May 2013 by The Washington Diplomat

A World of News and Perspective

■ INSIDE: EDUCATION SPECIAL SECTION

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EDUCATION ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ VOLUME 20, NUMBER 5 POLITICS

Milestone Elections Offer Pakistanis Glimmer of Hope Pakistan’s parliamentary elections in May mark the first time a democratically elected government has successfully completed its term in the country’s tumultuous 65-year history — no small feat for a country with a penchant for political disasters that demand the world’s attention. PAGE 7

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Congress Ponders Least Bad Options To End Syrian War Syria is engulfed in civil war and Congress has decided to step into the fray over whether to arm the opposition in an attempt to end a bloody two-year conflict that’s only gone from bad to worse. PAGE 9

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■ MAY 2013 PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Job Jiu -Jitsu

Prepping College Grads For Life, and Work, Beyond the Classroom

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

Times have been tough not just for those in the job market, but for those trying to break into it. Yet employment prospects may be looking up for new U.S. college graduates this year — at least for those who have what it takes to attract the eye of potential employers.

Congressman Still Hopes To Revamp Foreign Aid May 2013

by Carolyn Cosmos

EDUCATION

In fact, the overall job market has continued to strengthen for college and university graduates, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. (CGC), a leading executive employment firm. “Job creation has been slow, but it has been steady,” said CGC Chief Executive Officer John Challenger.

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The Washington Diplomat

Page23

Last summer, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) was about to launch one of the most significant legislative initiatives of his career: a complete overhaul of U.S. foreign assistance. Then, the 30-year congressman lost his re-election bid — but fortunately, his efforts to revamp the way in which the U.S. gives money to other nations haven’t been lost. PAGE 4

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The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

May 2013

19 Chicago skyline

Johns Hopkins students

[ news ] 4

23 20

BOOk REviEw

[ education ]

Howard Berman, a 30-year congressman, is hoping his efforts to overhaul America’s foreign assistance don’t end with his failed re-election bid.

POliTiCS Pakistan’s upcoming election marks a rare moment of optimism in a country beset with problems — from Islamic militants terrorizing its people to crippling power outages that have left its economy in the dark.

ThE ROTuNda

Diplomatic protocol is a complicated business. Two industry experts give us the dos and don’ts on navigating thorny issues such as gift giving, attire, food, alcohol, meetings and seating arrangements.

[ culture ] 36

Almost no one thinks of diplomacy when they think of Chicago, but the quintessential American city is far more international than many realize. COvER: Photo taken at the Embassy of the Netherlands by Lawrence Ruggeri.

diPlOmaTiC SPOuSES Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Bekink and his businesswoman bride Gabrielle de Kuyper Sheshunoff Bekink are newlyweds who are ready to start their new life together in D.C.

diPlOmaCy 38

PhOTOGRaPhy A timely exhibition at the Spanish Embassy’s new cultural space brings us scenes of everyday life in America’s Latino community that are anything but ordinary.

aRT In two very different exhibits, Panamanian women artists and a Guatemalan photographer find common cause examining their national history and identity.

ThEaTER The Ford’s Theatre production of “Hello, Dolly!” is a more intimate rendition of the high-stepping crowd-pleaser that still does justice to the beloved Tony-winning musical.

hiSTORy A group of laddies — and lords — shed light on the complex Anglo-Irish relationship with “Nobility and Newcomers in Renaissance Ireland.”

diNiNG Mari Vanna was a mythical Russian grandmother who invited weary travelers into her home and fed them traditional dishes, the reincarnation of which can now be found on Connecticut Avenue.

film REviEwS The epic saga “Kon-Tiki” vividly depicts a larger-than-life historical adventure of a man who sailed 4,300 miles on a precarious wood raft just to prove his hypothesis.

EvENTS Now in its sixth year, Passport DC has become a trusty travel companion for thousands of Washingtonians who hopscotch around the world in their own backyard.

COvER PROfilE: ThE NEThERlaNdS From generating jobs and investment to offering advice on water management and climate change, the Netherlands has become an invaluable partner for the U.S. that punches far above its weight.

PROTOCOl

iNTERNaTiONal RElaTiONS North Korea has been screaming at the top of its lungs that it will destroy the U.S. and South Korea, yet again, but beyond the verbal bombast, two of America’s best friends in the region have also been quietly butting heads.

GRaduaTE PREPaRaTiON Not every college grad has the skills employers are looking for — and on that front, not every college or university is equal when it comes to producing employable graduates.

Congress is stepping into the contentious debate over whether to arm Syria’s rebels in an attempt to stanch the bloodletting that has raged for two years now.

“Nobility and Newcomers in Renaissance Ireland”

“The Secretary” is a compelling account of Hillary Clinton’s tenure at Foggy Bottom that also offers some clues as to what kind leader she might be in the White House.

PEOPlE Of wORld iNfluENCE

CiNEma liSTiNG

EvENTS liSTiNG

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aPPOiNTmENTS

ClaSSifiEdS

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P.O. Box 1345 • Silver Spring, MD 20915-1345 • Phone: (301) 933-3552 • Fax: (301) 949-0065 • E-mail: news@washdiplomat.com • Web: www.washdiplomat.com Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Victor Shiblie director of Operations Fuad Shiblie managing Editor Anna Gawel News Editor Larry Luxner Contributing writers Talha Aquil, Michael Coleman, Carolyn Cosmos, Audrey Hoffer, Rachel Hunt, Stephanie Kanowitz, Luke Jerod Kummer, Sean Lyngaas, Ky N. Nguyen, Gail Scott, Dave Seminara, Gina Shaw, John Shaw, Gary Tischler, Lisa Troshinsky Photographers Jessica Latos, Lawrence Ruggeri account managers Chris Smith, Patrick Thomas Graphic designer Cari Bambach The Washington Diplomat is published monthly by The Washington Diplomat, Inc. The newspaper is distributed free of charge at several locations throughout the Washington, D.C. area. We do offer subscriptions for home delivery. Subscription rates are $25 for 12 issues and $45 for 24 issues. Call Fuad Shiblie for past issues. If your organization employs many people from the international community you may qualify for free bulk delivery. To see if you qualify you must contact Fuad Shiblie. The Washington Diplomat assumes no responsibility for the safe keeping or return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other material. The information contained in this publication is in no way to be construed as a recommendation by the Publisher of any kind or nature whatsoever, nor as a recommendation of any industry standard, nor as an endorsement of any product or service, nor as an opinion or certification regarding the accuracy of any such information.

May 2013

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Howard Berman

Longtime Congressman Leaves Lasting Foreign Policy Footprint by Michael Coleman

ast summer, Congressman Howard Berman (D-Calif.), a longtime leader on American foreign policy, was about to launch one of the most significant legislative initiatives of his career. After countless hours of work that started in 2008 when he took over the chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Berman and his staff were finalizing a nearly 1,000-page bill that would have completely overhauled the 1961 U.S. Foreign Assistance Act. Then the 30-year congressman lost his re-election bid. As part of a 2010 redistricting in California, Berman’s traditionally safe seat evaporated. As it happened, both Berman and a fellow Democratic Jewish congressman, Rep. Brad Sherman, lived in the same newly drawn district that came up for grabs in California’s western San Fernando Valley. A bitter primary battle ensured in early 2012 (during one acrimonious debate, the two almost seemed to come to blows) and Berman came up short on Election Day last year. Sherman went on to win the seat in the general election. Naturally, the loss stung Berman, who deeply valued his job as an influential congressman, as well as his consistently strong approval ratings. But the former congressman recently rebounded, landing a high-profile job with the public policy and government affairs practice at Covington & Burling, one of Washington’s premier law and lobbying firms. Berman brings to the firm an extensive list of contacts in government — and around the world. He is expected to beef up Covington’s international client list at a time when the U.S. economy is suffering and lucrative global contacts are more valuable than ever. Covington has an office in Brussels and conducts extensive work in the European Union and London, as well as in Beijing, Shanghai and Seoul. Asked about his adjustment to life outside of elected office, Berman, 71, sounded a bit wistful but optimistic. “Obviously, I ran for re-election — I loved it. It was a great honor and very interesting, but I’m quite happy to be doing what I’m doing now,” Berman told The Washington Diplomat in a wide-ranging interview. “This is a different kind of challenge and it also interests me. There is no point in looking back.”

“

This foreign assistance reform is not to say we should spend more or less money, but whatever money we decide to spend should be spent better.

”

— Howard Berman former U.S. representative (D-Calif.)

Indeed, in his interview, Berman sounded mostly forwardlooking about his new job and a host of foreign policy issues, including Congress’s growing bent toward isolationism, its relationship with Israel, and how America can conduct its business overseas — and assist other countries — more effectively. The former congressman was still crafting American foreign policy until his final days in office. In mid-December — just a few weeks before he had to leave Capitol Hill — Berman introduced the foreign assistance bill he’d labored

Page 4

over for years. The Obama administration has begun to implement some of its initiatives but a broad overhaul of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 — first passed into law when John F. Kenney was president — remains uncertain at best. In his fiscal 2014 budget, however, President Obama proposed a major change in the way the United States supplies food aid abroad. That budget includes $47.8 billion for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, a 6 percent decrease from last year’s request. Notably, it would allow almost half of the $1.4 billion requested for food assistance to be spent on local bulk food purchases in the target nation or on individual vouchers for local purchases — instead of requiring that food to be purchased here in the United States. Aid reform advocates say that system is costly and inefficient, forcing the food to be shipped on U.S.flagged vessels and hindering impoverished nations from developing their own food distribution networks. Berman told us that Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) is hoping to pick up the torch on his legislation and carry it through the congressional committee maze and eventually to Obama’s desk. One significant element of Berman’s foreign assistance rewrite is that the legislation is broken into multiple parts — such as data transparency initiatives — meaning it could be passed piecemeal, which even he concedes would be better than nothing at all. “One of my biggest disappointments in not going back [and being re-elected] was that I thought that this bill was very important,” Berman said. “We spent a huge amount of time getting ready for this effort.” Berman explained how the legislation aims to transform U.S. foreign aid from a donor-recipient relationship, in which the United States doles out money and foreign countries agree to a set of conditions for receiving that money, to one in which both countries work toward “mutually agreed upon and beneficial goals.” “We want to create country ownership of the work that is being done in these recipient countries and get them directly involved, so then what they do will be sustained because it’s a priority for them, as well,” Berman explained.“The legislation says we should let the programs be driven by mutually agreed upon goals, rather than from Washington or checking the box on what a particular government wants.” Some of the many specifics in Berman’s bill include: • requiring that the impact of U.S. foreign assistance be measured in a systematic and comprehensive way • banning the launch of multiyear projects unless funds

Photo: Covington & Burling LLP

are set aside to complete them at the outset • expanding the jurisdiction of the USAID inspector general • establishing a clear division of labor in carrying out programs • streamlining overlapping and conflicting law, procurement rules and regulations • requiring all foreign assistance data be posted on the Internet • increasing availability of information on arms sales and military training • providing for publication of human rights reports in local languages Yet history has not been kind to reform efforts. USAID — the primary foreign assistance agency — acknowledges as much in a white paper on its website. “Since 1960, there have been at least seven major foreign aid reform efforts,” the 2010 report said. “Only two — the early achievements of the Kennedy administration and passage of the New Directions legislation in 1973 — could be considered successful efforts.” Berman said the common sense goals of his bill should supersede much of the predictable partisan sniping on Capitol Hill. “We believe this is something that should attract bipartisan support,” he told The Diplomat.“It’s not about how much you spend on foreign aid — it’s much larger than that. We think [the existing law] is just out of date. We want to decentralize some of the missions and we want to strengthen USAID.”

The Washington Diplomat

See Berman, page 6 May 2013

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Berman has long been a voice for investment in foreign affairs. He has frequently pointed out that international affairs spending represents only about 1 percent of the overall federal budget. Development and humanitarian spending amount to even tinier sliver of that pie — less than half of that 1 percent. Yet diplomacy and development remain indispensable tools for promoting U.S. relations abroad, especially as Americans grow wary of military interventions overseas. “Despite these facts, there continues to be a widespread misunderstanding about the size of our foreign aid program,” Berman said in a congressional speech last year. “Polls show that most people think it is upward of 20 percent of the budget and that cutting foreign aid will somehow balance the budget. What is interesting is that the amount people think we should be spending on foreign aid is about 10 times more than we actually spending. “It bears repeating that we give humanitarian and development aid not only because it is the right thing to do but because it is the smart thing to do,” he continued. “Addressing hunger, disease and human misery abroad is a cost-effective way of making Americans safer here at home. And it is infinitely cheaper to address these with economic and technical assistance now than to wait until fragile states collapse or conflicts erupt in widescale violence and we have to resort to costly emergency aid or even military action.” The former congressman stressed that his legislative initiative wasn’t a spending bill so much as a smart reform bill. He conceded that dire budget straits in Washington make any new spending difficult. “The budget realities do impact that,” he said. “This foreign assistance reform is not to say we should spend more or less money, but whatever money we decide to spend should be spent better.” Berman said he worries that a growing segment of Congress — and by extension America — is averse to any kind of U.S. involvement abroad.The Republican-led tea party movement, in particular, has been disdainful of U.S. meddling abroad. “I am worried about that,” Berman said.“It is part of a larger fear I have that there are growing voices in both political parties that think America is better served by disengaging. On so many different levels, I think that’s the wrong approach. “We’re a globalized world,” he continued. “The notion that the country is better served at a time when everything is so interconnected that what happens in one place so impacts other things … it seems foolish to make the case that this is the time to disengage.” Berman, a staunch defender of Israel in the American foreign policy establishment during his three decades in Congress, gave Obama generally good marks for managing the relationship. The Diplomat spoke with Berman just after Obama returned from his trip to the Middle East in late

March, where he aimed to re-launch the stalled peace process by asking young Israelis to pressure their leaders for a peace agreement with the Palestinians while acknowledging the Jewish state’s historical right to exist and defend itself. “Notwithstanding some mistakes at the beginning, which have been corrected, the level of security cooperation, intelligence sharing and trying to find a common purpose is very strong between the U.S. and Israel,” Berman said.“You talk to their military and intelligence leadership — there has never been a time when the cooperation has been better than it is now. That’s a tribute to the administration’s commitments there. “The administration’s recent trip was very effective in showing the people of Israel that [Obama] values the U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as wanting to do as much as possible to try to pursue the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a way that protects the Israeli security and gives the Palestinians a state,” he added. Berman rejected the notion held by some that Congress kowtows to the Jewish-Israeli lobby out of fear of political retribution. “I don’t buy it,” he said bluntly.“I think our relationship with Israel is serving our interest and Israel’s interest. I’ve always been one who is willing to push when it made sense to push.There is a massive campaign to try to de-legitimize the state of Israel and when you look at the other countries of the world, they are quite willing to give short shrift to Israel’s security needs and to internalize Israel as a permanent part of the Middle East. “I think U.S. policy helps to overcome that sentiment and resist that sentiment,” Berman said. “American policy is very clear: We want two states for two peoples and we do a great deal of assistance for the Palestinian Authority. We promote security cooperation between the PA and the state of Israel, we invest heavily in Israel’s security needs, but we also try to help the Palestinians find a better life.” Finally, Berman chuckled when asked about criticism of former members of Congress who leave Capitol Hill and immediately take a lobbying job, trading contacts for lucrative contracts. Federal law prohibits former members from becoming lobbyists for a year, although they can be “consultants” and other paid advisors. Berman pointed out that the decision to find a new line of work wasn’t exactly his. “I didn’t go to Congress to build up a base to become a lobbyist — I lost an election,” he exclaimed. “Why wouldn’t I want to take some of the skills and contacts I developed in Congress to try to resolve problems and help people who deserve help? I’m aware of the sensitivity here. “There are people who provide very useful services by trying to inform members of Congress about things they may not know much about. In some cases it’s perverse and counterproductive, but it all depends on how you go about it,” he added.“Everybody is entitled to have people representing them. It is the American way.“

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The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

Politics

South Asia

Pakistani Elections: Possible Bright Spot In Country Overshadowed by Problems by Sean Lyngaas

akistan’s parliamentary elections in May will mark the first successful completion of a democratically elected government’s term in the country’s tumultuous 65-year history.

That is no small feat for a country with a penchant for political disasters that invite the world’s urgent attention, from the military coup led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999 to Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in 2007. (Musharraf ironically tried to get on the ballot this May but was barred from running and arrested, perhaps itself a sign of political progress.) In a place as beleaguered as Pakistan — one riven by a war with Islamic militants within its own borders and crippled by power outages that keep its economy in the dark — a moment of optimism can have an outsize influence on the country’s future. The coming election is one such moment. How the country builds on it depends on whether Pakistan’s two main political parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (PMLN), can keep legislative attention on the country’s dire economic and security straits. At the helm of the PML-N and the PPP are former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and current President Asif Ali Zardari, respectively. Sharif is a household name from his time as prime minister (which lasted until 1999, when Musharraf ousted him), while Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, bears the burden of incumbency and allegations of corruption and ineptitude.The PML-N is favored to win a plurality of parliament seats and head the next government, early polls show. Turnout is also expected to be high. The Election Commission of Pakistan registered 84 million new voters in 2012 (43 percent of them women). “The critical issue is that democracy has actually been working,” Vali Nasr, a former U.S. State Department adviser on Pakistan and the current dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told The Washington Diplomat recently. A clue that democracy is functioning in a country is often the appearance of populists who appeal to the disillusionment of large segments of the populace. In Pakistan’s case, Imran Khan, an enigmatic former cricket star, and Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, a firebrand cleric, are playing the populist part. Both Khan and Qadri have drawn crowds estimated in the hundreds of thousands with appeals to root out corruption in Pakistani politics. Khan and Qadri are “basically pitching to the same constituency,” said Nasr, citing “elements of the middle class who want better governance.” Though Khan and Qadri have very little chance of becoming the next prime minister, they have struck a nationalist nerve that may encourage Pakistanis to participate more in the democratic process. Their “throw out the bums” message resonates, even if the bums remain in power.

Machiavellian Politics But in this tinderbox of nearly 200 million people, the civilian government is just one of many players jostling for power.The specter of Pakistan’s military always looms large, although army officials seem to be staying out of this upcoming contest, claiming their days of intervening are

“

Photo: Staff Sgt. Wayne Gray / U.S. Army

We have said — and we still mean — that the democratic process is key to us…. I’d like to see as much engagement as possible by the Pakistani parties in trying to make the discussion be about how they’re going to solve problems rather than settling scores. — Cameron Munter

”

former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan

over. Suspicion remains that the military may still be pulling a few strings — some say the emergence of Qadri “is the latest incarnation of the military stalking-horse,” as the Economist described the candidate. An activist judiciary has also kept politicians on their toes. In fact, Zardari barely eked out a five-year term after being pursued by the country’s chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, over a longstanding corruption case — with the prominent judge hauling two of Zardari’s prime ministers into court, forcing one of them to resign. Even the country’s embassy in Washington hasn’t been immune to the political hornet’s nest back home. In 2011, Ambassador Husain Haqqani became embroiled in the socalled “memo-gate” scandal after a Pakistani businessman accused him a orchestrating a memo to top U.S. officials that pledged his government’s support for a raft of proAmerican security policies in return for the Pentagon’s help sidelining Pakistan’s military. Haqqani fought the charges, pointing out that he wouldn’t need a businessman with a checkered past to deliver a missive to U.S. officials with whom he was in constant contact.

An aerial view taken from a U.S. Army helicopter shows Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2010, when American troops contributed to local flood relief. Despite such goodwill gestures, Swat residents are also familiar with a very different instrument of U.S. power: drone strikes, which are estimated to have killed between 2,536 and 3,577 people in Pakistan since 2004, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

But amid a frenzy of conspiracy theories, threats and possible charges of treason, Haqqani went into self-imposed exile in the United States, where he currently teaches at Boston University. His successor is also no stranger to the cutthroat machinations of Pakistani politics. Ambassador Sherry Rehman — a former parliamentarian and women’s rights advocate who was with Bhutto when she assassinated — faced death threats after pushing back against the country’s barbaric blasphemy laws; several of her colleagues who joined her were killed. Now, another Pakistani businessman has succeeded in filing blasphemy charges against Rehman for supposedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad on a TV talk show two years ago. In a scene that would almost be comical if the stakes weren’t so high, Pakistan’s courts are often reluctant to even hear blasphemy cases — which carry the death penalty — for fear of inadvertently insulting the Prophet by repeating the original accusation, thereby risking retribution by religious zealots. The danger of fanaticism is very real. Secular and moderate officials have been slaughtered for even the mere hint of insulting Islam — or just for being secular (dozens of supporters of the secular Awami National Party have been killed in Taliban attacks leading up to the election). Polio workers vaccinating children have been shot. Girls — most famously Malala Yousafzai — have been attacked for trying to go to school. Indeed, religious hardliners are shaking the very core of Pakistani society. Sectarian and ethnic tit-for-tat killings and bombings by Islamist militants have killed tens of thou-

May 2013

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 7

Continued from previous page sands of Pakistanis over the last decade, mostly in lawless tribal areas. More recently, however, gunmen have overrun the commercial hub of Karachi, where in February an estimated 100 people were slain. The Pakistani Taliban, more known for its presence in semi-autonomous regions near the border with Afghanistan, is making a bid for power in Karachi by assaulting police stations. Some Americans say Pakistan’s military and intelligence services are reaping what they sowed by making devil’s bargains with Islamic extremists who are now turning on the government. On the flip side, Islamabad says the United States hasn’t recognized the thousands of Pakistani civilians and soldiers who’ve sacrificed their lives battling terrorists. Regardless, whoever prevails at the polls on May 11 will inherit a near-failed security state. So the real question is if greater popular participation in the democratic process can focus government minds on solving some of Pakistan’s chronic problems like violence and corruption. It’s unlikely one party will muster an outright majority, meaning coalitions and compromises among vastly different regional and religious parties will have to be forged. According to Nasr, while democracy may be working in Pakistan,“the bad news is that you have the confluence of very difficult issues on the table,” he said. “One is that the domestic security situation, regardless of whose fault it is, is now out of control.” And that is everybody’s problem, he adds.“The international community really has to use its influence to make sure that a PPP president and a PML-N government are able work together,” should the security situation deteriorate, Nasr warned. World powers simply cannot afford to put out another fire in Pakistan — a nucleararmed nation — what with so much of the Arab world aflame.

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Credit: UN Photo / WFP / Amjad Jamal

Awkward American Bystander Can this outside pressure for comity between Pakistani politicians credibly come from the United States? The U.S. government, perennially unpopular with the Pakistani public, wants to be seen as supportive of the democratic process regardless of who wins.This will be a tough sell, given that many Pakistanis view Washington as obsessed with counterterrorism in their country and only mildly interested in civil society, if not hostile to it. A stunning 74 percent of Pakistanis view the United States as an enemy, according to a July 2012 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center. “We have said — and we still mean — that the democratic process is key to us,” Cameron Munter, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan from 2010 to 2012, told The Diplomat recently. That many Pakistanis are skeptical of America’s claim of impartiality is “all the more reason for us to repeat it, that we’re not there to pick winners,” he said.

In Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, flood victims in 2010 carry aid distributed by the U.N. World Food Program, for which the United States is the largest donor. While U.S. officials often tout the humanitarian and civilian assistance they provide to Pakistan, the majority of Pakistanis say Washington is only concerned with counterterrorism in their nation.

American diplomats should drive home this point “because we actually believe that Pakistan is well served by being able to solve its problems and therefore reinforce the legitimacy of democratic government,” he added. But how are American diplomats supposed to relay this message to a Pakistani media that would prefer to paint Washington as bent on subverting the country’s sovereignty? “One of the things that Hillary Clinton said to me before I departed for Pakistan in 2010 [was that] she wanted to see us really engage in public diplomacy” in that country, Munter recounted. And so American diplomats have tried to get their message out in the Pakistani press at every opportunity. Richard Olson, Munter’s successor and the current ambassador, has “had a regular program of outreach through the electronic media and the print media” in Pakistan since his arrival in Islamabad last year, he told The Diplomat on the sidelines of his recent appearance at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. “All of my staff are empowered to go out and talk to the media, and we’re trying to get as many technical people out to talk about” U.S. aid projects as possible, Olson said. He pointed to two hydroelectric dams that the United States is helping rebuild — one in Mangla and Tarbela — as generating goodwill among Pakistanis. “There are 78 Pakistani electronic media outlets, so I’ve got a lot to do,” Olson said. But the Pakistani press rarely talks about U.S.funded dams — the project generating headlines at the moment is a proposed pipeline between Iran and Pakistan that’s widely seen as a thumb in Washington’s nose. Moreover, an honest discussion of U.S. policy in Pakistan is not simply a matter of highlighting successful partnerships or making the rounds on the local talk shows. It might require that each side address politically unpopular issues, namely Americans officials talking publicly about the use of drones in Pakistan’s tribal areas and Pakistani officials vouching for benign U.S. intentions toward their civil society.This candor from each side may be unlikely, but that doesn’t make it less of a prerequisite to improving bilateral ties. “I’d like to see as much engagement as possible by the Pakistani parties in trying to make the discussion be about how they’re going to solve problems rather than settling scores” in the coming parliamentary elections, Munter said. As ambassador, Munter advised President Barack Obama to apologize to Islamabad after a November 2011 NATO airstrike killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers, according to a New York Times report. Obama never delivered a formal apology (though Clinton said she was sorry for the deaths a year

later) and, more broadly, the United States has yet to have an open conversation about its use of drones in Pakistan, where at least some of the targeted killings likely have the tacit approval of the Pakistani government. Shortly after resigning in 2012, Munter spoke about the controversial use of drones, which have killed thousands of militants and an untold number of civilians. Munter, who as ambassador reportedly sought to get final approval for any drone strikes on Pakistani soil, believes civilian casualties are often inflated, but that doesn’t mean he fully embraces the covert program.“The use of drones is a good way to fight the war. But you’re going to kill drones if you’re not using them judiciously,” he told the Daily Beast’s Tara McKelvey.“The problem is the political fallout,” he said.“Do you want to win a few battles and lose the war?” Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, echoes that argument, telling reporters earlier this year that drones are illegal and doing more harm than good by breeding anti-American extremism in Pakistan’s tribal belt. American refusal to publicly acknowledge a drone program that has taken the lives of perhaps hundreds of Pakistani civilians is one reason why Pakistanis are so loath to give Washington the benefit of the doubt in its dealings with Islamabad. It does not take a conspiracy theorist to come to the conclusion that American policy toward Pakistan is one of preemptive strike first and ask questions later. Haqqani, Pakistan’s former envoy to the U.S., even argues that the two sides should just stop the charade that they’re partners and only work together on areas where their strategic interests align. “Each country accuses the other of being a terrible ally — and perhaps both are right,” he wrote in the Foreign Affairs essay “Breaking Up Is Not Hard to Do.” “At this point, instead of continuing to fight so constantly for so little benefit … the two countries should acknowledge that their interests simply do not converge enough to make them strong partners. By coming to terms with this reality, Washington would be freer to explore new ways of pressuring Pakistan and achieving its own goals in the region. Islamabad, meanwhile, could finally pursue its regional ambitions, which would either succeed once and for all or, more likely, teach Pakistani officials the limitations of their country’s power,” he wrote. But other veterans of the bilateral relationship aren’t ready to go quite that far. For Munter, effective public communication between the two countries is about having “a common story to tell” with Pakistanis, a narrative built from the two countries’ shared foe in Islamic extremism. “One of the hard things about what happened in 2011 was that the trust between not only the people of our countries, the trust between the institutions that are fighting … the common enemy … was undercut by what happened during that year,” he said. Munter was presumably referring to the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011, and the detention by Pakistani authorities of Raymond Davis, a CIA agent accused of killing two Pakistanis in January of that year.The two incidents plummeted U.S.-Pakistani relations to what many observers see as an all-time low. In his recent public appearance in Washington, Ambassador Olson made the case that the bilateral relationship was back from that abysmal brink. “I think that both sides recognize that in the past we’ve had a relationship that tended to go in cycles,” he said at the Stimson Center event. “We want to get the relationship on more stable footing, an even keel. And I think the way to do that is to work hard to identify common interests and work along the basis of mutual respect,” Olson said. An unconventional place to start in identifying common interests might be the development of a healthier democracy in Pakistan. For now, Pakistani generals and American officials are at least saying publicly that this is a common goal.

