September 2011

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LIVING L U X U R Y

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Q September 2011

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■ VOLUME 18, NUMBER 9 UNITED STATES

■ SEPTEMBER 2011

CANADA

America’s War Against Terrorism Evolves Decade After 9/11 A decade after the 9/11 attacks pierced America’s sense of security, the counterterrorism fight isn’t over — but the Bush administration’s war on terror is, as President Obama crafts his own strategy for keeping America safe from terrorists. PAGE 8

EUROPE

Hate-Fueled Carnage Shatters Norway’s Peace, Tests Tolerance Three years ago, Norwegian Ambassador Wegger Christian Strommen told us that his tolerant country had largely escaped the wave of Islamic xenophobia sweeping Europe. But on July 22, Norway wasn’t unable to escape the hate of one man. PAGE 15

culture

Ten years ago, the sleepy Canadian town of Gander took in thousands of American passengers stranded in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — an act of hospitality that endures as a symbol of the quietly powerful bonds, emotional and economic, between the United States and its neighbor to the north. PAGE 17

UNSPOKEN BONDS PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

DIPLOMAT EXCLUSIVE

Kucinich: Liberal Rarity in Congress

Burma’s DCM Defects, Infuriating Regime

Unapologetically anti-war and unabashedly liberal, Rep. Dennis Kucinich hasn’t mellowed much in the decade since he tried to warn America about going to war in Iraq. PAGE 6

Embassies Offer Taste Of Culture with Cuisine Washington’s melting pot of embassies are using food to spice up traditional public diplomacy. PAGE 50

Kyaw Win, ex-DCM of Burma’s Embassy, has traded his plush diplomatic digs for a sparse suburban apartment after defecting from the regime he served for 31 years. PAGE 11

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September 2011

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September 2011

CONTENTS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

11 Protests at Burmese Embassy

8

21

27

[ education ]

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 39

COVER: Photo taken at the Embassy of Canada by Lawrence Ruggeri.

TESTING

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43

CULTURE Félix Ángel has been a bit of a godsend for the InterAmerican Development Bank’s Cultural Center, crafting one of the most innovative art programs in town.

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MUSIC Jerome Barry and his wife share a love of music that has nurtured the Embassy Series through 18 seasons.

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DINING Mike Isabella puts his star appeal as a “Top Chef” finalist and his down-home New Jersey roots to good use in his first restaurant, Graffiato.

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FILM REVIEWS “Silent Souls” takes patience, like watching paint dry, but in the end you’re rewarded with a visual masterpiece.

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CINEMA LISTING

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EVENTS LISTING

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DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

LEARNSERVE EGYPT

67

WORLD HOLIDAYS / APPOINTMENTS

An exchange program to promote young entrepreneurship in Egypt took on a whole new relevance after the revolution that laid bare the need for those entrepreneurs.

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CLASSIFIEDS

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REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS

In the Washington area, overachievement is the new average, but has today’s culture of standardized testing gone over the top, failing students and schools alike?

COVER PROFILE: CANADA Canada quietly offered safe haven for stranded U.S. passengers on 9/11, a reflection of the low-key but highly crucial role America’s northern neighbor plays.

MEMORIALS

FOOD Embassies are turning up the heat on traditional public diplomacy efforts by offering people something they can’t resist: food.

While 150 years have passed since the start of the Civil War, many of America’s military heroes can still be seen riding among the foreign missions of Embassy Row.

POLITICS As the Arab Spring turns to fall, uncertainty and upheaval still permeate the region, but four Gulf states have remained surprising oases of relative calm.

17

NEIGHBORHOODS From being a home for 19th-century federal workers to a hub for 21st-century entertainment, Penn Quarter has reclaimed its place as the thriving heart of D.C.

DIPLOMACY

After a murderous rampage that took 77 lives, Norway may have lost its innocence, but its ambassador says it will not lose the values upon which his tolerant nation was built.

50

[ luxury living ] 32

15

[ culture ]

MEDICAL Ophthalmologists have borrowed a strategy from cancer researchers to fight a type of age-related macular degeneration that’s the leading cause of blindness in the U.S.

In an exclusive interview, Kyaw Win — until recently Burma’s second-highest ranking official in the U.S. — talks about defecting from the military regime he served for 31 years.

13

Culinary diplomacy

DIPLOMACY Pristine wilderness and Sarah Palin may come to mind when one thinks of Alaska, but for 39 ambassadors, America’s last frontier just got a little closer and a lot clearer.

DEFENSE A decade after the 9/11 attacks, the Obama administration has refocused and redefined the country’s counterterrorism fight, from all-out war to targeted assaults.

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE An unapologetically anti-war liberal stalwart, and a rarity on Capitol Hill these days, Rep. Dennis Kucinich hasn’t mellowed much in the decade since he presciently decimated the case for going to war in Iraq.

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39 Standardized testing

[ news ] 6

September 2011

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 Rachael Bade, Raymond Barrett Michael Coleman, Jacob Comenetz, Rachel Hunt, Stephanie Kanowitz, Luke Jerod Kummer, Ky N. Nguyen, Gail Scott, Gina Shaw, Gary Tischler, David Tobenkin Photographer Jessica Latos Director of Sales Ben Porter Account Managers David Garber, Christina Langer, Chris Smith 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 $29 for 12 issues and $49 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.

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September 2011

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PEOPLE OF WORLD INFLUENCE

Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Antiwar Liberal Congressman Says U.S. Needs to Rebuild Home Front

by Michael Coleman

R

ep. Dennis Kucinich tried to warn America. A few months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the famously liberal Ohio Democrat assessed the Iraqi threat in a detailed, five-page, pointby-point memo. In it, Kucinich effectively decimated the argument for going to war.

“There is no credible evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction,” Kucinich wrote in his October 2002 white paper. “There is no credible intelligence that connects Iraq to the events of 9/11 or to participation in those events by assisting Al Qaeda.There is no proof that Iraq represents an immediate or imminent threat to the United States.”

The congressman’s view, scoffed at by many in Congress then, is conventional wisdom now. The blunt analysis was vintage Kucinich — informed, unwavering and unapologetically anti-war. The former mayor of Cleveland, one-time presidential candidate and eight-term congressman hasn’t mellowed much in the decade since.

If anything, Kucinich is more of a liberal stalwart than ever. And while he doesn’t serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he stays deeply involved in foreign affairs.

The congressman spoke to The Washington Diplomat less than a month after he arranged a controversial freelance trip to Syria to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government has killed an estimated 2,200 protestors in recent months, as of press time.

“I did not come to Congress to do this [foreign affairs],” Kucinich told The Diplomat during a lengthy interview in his spacious but spartan congressional office across the street from the U.S. Capitol.“But through my presence here, I’d see the debates in which matters of war and peace were discussed. I came to an understanding that war is not inevitable. People make war inevitable through their decisions, but war is not inevitable.”

During the interview,Kucinich explained his views on a range of subjects from U.S. involvement in air strikes against the Libyan government to his controversial decision to meet with Syria’s Assad to America’s declining economic status and his view that NATO should be dissolved.

At the outset of the interview, before delving into foreign policy issues, we asked Kucinich about his own political future, which has become uncertain in light of congressional redistricting under way in Ohio. Kucinich said he believes his Cleveland-based seat will be eliminated, so he’s looking for a political home outside the state. Several news reports have said the congressman is mulling a possible run in the state of Washington, but Kucinich

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wouldn’t confirm that.

“Ohio’s going to lose two seats and mine’s going to be one of them,” he said.

“Based on that, I’m considering other options. I haven’t made a decision but I’m looking at options beyond Ohio. I’d like to stay in Congress.”

At a time when Tea Party conservatism has dominated the national agenda and specifically the House of Representatives, Kucinich represents the complete opposite end of the political spectrum.

Kucinich, who’s held jobs as a hospital orderly, newspaper copy boy, teacher and television analyst, proudly wears his liberalism on his sleeve. He’s authored and cosponsored legislation to create a national health care system, lower the costs of prescription drugs, boost economic development through infrastructure improvements, provide universal prekindergarten to all 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds, offer tax relief to working families, repeal the Patriot Act, abolish the death penalty, and even create a Department of Peace.

He’s long advocated against expensive conflicts and for refocusing resources back toward Americans. As such, it’s little sur-

“

The real power in the world today isn’t based on the strength of your bombs. It’s based on the strength of your bonds.

— REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OHIO) prise that Kucinich views U.S. involvement in Libya as ill-advised, going so far as to say it could even be grounds for articles of impeachment against President Obama.

The congressman cited Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which says only Congress has the authority to declare war, not the president. Obama is hardly the first commander in chief to initiate military conflicts without congressional approval, but Kucinich said, technically, Obama is in violation of the constitution.

“The president exceeded his authority and that’s not really debatable,” he said.

Kucinich argues that a political solution is always preferable to a military one, and he contends that U.S. officials (he singled out U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz) dramatically overstated the death and destruction in Libya to build credibility

”

prior to the launching of air strikes. Cretz said at the time that estimates of the overall death toll in Libya if the government attacks rebel-held areas could exceed 30,000 — a number that Kucinich said was wildly inflated and helped to justify the NATO bombing campaign that has stretched on for six months.

Kucinich had in fact proposed legislation to withdraw U.S. military support from the Libya mission, though the bill was scrapped by the Republican House leadership. Speaking two weeks before rebel forces entered Tripoli in mid-August, Kucinich was insistent on an immediate ceasefire to “bring the parties together to enable a non-violent transition that would cause unity in Tripoli.”

“People know each other — this is a country of just more than 6 million people,”

he added, urging political reconciliation and arguing that the NATO bombing had prevented a settlement from being reached earlier.

Yet there might not have been much to settle between Col. Muammar Qaddafi and the rebel forces fighting to dislodge the mercurial ruler after nearly 42 years in power.And as much as NATO took heat for inserting itself into what essentially became a civil war, reworking its original mandate from protecting civilians to ousting Qaddafi, the temperature quickly changed when rebels finally broke the stalemate and marched into Tripoli, signaling — as of press time — the collapse of one of the world’s longest dictatorships.

Kucinich maintains his position, writing recently that the battle for Tripoli offers a time to “review the curious role of NATO and the future of U.S. interventionism.”

“A negotiated settlement in Libya was deliberately avoided for months while NATO, in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973, illegally pursued regime change. NATO chose sides, intervened in a civil war and morphed into the air force for the rebels, who could not

September 2011

have succeeded but for NATO’s attacks,” Kucinich argued.

And despite whatever successes the NATO operation in Libya achieved, Kucinich adamantly believes that on the whole, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has “outlived its usefulness.”“NATO should be dismantled,” he said matter-of-factly.“The purpose for which NATO was created is gone. The Cold War is over. Only the geographically challenged could argue for NATO’s position on the Chinese border of Afghanistan.

“NATO winds up being an arms bazaar that drains the money of nations for arms that they need for domestic matters,” Kucinich added.

Kucinich even argued that the war in Libya “could well finish NATO as a viable institution.”

“Look what they have done,” he said.“They violated the U.N. mandate when they took the side of the rebels in the [Libyan] civil war, they’ve killed a lot of innocent people, they’ve destroyed civilian infrastructure. NATO commanders should be investigated for war crimes.”

At this point in the interview, Kucinich popped up from his chair and began to rifle through cardboard boxes lined across the floor in the corner of his office. There’s a neatly organized box labeled “Libya,” chock full of files and papers. There’s another one for Afghanistan, and another for Pakistan. He grabbed a stack of oversize cardboard maps resting against a wall and points out his own notes on the location of oil and other natural resources around the world. Kucinich said it’s no coincidence that the fiercest fighting in Libya is near Benghazi, where the most substantial oil reserves are.

“Hello!” he exclaimed.

Kucinich, often dismissed in mainstream political circles as a fringe politician, seems intent on proving that he does his homework — and he makes a compelling case.

“I go very deep into these issues,” he explained.

“I don’t do anything off the cuff. I take a lot of time and study in great depths.”

He said the meticulous research is based on his belief that what the government presents to people as rationale for conflict is usually not the full story.

“It’s through this kind of understanding that I led the effort in challenging the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan [although Kucinich voted for the initial U.S. strikes on terrorist camps there], the war in Libya, the war in Pakistan, and the lack of an evenhanded approach in the Middle East,” he said.

“In each case, I went deeply into the internal dynamics of the conflict and went to the period prior to the conflict to see at what point war became inevitable. Were people misled as to a cause of war, were people misled as to the purpose of the war or the United States’s intentions?

“What I discovered more often than not is that the public has not been told about the nature of our interventions.”

The congressman said America simply cannot continue to act as the world’s policeman, nor should it do so.

“The U.S. has military bases around the world,” he said. “We can’t afford them and we have to come home.”

In fact, the Defense Department has a presence in nearly 50 countries spread out over more than 800 locations overseas. The area it manages both abroad and within the United States — interestingly — is about the size of Ohio, Kucinich’s home state.

“We have every right to defend ourselves, but we can’t be a global cop. We have an obligation to the American people to have a strong defense without overextending ourselves,” Kucinich told us.

