, 11 A.M.

Eliades Ochoa: From Cuba to the World

Directed by Cynthia Biestek (Cuba/Mexico, 2018, 100 min.) He became known the world over in the late ’90s as an original member of legendary Cuban band Buena Vista Social Club, but Eliades Ochoa’s passion for his country’s musical heritage led him to pursue a life dedicated to music much earlier than that. AFI SILVER THEATRE FRI., JUNE 7, 7:15 P.M.

The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia

Directed by Arturo Infante (Cuba/Germany, 2018, 92 min.)

Celeste, a 60-year-old retired schoolteacher, enjoys her work as a guide at Havana’s planetarium, but is stuck in a rut of humdrum routine. When the government reveals that Cuba has been secretly hosting a delegation of aliens from planet Gryok, and that ordinary Cubans have been invited to apply to visit the aliens’ homeland in return, Celeste discovers that her eccentric “Russian” neighbor is in fact a Gryokite, and receives a personal invitation. AFI SILVER THEATRE SAT., JUNE 8, 5:30 P.M.

PHOTO: SCOTT SUCHMAN / THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE CO.

Zoë Sophia Garcia stars as Cassandra in “The Oresteia” at Shakespeare Theatre.

the guilty Orestes and his co-conspirator Electra is to be heard by a jury of their peers, to be

Massacre River

Directed by Suzan Beraza (U.S./Haiti, 2019, 79 min.) In 2013, a ruling from the Dominican Republic’s constitutional court effectively rescinded citizenship rights for more than 200,000 Dominican-born residents of Haitian descent. A rise in populist politics also saw violent mobs springing up nationwide, committed to seeing the destruction of black Dominicans who were already living under the constant threat of deportation. acing against the clock, 23-year-old Pikilina must scramble to gather the documentation necessary to prove her birthright and secure citizenship for her two children (Spanish, English and Haitian Creole). AFI SILVER THEATRE SUN., JUNE 9, 6:15 P.M.

Miriam Lies

Directed by Natalia Cabral, Oriol Estrad (Dominican Republic/Spain, 2018, 90 min.) The politics of race and class in the Dominican Republic are explored with subtlety and nuance in this powerful comingof-age drama as 14-year-old biracial teen Miriam is deep into extravagant preparations for her quinceañera with her hyper-wealthy white best friend Jennifer, when she discovers that her online boyfriend, who she plans to invite, is black. AFI SILVER THEATRE SAT., JUNE 8, 3:30 P.M.

VIETNAMESE The Third Wife

Directed by Ash Mayfair (Vietnam, 2019, 96 min.) In late 19th century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May is given away in an arranged marriage and becomes the third wife to her older husband, wealthy landowner Hung. A lowly newcomer in the insular household, she soon learns she will only gain status if she can produce a male child. Finding herself pregnant, she awaits the birth, but her path towards security is fraught with danger when May starts to feel a forbidden attraction for the second wife. LANDMARK’S THEATRES OPENS FRI., JUNE 28

given the opportunity to tell their side of the story and be judged accordingly. It seems fitting that the Chorus should be the ones to sit in judgment, debating among themselves the just and right thing to do. Their debate, about the very nature of justice, is what will (almost literally) clean the house and Orestes and Electra, too. In his artistic farewell to a city that thrives on power, in a time of confusion about ideas like justice and retribution, it is fitting that Michael Kahn has given us such an eloquent statement of theater’s own ancient power to prod, provoke, question and often disturb us in our seats. Now he leaves the stage for us to debate that power, both past and present. WD Deryl Davis is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and an adjunct professor of drama, literature and film at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 41

WD | Culture | Events

Events Listings *Please check the venue for times. Venue locations are subject to change.

ART THROUGH JUNE 9

A Gaze through the CINTAS Fellowship Program

This exhibition illustrates the efforts of the CINTAS Foundation in promoting the arts of Cubans and descendants of Cubans beyond the island for more than 55 years. It juxtaposes works from the foundation with those of the Art Museum of the Americas collection, showcases artists of the Cuban vanguard such as Hugo Consuegra and Mario Carreño, as well as artists who emerged later in the 20th century such as Andrés Serrano and Ana Mendieta. OAS ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS

JUNE 14 TO AUG. 19

Escape Velocity

Abstract paintings on canvas by Singapore-born artist CheeKeong Kung are influenced by the artist’s formal education in art and architecture as well as his upbringing in multiethnic Singapore. Kung embraces influences from traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, the pace and intensity of the digital age, as well as images of buildings under construction (or destruction). THE FRED SCHNIDER GALLERY OF ART

JUNE 15 TO AUG. 11

Being Here as ME- New Media Art Exhibition of Women Artists from Taiwan

This exhibit features new media art, with augmented reality, animation and digital images, to explore how Taiwanese women artists surpass discussions of gender equality and express broader concerns. The emerging popularity of new media technology provides these artists new tools of creation and new topics of concern, helping them reveal their anxieties and opinions about the ecology of society, science, technology and the environment. AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

JUNE 15 TO AUG. 11

Burying Teeth: Maia Cruz Palileo

There is a mystery in the act of burying and even more so in uncovering throughout the works of contemporary artist Maia Cruz Palileo. Created from 2016 to 2019, they depict historical narratives from the colonial past of the Philippines, Maia’s country of origin, as well as stories and moments about her own life as a Filipina American growing up in the United States. Her paintings and drawings replicate figures from old family photographs, as well as photos from American textbooks depicting anthropological documentation of Filipinos during the American coloniza-

tion. While her work evokes nostalgia and romanticism, it is imbued with a critical undertone of America’s colonization of the Philippines.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

JUNE 15 TO AUG. 11

Passages: Keith Morrison, 1998-2019

A magician of color and space and a teller of tales, fanciful and real, Jamaican-born Keith Morrison focuses on the tangible and spiritual components of culture. His acrylic and oil paintings on canvas and transparent watercolors on paper encompass Afro-Caribbean and Meso-American art and architecture, along with the somber history of the Middle Passage. AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