Sean Lyngaas is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

12/8/11 3:04 PM

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

The RotunDA

Foreign Affairs on Capitol Hill

‘A Dilemma with Horns’:

Congress Steps Into Syria Fray by Luke Jerod Kummer

yria is engulfed in civil war and Congress has decided to step into the fray over whether to arm the opposition in an attempt to end a bloody two-year conflict that’s gone from bad to worse. This — and every other apparent option for how to help Syria — can be summed up in one phrase: damned if you do, damned it you don’t. Unfortunately, while recent proposals from Congress have lent a new urgency to breaking the stalemate overseas, they haven’t done much to quell legitimate concerns over whether the United States should become swept up in yet another Mideast maelstrom. Nor do they answer fundamental questions about the best way to bring about lasting good in a country, where, so far, an estimated 70,000 people have died (though some groups put the figure at more than 100,000); 1.25 million refugees have spilled into neighboring countries; about another 3 to 4 million inside Syria desperately need help; and a peaceful uprising has morphed into an ideological proxy battle that’s threatening to destabilize the entire region. In March, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) sponsored the Free Syria Act of 2013 in the House, a bill that would broaden America’s engagement by directly supplying deadly weapons to “appropriately vetted” rebels. So far, the Obama administration has resisted providing lethal aid for fear of stoking the violence and flooding the region with weapons that could wind up in the wrong hands. On the same day, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) sent a letter to President Obama urging him to support “limited military options” for helping the opposition forces in Syria achieve victory over President Bashar al-Assad’s entrenched regime. The senators stopped short of calling on Obama to arm the insurgents, mentioning only strikes to degrade Assad’s air-power advantage, establishing a “safe zone” for the opposition to coalesce, increasing nonlethal aid, and sharing “tactical intelligence.” McCain, in particular, has been one of the most outspoken advocates in Congress for extending U.S. military support to the Syrian opposition. Last year, the one-time Republican presidential nominee said weapons should be funneled, too. When The Washington Diplomat asked McCain in April if the United States should send arms, he showed no signs of tempering his support. “It’s easy enough to do.We’ve got to provide a safe zone, train them and equip them and help them — we need a Benghazi,” McCain said, “a place that’s a safe zone where they can operate a government and distribute weapons to the people through the government.” McCain was referring to the NATO-led airstrikes in Libya in 2011 that allowed rebel fighters to establish a foothold in Benghazi and oust Col. Muammar Qaddafi while France and other countries supplied them with munitions. When The Diplomat suggested there had been fallout from this policy, the senator sharply disagreed. “It worked quite well. They overthrew Qaddafi. They now have a government. Of course they have difficulties,

Credit: UN Photo / David Manyua

“

Problems have solutions, and dilemmas have horns…. I think this is one of those dilemmas where you don’t have really good choices.

”

— John McLaughlin

former acting director of the CIA

but they have a government that is there and representative of the people and not al-Qaeda extremists,” McCain said. But weapons from the conflict eventually made their way to Islamist extremists in Mali who took over a large swath of what had been one of Africa’s most stable democracies,The Diplomat pointed out to the senator. “Oh, the fact that we had a light footprint and didn’t help them secure their arms cache, of course that was a terrible mistake on our part — not helping them secure the arms caches,” McCain said.“That wasn’t their fault, that was our fault.” McCain’s right — that was our fault. And it was a blunder that came back to bite our allies and us. France has been forced to intervene in Mali, while in Algeria, an alQaeda-affiliated group besieged a gas plant in January using weapons and supplies widely believed to have originated in Libya. There are other reasons to doubt McCain’s assessment that arming would be “easy enough.”The tired adage that Syria is not Libya still holds true today.The fighting in Syria has been mostly waged in urban centers, a battlefield that doesn’t lend itself well to the kind of airstrikes or safe zones that proved decisive in Libya. Also, Syria’s population is greater and it doesn’t have

May 2013

Fire damage is seen in a building in Mazraat al-Qubeir, Syria, where U.N. monitors visited in 2012 to investigate allegations of a massacre by government forces. Since then, Syria has devolved into full-scale civil war, with at least 70,000 killed and the chances of a political solution dead.

Libya’s oil wealth to fall back on, which means it will require heaps of international assistance after the Assad government falls. Furthermore, Libya’s rebels had their act together, politically — Syria’s political opposition is an inchoate mess. And, for the most part, we knew who Libya’s rebels were. In Syria, every fighter seems to have a different identity or allegiance — Sunni, Alawite, Shiite, Christian, Druze, Arab, Kurd, Turkmen, Palestinian, Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc. And if the West could not keep Libya’s arms from flowing to fanatic militants — even though the new leadership in Libya is one of the more pro-American in the Arab world — just imagine where weapons in Syria might end up. On the flip side of caution, however, it’s hard to deny what McCain said in a speech way back in October 2011: “The Assad regime has spilled too much blood to stay in power.” That declaration rings even truer today, as Assad’s endurance has become more galling, his regime more brutal, and its potential collapse more dangerous. The tally of lives lost and upended is staggering, but numbers don’t capture the extent of the horror. Much of Syria’s critical infrastructure and priceless history have been reduced to rubble, which means that even when the smoke clears, reconstruction will be difficult and instability could linger for years. So will the psychological scars: Both sides have committed atrocities. The complexity of the issue is probably why most U.S. lawmakers have dithered for so long in taking up the

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 9

Continued from previous page debate. There are simply no good options at this point. In hindsight — always 20/20 — a greater diplomatic push for a political solution more than a year ago might have been the best solution, but that prospect died long ago. Today, the United States should be — and is — helping the fractious political opposition unite and prepare for the inevitable power vacuum when Assad is toppled, lest the country completely split apart along sectarian lines. And at some point, war crimes charges against the regime should be pursued. On the military front, the most sensible advocates for intervention — and almost no one is seriously contemplating a full-scale intervention — remind us that we’re not aiming for perfect, but for the least bad option. One of the lawmakers who’s decided we can no longer wait for perfect is Levin.After months of echoing the White House’s policy of no overt military intervention by the U.S., the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee reversed course, co-writing the letter with McCain. When The Diplomat asked Levin in April why he changed his mind, he cited the following criteria:“The length of time that it’s taken; that there’s some evidence of progress, politically, in terms of getting the opposition together — it’s not perfect, but there’s some evidence; and the fact that Assad is clearly weaker.” Levin is not alone in this thinking. “We’re making a foreign policy mistake,” said Rachel Kleinfeld, founding president of the Truman National Security Project. “It’s a very hard call. Arming the rebels will certainly lead to more civilian deaths, and it also puts more weapons into a volatile region. On the other hand, it enables us to do something about getting more of the less-radical groups of rebels on our side.And it would give us some stake in the outcome.” She added that right now, “the opposition is being driven toward radicalization and there’s a

“

It’s a very hard call. Arming the rebels will certainly lead to more civilian deaths, and it also puts more weapons into a volatile region. On the other hand, it enables us to do something about getting more of the less-radical groups of rebels on our side. And it would give us some stake in the outcome.

”

— Rachel Kleinfeld, founding president of the Truman National Security Project very slow dying of the Assad regime, so that whoever takes over afterward is likely to be more radical than we’ll want, without us having any say.” “Out of all the bad options,” Kleinfeld concluded, “the least bad is to use our intelligence assets on the ground to arm the Syrian rebels with some understanding that that could drag us into more of a war.” But for others, that least bad option still sounds pretty bad. “Frankly, the growing chaos on the ground inside of Syria makes it even more difficult now to resolve some of the issues that continue to dog the question of whether or not to arm,” said Mona Yacoubian, a senior advisor at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank that focuses on security issues. Amid that chaos, murky allegations of chemical weapons have also surfaced, with both the rebels and the government accusing the other of deploying them — a supposed “red line” for the Obama administration, although U.S. officials remain reticent on the issue.The White House has been inching toward boosting non-lethal military aid, such as body armor and night-vision goggles, recently announcing it will double aid to the Syrian opposition by $123 million. At the same time, the European Union embargo against sending arms to Syria appears likely to expire at the end of this month. But for now, deadly arms aren’t in the mix. “We don’t want any weapons to fall into the

wrong hands and potentially further endanger the Syrian people, our ally Israel or the United States,” Jay Carney, the White House’s press secretary, said in February. “We also need to make sure that any support we are providing actually makes a difference in pressuring Assad.” What the White House also won’t acknowledge is that there’s very little appetite among a cashstrapped voting public to wade into another Mideast quagmire after spilling so much blood and treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan — with comparatively little to show for it. “President Obama on the one hand looks at the polls and sees that there’s no majority support by the American public for more military engagement,” said Gregory Aftandilian, a senior fellow at the Center for National Policy and former staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “But there’s also a growing danger that the militants in the rebel camp in Syria are becoming stronger, and there’s a good chance that if the Syrian state collapses that they could then seize control of the country and then you would have an extremist state right in the heart of the Levant area,” Aftandilian said. “It’s a complicated question.” It’s a question made even thornier by the growing popularity and military effectiveness of the alNusra Front, also known as Jabhat al-Nusra, a group of jihadists that have joined forces with the al-Qaeda branch in Iraq. Their strength gets to the

double-edged sword of providing arms: Scholars such as Aftandilian warn that doing nothing will empower radical groups and sideline moderates. Others argue that many Syrians prefer the Islamists — hence their popularity — and a few “Made in the USA” weapons won’t marginalize them or prevent them from consolidating power once Assad falls. And if that happens, a new al-Qaeda-affiliated regime could have a trove of U.S.-supplied weapons at its disposal. It’s also important to remember that Syria is already awash in weapons. Critics of supplying arms point out that the rebels have a lot — from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and from Assad’s forces that they’ve overrun — and more may not prove decisive. They may, in fact, only prolong the slaughter (McCain himself has said arms assistance doesn’t guarantee victory). U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford recently told Congress that even if Assad falls, fighting among various groups could rage for at least another year. That’s why many of the discussions about providing arms now center around anti-aircraft or anti-tank equipment that could neutralize Assad’s military advantage, which is based on superior air power and batteries of missiles. Much of the recent fighting has followed a script whereby the rebels make creeping advances using their limited resources, but then are forced to cede their gains when Assad launches an onslaught from above, according to Elizabeth O’Bagy, a senior research analyst for the Institute for the Study of War. “There’s an argument to be made that the rebels should receive some sort of anti-aircraft, airdefense system that can prevent air strikes from destroying the territory they control,” said O’Bagy, who’s made four reporting trips to Syria since November. But those specific types of weapons inherently

See syria, page 12

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Syria

entail certain dangers, John McLaughlin, the former acting director of the CIA, told The Diplomat. “If you provide anti-aircraft weapons, you then have to keep track of them and you have to worry about into whose hands do they fall. Do they fall into the hands of extremists who then might use them on civilian aircraft as part of the terrorist campaign?” said McLaughlin. “So there’s a risk calculus here that you’ve got to think about all the time.” Does the proposed Syria bill in the House accurately gauge this risk? It takes a stab at it — but comes up short on the nuances.And some of its provisions seem to contradict themselves or the presumed goals of the legislation. For example, the bill specifically prohibits giving the rebels “anti-aircraft defensive systems.” However, in the very next line, the bill grants a waiver letting the president provide anti-aircraft PHoTo: Bo yASER weapons as long as “it is in the vital national secu- we did that through Osama bin Laden’s network, Syrians protest against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in NOTE: rity Although every is made your adpart is free mistakes in spelling and in April 2011 — one of many peaceful demonthat’s of howofwe helped create the al- Homs interest to do so”effort — a huge loophole.to assureand Qaeda we’re fighting she told The strations that morphed into a bloody insurgency that Furthermore, theisbill is confusingup because if itcustomer content it ultimately to the to make thetoday,” final proof. were to actually exclude anti-aircraft systems, Diplomat. has raged for two years now. Kleinfeld outlined a plan she believes would how would it go about neutralizing Assad’s main The first advantage: two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes allow the United States to successfully arm the not large contingents but a handful of people air power? will be billed at atroubling rate ofpart $75 faxed Signed adswith areminimal considered in Syria risk of approved. blow- who can help do the training and who can do the The other of per the bill deals alteration. with opposition vetting for who gets these arms,” Kleinfeld discerning which rebels can be trusted with back. explained. “The first step would be to make sure that potent American weapons. Even some of the Please check this ad carefully. Mark any changes to your ad. That’s all easier said than done, and the Free people who favor arming the rebels say the bill is we’re not accidentally giving arms to people who are going to be enemies who we’re going to be Syria Act doesn’t clarify how it might be accomdeficient in this regard. he ad is correct sign to: (301)more 949-0065 plished. An amended bill could still do that, but “The idea thatand therefax is something that fighting again.needs changes “The second step is making sure that we have experts such as O’Bagy point out that the winneeds to be done to support the opposition is a good urge,” said O’Bagy, who called the bill a way to monitor and collect arms after the con- dow for us to act effectively may soon shut. e Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 Much of O’Bagy’s recent work focuses on a “pretty good” overall. “But I think the problem flict so you don’t get a Libya situation. “The third is the people that you’re giving nascent command structure within the Free with this bill is mostly the fact that it’s very vague on vetting groups — what groups will receive arms to have to know how to use them. That Syrian Army called the Supreme Military proved __________________________________________________________ can’t be overstated. A lot of the rebels don’t nec- Command, which was created, with international support and which ones don’t?” anges ___________________________________________________________ Kleinfeld, also an advocate for arming the essarily know how to use some of the more support, to centralize military authority and limit opposition, agrees that we have to be smart sophisticated arms. If they’re used incorrectly, the influence of extremists. _________________________________________________________________ “This is why the argument right now becomes they’re not very useful. And so you might need about choosing sides. “When we armed in Afghanistan 30 years ago, some training for individuals on the ground — so important,” O’Bagy said. “You do have this

Re-opened in April 2013…

The NEW Concordia

fledgling command, which as of right now does have a sense of legitimacy on the ground and is working very well at integrating the various rebel networks in order to distribute supplies, allocate resources, and basically prop up the cooperation. “But, essentially, the command’s authority is going to be based on its transactional legitimacy,” O’Bagy said, warning that if it isn’t able to distribute weapons and supplies, it may disintegrate. Yet getting Congress to do anything swiftly these days is a tall order. Regardless, it’s no secret that the CIA is already acting, vetting and training the rebels and helping donor countries such as Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia procure and airlift weapons from sources such as Croatia (as originally reported by the New York Times). Levin hinted as much when The Diplomat asked the senator — an ex-officio member of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence — whether he supported sending arms to the opposition. “Yeah, I think others are doing that,” he said. “Should we?”The Diplomat asked. “Well, in our own way, we are doing it, but that’s not as explicit,” Levin said. Yet not being explicit carries implicit dangers. “All covert action comes with unintended consequences,” said McLaughlin, the CIA’s former acting director.“You may bring about great benefits through a program. But you almost always have something happen that you don’t anticipate.” And, right now, no one can anticipate the outcome in Syria, or the domino effect that one decision might trigger. Caution has costs, yet so does involvement — and these costs shouldn’t be downplayed. “Problems have solutions, and dilemmas have horns,” McLaughlin said when asked about what course America should take in Syria. “I think this is one of those dilemmas where you don’t have really good choices.”

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

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International Relations

Asia

Japan-South Korean Rivalry Is Thorn in America’s Pivot by Talha Aquil and Anna Gawel

orth Korea has been making waves, yet again, with its threats to destroy the United States and its ally South Korea. The bellicose rhetoric has temporarily diverted attention from the various maritime disputes that have pitted a potpourri of Asian nations against each other and against China — opening the way for the United States to reassert a strategic presence in the region as part of its Asian pivot. But amid the high-profile territorial claims, clashes and verbal bombast, two of America’s best friends in the region have also been quietly butting heads — putting the United States in an awkward position as it balances relations with Japan and South Korea while hampering its ability to tamp down hostilities elsewhere. It would be difficult to classify the historical relationship between South Korea and Japan as an amicable one. Japanese interference in Korean affairs stretches back to the 16th century and ultimately reached a pinnacle with the brutal colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. On the other side of the coin, the failed 13thcentury Mongol invasion of Japan was launched from what is now South Korea, and the Japanese have since seen the peninsula as a strategic dagger aimed straight toward them. Despite this history, for the last 60 years, South Korea and Japan have been among America’s closest allies in the Pacific Rim and lynchpins of U.S. military presence in the region. This has ameliorated some of the tension but has not helped to solve their fundamental disputes, as both countries increasingly find themselves at odds over their shared history and claims to islands in the Sea of Japan, which South Koreans refer to as the East Sea. Those claims often take a backseat to the headline-grabbing rivalries in the South China Sea, but the dispute over a remote set of islets known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan inspires deep-seated animosity that could, at some point, boil over and entangle the United States. (Japan also has separate disputes with China and Taiwan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.) “Two of America’s most important alliance partners, Japan and South Korea,

South Korean Navy sailors wave U.S. and Korean flags to greet U.S. Navy destroyer USS John S. McCain as it arrives in South Korea for the Foal Eagle joint military exercises in 2010.

Photo: U.S. Army phot by Spc. Brian Gibbons

“

Both intelligence sharing and deeper trade ties between Korea and Japan have been hindered by tensions over territorial disputes and history. — Devin Stewart senior program director at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

are surrounded by … 1.25 million square kilometers of water. The East China Sea also creates a large maritime domain around Taiwan, to whose defense America has committed itself both morally and legally,” wrote Michael Auslin of the American Enterprise Institute in a bulletin for the Center for a New American Security. The decades-old dispute between South Korea and Japan flared in August 2012 as outgoing Korean President Lee Myung-bak made an unprecedented trip to the volcanic outcroppings, prompting Tokyo to recall its ambassador in Seoul in protest. “The nationalistic sniping between two of Washington’s crucial allies over these specks of land serves as a reminder of the trouble that the United States faces as it tries to ‘pivot’ back to Asia,” wrote Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times last year. “The standoff contributed to South Korea’s decision to back out of an agreement, supported by the

”

United States, to share military intelligence with Japan.” The territorial disputes stem from a litany of grievances over Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula — with Americans partly to blame, because they never resolved complex sovereignty claims over islands in the Sea of Japan after Tokyo’s surrender in World War II. Indeed, the islands whip up such fierce emotions not only because of possible mineral wealth under the seabed or fishing rights, but also because they symbolize the enduring bitterness over Imperial Japanese aggression — for which many South Koreans (and Chinese) think Tokyo has never fully atoned. It’s often difficult for outsiders to grasp just how raw these emotions still are today. Embassy protests in both Seoul and Tokyo, for instance, are routine and occasionally get out of hand. In February, a South Korean man even

May 2013

hurled human feces into the Japanese Embassy to protest Japan’s territorial claims. In an earlier incident, the same man cut off part of his pinkie and mailed it to the embassy. This enmity continues to smolder despite close cultural links. “Lots of Japanese people follow Korean dramas and pop stars so they are increasingly wondering why aren’t Koreans moving past their history,” said Devin Stewart, senior program director and senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. “Both intelligence sharing and deeper trade ties between Korea and Japan have been hindered by tensions over territorial disputes and history.” Yet tensions are unlikely to simmer down anytime soon with the election of two new leaders in South Korea and Japan — both conservatives and strident nationalists. Shinzo Abe was elected Japan’s prime minister following his Liberal Democratic Party’s victory in general elections last December. He had previously served as prime minister from September 2006 to September 2007. A military hawk, Abe returns to office on the heels of a nationwide shift away from Japan’s postwar pacifist Constitution in the face of rising Chinese assertiveness. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Tokyo correspondent for the BBC,

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 13

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Continued from previous page described Abe as “far more right wing than most of his predecessors” with “very right-wing views on the history of Japanese aggression during World War II.” Abe, who has already increased defense spending, has repeatedly said he would revise Japan’s landmark 1995 apology for its World War II transgressions, although it’s debatable whether he’d risk provoking a region-wide backlash just to appease his hard-line base. He did, however, recently visit a controversial shrine that’s viewed as a symbol of Japanese militarism, drawing the ire of South Korea, whose foreign minister canceled a scheduled visit to Japan in response. And while serving as prime minister back in 2007,Abe made the dubious historical claim that thousands of socalled “comfort women” were not coerced into becoming sex slaves of the Japanese Imperial Army, rankling many South Koreans for whom the Photo: U.S. Navy issue remains extremely sensitive. In fact, criticism over Abe’s hawkish posturing and his attempts to A Standard Missile-3 is launched from the Japanese literally rewrite the history books in Japan con- Aegis Destroyer JS Kongo on Dec. 17, 2007, suctributed to his resignation as premier in 2007. cessfully intercepting a target missile launched from A week before the elections that ushered Abe a U.S. missile facility in Hawaii and marking a major back into power, Park Geun-hye became South milestone in U.S.-Japan military relations. Japan’s Korea’s first female president. No stranger to cut- growing military presence in the region, however, is throat politics, Park’s father ruled South Korea viewed with suspicion by allies such as South Korea with an iron fist from 1963 to 1979, when he was that remain leery of Tokyo’s imperialist past. assassinated by his intelligence chief. Park herself was first lady for five years after her mother was Japan. There is also a sense in Seoul that Abe will killed in a botched assassination attempt on her ‘behave’ on historical and territorial issues until father. the Upper House elections this summer.” Park has made it clear that relations with Japan But Abe and Park appear to have different stratewill hinge on Tokyo coming clean about its past. gies when it comes to China.“Though South Korea At a meeting with Japan’s deputy prime minister, and Japan share threat perceptions related to Taro Aso, shortly after she was sworn in, Park was China, they differ in how they approach the chalquoted by officials as telling Aso that “unresolved lenge of a rising China,” said Scott Snyder, director problems, including some dating back to history, of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy at the Council are preventing us from developing future-oriented on Foreign Relations (CFR). He explained that bilateral relations.” Japan has sought to create a balance of power “To build true friendship between South Korea against China’s rise whereas South Korea is trying and Japan, we need to face history squarely, we to ride the coattails of Chinese growth through need to try to heal the scars of the past so they increased economic cooperation. will not persist any longer, and we need to have But Stewart of the Carnegie Council points out heartfelt understanding of the suffering of vic- that “Abe represents a new viewpoint — a bit tims,” she reportedly said. bolder, more from hisNOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your adautonomous, is free of independent mistakes in spelling and For his part, Abe seems to be taking a more tory despite being a product of the same old syscontent it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof. conciliatory approach toward South Korea. Dur tem.” ing a visit to the D.C.-based Center for Strategic From the outset of his new government, Abe Theand first two faxedStudies changes be made at no cost tohisthe advertiser, International (CSIS)will in mid-February, confirmed hawkish securitysubsequent views on con-changes will billed at asaid rate $75Korea per isfaxed Signed adsglobal are considered approved. thebe prime minister thatofSouth Japan’salteration. taining China. On the commentary webmost important neighbor despite lingering con- site Project Syndicate, he called for a “security troversies overPlease history and territory. check this ad carefully.diamond” Mark any changes to your ad. to counter an assertive China. “He evoked memories of his grandfather’s, for“[I]ncreasingly, the South China Sea seems set Kishi, ties with to become a ‘Lake Beijing, ’ which analysts say If the mer ad ispremier correctNobusuke sign and fax close to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes President Park’s father and the common threats will be to China what the Sea of Okhotsk was to faced by North Korea. Some of this may fall on Soviet Russia: a sea deep enough for the People’s The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 deaf ears in Seoul as lately tolerance for Japanese Liberation Army’s navy to base their nuclearoff-color historical remarks is at an all-time low,” powered attack submarines, capable of launchApproved wrote __________________________________________________________ CSIS’s Victor Cha, Ellen Kim and Marie ing missiles with nuclear warheads,” wrote Abe. DuMond in a recent brief.“Nevertheless, the new His prescription is to “envisage a strategy Changes ___________________________________________________________ South Korean president understands the impor- whereby Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. state ___________________________________________________________________ tance of strong U.S.-Japan-ROK [Republic of Korea] ties at a personal level and has affinity for See Asia, page 54

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The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Rudolf Simon Bekink

Can Dutch Ingenuity Help Save U.S. from Future Natural Disasters? by Larry Luxner

n 1626, Dutch explorers — as generations of American schoolchildren had been taught — purchased Manhattan from the Indians for $24 worth of beads and trinkets. While it’s unknown how much truth there is to this 19th-century urban legend, few people doubt the enormous influence the Netherlands has had on this country over the ensuing four centuries.