He said diplomacy, not military might, is the weapon of the future, although at the moment, federal spending on international affairs averages about $50 billion a year, while defense spending consumes roughly $700 billion a year.

“There is no military solution,” he asserted.

“Increasingly in world affairs, military solutions are

September 2011

false solutions.The world has changed dramatically from the time when diplomacy came at the barrel of a gun.”

He also challenged Americans who believe that the United States must expend its resources to maintain its status as the world’s only superpower.

“We don’t need to be at the apex of the world community,” he said. “I don’t see the model as a triangle where we’re at the apex. If you’re really strong, why do you have to keep telling people you’re strong? There is no question about our strength. I’d like to see America strong economically. I’d like to see us have a full employment economy.”

He pointed to Russia at the end of the Cold War as proof that nations that try to maintain their military dominance over the rest of the world are destined for failure.

“Russia understood that it could not keep up its military interventions within its sphere,” Kucinich said. “What did that lead to? It moved toward Perestroika and Glasnost [the liquidation of the Soviet Union] because they couldn’t keep up.”

Speaking just a week or so before Standard & Poor’s downgraded America’s credit rating and the U.S. stock market plunged to depths not seen since 2008, Kucinich said American leaders should reassess their priorities.

“The real power in the world today isn’t based on the strength of your bombs. It’s based on the strength of your bonds,” Kucinich said.“It is based on the internal financial security of the nation, of its strength in the world economy, the power of its currency, its power to invest wisely, its ability to have all people benefit from the economy — that’s where the strength is.”

Kucinich also argues that America’s one-sided approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has sapped its influence and moral authority in the region. He said he supports Palestine’s unilateral bid for statehood at the United Nations as a natural response to unilateral moves by Israel to build on Palestinian territory, even though critics say the issue can only be resolved through bilateral negotiations.

“They ought to be admitted to the U.N.,” Kucinich declared.“There really ought to be a solution that enables the Palestinians to have a state of their own. It’s become very complicated because of facts on the ground that include lines that are redrawn, houses that are demolished, and fences that are put up.

“I support Israel’s right to survive and thrive and be peaceful and be free from attack, and I would not support any effort to try to endanger the physical security of Israel,” the congressman continued.“But there comes a time when we have to realize that Israel has policies that are counterproductive to its own security. The building of more settlements has been counterproductive.

The holiday attack on Gaza a couple of years ago is counterproductive. Instead of telling people in the Palestinian territories who their government should be, Israel should be trying to make peace with those who would wish Israel harm, and those who wish Israel harm must be ready to put down any thoughts of aggression.”

Kucinich said he has been to the Middle East several times and has a “great deal of concern and sympathy for the way the Israelis see the world.”

But he said it’s not America’s place to take sides.

“When your brothers and sisters are killing each other, it’s not for us to take the side of one brother against another, but to sit with both of them and help heal the breach. We have to be healers of the breach,” he said.

Kucinich’s steadfast belief in universal human rights and justice has oftentimes but him at loggerheads with traditional U.S. policy. For example, he requested an investigation into the role of the Bush administration in the April 2002 coup against Venezuela’s firebrand anti-American president, Hugo Chávez. He’s called for a more balanced U.S. approach to Kosovo that takes Serbian concerns into account.And he’s actively fought to end funding for the School of the Americas, now the

Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, arguing that graduates of the U.S. military education facility have committed numerous human rights violations across Latin America.

Syria represents the congressman’s latest challenge to conventional U.S. thinking. Kucinich said he has no regrets about meeting with President Assad, despite vehement criticism from his colleagues and even a blistering editorial from the Washington Post, which is often sympathetic to Kucinich’s worldview.

“The hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have risked their lives to take to the streets since March are not seeking reforms from Mr. Assad — they are demanding the end of his regime,” the Post’s editorial board wrote in June.“The idea that, having slaughtered so many of his people, Mr. Assad would agree to a political transition that would allow Syrians to vote for or against his ruling party — which is dominated by a minority ethnic group — is absurd. That’s why the only people who take the regime’s rhetoric seriously are those who wish to defend it, who excuse its horrendous crimes and who oppose genuine democracy in Syria. Mr. Kucinich has just made himself one of the more conspicuous members of that camp.”

Kucinich’s position — much like President Obama’s earlier position on Iran — is that communication never hurts. However, Obama has issued sanctions against Assad’s regime (as well as Iran’s), effectively prohibiting any business dealings between anyone in the United States and Assad and top members of his government. As the violence continues unabated, calls for greater action against Damascus have been growing.

Kucinich insists the United States, which is already mired in three military conflicts, must be cautious and consider the consequences if Assad falls.

“Syria could be a flashpoint for a much broader war and the disintegration of the region into sectarian violence,” Kucinich warned. “Sectarian violence is not in the interest of the Assad regime.

Violence in Syria has the ability to grow into broader violence in the region. That’s why I went there with the understanding of the centrality of Syria and to try to provide some stability.”

At the same time, Kucinich didn’t dismiss Assad’s brutality.

“There have been human rights violations,” he said.“It’s not acceptable and deserves the condemnation of the world. The Syrian nation has to change that. But it does not follow that if there is a violent overthrow of the government that your [new] government has a guarantee of human rights.”

Kucinich said he urged Assad to take a new approach to a multiparty political system and pull back security at major demonstrations. He also said the visit allowed him to voice “my concern and support efforts toward reform.”

“I also met people and to make an assessment of exactly what the situation is and how it relates to Turkey and Iraq.”

Kucinich said there is no harm in talking to leaders of nations who aren’t necessarily allies of the United States.

“I reject a cartoon version of world events, of good guys and bad guys,” he said.“We have to really talk to people in order to know what’s going on and to see for ourselves. It’s when we leave people in isolation that we create problems. That’s true in personal relationships and it’s true in relationships between nations.You have to talk to people — that shouldn’t be a radical notion.”

Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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DEFENSE

United States

Decade After 9/11, Taking Stock Of America’s Terrorism Strategy

by Luke Jerod Kummer and Anna Gawel or years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, many people said there wasn’t a day that went by when they weren’t haunted by those images now seared into our collective memory of planes tearing down America’s sense of security. And for so long it seemed that every bit of news was related in some way to a new threat level, a foiled plot, a strike somewhere overseas, or another victim’s poignant story revealed, or their remains identified.

F

Of course, for all the people who lost someone, the reminders were much more tangible and horrific, and will last a lifetime.

And yet, much like Pearl Harbor before it, people have managed to heal this wound more than they might have ever imagined possible.They were asked to go on with their lives but to never forget, and eventually, for the most part, that’s what they did.

But when the 10-year anniversary of that fateful day arrives this month, there is sure to be an outpouring of reflection, and each of us will recall the unforgettable once again — the sudden cascade of emotions and thoughts that hit us when we learned what was happening. Quickly, here’s mine: I remember being on my college campus and watching on TV the second World Trade Center twin tower get swallowed by white plume like some magician’s colossal and cruel disappearing act, and, then about an hour later, it hit me that I guess I was going to be drafted.

While the 1970s-era policy to end conscription was — for good or bad — not revoked, soon enough more than 200,000 Americans were engulfed in two major conflicts overseas in the name of fighting a “global war on terror.”

Barack Obama was just an Illinois state senator at the time. On the day that President George W. Bush authorized an invasion of Iraq in October of 2002, Obama delivered a speech at the Federal Plaza in Chicago.

“I don’t oppose all wars,” he said. “After September 11, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration’s pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again.”

But the charismatic politician who was already attracting outsize attention for the modest office he held said that he strongly opposed the impending showdown with Saddam Hussein.“I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences,” he warned.

“You want a fight, President Bush?” Obama asked the crowd of protesters. “Let’s finish the fight with bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shut-

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ting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.”

That rhetoric was an early indicator of a fundamental shift in vision that would take place just several years later in how this country fights and views terrorist threats.

The Bush administration’s counterterrorism response to Sept. 11, 2001, was all-out war.Two U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq ensued, while the security landscape back home was upended as Americans found themselves in a state of constant vigilance.

The federal government embarked on an unprecedented expansion, as did the Pentagon’s coffers, and the global war on terror framed U.S. foreign policy as the money flowed freely during an economic boom that even saw a period of widespread tax cuts, contrary to all other major military interventions in the past.

At the time though, the economy was roaring and not many people paid much heed to PHOTO: MSGT. ROBERT HARGREAVES JR., USAF

“

I think what you’ve seen over time from the second term of the Bush administration and into the Obama administration is an increasingly focused approach on specific terrorism organizations and especially al-Qaeda….

— STEPHEN WALT professor of international affairs at Harvard University

one of al-Qaeda’s stated goals of 9/11 — to bleed the United States “to the point of bankruptcy,” as Osama bin Laden himself put it (it’s estimated the terrorist group spent as little as $400,000 to finance the attacks).

But then, the money did run dry — and people began rethinking the costs of waging a global war. Obama’s presidential victory heralded a new approach to how the United States thinks about terrorism, a strategy that deserves inspection as the country marks the 10th anniversary this month of a defining moment in its history.

COSTS OF CONFLICT Up until 2001, experts agree that terrorism was mostly fought on the law enforcement

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front, but America’s military and intelligence networks took over shortly after the attacks.

The launching of what Bush’s team termed a war on terrorism changed both the way the battles would be fought and also the scale of adversaries by pitting the world’s most powerful armed forces against a loosely defined enemy that could be a lone-wolf jihadist with a poisonous biological powder or a battlehardened dictator with his finger on Scud missiles.

“All terrorists with global reach was the way the president put it, and so they also wanted to target any governments that they thought might be either helping terrorists or not doing enough to deal with the terrorist problem,” said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University’s

From left, U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Ken Whelchel and Staff Sergeants Beth Roe, Sally Davis and Tracy Willen hold the U.S. flag during a 2003 ceremony to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attacks at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.

Kennedy School of Government and a writer for Foreign Policy magazine. “The whole socalled Bush doctrine, in a sense, had a lot to do with threatening other countries with dire consequences if they didn’t get on board with the American counterterrorist campaign.”

He added: “One consequence of that was the whole invasion of Iraq, which was very much framed as an anti-terrorism activity.

Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda in various ways by the administration and the justification of course was that we can’t allow any possible marriage between terrorists and weapons of mass destruction.”

That huge undertaking was what counterterrorism meant in the years immediately after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans: Anybody, anywhere who means America ill and might be able to do something about it, or any state that might abet anyone with such intentions, would meet the September 2011

full force of U.S. military power. As early as 2002, there were reports the Defense Department was seeking to create mini-nukes that could dislodge underground bunkers where terrorists were believed to be hiding.After the United States went to war with Iraq in 2003, there were many neoconservative proponents for extending the military campaign into other nations designated as state sponsors of terror, such as Iraq’s neighbors, Syria and Iran.

This zeal for regime change underpinned by grander visions of installing democracy throughout the Middle East as a hedge against Islamicinspired terrorism may seem like overreach now, but it’s important to remember that such ambitions were propelled by easy victories in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that galvanized American confidence.

The Taliban in Afghanistan fell about as effortlessly as Saddam Hussein’s iconic statue in Baghdad was toppled by cheering Iraqis. It seems almost just as quickly though, those scenes of “mission accomplished” devolved into full-scale nation-building campaigns whose real outcomes, even a decade later, remain dubious at best.

By most indications, the Bush administration never anticipated the depths of the conflicts it had plunged into. In the 10 years since U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan to root out al-Qaeda — surpassing Vietnam recently to become the longest war the nation has ever fought — Congress has allotted at least $1.4 trillion through the fiscal 2012 year for both Iraq and Afghanistan, although many experts estimate the two wars may ultimately cost around $3 trillion, or even more depending on the definition of what constitutes a “war-related cost.”According to the “Costs of War” research project by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, which took into account factors such as veterans’ longterm medical care and interest paid on the deficit spending used to finance the conflicts, the final tab could run at least $3.7 trillion and as high as $4.4 trillion.

In addition to treasure, America’s proverbial blood has been spilled over a decade of fighting.

More than 4,400 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq since 2003, and another 1,700 have died in Afghanistan. Casualty figures for the other side vary wildly since no accurate counts have ever been kept, but the Costs of War report estimates that a quarter of a million people have died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, including possibly 125,000 civilians in Iraq, while millions more — 7.8 million according to the project — have been displaced, roughly the size of Connecticut and Kentucky fleeing their homes. Earlier studies had put the loss of life in the hundreds of thousands, albeit using much broader definitions of war-related deaths that are hard to statistically verify — and indeed, in the end we may never know who really perished in both wars.

Geopolitically, the ouster of Saddam Hussein, who’d served as a check on Iranian hegemony, gave Tehran an opening to reassert its influence in the region, and critics of the Iraq war say it may have even spurred the Iranian government to accelerate its nuclear program in response to a possible impending attack by the Bush administration, which famously labeled Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, on its “axis of evil.” On the flip side, many of Bush’s supporters credit his unwavering focus on democracy promotion for in part inspiring the historic revolutions and protests now under way in the Arab Spring.