THROUGH JUNE 20

National Geographic Photo Camp

World-class National Geographic photographers and magazine editors provide students with a personalized, immersive learning experience, inspiring the next generation of photojournalists. Then, through intimate presentations in their own communities and public exhibitions that reach millions of viewers, National Geographic Photo Camp showcases the students’ perspectives on issues that are important to all of us. KENNEDY CENTER HALL OF NATIONS

THROUGH JUNE 29

Topographies by Bosco Sodi

Spanning the Mexican Cultural Institute’s first-floor galleries, the presentation brings together Bosco Sodi’s first series of paintings realized in black and white with four of the artist’s timber columns and an installation comprised of ceramic glazed volcanic rocks. Sodi’s multivalent practice employs quotidian materials such as sawdust, pigment and clay, in pursuit of authenticity that draws upon the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. Organized in conjunction with The Phillips Collection, “Topographies” marks Sodi’s first exhibition in this historic cultural building. MEXICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE

THROUGH JUNE 21

Korean Craft: Yesterday and Today

This exhibition pairs traditional and modern Korean craft arts to evoke both classical sensibilities and clean, contemporary style. Divided into three parts, “Korean Craft” sheds light on the distinct lines and colors embedded in a variety of Korean handicrafts. Complementary aesthetics emerge from bringing together these diverse forms, such as handmade wooden furniture, vibrant costumes and textiles, and elegant household ceramics. This unique exhibition brings together rare historical artifacts from the collection of the Sookmyung Women’s University Museum, including items used

42 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

in the daily lives of the Sadaebu, the ruling elite class who dominated Korean political and cultural life during the evocative Joseon Dynasty period from the 15th to the 20th centuries, as well as reconstructed and reimagined works by modern craft artists. KOREAN CULTURAL CENTER

THROUGH JUNE 23

The Soul of Rurality

In keeping with its commitment and work for the empowerment of women and girls, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has mounted a traveling photo exhibition that includes 27 photographs by renowned Brazilian photographer Cecilia Duarte. The project is the product of an unprecedented partnership with Vogue Magazine and portrays the reality of women who work the land in Jujuy, Argentina; Pará, Brazil; Antigua; Guatemala; and Treasure Beach, Jamaica. ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES

THROUGH JUNE 30

Siri Berg: Statements

Since the 1960s, Swedish painter and multimedia artist Siri Berg has worked with a geometric abstraction, one both strictly reduced and rich in variation and the visually unexpected. This retrospective provides an exclusive access to a selection of Berg’s vintage and new paintings, offering a different investigative look at the varied interests and aesthetic experimentations of Berg’s career. One exhibition gallery closes on May 12 while the other closes June 30. Part of the Swedish Embassy’s 2019 thematic programming “Smart Societies – Creative & Inclusive”; for information, visit www.swedenabroad.se/en/embassies/usa-washington/current/ calendar/. HOUSE OF SWEDEN

THROUGH JULY 5

Ruth Maier: The AustrianNorwegian Anne Frank

Through photographs and diary extracts, this exhibition tells the story of the Ruth Maier, born in Vienna in 1920. Ruth began keeping a diary when she turned 13, recording her everyday life and the increasing persecution of Jews in Austria following the Anschluss in 1938. After witnessing the violent anti-Semitism of the Kristallnacht Pogrom, Ruth found refuge in Norway while the rest of her family escaped to Great Britain. She completed her education and continued to write in her newly acquired language, Norwegian. However, her newfound safety did not last: In 1942, Ruth was arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was murdered on arrival. Her friend, the Norwegian poet Gunvor Hofmo preserved her writings. Since 2014, the diaries of Ruth Maier have been part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, secured at the Norwegian Centre for Holo-

The Washington Diplomat caust and Minority Studies.

EMBASSY OF AUSTRIA ATRIUM

THROUGH JULY 7

Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Jacopo Tintoretto (1518/1519–1594), the National Gallery of Art and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia presents this major exhibition on the Venetian master. As the first retrospective of the artist in North America, the exhibition will include many significant international loans traveling to the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition will feature nearly 50 paintings and more than a dozen works on paper spanning the artist’s entire career and ranging from regal portraits of Venetian aristocracy to religious and mythological narrative scenes. The exhibit is accompanied by “Drawing in Tintoretto’s Venice” focusing on his work as a draftsman (through June 9) and “Venetian Prints in the Time of Tintoretto” featuring some 40 prints from the second half of the 16th century (through June 9).

presented to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

WOODROW WILSON HOUSE

THROUGH JULY 28

Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling

This major exhibition celebrating one of the most influential sculptors working today marks the most ambitious Ursula von Rydingsvard exhibition to date in the United States and her first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C. Featuring 30 sculptures, a wall installation and 10 works on paper, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s signature works — monumental, organicshaped sculptures made from carved cedar wood — as well as other pieces that are on view in this project for the first time. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

THROUGH JULY 21

The American Pre-Raphaelites: Radical Realists

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Ruskin (1819-1900), the most influential art critic of the Victorian era, the National Gallery will present more than 90 paintings, watercolors, and drawings created by American artists who were profoundly influenced by Ruskin’s call for a revolutionary change in the practice of art. NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

THROUGH JULY 23

Rirkrit Tiravanija (who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green)

Using food as his main medium, Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija creates art from real-time experiences and exchanges, upending the traditional relationship between object and spectator. The Hirshhorn will present its first-ever exhibition of works by the conceptual artist, which that will transform the museum’s galleries into a communal dining space in which visitors will be served curry and invited to share the meal together. HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN

THROUGH JULY 28

Helen Zughaib: Migrations

Inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s 1941 seminal “Migration Series,” Lebanese-born artist Helen Zughaib’s “Syrian Migration Series” allows for an exploration of the contemporary consequences of the post-World War II peace through the lens of the current Syrian conflict and the mass migration it has triggered, focusing In particular on the experiences of refugee women and children. This exhibition is

June 2019

HOUSE OF SWEDEN

THROUGH AUG. 23

Queer as German Folk

This innovative punk, activism and DIY-inspired project synthesizes local and German narratives on the constant crusade for queer equality and achieving queer civil rights throughout the last half century. GOETHE-INSTITUT WASHINGTON