In fact, New Amsterdam was a 17thcentury Dutch colonial settlement on the southern tip of Manhattan that served as the capital of New Netherland until English forces seized it in 1664 and renamed it New York (in honor of the Duke of York). Today, despite its small size, the Netherlands is the largest single recipient of U.S. foreign direct investment in the world, and the third largest foreign investor in the United States. More than 850 Dutch companies operate here, with bilateral trade supporting an estimated 680,000 American jobs in 2011 (see related story). This past March, top Dutch officials visited their former colony of New York to share the country’s well-known expertise in water and disaster management. The trip came in the wake of last year’s Hurricane Sandy, which killed 147 people along its path — including 72 in the midAtlantic and Northeast — and caused an estimated $50 billion in damages. That made the freakish superstorm the second-most expensive weather event in U.S. history after Hurricane Katrina. It was so deadly that the World Meteorological Organization has since retired the name “Sandy” from its list of Atlantic storm names. “I went to New York City a week after Sandy,” said Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Simon Bekink, who saw firsthand the devastation caused by Sandy’s 14-foot storm surge. “By then, most of the water at the lower end of Manhattan was gone, but shops were still closed and you could still see where the flooding had happened. I talked to someone who was still living in a hotel because his apartment was on the 50th floor and he had no electricity at home.” Bekink, who served as his country’s ambassador to China for four years before coming to Washington last July, said that when it comes to water-borne disasters, the low-lying Netherlands can teach us a thing or two. (In fact, Dutch experts advised their U.S. counterparts in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.) The ambassador was only two and a

half years old when a fierce North Sea storm barreled into the Dutch coast on Feb. 1, 1953, flooding the dikes, killing nearly 2,000 people, and destroying 500,000 acres of productive farmland. “Within weeks of the storm, a government commission issued what came to be known as the Delta Plan, a set of recommendations for flood-control measures,” James Surowiecki wrote in the Dec. 3, 2012, issue of the New Yorker. “Over the next four decades, the Dutch invested billions of guilders in a vast set of dams and barriers, culminating in the construction of the Maeslant Barrier, an enormous movable seawall to protect the port of Rotterdam. Since the Delta Plan went into effect, the Netherlands has not been flooded by the sea again.” In effect, said Bekink, the Dutch have learned how to make peace with their

Photo: Lawrence Ruggeri

“

If you want to prevent similar disasters in the future, you better start soon. The political climate is now ripe for that sort of decision. When we talked to people in New York and New Jersey, we saw that obviously [Hurricane] Sandy made quite an impression, and the American people are clever and dynamic. They’ll come to their own conclusions. — Rudolf Simon Bekink ambassador of the Netherlands to the United States

unique topography. “It’s not necessarily about fighting water, it’s about living with water. And our idea is to share that experience with HUD, especially in the post-Sandy period,” he explained, referring to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.“We are in close contact with U.S. authorities, and not only in New York and New Jersey, but also areas affected by Katrina.” He added:“In our case, the emphasis is more on prevention.That’s the main idea behind the Delta Plan — that it should never happen again. I haven’t seen that

”

yet in this country, though Sandy was a wakeup call for the Northeast.” That’s precisely why the White House rolled out the red carpet for Dutch Environment and Infrastructure Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen when she recently visited Washington, D.C., New York and New Jersey — including Hoboken and Jersey City, two cities that were badly flooded during Sandy’s rampage over the Garden State. She also spoke before a special United Nations session on water and disaster. “Although the scale of our landscapes

May 2013

differs, New York and the Netherlands have a lot in common,” said van Haegen. “Both areas are river deltas. Both areas have estuaries, rivers and water basins that are vulnerable to flooding, and the Netherlands has a long history in water management.” During her visit, van Haegen signed a memorandum of understanding with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to share strategies and best practices in urban development, water management and climate resilience. To make that happen, the U.S. and Dutch governments have agreed to organize bilateral conferences, semiALSO SEE: nars, forums, workshops, Netherlands Pushes prizes, competitions and TTIP to Boost planning meetings — Bilateral Trade ideally at least twice a year, once in each counPAGE 17 try — as well as joint research studies and regular exchange of information, program evaluation reports and monitoring. “The sea is rising, and these things do happen,” Bekink warned.“We are creating wetlands where excess water can be

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 15

Continued from previous page temporarily stored, and giving back to nature. That’s part of our idea of living with water and not fighting it, though perhaps that’s not the solution for Manhattan.” Bekink pointed out that 70 percent of his nation’s GDP is earned in areas that are actually below sea level. “The most industrious part of our country is below sea level, and when you land at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, you’re already five meters below sea level,” he said. HUD Secretary Donovan, who also chairs President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, recently visited the Netherlands — a trip Bekink helped arrange — to see how the country deals with the persistent threat of North Sea and river flooding in large low-lying developed areas. “Our two nations have much to learn from each other about finding innovative solutions to age-old shared problems,” Donovan later said in a press release.“The Dutch are no strangers to the forces of nature and I’m certain we can benefit from their experience in disaster mitigation, infrastructure management ALSO SEE: and a variety of approaches Dutch Envoy’s Texas to sustainable community Bride Is All Business, development and planning.” Bliss and Charm That we need a Delta Plan of our own is convincPAGE 37 ing, though according to the New Yorker article, “meaningful disaster-prevention measures will certainly be expensive: estimates for a New York seawall range from $10 billion to $20 billion. That may seem unreasonable at a time when Washington is obsessed with cutting the

Page 16

The Netherlands at a Glance Independence: 1579 (from Spain); 1830 Kingdom of Netherlands formed Location: Western Europe, bordering the North Sea, between Belgium and Germany Capital: Amsterdam Size: Slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey Population: 16.8 million Life expectancy: 80.9 years GDP (purchasing power parity): $709.5 billion (2012 estimate) GDP per-capita: $42,300 (2012 estimate) GDP growth: -.5 percent (2012 estimate) Exports: Machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs Imports: Machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs, clothing

federal deficit.” Yet Surowiecki warns that inaction can be even more expensive. “After Katrina, the government had to spend more than a hundred billion dollars on relief and reconstruction — and there are good reasons to believe that disaster-control measures could save money in the long run,” he wrote. “A 2005 independent study of disaster-mitigation grants made by FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] found that every dollar in grants ended up saving taxpayers $3.65 in avoided costs.” Bekink, 62, knows the United States well. Born and raised in Assen, a town of 67,000 in the northeastern Netherlands, he attended the

Source: CIA World Factbook

University of Groningen, earning a master’s degree in economy. Shortly after joining the Dutch Foreign Service, Bekink was sent to Washington 30 years ago to be first secretary at the embassy here. “I was 32 and the youngest kid on the block,” recalled the diplomat, who served in Washington from 1982 to 1986 before moving on to bigger and better assignments in places such as France and Ghana. Bekink’s first ambassadorship was Sweden (2000-04), followed by Belgium (2004-08), China (2008-12) and finally Washington, again. “I’m not complaining at all,” he said. “It’s fascinating to be here. This is the pinnacle of my career. I love the United States.”

The Washington Diplomat

Bekink says the high point of his career was meeting President Obama in the White House to present his credentials and being a witness to the 2012 elections. Last October, he joined 42 of his diplomatic colleagues for a State Department-sponsored trip to Arkansas, where he met former President Bill Clinton in Little Rock (also see “Arkansas Odyssey:Ambassadors Experience the Natural State” in the January 2013 issue of The Washington Diplomat). In January, the Netherlands grabbed its own worldwide headlines when Queen Beatrix announced she would abdicate on April 30 — ending the reign of one of Europe’s longestserving monarchs and clearing the way for her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, who just turned 46, to become Holland’s first king in more than a century. Willem-Alexander — whose investiture is being celebrated by the embassy in D.C. with a reception and gala dinner — just happens to be an expert in water management. He’s chairman of the United Nations Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation and has spoken frequently about the correlation between global warming and the increasing frequency of waterrelated disasters around the world — from floods in Bangkok to the Japanese tsunami. Yet Bekink says his recent four-year assignment in Beijing taught him that the developed world cannot lecture poorer countries on their need to curb greenhouse gases at the expense of economic development. “When countries get richer, they start spending more money on transportation,” he said. “Food gets richer too, and that has an impact on the environment. We can’t tell the Chinese to stay poor because we want to have it our way.” The ambassador added that “it’s the world’s responsibility to make sure the inheritance of

May 2013

SIDEBAR

Netherlands Pushes TTiP To Boost Bilateral Trade Nearly 680,000 Americans — more than the areas: market access; regulatory issues and nonentire population of the District of Columbia — tariff barriers; and modes of cooperation such as owe their jobs to bilateral trade and investment intellectual property rights, labor laws and protection of the environment. between the Netherlands and the United States. “This agreement will be crucial to the continThat’s the conclusion of a study released March 20 by the Royal Dutch Embassy. The report, ued growth of both our economies,” said Dutch “Economic Ties Between the USA and the Ambassador Rudolf Simon Bekink. “The numbers Netherlands: A Partnership That Works,” says that in our Economic Ties report can be the seeds to despite economic difficulties in both the United the bountiful trade opportunities that will open up. States and the 27-member European Union, In nearly every critical trade indicator, such as Dutch investment in the U.S. economy continues goods and services imported and exported to each country, Dutch-U.S. economic ties saw to rise. “As the global economy continues on the road increases.” PHoTo: CIA / THE WoRLD FACTBooK to financial recovery, our Economic Ties report Among other things, the newly released report proves that durable, bilateral ties consistently Bicycles are a primary means of transportation in Amsterdam. In U.S. cities such as Austin and found that: yield results for both nations,” said Stephan Raes, Washington, D.C., the Netherlands Embassy has held ThinkBike workshops to help officials develop sustain• The Netherlands retained its place as the the embassy’s economic minister. “Imagine how able solutions to urban growth. “In the Netherlands, bicycle riding is a crucial element in our system of much stronger these ties can be when the U.S. third largest foreign investor in the United States, sustainable transportation,” says Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Simon Bekink. and EU establish a Transatlantic Trade and pouring $240 billion into U.S. companies in 2011. Investment Partnership.” our children and grandchildren is not destroyed. “If you want to prevent similar disasters in • U.S. companies increased their investment in Negotiations recently began on the TTIP, which the Netherlands to $595 billion, making it the top Even though the U.S. might not have signed the the future, you better start soon. The political the Netherlands If destination Although effort made your is free of mistakes in spelling enthusiastically and content itsupports. is ultimately up to the customer climate is is now ripe toforassure that sort of ad decision. Kyoto Agreement, by and largeNOTE: it has done quite every worldwide for U.S. foreign direct to make the final proof. approved, it would replace the North American investment. a lot in terms of curbing greenhouse gases. It’s When we talked to people in New York and Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as the world’s largdifficult, even for us” — a country that has pub- New Jersey, we saw that obviously Sandy made • The of goods between the The first two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes will be a rate per trade faxedexchange alteration. est such accord, because the billed U.S.-EUat trade rela-of $75 licly committed to relying more on renewable quite an impression, and the American Signedpeople ads are considered tionshipapproved. accounts for a third of total goods and two countries increased by 26 percent in 2011 to energy sources like the wind and sun. are clever and dynamic. They’ll come to their services trade, and nearly half of all global eco- $81 billion. When it comes to global warming, Bekink own conclusions.”Please check this ad carefully. Mark any changes to your ad. nomic output. doesn’t think it’s too late to mitigate the effects See nEtHErLandS, page 22 TTIP talks are expected to focus on three broad

of changing climate patterns, though heand fearsfax to: Larry(301) Luxner949-0065 is news editor of The If the ad is correct sign needs changes The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 that time is rapidly running out. Washington Diplomat Approved _____________________________________________ Changes _____________________________________________________________________

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The Washington Diplomat (MECHANICAL SCALE = 100%) KEYLINES DO NOT PRINT

May 2013

Diplomacy

United States

Chicago: Underrated U.S. Hub of Diplomacy by Dave Seminara

hicago is famous for its glittering skyscrapers, deep-dish pizza, wintery weather and corrupt politicians. Al Capone, Michael Jordan, Muddy Waters, Nat King Cole, Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ernest Hemingway all lived in Chicago at one time or another.

The Windy City — also called the Second City, for being the second-largest U.S. city until L.A. overtook it — has always been considered a quintessentially American city rather than an international one, and no one thinks of diplomacy when they think of Chicago. But Chicago is an important regional hub for diplomats, and it’s far more international than many on the East or West Coast realize.There are 49 consulates staffed by some 500 accredited diplomats in the city, with another 37 consulates run by honorary consuls.The city is home to a number of international affairs organizations, including the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Global Chicago. And according to census data, 36 percent of Chicagoans speak a language other than English at home. Diplomats here say that while many of their colleagues clamor for a posting in Washington or New York, Chicago is something of an underrated post. Brazil’s consul general in Chicago, Paulo Camargo, has been a diplomat for 35 years and has served in both New York and Washington but said that Chicago has been one

“

It’s very comfortable here…. It’s very hospitable. There are plenty of cultural opportunities — you have music, theater, opera. It’s easy to work here. There’s no friction at all.

”

— Paulo Camargo

consul general of Brazil in Chicago

of his best posts. “It’s very comfortable here,” said the São Paulo native. “It’s very hospitable. There are plenty of cultural opportunities — you have music, theater, opera. It’s easy to work here.There’s no friction at all.” Camargo said that the Brazilian Foreign Service categorizes diplomatic postings as A, B, C and D posts, with “A” posts being the most comfortable and “D” posts being the least comfortable. He said that Kabul and Baghdad, for example, are “D” posts while Chicago is considered an “A” post despite its “nasty” weather. The city’s consular corps may be small compared to Washington or New York, but diplomats say there’s an active social scene and given the smaller scale, people can get to know each other better because they see the

same faces at every event. The two largest foreign missions in the city are the Mexican and Polish consulates, which is reflective of the city’s demographics.There are more than 1 million Mexican immigrants living in the metro Chicago area and some 50,000 Polish immigrants and 200,000 Polish-Americans call Chicago home. Some of the other countries that have a significant diplomatic presence in the city include China, India, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Ukraine and nearly all of the Balkan countries, thanks to the city’s large Diaspora from Southeast Europe. Chicago also has a substantial Russian population but there is no Russian consulate. A host of countries that you might not expect to have any representation, like the island of São Tomé and Príncipe (off the African coast), Monaco, Mauritius, Luxembourg and Iceland, have honorary consuls in Chicago or nearby. Most of the diplomatic missions focus on consular affairs, public diplomacy, and trade and tourism promotion. The State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions maintains an office in Chicago to provide support to local diplomats on issues such as getting their diplomatic license plates, driver’s licenses and tax-free cards. The city has a host of well-regarded colleges and universities — including Northwestern, Columbia College, Loyola University, the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) and the Illinois Institute of Technology — and often attracts diplomats with college-age children. Camargo’s daughter studies journalism at Columbia College, for example, and the son of Helmut Rausch, Germany’s deputy consul general in Chicago, attends UIC. Many of the city’s consulates are on or near a stretch of Michigan Avenue filled with ritzy shops, referred to as the Magnificent Mile. Rausch, whose government provides a housing allowance, lives on the 64th floor of the city’s iconic John Hancock Tower on Michigan Avenue with a panoramic view of Lake Michigan. Camargo also lives just a short walk away from work, but some diplomats choose to live in western suburbs like Oak Park or River Forest or north shore suburbs like Evanston or Wilmette because their governments don’t pay for private schools and those suburbs are perceived to have better public schools. Camargo has a child at the Ogden Elementary School, a public school close to the consulate, and said he’s been happy with it. One of the logistical challenges nearly all of the Chicago missions face is geography. Most consulates are responsible for 10 to 15 U.S. states, most of them large ones, so it’s difficult for diplomats to logistically cover

Photo: Daniel Schwen

The 110-story Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, looms over the Chicago River. Chicago is home to nearly 50 consulates staffed by some 500 accredited diplomats in the city, with another 37 consulates run by honorary consuls.

such a huge swath of the country. Brazil, which has 10 consulates in the United States, schedules “mobile consulate” days in cities like Omaha, Indianapolis and Iowa City to provide consular services to Brazilian citizens. Chicago is a cosmopolitan city where people are used to foreigners who might have accents, but some diplomats say that once you get out into rural areas in the Midwest, locals aren’t as used to dealing with people from other countries. Patricia Maza-Pittsford, the consul general of El Salvador in Chicago, said that she’s had a few run-ins and misunderstandings in rural areas where police officers aren’t using to encountering diplomats. Maza-Pittsford was a coffee trader in New York who became a diplomat after the civil war in El Salvador ended in 1992. She was posted to Chicago in 2001 and has been the dean of the city’s consular corps since 2007. “You go into a restaurant in South Dakota and having people stare at you, you feel the impact,” she said.“I had a traffic incident in Kentucky once, someone ran a red light and I was upset because I almost hit him. I swore and told him something not pleasant and he said,‘At least I’m white.’” Those incidents notwithstanding, she still likes Chicago and isn’t in a hurry to leave anytime soon. “I used to tell people, Chicago had the same mayor for

May 2013

See chicago, page 22 The Washington Diplomat Page 19

Book Review

Kim Ghattas

Enlightening ‘Secretary’ Offers Window into Hillary the Diplomat by John Shaw

illary Rodham Clinton has assumed many roles over the past two decades: influential and controversial first lady, conscientious and impressive U.S. senator, ambitious and flawed presidential candidate, dogged and creative secretary of state, and now, retired and (mostly) revered stateswoman. As for the future, many political analysts say there’s a very good chance that Hillary Clinton will be elected president of the United States in 2016, making her the first woman to hold that office. “The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power” by Kim Ghattas is a compelling and highly readable account of her tenure as secretary of state that also offers some clues about what kind of president she would be. Ghattas has been the BBC’s State Department radio and TV correspondent since 2008, and she traveled extensively with Clinton around the world as a member of the press corps. A Lebanese native, Ghattas was previously a Middle East correspondent for the BBC and the Financial Times based in Beirut. In some ways, reading “The Secretary” is like watching a Broadway play from the front row.You see the main actors as they move on and off stage, deliver their lines, and glide through their well-choreographed dance steps. It’s a wonderful place to view the show, but its very proximity creates limitations. You don’t see the entire stage equally well and you never get a panoramic perspective of the unfolding performance. Importantly, you don’t see what is going on backstage, where the actors prepare for their entrances and retreat after their departures. “The Secretary” gives readers a front-row seat to observe Hillary Clinton take center stage as she crisscrosses the planet during President Barack Obama’s first term, conducting her unique brand of personal diplomacy. The Hillary Clinton depicted in “The Secretary” is recognizable, even familiar. She’s forceful, confident, exuberant, energetic, disciplined, organized, pragmatic and purposeful. Assuming the role of America’s top diplomat in January of 2009, she set out to repair the strained relationships and frayed alliances after the tumultuous Bush years. She tried to build the foundation for a new era in American diplomacy in which the United States serves as the world’s chief organizer rather than the planet’s enforcer. “I’d watched her position herself at the heart of the world’s community of foreign policy deciders and experts and become the connector,” Ghattas writes. “Just as Washington sat at the heart of a web of connections tying it to the world, Hillary was a center of gravity to herself. From the day she took office, she had worked hard to be available to her counterparts, both because she believed in being accessible but also because availability was political capital. Her personal contacts with ministers, presidents and princes, either recent or decades-old, meant there was a huge amount of bandwidth that allowed for communications not to clog up or break down when a major crisis erupted.” “The Secretary” vividly depicts the frantic pace of modern diplomacy and reveals what it’s like to be a celebrity

Page 20

Photo: Henry Holt / Metropolitan Books / Times Books

“

I’d watched her position herself at the heart of the world’s community of foreign policy deciders and experts and become the connector. — Kim Ghattas

”

author of “The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power”

American secretary of state. Clinton traveled nearly a million miles in her job and met with an unending parade of political leaders, diplomats and members of civil society — in stately palaces, rancorous town halls and mud huts. From Clinton’s vantage point, the world never stopped throwing challenges and opportunities at her and her team of diplomats. “In makeshift offices in hotels around the world, on the seventh floor of the (State Department) Building, in the West Wing, at the Pentagon, or aboard SAM (her plane), officials went from one crisis to the next, from one urgent matter to the following,” Ghattas writes. “The adrenaline never receded. The news cycle was relentless, and long gone were the days when top officials in Washington stopped working at six thirty to watch the evening news

and then awaited their morning paper to find out if there were any agenda setters. Every tweet, every blog, every morning, midday and evening show was a news maker and a crisis alert, and every pundit declared the administration a failure if it hadn’t found a solution within five minutes of a problem erupting.” Ghattas nicely captures both the electricity and the drudgery experienced by the State Department press corps as they traveled the planet with Clinton. Squeezed into the back of Clinton’s 757 Boeing aircraft, their home away from home, they would hold a lottery for the best seats at the start of each trip and brace for journeys that would often take them to several countries and more than a half dozen events in a single day. Sometimes they weren’t even told where they were going until they landed there. “Traveling with the secretary of state sometimes meant an incongruous combination of deprivation, luxury resort accommodations and explosive conflicts,” Ghattas recalled. Experts continue to debate just how much effort Clinton expended responding to the crisis du jour and hop-scotching the globe versus shaping actual foreign policy. Her critics say she was more of a conduit for the Obama administration than a source of decision-making. But “The Secretary” makes clear that she waded into some of America’s thorniest foreign policy dilemmas, with excellent chapters on how Clinton tried to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Arab Spring, America’s blossoming relationship with Turkey, its constantly strained relationship with Pakistan, and especially Clinton’s remarkable trip to Myanmar (Burma) to meet that nation’s political leaders and the revered Aung San Suu Kyi. According to Ghattas, Clinton prepared for this trip, especially her meeting with Suu Kyi, like an honors student preparing for a critical exam. She devoured State Department briefing materials, browsed books, and even watched a film about Suu Kyi called “The Lady.” The meetings between two of the world’s most prominent women quickly became warm and relaxed, as each basked in the presence of someone who had fought through adversity and emerged as a global icon. Ghattas nicely connects Clinton’s work as secretary of state to her own life growing up in war-torn Beirut in the 1980s and 1990s. She describes how America’s policies and power profoundly affect the lives of people in other nations who are often stunned to learn the United States often acts haphazardly without a long-term plan for their countries. This personal linkage to Lebanon resonates throughout the book, as Ghattas, perhaps like the subject she writes about, must grapple with the limits of U.S. power and the double-edged sword of American intervention, welcomed by some nations and abhorred by others. But Ghattas also runs the risk of becoming too close to her subject, clouding her judgment. Her account of Clinton is based on traveling about 300,000 miles with her, observing the secretary of state in hundreds of diplomatic encounters and speaking with her in both informal conver-

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

sations and formal interviews. This access allows her to write a vivid account, but one that sometimes loses perspective. For example, in writing about the release of thousands of diplomatic cables during the WikiLeaks debacle, Ghattas describes the event as a “long-term crisis” for U.S. diplomacy and seems to discount the understated but wise judgment of then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.“The fact is,” Gates said,“governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets.” This problem of proportion is evident in several sections of the book. Ghattas provides a very detailed account of the Shanghai Expo in 2010 but devotes only a paragraph to the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden. While this operation was not led by the State Department, Clinton was deeply involved in the deliberations and was, as a famous Situation Room photo shows, at the White House when the raid was conducted.What was her contribution to the overall operation? How did it affect her already strained diplomacy with Pakistan? These interesting questions are not addressed. Ghattas also offers only a fleeting reference to the Copenhagen climate conference in December of 2009, saying it was “the most disorganized gathering Hillary had attended since her eighth grade student council.” She briefly mentions that Obama and Clinton decided to barge uninvited into a private meeting with Chinese, Brazilian and Indian leaders and later cobbled together a last-minute deal with the developing world. But she doesn’t discuss even the main elements of the accord or what its implications are for the United States and

Photo: Dina Debbas

Kim Ghattas, a BBC correspondent since 2008 and author of “The Secretary,” traveled extensively with Hillary Clinton around the world as a member of the State Department’s press corps.

the world. This would have been an excellent place for Ghattas to discuss Clinton’s role in climate change diplomacy and the debate within the Obama administration on the issue. This gets to a much larger area that Ghattas neglects: Clinton’s decision-making powers. First, she has little to say about Clinton’s role in the formulation of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. She writes that Clinton was never part of Obama’s inner circle and hints at lingering tension between the two former political rivals. “Clinton was not a fan of Obama’s lofty addresses, and he in turn didn’t like her bluntness,” she writes without disclosing how she knows this or what its broader implications were. Ghattas notes that Clinton spent a lot of time at the White House attending meetings but does not

describe how she fit into the administration’s overall foreign policy team and what her relationships were with key officials such as Vice President Joe Biden,Defense Secretary Gates,U.SAmbassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, or the staff of the National Security Council. Second, I would also have liked to learn more about how Clinton managed the State Department. Readers become familiar with Clinton’s traveling entourage — Jake Sullivan, Huma Abedin, Philippe Reines and Lissa Muscatine — but we learn almost nothing about Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg or his successor Bill Burns or others in the next tier of the State Department. What was the division of labor at Foggy Bottom? Did Clinton work on the big picture and travel or was she an active manager? Ghattas mentions that Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter directed the State Department’s policy planning unit but doesn’t describe how this group contributed to Clinton’s diplomacy. Surprisingly, there is no mention of Slaughter’s work on the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, a pioneering report to revamp America’s civilian power that Clinton embraced. Ghattas does argue that Clinton made major changes to U.S. foreign policy, including the implementation of smart power that melds the persuasion of soft power with the coercion of hard power. She says that during Clinton’s tenure the United States set up or expanded initiatives that included bilateral strategic dialogues, bilateral commissions, and scores of global programs that promoted entrepreneurship, civil society, digital diplomacy, maternal health, climate change and counterterrorism. She selected and dispatched special envoys to work on the Middle East,

Pakistan and Afghanistan, human rights, women’s rights, and youth empowerment. And the State Department became the world’s most active foreign ministry in using social media to communicate America’s message online. “Every day, the State Department worked to connect with countries, players and people everywhere,” Ghattas writes. “Diplomacy was no longer just about formal talks with leaders. Smart power was exhausting but, in Clinton’s view, essential.” Ghattas is cautious though in assessing how history will judge Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. She acknowledges that Clinton did not broker peace in the Middle East, persuade Iran to restrain its nuclear program, or place Afghanistan on a path to prosperity. But she believes the secretary of state made major contributions in “repositioning America as a leader in a changed world, a palatable global chairman of the board who can help navigate the coming crises, from climate change, to further economic turmoil, to demographic explosions.” Despite some holes, “The Secretary” is an enlightening read for those interested in U.S. foreign policy and one of America’s most fascinating public figures. While not the final word on this latest chapter of Clinton’s long public service career, the book is an interesting and colorful account of a consequential American diplomat who could very well become president of the United States in a few years. Presumably, Clinton would bring her unique blend of tenacity, charm, discipline and passion for personal diplomacy to the White House.