ECONOMIC REALITY REARS ITS HEAD Yet over the years, despite the enormous human, financial and geopolitical repercussions of the Afghan and Iraq wars, the hard truth is that most Americans — never as concerned with foreign policy as they are with domestic issues — weren’t heavily invested in either overseas conflict. But after the recession struck in 2008, questions over financing a global war on terrorism began firmly creeping into the national dialogue and would inevitably force, or at least guide, Obama’s hand.

Cash-strapped Americans are simply not as willing to stomach spending more than $100 September 2011

billion a year in Afghanistan — which had a gross domestic product of about $27 billion in 2010, 97 percent of which came from foreign military and development funds — when schools and police forces in the United States are struggling against deep budget cuts, and millions of workers are unable to find jobs.

These economic constraints have exposed what is perhaps the sharpest divide between the Bush and Obama post-9/11 mindset — for the former, American power was projected abroad, for the latter, strength begins at home.

Shortly after assuming office, Obama fulfilled his campaign pledge of shifting resources away from the “dumb war” in Iraq and toward what he viewed as the real threat in Afghanistan. Yet despite the president’s 2009 surge of 33,000 troops into Afghanistan, the war effort there will also inevitably wind down as Obama seeks to extricate U.S. forces from both unpopular wars.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that concluding the two wars would shave a substantial $1.4 trillion from the U.S. deficit over the next decade.

Some of the additional surge troops in Afghanistan were already being pulled back this summer, with the remainder scheduled to be home by summer 2012. In announcing the drawdown in a June televised address, Obama said the country must shift its attention from the war front back to the home front.

“Over the last decade, we have spent $1 trillion on war, at a time of rising debt and hard economic times,” he said, declaring,“America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home.”

To that end, Obama is unlikely to mire an overstretched U.S. military in yet another conflict — a posture most recently evidenced in Libya, where even though the U.S. has supported the NATO coalition to topple Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the president has adamantly refused to put American boots on the ground in a third Muslim nation. More important, the caution Obama has shown toward Libya reflects his larger strategy to force other allies to shoulder the responsibilities of military intervention — building an international coalition of the willing that includes major powers actually willing to make hard sacrifices.

Even in Syria, the administration hesitated for weeks to openly call for President Bashar Al-Assad to step down despite his violent crackdown on protesters, on the stated premise that it was better to first secure the backing of key allies in the region. “It’s not just brute force, it’s not just unilateralism. It’s being smart enough to say, ‘You know what? We want a bunch of people singing out of the same hymn book,’” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a joint forum with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta days before Obama finally called for the Syrian president to resign amid growing global outrage.

Supporters of the administration cite the recent breakthrough by Libya’s rebels into Tripoli as proof that Obama’s strategy of patiently pushing for regime change alongside international partners was bearing fruit.

“I think this is a tremendous achievement,” James Steinberg, the recently departed deputy secretary of state, told Michael Hirsh of the National Journal. “People aren’t saying the Americans are trying to do regime change.

Whether in Tunisia or Libya or Egypt, we are seen as supportive of others. It’s an obvious contrast with the previous administration…. And the fact that tyrants are not able to rally their people against us shows the nuance and skill of this.”

RESTORING STRENGTH, OR RETRENCHING? Yet Obama’s uneven response to Libya, Syria and some say the Arab Spring in general has led to charges of “leading from behind” — coined by a member of his own administration — as critics accuse him of half-heartedly pursuing U.S. objectives overseas and shirking America’s pre-eminence on the world stage at a time when emerging powers are competing for influence.“We cannot neglect or defer international issues in

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Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 9

Continued from previous page favor of domestic matters. Our well-being depends not only on political and economic conditions at home, but also those overseas,” Michael Singh of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote in Foreign Policy online, arguing that “our economic health is the foundation of our national security” and “our willingness to (wisely) exercise leadership overseas, shoulder global responsibilities, and shape rather than passively accept the international order reinforces our own economic prosperity and vibrancy.”

“For decades we have understood this and sought to promote political and economic liberty abroad even while dealing with crises at home,” he wrote.“Should we now set aside these burdens and turn inward, it will be not only to the world’s detriment, but our own.”

Yet others counter that those burdens have already been to our detriment, and leading from behind could ultimately put us out in front. In “Three Cheers for Decline,” Charles Kenny of the Center for Global Development argues that reviving America’s fiscal health and leadership in areas such as climate change and education would go a long way toward restoring its exceptionalism abroad — based not just on military might, but on the values that helped the United States trump communist ideology during the Cold War. “Perhaps Washington could take a baby step or two toward scaling back its global commitments by returning the defense budget to its Reagan-era average, a move that would save about $250 billion a year. Surely what was good enough for a world riven by the Cold War, when … we lived in constant threat of global thermonuclear Armageddon, is also good enough for the United States today — at a time when al-Qaeda apparently has fewer than 100 fighters left in Afghanistan,” Kenny wrote, noting that even with $250 billion less, the United States would still outspend China about four times over.

“Defense cuts would allow the United States to tend to a few other priorities, which just might take Americans’ minds off the fact that their country is no longer No. 1. Perhaps the United States could focus on constructing a high-speed rail line or two, or maybe even finish the job on extending health care.”

Moreover, experts such as Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations have argued that refocusing on domestic priorities doesn’t mean the United States would abandon its international responsibilities, as the CFR president wrote in Time magazine. “My term for such a doctrine is restoration: a U.S. foreign policy based on restoring this country’s strength and replenishing its resources — economic, human and physical. Restoration is not isolationism,” he wrote.“Restoration is very different.The U.S. would continue to carry out an active foreign policy…. But under a doctrine of restoration,

there would be fewer wars of choice — armed interventions when either the interests at stake are less than vital or when there are alternative policies that appear viable. Recent wars of choice include Vietnam, the second Iraq war and the current Libyan intervention.

There would, however, continue to be wars of necessity, which involve vital interests when no alternatives to using military force exist.”

Others argue that the United States has to be wary about launching any military intervention, whether in Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan or Iraq. “Different as these operations have been, they have all saddled the United States with the unwanted, protracted, expensive, and frustrating task of nation-building,” wrote Michael Mandelbaum in the Foreign Affairs article “America’s Coming Retrenchment,” citing three drawbacks to nation-building endeavors.

“First, it is not popular with the American people, who are willing to pay to defend themselves but not to govern others, or to help others govern themselves. Second, it has enjoyed modest success at best because neither the United States nor any other country knows how to create working, competent, democratic institutions quickly and cheaply. Third, however successful post-Cold War American nationbuilding has been, it has not contributed much to the well-being or security of the United States.

“Should Afghanistan be appreciably more peaceful and prosperous when American troops leave than it was when they arrived, it will certainly be of great benefit to the people of that country but it will do little for the people of the country from which the troops came,” Mandelbaum wrote, although like Haass, he too argues that paring down military adventures overseas “would still leave the United States with a major global role.”

Regardless of whether Obama is retrenching from or restoring American power, his predecessor’s all-encompassing view of counterterrorism required an incredible amount of resources that was hard to sustain politically, militarily and financially. Moreover, the question remains whether the strategy was commensurate with the actual threat — or did the Bush administration wield a bludgeon to defeat a shadowy, nimble group that may only number a few hundred hard-core fighters?

Perhaps more importantly, many experts surmised that the war on terrorism may even have been counterintuitive, damaging U.S. foreign policy interests as the United States became seen as an occupier in the Muslim world, imposing democracy at the barrel of a gun.

Early on, Bush repeatedly stressed that America was not at war with Islam, a message Obama has sought to convey as well, although Obama’s counterterrorism strategy has more definitively honed in

on al-Qaeda as the primary threat to U.S. security, not nation-states.

“I think what you’ve seen over time from the second term of the Bush administration and into the Obama administration is an increasingly focused approach on specific terrorism organizations and especially al-Qaeda,” Harvard University’s Walt said. “So the idea that the United States is going to go run around the world overthrowing governments and creating pro-American democracies as a way to deal with terrorism — that’s fallen out of favor. Instead, the United States is going to use its intelligence and military capabilities to eliminate as many bad guys as it can.”

TARGET: AL-QAEDA Whether guided by his belief of how to more effectively wage a counterterrorism campaign or simply adapting to current limitations, or some combination of the two, President Obama has redefined America’s approach to terrorism in the 10 years since 9/11, eschewing ground war and regime change for targeted assaults on a core group of enemies.

A good indication of what the Obama administration is thinking going forward can be found in the National Strategy for Counterterrorism that the White House quietly released in June. The document spells out this shift in focus from deploying large armies to “delivering targeted, surgical pressure to the groups that threaten us,” John O. Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism advisor, said in a discussion on the strategy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

In the president’s opening statement of the document, he notes that as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11,“it is a time to mark the progress we have made in our war against al-Qa’ida and to rededicate ourselves to meeting the challenges that remain” — writing that he specifically views those challenges as a “significant terrorist threat from al-Qa’ida, its affiliates, and its adherents.”

The document offers little new information but does cement Obama’s belief that the U.S. must target terrorists, not their mode of fighting. “The United States deliberately uses the word ‘war’ to describe our relentless campaign against al-Qa’ida. However, this Administration has made clear that we are not at war with the tactic of terrorism or the religion of Islam.”

While the term “war on terror” was immediately discarded by Obama, this document seems to show that he’s further winnowed down the counterterrorism emphasis toward exclusively thwarting al-Qaeda and its ability to launch attacks on U.S. soil from peripheral

See TERRORISM, page 68

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The Washington Diplomat

September 2011

DIPLOMACY

United States

Burma’s Kyaw Win Talks About Defecting, Starting Fresh in U.S.

by Larry Luxner

A

s recently as two months ago, Kyaw Win was living in a comfortable single-family home on Wilson Lane in Bethesda, Md., a seven-seat Ford Windstar with diplomatic license plates at his disposal.

Now he inhabits a sparsely furnished, two-bedroom apartment in Gaithersburg, Md., and tools around in a Toyota Corolla.

The apartment, which belongs to a friend, is only temporary, he says, while the 59-year-old Kyaw Win and his immediate family anxiously wait for the State Department to approve their request for political asylum.

He’ll need it. Going back to Burma isn’t exactly the best option, now that Kyaw Win — until recently the country’s second-highest ranking official in the United States — has embarrassed and infuriated the military regime by defecting as a way of protesting its abysmal democracy and human rights record.

“I wanted to send a message to my own government that we need to have a change,” Kyaw Win told The Washington Diplomat in an exclusive interview late one evening as his wife, Khin Win, served tea in traditional ceramic cups.“If we keep going like this, our country will collapse. All our institutions are broken.”

Kyaw Win’s comments to us mark the first time he’s spoken face to face with any journalist since sending a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announcing his defection and asking the United States to protect him from the regime he faithfully served for 31 years — the last three and a half in Washington as deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Myanmar. (The regime changed the country’s name in 1989, but exiles and government opponents — along with many newspapers, including this one — still use Burma.)

In the July 4 letter, Kyaw Win noted the dictatorship’s systematic abuse of the Southeast Asian country’s 52 million inhabitants. He told Clinton that for years, he kept thinking the situation would improve and that gradual reform should come from the inside. But after last November’s election — intended to show the world that the military junta was transitioning to civilian rule but dismissed by most observers as a sham — the diplomat decided he could no longer work for the bosses he had slowly come to despise.

“The truth is that senior military officials are consolidating their grip on power and seeking to stamp out the voices of those seeking democracy, human rights and individual liberties,” his letter said. “Oppression is rising and war against our ethnic cousins is imminent.”

Nine days later, the embassy’s number-four diplomat, first secretary Soe Aung, also quit and applied for asylum — after being warned that he had 24 hours to return to Burma and face an inquiry over Kyaw Win’s defection. Soe Aung later told Voice of America’s Burmese service that two other diplomats had already been called back to Burma and placed under investigation (also see “Summer of Defections for Burma” in the August 2011 online edition of the Diplomatic Pouch).

But Kyaw Win insists the only person he confided in about his defection was his wife. Neither man — both civilian members of the Foreign Service — knew about the September 2011

PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER

“

In our system, the government is run by fear. If you do what you’re told, you will be rewarded. My colleagues used to say, ‘Just enjoy Washington.

Don’t do anything.’

— KYAW WIN

”

former deputy chief of mission at the Burmese Embassy in Washington

other’s plan to defect, even though they’ve been friends for more than 30 years. Nor, says Kyaw Win, did anyone else at the 14-person embassy know.

“I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want them to get in trouble,” he said.“What I’m doing is from my beliefs.After I get political asylum, I’ll need to have a job, but I can’t take responsibility for these other people.”

Kyaw Win is seeking asylum for himself, his wife and their two sons: Arkar, 28, an employee of Montgomery College, and Moewai, 24, a recent university graduate. The couple’s daughter, 31-year-old Zarche, lives in New York and has a green card.