THROUGH SEPT. 8

Roots of Peace: Carlos Páez Vilaró Works and Writings

This retrospective looks at the work of Carlos Páez Vilaró, a Uruguayan painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and builder. Specifically, it showcases paintings, books and other archival materials examining the history of the “Roots of Peace” mural, painted in 1960. Spanning over 530 feet in a tunnel linking the OAS main building in D.C. and the Art Museum of the Americas building, “Roots of Peace” is one of the longest murals in the world. Its goal is to serve as a graphic statement of continental peace and harmony throughout the Western Hemisphere, highlighting the spiritual unity that bonds peoples of the Americas while respecting their unique differences. OAS ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS

PHOTO: ETIENNE FROSSARD

Sculptures by Ursula von Rydingsvard are on display at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. THROUGH AUG. 11

Forward Press: 21st-Century Printmaking Ten innovative print artists from across the United States employ the finest examples of handprinted and digital techniques, creating works that reinterpret centuries-old printmaking techniques in the digital age, exploring themes of culture, identity, religion, environment, memory, and art history. AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

THROUGH AUG. 11

Glacier

The Icelandic chairmanship in the Arctic Council will emphasize the Arctic marine environment; climate and green energy solutions; people in the Arctic and welfare issues; as well as a stronger Arctic Council. In conjunction with the chairmanship, the Embassy of Iceland will host a photo exhibition at the House of Sweden by Ragnar Axelsson (RAX), one of Iceland’s most prominent photographers. He has chronicled life in the Arctic through his lens for many decades having traveled on multiple occasions to all the Arctic countries to document life and nature in the high north. His new book and exhibition “Glacier” focuses on the awesome beauty of the northern glaciers and their magnificence.

THROUGH SEPT. 15

Oliver Lee Jackson: Recent Paintings

American painter, printmaker, and sculptor Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935) has created a complex body of work which masterfully weaves together visual influences ranging from the Renaissance to modernism with principles of rhythm and improvisation drawn from his study of African cultures and American jazz. NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

THROUGH SEPT. 29

Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women

In the cities of the West African nation of Senegal, stylish women have often used jewelry as part of an overall strategy of exhibiting their elegance and prestige. Rooted in the Wolof concept of sañse (dressing up, looking and feeling good), “Good as Gold” examines the production, display, and circulation of gold in Senegal as it celebrates a significant gift of gold jewelry to the National Museum of African Art’s collection. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART

THROUGH OCT. 20

Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths

More than 225 works of art — including blades and currencies in myriad shapes and sizes, wood sculptures studded with iron, musical instruments and elaborate body adornments — reveal the histories of invention

Events | Culture | WD

and technical sophistication that led African blacksmiths to transform one of Earth’s most fundamental natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, artistry and spiritual potency. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART

THROUGH OCT. 27

Revolutionary Reflections: French Memories of the War for America

This exhibition explores how the French king’s officers understood the American Revolution and their role in the achievement of American independence, and how they remembered the war in the years that followed—years of revolutionary upheaval in France that included the execution of the king and many of their brothers-in-arms. AMERICAN REVOLUTION INSTITUTE OF THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI

THROUGH NOV. 17

Portraits of the World: Korea

Pioneering feminist artist Yun Suknam (born 1939) uses portraiture to gain insights into the lives of women, past and present. A wood assemblage portrait of her mother is the centerpiece of this exhibition, which includes portraits of American artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson, Marisol, Kiki Smith and Nancy Spero. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

THROUGH 2019

Urban Challenges

According to the U.N., 2.5 billion people are expected to live in cities by 2050. This will force cities to find new ways to handle the increased demands on natural resources, housing and infrastructure. This exhibition presents some of the social, economic and technological solutions proposed by Sweden to absorb the impact of our rapidly growing urban environment while leaving the environmental legacy next generations deserve. Come and find out more about Guerilla Crafts, Democratic Architecture and the mixed reality Block Builder application in large-scale environments. Part of the Swedish Embassy’s 2019 thematic programming “Smart Societies – Creative & Inclusive”; for information, visit www.swedenabroad.se/en/embassies/usawashington/current/calendar/. HOUSE OF SWEDEN

THROUGH JAN. 5, 2020

A Monument to Shakespeare

The Folger Shakespeare Library is throwing back the curtains on its origins and exciting future in an exhibition where visitors are invited to play, lounge, be curious and see more of the Folger Shakespeare Library than ever before. Among the treats: rummage through Henry Folger’s desk and read the correspondences that brought the Folger to the nation’s capital; explore large scale reproductions of Cret’s detailed architectural drawings, newly digitized for this exhibition; and visit the first complete edition of Shakespeare’s plays published

in 1623.

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

DANCE THROUGH JUNE 2

Ballet Across America with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Miami City Ballet

The fifth “Ballet Across America” series returns, featuring full engagements from renowned companies Dance Theatre of Harlem and Miami City Ballet plus a spectacular shared celebration program. Tickets are $29 to $119. KENNEDY CENTER OPERA HOUSE

JUNE 4, 11, 18 AND 25

Tango Lessons at the Embassy

Dive in the world of tango dance with four lessons for beginners at the Embassy of Argentina with instructor Luis Angel, a performer, choreographer and social dancer who specializes in the fundamental principles and techniques of tango. In these four classes, you will be taking the first steps in tango dancing, learning technical skills and motivational tools for improvisation. Admission is free; couples only; to register, email eventos@embassyofargentina.us. EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA

WED., JUNE 12, 8 P.M.

Caracalla Dance Theatre: One Thousand and One Nights

The “king of the musical theater world in the Middle East” (The Washington Post) makes its debut at Wolf Trap with a grand musical and balletic trilogy. “One Thousand and One Nights” takes audiences on a majestic journey to a far away and magical land where they will encounter a doomed king, a dazzling bazaar, a mystical sorcerer and more. Featuring music from RimskyKorsakov’s acclaimed “Scheherazade” and Ravel’s timeless “Boléro.” Tickets start at $25. WOLF TRAP FILENE CENTER

THU., JUNE 27, 10:30 A.M.