John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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Netherlands

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Upscale buildings line the Chicago River, with the Trump International Hotel and Tower at the center.

Chicago 26 years, so why can’t I be here for more than 10?” she said. Maza-Pittsford and other diplomats say that the hardest part of living in Chicago is the weather, not just in Chicago but also in the neighboring states. “The weather plays a role in it not being such an attractive post,” she said. “If I had been in L.A. or Miami or Spain or London, I wouldn’t be able to stay this long. This is not a very attractive destination because you have to travel to Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and all the other cold places.” But what keeps Maza-Pittsford in Chicago is the good life her family enjoys and the opportunity to mingle and really get to know other members of the consular corps in the city. “It’s an active community,” she said. “Argentina has a tango demonstration every year, at the Indian National Day they always have beautiful dancers and good food, Thailand has dancing and colorful demonstrations with Thai food, and the Germans have an Oktoberfest party. There is always something going on.”

Rausch of the German Consulate has been a diplomat for 40 years and will retire when he leaves Chicago in June. He has served in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Greece, Madagascar, Thailand, Chile, Hong Kong, France and as ambassador to Chad, but he had never served in North America until he arrived in Chicago nearly three years ago. Born in West Berlin in 1948, his first encounter with Americans was when John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in 1963. He always wanted to have a chance to better understand the United States and thinks that there is no more representative city in the country than Chicago. “It is the most American city,” he said. “It’s the heart of the country in many ways. I’ve gotten insights into the culture here I didn’t have before and when I leave this country, I will feel like I understand it. And I’ll be able to better explain America to my compatriots and friends back home.”

Dave Seminara is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

According to the report, about 343,300 U.S. jobs exist thanks to Dutch investment in the United States, while another 336,500 jobs depend on U.S. exports to the Netherlands. Those numbers are for 2011, which saw a 9 percent increase (or about 55,000 jobs) from the previous year. Raes supervises a team of 50 people around the country, both at the embassy in Washington and at Dutch missions in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York and San Francisco. “There’s no country in the world where the United States invests more than the Netherlands,” he said, noting that Great Britain runs a close second, at $550 billion. “Before I came here, I didn’t know that,” said Raes, who prior to assuming this job in 2008 — just as the recession began ravaging both sides of the Atlantic — was director of international technology cooperation at the Dutch Commerce Department. “Historically speaking, Europe is by far more important than emerging markets or even Canada and Mexico. There’s a lot of reasons for that,” he told The Washington Diplomat. “We have a good investment climate in the Netherlands, we’ve got a population that speaks English, an attractive corporate tax rate, and also Schiphol Airport and the port of Rotterdam, which is the gateway to Europe.” More than 850 Dutch companies operate in the United States, including well-known brands like Heineken, Philips Global, Shell Oil and Unilever. Locally, international retailing group Ahold is the parent firm of Giant Food

Stores, one of the Washington area’s largest supermarkets. The top five states in terms of job creation due to U.S.-Netherlands economic ties are Texas (98,271 jobs), California (63,278), Pennsylvania (45,912), New York, (42,881) and Massachusetts (39,743). In Maryland, home to 54,388 residents of Dutch descent, 21,600 jobs are supported by the investments of Dutch companies, and another 4,661 jobs are supported by Maryland exports to the Netherlands (mainly chemicals and transport equipment). Dutch foreign direct investment in Maryland came to $2.3 billion in 2011. In Virginia, home to 84,465 inhabitants of Dutch origin, 15,939 jobs exist thanks to investments of Dutch companies, and another 4,839 jobs are supported by Virginia exports to that country. In 2011, Dutch FDI in Virginia totaled $2.1 billion. In 2011, the United States exported $46 billion in merchandise and $1.5 billion worth of services to the Netherlands, according to the report. Major U.S. companies operating in Holland include Abbott Laboratories, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Carnival Corp., Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Heinz, IBM, Nike, Starbucks, UPS and Xerox. “The U.S. was the sixth largest export partner for Holland in 2010, and in 2012 became fifth, while export growth to the Netherlands since 2009 has averaged 10 percent a year,” said Raes. “If you read the newspapers, you’d think the end of Europe was in sight. But there’s actually quite a lot going on. We’ve got an unemployment level of just over 5 percent. The president of the United States would like such results.” — Larry Luxner

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EDUCATION ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

Job Jiu Jitsu

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May 2013

■ May 2013

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

Prepping College Grads For Life, and Work, Beyond the Classroom

by Carolyn Cosmos

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employers. In fact, the overall job market has continued to strengthen for college and university graduates, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. (CGC), a leading executive employment firm. “Job creation has been slow, but it has been steady,” said CGC Chief Executive Officer John Challenger.

Continued on next page

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Continued from previous page Similarly, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) predicted 13 percent more graduates will get jobs this year compared to 2012. According to the group’s “Job Outlook 2013” survey, more employers are recruiting on campuses across the country, many in search of grads with degrees in business and finance, the computer sciences and engineering. Officials at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., confirm the uptick. “We had the largest employer turnout on record for our fall 2012 career fair,” said Eric Hall, associate director of the university’s career services. On the other side of the country, techoriented San Jose State University in California, which describes itself as “powering Silicon Valley,” reported that more than 1,000 new businesses registered to recruit at the school over the winter months, according to CGC. But there’s bad news as well: It’s an extremely competitive climate. “In this economy, it is likely that [new grads] will be vying for entry-level job opportunities with those who have been in the workforce for one to five years,” Challenger said. They may also be competing with workers nearing retirement, or already retired, who want to continue working and are willing to retool or take a pay cut, he added.

EMployAblE EDucATion

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students walk outside the Georgetown University Law School.

graduate has the skills and tools employers are looking for — and on that front, not every college or university is equal when it comes to producing employable graduates. What do companies want from their new hires, and how happy are they with what they’re encountering on campus? A survey published last December called “The Role of Higher Education in Career Development: Employer Perceptions,” sponsored by the Chronicle of Higher Education and American Public Media’s Marketplace, found considerable

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“[A liberal arts education] enables students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, communication skills and an understanding of world issues — skill sets applicable to work settings across career fields and across the globe.” — Mike Schaub executive director of the Cawley Career Education Center at Georgetown University

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discontent. More than half of the 50,000 U.S. employers surveyed said they had difficulty finding qualified candidates for job openings. “Among industry segments, science/technology and media/communications appear to struggle more than other industries” to find good employees. Some schools do better than others when it comes to shaping the kind of students who fit the jobs that human resource managers are looking to fill. Last year, the French consulting firm Emerging and German research institute Trendence interviewed 2,500 human resource directors and 2,200 business managers in 20 “economically dynamic” countries to ask which universities were producing the most employable graduates. The result was an international “Top 150”

list. Three universities in the Washington area are on it: Johns Hopkins University (59), the University of Maryland in College Park (142) and Georgetown University (68). Also on the list were not-too-distant University of Virginia in Charlottesville, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Rutgers and Princeton in New Jersey. General academic reputation and superstar status certainly played a role — the top five schools were Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford and Stanford. Then came the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia, Princeton and Imperial College London, sealing the “supremacy of British and American universities,” the surveyors said. Number 10 on the list was GoetheUniversity in Frankfurt, Germany. However, less well-known institutions with strong business or technology schools or specialties in the all-important STEM studies (science, technology, engineering and math) also made the cut, such as Ghent University in Belgium and the University of

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Georgetown University was the second-highest ranked university in the D.C. area on a recent global employability survey. According to the university, 73 percent of undergraduates who completed degrees in 2012 reported that they had found employment after graduation.

Waterloo in Ontario. The survey was all over the map, in fact, with five schools in Switzerland, for instance, and seven in the state of California. The list suggests that students should shop around to get the most bang for their buck by attending a school that’s not only prestigious, but practical as well — and offers them an avenue to an actual job when they graduate (and those hefty student loans come due).

Schools With Purpose Locally, Georgetown University was the second-highest ranking university in the D.C. area on the global employability list. Statistics for last year underscore that success: Of its undergraduates who completed degrees in 2012, 73 percent reported that they had found employment while only 4 percent were looking for work. The rest were headed to graduate or professional schools, service work or were “undecided.” According to Mike Schaub, executive director of the university’s Cawley Career Education Center, a key component of that record is the liberal arts education the school offers its undergraduates — which is perhaps surprising in a work world with a voracious appetite for technical skill and business savvy. Or perhaps not. “It enables students to develop critical think ing and problem-solving skills, communication skills and an understanding of world issues — skill sets applicable to work settings across career fields and across the globe,” Schaub pointed out. Another important reason Georgetown students are ready for work, Schaub told us in an email, is the internship: 85 percent of the students in the class of 2012 had at least one professional internship before they graduated.

A third advantage, Schaub cited, is the Georgetown Alumni Career Network, which provides access to more than 18,000 alumni who have offered to speak with students to learn about different career fields. Alumni also come to campus to help with interview preparations and resumes, and they take students on career tours in cities across the country, Schaub explained. Similar themes were echoed by Johns Hopkins officials in Baltimore. Hopkins students, said career services associate director Eric Hall, are well rounded. They must have good GPAs to get in, but they tend to arrive with reams of extracurricular activities as well. They’re “tremendously gifted at managing their time,” he added. Thus, they may involve themselves in public service projects, take leadership roles, and explore the world of work very early on.

That can include research projects. “We have a reputation as a research institute,” Hall said. “Our faculty will give opportunities to students to get involved.” As a result, a full 35 percent of the university’s 2012 Photo: Georgetown University graduates reported being enrolled at a graduate or professional school, while 46 percent reported full-time employment or paid public service; 8 percent were looking for work. The hands-on approach to work is woven into the Hopkins undergraduate experience to the extent that 97 percent of students will have “one or more career-related experiences before graduation,” Hall said, including internships that can be used as a pipeline to work, fellowships and “job shadowing” where students spend time with someone engaged in careers that interest them. Finally, Hall noted that Johns Hopkins Career Services “has a great counseling team,” dedicated to giving students

Continued on next page

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individualized attention and building up alumni connections. Additionally, the school attracts students from all over the world, and the ability to Williams University. operate comfortably in a global environ“In addition to employability, higher edument is invaluable. “I’ve increasingly seen cation institutions are well placed to help companies come in with international students increase their “thrivability” — that opportunities. For example, they’ll have an is how to become prosperous, healthy, opening in New York City and also one in happy, curious individuals who have skills Hong Kong or France,” Hall said. for fostering interpersonal relationships; for An alumni support network, internships participating in a dynamic and civil democand mentoring are just some of the key attri- racy; for seeking out unique and rewarding butes a school should offer to boost a gradu- experiences like traveling that make life ate’s job chances. Other experts in the edu- rewarding and seem worthwhile. Without cation field also say stuall of those things, peodents need to do their ple’s individual well homework and pick being declines. Having To view the majors that have a future a job is rewarding and 2012 Global in the job market — the necessary but so are Employability critical STEM majors are University Ranking, many other dimensions visit http://emerging.fr/rank_en.html. cited the most often. of life.” But STEM hasn’t Byrne added: “By virwiped out the importue of their name, unitance of a solid liberal arts foundation, versities should continue to help people either. think ‘universally’ about all the dimensions “Training people for careers is only one of of life and what it means to be a thinking many roles for higher education. Just as human — even in, and especially during, people are not only employees, universities times of economic uncertainty. More so than are not only places for job training. They other times, the non-job aspects of life is have a responsibility for helping people what keeps us sane and hopeful.” become informed and thoughtful citizens,” said Loren B . Byrne, an assistant professor of Carolyn Cosmos is a contributing writer biology and environmental science at Roger for The Washington Diplomat.

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Engineering students at Johns Hopkins University do hands-on work at the Richard A. Swirnow Computer Integrated Surgical and Interventional Systems Mock Operating Room.

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Le an

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May 2013

[ protocol ]

Etiquette Experts Practical Tips for Mastering Protocol Like a Pro by Dave Seminara

hink protocol is easy? Tell that to President Obama, who was scalded by the British press early in his first term for giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a set of “region 1” U.S.-coded DVDs that don’t work in Europe. Or to his wife, Michelle, who broke royal protocol in giving Queen Elizabeth II a hug at Buckingham Palace. The truth is that diplomatic protocol is a complicated business, even if you’re dealing with a third secretary from Tuvalu, let alone the Queen of England.We spoke to two experts on diplomatic protocol to give readers a primer on how to navigate thorny issues such as gift giving, communication, attire, food, alcohol, meetings and seating arrangements. Lukrecija Maljkovic Atanasovska is the former director of protocol at the U.S. Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia, and is currently the director of the Protocol Academies of Macedonia and Kosovo. Chris Young served as the chief of protocol and director of international affairs for the U.S. state of Georgia from 2005 to 2012 and is now the executive director of the Protocol School of Washington. Here are their thoughts on protocol best practices.

Common Mistakes Atanasovska: Some inexperienced diplomats aren’t aware of multicultural differences. They know diplomacy, international law and political affairs, but they don’t always understand the host country’s mentality. Protocol is based on international standards but a bit of it is based on the traditions and customs of the country. It’s very easy to offend someone if you don’t understand the country’s mentality. You have to accept that some nations are different than your own. When you arrive at a new post, start by getting to know your local staff for insights into the local culture and expand your local contacts through them.You can read books, but you’ll learn more from talking to ordinary people. Young: Trying to speak to someone in their own language can be good to warm up a room, but if you don’t speak the language well, you run the risk of making mistakes. Stick to using an interpreter when you’re doing business if your command of the language is weak. Another common mistake is not giving enough thought to gifts. We might give something that is white in a culture where that [color] is unlucky or related to death; we might give the wrong number of something that’s considered an unlucky number. Or we might use a material, like leather in India for example, that just isn’t a good idea because of the religion or the culture.

Communication Atanasovska: It isn’t offensive to approach someone at a function and ask them if they speak English. But every diplomat should know at least one other language. English and French are the most useful languages for diplomats. It is always good to learn at least the courtesy expressions in the local language, though. Start with a few words in the local language as an icebreaker before you switch to English and make sure you know

Photo: istock

how to say “cheers” in the local language. Young: If you’re in Paris at an event sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for example, it is rude to walk up to someone and start speaking English. But in the U.S., even at foreign embassies, you’re always safe using English. If you know how to say, “Do you speak English?” in the local language, that’s a great way to go. It’s also great to know the phrase, “I’m still learning” whatever the local language may be.The key is to recognize your own shortcoming, make light of it and move on to your common language, if you have one. Diplomats have to be very careful what they say when they’re representing their countries, and if you don’t speak the local language well, you have to be very cautious.

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May 2013

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for important functions. If you aren’t native to the culture, you don’t have to dress in native attire, even for national day celebrations. If you’re in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, for example, women would be wise to call and clarify what they’re expected to wear.

Attire

Photo: Protocol School of Washington

Chris Young, executive director of the Protocol School of Washington

Photo: Protocol Academies of Macedonia and Kosovo

Lukrecija Maljkovic Atanasovska, director of the Protocol Academies of Macedonia and Kosovo

Atanasovska: Always know the local dos and don’ts in the host country. The rule of thumb is that it’s better to be overdressed than underdressed.You can always put a Gifts tie in your pocket. You can always take off your jacket. Avoid jeans; avoid very casual closing unless it’s a picnic Atanasovska: Gift giving and receiving is an art. or sports event. Protocol officers try to do as much advance research as For women, never dress too sexy. You can show your possible to find out about the person who will receive femininity, but if you try to dress too sexy, you won’t be treated as a professional. Always be elegant but not the gift — their personality, hobbies, interests and so on — so the gift is meaningful. Gift giving should be reciprevealing or provocative. White tie is the dressiest type of dress code. White tie rocal. You should only give a gift if you know you will is only for events with heads of state or government. receive one. Protocol officers check in advance to find Men wear tailcoats with white bow ties and medals, and out if gifts will be exchanged and also to confirm the ladies wear long gowns with nice jewelry.Then you have value of gifts, if necessary. The point is that gifts can be black tie, which is tuxedo and black bow tie for men and an insult if they’re not done right. The value of the gift is important, because in some gown or cocktail dress for ladies. For everyday dress codes, there is formal, which is in NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and some countries known as business attire, and that usuthebe final proof. Gifts can extremely ally means a suit for men or ladies. Then you have infor- content it is ultimately up to the customer to make meaningful but, despite mal, which is not casual — that’s a common mistake. firstand two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes their good intentions, Informal means blazer and pants with no tieThe for men be mine- approved. ladies can wear informal suits or dresses. Casual will means be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed they adscan arealso considered fields of protocol faux no jacket at all. pas. Gifts should There’s nothing wrong with trying to wear national Please check this ad carefully. Mark any changes to be your ad. reciprocal, experts folk costumes or outfits. That can show respect for the say, and culturally local culture but it can also look foolish.You don’t want If the ad is correct sign and fax to: (301) 949-0065 needs changes appropriate. to look artificial. It’s a case-by-case situation.

The Washington Diplomat (301) 933-3552 Young: This is an area of protocol that continues to evolve on an almost weekly basis. Everyone understands black tie and white tie but business attireApproved and everything __________________________________________________________ else can really vary from place to place. My rule of Changes ___________________________________________________________ thumb is, if the dress code isn’t specified, call and ask. ___________________________________________________________________ When I was chief of protocol for the state of Georgia, we would always use the phrase “formal or native attire” Photo: Lisa F. Young /iStock

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countries, diplomats have restrictions on what they can accept. But in some countries, it’s also considered very impolite to return a gift. That’s why it’s important to clarify matters beforehand. Young: Do your research before giving gifts. People assume that what works in one culture will work in another culture and it does not. Giving alcohol in some cultures doesn’t work, for example. Give something that is indicative of the country you represent or your home region. In Georgia, we would give wooden bowls made from reclamation trees from Georgia’s state parks, or prints from Savannah or local music. And we include a “romance card” with it that describes the story behind the gift.

Photo: Petar Chernaev / istock

Food

Foreign foods can be an etiquette challenge. Experts advise doing your best to try different foods (or at least look like you did) so as not to insult your host.

Atanasovska:You should be curious enough to try new foods, but if there’s something you just can’t swallow, just cut your food into very small pieces and pretend you’re eating it. Or eat the garnish, or just say that you’re so full from the starters that you can’t eat it. Or lie and say that you are allergic. Just try not to insult the host. And don’t spit anything out. In some countries, like Israel for example, you are expected to leave some food on your plate. In Albanian homes, you also leave some food on your plate because it’s for God or poor people. In other countries, if you clean your plate, that’s fine.

want to try, how you react depends on the situation. If you’re negotiating a big trade deal, for example, that’s a time for you to broaden your palate. If you cannot eat something for medical or religious reasons, it’s up to you to tell your host in advance. Otherwise, even if you don’t like something, it’s polite to at least take a bite. The only time I could see spitting something out is if there is something completely foul there. Generally, you don’t want to spit things out.That would be a deal breaker in most situations. For diplomats, eating different foods is a hazard of the job. If you have a weak or squeamish stomach, you might want to consider a different line of work.

Young: If there’s some food you really don’t like or don’t

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Alcohol Atanasovska: One should never miss an opportunity to try the national drink. It’s part of the culture — one glass won’t hurt you. But in some cultures they have a greater capacity or tolerance for drink.You don’t want to compete with Russians, for example. If you accept every glass that’s handed to you, you might sabotage your career. You never want to get drunk because if you do, you’ll be in the newspapers the next morning. Young: In countries that like to do multiple toasts, you have to pace yourself. In most places, it’s perfectly acceptable to toast with water, tea, Coke or some other nonalcoholic drink.You might tell your host in advance that you don’t drink much, if at all.Try the traditional toast once if you can with whatever they serve you, and then try to switch to something else if you can.Ten years ago, I would have said it was insulting to go to China, for example, and not do the gang bei (toasting, which literally means “dry the cup”) 30 times in a meal. Now, in many cultures they realize that it isn’t as common in our culture to do that, so toasts are still done but the liquids may change. Photo: Yuri Arcurs / istock

Meetings Atanasovska: It’s a flagrant breach of protocol to receive foreign diplomats at the wrong level. You have to respect the level of the person who requests the meeting. There is no difference between big and small countries, rich or poor countries, or powerful ones and less powerful ones. It sends a message when you offer to receive another country at a lower level. It’s better to decline a meeting with justifiable reasons than to offer a meeting with someone who is in a much lower-level position. Young: Titles don’t always translate across cultures so it’s important to have strong

“Titles don’t always translate across cultures so it’s important to have strong working relationships with your foreign counterparts so you can match peer to peer,” says Chris Young of the Protocol School of Washington.

working relationships with your foreign counterparts so you can match peer to peer. If it’s a lunch or dinner meeting, I would suggest the place if I’m requesting the meeting. And the asking party should always pay, unless you have a situation where it would be illegal due to ethics rules, and in those cases, you should spell that out in advance. Perception is everything. As a general rule, when you’re a guest, stay away from ordering the most expensive thing on the menu or the most expensive wine. It’s a subtle way of showing appreciation for the meal.

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“Protocol is based on international standards but a bit of it is based on the traditions and customs of the country. It’s very easy to offend someone if you don’t understand the country’s mentality.” — LukreCija MaLjkoviC atanasovska, director of the Protocol academies of macedonia and kosovo Seating is a science. It depends on the shape of the table, the rank of the guests and other factors. Whichever way you do it, you’ll always have one guest who is not satisfied. The general rule of thumb is that those with the highest rank get to be closest to the hosts. And whenever the highest-ranking person enters the room, you should stand up.

PhOTO: JEff SmITh / ISTOCk

“seating is a science. It depends on the shape of the table, the rank of the guests and other factors,” says protocol expert Lukrecija maljkovic atanasovska.

SEATinG Atanasovska: Seating arrangements can be a nightmare.You have to know the ranking order of who will be there. Married couples shouldn’t be next to each other, or even at the same table. Women shouldn’t be at the end of the table. You have the British style of seating, where the host and hostess sit at the end of the table, and also the French style, where they sit in the middle, among others.

Young: At business meetings, it doesn’t matter if someone is male or female, you seat people according to their rank, and so you don’t have to blend the sexes the way people used to. For social occasions, you don’t have to have a rigid structure. The important thing is to create interesting tables. Make sure there are high-ranking people at each table but then just work on creating interesting pairings. Whatever strategy you choose, make sure it’s logical and consistent, so if someone is upset at where they were seated you can explain the rationale. And you have to keep in mind geopolitical considerations. Why seat someone from Argentina next to someone from the U.K., for example, or Arabs and Israelis or people from

NOTE: Although every effort is made to assure your ad is free of mistakes in spelling and content it is ultimately up to the customer to make the final proof.

The first two faxed changes will be made at no cost to the advertiser, subsequent changes will be billed at a rate of $75 per faxed alteration. Signed ads are considered approved.

proTocol TrEnDS Atanasovska: Protocol is becoming more relaxed, especially the ceremonial aspects. Official visits used to last three, four days but not anymore and that’s probably a good thing. Women’s attire has become much more relaxed; they can wear straps, or sandals or show their armpits. That was unthinkable years ago. Young: The trend is definitely toward informality in protocol. There are a lot more casual working events. And you see that in how we correspond as well. Now text messaging is, in some ways, supplanting e-mails. And you wouldn’t see the president fist-bump the prime minister of Japan but think about how often he does that here in the U.S., even at the White House, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Dave Seminara is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and a former U.S. diplomat.

to learn

more for more protocol coverage, check out The washington diplomat’s January 2013 cover profile of U.S. Protocol Chief Capricia Penavic marshall. also see “faux Pas fixes: huge Part of Protocol Is Just Smoothing Over the Slipups” in the november 2009 issue of The washington diplomat and “rules of Engagement: Protocol Instruction Pulls Together finer Points of Global diplomacy” in the may 2008 issue.

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DIPLOMATIC SPOuSES

Blissful Journey

The Embassy of Egypt opens its doors for Passport DC.