The career diplomat said the decision to defect came just as his tour of duty in the United States was coming to a close and he was due to return home. The week before his scheduled flight back to Rangoon, Kyaw Win quietly began moving his personal effects out of the embassy and into his friend’s apartment, careful not to attract attention from his coworkers.Then he made his announcement.

“For a long time, we were expecting changes in my country. I joined the Foreign Service in 1980, and at that time we had a one-party system.We hoped for change, but it didn’t happen. In 1988, there was an uprising, and we hoped for change then too. We always believed it would come soon. But after the first multiparty elections in 1990,

[the military] never transferred power to the civilians,” he said.“My whole life has been just wasted.”

Kyaw Win and his wife have been married for 34 years.

Both of them have family members back in Shan state, the region of Burma where they were born and raised; in Kyaw Win’s case, he has to think about his mother, three sisters and a younger brother.

“If we talk too much, they can do something to them.

Nobody knows,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s very difficult to harm them physically, but there are so many ways. My sisters are in private business, and it’s not like here. We don’t have any rule of law.”

The former diplomat added: “After we get asylum, we will move to another place, but we’ll stay in Maryland — probably Gaithersburg or Germantown.”

Many of his neighbors in the low-income apartment complex Kyaw Win calls his “temporary home” are also foreigners — mostly immigrants from El Salvador.

Surprisingly, the once-powerful diplomat has no trouble at all communicating with them, thanks to the three years he spent in Madrid back in the 1980s.

“In the Foreign Ministry, nobody spoke Spanish,” he explained, “so somebody thought we should have at least one diplomat who did.”

In the end, Kyaw Win’s bosses never did send him to a Spanish-speaking country. But those language skills proved somewhat useful when the ministry eventually assigned him to Portuguese-speaking Brazil as Burma’s only ambassador in South America. He and his wife ended up spending three years and eight months in Brasília, the capital.

By coincidence, the only other high-ranking U.S.-based diplomat to defect this year, Libyan Ambassador Ali Aujali, also served as his country’s envoy to Brazil. Aujali applied for political asylum after he publicly denounced Col. Muammar Qaddafi but has since been recognized by the State Department as Libya’s sole representative in Washington, where he’s now actively helping rebels over-

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 11

Continued from previous page throw the regime he once worked for.

Besides Brazil, Kyaw Win’s diplomatic career has also taken him to Switzerland, where he represented Burma before the United Nations in Geneva, and to India, where he was in charge of the consular section at Burma’s embassy in New Delhi.

But it was here in Washington where, as deputy chief of mission, he came to realize that the military junta running Burma since 1962 was unlikely to ever change — and that it was time to do something dramatic.Things took a turn for the worse on Aug. 8, 1988 — a date commonly known as 8-8-88 — when police fired on Burmese university students, monks and other civilians taking part in a massive yet peaceful anti-government demonstration. More than 3,000 people were killed in the ensuing violence.

“Before 1988, we used to have an ambassador here and the U.S. had an ambassador there. But after the events of 1988, the U.S. withdrew its ambassador in Rangoon, and since then, you have only a chargé d’affaires,” Kyaw Win explained. “We had an ambassador in Washington until 2004, but when we proposed to replace him, the U.S. didn’t accept his replacement because of his military background.”

If this whole affair sounds like déjà vu, there’s a good reason.

Burma’s last full-fledged ambassador here was Linn Myaing — profiled by The Diplomat in a September 2002 cover story. These days, he’s said to be leading Burma’s efforts to re-engage with Washington with help from high-powered K Street lobbyists, according to the Irrawaddy, an online newspaper covering Burma and Southeast Asia.

Aung Lin Htut, the man who replaced Linn Myaing, defected in April 2005 after only three months as deputy chief of mission. In his letter to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Aung Lin Htut described present-day Myanmar as a “tyranny” and said he and his family “face arrest and possible death” if they were to return to Burma. He requested political asylum for himself, his wife, a son, two

Page 12

The Washington Diplomat

daughters and a sister but was denied because of his military background; nevertheless, Aung Lin Htut was quietly allowed to stay.

In Washington, DCM is the highest posting a non-military official can hold in Burmese embassies. Like Aung Lin Htut, Kyaw Win also feared for his family’s safety, especially given his reports back home recommending that the regime improve bilateral relations with the U.S. and his overtures to pro-democracy activists. As the embassy’s numbertwo man, he became the public face of the regime here, frequently meeting with exiles and often coming out to speak with them during protests.

“When people in the opposition used to demonstrate at the embassy, I talked to them. My view is that we might have different opinions, but all of us want to have a better country,” he said. “Nobody knows exactly what the situation is. We don’t have a free press, and we’re not used to talking officially about this kind of thing.”

Part of Kyaw Win’s job was to monitor U.S. print and broadcast outlets for news items pertinent to Burma, then make reports about them.“I would tell them what we needed to do if we wanted to have good relations, but the thing is, they didn’t want to listen. In our system, the government is run by fear.

If you do what you’re told, you will be rewarded.

My colleagues used to say, ‘Just enjoy Washington.

Don’t do anything.’”

Indeed, the Burmese Embassy wasn’t exactly the most media-savvy operation in town.

“We never talked with reporters,” Kyaw Win admitted.“I came here in March 2008, and then in May we had the constitutional referendum. There were so many phone calls from the media and NGOs, but we were on our own.They never told us anything. Nobody knew which line to walk.”

Sein Win, chairman of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), says he’s not really surprised by Kyaw Win’s decision to defect.

“In Burma, nobody is secure. There is no rule of law,” said the exiled activist, speaking to The Diplomat from NCGUB’s headquarters in suburban Rockville, Md. “The defections show that some-

thing is not in order. This man was a high official, and now that he is free from his duty at the embassy, he should say what he feels about the regime, and especially what he experienced as a government employee. We welcome anyone from the embassy who defects and who wants to be on the side of the people.”

The NCGUB was formed after Burma’s military regime refused to allow elected representatives of the National League for Democracy to take power following the 1990 elections, which the NLD won with 80 percent of the vote. The party’s generalsecretary, Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent most of the last 20 years under house arrest. In mid-August, the democracy icon traveled outside her home city for the first time since being released from house arrest last November (just after the elections) and was greeted by thousands of supporters.

Several closed-door meetings between Suu Kyi and top Burmese government ministers — including President Thein Sein — have sparked optimism that a rapprochement is under way between the regime that runs Burma and the NLD, which was officially dissolved last year for failing to register under the election laws. The new government has been open to meeting with dissidents and introduced some economic reforms.A much bigger step would be the release of at least some of the 2,000 political prisoners now languishing behind bars.

Burmese exiles hope the government will finally acknowledge the legal existence of the NLD, with 66-year-old Suu Kyi — who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 — at the helm.

“Actually, she is the only leader who has public support, and the people trust only her. She’s an idol,” said Kyaw Win. “But to lead the country is something else. All the institutions are broken down.To build up the country and democracy, we need to build up the institutions.”

Sein Win, a first cousin of Suu Kyi, said the recent defections will have some effect on the regime, “but the question is how much.” He suggested that in the future,“they will be very careful about sending to Washington people whom they don’t really trust.”

One example of the paranoia that pervades Burma’s rulers, according to Kyaw Win, is the secrecy with which the country’s capital, Yangon (formerly Rangoon), was suddenly transferred 400 kilometers north to the remote, brand-new city of Naypyidaw in 2005.

“It’s a very funny story,” he recalled.“I remember that it was 7 p.m. Friday in Rangoon, and we were working overtime.They told us we had to move by Sunday.The instructions were that we had to move fast. We had only one-day advance notice. On Saturday, we went to the office to pick up all the furniture and files and carry them to military vehicles.”

On Sunday morning at precisely 6:37 — a time recommended by astrologists — the regime officially began moving a convoy of army trucks to Naypyidaw, which at that point was an empty tract of land in the wilderness.

“We had to do it ourselves, but when we arrived in Naypyidaw, there was nothing there,” he said.

“We ended up staying there two months, and during the demonstrations, they didn’t allow us to go to Rangoon because they didn’t want us to see the protests.”

Today, Naypyidaw is a modern city of 925,000 with shopping malls, wide pedestrian boulevards and elegant pagodas. It has identical ministry buildings and four-story apartment blocks for government workers and mansions for high-level officials.

It’s the only place in Burma with drinkable tap water and electricity 24 hours a day.There’s even a zoo stocked with bears, rhinos, monkeys and elephants trucked in from Rangoon.

It’s a privileged environment that the majority of the country’s citizens will never set eyes on. Kyaw Win said he can’t explain why Southeast Asia’s poorest country — which can’t even afford to feed its own people — decided to lavish so much money on a new capital in the middle of nowhere.

“Nobody knew the real reasons. We were never told why,” he said.“You learn that if they don’t want to tell, you don’t ask. Even here.”

Kyaw Win laments the fact that at the end of World War II, Burma enjoyed the highest per-capita income and literacy rate of any country in Southeast

Asia; in fact, it was among the most prosperous nations in all of Asia. But things started declining in the 1970s and have only gotten worse. Today, Burma ranks 135th on the U.N.Human Development Index, right behind Cameroon and just ahead of Yemen.

“That’s why we feel so bad,” he said. “But we can’t change the regime. Even if we could, there would be a vacuum. Regime change isn’t practical, because most people are not educated and not intellectual. One exile activist told me they used to go to some villages in poorer areas and try to persuade the people, and an old lady told him, ‘If you want to liberate the country, liberate yourself. Don’t come to us.’”

To that end, Kyaw Win isn’t too optimistic that the uprisings now sweeping the Arab world — fueled by social networks like Facebook and Twitter — will inspire pro-democracy activists in Burma to do likewise.“We have Internet, but there’s so much censorship,” he said.“Even in Rangoon, no more than 10 percent of the people have Internet access. When you download something, it takes hours, even in the Foreign Ministry.”

Burma exposes an even more basic dilemma when dealing with dictatorships — whether to isolate or engage them, in order to help the masses below. Kyaw Win and the folks at NCGUB disagree on the question of how to punish those in charge, a reflection of the longstanding divide over the effectiveness of sanctions.

After years of a Western-imposed economic embargo — which has largely forced Burma to rely on neighboring China — the Obama administration began tentatively engaging Burma’s leaders while maintaining pressure on them. Critics of this carrot-stick approach to diplomacy argue that dialogue has failed to nudge the military from power while legitimizing the regime, while others point out that decades of sanctions haven’t worked either. For his part, Kyaw Win says the top echelons of power should still be targeted, but the rest of the country shouldn’t suffer from economic isolation.

“Broad sanctions [against Burma] are not good,” he argues. “We don’t get any aid from the IMF or World Bank, but we need to have cooperation and aid. You need to do targeted financial sanctions against the top leaders and cronies who make so much money illegitimately. I don’t want them to be allowed to enjoy that money abroad.”

Columnist Shaun Rein echoes that sentiment in a November 2010 article in Forbes magazine, saying that Suu Kyi and her fellow activists should press for greater economic engagement with the West and encourage reform within the system by working with the junta.

“Economic sanctions do not cause the downfall of unsavory regimes.They only further impoverish ordinary people who live in terror and hardship,” writes Rein, calling himself an admirer of Suu Kyi. “In fact, sanctions bolster regimes, as they concentrate power more tightly among elite families, who become more insecure and heavy-handed in their attempts to annihilate opposition as they grow to fear for their lives. They starve common people while doling out benefits to a select few thugs.

Implementing economic sanctions is a naïve strategy at best. It is a basic tenet of American diplomacy that Suu Kyi should shelve.”

Suu Kyi may in fact be adopting that approach, reaching out to Burma’s rulers, who have so far been responsive. If some kind of reconciliation does occur, it could pave the way for a loosening of Western sanctions. Or it could all be an empty gesture by the entrenched military elite to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the world.

Either way, Kyaw Win believes the democracy movement in Burma “cannot be crushed,” as he wrote in his letter to Clinton. “It is alive and well and at some point will prevail.”

But at what point remains an open question. In the meantime, he isn’t encouraging other Burmese officials to follow his example.

“When you defect, you need to have contacts.

You need to believe in yourself and know how to survive here,” he said. “For me, it’s OK. I have a daughter who’s already married, and I have two grown kids. I can survive. But to start a life in Washington from scratch is very difficult.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

September 2011

POLITICS

Persian Gulf

Energy Wealth Buys Stability In Gulf, But at What Price?

by Raymond Barrett

A

s the Arab Spring turns to fall, deep uncertainty surrounds the burgeoning reform movements that have breathed new life into what has long been a moribund political environment.

Yet amid the persistent upheaval, there are countries where change has not been embraced, where streets are calm, and where citizens seem quite content with the status quo.

While historic revolutions have convulsed Tunisia, Egypt, Syria,Yemen and Libya — reaching an apotheosis with the caged courtroom appearance of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak being rolled in on a hospital bed — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait have served as oases of relative calm in a region associated of late with discord, strife and chaos.