Taratibu Youth Association: Unspoken Stories

An ensemble of talented young dancers performs hip-hop, modern, and traditional African dance to powerful music including contemporary gospel, spirituals and native Zulu and Kiswahili vocals. Tickets are $10. WOLF TRAP

SAT., JUNE 29, 10:30 A.M.

Maru Montero Dance Company

Though its roots are in Mexican folk dance, Maru Montero Dance Company performs modern Latin dances, including mambo, cha cha and salsa. Tickets are $10. WOLF TRAP

DISCUSSIONS MON., JUNE 3, 6:45 P.M.

Secrets of the Cuban Revolution

Most people are familiar with

the basics of the Cuban Revolution of 1956 to 1959: It was led by two of the 20th century’s most charismatic figures, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara; it successfully overthrew the island nation’s U.S.-backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista; and it quickly went awry under Castro’s rule. But less is remembered about the amateur nature of the upstart movement, or the lives of its players. To mark the 60th anniversary of the revolution, Smithsonian magazine writer Tony Perrottet surveys how a scruffy handful of self-taught subversives, many of whom were just out of college, young lawyers, literature majors, and art students — including a number of extraordinary women — defeated 40,000 professional soldiers. Tickets are $30; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

S. DILLON RIPLEY CENTER

WED., JUNE 12, 6:45 P.M.

The Ten Caesars of the Roman Empire

To many people, the word Caesar might seem to refer to one or two specific men who reigned over the Roman Empire—with Julius Caesar being the most famous of all. But in fact, there were many Caesars, spanning more than 300 years, from Augustus to Constantine, who shaped the size, shape, and fortune of the Roman empire— including its demise. Tickets are $45; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. DILLON RIPLEY CENTER

THU., JUNE 13

Executive Forum Washington, D.C.

The Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce and the Embassy of Sweden in D.C. arrange this annual event, the Executive Forum, which this year will analyze the business opportunities arising from rapidly evolving technologies such as AI, 5G, blockchain and advanced manufacturing. The current U.S. trade policies and the upcoming 2020 election will also be discussed by trade experts, governments representatives and elected officials. For information, visit www.sacc-usa.org. HOUSE OF SWEDEN

SAT., JUNE 15, 9:30 AM. TO 4:15 P.M.

Experiencing the Divine: Religions of India

India is the birthplace of numerous religious traditions. In this exploration of India’s religious history, professor Graham Schweig discusses the evolution of religious ideas over millennia, from the impact of Sanskrit hymns on Hinduism to early yoga beliefs manifested in early Buddhism and Jainism, to the Bhakti movements that evolved into Sikhism, and religious movements into and out of India. Tickets are $140; for more information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. DILLON RIPLEY CENTER

WED., JUNE 19, 6:45 P.M.

Discovering Satsuma Shochu: The Most Popular Japanese Spirit You’ve Never Heard Of

You might be surprised to learn that sake doesn’t top the list of the most popular spirits in Japan. That distinction goes to shochu, a distilled spirit made from grains and vegetables. Join several experts as they cover the history of Satsuma shochu and the region with which it is so closely connected; shochu’s traditions; manufacturing process; place in contemporary cocktail culture; and how to best enjoy this distinctive spirit. This evening and tasting, held in collaboration with the Japanese Embassy and Daikaya restaurant, also includes an overview of the local Japanese dining scene. Tickets are $50; for more information, please visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. DILLON RIPLEY CENTER

FESTIVALS THROUGH JUNE 3

Whitman 200 Festival

The Walt Whitman 200 Festival celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s most significant and enduring poets, who was a resident of Washington, D.C., for 10 years during and after the Civil War. Over the course of 12 days, this citywide celebration will emphasize the poet’s continuing influence on American culture and the city’s culture, and showcase the themes closest to the poet’s heart: unity, democracy and healing. With events in all of D.C.’s eight wards, the festival includes multiple opportunities for residents to engage with Whitman’s legacy through readings, discussions, workshops, family events, exhibits and more. For information, visit www. walt200.org.

right-of-all/.

FORMER RESIDENCE OF THE AMBASSADORS OF SPAIN

MUSIC MON., JUNE 24, 6 P.M.

Los Cenzontles

Like the multivoiced mockingbird, Los Cenzontles presents music and dance from various regions of Mexico. These include canciones rancheras, corridos, boleros, pirekuas of Indigenous Michoacan, and sones jarochos from Southern Veracruz. KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE

TUE., JUNE 25, 6 P.M.

The Eurasia Festival

The Eurasia Festival is a sponsored project of Kyrgyz American Foundation, with the mission to preserve and promote the multicultural heritage of Eurasia within the United States. This concert presents the festival’s emerging and young artists from around the globe in an eclectic fusion of classical, traditional, folk, jazz, and operatic musical traditions from Eurasian countries. KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE

WED., JUNE 26, 6 P.M.

Astrid Kuljanic: Croatian Farewells

A musical exploration of Croatian culture presented by acclaimed vocalist Astrid Kuljanic, this program features jazz, world, and original music, as well as traditional song and dance performed by Hrvatska Ruža folklore ensemble.

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE

THROUGH SEPT. 27

THU., JUNE 27, 6 P.M.

Inspired by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Embassy of Spain — in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Institute, the Water and Sanitation Cooperation Fund from the Spanish Cooperation, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade and other institutions — presents a series of events dedicated to the right to safe drinking water and sanitation in the fields of diplomacy, human rights, sustainable development, and arts and culture. The events will include panels regarding efforts by key partners striving to make the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation a reality for all, bringing together their different experiences in a variety of fields. The program will also focus on the relationship between art, the right to water and sustainability issues featuring public installation art, film screenings, video art projections and art workshops. As part of the program, on the joint front lawn of the Spanish and Mexican cultural institutes on 16th Street, NW, Spain-based art collective Luzinterruptus will display “La Cascada,” a 13-foot high and 30foot long art installation made with almost a thousand recycled plastic buckets. For information, visit www.spainculture.us/city/ washington-dc/fair-water-a-

Kiran Deol presents “Be Yourself Less.” Deol comes to the Kennedy Center by way of the United Kingdom, Florida, India, Nepal, Massachusetts and most recently California. She has been all over and has learned that while it’s good to do you... sometimes the better option is to be yourself...less.