He was born in the Netherlands and she in Canada. They met in China, and Washington, D.C., is their first home together as newlyweds. PAGE 37

PHOTOgRAPHY

Latino In America

THEATER

Exposed ‘Dolly’ The Ford’s Theatre production of “Hello Dolly!” offers up an emotionally exposed Dolly who reveals a deeper message behind the musical sensation. PAGE 40

JustTHE

Photo: Cultural tourism DC

EVENTS

A timely exhibition upends preconceived notions of Latino identity in the United States, where one out of every six Americans today is of Hispanic origin. PAGE 38

TickeT Steven Shulman returned to D.C. in part so he could travel the world. The new executive director of Cultural Tourism DC kicks off his tenure with the group’s sixth annual Passport DC celebration, a month-long series of international events that includes dozens of embassy open houses. PAGE 36

DININg

FILM REVIEWS

Eating out in Washington got a little homier — Slavic style — with the new Russian restaurant Mari Vanna. PAGE 42

A Norwegian ethnographer who can’t swim embarks on an epic sea voyage in “Kon-Tiki.” PAGE 45

[ events ]

Travel Companion New Cultural tourism Chief Ready to take Flight with Passport DC Photo: niCholas J. eCkert

by Stephanie Kanowitz

teven Shulman returned to Washington, D.C., in part so he could travel the world.The new executive director of Cultural Tourism DC kicks off his tenure with the organization’s sixth annual Passport DC celebration, a month-long series of international programming in May that includes dozens of embassy open houses. “One of my great disappointments was that I was in Hollywood when this incredible event was going on, and I loved the international aspect of Washington,” Shulman said, referring to the city in Florida where he spent the past six years improving culture as president of the Greater Hollywood Arts Foundation Inc. “It’s really thrilling to not only be leading the organization that presents it, but to be here and be participating throughout the month.” Shulman isn’t new to Cultural Tourism DC, an independent nonprofit coalition of more than 230 organizations aimed at promoting the District’s arts, culture and heritage. Between 2001 and 2007, he served on its board of directors and executive committee. “Serving on the board of Cultural Tourism DC was the best, most fulfilling volunteer opportunity that I have had,” said Shulman, a native of Worcester, Mass., who first came to D.C. in 1993 to run the retail section of the Old Post Office Pavilion. He continued to phone in to board meetings while he was in Florida. “People on the board now knew me as ‘The Voice.’” Photo: Walter WooDWarD Then he saw an ad for his dream job, formerly held by Linda Donavan Harper. among the embassies “When I saw that the position was open, I who’ve opened their doors thought, ‘Wow, if I could just get this job, not only to the public as part of would I get back to Washington, which is a great Passport DC are, from top, city to live in, but also I’d have one of the best jobs Cape verde, Bolivia and the in the city because it involves 230 membership european union. steven organizations, and it’s impactful,’” Shulman said. shulman, the new executive Shulman is no stranger to preserving and advancdirector of Cultural tourism ing culture. Before going to Florida, he was execuDC, far left, says he loves tive director of the American Red Cross Museum in Washington from 1998 to 2005, “the international aspect which he helped launch. He also established First Aid for Fine Art, a fundraising proof Washington.” gram to support the conservation of more than 41,000 objects. After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, he helped assess damaged museum collections for the American Association of State and Local History.That experience led Shulman Photo: euroPean union Delegation to the u.s. / momenta Creative to found Our Heritage Vault Inc., which digitized family photographs and documents and published an electronic magazine with tips for preserving, securing and sharing family memorabilia. into the city’s diplomatic scene have been a huge hit. Its signature Embassy Chef Shulman officially took over as executive director on April 1. His immediate plans Competition and Passport DC have become popular annual traditions, steadily include setting a new strategic plan for Cultural Tourism DC and finding ways to attracting more people each year. celebrate D.C.’s neighborhoods, which he said have changed immensely since he “I think it’s the blend of D.C. being a global city that attracts people from across was last here. the globe,” Shulman said.“It’s totally American with a heavy influence of the nations The area north of Massachusetts Avenue “was a of the world. People that come to D.C. bring part of home vast wasteland that was just — there was nothing with them, so that we who live and work here get to passport DC there. Everything was torn down when I left the experience a little bit of the world almost at every street city six years ago,” he said.Also,“the area around the corner.That’s what D.C. really captures and celebrates.” may 1 to 31 [Nationals] ballpark wasn’t there and now there’s a As in past years, a highlight of Passport DC is its throughout Washington, D.C. ballpark and buildings and apartments.” embassy open houses. The popular Around the World For more information, please call (202) 661-7581 or “One of the things that I hope we’ll be able to Embassy Tour features 44 embassies this year — includvisit www.culturaltourismdc.org or www.passportdc.org. do is help those newly emerging neighborhoods to ing Afghanistan, Ghana, South Korea and Ukraine — and become a neighborhood,” he said, citing the need takes place May 4. Thousands of participants line up to to support performing arts centers. “Great neighenjoy offerings such as wine and food tastings, karate borhoods happen when people care about the neighborhood. It’s one thing to have demonstrations, sari-wrapping lessons and henna applications. Then on May 11, the a great new building and amenities and all that, but the soul is when people are out European Union’s Shortcut to Europe opens the embassy doors to the bloc’s 27 there and they’re doing things and they appreciate their neighborhood.They tend to member states, as well as future member Croatia and the EU Delegation office in take care of it better that way too.” Washington. Another perennial favorite is the Fiesta Asia Street Fair, which will be held May 18. This year’s month-long international showcase also includes the Quinoa Tour. 2013 PASSPORT DC Inspired by a U.N. resolution designating 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa, Another important characteristic of Washington is its diversity, Shulman said, which Cultural Tourism DC highlights by showcasing neighborhoods, events and see paSSport DC, page 43 museums off the beaten path of the National Mall. In particular, the group’s forays

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May 2013

[ diplomatic spouses ]

Newlywed Diplomacy Dutch Envoy’s Texas Bride Is All Business, Bliss and Charm by Gail Scott

Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Bekink and Gabrielle de Kuyper Sheshunoff Bekink were married in August 2011 in Prouts Neck, Maine.

e was born in a small town in the Netherlands and has worked in places ranging from Athens to Angola. She has a spirited Dutch connection but was born in Canada and hails from Texas. The two met in China, and Washington, D.C., is their first home together. It’s been quite a journey to wedded bliss. Recently appointed Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Bekink and his businesswoman bride Gabrielle de Kuyper Sheshunoff Bekink are newlyweds who are ready to start their new life together while also using their international savvy and business experience to promote Dutch economic and political ties in the United States (also see this month’s cover profile). “She doesn’t even pronounce her own Dutch name correctly … and she doesn’t speak Dutch either,” said Bekink with a big smile, laughing with his wife in the library of their residence. In fact, they both laughed a lot throughout the interview — the sheen of new love still glowing brightly. They met in 2008 at a dinner party in Beijing, Photo: (above) Stacey Kane; (cover) Kenneth B. Gall Photography - Austin, Texas where he was the Dutch ambassador to China and she was travelling with the International “I brought a lot of furniture and other things with me,” Gabrielle said of moving Council of the Louvre, just one of the many groups to which she is devoted. to Washington.“I’ve rearranged a lot. I want our residence to have the cozy feeling They were married in August 2011 at her summer place in Prouts Neck, Maine, of a home so people will want to stay.” with all five of their grown sons from previous marriages and five grandsons in For example, she replaced the more formal and somewhat uncomfortable dining attendance. But their separate careers kept them mostly apart for a year until they chairs with 18 inviting, gray-silk overstuffed chairs. “I don’t want anyone to hurry moved into the official Dutch Residence in Kalorama in August 2012, shortly after from dinner,” she noted. Bekink was appointed to serve in Washington, D.C. To further ensure that everyone lingers over dinner, she also brought in chef While he heads up the embassy, she maintains a large second-floor office in the Christina Owen from the Four Seasons hotel in Austin. Owen is now in charge of residence and handles most of her daily business remotely from Washington. the menus for special embassy events. For one recent buffet — attended by 150 Gabrielle is founder and CEO of Sheshunoff Consulting + guests, including U.S. state agriculture secretarSolutions, a provider of executive development, internal ies — Owen and Gabrielle set out to meld audit, loan review, compliance and investment banking Dutch specialties with American regional cuiI learned a lot from my father services to U.S. financial institutions. From her perch at sine and products. Sheshunoff Consulting, she’s written about topics such as “I made bitterballen, a croquette served with about business…. I always thought gravy and mustard.We also had oliebollen, a chili compliance rules and transparency reform for the financial services industry. beignet dessert, something like a dried fruit fritI would be in business. Gabrielle also co-founded Sheshunoff Information ter,” Owen said. Services in 1971 and was its chief executive until 1988, When I asked the chef if either the ambassa— Gabrielle de Kuyper Sheshunoff Bekink when Thomson Reuters acquired the company. Prior to dor or his wife like to cook, she was quick to wife of Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Bekink her work with Sheshunoff, she worked for DeKuyper, a answer. Dutch liquor company that her father brought over to the “The ambassador likes to cook,” Owen replied, United States from the Netherlands. She served as execuespecially in the upper private kitchen. His tive vice president of John de Kuyper and Zoon B.V. Canada, Ltd., where she was favorite dish is spaghetti bolognese. responsible for de Kuyper Canada and U.S. operations. “However, they have very sophisticated palates. They enjoy truffles and I do my “I learned a lot from my father about business,” said Gabrielle, who graduated own thing for them — often a surprise of something lighter, like seafood, fish and from King’s Hall and attended McGill University in Montreal. “I always thought I shellfish.” would be in business.” In her spare time, Gabrielle helps to look after their three dogs, 15-year-old Trini, Now, one of her main goals is to help her husband increase the strong business 12-year-old Doortje and 2-year-old Katje. She also enjoys the outdoors.“I like to plan ties between the United States and the Netherlands, which is America’s largest des- gardens, do the design, but I don’t like to do the digging and get all dirty,” she said. tination country of U.S. foreign direct investment. In fact, Dutch investment in She’s also active on the civic front, serving on the boards of groups such as the American companies totaled $240 billion in 2011, while American companies Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the American Friends of the British increased their investment in the Netherlands to $595 billion.The bilateral relationMuseum. ship also supports nearly 680,000 jobs in the United States. And they’re both looking forward to meeting new people in the nation’s capital. To spread the word about these critical economic links, the ambassador has trav- “I love to meet people who accomplish something in this world. It makes a diploeled to U.S. states such as Texas, where Gabrielle was a longtime resident of Austin. mat cheer,” Bekink said, though he could just as easily have been referring to his Meanwhile, Gabrielle is adjusting to life as an ambassador’s wife, trying to set the blushing new bride. stage to host formal events while adding a down-home Southern charm to her diplomatic outreach. Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat and Diplomatic Pouch.

“

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The Washington Diplomat Page 37

[ photography ]

Latino Life Everyday Pictures Chronicle Extraordinary u.s. Phenomenon Photo: livia Corona / WWW.liviaCorona.Com

by audrey hoffer

[ Page 38

bare-chested man on rollerblades, a strong-willed girl in a sombrero on a rodeo horse, a young woman in a U.S. military uniform, and a few superheroes scaling walls and catching criminals. These are among dozens of oversize, vibrant and enigmatic images decorating the grand walls of the Spanish Embassy’s new cultural space on 16th Street in “LATINO/US Cotidiano,” a timely exhibition depicting scenes of daily life in America’s Latino community. “When people think of Latinos, they often think of stereotypes,” said exhibit curator Claudi Carreras, citing images of poor immigrants or seasonal migrants.“My idea is to try to break down those stereotypes and show the differences in people.” That idea takes on added relevance as Congress engages in a heated debate over immigration reform. Adding their voices to this national conversation are 12 photographers whose work seeks to upend preconceived notions of Latino identity in the United States, where one out of every six Americans today is of Hispanic origin. This seismic social transformation — Latinos now comprise the largest minority in the U.S. — carries huge political, economic and cultural consequences for all Americans. Of course, many Latinos in the United States retain the traditions, and quirks, of their homelands. For instance, soap operas — or telenovelas — are widely popular throughout Latin America, including Mexico. Stefan Ruiz, a portraitist, is “interested in the obsession with fame” that they generate. On location in the Televisa studios in Mexico City, he took largeformat shots of actors on their sets, capturing them in costume but not acting, creating a strange dichotomy.“They’re on their break and posing for me for a few minutes. I might choose a spot on the set but would let them pose themselves,” he said. The results show personas that are real, but not quite. You see a man in dress pants leaning against the kitchen counter holding an apple, waiting to essentially be someone else when the TV cameras turn on. And the two maids in crisp white aprons atop black uniforms sitting demurely by the table in a well-appointed dining room. You wonder what they’re waiting for. A lecture from the butler or orders from the lady of the house? Or are they just waiting to get out of their stiff costumes? Large overhead shots reveal the TV studio’s false ceiling while below, a dollhouse warren of stylized rooms is populated with people portraying fantasy lives. “I wanted to explore social issues through a totally different vehicle — soap operas — but didn’t want to make fun of them,” said Ruiz. Susana Raab, meanwhile, explores identity and culture by staring directly at real life — but from a skewed perspective. “I like to find emotion in everyday things and to upend stereotypes,” she said. She also plays with the latino/uS Cotidiano viewer’s expectations by layering together through may 12 incongruent scenes. For example, she shot former Spanish ambassador’s residence two men in cowboy boots with white straw 2801 16th st., nW hats on their laps reclining in massive black For more information, please call (202) 728-2334 armchairs, playing with the chair’s gadgets. They appear to be in their living room but on or visit www.spainculture.us. second glance you see a row of plastic-covered mattresses behind them and realize they’re customers in a Brookstone-like store. But eventually you learn they’re actually in the tradeshow segment of a rodeo in Houston. In another rodeo image, Raab captures a cacophony of emotions in her portraits of three brightly smiling women in white dresses and red sashes; a troubled girl embracing a man who may or may not be sympathetic to her; and a dour-faced, mustached man in a black sombrero. Dulce Pinzón also elevates the ordinary into something extraordinary with his series of satirical documentary photos featuring Mexican New Yorkers in everyday jobs such as taxi drivers, window washers and nannies. But he adds a twist to their mundane tasks by asking

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The Washington Diplomat

Photo: DulCe Pinzón / WWW.DulCePinzon.Com

in “latino/uS Cotidiano,” photographers captured “everyday life” (cotidiano in spanish) in america’s growing latino community, although the results are anything but “everyday.” among the images on display at the spanish embassy’s new cultural space are photos by, from top, livia Corona, Dulce Pinzón and gihan tubbeh.

his subjects to don superhero costumes while they work. So the bicycle courier is dressed as Superman with a red cape flying in the wind; the coffee shop waiter collects dirty plates clad in a lilac bodysuit and blue elbowlength gloves, while a costumed chimp sits on his shoulder; and a nanny-as-Batman comforts a baby. They are surreal images “of people just doing their job. But to their families they are superheroes,” said Photo: gihan tuBBeh / WWW.versusWWW WWW.versus-Photo.Com Photo.Com Pinzón. To that end, on the wall text beside each photo is the person’s name and the money each sends home: “X works in demolitions and sends home $200/week; Y is a policeman and sends home $300/week,” etc. Domestic scenes get a playful touch in Karen Miranda’s pictures as well. In a crowded living room, a little girl sleeps curled up on a bookshelf while an older woman on the couch is blissfully unaware that she should be in bed. Meanwhile, in a kitchen, a woman is hanging a curtain while appearing to float on one foot — a domestic goddess who floats above the daily grind perhaps? The various artistic expressions of Latino reality mirror the diversity of a community that straddles many worlds. Of course, Latin influence in the United States is nothing new. The first Spanish explorers landed in Florida more than 500 years ago and today, 50 million people of Hispanic descent live here. Their impact has never been stronger, says Guillermo Corral, the Spanish Embassy’s cultural counselor.“What this exhibition shows is that Latinos are as vibrant and dynamic as this country, that being Latino is just a way of being American.” Audrey Hoffer is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

May 2013

[ art ]

Furtive Glances two shows Reveal History, secrets of Panama, Guatemala by Gary tischler

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

n the surface, the two exhibitions at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Cultural Center and the Organization of the American States (OAS) Art Museum of the Americas seem different — in size, intent, scope and content. But after some thought, tantalizing similarities and connections begin to break through. At the IDB,“Perceptive Strokes:Women Artists of Panama” is a broadly panoramic view of women artists in Panama, a diverse vista of the best and the brightest over the years. “Un Lugar Sin Reposo | A Place With No Rest: Photography by Luis González Palma” at the Art Museum of the Americas is a sharply focused, even disturbing exhibition on the theme of identity and the power of the simple gaze and body language within swirling cultural and societal subtexts. Both shows also have official underpinnings.The Panama show coincides with the IDB’s annual meeting, held this year in Panama, while Palma’s exhibition runs alongside the 43rd session of the OAS General Assembly in Antigua, Guatemala. (Palma will also speak about his show at the IDB on

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un lugar Sin reposo | a place with no rest through may 26 art Museum of the americas 201 18th st., nW For more information, please call (202) 458-6016 or visit http://museum.oas.org.

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Panamanian women artists. “Perceptive Strokes” is a freewheeling exhibition in which traditionalists mix freely with the cutting edge, the social and political commentary bleeding into their art. The 22 artworks — an array of paintings, photographs, sculptures and video art from the 1920s to the present that were selected by Panamanian curator Monica E. Kupfer — reveal how a varied group of female artists have experienced and represented significant geopolitical events in the nation’s history. The experiences are indeed revealing. As soon as you walk in, a mountain of 200 seemingly disembodied, discarded breasts tumble out in an installation that radiates with ideas about women’s body parts. Nearby, photographer Sandra

[ María raquel Cochez’s “self Portrait with Burger,” top right, and victoria suescum’s “Pantis vikinis,” above, are among the works by Panamanian women in “Perceptive strokes” at the iDB Cultural Center, while at the art museum of the americas, guatemalan photographer luis gonzález Palma examines the power of facial expression and body language in his work, below.

May 16.) You can also connect them by the women. Obviously that’s the focus of the Panama exhibit, but they also appear in Palma’s deeply haunting work, which examines, among other things, how women are looked at (and look back) in Guatemalan society. “Perceptive Strokes” is of course an exhibition of works by women artists, and perforce becomes an exhibition that’s also about women artists, in a particular place and environment at different times. In “A Place With No Rest,” Palma uses photography (painted at times, and abetted with the use of other materials) to show Guatemalan society and history as a place of secrets, about power, class, sex and female imagery — secrets that have to be deduced from glances, stares and a willingness to look beneath and beyond an image. There is a temptation — a trap, really — to look at Latin American countries as being similar or, worse, the same. It’s a common trap because the commonalities are there and shared, but they are also different in almost every case, sharply so. Palma scratches the surfaces of these complexities, from class structure and colonization to political revolution and religious devotion. It’s a lot contained in what’s basically a small show, but the themes, with the addition of such matters as gender issues in art, can also be found sprinkled throughout the show about

May 2013

perceptive Strokes: Women artists of panama through June 2 iDb Cultural Center 1300 new york ave., nW For more information, please call (202) 623-3774 or visit www.iadb.org/cultural.

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Eleta’s stunning portrait “Catalina” stops you in your tracks with a powerful, wise woman whose skeptical gaze reveals little and hides many secrets of her own. Photo: Courtesy of the artist The exhibition travels through time. Coqui Calderón’s kinetic painting “Black Friday” captures a peace demonstration in swirling white crushed by police; Alicia Viteri’s “The Enamored Minister” wraps up Latin American — and Panamanian — issues of power in uniforms and gowns, struggling with each other yet intertwined. There is a lot of music to be heard in this exhibition. Some of it, like Donna Conlon’s video, strikes a puckish note, while Olga Sánchez’s sweetly fleshy nude echoes a morning song rising after a long night of lovemaking. “A Place with No Rest” is a more jarring dream-presentation of oppressive Photos: art museum of the ameriCas forces — the ropes and ties that bind native and indigenous peoples to their conquerors, the women who are adored, revered, desired and hidden — and the ambiguous but startling looks on all those faces. “Here, we are talking about the role of the artists in such a society,” said Fabian Goncalves, exhibit coordinator at the Art Museum of the Americas.“It is about secrets — he is in one section dealing with family, intimate matters, relationships — the church, theology, Christian imagery mixing with Victorian disguises. You see these series of daguerreotypes, called bodyguards, and those faces and those men come from the bottom or lower strata, but they have power, they have weapons.” Palma explores darkness by sprinkling photographs with gold and other bright material, illuminating the secrets that lurk underneath and making iconography out of dreams. In this way he’s like a writer — metaphors, after all are meant to hide and illuminate. Like “Perceptive Strokes,” he sheds light on a society that is more than meets the eye. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 39

[ theater ]

Hello Nuance! More sentimental ‘Dolly!’ tugs on Heartstrings at Ford’s theatre by lisa troshinsky

et out your old trombones and batons and don’t let the Ford’s Theatre production of “Hello, Dolly!” pass you by.This high-stepping crowd-pleaser — a co-production by Ford’s Theatre Society and Signature Theatre — does justice to the beloved Tony-winning musical. To be clear, those married to the colossal Broadway version with Carol Channing or to the movie mega-hit with Barbra Streisand might be disappointed, for this production is somewhat sleepy and intimate in comparison. The cast is 16 instead of the original 45, dance numbers have shrunk to fit Ford’s intimate stage, and the characters’ personalities don’t come close to Channing or Streisand’s over-the-top command of the stage. But there’s a pleasant trade-off. In this production, the audience gets a rare glimpse at an emotionally exposed Dolly, a quieter and more nuanced woman, perhaps in keeping with the original 1955 Dolly in Thornton Wilder’s play “The Matchmaker,” from which “Hello, Dolly!” sprung in 1964. In turn, we get to experience the deeper message behind this musical sensation. Amid the fanfare of toe-tapping, swelling music, elaborate period costumes and corny jokes is the crux of the play — the vulnerability of a lonely aging woman who doesn’t want life to slip Photos: Carol rosegg through her fingers without a fight. That woman, of course, is Dolly Gallagher Levi, nancy opel, above and at left, plays Dolly gallagher levi, a a matchmaker who’s hired by the cantankerous matchmaker who’s hired by the cantankerous half-a-millionhalf-a-millionaire Horace Vandergelder to find aire horace vandergelder (edward gero, above center), in a him a wife. Instead, she hatches a scheme to woo co-production of “hello, Dolly!” by ford’s theatre and and wed him herself, while also aiming her signature theatre. Cupid’s arrow on a few other bystanders. some of her pizzazz. Although Tracy Lynn Olivera, Nancy Opel, as Dolly, is clearly a Broadway who plays Irene Molloy, is an exquisite soprano veteran whose diction is understated yet crystal and gives a beautiful rendition of “Ribbons Down clear, whose movements are definitive and burstmy Back,” her acting falls a bit flat. Her love interest, ing with confidence, and whose comedic timing the endearing Cornelius Hackl, played by Gregory and charm more than make up for what she may Maheu, disappoints in “It Only Takes a Moment,” an lack in vocal chops. In fact, it’s more fitting that especially glaring faux pas because the song leads Dolly doesn’t have a supreme singing voice. She into the play’s climax. is more of a has-been than a prima donna, more D.C. staple Edward Gero, who excelled in his cunning than elegant — character traits that stint as Sweeney Todd at the Signature in 2010, make her more believable and empathic. Besides, here, as Horace Vandergelder, has sufficient comedic facial Jerry Herman’s catchy and timeless tunes don’t need expressions but lacks the needed edge for the audience to a powerhouse to pull them off or to make sure you’ll hello, Dolly fall for the usually lovable curmudgeon. hum them for weeks. through may 18 Adam Koch’s set design is sufficiently simplistic, depictThere is no question that Opel, in her Ford’s Theatre ford’s theatre ing 1890s New York with the notion that less is more. He debut, carries this production directed by Signature’s 511 10th st., nW fills Vandergelder’s hay and feed shop, the New York train Eric Schaeffer. She is completely captivating when she tickets start at $18. station and Molloy’s hat shop with the expected packing gazes into the audience and explains to her late husboxes, wagon wheels and old-timey cash registers, but adds band Ephraim that she doesn’t want to be like the old, For more information, please call (202) 347-4833 little flair, save for a string of Christmas lights and red carpet cracked leaf that’s fallen out of her Bible, years after or visit www.fords.org. in the Harmonia Gardens. she placed it there the day he proposed to her. When Wade Laboissonniere ventures a little more out of the she follows with a sensitive rendition of “Don’t Let the Parade Pass Me By,” one would have to be made of stone not to get misty-eyed and box with the costumes, creating thickly draped period dresses and garishly feathered hats for the women and plaids suit for the men. His boldest move is when Dolly drink the sentimental Kool-Aid of this worthy revival. Despite Opel’s appeal as a quirky, impish, endearing Dolly, the show does lack unexpectedly emerges for her date with Horace in a daring, scarlet red silk evening gusto in parts. For example, only four men flank Dolly during the signature “Hello, gown. Despite its flaws, this version of one of the most loved musicals of all times — Dolly” number, and although acrobatic, tap-dancing waiters grace the stage in the Harmonia Gardens restaurant scene, it isn’t as effervescent and infectious as in other staged at the historic Ford’s Theatre, one of D.C.’s great legacies of living history — productions. The show doesn’t really pick up the expected momentum until reminds us again of the play’s universal and timeless theme that you only live once “Dancing,” a romantic, pleasing melody during which Dolly teaches the budding and should enjoy it while you can. If that includes buying a ticket to this production, couples how to waltz. Here is where the movement and emotions start to freely flow so be it. and lubricate the gears for a rousing and more fluid Act II. Opel shines and is clearly in her element, but the rest of the cast could benefit from Lisa Troshinsky is the theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

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May 2013

[ history ]

Intertwined Frenemies In Renaissance times, English, Irish Fed Off, and Fought Each Other by Gary tishcler