The reasons why these four Arab states situated along the Persian Gulf are following a divergent political narrative, at least for now, are manifold and allow no simple explanation. Culture plays an important role. The Middle East often gets lumped into one category but there are many “Middle Easts” — the Maghreb, the Levant, the Gulf, and the latter has its own unique social structures (derived in part from its Bedouin past) that differentiate it from the others. Demographics are also a key factor. Qatar’s population is estimated at around 1.5 million (three-fourths of which are temporary foreign workers or expats), miniscule compared to Egypt, whose 80 million souls make it the world’s most populous Arab nation.

But petroleum has also proven to be a potent social adhesive. Massive reserves of oil and natural gas and the resulting high standard of living are also important contributors to the lack of unrest. Yet in truth, it is a delicate blending of all these factors (and more) that has allowed these sheikhdoms, emirates and kingdoms to rise above the strife currently upending the region.

PETROL + PATRONAGE POPULATION = PEACE Of all the factors outlined above, none is more readily quantifiable than petroleum. While the term “oil-rich Gulf state” is a well-worn cliché, it is worth noting the extent to which this description holds true. Between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, three ruling families control more than a third of the world’s known oil reserves, while their citizens (or subjects) account for less than 1 percent of the global population.

Neighboring Qatar has the world’s third largest reserves of natural gas after Iran and Russia, and it is the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas. According to the Bloomberg news agency, Saudi Arabia exported around $215 billion worth of oil in 2010. In 2008, the GDP of Abu Dhabi — one of seven independent emirates that make up the UAE — hit $105 billion after their emirate pumped some 2.7 million barrels of oil a day at up to $147 per barrel when prices were at their peak. And just as in Qatar, these revenues are divided between a tiny native population of around 100,000. (About 90 percent of Abu Dhabi’s population is comprised of foreigners, primarily from South Asia and the Middle East.)

These vast reserves of oil and natural gas have allowed the Gulf states to provide a cradle-to-grave welfare state unimaginable a generation before, when the Arabian

September 2011

The sun sets on the Dubai landscape, punctuated by the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the world’s tallest building. Dubai, supported by the richer emirate of Abu Dhabi, has been working to diversify its economy away from dwindling oil supplies, which up until now have allowed Gulf nations like the United Arab Emirates to provide a cradle-to-grave welfare state unimaginable a generation before.

Between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, three ruling families control more than a third of the world’s known oil reserves, while their citizens (or subjects) account for less than 1 percent of the global population.

Peninsula was home to nomadic Bedouin tribes and a number of small sea ports dependent on the pearl diving trade.

Qatar alone has the world’s highest per-capita GDP in terms of purchasing power parity, according to the International Monetary Fund, which estimates it to be over $100,000 in 2011. But in transitioning to 21st-century economies, these countries have retained a system of patronage practiced by earlier generations whereby loyalty is bought with lucre — creating a social compact whereby citizens trade political rights for patronage.

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT While petroleum wealth is often cited as the only reason behind the relative stability in the region, a quick look at other resource-rich nations reveals that oil and gas alone are not enough to ensure stability. Nigeria has large oil reserves but is burdened with a population of more than 150 million and a fractured political system lacking the cohesion of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

Also, successive Nigerian governments have failed to provide the essential government services that set these Gulf

states apart from other members of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).

Be it a guaranteed government job, free housing, modern health care or schooling, citizens of the four aforementioned Gulf nations enjoy living standards other OPEC members such as Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria or Venezuela can only dream of. In Kuwait, there is no income tax, men receive an interest-free loan of $250,000 to buy a house upon getting married, food is subsidized by the state, and education (including university) is free.The only price is fealty to the Al Sabah family — rulers of the nation since the 18th century.

This unwritten social contract, like a marriage, is for better or worse (for richer or poorer has yet to be tested).The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah gave every citizen 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars ($3,500) and free food rations for 14 months after complaints about rising food prices. In 2011, as protests erupted in neighboring Oman and Bahrain as part of the Arab Spring, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia awarded each citizen two months’ extra pay — part of a $130 billion spending package to boost salaries, lowincome housing, religious organizations and other initiatives — and the streets of Riyadh remained calm.

In contrast, another GCC nation, Bahrain, which has little energy riches to fall back on, was shaken by widespread demonstrations earlier this year that were quelled by Saudiled troops trying to preserve stability in the kingdom’s backyard. The Bahraini uprising was led by disgruntled Shiites who represent about 70 percent of the population and resent the minority Sunni elite, which not only dominates the government but also tends to receive the bulk of the nation’s handouts.

Likewise, resource-poor Oman was jolted by isolated

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protests earlier this year as well, although they quickly fizzled out and Sultan Qaboos bin Said has been widely credited with transforming Oman from an economic backwater into a modern state over the last 40 years in power — all accomplished without the benefit of oil or gas.

While commentators in the West are quick to denounce energy-supplied acts of largesse as simple bribery, there is a sense in much of the Gulf that such access to the resources of the state has been “earned� as a result of people displaying loyalty to the ruling family. It’s a delicate bargain that both sides must maintain. Molly Williamson, a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington and a retired senior foreign policy advisor to the secretary of energy, believes that the ruling families are acutely aware of how to keep their end of the social contract. “There is great receptivity on the parts of these governments to meet the anxieties and concerns of their populations,� she said. “To not respond would be seen as egregious.�

But there is also a dark side to this social contract. In return for the economic benefits, people enjoy little or no real say in how their nations are governed.While this may have been acceptable in the past, the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have challenged conventional thinking about democratic aspirations in the Middle East. Moreover, even if democracy isn’t at the top of people’s wish list in the Gulf, other issues such as corruption, unemployment among young people, government bureaucracy and transparency could still fuel future unrest.

And citizens both expect and enjoy superior status (both de facto and de jure) in the eyes of the law compared to the vast numbers of expatriates who make up a large section of the labor market. Furthermore, many citizens or “locals� enjoy sinecures whereby showing up for work is their prime requirement, while all the real work gets done by foreigners, often on lower salaries.

WELL OF GENEROSITY RUNNING DRY? Looking to the future, there is a nagging question that will not go away: Is this social contract sustainable after oil? Until recently, this was a decision that had been kicked down the road for the next generation to worry about. Estimating a nation’s oil reserves involves a lot of guesswork as most OPEC nations keep their reserves secret or inflated.Anyhow, advances in technology year by year also alter the picture by increasing the potential yield from each oil field.

Nevertheless, the Gulf states are well aware that they’ll eventually need to deal with the end of what is ultimately a finite resource. Kuwait and Abu Dhabi have created massive sovereign wealth funds to pay for whatever strategies will be enacted in the future.

Williamson of the Middle East Institute believes that the Gulf states have learned a lesson from the “boom and bust� of the 1970s and 1980s when oil soared during the Yom Kippur War and then sank below $20 a barrel. She believes they are now mindful of “the importance of taking some of those oil revenues and plowing them into the investment of the country and in particular the population.�

The UAE for one has aggressively moved to diversify its economy away from dwindling oil supplies, with Dubai leading the way in becoming a global (and glittery) financial, tourist and entertainment destination — though much of that emirate’s rags-to-riches transformation has been financed on the back of Abu Dhabi’s energy wealth.

But perhaps no other Gulf country has invested more in becoming a well-rounded, modern state than Qatar, which has spent significant resources on education, as seen by the sprawling Education City complex that has attracted outposts from some of the most prestigious universities in the United States, including Cornell

Medical College and Georgetown University.

Qatar will also host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, a huge coup for the small nation. And while some Republicans in the United States are fighting to save the incandescent light bulb (invented not in the last, but the previous century), Abu Dhabi is investing billions in renewable energy and green technology in its much-lauded (but as yet unproven) Masdar City sustainability project.

Given these still-evolving social and economic developments, political reform is likely to be put on the backburner. The current economic fragility of the West and the persistent political violence seizing the Middle East should only strengthen the “old order� across the region, as the ruling families from Riyadh to Doha can now point to the pain and uncertainty afflicting those who sought political liberalization.

Habiba Hamid, an editorial writer at the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National, believes the seismic changes that rocked Cairo and Tunis are unlikely to make waves in Riyadh and Doha. “Most of the Arab Gulf is not at risk from upheaval, despite systemic challenges. The UAE for instance, has been responsive ‌ and it’s very evidently a work in progress,â€? she said.“Regimes are still grappling with colonial hangovers of degradation, alongside the fast pace of globalization.â€?

By the same token, the rapid forces of globalization, from economic meltdown in Europe to climate change to any sudden drop in oil prices, could spark a breakdown in the Gulf’s coveted social contract.And looking above the horizon, it remains unclear if these states, blessed with natural riches, can ultimately weather the crosswinds of a new political climate sweeping the region.

Raymond Barrett, author of “Dubai Dreams: Inside the Kingdom of Bling,� is an Irish writer and journalist.

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September 2011

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Europe

Despite Massacre, Norway’s Envoy Vows Not to ‘Back Down’ on Principles

by Larry Luxner

T

hree years ago, Norwegian Ambassador Wegger Christian Strommen proudly told us that his tolerant country, with its tiny Muslim population, had largely escaped the wave of xenophobia triggered by al-Qaeda terrorist attacks and persistent rantings by right-wing extremists about the “Islamic population bomb” allegedly threatening Europe.

“Out of 4.5 million people in Norway, only 120,000 to 130,000 are Muslim, and the first ones who came — Pakistanis and Moroccans — have settled in well,” said Strommen. “They’ve learned the language, thanks to free courses in Norwegian, and after awhile, they are no longer considered immigrants” (also see “Immigration and Islam: The European Dilemma” in the June 2008 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

On July 22, however, Norway lost its innocence.

That day, its capital city — whose very name is synonymous with Middle East peace — suddenly became a scene of unimaginable carnage, when 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik car-bombed a downtown government ministry, killing eight people and wounding several others.

Hours later, disguised as a policeman on nearby Utøya island, Breivik methodically gunned down 69 people, many of them teenagers, at a summer camp run by the Norwegian Labor Party. In a subsequent statement to police, Breivik said his actions were “atrocious” but that they were part of a “necessary” violent crusade against “cultural Marxism” and the “Islamization of Europe.”

Strommen was on vacation in Norway at the time and learned about the attack in an urgent phone call from Washington.

“Like everybody else, my first thought was that this was a kind of London or Madrid situation, in the center of the city. I thought it was al-Qaeda. But after starting to hear reports from the island, that made me worried. I thought to myself: this is likely to be homegrown,” he told The Diplomat.

“That night, I tried to get some sleep but didn’t get much.The latest reports were six hours ahead of here, and said there might have been 10 or 15 people killed. Just as I went to bed, disturbing blogs were coming out saying there were many, many more dead. But it wasn’t until I got up in the middle of the night that I learned the whole story.”

The ambassador’s godson, 20-year-old Knut Frydenlund, survived the attack by swimming from Utøya to the mainland, and ducking into the water every time he saw the shooter aiming at him during his 90-minute rampage. And the nephew of one of Strommen’s local embassy employees is still in an Oslo hospital, recovering from gunshot wounds.

“We haven’t seen anything like this in Norway since World War II,” Strommen

September 2011

told us.“You’d have to go back to my parent’s generation, and that would have been in wartime.This is peacetime.This is something our legal system has never encountered. But our chief prosecutor has decided that Breivik will be brought to justice over every single murder — all 77 of them individually.”

At the entrance to the Royal Norwegian Embassy on 34th Street, just off Massachusetts Avenue, visitors are greeted by portraits of King Harald V and Queen Sonja, as well as a table on which sits a book of condolences already signed by President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and dozens of ambassadors, members of Congress and other dignitaries.

But the embassy itself doesn’t seem very fortress-like in the aftermath of the Oslo attack — perhaps a consequence of the fact that this was an act of homegrown terrorism and not the work of Islamic jihadists.

“It’s hard to prepare for these kinds of things. You will always have to review your security situation,” Strommen said, declining to get more specific for obvious reasons. “We do that in every PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER

“

We won’t back down on the rule of law. And we won’t back down on democracy and human rights.

We will not. We will keep up the standards we had before this, and put society to the test.

— WEGGER CHRISTIAN STROMMEN ambassador of Norway to the United States

diplomatic post.”

By coincidence, the ambassador said that in the 1980s, he briefly met the killer’s father, Jens David Breivik, a fellow diplomat who had worked at Norwegian missions in London and Paris. Strommen, 52, has also experienced war firsthand, serving in Yugoslavia during various Balkan crises and in Israel for a three-year period that coincided with the Gulf War. But nothing could have prepared the ambassador for similar scenes of destruction in downtown Oslo, which he toured shortly after Breivik’s car bomb exploded just outside the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and other government buildings.

”

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, suspicions quickly fell on Islamicinspired terrorists.The fact that the largest massacre committed by a lone gunman in modern history was at the hands of a blond, Christian native prompted deep soul-searching among stunned Norwegians — Strommen among them.

“I had always thought there could be violence coming from the extreme right, but to be honest, something of this magnitude never crossed my mind,” Strommen said. “I remember Timothy McVeigh and the [1995] Oklahoma City bombings, and this brings back those memories. I’m sure there are some individuals who would agree with [Breivik]. The extreme thing here is his violence and hatred of the Labor

Party — and massacring children because of his hatred.”