Fair Water: A Right of All

Kiran Deol

Fisk Jubilee Singers, Tazewell Thompson’s inspirational a cappella new work chronicles the bold African American ensemble as they travel the world, captivating kings, queens and audiences with hymns and spiritual songs supported by their rich voices. Tickets are $41 to $95. ARENA STAGE

THROUGH JUNE 2

The Orchestra

Through 10 years of war, grief and rage, Queen Clytemnestra lies in wait for her husband Agamemnon’s return, determined to avenge one child, only to doom the others. The sole surviving trilogy in Greek tragedy, “The Oresteia” chronicles a deluge of violence that can only be stopped when society peers into its own soul and sees the depths of its complicity. Please call for ticket information.

SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY

JUNE 7 TO JULY 7

Byhalia, Mississippi

Jim and Laurel are broke, young and deeply in love. They are also about to become new parents. When Laurel gives birth to their overdue child, the biracial baby is a surprise to everyone, especially her husband Jim, igniting a firestorm in their small southern town. Tickets are $49 to $89. KENNEDY CENTER TERRACE THEATER

THROUGH JUNE 9

Fame the Musical

Based on the 1980 musical film of the same name, “Fame the Musical” follows the highs and lows of the final class of New York City’s illustrious High School for the Performing Arts from their freshman year to their graduation. Touching on complex issues such as racial prejudice, drug abuse and sexual exploitation, it tells the story of several of the students, depicting their struggles, triumphs and tempestuous relationships as they explore the realities of striving for a career in showbusiness (in English and Spanish). Tickets are $65. GALA HISPANIC THEATRE

KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE

THROUGH JUNE 9

THEATER

A young king and his three confidants renounce the company of women in favor of scholarly pursuits. Their pact is immediately jeopardized, however, when the Princess of France and her three companions arrive. Will the men stand resolute and keep their monastic vows — or surrender to the charms of the opposite sex? Tickets are $42 to $85.

THROUGH JUNE 2

The Children

In their remote cottage on the British coast, a long-married pair of retired nuclear physicists live a modest life in the aftermath of a natural disaster, giving scrupulous care to energy rationing, their garden and their yoga practice. When former colleague Rose reappears after 38 years, her presence upends the couple’s equilibrium and trust. As the fallout from long-ago decisions comes hurtling into view, Rose unveils a proposal that threatens more than their marriage. Please call for ticket information. STUDIO THEATRE

THROUGH JUNE 2

Jubilee

Inspired by the world-renowned

Love’s Labor Lost

FOLGER THEATRE

JUNE 11 TO 23

Falsettos

“Falsettos” revolves around the life of a charming, intelligent, neurotic gay man named Marvin along with his wife, lover, aboutto-be-Bar-Mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist, and the lesbians next door. It’s a hilarious and achingly poignant look at the

SEE EVENT S • PAGE 47

JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 43

Book Review CONTINUED • PAGE 19

played a central role in dramatically diminishing American influence. Burns is sharply critical of President George W. Bush’s administration for rushing into an ill-considered and unnecessary war that significantly damaged American interests. Burns believes that a robust American response was appropriate after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but it should have been followed by creative diplomacy and an affirmative agenda. However, a faction led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was convinced that the American military response in Afghanistan was necessary but not sufficient and pressed for a confrontation with Hussein. “It was not the season for nuance, caution, and compromise. It was the season for the risk-tolerant and the ideologically ambitious, bent on inserting ourselves aggressively into the regional contest of ideas, militarizing our policy, and unbuckling our rhetoric,” he writes. “In a Washington that rarely lacked for infighting and policy combat, the road to war in Iraq was distinctive for its intensity and indiscipline.” According to Burns, senior State Department officials signaled their discomfort with the coming war in a memo but did not “take a hard stand against war altogether, or make a passionate case for containment as a long-term alternative to conflict. In the end, we pulled some punches, persuading ourselves that we’d never get a hearing for our concerns beyond the secretary if we simply threw ourselves on the track. Years later, that remains my biggest professional regret.” Burns argues that when President Barack Obama came to office, he tried to steer U.S. foreign policy away from the chaos of the Middle East and toward opportunities in Asia. Burns applauds Obama’s strategy but argues that the administration’s tactics were deficient as it struggled

with unpredictable events such as the Arab Spring. Burns says that Obama’s long game “made eminent sense. It just turned out to be much harder to execute than Obama expected. The distant promise of the long game was held hostage by the infinite complexities of the short game, by twists and turns that surprised him, and tactical choices and tradeoffs that frustrated all of us.” Burns writes with deep regret about the civil war in Syria. He doubts that a different U.S. policy could have fundamentally changed the situation but believes the Obama administration failed to properly align its goals with its commitments. “It’s hard not to see Syria’s agony as an American policy failure. Many see it as the underreaching analog to the disastrous overreach of the Iraq War a decade before. As someone who served through both, and shared in the mistakes we made, I am not persuaded by the analogy,” he writes. “There were times during Syria’s protracted crisis when more decisive American intervention might have made a difference. Like many of my colleagues, I argued for more active support in 2012 for what was then still a relatively moderate, if ragtag, opposition and for responding militarily to Assad’s use of sarin gas in the summer of 2013. Neither step, however, would necessarily have turned the tide.” He adds: “If you added up all the measures we eventually took in Syria by the end of 2014, including a more ambitious train and equip program for the opposition, and telescoped them into more decisive steps earlier in the conflict, their cumulative impact might have given us more leverage over [Bashar al-] Assad, as well as the Russians and Iranians. They wouldn’t on their own have produced Assad’s downfall, but might have created a better chance for a negotiated solution. It was in many ways another lesson on the risks of incrementalism.” Burns applauds the Obama administration’s work on the Iran nuclear agreement. He vividly describes his role as the initial back channel to Iran in 2013 and then his efforts to help negotiate the final agreement