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ost people, when they think about the Irish, think they know the Irish. The troubles and the famine, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett, Catholics and Protestants and the chasm between them, the sound of a fiddle and the smooth pour of a Guinness — all the clichés that crop up around St. Patrick’s Day. But if you go to the Folger Shakespeare Library, you might find a few laddies — and lords — you didn’t know who shed light on the complex Anglo-Irish relationship in “Nobility and Newcomers in Renaissance Ireland.” The exhibit explores the push-pull dynamics between Ireland and England during the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and James I, when the English reigned supreme but the Irish were autonomous — and wanted to keep it that way. It was a time of cultural reciprocity that influenced both sides’ literature, architecture and arts, but also a time of political competition that planted the seeds of the later troubles in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibit is peppered with the people who shaped the era: English (and Irish) lords and masters, aristocrats, rebels and power seekers who jockeyed for a piece of the Emerald Isle, which centuries ago was a kingdom rife with many factions. The Folger breaks Photo: folger shakesPeare liBrary down these personalities into three groups that vied for domiMaps, such as the one above nance: the native islanders who were largely Catholic and spoke by english cartographer and the native Gaelic tongue; “Old English” descendents who traced historian John speed, books their ancestry back to the 12th-century Anglo-Norman conquerand portraits of nobles such as ors of Ireland; and new Protestant settlers from England and “the fair geraldine,” below, elsewhere, mostly Protestants, who took over large swaths of land are among the items in a and were sent to rule the increasingly incalcitrant locals. folger exhibition that docuPowerful families and landowners came and went, rose and fell, ment the deep connections including Thomas Butler, the 10th Earl of Ormond, and later between ireland and england Edmund Spenser, the great English poet, who were all ruling earls during the renaissance, a time in Ireland until their family connections faded. of irish autonomy and english “Ireland was like Cuba in the Cold War, a tinderbox with charismatic and disgruntled leaders with sharp ideological differences supremacy. with their ‘mainland’ government [i.e. Protestant England], and Photo: harvarD university liBrary highly vulnerable to outside influence and invasion by larger, Catholic powers on the continent, Issues of autonomy arose during Queen Elizabeth’s time, who were themselves at war with including a ruinous — for both parties— Nine Years’ War nobility and newcomers England,” explained curator Thomas between Irish Gaelic chieftains and the English. The queen disin renaissance ireland Herron. “Simultaneously, Ireland patched Robert Devereux, the second earl of Essex, to put down through may 19 had nominally been ruled by one uprising, but he failed, which eventually led to his ill-planned England for 400 years by the 1580s, and ill-advised plot against the queen, costing him his life. folger Shakespeare library so the familial, cultural and trade This is, as is often the case at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 east Capitol st., se links were all firmly in place.” an exhibition about books, letters, diaries, dictionaries and For more information, please call (202) 544-4600 Ireland was hardly a backwater, paperwork, as well as portraits of key figures. Even Shakespeare or visit www.folger.edu. but very much a European entity, as pops up — you can find references to the festering Irish wars in much as a Gaelic one. Prominent “Henry V” and “Henry VI,” which hopes for a conclusion to the Photo: national gallery of irelanD Irish figures were welcome at European courts, including English ones. struggles. They bought property in London, while English settlers looked for opportunities in The exhibition chronicles not only those struggles, but also the impressionable Ireland. Despite this cultural osmosis, land drove an enduring wedge between the comings and goings, the passing of power from one region to another, one family two nations. Religion may have reared its head in Renaissance Ireland, but it was to another, one generation to another. often land that drew the battle lines, as English lords and families sought to carve Today, Ireland is promoting a tourism campaign called “The Gathering” to entice out estates or rule in Ireland. travelers with Irish roots to visit the country. But with a lot less legwork, a trek over Walking through this exhibition, you can get lost in the complexities of the com- to the Folger reveals a side of Ireland that most people rarely see — one with a petitive strife and the myriad cultural influences. The Irish tongue back then was nuanced, complex history that had a profound effect on the Ireland we think we not just a spoken language but a golden written language; Queen Elizabeth I, in fact, know today. was given an Irish primer with Gaelic phrases that were specifically created for her. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

May 2013

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The Washington Diplomat Page 41

[ dining ]

Grandmother Russia At Mari Vanna, Hospitality Complements Hearty Fare by Rachel G. Hunt

ating out in Washington got a little cozier — Slavic style — in January when Mari Vanna opened downtown. Defying the minimalist and industrial chic trends that have been prevalent in the area for some time now, Mari Vanna’s delightfully overstuffed interior surrounds visitors with chintzes and china. Chandeliers, Russian tchotchkes, bookshelves, old family photos and comfortable worn rugs combine to create the feeling of being in someone’s dining room. And that’s the whole point. Mari Vanna was a mythical Russian grandmother who invited weary travelers into her home and fed them traditional dishes and drinks before sending them on their journeys. The restaurant recreates this legend of Russian hospitality embodied in Mari Vanna in a 6,500-square-foot eatery on Connecticut Avenue. Patrons are welcomed warmly by staff and shown to tables where heavy dark bread made with dried fruits, fresh green onions and radishes, with salt and oil for dipping, arrive to satisfy the hungriest and heartiest of travelers. The menu offers a broad range of appetizers and small plates, including traditional Russian favorites such as pirozhok (tiny stuffed pies), palmeni (handmade dumplings), vareniki (handmade pierogi), blinis (crepes), as well as cold vegetable salads, meat and fish plates, hot soups, and several (very pricey) varieties of caviar that can easily make for a substantial meal. The cold salads, in particular, are standouts, served whimsically in pressed glass double scoop ice cream dishes. The Olivier, a classic salad created in the 1860s by Lucien Olivier for the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow, is made of diced, roasted, starchy vegetables in a mayonnaise dressing and topped with quail eggs and bologna. It’s rich, mild and timeless.The Russian Country salad — mixed with tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, sorrel, scallions, dill and parsley — has a bit more bite and, with a choice of sunflower, olive oil or sour cream dressing, can be a vegan dish. For an even more authentically Russian salad, the entertainingly named Herring Under A Fur Coat layers chopped herring, roasted carrots, beets, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise in a hearty concoction that’s an excellent example of cold climate cuisine. House-cured herring also appears among some of the protein-based cold appetizers, which includes a smoked fish plate with salmon and sturgeon, as well as a charcuterie board featuring an assortment of basturma, coppa, prosciutto and salami. Two hot soups — a watery but flavorful borsch and porcini and portabello mushroom with leeks, carrots and egg noodles — pair perfectly with the salads or can be rounded out with several varieties of blini.These not-too-thin crepes are folded into quarters and served with several different accompaniments, including salmon roe, cured salmon, mushrooms, ground beef and of course sour cream. The crepes are silky Mari Vanna smooth and hold up well even with the 1141 Connecticut Ave, NW heavy fillings. (202) 783-7777 The real star of the menu, however, is the wide variety of turnover and dumpling-like www.marivanna.ru/washington/ dishes. Pirozhok, small, stuffed pies filled Lunch: Mon. - Sat., 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. with either meat, cabbage or potato, are dense but not heavy. Palmeni, handmade Dinner: Nightly, 5 p.m. - midnight dumplings stuffed with either veal or pork Appetizers/Small plates: $9 - $16 and beef, are perfectly spiced and dressed Entrées: $18 - $27 lightly with herb butter, making them interestingly reminiscent of dim sum. The nonDesserts: $6-$10 meat versions, vareniki, are stuffed with potaReservations: Accepted and recommended to and served with sautéed mushrooms and onions or sour cherry. Both are worth a try, and the cherry version also makes a nice, not too sweet dessert. Everything — much like it is in the motherland — is served with sour cream. Needless to say, Mari Vanna caters to hearty Slavic appetites. As we finished plate after plate of delicious starters, the idea of entrees seemed less and less necessary. But with several intriguing choices, we pressed on. The Russian standard, beef stroganoff, is given a lighter treatment here and served with buckwheat groats in a sauce that takes its flavor more from the beef broth than the dairy. A pair of tiny quail

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Photos: Jessica Latos

Mari Vanna, a new 6,500-square-foot Russian eatery on Connecticut Avenue, serves traditional Russian favorites such as pirozhok (tiny stuffed pies), palmeni (handmade dumplings), vareniki (handmade pierogi) and blinis (crepes).

stuffed with pine nuts and apple is perfectly prepared with a slightly crisp skin, moist meat and nice gamey flavor. The chicken Tabaka — game hens split, pressed and roasted in traditional Russian style — is enhanced with a few mild herbs and served with roasted Yukon potato and onions. It is a classic comfort food dish, as are the rabbit stew and lamb chops. If you still aren’t full, there’s always dessert. Perhaps the best on the list is the Kiev cake, an interesting combination of meringue, chocolate cream and nuts. On a recent visit, the Napoleon was rather disappointing, with soggy pasty layers that gave the dish a compressed character. Medovik, a multilayered honey cake, has consistently been a better option. Being a Russian restaurant, it’s hardly surprising that vodka figures heavily into the Mari Vanna drink menu. In addition to dozens of Russian and other national vodka brands, Mari Vanna’s chef has created a long list of sweet and savory infused varieties that are served straight up or mixed into some tasty cocktails. Flavors such as apricot, watermelon, pineapple, beet cowberry, sea buckthorn, and oats and honey are on display at the bar and pop up in drinks such as the Klubnichka (strawberry), Kalinka-Malinka (strawberry-peach) and May 2013

YOU SAY “I DO”... WE DO THE REST.

Photo: JessiCa latos

Antonovka (pear). A nice collection of Russian and other beers and a short list of international wines offer vodka alternatives, and there are two interesting nonalcoholic drinks: Kvas, described as Russian-style root beer (but bears no resemblance to the American version) and Mors, a homemade berry punch. Mari Vanna is designed to provide diners with plentiful options. Lunch is served six days a week and offers several dishes that aren’t on the dinner menu. Dinner runs until midnight, and a late-night menu is available until closing. Siberian Express offers a quick snack and a shot in the late afternoon, and afternoon teas give guests a chance to sample fare from Kousmichoff, a traditional Russian teahouse from St. Petersburg. The intriguing teas with flavors such as almond, rose, vanilla and citrus fruit go nicely with sweets such the honey cake, homemade cookies, apple and berry cakes, or fruit and cheese plates. D.C.’s Mari Vanna is the newest member of the Ginza Project’s Russia-based mini-chain. The other Mari Vanna restaurants are in New York, Los Angeles, London, Moscow and, its original location, St. Petersburg. But the D.C. Mari Vanna is the largest — and again, options abound. Its three floors house an expansive ground-level bar and dining area, a

Chandeliers, russian tchotchkes, bookshelves, old family photos and comfortable furnishings evoke a homey atmosphere at mari vanna.

second-floor dining room that overlooks the floor below, and a private third-floor lounge. Despite its size, Mari Vanna is already crowded during prime dining hours even on weekdays, a testament to the fact that good, solid food in a homey atmosphere is still a powerful formula for success, even by Washington’s fly-by-night trendy standards. On several recent visits, conversations in Russian filled the air, with the noise level rising gradually throughout the evening as more of the excellent infused vodkas were consumed, lending an even greater sense of authenticity.The staff are agreeably casual and sometimes amusingly vague about the food, as you might expect when visiting someone’s home. And the accordion player who performs sporadically is a perfect touch. The overall effect is fun and comfort without pretense. And let’s face it, Russians can eat and drink with the best of them. And now they can do it with Washingtonians. Rachel G. Hunt is the restaurant reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

from page 36

passport DC the Embassy of Bolivia is spearheading a committee that includes six other quinoaproducing nations — Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela — to promote the value of the grain not only from a health standpoint, but from a production and economic perspective, too. The Mexican Cultural Institute has participated in Passport DC since it began. This year, it’s presenting “Codex Mexico,” an exhibition of artisan books, and will be serving bocaditos mexicanos, which are snacks such as mini quesadillas or tacos, along with aguas frescas, drinks made of fruits or infused with flowers such as hibiscus. Live traditional Mexican music will also be played. “As every year, we hope people take away some idea of the cultural richness of Mexico,” said Nathan Keegan, cultural media liaison at the institute.“We really are blessed to be a country of considerable culinary and wider cultural heritage, and it’s not something that’s just confined to the trappings of the U.S.-based Mexican culture with which many here are familiar.” Shulman said that Passport DC is as much an opportunity for Americans to learn about other cultures as it is for embassies to promote those cultures. “We think that this is a way in which to showcase the embassies and,” he said,“put-

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in addition to embassy open houses, Passport DC features international events such as the children’s tale “Baobab” at the kennedy Center on may 11 and 12.

ting people in front of their doors and when a person goes in, they have an opportunity to sell what they do and what their specialty is.” Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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May 2013

[ film reviews ]

Epic ‘Kon-Tiki’ To Prove His Point, Norwegian Sets Out on Grueling Sea Odyssey by Ky N. Nguyen

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While grading papers one night, his he epic saga “Kon-Tiki,” honattention is caught by the unique orably helmed by Norwegian perspective of Claude, a timid pupil directors Joachim Rønning and who displays surprising literary talEspen Sandberg, vividly depicts a ents that inspire the cynical teacher. larger-than-life — and real-life — Claude writes about how he’s historical adventure. Rønning befriending his classmate Rapha in and Sandberg’s assured direcorder to visit his house, including his tion keeps the excitement moving mother Esther, the object of Claude’s along at a brisk pace, enabled by goraffections. Wanting to know what geous cinematography from Geir Hartly will happen next, Germain becomes Andreassen.And leading man Pål Sverre more than just a voyeur. He influHagen’s brave, handsome hero sumences the outcome by urging Claude mons the specter of Irish legend Peter to carry on his scheme of writing O’Toole’s memorable turn in “Lawrence about what takes place behind the of Arabia.” walls of his classmate’s home, but Hagen portrays Norwegian ethnograboth are unable to stop as they venpher Thor Heyerdahl, who struggles to ture into darker territory. get his anthropology thesis published, Photo: Carl Christian Raabe / The Weinstein Company In an ode to Hitchcock, like many based on his work for 10 years on a a French filmmaker, Ozon adroitly French Polynesian island, where he “Kon-Tiki” is the true story of a Norwegian ethnographer who sails 4,300 miles on a precariblends mystery with black humor to lived with his beautiful, supportive wife ous wooden raft to prove his theory that South American sailors first landed on Polynesian defuse and pace the tension. His stylLiv (Agnes Kittelsen).In 1947,Heyerdahl islands 1,500 years ago. ish direction employs an array of decides to verify his controversial hypothesis that South American settlers first landed on Polynesian islands 1,500 cinematic flourishes to keep the viewers’ eyes on the screen, assisted by vivid cinyears ago, setting out to prove that South American sailors already had the expertise ematography by director of photography Jérôme Alméras and crisp editing by Laure and technology to navigate the Pacific Ocean before Columbus “discovered” the Gardette. The entrancing visuals are enhanced by a complementary score by composer Philippe Rombi, a regular collaborator with Ozon. New World. His plan to replicate the dangerous journey, with a crew of five men sailing 4,300 miles on a precarious balsa wood raft, captures worldwide attention. Despite nearly drowning as a child in freezing Lightweight but Satisfying ‘Love’ Norwegian waters, Heyerdahl is a man used In her latest film, the entertaining romantic comedy “Love Is All You Need,” Kon-Tiki to taking risks all his life.Though he still can- Danish director and co-writer Susanne Bier (“Things We Lost in the Fire,”“After the (Norwegian, English, French and Swedish not swim, the intrepid adventurer embarks Wedding,”“Brothers”) takes a step back from the weighty subject matter occupying with English subtitles; 118 min.; scope) from Peru on what ends up being a harrow- her body of work of late, including her previous movie,“In a Better World.”Though ing odyssey, which lasts an utterly predictable, “Love Is All You Need” Landmark’s E Street Cinema interminable 101 days. is a lightweight specialty film in the top Opens Fri., May 3 Writer Petter Skavlan, with tier of its genre. Think Miramax audience ★★★★✩ script consultant Allan Scott, favorites epitomized by “Like Water for pens a captivating screenplay Chocolate.” that brings out elements of the true story while also packing a big In Copenhagen, pretty middle-age impact — despite sketchy character development that prevents the Danish hairstylist Ida (Trine Dyrholm) has audience from learning much about the people they’re following.The been enduring a lengthy fight against result is a satisfying old-fashioned adventure epic paying homage to breast cancer. She finally finishes her checlassic Hollywood: less filling, tastes great. motherapy and picks up a wig for her daughter’s impending nuptials. Things are looking up until she gets home only to Thrills ‘In the House’ find out that she’s being dumped by her With the gripping thriller “In the House,” French writer-director Photo: cohen Media husband Leif (Kim Bodnia), who’s been François Ozon (“Swimming Pool,”“8 Women”) adds another gem to his Ernst Umhauer, top left, plays a young man who screwing the much younger Thilde disparate, consistently impressive filmography. (Christiane Schaumburg-Müller). infiltrates the home of his classmate in the thriller As usual in an Ozon film, the director gets the best out of his stable “In the House.” Meanwhile, English businessman Philip of actors. Prolific French actor Fabrice Luchini, who previously acted (Pierce Brosnan) lives alone in Denmark, for Ozon in “Potiche,” was nominated for the Best Actor César Award focusing all his time on work after his wife In the House (his seventh César acting nod) for his standard quietly charged perfordies and his adult child grows distant. (Dans la maison) mance as schoolteacher Germain. Despite having to match thespian After dating for only three months, (French with English subtitles; 105 min.) talents with such an established icon as Luchini, newcomer Ernst Philip’s estranged son Patrick (Sebastian Umhauer is no slouch playing Germain’s gifted pupil Claude Garcia. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Jessen) and Ida’s daughter Astrid (Molly The sublime British-born actress Kristin Scott Thomas is always a Opens Fri., May 10 Blixt Egelind) decide to have a destination delight to see on screen, this time as Germain’s wife Jeanne, a contemwedding in Sorrento, Italy. Ida and Philip’s ★★★★✩ porary art dealer. Meanwhile, Emmanuelle Seigner, Roman Polanski’s first meeting is not exactly fortuitous. She wife and a regular actress, livens up her role as the beautiful Esther rams into the rear of his car in the parking lot of the airport, then learns that the Artole, the mother of Rapha, a rare middle-class student at the prestigious high angry driver is her daughter’s future father-in-law. Ida immediately dislikes Philip’s school where Germain teaches. There, Germain is perpetually peeved by his students’ indifference and banality. See film reviews, page 47

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May 2013

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The Washington Diplomat Page 45

[ film ]

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

Bengali E-Flat (Komal Gandhar) Directed by Ritwik Ghatak (India, 1961, 134 min.)

This tale of two rival theater groups struggling to collaborate is at once a backstage drama and an allegory about the partitioning of Bengal. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., May 5, 4 p.m.

The Golden Thread (Subarnarekha) Directed by Ritwik Ghatak (India, 1965, 143 min.)

In a refugee neighborhood on the outskirts of 1950s Calcutta, young Ishwar and his little sister Seeta take in an abandoned boy, Abhiram. Years later, Seeta and Abhiram fall in love, but the sudden reappearance of Abhiram’s mother confirms his lower-caste status, much to Ishwar’s dismay. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., May 12, 2 p.m.

A River Called Titus Directed by Ritwik Ghatak (India/Bangladesh, 1973, 159 min.)

In this spare and beautiful portrait of a 1930s fishing community on the banks of the Titas River in East Bengal, a couple is separated by a kidnapping. But while the wife escapes her captors and finds shelter with the townspeople, her husband goes mad with grief. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., May 19, 2 p.m.

believes that he can get Adam to see the light in this blackly comic biblical allegory. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 4, 12 p.m., Mon., May 6, 7:30 p.m.

Adam’s Apples (Adams æbler) Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark/Germany, 2005, 94 min.)

Fresh from prison, neo-Nazi Adam is sentenced to 12 weeks of community service at a country church, where a priest

Directed by Mark Kitchell (U.S., 2012, 101 min.)

Ben X Directed by Nic Balthazar (Belgium, 2006, 90 min.)

Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, teenager Ben is more at home playing his favorite online computer game than in the real world, where he’s harassed by school bullies. Increasingly isolated, Ben is visited by a beautiful fellow gamer who advises him to extract revenge on his tormentors. AFI Silver Theatre Thu., May 2, 9:30 p.m.

Unfolding in five acts, the documentary chronicles grassroots and global environmental movement building over five decades, connecting the causes and exploring how we got here and where we’re going. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 3

Hava Nagila Directed by Roberta Grossman (U.S./Ukraine/Israel, 2012, 73 min.)

The Angel’s Share

This documentary examines the history, mystery and meaning of the infectious Jewish party song in an around-the-world journey from Ukraine to YouTube.

Directed by Ken Loach (U.K./France/Belgium/Italy, 2012, 101 min.)

The Avalon Theatre West End Cinema

English

Narrowly avoiding jail, a gruff but benevolent man vows to turn over a new leaf for his newborn son — and a visit to a whisky distillery inspires him and his mates to seek a way out of their hopeless lives. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Antares Directed Götz Spielmann (Austria, 2004, 119 min.)

Three couples, residents of a drab high rise on the outskirts of a large city, are further connected by marriage, divorce and affairs (English, German and Croatian; explicit sexuality). AFI Silver Theatre Mon., May 27, 9:10 p.m., Thu., May 30, 9:45 p.m.

Hellboy Directed by Guillermo del Toro (U.S., 2004, 122 min.)

Summoned from the fiery depths by Nazi occultists in the final days of World War II, rescued by an Allied platoon and raised by kindly Professor Bruttenholm to fight for good, Hellboy is now the premier agent in the top-secret Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. AFI Silver Theatre May 18 to 20

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Directed by Guillermo del Toro (U.S./Germany, 2008, 120 min.)

With the exiled elf prince Nuada seeking to start a war with the human race, Hellboy and his pals must use not only their mighty powers but also their wits to stave off disaster.

Directed by Olivier Assayas (France/Germany, 2010, 334 min.)

Olivier Assayas’s celebrated biopic of the notorious international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, a political radical from Venezuela who masterminded a wave of terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East in the 1970s and ’80s, was hailed for its probing look at the life of this shadowy

Repertory Notes

Page 46

figure (in English and multiple languages). AFI Silver Theatre Fri., May 24, 1 p.m., Sun., May 26, 1 p.m.

A Fierce Green Fire

Dutch

Carlos

Danish

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

AFI Silver Theatre May 24 to 26

History of the World: Part I Directed by Mel Brooks (U.S., 1981, 92 min.)

Having fun with Hollywood’s version of his-

May 2013

tory, from prehistoric cave dwellers to the Roman Empire to the Spanish Inquisition to the French Revolution, Mel Brooks achieves epic spoofery by riffing, zinging and punning his way through this omnibus of period pieces. AFI Silver Theatre May 24 to 26

I Was a Male War Bride Directed by Howard Hawks (U.S., 1949, 105 min.)

In post-WWII Germany, French Captain Henri Rochard (Cary Grant) and American WAC Lieutenant Catherine Gates (Ann Sheridan) go from antagonistic co-workers to passionate lovebirds while on assignment out in the field, and get married. AFI Silver Theatre May 25 to 28

Love Is All You Need (Den skaldede frisør) Directed by Susanne Bier (Denmark/Sweden/Italy/France/Germany, 2012, 112 min.)

A hairdresser who has lost her hair to cancer finds out her husband is having an affair, travels to Italy for her daughter’s wedding, and meets a widower who still blames the world for the loss of his wife. Angelika Mosaic Opens Fri., May 10 Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 3

My Brother the Devil Directed by Sally El Hosaini (U.K., 2012, 111 min.)

Two teenage brothers must face their own prejudices head on if they are to survive the perils of being British Arabs growing up on the streets of gangland London. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 10

No Place on Earth Directed by Janet Tobias (U.K./Germany/U.S., 2012, 81 min.)

This documentary brings to light the untold story of 38 Ukrainian Jews who survived World War II by living in caves for 18 months, the longest-recorded sustained underground survival (English, German and Yiddish).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Reluctant Fundamentalist Directed by Mira Nair (U.S./U.K./Qatar, 2012, 128 min.)

A young Pakistani man chasing corporate success on Wall Street finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family’s homeland. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 3

Welcome Directed by Philippe Lioret (France, 2009, 110 min.)

Seventeen-year-old Kurdish refugee Bilal is caught trying to stow away on a barge from France to England and sent to an illegal immigrant compound. Intent on reuniting with his girlfriend in London, the headstrong Bilal starts training at the municipal pool run by coach Simon so he can swim the English Channel (English, French and Kurdish). AFI Silver Theatre Thu., May 16, 7:20 p.m.

Finnish Mother of Mine (Äideistä parhain) Directed by Klaus Härö (Finland/Sweden, 2005, 111 min.)

In World War II, 9-year-old Eero is sent by his beloved mother to live on a remote farm in Sweden, where his surrogate father is welcoming and warm, but his surrogate mother is cold, and even cruel. As Eero tries to adjust to the culture, he feels increasingly alienated from everyone, until a touching confession from his surrogate mother changes everything (Finnish and Swedish). AFI Silver Theatre Fri., May 31, 2 p.m.

French Cesar and Rosalie (César et Rosalie) Directed by Claude Sautet (France/Italy/W. Germany, 1972, 110 min.)

Rosalie is amicably divorced from César,

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

Please see International Film Clips above for detailed listings available at press time.

spective of the political Bengali master director with “E-Flat” (Sun., May 5, 4 p.m.), “The Golden Thread” (Sun., May 12, 2 p.m.) and “A River Called Titas” (Sun., May 19, 2 p.m.)

Freer Gallery of Art

((202) 357-2700, www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp

The Freer and the National Museum of African Art screen a rare look at African expatriates in China. “China and Africa Onscreen: ‘My Father’s House’” (Wed., May 1, 7 p.m.) is discussed by Dr. Yoon Jung Park, convener-coordinator of the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network and a visiting professor of African Studies from Howard University.

American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre

Chinese director Luo Li discusses in person his independent film “Emperor Visits the Hell” (Sun., May 5, 1 p.m. ), copresented by the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland.

The series “AFI Life Achievement Award Retrospective: Mel Brooks” (through July 2) looks back at the American filmmaker and comedian’s belly-aching career.

“American Originals Now: Zoe Beloff” (May 4-5) offers a retrospective of artist Zoe Beloff, media and art professor at Queens College. “ Working primarily with film, installation, and drawings on paper she explores spiritualism, psychoanalysis, and — more recently — progressive social movements with a keen interest in manifesting and communicating what seems ephemeral,” according to the gallery.

“The Revolutionary Cinema of Ritwik Ghatak” continues the retro-

“AFI Silver Silent Cinema Showcase” continues through May 4.