He added, however, that his countrymen have come together, not in hate but to heal, and that the response from around the world has been both overwhelming and heartwarming.“There was an outpouring of sympathy and solidarity. This individual will be brought to justice, but according to the law. He will be treated like a criminal and will be sentenced. But there’s very little talk of hatred and revenge.”

There is, however, some ridicule of Norway for its luxurious prisons and lenient jail sentences — capital punishment hasn’t been an option since 1905 — and the fact that its policemen by law must get authorization from their chief to gain access to a firearm.

Three days after the massacre, Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times suggested that Breivik “most likely shot more rounds in the hourlong rampage than most Norwegian officers typically fire in a career.”

And Foreign Policy wryly noted in “The

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Continued from previous page Super-Lux Super Max” that Norway’s most secure penitentiary, Halden Prison, “looks more like a posh sleepaway camp,” with flat-screen TVs in inmates’ rooms, private cells with mini-fridges and even personal trainers and a state-of-the-art gym to help inmates with their daily exercise routines. In response to the images of jailbirds sipping coffee and scaling a rock-climbing wall, one online commentator wrote, “Does anyone else feel a little tempted to go commit some crimes in Norway?”

The article, like many other publications, also noted that the longest jail term allowed in Norway is 21 years — prompting outrage around the world that a killer like Breivik could see the light of day again. Actually, says Strommen, the maximum jail term is 30 years, not 21 — and in practice, it could be much more than that.

“We have in Norway what you Americans would call administrative detention,” he said, explaining that if a prisoner is deemed to still be a threat, his sentence can be extended every five years, indefinitely.

“You can be locked up for the rest of your life in Norway, but it’s an administrative decision for some people that are mentally ill — and for some who are not. We have rules whereby dangerous people can be held in prison even after they’ve served their sentence, so there’s been a huge misunderstanding.”

Moreover, ridicule over Norway’s supposedly lax prisons and general lack of firearms glosses over the fact that the country is one of the safest on the planet — with crime rates that other nations can only dream about. In 2009, Norway recorded 29 murders — one of the lowest murder rates in the world — compared to 99 that year in Prince George’s County, Md., alone. Throughout the United States, more than 15,000 people die in homicides each year.

In the wake of the disaster, some pro-gun advocates in the United States also took aim at Norway’s stringent firearms restrictions, arguing that they failed to prevent Breivik from obtaining a gun license and unleashing his killing spree. At the same time, however, while the 77 deaths in Norway made worldwide news, in the United States, where gun laws are far looser, 80 people on average are killed by guns each day.

In addition, recidivism rates are markedly lower in Norway than in the United States, which has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but holds a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Also, the guiding principle at places like Norway’s Halden Prison is to rehabilitate and eventually reintegrate inmates back into society (incidentally, only those who demonstrate progress enjoy perks such as the rock-climbing wall).

And although crime rates have slightly inched up over the years, many Norwegians rarely lock their doors while top-level officials often walk the streets without any security detail.

Norway’s geographic isolation and its tremendous energy wealth have also created a prosperous — and highly principled — society. Per-capita GDP stands at more than $53,000, the social safety net is strong, unemployment is low, and tolerance is high.

But Breivik’s ruthlessly calculated attack has shattered that sense of security. Yet despite the current debate over whether Norway has realistically confronted 21st-century dangers, there are also calls for restraint to preserve the country’s egalitarian and — up until this one horrific moment — peaceful way of life.

“It’s absolutely possible to have an open, democratic, inclusive society, and at the same time have security measures and not be naïve,” Prime Minister Stoltenberg told reporters in Oslo a week after the massacre.“I think what we have seen is that there is going to be one Norway before and one Norway after July 22…. But I hope and also believe that the Norway we will see after will be more open, a more tolerant society than what we had before.”

That tolerance is exactly why immigrants have flocked to Norway, with its liberal asylum rules and abundance of jobs. But their presence is often exaggerated by radical right-wingers such as Breivik. Out of a population of 4.9 million, about 11 percent, or 550,000, are immigrants — with half of those estimated to be white Europeans such as Poles and Swedes. In all, there are 150,000 or so Muslims in Norway.

In fact, 90 percent of the country’s people are still

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The Washington Diplomat

ethnic Norwegians. Strommen grew up in Larvik, a town of 10,000 people where, he recalls,“there was one Jewish family and two Catholics” — and not a single Muslim.

Yet slowly but surely, Norway’s population is getting darker and more diverse as the country — hoping to boost its birth rate through financial incentives — welcomes immigrants from around the world, many of them poor, uneducated refugees.The largest ethnic groups in Norway today are Poles, Swedes, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Somalis, Germans, Vietnamese, Danes, Iranians and Turks.

“We’re an aging society, and we certainly need children. That’s why women get one full year off with pay if they have children,” said Strommen.“We almost have replacement rate, which is 2.1, but we’re not quite there yet.”

The country’s immigrant numbers have nearly tripled between 1995 and 2010. Islam is now Norway’s second largest religion and in some districts of Oslo, Muslim immigrants far outnumber native Norwegians — a trend that’s difficult to ignore in such a homogenous white society.

For Breivik, this signaled an apocalyptic war between Muslims and Europe. His 1,500-page manifesto is a convoluted diatribe against the failure of politicians to defend Norway against an Islamic onslaught, peppered with references to the Unabomber, the Knights Templar,American “counterjihad” online activists, multiculturalism and even the Eurovision song contest.

“If you read his manifesto, there are only one or two elements to it. He really doesn’t have a coherent ideology,” Strommen said of Breivik’s twisted beliefs.

“It’s confusing, and he mixes all kinds of things into it. He’s Islamophobic. It’s hard to say if he’s antiSemitic, but where there’s racism, there’s anti-Semitism.”

Most of Norway’s Muslims today are Pakistanis and Moroccans who came as guest workers years ago; there are also more recent Muslim refugees from Iraq, Iran and Somalia, as well as 1,300 or so Jews, nearly all of them in Oslo. Days after the slaughter, up to 250,000 people gathered in the streets of the capital city to grieve and remember the victims.

“It was really impressive to see the response in the Norwegian Muslim community,” said Strommen.

“None of them came out with the idea that this is the fault of the Christians.They see it as a terrible act of violence, committed by someone with ridiculous, disgusting ideas.”

The killings in Oslo and Utøya have also reverberated beyond Norway’s borders, sparking condemnation of far-right parties in Sweden, Italy and France that have gained a foothold by railing against immigration and the perceived threat of Islam eroding traditional European values.

As New York Times correspondent Nicholas Kulish noted, Breivik’s rambling manifesto, while urging violence, also contains some passages that echo the concerns of mainstream political leaders about preserving national identity.

“So much of what he wrote could have been said by any right-wing politician,” Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-chairman of the Green bloc in the European Parliament, told the newspaper. “A lot of arguments about immigrants and Islamic fundamentalism will now be much easier to question and to push back.”

In fact, far-right groups ranging from Italy’s antiimmigrant Northern League to France’s National Front moved quickly in the days following the massacre to distance themselves from Breivik and his rants. And in Germany — birthplace of Nazism — the Social Democrats have renewed calls to ban the far-right National Democratic Party.

Breivik himself had at one point been a member of the Progress Party, a right-wing, stridently antiimmigrant group in Norway, but he quit in 2006, apparently out of disillusionment that the party was moderating its views.

Asked if the bloodshed would change his country in the long term, Strommen appeared unflinching.

“Norway will remain an open and inclusive society,” he declared. “Such an event will change us, but we will be recognizable.We won’t back down on the rule of law.And we won’t back down on democracy and human rights. We will not. We will keep up the standards we had before this, and put society to the test.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

September 2011

COVER PROFILE

Ambassador Gary Doer

Remembering 9 /11, Canada Honors Emotional and Economic Bonds with U.S.

by Larry Luxner

W

hile Gary Doer may not have a direct line to the White House, he does have a better view of the Capitol than any ambassador in town.

Looking through the huge plate-glass windows encircling his spacious sixth-floor office, Canada’s top diplomat to the United States can also gaze out at the adjacent Newseum, the National Gallery of Art and, rising in the distance, the Washington Monument.

The Canadian Embassy’s coveted piece of real estate at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue is symbolic of the uniquely deep ties between Washington and Ottawa — a relationship that takes on special significance this month as both nations mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Like everyone old enough to remember, Doer, the former premier of Manitoba for 10 years, can tell you exactly where he was and what he was doing the moment he heard the news.

“I had an early morning and was in the legislative buildings in Winnipeg when I was told that something had happened in New York,” he recalled in an interview with The Washington Diplomat last month. “I turned on the TV and saw the burning of the first tower, and right away I remembered the attempted terrorist attack years earlier. When the second plane hit, we all knew it was an attack. I watched in horror, thinking about the people I had met in those towers before in meetings dealing with the financial sector.”

Shortly after a third plane struck the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania — presumably en route to strike the Capitol — Doer received a call warning him that U.S. airspace had been closed to all incoming traffic.

By 9:45 a.m., the Canadian government had launched Operation Yellow Ribbon in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration to divert planes that were at least halfway toward their destination to U.S. airports to land instead at the nearest Canadian airport, as a safety precaution in case more attacks were imminent.

“As premier, we had an emergency plan in place for any kind of situation, but it was horrible for the passengers,” Doer said.“We knew that Winnipeg was along the route for planes flying from France and England to Los Angeles and San Francisco. And we had to ensure that there were no more terrorists on the planes.”

At one point, planes were entering Canadian airspace at the rate of one or two per minute. In total, 255 flights were diverted to 17 airports across Canada — most of them to Halifax, Gander, St. John’s and Goose Bay, though Vancouver took in 34 planes arriving from Asia, and an additional 14 aircraft found their way to Winnipeg. Some 33,000 passengers unexpectedly ended up on Canadian soil, and many of them later thanked their hosts for providing food, water, lodging and comfort.

In fact, a book called “The Day The World Came To Town: 9/11 In Gander, Newfoundland” recounted how about 6,000 passengers swarmed the isolated Canadian town of only 10,000 people. Over four days, the residents welcomed their surprise guests by turning schools and legion halls into emergency shelters and opening their homes to give passengers showers, meals and warm beds, while local businesses offered up toiletries and clothing to those stranded without luggage.

Twenty-four Canadians died in the attack on the World Trade Center, an event that deeply moved this nation of 34

September 2011

PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER

“

Canada buys more goods and services from the United States than does the whole European Union put together…. We are America’s largest customer. We’re your largest supplier of foreign oil. And we supply the largest number of tourists from outside the United States.

— GARY DOER

”

ambassador of Canada to the United States

million.

“After 9/11, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in front of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, in solidarity with the people of the United States. Flowers were left at the U.S. Embassy every minute of the day.The bottom line is, Canada went into Afghanistan right after these unspeakable acts of terrorism,” Doer told The Diplomat.

“We got part of the twisted wreckage of the towers moved to the Peace Garden between North Dakota and Manitoba, with the name of every victim inscribed, and we continue to have a memorial commemoration every year,” the ambassador added.

On Sept. 11, 2002, about 2,500 people gathered at Gander International Airport for an official memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the attacks.Then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien told them:“9/11 will live long in memory as a day of terror and grief. But thanks to the countless acts of kind-

ness and compassion done for those stranded visitors here in Gander and right across Canada, it will live forever in memory as a day of comfort and healing.You did yourselves proud, and you did Canada proud.”

Similar acts of commemoration will take place this September at the Canadian Embassy in Washington. For the entire month, the slogan “Canada Remembers 9/11” will grace the building’s façade fronting Pennsylvania Avenue.

In addition, said Doer, “our prime minister [Stephen Harper] will be in New York the day before, meeting with victims’ families.We will also be participating in a conference on resilience that the State Department is managing. At that meeting, we’ll have people from Gander. The event being sponsored by Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg in New York will be a very dignified and not a political event.”

The truth is, while the events of 9/11 undoubtedly brought the United States and Canada closer together, the two nations’ close proximity to each other has fundamentally changed the dynamics between the two nations — as a decade of beefed-up security redefined one of the world’s most economically important border relationships, for better or worse.

As of Jan. 31, 2008, oral declarations alone were no longer acceptable to prove Canadian identity and citizenship when entering the United States. For the first time, Canadians were required to present a government-issued photo ID such as a driver’s license — plus proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate — to cross into U.S. territory either by land or water.

A year later, Manitoba launched an enhanced ID card program, and by June 2009, all Canadian citizens had to present a valid passport or other “approved secure document” to enter the United States — part of $10 billion Ottawa has invested to upgrade its border security and emergency preparedness since September 2001. Likewise, all U.S. citizens

Continued on next page The Washington Diplomat Page 17

Continued from previous page must now present a passport before entering Canada or a NEXUS card for pre-approved travelers who cross the border frequently.

The revamped border rules have dramatically altered life in places like Richford, a Vermont town of 1,300 located only a few miles from SaintArmand, Québec.