Spouses CONTINUED • PAGE 35

enthusiast. Many Slovenes share her love of nature activities. About the size of Massachusetts, Slovenia is 60 percent forest. “We have everything,” Stanislav told us. “For instance, in June you can ski in the morning, fish mid-day and swim in the sea in the afternoon. Slovenians are crazy about sports. Everybody does something. Nature and sports are a big part of Slovene life.” The ambassador runs several mornings a week and is an avid fly fisherman. “At home, we ‘catch and release’ [the fish] to support the sustainability of the environment. I love to lean down and drink the water. It is so clear. We have 2.1 million citizens and 100,000 be-

PHOTO: STATE DEPARTMENT / WILLIAM NG

Then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns addresses the media during a visit to Tokyo on Jan. 24, 2014. Burns served in the State Department for over 30 years, working under every secretary of state from Alexander Haig to John Kerry.

several years later. “Here was a chance to do what diplomats spend their whole careers trying to do,” he writes. “Here was a chance to apply toughminded diplomacy, backed up by the economic leverage of sanctions, the political leverage of an international consensus, and the military leverage of the potential use of force. And here was a chance to demonstrate the promise of American diplomacy after a decade of America at war.” Burns describes the negotiations that resulted in the initial Joint Plan of Action and later the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that was concluded in July 2015. The final agreement was not perfect but was an important achievement, Burns asserts. He is sharply critical of Trump for pulling the United States out of the accord. “Trump’s abrogation was another reminder of how much easier it is to tear down diplomacy than to build it up…. It was exactly the kind of risky, cocky, ill-considered bet that had shredded our influence before, and could easily do so again.” The most powerful and poignant aspect of this memoir is the author’s reflections on the Iraq War. Burns ponders if he should have done more to register his opposition to the war, including resigning from the State Department. He says he decided not to resign for a mix of practical and personal reasons but finds his

long to Alpine clubs. We have hiking trails to old towns and valleys. If you hike for two hours, you have to eat … and, we are one of the most important sustainable food destinations in the world.” Another way Slovenians protect the environment is through an elaborate recycling program. “We have seven different trash bins,” Ljiljana explained. “If you throw the wrong thing in the wrong bin, you’ll get a ticket.” “We are the hidden jewel of Europe,” she added. “We have been all over the internet and travel magazines. We have a natural beauty with mountains and beaches and caves. We are about a three-hour drive from Venice and a four-hour drive from Vienna…. We have many festivals. In the summer every day there is something.” Ljiljana herself loves to cook healthy food. Her thrill in Slovenia is going to the huge outdoor city market on a daily basis. “I get fresh fish, vegetables, cheeses and eggs. We even go in the winter; the vendors have gas

44 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

rationale for staying “garbled and unsatisfying, even with the benefit of a decade and a half of hindsight.” We know now that a number of senior officials in the administration and Congress had serious reservations about the Iraq War and one is left wondering what would have happened if all had vigorously and publicly opposed the war before it was launched. Burns says that over the years but particularly after the 9/11 attacks, the military became the main instrument of American power, while diplomacy was relegated to the sidelines. He offers a plea for a renewed emphasis on diplomacy as the tool of “first resort” in U.S. security policy. “Short of war, diplomacy is the main instrument we employ to manage foreign relations, reduce external risks, and exploit opportunities to advance our security and prosperity,” he writes. “It is among the oldest professions, but is also among the most misunderstood, and the most unsatisfying to describe. It is by nature an unheroic, quiet endeavor, less swaggering than unrelenting, often unfolding in back channels out of sight and out of mind. Its successes are rarely celebrated, its failures almost always scrutinized. Even as visible and accomplished a practitioner as Henry Kissinger has called diplomacy ‘the patient accumulation of

PHOTO: MYNOR VENTURA

Ljiljana Vidovič wears a dress by Slovenian fashion designer Maja Stamol at the “Fashion Ignites” runway show.

heaters.” In Washington, she walks to the Dupont Circle Farmers Market, not far from the em-

partial successes’ — hardly the stuff of bumper stickers.” Burns concedes that some of the damage to American diplomacy was self-inflicted, as the State Department built layer upon layer of bureaucracy instead of making that bureaucracy more agile and better reflective of the challenges of the 21st century. However, Trump’s efforts to gut the State Department budget and his refusal to fill key posts significantly contributed to the sense of irrelevancy that has gripped Foggy Bottom. The president’s go-it-alone, transactional, erratic brand of diplomacy has further demoralized America’s diplomatic corps. “At precisely the time when diplomacy matters more than ever to American interests — when we are no longer the only country calling the shots — the president is engaged in unilateral diplomatic disarmament: hollowing out the idea of America, retreating from international commitments and disdaining the institutions and practitioners of diplomacy. Not surprisingly, adversaries are taking advantage, allies are hedging and the global order we did so much to shape and defend is teetering,” Burns wrote in a March 8 New York Times op-ed. This bleak assessment is echoed in “The Back Channel,” which argues that America’s current diplomatic and foreign policy is falling far short of the nation’s best traditions and needs to be rehabilitated and revived. “Diplomacy is one of our nation’s biggest assets and best-kept secrets,” Burns writes. “However battered and belittled in the age of Trump, it has never been a more necessary tool of first resort for American influence. Its rebirth is crucial to a new strategy for a new century, one that is full of great peril and even greater promise for America.” WD John T. Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. He is the author of four books, including “The Ambassador: Inside the Life of a Working Diplomat” and “Rising Star, Setting Sun,” and he is the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

bassy, but only on Sunday mornings. “It is so small in comparison to what we have at home every day,” she lamented. Nevertheless, Ljiljana said she has relished experiencing Washington’s international community and having access to cultural events from all over the world. But there is one universal pet peeve that she dislikes about diplomacy. “I hate to move. You have to make a home over and over again. It’s a real challenge. This last time our container got lost. Instead of getting everything in one month, it took three and a half months. I was forced to shop!” But this diplomatic wife, who enjoys the lighter side of life, playfully admits that wasn’t necessarily a tremendous hardship. “Indira and I took the early bus — 5 a.m. — to New York. We love to see what’s new in fashion up there. And, I love going to shop in New York!” WD Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

World | WD

In Memoriam Remembering Richard Lugar and the Lost Art of Statesmanship JOHN T. SHAW

n April 28, Richard G. Lugar, a sixterm Republican senator from Indiana, passed away at the age of 87. Lugar, who graduated from Denison University and the University of Oxford, served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee twice and was internationally renown for his work in helping to dismantle nuclear, biological and chemical weapons around the world. Hundreds of mourners gathered at his funeral on May 15, where Vice President Mike Pence called Lugar “a true American statesman” who “will be remembered among a discrete pantheon of senators who commanded the respect of his peers in both parties and exercised enormous influence in foreign affairs.” Below, Washington Diplomat contributor John T. Shaw, who wrote the 2012 book “Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate: Crafting Foreign Policy from Capitol Hill,” offers his reflections on Lugar’s legacy.