(202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/programs/film

The retrospective “Visionario: The Films of Guillermo del Toro” (through July 2) honors the stylish Mexican director. May selections include: “Blade II,” “The Devil’s Backbone,” “Hellboy” and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.”

(301) 495-6700, www.afi.com/silver

National Gallery of Art The program “Méliès: A Trip to the Moon and More” (Wed., May 1, 2 p.m.; Thu., May 2, 12:30 p.m.; Fri., May 3, 12:30 p.m.) reviews the pioneering early silent films of French cinematic illusionist Georges Méliès (1861-1938).

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

dividing her time between her mother’s house, with her siblings and small daughter. Enter David, an artist and Rosalie’s flame before her marriage who, in a quiet, brooding way, seeks to reclaim Rosalie. Goethe-Institut Mon., May 13, 6:30 p.m.

Cold Water (L’eau froide)

A critically respected but commercially unrewarded novelist is diagnosed with a terminal disease, forcing his friend, an aspiring novelist himself whose love life is in disarray, to decide what matters most in his own life.

emperor, who must travel to the underworld and cut a bargain to break free.

Russian

Freer Gallery of Art Sun., May 5, 1 p.m.

How I Ended This Summer (Как я провёл этим летом)

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 11, 4:30 p.m., Wed., May 15, 7 p.m.

Directed by Zhao Dayong and David Bandurski (China, 2011, 77 min.)

Directed by Olivier Assayas (France, 1994, 92 min.)

Something in the Air (Après mai)

Teen lovers Gilles and Christine are a refuge to each other from their disinterested bourgeois families. They share a dream of escape, perhaps to live in an artists’ colony, but are they destined to do so together?

At the beginning of the seventies, a high school student in Paris is swept up in the political fever of the time, though his real dream is to paint and make films.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 4, 5:30 p.m., Sun., May 5, 8:45 p.m.

The Grocer’s Son (Le fils de l’épicier) Directed by Eric Guirado (France, 2007, 96 min.)

Committed urbanite and hard-edged Parisian Antoine must return to life in the country when he’s asked to take over the family’s grocery delivery truck following his father’s heart attack. But his gruff demeanor slowly melts as he takes his truck from village to village in the picturesque RhôneAlpes countryside. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 18, 11:05 a.m., Sun., May 19, 11:05 a.m.

In the House (Dans la maison) Directed by François Ozon (France, 2012, 105 min.)

A 16-year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher, who increasingly eggs on the scheme. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 10

Irma Vep

My Father’s House

In Nigeria, Pastor Daniel Michael Enyeribe has a revelation to bring the word of God to China, joining a booming community of African merchants who have settled in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and establishing the Royal Victory Church for both Africans and Chinese to worship. (Mandarin and English).

Directed by Olivier Assayas (France, 2012, 121 min.)

Directed by Alexei Popogrebsky (Russia, 2010, 130 min.)

On a desolate island in the Arctic Circle, two men work at a small meteorological station: the gruff and imposing Sergei and his inexperienced new partner Pavel. One day, Pavel receives terrible news intended for Sergei and when the truth comes out, the consequences explode against a chilling backdrop of thick fog, sharp rocks and the merciless Arctic Sea. AFI Silver Theatre Fri., May 31, 4:20 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., May 2, 7:15 p.m. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 10

Freer Gallery of Art Wed., May 1, 7 p.m.

Norwegian

Spanish

German

The Bothersome Man (Den brysomme mannen)

Blancanieves

The Forest for the Trees (Der Wald vor lauter Baümen)

Directed by Jens Lien (Norway/Iceland, 2006, 95 min.)

Directed by Maren Ade (Germany, 2004, 81 min.)

Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no recollection of how he got there and is assigned the perfect life: a good job, an apartment, even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that something is off in this seeming paradise.

Idealistic and bursting with enthusiasm, Melanie says goodbye to her small-town home, loving parents and boyfriend for her first teaching job in the big city, where she finds herself contending with bratty students, jaded staffers and loneliness.

Directed by Pablo Berger (Span/France, 2012, 104 min.)

This twist on the Snow White fairy tale is set in 1920s Spain and centers on a female bullfighter. Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Devil’s Backbone (El espinazo del Diablo) Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Spain/Mexico, 2001, 106 min.)

Orphaned during the last days of the Spanish Civil War, 12-year-old Carlos looks for refuge at a home for children of the Republican militia. Despite warnings about the presence of ghosts, Carlos explores the rambling hacienda and its grounds, but soon comes face to face with a spirit from the next world, and uncovers a horrible secret from this one. AFI Silver Theatre May 3 to 7

The Violin (El Violin) Directed by Francisco Vargas (Mexico, 2005, 98 min.)

Set sometime in the not-too-distant past, a peasant guerrilla movement rises in response to a tyrannical regime, but is soon brutally suppressed. His fellow villagers forced into hiding in the hills, a poor street musician Don Plutarco turns his violin into a Trojan horse. AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 25, 11:05 a.m., Wed., May 29, 5:05 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre Sat., May 11, 11 a.m., Mon., May 13, 9:20 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre Sun., May 26, 11:05 a.m., Thu., May 30, 5:10 p.m.

Kon-Tiki Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (U.K./Norway/Denmark/Germany, 2012, 118 min.)

Mandarin Emperor Visits the Hell (Tang huang you difu) Directed by Luo Li (China/Canada, 2013, 71 min.)

Emperor Li Shimin is a government bureaucrat who condemns the Dragon King (a Marlboro-puffing gangster) to death for trying to change the weather, so the Dragon King retaliates by cursing the dreams of the

A Norwegian explorer crosses the Pacific ocean in a balsa wood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans already back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the sea and settle on Polynesian islands. Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 3

Directed by Olivier Assayas (France, 1996, 99 min.)

A half-forgotten filmmaker plans to remake a landmark 1915 crime thriller to reclaim his relevance, importing Hong Kong’s top star Maggie Cheung (gamely playing herself) to play the iconic role of Irma Vep, the story’s formidable, cat-suit-clad master thief. But the production is a comedy of errors, beginning with the fact that no one thought to ask whether Cheung spoke any French. AFI Silver Theatre May 18 to 20

Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) Directed by François Truffaut (France, 1962, 105 min.)

In Paris before World War I, two friends, Jules and Jim, fall in love with the same woman, Catherine, who loves and marries Jules. After the war, however, when they meet again in Germany, begins to love Jim in this tale of evolving relationships (French, German and English). Goethe-Institut Mon., May 6, 6:30 p.m.

Late August, Early September (Fin août, début septembre) Directed by Olivier Assayas (France, 1998, 112 min.)

from page 45

Film Reviews rude behavior, which she freely expresses. Well, it turns out the bride and groom’s respective parental units have much more in common than their bitterness and suffering. They eventually make nice and find a way to help each other progress past their grief. Director Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen, her regular screenwriting partner, come up with a serviceable script that gets the job done. Director of photography Morten Søborg cap-

[

Love Is All You Need (Den skaldede frisør) (Danish, English and Italian with English subtitles; 112 min.; scope)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., May 3

★★★✩✩

]

READIN’

Photo: Doane Gregory / Sony Pictures Classics ART

Pierce Brosnan, left, and Trine Dyrholm star in the entertaining romantic comedy “Love Is All You Need.”

tures lovely images, including the postcard-friendly splendors of the Amalfi Coast, that set a pleasant ambiance for the romantic mood. Bier’s direction is as steady as always, and she gets appealing performances from her cast. And movie star Brosnan (of James Bond fame) looks better than he has in quite a while.

’RITING ’RITHMETIC

Royal dukes are squaresville. They have no rhythm. And they wear crowns.

Give your kids a chance to succeed. Up their daily dose of art.

Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

May 2013

The Washington Diplomat Page 47

[ around town ]

EVENTS LISTING **Admission is free unless otherwise noted. All information on event venues can be found on The Diplomat Web site at www.washdiplomat. com. Times and locations are subject to change. Unless listed, please call venue for specific event times and hours of operation.

“Cotidiano” is a dynamic look at the rapidly changing nature of the Latino experience in America, where out of every six Americans is now of Hispanic origin, an impressive social transformation with enormous political, economic and cultural consequences.

ART

Spanish Cultural Center

Through May 5

Through May 12

Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop

In the first major exhibition devoted to the history of manipulated photographs before the digital age, some 200 works will demonstrate that today’s digitally altered photographs are part of a tradition that extends back to the beginning of photography. National Gallery of Art May 7 to July 12

Nothing is Done (Nichts ist erledigt)

Ever since the 1970s, artist, publisher and lawyer Klaus Staeck has been causing a stir in Germany. Often used in protests against environmental destruction, Staeck’s art — through evocative images and slogans — calls attention to global warming, ever-growing piles of rubbish, nuclear waste, and the pollution of the air and oceans. Goethe-Institut May 10 to Sept. 22

Bice Lazzari: Signature Line

In collaboration with the Italian Embassy, this exhibit features 25 paintings and drawings by Lazzari (1900-81), one of Italy’s most revered modern artists. Discouraged from studying the figure in art school in the 1910s because of her gender, she became a prominent decorative arts designer who became for her later poetic abstract paintings. National Museum of Women in the Arts May 11 to Sept. 1

David Levinthal: War Games

David Levinthal, a central figure in the history of American postmodern photography, has staged uncanny tableaux using toys and miniature dioramas for nearly 40 years. Mounted to celebrate the museum’s acquisition of a major, career-spanning body of work, this exhibition is the first to feature all of the artist’s work on the subject of war. Corcoran Gallery of Art Through May 12

Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet

This exhibition reveals a rare cross-cultural artistic dialogue between American painter Jackson Pollock (1912-56), American artist and patron of European and American postwar art Alfonso Ossorio (1916-90), and French painter Jean Dubuffet (1901-85). Approximately 53 paintings and works on paper from 1945 to 1958 highlight visual affinities and inspired friendships among the artists at pivotal moments in their careers. The Phillips Collection Through May 12

LATINO/US Cotidiano

Literally meaning “everyday life,”

Page 48

Memories of Stones

Photographer Åsa Nyhlén’s moss-covered stone walls are a testament to an era of profound change in Swedish history. Today, the forest has reclaimed the walls, which echo the exodus of one third of the population to try their luck in the New World, creating a Swedish Diaspora in the Americas. House of Sweden Through May 12

A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony

The first exhibition in the United States to focus on Danish modern painter Anna Ancher (1859-1935) and the artist colony at Skagen, Denmark, features 41 paintings and oil sketches by Ancher and more than 20 by her fellow Skagen artists. National Museum of Women in the Arts May 12 to Sept. 2

Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: When Art Danced with Music

More than 130 original costumes, set designs, paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings, photographs and posters reveal how the Ballets Russes — the most innovative dance company of the 20th century — propelled the performing arts to new heights through groundbreaking collaborations between artists, composers, choreographers, dancers and fashion designers. National Gallery of Art Through May 18

The Fallen Gods

Béatrice Lampla Mellinger integrates her diverse heritage and extensive travels into her vibrant and richly textured paintings. In her newest series, she explores the historical roots of Caribbean society, structuring a lineage that affirms the Amerindian origins of the culture and repudiates the arrival of the Conquistadors as its starting point. International Visions Gallery Through May 19

Nobility and Newcomers in Renaissance Ireland

Focusing mainly on the Irish upper-class, their cultural exchange with England, and their struggle for power during a time of great change, “Nobility and Newcomers” underscores why Irish cultural identity is challenging to define. Folger Shakespeare Library May 19 to July 28

Edvard Munch: A 150th Anniversary Tribute

This 150th birthday tribute to Edvard Munch (1863–1944), Norway’s most famed painter and printmaker, includes more than 20 renowned works from the gallery’s collection and a unique series of six variant impressions. National Gallery of Art

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT Through May 26

Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastels from Delacroix to Signac Some 100 drawings and watercolors from the collection of James T. Dyke showcase the broad development of modern draftsmanship in France, from romanticism and realism through the impressionists, Nabis and neo-impressionists. National Gallery of Art Through May 26

On Common Ground: Dominican Republic + Haiti

In conjunction with the Embassies of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, this exhibition of works by emerging artists of Hispaniola, the island that these two countries share, offers fresh perspectives on Hispaniola’s cultural scene and addresses misconceptions surrounding the two nations’ complex relationship with one another, imagining a brighter future. OAS Art Museum of the Americas Through May 26

Painting Borges: Art Interpreting Literature

Sixteen visual artists interpret 12 stories by Argentinean Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most prominent and profoundly philosophical literary figures of the 20th century, organized according to three topics: identity and memory, freedom and destiny, and faith and divinity. American University Katzen Arts Museum Through May 26

Un Lugar Sin Reposo | A Place with No Rest

In conjunction with the 43rd regular session of the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly in Guatemala in June, this exhibition of artwork by one of the host country’s finest artists, Luis González Palma, examines the power of communication through the gaze and body language. OAS Art Museum of the Americas Through May 31

Perceptive Strokes

In honor of the Inter-American Development Bank’s annual meeting in Panama in March, the IDB Cultural Center presents artwork by women Panamanian artists. IDB Cultural Center Through May 31

Tango Visions

PA7, or Pintores Argentinos 7, a group of artists based in D.C., collectively express the soul of Argentine music, dance and culture from their special viewpoint as expatriates. Their paintings depict themes of the tango, which originated in Argentina’s Rio de la Plata region but eventually expanded across the world. Embassy of Argentina Through June 8

Pageant of the Tsars: The Romanov Coronation Albums

Marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanov dynasty in 1613, the history and spectacle of Russian tsars’

May 2013

coronations are revealed through lavish, rarely seen albums and objects from Hillwood’s Russian collection.

his acquisitions and on ancient China. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

Through Aug. 4

Through June 9

Arts of Japan: Edo Aviary and Poetic License

Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) has long been considered the greatest German artist, uniquely combining the status held in Italian art by Michelangelo in the 16th century, by Raphael in the 18th and 19th centuries, and by Leonardo da Vinci in our own day. But while Dürer’s paintings were prized, his most influential works were actually his drawings, watercolors, engravings and woodcuts. National Gallery of Art Through June 15

Codex Mexico: The Book as Art

This exposition of artisanal books and printed art showcases both Mexico’s enormous heritage in the arts of printing, and the Mexicans currently working to renew and enrich such an important legacy. Mexican Cultural Institute Through June 21

Point of View – Afghanistan

Presented by the Embassy of Australia and the Australian War Memorial as part of the 2013 ANZAC Day Commemorations, “Point of View – Afghanistan” features the video and photographic work from Shaun Gladwell’s experience as an official war artist in the Middle East, where he investigated relationships between the human body, landscapes and images drawn from the contemporary world. Embassy of Australia Art Gallery Through June 30

The Enduring Designs of Josef Frank

Designer and architect Josef Frank, born 1885, was a leading pioneer in modern Swedish design, leaving behind about 200 textile and 2,000 furniture designs, a portion of which are on display in this exhibit. House of Sweden Through June 30

The Third Room

Maja Salomonsson, in collaboration with Swedish Radio’s Youth Radio Drama Department, has created the sound walk “The Third Room,” a play area that welcomes children into a dream world where time is fluid and the laws of gravity are suspended. House of Sweden Through July 7

One Man’s Search for Ancient China: The Paul Singer Collection

New Jersey psychiatrist-turned-collector Paul Singer’s bequest to the Sackler Gallery created one of the largest Chinese archaeological collections in the United States. This exhibition looks at the collector’s contributions to Chinese art history — made largely at a time when contact between China and the West was heavily restricted — and examines how landmark archaeological discoveries have shed new light on

Complementary but distinct installations examine two themes of Edo period art: “Edo Aviary,” which traces how depictions of birds were influenced by natural history painting, and “Poetic License: Making Old Words New,” which shows how classical Japanese and Chinese literary traditions were absorbed into the merchant and artisan classes. Freer Gallery of Art Through Aug. 4

Views of Panama

Photographers Gabriel Benaim, José Manuel Castrellón and Lorena Endara examine the stunning transformation Panama has undertaken in the last few years, manifested into a real estate and building boom that has changed Panama City’s skyline. OAS Art Museum of the Americas F Street Gallery Through Aug. 11

Hand-Held: Gerhard Pulverer’s Japanese Illustrated Books

More than 100 volumes reflect on the Edo period Japan (1615-1868) as an age of great social and political change that gave rise to an unprecedented “reading culture” of artists, writers and publishers. Similar to blogging and e-publication in the 21st century, illustrated books (ehon) in Edo Japan opened up a new avenue with which to share ideas, marked by epic levels of publishing and book consumption. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through Sept. 2

Nine Deaths, Two Births: Xu Bing’s Phoenix Project

Chinese artist Xu Bing spent more than two years creating his newest work, “Phoenix Project,” a massive installation that comprises two birds fabricated entirely from materials found at construction sites in Beijing. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Through Sept. 8

Over, Under, Next: Experiments in Mixed Media, 1913-Present

Butterfly wings, glass shards, doll parts, crumpled automotive metal, jigsaw puzzle pieces, clothing, straight pins, furniture, and colored sand — these are just some of the materials in “Over, Under, Next,” an exhibition of approximately 100 examples of collage and assemblage, primarily drawn from the Hirshhorn’s collection. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Through Oct. 13

Out of Southeast Asia: Art that Sustains

The last exhibition presented in the Textile Museum’s historic location before the museum’s 2014 reopening promises to be a beautiful pairing of tradition and innovation, demonstrating how four artists are reinventing traditional Southeast Asian

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

textile techniques, designs and ideology in new and meaningful ways. The Textile Museum Through Jan. 5, 2014

Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa Some 100 exceptional works of art from the late 18th to 21st centuries come together for the first major exhibition and scholarly endeavor to comprehensively examine the rich relationship between African artists and the land upon which they live, work and frame their days.

Wed., May 15, 7 p.m.

Polar Bears, Climate Change — And You

When Don Moore, associate director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, began working with polar bears in Canada in 2000, few foresaw how climate change would impact the bears. Today, though, Moore is studying and fighting for a dwindling species that numbers fewer than 20,000 in the wild. Tickets are $25; for information, visit www. smithsonianassociates.org. S. Dillon Ripley Center

National Museum of African Art

Sat., May 18, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

DANCE

The Neighborhoods and Villages of London

Sat., May 4, 8 p.m.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

The sight of large male bodies stuffed into tutus delicately balancing en pointe is just the beginning of the fun. This all-male ballet company specializes in hilarious twists on the classics such as “Swan Lake” and “Giselle,” with equal parts comedy and technical prowess. Tickets are $24 to $48. George Mason University Center for the Arts Sat., May 4, 8 p.m.

Pan American Symphony’s Tango

The final performance of the DC Tango Festival is a sensational tango variety show that includes Pan American Symphony’s arrangements of the best-loved traditional tangos, along with Astor Piazzolla’s complex modern tangos. Tickets are $30 to $45. GW Lisner Auditorium May 12 to May 18

Urban Corps: A Transatlantic Hip-Hop Festival

The Alliance Française’s Urban Corps transatlantic hip-hop festival returns to D.C. with a powerful compilation of urban dancers, musicians and speakers from around the world whose distinct backgrounds in mime, acrobatics, DJ, video and American urban tradition present an unrivaled vantage point on metropolitan culture and identity. For information, visit www.francedc.org. Various locations

DISCUSSIONS Tue., May 7, 6:30 p.m.

Imagining the Renaissance: Albrecht Dürer and Italy

German artist Albrecht Dürer both was inspired by and influenced Italy during his time. Art historian Alice Jarrard examines Dürer’s role in the 19th-century construction of the Renaissance and considers some of the German writers and scholars who cast Dürer as a heroic protagonist who delivered Italian inventions north of the Alps (presented in connection with the Albrecht Dürer exhibiton at the National Gallery of Art). To RSVP, visit www.iicwashington.esteri.it. Embassy of Italy Sat., May 11, 9:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

The German War Machine: From Conquest to Collapse

History professor Marcus Jones takes an in-depth look at World War II through the German military experience, integrating the history of the major European military campaigns with German strategic and racial policy and tracing the once-unthinkable but inevitable race to war’s end. Tickets are $130; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. Dillon Ripley Center

In a program that journeys from the old City of London to historic maritime Greenwich, the revitalized neighborhood of Spitafields to lofty Hampstead village, Londoner Lorella Brocklesby shares some well-kept secrets of this timeless world capital. Tickets are $130; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. Dillon Ripley Center Wed., May 29, 7 p.m.

Tour de France Wine Tasting

Discover France’s breathtaking countryside while unlocking the doors to some of the best wines of France with this popular series of tastings. The May 29 session focuses on burgundy wines and features Maison Joseph Drouhin, famous for its pinot noir wines from Oregon. Tickets are $70. La Maison Française

FESTIVALS Sat., May 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Passport DC: Around the World Embassy Tour

More than 40 embassies representing six continents open their doors to D.C. visitors and residents as part of Cultural Tourism DC’s sixth annual Passport DC (www.passportdc.org). Last year, visitors were treated to music and dance performances, tastings, karate demonstrations, sari-wrapping lessons and other activities. Complimentary shuttle service is provided. Various locations Sat., May 4, 7 p.m.

Let’s Dance! / Alors on Dance!

The French Embassy (La Maison Française) transforms into a Parisian nightclub, playing the best of French pop music from the last four decades, in this benefit presented jointly by the Consulate General of France in Washington and D.C.’s French-American Chamber of Commerce to support the Comité Tricolore, the Serge Betsen Academy and the sports section of the Lycée Rochambeau. Tickets are $30 and include a country buffet. La Maison Française Sat., May 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Shortcut to Europe: European Union Embassies’ Open House

As part of Passport DC, the European Union Delegation to the U.S. and the embassies of the EU member states invite visitors to experience the authentic music, dance, food, film and art of 28 distinctive nations along with a rare behind-the-scenes look into the European Union embassies. Complimentary shuttle service is provided. Various locations

over 20 cultures — and includes a festive parade, food stalls, craft exhibits, cooking and martial arts demonstrations, kid’s talent contest; mass street dance and more. Pennsylvania Avenue Through May 19

The Washington DC International Design Festival

Artisphere and Apartment Zero present this free three-month-long multidisciplinary celebration of design, anchored by “The Next Wave: Industrial Design in the 21st Century,” a 4,000-square-foot exhibition exploring innovation in product design over the last 13 years. The exhibit of more than 100 objects from around the world will be complemented by a series of public programs. For information, visit www.artisphere.com or www.apartmentzero.com. Artisphere

MUSIC Fri., May 3, 7:30 p.m.

Anya Bukovec, Violin

Anja Bukovec, an accomplished solo violinist and popular media personality in Slovenia, performs a program of works by Serbian and Slovenian composers, Beethoven and others. Tickets are $100, including buffet reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org. Embassy of Slovenia Fri., May 3, 7:30 p.m.

Cornelia Herrmann

Born into a family of musicians in Salzburg, Cornelia Herrmann is a sought-after chamber musician who was the youngest finalist and winner of the International J. S. Bach Competition in Leipzig. Admission is free but RSVP is required and can be made by visiting www.acfdc.org. Embassy of Austria Mon., May 6, 7:30 p.m.

Péter Bársony, Viola Barnabás Kelemen, Violin Melvin Chen, Piano

Violist Péter Bársony, founding member of the Akadémia and Somogyi String Quartets, is joined by Barnabás Kelemen and Melvin Chen for a Hungarian concert. Tickets are $75, including reception; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org. Embassy of Hungary Thu., May 23, 6:30 p.m.

Guitarist Roberto Limón

Celebrated Latin Grammy-nominated Mexican guitarist Roberto Limón will interpret an eclectic range of selections from Latin America, Spain, and the United States, including traditional pieces by Mexican greats Manuel M. Ponce and Carlos Chavez, as well as a contemporary piece by noted film composer Brian Banks. Admission is free but RSVP is required and can be made by emailing rsvp@instituteofmexicodc.org.

As part of Passport DC, the Asia Heritage Foundation’s eighth annual Fiesta Asia Street Fair features more than 800 performers in 70 groups on five stages from

observes both the joys and pitfalls of marriage from his five quirky couple friends. Please call for ticket information.

Gunston Arts Center

Through May 26

Signature Theatre

DC-7: The Roberto Clemente Story

May 4 to June 1

The Full Monty

The Keegan Theatre presents the raucous musical based on the British film about six down-on-their luck steelworkers who are desperately seeking paychecks to support their families — until they come up with a bold way to make some quick cash. Tickets are $40. Church Street Theater

From the barrios of Puerto Rico to his successful seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, to the fateful flight to Nicaragua to deliver humanitarian aid, this insightful musical reveals the man who battled triumphantly on the baseball field and against discrimination. Tickets are $20 to $42. GALA Hispanic Theatre May 29 to June 30

Through May 5

How to Write a New Book for the Bible

A man moves in with his ailing but always funny mother when she becomes too frail to care for herself, resulting in a reunion that heals old wounds and opens a heartfelt new chapter in their relationship. Tickets are $10 to $61. Round House Theatre Bethesda May 9 to June 9

The Submission

A gay, white playwright’s play gets accepted at the nation’s preeminent theater festival. Trouble is, everyone thinks his stirring new play about an alcoholic black mother and her cardsharp son trying to get out of the projects is written by Shaleeha G’ntamobi … and she doesn’t exist. Tickets are $32.50 to $65. Olney Theatre Center

The Hampton Years

This breakthrough premiere explores the development of great African-American artists John Biggers and Samella Lewis under the tutelage of Austrian Jewish refugee painter and educator Viktor Lowenfeld during World War II. Tickets start at $35. Washington DCJCC Theater J Thu., May 30, 7:30 p.m.