“It used to be real simple. We just went across the border. Sometimes I wouldn’t even take my wallet,” Richford’s fire chief, Paul Martin, told the Associated Press.These days, he says,“If I get somebody I went to school with, I don’t have a problem.

If you get somebody new, they have to inspect everything. It all depends on what kind of a day the inspector is having.”

Before 9/11, he added, Canadian firefighters from Saint-Armand would come to Vermont to help fight fires — and even staff the Richford fire station when his department was on a call. Now, they’ll only cross over for major fires.

Doer, asked about cumbersome border restrictions, pointed out that “over 40 of the last 45 incidents of potential terrorism have been domestic, according to [Secretary of Homeland Security] Janet Napolitano. We’re all very aware that threats could come from outside the country.”

Canada itself hasn’t been immune to acts of terrorism. In 1985, a bomb aboard an Air India jet en route from Toronto to London exploded in midair, killing 329 passengers and crew (including 280 Canadians). And in 2006, police officers prevented what could have been one of the most horrific crimes ever committed on Canadian soil.

During Project Osage, also known as the Toronto 18 case, 800 cops disrupted the detonation of three truck bombs targeting the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Broadcasting Centre and a nearby military base. The plot — in which 18 mainly Pakistani-born members of al-Qaeda were arrested and tried — involved taking hostages and behead-

ing the prime minister and other leaders.

In mid-August, Napolitano and her Canadian counterpart, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, met in Doer’s hometown of Winnipeg to discuss border security, cross-border trade and other issues vital to bilateral relations.

“We must stop individuals and transnational criminal organizations that seek to exploit the border shared by the United States and Canada to traffic drugs, arms and other illicit goods,” Napolitano declared. “We will continue working closely with our Canadian partners through greater operational collaboration and intelligence-sharing to strengthen the security of both our nations within, at, and away from our border.”

But Doer says terrorism isn’t the most important issue that binds his country to the United States.Trade is.

According to a Canadian Embassy handout, more than 8 million U.S. jobs depend on trade with its northern neighbor, with almost $1 million worth of goods and services crossing the border every minute of every day. Measuring 5,525 miles in length (including 1,538 miles shared with Alaska), it is the longest border in the world.

It’s also one of the busiest, with more than 160 million crossings per year. In 2009, some 9.8 million two-way truck crossings at the border — from Blaine,Wash., to Calais, Maine — moved shipments valued at $270 billion. In 2010, Canada’s two-way trade of goods and services with the United States stood at more than $645 billion.

“Canada buys more goods and services from the United States than does the whole European Union put together,” the ambassador said proudly.

“We are America’s largest customer. We’re your largest supplier of foreign oil. And we supply the largest number of tourists from outside the United States — 25 million visits in 2009, when the dollar was below parity.”

Those 25 million visits pumped $10.9 billion into the U.S. economy, while that same year, Americans made 11.7 million visits to Canada,

spending $10.9 billion.

Even more important, Canada represents the top export market for 34 states, with Michigan exporting $43.3 billion worth of goods to Canada in 2010 — more than any other state. Alaska, Florida, Hawaii and Louisiana are the only states for which Canada doesn’t rank first or second as a foreign export market.

Doer, 63, is proud to say that he’s been to all 50 states. “I know every back road in North Dakota,” said the ambassador, who assumed his current post in October 2009.

Growing up in Winnipeg, the young Doer didn’t seem destined at all for a life in politics, reported Geoff Dembicki of The Tyee, an independent daily online magazine based in Vancouver.

“He dropped out of his first year of university to counsel at-risk juveniles, and by age 23, was deputy superintendent of the Manitoba Youth Centre,” he wrote.“One day, Doer walked around a corner and was nearly smashed in the face by a baseball bat.

‘You don’t forget something like that,’ he recalled decades later to Maclean’s magazine.”

In 1988, as an up-and-coming leader in the Manitoba New Democratic Party, Doer opposed the idea of a free trade agreement between Canada and the United States. But in later years, he became an outspoken proponent of NAFTA and has remained so, frequently extolling its virtues during the 10 years he was premier, or governor, of Manitoba, and for the past two years as ambassador in Washington.

A skilled politician, Doer won three consecutive elections to head the province, each time garnering an increased number of votes. He approached public service with business acumen, introducing balanced budgets during each of his 10 years in office while reducing many taxes, including a plan to eliminate small business taxes.

Yet he also led strategic investments in health care, education and infrastructure and — notably — the environment. In fact, Doer became one of Canada’s most ardent backers of the 1997 Kyoto

Protocol, an early global effort to deal directly with climate change.“Not only would Manitoba meet its Kyoto obligations two years early, Doer promised to actually go four times beyond those targets, pledging big investments for renewable fuels,” Dembicki wrote.

As a result, in 2005, Business Week named Doer one of the top 20 individuals on the planet fighting climate change. (Back in 1990, he’d also been named one of Canada’s 12 sexiest men by Toronto women’s magazine Chatelaine, but that’s another story.)

All of which makes his strident lobbying for the Keystone XL pipeline project all the more surprising — at least to some of his disappointed former allies.

Stretching some 1,700 miles from the Athabasca oil sands in northeastern Alberta to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas, the proposed $7 billion pipeline is an extension of the existing Keystone pipeline. First proposed by Calgarybased TransCanada in 2008, Keystone XL is intended to more than double the pipeline’s current oil capacity, from 590,000 barrels to roughly 1.3 million barrels a day when fully operational, which TransCanada hopes will take place by 2013.

The U.S. State Department has said it will decide on whether to approve the project by the end of the year (a permit has to be issued by the State Department because the pipeline crosses an international border). In September, the agency will be holding public meetings along the Keystone route in each of the states traversed by the pipeline, and a final environmental impact review released in late August seemed to affirm earlier findings that the pipeline would have “limited adverse environmental impacts” during construction and operation, according to sources who spoke to the Washington Post before the report’s official release.

Yet that has hardly quelled opponents who say

See CANADA, page 22

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September 2011

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DIPLOMACY

United States

Ambassadors Trek to Alaska To ‘Experience America’

by Stephanie Kanowitz

I

ce-capped mountains, dense forests and, more recently, Sarah Palin’s reality TV show usually come to mind when one thinks about Alaska.

But for 39 ambassadors in Washington, the picture has changed.

They now see Chilean Ambassador Arturo Fermandois strumming a guitar on an Alaska Railroad Corp. train as it hurtles through picturesque terrain between Seward and Anchorage.

“It was my privilege to offer my modest music and singing to the ambassadors during about three hours,” Fermandois said of joining the Carhartt Brothers, a local Alaskan band.“My colleagues became very, very enthusiastic and very happy, and we went from Latino songs to country music to European songs.

“We normally don’t have the opportunity of getting together in a different format,” he added. “Experience America gave us the opportunity to do that. That’s useful for our duties, for our responsibilities here. If I needed to call now the ambassador from Russia, after spending those three days and three hours singing in the train, we’re much more confident on addressing any issue we may have to our government.”

Experience America is a twice-yearly program organized by the Diplomatic Partnerships Division of the State Department’s Protocol Office, which has worked in recent years to expand its outreach to the local diplomatic corps.

Established in 2007 by former Chief of Protocol Nancy Brinker and continued by her successor, Capricia Marshall, Experience America has taken dozens of ambassadors and their spouses to cities in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Georgia and Texas (also see “Envoys Go Beyond Beltway to See Slice of America” in the November 2008 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

“This program has absolutely been able to build new bridges of cultural understanding,” Marshall said. “The Bahamian ambassador talked at length with Alaskans about the problems they both face in educating children from distant villages, whether on different islands or in far-flung villages without road access in Alaska. In Atlanta, Congressman John Lewis [D-Ga.] spoke with the ambassadors about marching on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr., and some shared with him the stories of how the American civil rights movement impacted their own countries and their own fights for freedom and equality.

“As the ambassadors learn more about America, its people, culture and institutions, we are strengthening our bonds economically, socially and politically with countries around the globe,” Marshall added. “New infrastructure, business investment, cultural and academic exchange programs — all of these can come out of an Experience America visit and all of them help bring us together in our increasingly interconnected world.”

For its seventh adventure, the program extended the bridge all the way to the northwest edge of America.

Envoys from Latvia, Ghana, Russia, Sweden, the Bahamas, Morocco and Belize, to name a few, headed to Alaska from June 21 to 24 to learn about the state’s energy and tourism industries, its native community and, of course, tour its breathtaking landscape.

“The goal of the trip is really to showcase the best of America, create people-to-people relationships,” said Kamyl

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The Washington Diplomat

PHOTO: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT / AMBASSADOR OF BRUNEI DATO PADUKA HAJI YUSOFF BIN HAJI ABDUL HAMID

Chilean Ambassador Arturo Fermandois has his picture taken in front of Milepost 0 on the Trans Alaska Pipeline, part of a State Department-sponsored trip for foreign ambassadors to Alaska this summer to learn about the state’s energy and tourism industries, as well as its native community and natural beauty. their own countries do. It doesn’t have to be an Arctic nation. On an island nation, there are the same shipping issues: How do you get things to places that are so If you stay in Washington and remote?” you’re only working in Washington, On this Experience America program, the group started in Anchorage with a welcome reception co-hosted by I think you would miss a lot of Marshall and Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell that featured wildlife and native dancers. Next, the envoys met with Anchorage what makes America so unique.

Mayor Dan Sullivan and business leaders and discussed global Arctic issues with Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell.

How often will they get an The next day, they made their way to the North Slope and Barrow, home of Milepost 0 on the Trans Alaska Pipeline, opportunity to go to Alaska? and mingled with Kuparuk and Inupiat indigenous peoples. They capped the visit off with a boat tour of the — KAMYL BAZBAZ Kenai Fjords of Resurrection Bay in Seward and a ride in a spokesman for the Office of the Chief of Protocol glass-enclosed train car back to Anchorage.

“One thing that we do on every visit, which I think is a real highlight, is dine-arounds, where we will ask locals to Bazbaz, a spokesman for the Protocol Office.“It’s really sort host the ambassadors for dinner,” Bazbaz said.“This way, as of both a trade mission and a cultural mission all in one.We opposed to going to some catered event in a bland hotel want to share the rest of our nation with these senior forballroom or something, we’re actually getting them into eign officials and foster mutually beneficial relationships people’s houses. Each person will host, let’s say, five to 10 with the places that we visit.” ambassadors and their spouses and then invite some of To that end, each trip features a diverse itinerary — their own friends to come.” meetings with local businesspeople and government offiIn addition to making personal connections with cials, as well as cultural and historical sightseeing — and is open to all ambassadors. An average of 40 goes each time, Americans outside the Beltway, the ambassadors got an inside look at one of the country’s most individual states, so there are some newcomers and some repeat customers and all the issues unique to that state. Of particular interest on every trip. The Protocol Office polls the diplomatic to the envoys was Alaska’s treatment of its native people corps to find out where they want to go, and Alaska got the and the spectacular, energy-rich environment on which it most votes this time. sits. “The way that Alaska has dealt with their native com“I think they all have different reasons,” Bazbaz said of munities is something that they want to emulate,” Bazbaz ambassadors’ interest in the country’s 49th state.“For some said. “We had places like Chile and Peru that have large of them, it’s the last frontier. It represents this American frontier and so a lot of them really wanted to see it.Alaska, being that it’s so remote, faces a lot of the same issues that See ALASKA, page 67

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September 2011

MEDICAL

Vision

Cancer, Stem Cell Treatments Set Sights on Macular Degeneration

by Gina Shaw

I

f you’re over 50, you’ve probably heard about agerelated macular degeneration (AMD). The leading cause of blindness in the United States, AMD affects more than 1.7 million Americans, most of them over 60.

AMD occurs when fatty deposits, called drusen, form beneath the light-sensitive cells of the macula, the central portion of the retina that allows us to see fine detail.As the macula deteriorates, so does a person’s vision. Blurry spots begin to appear in the center of the field of vision — spots that grow dimmer and larger with time. Slowly, people lose their ability to do many of the vital tasks of daily living, like reading and driving.

The disease comes in two forms: dry and wet. All AMD starts out as dry, with the telltale yellow drusen beneath the macula. But in about one out of every 10 cases, the disease progresses to “wet” AMD, as abnormal blood vessels begin to form beneath the macula. These vessels are fine and fragile and prone to leak, and as they do, they can rapidly and dramatically destroy a person’s sight, sometimes within a matter of a few weeks or months. The onset of wet AMD is often heralded by the sight of wavy lines when looking at something like venetian blinds or other vertical line patterns.

Recently, ophthalmologists have borrowed a strategy from cancer researchers in fighting wet AMD. A host of new cancer drugs target a process called angiogenesis — the formation of new blood vessels. Blood vessels are good, except when they’re abnormal, either feeding a cancerous tumor or growing where they shouldn’t and leaking blood and fluid beneath the macula.