Several weeks ago in my capacity as the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, I spoke to a group of Illinois university students about the need for statesmanship in our country and around the world. I described statesmanship as exemplary leadership characterized by vision, courage, compassion, fairness, effectiveness and wisdom. A politely skeptical student asked me to give one example of a recent political figure who embodied these qualities. Without hesitating, I offered the name of Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. I described Lugar’s leadership in 1986 on legislation imposing economic and political sanctions on South Africa, noting that Lugar defied President Ronald Reagan on the bill that ushered

PHOTO: U.S. SENATE PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO / JEFF MCEVOY

RICHARD G. LUGAR in a new era in the American response to apartheid. I added that same year, Lugar helped convince the Reagan administration to recognize Corazon Aquino as the winner of the disputed presidential election in the Philippines against incumbent Ferdinand Marcos. I outlined many of Lugar’s other contributions to U.S. foreign policy, including his cooperation with President Barack Obama to secure passage of the New START treaty in 2010 at a time when most Republicans decided to oppose the treaty mostly because it would give the president an accomplishment that he could cite in his coming reelection bid. I think I made a good case that Lugar, who entered the Senate in January 1977 as an ambitious former mayor of Indianapolis, departed

the upper chamber in January 2013 as a global statesman. Soft-spoken, deliberate and purposeful, Lugar worked for 36 years with presidents and lawmakers from both parties to tackle difficult problems. The two-time chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee secured major accomplishments in the international arena: promoting arms control, combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction, crafting forwardleaning energy policies, confronting global food challenges and striving to make the machinery of American foreign policy run more effectively. Although Lugar was a proud and loyal Republican, he worked closely and effectively with Democratic lawmakers such as Sam Nunn of Georgia, Joe Biden of Delaware, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Barack Obama of Illinois. Without a doubt, Lugar’s landmark legislative accomplishment was the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Program, which partnered him with Nunn on a bold plan to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction in the Soviet Union as it was collapsing in 1991. Facing an indifferent administration and opposition from many in Congress, the two senators cobbled together an emergency response that was acceptable to a wary President George H.W. Bush and skeptical lawmakers. From this humble start, Nunn-Lugar evolved into an historic law that helped secure and then destroy thousands of nuclear weapons in Russia and removed all strategic nuclear warheads from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Lugar proudly observed that the Nunn-Lugar program eliminated more nuclear weapons than the combined arsenals of France, China and the United Kingdom. Lugar was not perfect. Even some of Lugar’s strongest supporters believe he should have been more forceful in

challenging the George W. Bush administration in its drive to war with Iraq in 2003. During Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings about Iraq before the war began, Lugar raised hard and prescient questions. But when the Bush administration failed to provide persuasive answers about how Iraq would be governed after a U.S. invasion, Lugar opted not to challenge the White House publicly. His efforts at private persuasion were rebuffed. Throughout this career, Lugar proudly cooperated with both Democratic and Republican administrations to advance the national interest. This bipartisanship ultimately came at a serious political cost and was a factor in his crushing defeat in a 2012 Republican primary in Indiana to a Tea Party-backed candidate, Richard Mourdock, who would go on to lose the race to his Democratic challenger. But Lugar moved on and served the nation nobly after departing the Senate. He created the Lugar Center, which works on several of his policy passions: controlling the spread of weapons of mass destruction, enhancing global food security and reforming American foreign assistance programs. The Lugar Center has also pioneered a range of programs to bolster badly needed bipartisanship in the United States. I am convinced that history will be extremely kind to Richard Lugar, placing him in the same league as other foreign policy giants such as Sens. J. William Fulbright, Arthur Vandenberg and Henry Jackson. His example of civil, fair-minded and honorable public service will remind us all what statesmanship can look like in the contemporary world. WD Author John T. Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

Diplomatic Appointments Indonesia Mahendra Siregar became ambassador of Indonesia to the United States on April 8, 2019, having most recently served as executive director of council for the Palm Oil Producing Countries and advisor to the minister Ambassador of foreign affairs. Prior to Mahendra Siregar that, he was chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM); vice minister of finance; vice minister of trade; chairman and CEO of Indonesia Eximbank; and deputy coordinating minister for economic affairs. Ambassador Siregar was also a member of the board of commissioners of various corporations operating in financial services, mining, manufacturing, technology, consumers good and infrastructure. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986 and was assigned to various postings, including economic third secretary of the Indonesian Embassy in London and information counselor of the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Siregar holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Indonesia and received a master’s in economics from Monash University. He is mar-

ried with three children.University. He is married with three children.

Kyrgyz Republic Bolot Otunbaev became ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United States on April 8, 2019, with concurrent accreditation as ambassador to Armenia. Since 2016, he has also served as Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to Russia, Finland, Denmark, Norway Ambassador and Sweden. From 2015 to Bolot Otunbaev 2016, he was ambassadorat-large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from 2012 to 2015, he was ambassador to Germany, with concurrent accreditation to Sweden, San Marino, Holy See, Denmark and Norway. From 2010 to 2012, Ambassador Otunbaev was a member of the Political Council and coordinator of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan headquarters. Other postings include minister counselor at the Kyrgyz Embassy in Turkey (2005-09); head of the Eastern Countries Department at the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs (2005); head of the Western Countries and OSCE Department (2003-05); first secretary at the Kyrgyz Embassy in Russia (1998-2003) and permanent secretary of the Turkish International Cooperation Agency in Kyrgyzstan (1996-98). Ambassador Otunbaev, who was born March 9, 1965, holds graduate degrees from Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. He is fluent in Kyrgyz, Russian, English and Turkish, and is married with three sons.