Staged Reading: Anna Freud at the Hotel Regina

As part of the event series “We should never forget,” the Austrian Cultural Forum presents a play by Myron Robert Hafetz in remembrance of the 75th anniversary of Anna Freud’s emigration to the United Kingdom in 1938. Admission is free but RSVP is required and can be made by visiting www.acfdc.org. Embassy of Austria Through June 2

May 9 to June 9

The Three Musketeers

“All for one and one for all” springs onto the stage with Synetic’s fiery, bombastic ensemble of lovers and fighters as they fence, wine, dance and fling their wit across the stage in the ultimate cross between physical and romantic comedy. Tickets are $35 to $55. Synetic Theater May 9 to June 23

The Winter’s Tale

An act of jealousy sets the plot into motion when Leontes, King of Sicilia, accuses his virtuous wife Hermione of infidelity in this moving story of mistakes and forgiveness that spans 16 years and two nations. Tickets are $43 to $95. Shakespeare Lansburgh Theatre May 21 to June 30

Company

On his 35th birthday, a commitment-phobic bachelor searches for the answers to love and life in New York City, where he

Hero/Traitor Repertory of Coriolanus and Wallenstein

In the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s repertory of “Coriolanus” and “Wallenstein,” both plays revolve around military leaders who’ve gained fame through deadly prowess — in Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus,” the title character must re-examine his loyalties when the country he championed turns against him; in Friedrich Schiller’s “Wallenstein,” the main character must choose between the ideal for which he fights and his government’s agenda. Tickets are $43 to $105. Sidney Harman Hall Through June 9

Twelfth Night

Director Robert Richmond returns to Folger Theatre to direct this romantic and whimsical of tales filled with lovers, lunatics, poets, drunkards, and clowns in the quixotic land of Illyria. Tickets are $30 to $68. Folger Shakespeare Library

Mexican Cultural Institute Tue., May 28, 7:30 p.m.

Melancholy Bird

As part of the event series “We should never forget,” the Austrian Cultural Forum presents soloist Irene Wallner and pianist Maria Raberger in the concert project “Melancholy Bird,” which aims to commemorate composers persecuted by the Nazi regime. Admission is free but RSVP is required and can be made by visiting www.acfdc.org.

CULTURE GUIDE Plan Your Entire Weekend.

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Embassy of Austria

Sat., May 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

National Asian Heritage Festival: Fiesta Asia Street Fair

playwright Rafael Bruza’s comedy about four men who “suffer for love” and come together to show and solve their problems of the heart. Tickets are $30 or $35.

THEATER May 2 to 25

Club de Caballeros / Gentlemen’s Club

Teatro de la Luna presents Argentine

May 2013

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The Washington Diplomat Page 49

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

WPAS Annual Gala and Auction

photo: gail scott

Photos: Chris Burch / WPAS

From left, Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins and his wife Marie, the evening’s diplomatic chairs, welcome Marliese Heimann-Ammon and Ambassador of Germany Peter Ammon to the Washington Performing Arts Society 2013 Gala and Auction, held at the Ritz-Carlton Washington hotel.

The Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) Children of the Gospel Choir performs at the annual gala and auction to benefit WPAS, which supports various children’s program such as the Embassy Adoption Program, Concerts in Schools and the choir itself, which has performed on NBC’s “Today” show twice.

Matthew Morrison, who plays Will Schuester on “Glee,” performs Broadway hits at the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala and Auction to raise funds for WPAS education and concert programming.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg peruses the items up for bidding at the Washington Performing Arts Society 2013 Gala and Auction, which drew more than 670 people.

Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) President Emeritus Douglas H. Wheeler and his wife Catherine attend the WPAS Gala VIP reception held at the art gallery next to the Ritz-Carlton.

photo: gail scott

Photo: gail scott

Dino Patti Djalal and his wife Rosa attend the Washington Performing Arts Society 2013 Gala and Auction.

Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) Director of Development Murray Horwitz and his wife Lisa attend the annual gala and auction that raised $880,000 for WPAS, a nonprofit founded in 1965 that presents a wide range of music performances in the area featuring both established performers and emerging artists.

photo: gail scott

Photo: Chris Burch / WPAS

Photo: gail scott

From left, longtime supporters of the Washington Performing Arts Society Christina Co Mather, Tony Otten and Gary Mather attend the WPAS Gala and Auction.

Ambassador of Macedonia Zoran Jolevski and his wife Suzana attend the Washington Performing Arts Society 2013 Gala and Auction.

From left, Alexis Garrett Stodghill, editor and writer for TheGrio.com, joins La Brenda Garrett-Nelson, a partner at Ernst & Young, and her husband the Rev. Paul Nelson, both WPAS sponsors, at the Washington Performing Arts Society Annual Gala and Auction.

From left, former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss), now with Patton Boggs; Katherine Anderson; Jay Adams; Timothy McBride; Anita McBride; Patricia Lott (seated); Danielle Bradley (standing), Ron Bradley (seated); Thomas Anderson (standing); and Rosalie Maloney enjoy the Washington Performing Arts Society 2013 Gala and Auction.

Photo: gail scott

photo: gail scott

Photo: Chris Burch / WPAS

From left, longtime Washington Performing Arts (WPAS) supporter Robin Hammer, Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins, Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Al Mughairy, and Marie Collins attend the WPAS Gala and Auction.

From left, Charlotte Cameron of the Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) Board Member Executive Committee; Barbara Gordon, founder of the WPAS Women’s Committee; and Njambi, WPAS program coordinator for the Embassy Adoption Program, attend the 2013 WPAS Gala.

Photo: Chris Burch / WPAS Photo: gail scott

Photo: Chris Burch / WPAS

From left, Esther Sorenson, Arne Sorenson, Matthew Morrison, and Ruth Sorenson attend the Washington Performing Arts Annual Gala and Auction, which was chaired by Ruth and Arne Sorenson and featured Broadway singer Morrison, a star on the TV show “Glee.”

Page 50

Photo: gail scott

MVM CEO Dario O. Marquez Jr. and his wife Wendy Thompson Marquez, both sponsors of the Washington Performing Arts Society, attend the VIP reception of the WPAS Gala and Auction.

Ambassador of the European Union Joäo Vale de Almeida and his wife Ana Jara de Carvalho attend the Washington Performing Arts Society 2013 Gala and Auction.

Jenny Bilfield, president and CEO of the Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS), welcomes guests to the annual gala and auction to benefit WPAS, which presents some 100 public engagements and arts education activities each year.

Photo: Chris Burch / WPAS

Ambassador of Ireland Michael Collins and his wife Marie flank students from Alice Deal Middle School who participate in the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Embassy Adoption Program, which each year connects more than 50 embassies with 1,500 fifth- and sixth-grade students in 50 schools in all D.C. wards.

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

Nowruz Gala

Photos: Gail scott

From left, CEO of Home Health Connection Inc. Shahin Mafi and Dr. Hassan Massali join Bijan Kian, senior fellow in global public policy at the Naval Postgraduate School and co-founder of the Nowruz Commission, to celebrate the commission’s annual Nowruz gala.

From left, former Ambassador of Afghanistan Said Tayeb Jawad and his wife Shamim Jawad join Fügen Tan and Ambassador of Turkey Namik Tan at the Nowruz Commission fourth annual gala.

Former Queen of Iran Farah Pahlavi attends the Nowruz Commission fourth annual gala held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.

Recently appointed Ambassador of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov and his wife Galiya attend the Nowruz Commission fourth annual gala held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.

Ambassador of Azerbaijan Elin Suleymanov and his wife Lala Suleymanova attend the Nowruz Commission annual gala in honor of the Persian New Year, which is celebrated in Iran and more than a dozen other countries.

Turkish Tradition of Jazz

From left, Debbie Meadows, Congressman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Ambassador of Turkey Namik Tan and his wife Fugen Tan attend a concert at their embassy as part of the Ertegün Jazz Series, which pays homage to the interracially mixed jam sessions hosted by Turkish Ambassador Mehmet Munir Ertegün and his sons Nesuhi and Ahmet in the 1930s and ’40s.

Photos: Kyle Gustafson

Vocalist Michael Mwenso, joined by Joe Saylor on drums, Chris Pattishall on piano, and Chris Smith on bass, performs at the Turkish Embassy to kick of the 2013 season of the Ertegün Jazz Series.

From left, Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History John Gray, Cat Henry of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and John Hasse attend a concert organized by the Turkish Embassy in collaboration with the New York-based nonprofit Jazz at Lincoln Center.

From left, General Manager of Fleishman-Hillard DC Kris Balderston, Director of Diplomatic Relations at Coca-Cola Co. Kate Irvin, former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, and Paula Kougeas attend a jazz concert at the Turkish Embassy, sponsored by Coca-Cola.

Mauritius National Day

Photos: Gail scott

Ambassador of Mauritius Somduth Soborun and his wife Omila Soborun welcome guests to their Potomac residence to celebrate the National Day of Mauritius.

Former Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.), left, and Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) attend the 2013 kickoff concert of the Ertegün Jazz Series, now in its third year.

From left, Ambassador of Namibia Martin Andjaba, Ambassador of Malawi Stephen Dick Tennyson Matenje, and Ambassador of Lesotho Eliachim Molapi Sebatane attend the Mauritius National Day celebration.

From left, Ambassador of Cape Verde Maria de Fátima Lima da Veiga, Ambassador of Mauritius Somduth Soborun, Ambassador of Burundi Angele Niyuhire, and Ambassador of Mozambique Amélia Matos Sumbana attend the Mauritius National Day celebration.

From left, Economic Minister at the South African Embassy Sandile Tyini, South African Embassy Political Counselor Khayakazi Mgojo, and Minister Counselor at the Embassy of Zimbabwe Richard Chibuwe attend the Mauritius National Day celebration.

From left, Ambassador of Gabon Michael MoussaAdamo and his wife Brigitte join Ambassador of Barbados John Beale and his wife Leila at the Mauritius National Day celebration.

Kosovo National Day

Brits Honor Lugar Left, former Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) is bestowed with the rank of honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) by British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott at an investiture ceremony held at the British Embassy commemorating Lugar’s 36-year Senate career. At right, former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) congratulates his former colleague Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who was honored with a KBE at the British Embassy. Lugar now heads the German Marshall Fund’s Richard G. Lugar Institute for Diplomacy and Congress and the Lugar Academy at the University of Indianapolis.

Photos: Gail scott

Photos: British Embassy Official Photographs

Ambassador of Kosovo Akan Ismaili, left, and Security Attaché at the Kosovo Embassy Brig. Gen. Xhavit Gashi celebrate their country’s national day at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown.

May 2013

From left, Ambassador of Albania Gilbert Galanxhi, Ambassador of Montenegro Srdjan Darmanovic, and Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn celebrate Kosovo’s National Day.

From left, Ambassador of Fiji Winston Thompson joins Mrs. and Ambassador of Macedonia Zoran Jolevski at Kosovo’s National Day reception held at the Four Seasons.

The Washington Diplomat Page 51

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

Washington Concert Opera

photos: Gail scott

Gerald Perman, founder of Vocal Arts DC, is honored for his lifelong commitment to the vocal arts by the Washington Concert Opera, which stages opera masterpieces that are often less performed and features renowned artists in debut and signature roles.

From left, Washington Concert Opera Artistic Director and Conductor Antony Walker joins gala hosts Ambassador of Italy Claudio Bisogniero and his wife Laura Denise, who hosted the Washington Concert Opera 2013 Gala at the Italian Embassy.

From left, mezzo-soprano Megan Marino, Jane and Calvin Cafritz, tenor Lawrence Brownlee, and soprano Angela Mannino attend the 2013 gala of the Washington Concert Opera, now in its 26th season.

Singapore at D.C. Schools

Jaleo Turns 20

Photo: Jeff Martin

From left, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor join renowned chef José Andrés and Rob Wilder of ThinkFoodGroup to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Jaleo, the Spanish tapas institution founded by Wilder and Roberto Alvarez that launched Andrés’s culinary career.

Brunei National Day

photos: Gail scott photos: Gail scott

Ambassador of Singapore Ashok Mirpuri greets students at Alice Deal Middle School during an international food day at D.C. Public Schools, where traditional Singaporean food was served at 118 school cafeterias across the city.

Gouri Mirpuri joined her husband, Ambassador of Singapore Ashok Mirpuri, to present a day of Singaporean culture to students at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C.

Alice Deal Middle School students received surprise goodie bags from the Singaporean Embassy during a special international food day lunch.

UAE in D.C.

Ambassador of Brunei Dato Paduka Haji Yusoff bin Haji Abdul Hamid and his wife Datin Mahani Abu Zar host a reception to mark the 29th anniversary of Brunei’s National Day at the embassy.

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of the Philippines Jose L. Cuisia Jr. join Ambassador of Brunei Dato Paduka Haji Yusoff bin Haji Abdul Hamid at the Brunei National Day reception.

D.C. Mayor at Finland

photo: Etihad airways

photo: uae embassy

Various officials took part in the Etihad Airways ribbon-cutting ceremony at Dulles International Airport launching the airline’s new nonstop direct service between Abu Dhabi and Washington, D.C., including, from left: Geert Boven, senior vice president of the Americas for Etihad; Shaeb Al Najjar, Etihad airport manager; Jack Potter, chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority; James Hogan, Etihad Airways president and CEO; Deputy Chief of Mission for the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington Omar Al Shamsi; U.S. Ambassador to the UAE Michael Corbin; Peter Baumgartner, Etihad chief commercial officer; and Haitham Al Subaihi, Etihad vice president of sales for mid-Atlantic U.S.A.

United Arab Emirates Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, center, flanked to the left by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, welcomes students to the groundbreaking of a new playing field at Marie Reed Elementary School, a gift from the UAE Embassy and Manchester City Football Club, a professional English soccer team that’s owned by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.

Photos: Kyle Samperton / Institute for Education

From left, Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Louis Wolzfeld, Institute for Education (IFE) founder and CEO Kathy Kemper, Ambassador of Finland Ritva Koukku-Ronde, Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn, and Ambassador of the Philippines Jose L. Cuisia Jr. attend an IFE INFO roundtable featuring Mayor Gray.

photo: institute for education

Easter at Indonesia

Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Robert D. Hormats, center, is welcomed by Ambassador of Indonesia Dino Patti Djalal and his wife Rosa Rai Djalal to the Indonesian Embassy for an Easter celebration.

Page 52

Vital Voices

photo: jan du plain

From left, Zalena Khan of Guyana, Embassy Liaison for Cultural Tourism DC Jan Du Plain, Christine Warnke, senior governmental affairs advisor at Hogan Lovells, Anita Henri, Salena Khan of Guyana, and Deborah Sigmund, founder and president of Innocents at Risk, attend the Vital Voices 12th annual Global Leadership Awards at the Kennedy Center, where Hillary Clinton made her first public appearance since stepping down as secretary of state.

From left, Ambassador of Finland Ritva KoukkuRonde, Senior Vice President for External Affairs for Pepco Holdings Beverly Perry, former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, and Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen attend a breakfast hosted by the Institute for Education and held at the Finnish Embassy.

From left, Kevin Clinton, Michele de Nevers of the Center for Global Development, and Nurzhan K. Aitmakhanov, second secretary at the Embassy of Kazakhstan, attend a discussion featuring D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray.

The Washington Diplomat

May 2013

AROUNDtheWORLD army May 24: day of the slavic alphabet and bulgarian culture

HOLIDAYS ALBANIA May 1: labor day ALGerIA May 1: labor day ANDorrA May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 19: Pentecost ANGoLA May 1: international Workers’ day May 25: africa day ANTIGuA and BArBuDA May 1: labor day May 20: Whit Monday

May 28: republic day

May 20: Whit Monday

AuSTrIA May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 20: Whit Monday

BeLIZe May 1: labor day May 24: commonwealth day

AZerBAIJAN May 9: Victory day May 28: republic day

BeNIN May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 20: Whit Monday

BAHAMAS May 20: Whit Monday BArBADoS May 1: labor day May 20: Whit Monday

BoLIvIA May 1: labor day BoSNIA and HerZeGovINA May 1: labor day

BurKINA fASo May 1: labor day May 9: ascension BurMA (MYANMAr) May 1: May day BuruNDI May 1: labor day May 9: ascension CAMBoDIA May 1: labor day May 13: royal Ploughing ceremony CAMerooN May 1: labor day May 20: national day

ArGeNTINA May 1: labor day May 25: anniversary of the May revolution

BeLAruS May 1: labor day May 9: day of national emblem and national Flag May 9: Victory day

BoTSwANA May 1: labor day May 9: ascension BrAZIL May 1: labor day

CAPe verDe May 1: labor day

ArMeNIA May 1: labor day May 9: Victory and Peace day

BeLGIuM May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 19: Whit sunday

BuLGArIA May 1: labor day May 6: st. George’s day/ day of the bulgarian

CeNTrAL AfrICAN rePuBLIC May 1: labor day May 9: ascension

CANADA May 23: Victoria day

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

May 20: Pentecost Monday May 25: africa day CHAD May 1: labor day May 25: africa day CHILe May 1: labor day May 21: battle of iquique CHINA May 1: labor day CoLoMBIA May 1: labor day May 9: ascension CoNGo, DeMoCrATIC rePuBLIC May 1: labor day CoNGo, rePuBLIC of May 1: labor day CoSTA rICA May 1: labor day CÔTe D’IvoIre May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 20: Whit Monday CroATIA May 1: labor day CuBA May 1: international Workers’ day

APPOINTMENTS China cui tiankai became ambassador of the People’s republic of china to the United states on april 15, having previously served as vice minister at the Ministry of Foreign affairs from 2009 to 2013 and Ambassador ambassador to Japan from Cui Tiankai 2007 to 2009. in addition, he has served various postings in the Ministry of Foreign affairs, including: assistant minister (200607); director-general of the department of asian affairs (2003-06); director-general (2001-03) and deputy director-general (1999-2001) of the Policy research office; deputy director-general and spokesman at the information department (199697); and deputy division director, director and then counselor at the department of international organizations and conferences (1987-96). he was also minister counselor at the chinese Permanent Mission to the United nations (1997-99) and an interpreter for the chinese service in the department for General assembly and conference Management at the U.n. secretariat (1981-84). From 1977 to 1978, ambassador cui was a teacher at shanghai normal University, where he completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies. he was also did postgraduate work at Johns hopkins University in the United states and with a U.n. interpreter and translator training course at the beijing institute of Foreign languages. ambassador cui is married with one daughter.

Georgia archil Gegeshidze because ambassador of Georgia to the United states on april 15. before coming to Washington, he was a senior fellow at the Georgian Foundation for strategic and international studies (GFsis) for more than a decade, focused largely on research and training in the fields of regional secu-

May 2013

CYPruS May 1: labor day

rity and cooperation in the south caucasus and euro-atlantic integration. he is the author of numerous publications on Georgia’s foreign and security policies and on regional conflicts. ambassador Gegeshidze also lectured on globalization and development and provided training in policy analysis for young professionals and future leaders. before joining GFsis, ambassador Gegeshidze spent an academic year at stanford University as a Fulbright visiting scholar. he also worked for the Georgian government from 1992 to 2000 as assistant to the head of state on national security and chief foreign policy advisor to the presiAmbassador dent. ambassador Gegeshidze holds a Ph.d. in Archil Gegeshidze economic and social geography from tbilisi state University and has achieved the diplomatic rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. in addition to his native Georgian, he is fluent in english and russian and proficient in French and some asian languages. ambassador Gegeshidze is married and has one teenage daughter.

New Zealand anthony smith assumed the position of deputy chief of mission in January 2013, having previously served as the head of the political team in Washington, d.c. he replaces Jane coombs, a former new Zealand ambassador to south Korea, who left d.c. in october 2012.

Switzerland daniel hunn will assume the position of deputy chief of mission on aug. 1, 2013, replacing Guillaume scheurer, who is scheduled to depart the post on July 31, 2013.

CZeCH rePuBLIC May 1: labor day May 8: liberation day DeNMArK May 1: Workers’ day May 7: store bededag May 9: ascension May 19: Whit sunday May 20: Whit Monday DJIBouTI May 1: labor day DoMINICA May 1: May day May 19: Whit sunday May 20: Whit Monday DoMINICAN rePuBLIC May 1: labor day eAST TIMor May 1: labor day May 20: independence day eCuADor May 1: labor day May 24: anniversary of the battle of Pichincha eL SALvADor May 1: labor day eQuATorIAL GuINeA May 1: May day May 25: africa day

May 2013

euroPeAN uNIoN May 9: soloman day

of Peoples of Kazakhstan May 9: Victory day

MoZAMBIQue May 1: Workers’ day

fINLAND May 1: May day

KeNYA May 1: labor day

frANCe May 1: labor day May 8: Victory day of 1945 May 9: ascension May 19: Pentecost May 20: Pentecost Monday

KYrGYZSTAN May 5: constitution day May 9: WWii Victory day

NAMIBIA May 1: Workers’ day May 4: cassinga day May 9: ascension May 25: africa day

GABoN May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 20: Pentecost Monday May 26: Mother’s day GAMBIA May 1: labor day GeorGIA May 26: independence day GerMANY May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 20: Whit Monday GHANA May 1: May day GreeCe May 1: labor day GreNADA May 20: Whit Monday GuATeMALA May 1: labor day GuYANA May 1: labor day May 5: indian heritage day May 26: independence day HoNDurAS May 1: labor day HuNGArY May 1: labor day May 20: Whit Monday ICeLAND May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 19: Whit sunday May 20: Whit Monday

LAoS May 1: labor day LATvIA May 1: labor day May 4: declaration of independence LeBANoN May 1: labor day May 6: Martyrs’ day May 25: liberation of the south LeSoTHo May 1: Workers’ day May 9: ascension May 25: africa day/ heroes’ day LIeCHTeNSTeIN May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 20: Pentecost Monday LITHuANIA May 1: labor day LuXeMBourG May 1: May day May 19: ascension May 20: Whit Monday MACeDoNIA May 1-2: labor day MADAGASCAr May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 20: Pentecost Monday May 25: africa day

NeTHerLANDS May 5: liberation day May 9: ascension May 20: Whit Monday NICArAGuA May 1: labor day NIGer May 1: labor day NIGerIA May 1: Worker’s day May 27: children’s day NorwAY May 1: May day May 9: ascension May 17: national day May 19: Whit sunday May 20: Whit Monday PALAu May 5: senior citizen’s day PANAMA May 1: labor day PArAGuAY May 1: labor day May 15: independence day Peru May 1: labor day PHILIPPINeS May 1: labor day PoLAND May 1: labor day May 3: constitution day

MALAwI May 1: labor day

PorTuGAL May 1: labor day

MALAYSIA May 1: labor day

roMANIA May 1: labor day

MALI May 25: africa day

ruSSIA May 1-2: spring and labor day May 9: Victory day

MALTA May 1: labor day

rwANDA May 1: labor day

INDoNeSIA May 9: ascension

MArSHALL ISLANDS May 1: constitution day

IreLAND May 6: May day

MAurITANIA May 1: labor day May 25: africa day

ST. KITTS and NevIS May 1: May day May 20: Whit Monday

MAurITIuS May 1: labor day

ST. LuCIA May 1: labor day

MeXICo May 1: labor day May 5: cinco de Mayo

ST. vINCeNT and THe GreNADINeS May 1: labor day May 20: Whit Monday

ISrAeL May 14-16: shavuot ITALY May 1: May day JAMAICA May 24: labor day

erITreA May 24: liberation day

JAPAN May 3: constitution Memorial day May 4: national holiday May 5: children’s day

eSToNIA May 1: spring day May 19: Pentecost

JorDAN May 25: independence day

eTHIoPIA May 28: national day

KAZAKHSTAN May 1: day of Unity

MICroNeSIA May 10: constitution day MoLDovA May 1: labor day May 9: Victory day

SeNeGAL May 1: labor day May 9: ascension May 19: Whit sunday May 20: Whit Monday

MoNTeNeGro May 21: independence day

SerBIA May 1-2: labor day May 9: Victory day

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Asia of Hawaii form a diamond to safeguard the maritime commons stretching from the Indian Ocean region to the western Pacific.” Moreover, he is “prepared to invest, to the greatest possible extent, Japan’s capabilities in this security diamond.” “It’s still very early,” said Snyder of the CFR, “but there is an emerging sense of the relationship with China and Japan being of a zero-sum nature.” In contrast, Park’s approach to China has been one of building bridges, not security diamonds. As part of the South Korean president’s strategy of “trustpolitik” — building relations based on trust — her transition team sent its first special envoy to Beijing on Jan. 22, laying the groundwork for future cooperation with the economic giant, which happens to be South Korea’s top trading partner.

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policies of her predecessor, such as offering food The United States must navigate these leaderaid and other basic assistance to the hermit king- ship transitions while implementing its highly ~Human Development dom. touted “pivot” in foreign policy away from the Social But that policy has been put on(Indicators, indefinite Middle EastEntrepreand toward the Asia-Pacific, a center hold in the wake of the North’s recent belligerof global commerce. neurship) ~ ence, which has pushed the region to the brink But can the United States count on its two of war. Park has been quick to respond, warning biggest allies to shore up its new regional stratPyongyang of swift retribution for anyInstitutional attack and egy,Development or will squabbling & and festering grievances conducting military exercises with the United between Japan and South Civil Society (Transparency) ~ Korea hamstring States in a joint show of force. Washington’s ability to tackle challenges in Economic Japan, too, has stepped up its defenses in the North Korea and China? area to gird itself a possible North Korean missile In early January 2013, a high-powered delegalaunch. Interestingly, though, Abe’s moves to bol- tion of(Resource officials from the White House, Pentagon Development ster Japan’s military presence in the region have and State Department visited Seoul and Tokyo ~ Political been greeted with suspicion by SouthManagement) Korea and after their respective elections. Prior to the trip, other neighbors weary of Tokyo’s World War II State&Department Participation Civic spokeswoman Victoria Nuland legacy of domination. stated, “We want to see the new Japanese govOn that note, Park and Abe aren’t the only ernment, the new South Korean government, all Engagement (Strategy, new leaders in town. With North Korea’s young of the countries Orgain Northeast Asia working new dictator Kim Jong-un trying tonizing, prove hisElections) together ~ andMonitoring solving any outstanding issues,

limited options to get its two closest partners in the region working less rancorously together. “All the U.S. can do is encourage Japan and Korea to try to move past their disputes,” cautioned Stewart.“A rising China can’t really change that.” Talha Aquil is a freelance writer in Toronto, Canada. Anna Gawel is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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SLoveNIA May 1-2: labor day

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