Liberia Ambassador George S.W. Patten Sr. became ambassador of Liberia to the United States on Jan. 11, 2019. A Ambassador career diplomat with more George S.W. than two decades of experiPatten Sr. ence in the Liberian Foreign Service, he previously served as chargé d’affaires at the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations in New York and as ambassador to Ethiopia and Kenya. He was also permanent representative of Liberia to the African Union (AU) and the United

Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). In addition, Ambassador Patten served as minister counselor in charge of political and legal affairs at the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations, where his functions included coverage of the U.N. Security Council and the AU Observer Mission to the U.N.; expert in the Fourth and Sixth Committees of the U.N. General Assembly; peacebuilding expert and focal point for the Liberia Country-Specific Configuration on the Agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC); focal point of the New Deal for engagement in fragile states; focal point for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P); representative of Liberia on the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations; focal point in relation to the International Criminal Court (ICC); and focal point on Liberian history and foreign policy. Ambassador Patten held other diplomatic assignments in West, North and East Africa, as counselor and first secretary, respectively. Ambassador Patten has a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Liberia, a bachelor’s degree in laws from the St. Mary’s University College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Liberia. He also has certificates in diplomacy, public international law and conflict management and resolution.

JUNE 2019 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | 45

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a political economist who has conducted extensive research on Islamic extremism in Indonesia. Jokowi’s decision was influenced by the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections, which pitted incumbent Chinese-Christian candidate Basuki Tjahaja Purnama against Anies Baswedan, a former education minister who benefited from the support of hardline Islamist groups. The religiously charged election was notable because Basuki, more commonly referred to as Ahok, was accused of insulting Islam after referencing a verse from the Koran while campaigning in 2016. An edited video of his speech went viral, leading to criminal charges, and in March 2018 Ahok was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison. International observers were shocked; Amnesty International called it “a sad day for Indonesia.” Although Ahok was released in January 2019, his conviction has strengthened arguments that a combination of Islamic extremism and populist anger are destabilizing politics in a country known for its secular democracy The semi-autonomous, religiously conservative Aceh province is another oft-cited

5/22/2006 4:48:43 PM

example of rising Islamic political extremism and regression in Indonesia. Authorities there have implemented hardline measures including prohibiting single women and men from spending time together alone, corporal punishment for homosexuality and a ban on movies and karaoke. “It’s now the time for Indonesia to admit that we have extremism in our society,” said Malik. “Many political leaders don’t want to admit the truth, that it happens in our society and that there are some kinds of extremism where they really believe, ‘If you don’t follow our ideology, then you are the enemy.’”

ROOT CAUSES As is the case in Malaysia, a neighboring Muslim-majority country, Indonesia has seen a host of educational institutions, mosques and NGOs funded by Saudi Arabia open their doors within its borders since the 1980s. Schools such as the Institute for the Study of Islam and Arabic advocate a brand of puritanical Islam known as Wahhabism or Salafism that is at odds with Indonesia’s more moderate and tolerant practice of Islam Nusantara. Students and worshippers from institutions like these have increasingly pursued careers in politics and the civil service, which has had a ripple effect on the political landscape. According to Malik, one of Indonesia’s largest Islamic political parties, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), was the driving force behind Ahok’s downfall because it combined ultra-conservative Islamic ideology and vocal, public, populist rhetoric to attack him in Ja-

46 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019

karta, where its membership is concentrated. Controlling street politics is part of the party’s broader effort to incorporate religious ideology into political and civil spheres, an effort that has increasingly targeted young people in the country. “PKS is very active in advancing its agenda at the grassroots and political levels. It has launched an education program at universities, and more recently in high schools, called Tarbiyah, and many Muslim students view participation as mandatory,” Malik said. “It has also created a program in ministerial departments for Islamic studies every Friday. It’s very systematic. The party understands that if you want to make a substantial movement, you have to start at the bottom.”

LOOKING AHEAD Despite worrying recent domestic developments, Blake said the election results show that hardline Islam’s influence on Indonesian politics remains limited. “Everyone was expecting this mass Islamic conservative movement and it didn’t materialize,” he said. “I read that as a vote of confidence in Jokowi, in his own moderate style. He chose this cleric to insulate himself from criticism, but he is not deeply religious.” Blake also pointed to the relatively low number of Indonesians believed to have left the country to join the Islamic State — around 500 people by U.S. government estimates — as evidence that Indonesia’s democratic values, freedoms and strong economic growth are helping to insulate it against the threat of extremism.

“ISIS has had a hard time organizing there. It’s a relatively open democracy, you can use social media, start an NGO and the economy has been doing well for many years. You see polls from Pew and others that show Indonesians are among the most optimistic people in the world. If you’re hopeful and optimistic about your future, you won’t throw it away joining a radical group like ISIS,” Blake said. Contested election results could destabilize the situation, however, and Subianto’s recent media statements, in which he claimed to possess evidence of widespread voter fraud, run the risk of reviving populist protests fueled by religious extremism. Pervasive online terrorist recruitment campaigns also leave the country vulnerable. According to Katz, the Islamic State’s recruitment process emphasizes digital outreach and engagement, as well as strong appeals to emotion and outrage, which could further elevate the risk of fresh violence in the country. “It is not so much about strict ideology, but more so a varying range of shallow promises: heroism, ‘cool’ notions of rebellion, a sense of belonging, fighting the oppressor, etc.,” she said. “ISIS’s media is a powerful agent of these ideas, attracting people from various backgrounds. Thus, when it comes to taking up the group’s call, it’s not about which mosque one attended, but rather which videos they watched.” WD Paige Aarhus (@paigeaarhus) is a freelance writer working in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

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48 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JUNE 2019