So when anti-angiogenesis drugs began having success in cancer treatment, eye specialists theorized that they could work against AMD too. But they figured that because such a drug would have to be able to pass into the retina, they’d need a smaller molecule than the versions found in anti-cancer drugs like Avastin. A small-molecule relative of that drug, Lucentis, was developed and quickly became a resounding success, stabilizing vision in 75 percent of patients and actually improving vision by two or three lines of a standard eye chart for a significant minority. The FDA approved the drug in 2006.

ILLUSTRATION: ALEJANDRO DURAN / BIGSTOCK There was just one problem: It was expensive, costMost research has focused on treatments for ing $2,000 for a single dose. So many ophthalmologists The leading cause of blindness wet AMD rather than dry, but now there are decided to try “off label” treatment with the largerclinical trials looking into different molecule drug Avastin, which they found appeared to in the United States, age-related several approaches to treat dry AMD as well. One of the work just as well and costs much less, just $50 per most exciting is a new trial of stem cell therapy, dose for eye treatment. (It’s a lot more expensive in macular degeneration affects which began in July at the Jules Stein Eye cancer treatment because you use much more.) But there were no clinical trials to confirm this approach more than 1.7 million Americans, Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. worked. most of them over 60.

Twenty-four patients will participate in this Until now. A large study sponsored by the National pioneering trial and will have replacement retiEye Institute, comparing Lucentis to Avastin for the nal cells, developed using embryonic stem cells, injected directly into their treatment of wet AMD, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April, found that Lucentis and Avastin work equally well in stopping wet AMD, eyes. A dozen of the patients have dry AMD, and the other 12 have Stargardt macular dystrophy, an inherited retinal disease that also damages central vision stopping vision loss in its tracks for nearly all patients and improving it in many but has a much earlier onset — usually between the ages of 6 and 20. of them.“On all measures of visual acuity, the two drugs were virtually identiThe company in charge of the trial, Advanced Cell Technology, hopes that cal,” study leader Dr. Daniel F. Martin, chairman of the Cole Eye Institute at the the retinal stem cells will take root, grow and multiply, eventually returning the Cleveland Clinic, said at a news teleconference announcing the study’s retina to health. results.

Gary Rabin, chief executive officer of Advanced Cell Technology, said this But what about dry AMD? Although wet AMD causes much more rapid dam“treatment milestone … opens the doors to a potentially significant new theraage to vision, dry AMD can be devastating as well — especially in the cases peutic approach to treating the many forms of macular degeneration. We when it progresses to a condition known as geographic atrophy of the central believe that these procedures represent a key step forward in therapeutic stem retina (GA). In GA, the deepest cells of the central retina degenerate, leading to the death of the rods and cones of the eye and the loss of central vision. cell research, and the capacity to treat a variety of devastating diseases.”

There are no known treatments currently available for GA or for dry AMD in Gina Shaw is the medical writer for The Washington Diplomat. general.

September 2011

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from page 18

Canada the environmental repercussions would be severe, largely because the extraction and production of oil from tar sands emits far more greenhouse gases and tears up larger swaths of the environment than conventional oil drilling. In addition, transporting the oil carries serious risks, and safety concerns re-emerged after a ruptured pipeline spilled crude oil into the Yellowstone River in July (the Keystone extension would cross dozens of creeks, streams and rivers as it passes through Montana).

“In terms of emissions, the oil sands in Canada have obviously a certain amount of emissions, but coal in the U.S. is 60 times worse than the oil sands,” Doer told The Diplomat when asked about the project’s implications for climate change.

“We’re dealing with two challenges on emissions, but let’s not be too much holier than thou,” he explained matter-of-factly.“Canada has what the world needs, whether it’s food, fuel or renewable energy. We think it makes energy sense to rely on Canada, which is a democracy and close by, rather than from the Middle East, which is unpredictable.

World demand will go up with India and China, and per-capita consumption will go down through energy efficiency.”

That argument is echoed by the project’s supporters, who point out that Canada is not only America’s biggest supplier of oil, it’s also America’s friendliest supplier — a far cry from the likes of Venezuela, Nigeria or Middle East kingdoms such as Saudi Arabia.

And Keystone could potentially be a gamechanger in weaning the United States off Mideast oil. With 173 billion recoverable barrels of oil, Alberta’s tar sands are worth an eye-popping $15.7 trillion at today’s prices. The Calgary-based Canadian Energy Research Institute, which has oil company executives on its board of directors, claims at least 94,000 American jobs a year will be

generated by new oil sands development between now and 2035, with that number rising to 179,000 jobs by 2035 if Keystone XL is approved.

On the flip side, the institute says that tar sands development will boost Canadian employment to 490,000 jobs — and a stunning 690,000 jobs if Keystone becomes operational.

The institute, in a June report, also claims that new oil sands projects will add $210 billion to U.S. GDP over the next 25 years. If Keystone XL gets the green light from Congress, GDP will rise by a whopping $359 billion.

That’s why Keystone XL — whose oil would most likely be shipped by Shell, Valero and ConocoPhillips — has been heartily endorsed by the state governments of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma; only Nebraska hasn’t yet given its blessing. “A number of Democrats have voted for a quicker decision on this because of the job component,” Doer noted.

“They’re crying out for jobs.”

But environmental groups in both countries bitterly oppose Keystone XL — including thousands of activists who protested in front of the White House throughout August — as do 50 members of Congress who warned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a June 2010 letter that “building this pipeline has the potential to undermine America’s clean energy future and international leadership on climate change.”

Online petitions have also drawn thousands of virtual signatures in Texas and elsewhere, says the Economist, and last December, “a union of Nebraskan farmers, not known for radical greenery, voted to oppose the project.”

In addition, the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) accuses the Canadian oil industry of “turning one of the world’s last remaining intact ecosystems into America’s gas tank.” On its website, the NRDC says that “extracting tar sands and turning bitumen into crude oil uses vast amounts of energy and water, and causes significant air and water pollution, and three times the global warming pollution of con-

serving the people who serve the world

®

ventional crude production.”

The ambassador though defended his country’s record on climate change legislation, insisting that “with the Montreal protocols, Canada and the U.S. led the effort to eliminate ozone-depleting materials, and it’s actually reduced greenhouse gases more than Kyoto. We do care about clean air and water in Canada.That’s one of the reasons we love living there. And that’s why we’ve agreed to the same 17 percent reduction by 2020 in Copenhagen that President Obama agreed to. We have already moved on vehicle emission standards; we just have different ways of getting there.”

Yet Canada’s record on climate change is less than stellar, according to the Economist, which reported that “critics of Stephen Harper, the Conservative leader of a minority administration, say this lack of progress has everything to do with the prime minister’s desire to protect the oil business and to avoid offending voters in Alberta, where his party has its core support.”

Nevertheless, for the moment, Canada seems to be in a fairly enviable economic position, having largely avoided the housing crash thanks to strict mortgage regulations. In the first quarter of 2011, the country reported annualized growth of nearly 4 percent. And its unemployment rate of 7.2 percent is a lot less than the 9.2 percent jobless rate in the United States, though it’s looking increasingly likely that Canada will post a second-quarter decline in GDP activity.

That, say economists, is a direct consequence of the weak U.S. market, which buys 75 percent of Canadian exports, as well as an unusually strong Canadian dollar. At press time, one “loonie” was trading at nearly $1.02; that makes Canada’s manufactured goods more expensive overseas.

“I’m not here to preach to the United States,” Doer said when asked how the Obama administration might extricate itself from the current fiscal morass.

“There are some things we do better than the U.S., and some things they do better,” he said.

“When the recession hit, we put more money

more quickly into infrastructure in Canada, and the U.S. had to put a lot more money into things like banks, because we didn’t have a collapse of the banking sector. President Obama inherited that banking situation, so what he had to do was different than what we had to do.”

It’s clear the ambassador has deftly transitioned from the world of politics to the trappings of diplomacy. Some speculated that the appointment of Doer, whose politics are to the left of center, by a conservative administration was in part to ensure good relations with the Democrats who controlled Congress and the White House in 2009.

Whatever the case, Doer dove right into his new job, casting aside politics to fight for Canada’s interests in the United States, whether it’s going down the street to lobby Capitol Hill against imposing trade protectionist policies to trekking across the country to drum up cross-border business.

“The biggest challenge for us is working in concert on international issues of strategic importance like cyber-security and regulatory reform,” he explained. “We’re trying to get some of the speed bumps of trade eliminated, like rules that don’t make any sense. Softwood lumber continues to be a problem. The great irony with softwood lumber is that both countries are going through pressures in housing demand, but Canada has increased its sales to places like China. We think we should be working with U.S. lumber producers on how they could improve market share, instead of fighting these historical fights.”

To that end, the most important priority right now, says Doer, is shoring up the slumping economy.

“Sometimes I think that if we could make our regulations more intelligent between our two countries,” he mused, “we could help create jobs rather than work in the opposite direction.”

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.

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September 2011

PALESTINE Sponsored Report

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September 2011

Palestinians Look to Make History With U.N. Vote POLITICS After decades of failed negotiations, dashed hopes and spasms of violence interspersed by periods of relative calm, it finally comes down to this: a last-ditch effort by the PLO to convince the world that the State of Palestine — with East Jerusalem as its capital — deserves official recognition among the community of nations.

In an ideal world, Palestine on Sept. 20 would become the 194th member of the United Nations, setting off celebrations in the West Bank and Gaza. But even the top Palestinian leadership concedes that this won’t happen. The United States has threatened to veto any such approval by the 15-member Security Council, meaning the most Palestinians can hope for is a highly symbolic resolution in the U.N. General Assembly recognizing Palestine as a non-member state.

Maen Areikat, the Washington representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the closest thing the Palestinians have to an ambassador here, has tirelessly lobbied for such recognition for months, though even he admits it’s been an uphill battle, given adamant U.S. opposition to the proposed resolution.

“Our goal is to dispel the myths and misconceptions related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in a way that will help the American public and government understand the motives behind the Palestinian decision to seek membership at the U.N., and to balance the information that members of Congress are getting from Israel and the pro-Israeli lobby,” Areikat explained. (Incidentally, nearly 20 percent of the U.S. House visited Israel during the August recess as part of a trip sponsored by an arm of the lobby group AIPAC.) Areikat said the decision to go to the United Nations wasn’t done overnight, nor was it done in a vacuum.

“Unfortunately, the U.S. and the

September 2011

international community have failed to convince Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government to engage the Palestinians in serious, meaningful negotiations,” said the PLO ambassador. “We have repeatedly said that negotiation is our primary choice.

But in the absence of negotiations, the Palestinian leadership is compelled to provide its people with alternatives that will lead to a better life.”

He added: “The United States, the international community and even some Israelis have said that the status quo cannot be sustained — a status quo in which Israel is continuing to build facts on the ground and violating international law. This is a dangerous recipe which could lead to further violence and conflict in the region. The only way out is to establish a Palestinian state.”

Similar sentiments are being voiced by other Palestinian leaders, including Economics Minister Hasan Abu Libdeh.

“I don’t want to deceive you. The vote in the U.N. is not going to have any immediate positive impact on our economy,” he said by phone from Ramallah.

“We will continue to be under Israeli occupation. Things will not change on the ground until Israel decides to change them.”

Abu Libdeh, interviewed the same day an attack against Israel killed eight people near the southern city of Eilat — an attack that prompted immediate Israeli reprisals against Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, who Israelis accuse of perpetrating the attack — said such actions only underscore the urgency of finding a solution to the decades-old conflict.

“I’m afraid that if we do not move forward, things on the ground will deteriorate and become bloody for both sides,” he said. “Violence, regardless of where it happens, is not a good thing for anyone.

We do not want to see more bloodshed in this country or even in Israel. But these events must show the Israeli government that without going back to

President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas addresses the U.N. General Assembly in 2010. This year, frustrated with the lack of progress in the stalled peace talks, the Palestinians are set to make their case for statehood in front of the United Nations in September.

UN Photo / Aliza Eliazarov

negotiations, they are bound to see this kind of thing happen again.”

Most Arab leaders share the view that their “Palestine 194” effort at the United Nations shouldn’t be viewed as a unilateral declaration at all — but rather a natural response to unilateral settlement building that has continued unabated, contrary to international law — most recently evidenced by the announcement of 900 new units in the controversial “Har Homa” settlement in Jerusalem — and resulted in explosive settler growth, with more than 500,000 Israelis living in illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

These “facts on the ground” have made the likelihood of a continuous Palestinian state increasingly untenable, most experts say, and the prospect of Palestinians claiming the 22 percent of historic Palestine (the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip) that they’ve

been fighting for since 1967 more distant than ever. Areikat himself estimates that with walls, checkpoints and “Israelionly” roads, more than 82 percent of the West Bank is kept out of Palestinian hands.

Moreover, Palestinians say they have little choice but to turn to the United Nations for help given the dismal lack of progress by Netanyahu and the failure of the international community to resume substantive and meaniful negotiations.

We go to the United Nations now to secure the right to live free in the remaining 22 percent of our historic homeland because we have been negotiating with the State of Israel for 20 years without coming any closer to realizing a state of our own,” Abbas wrote in May 16 op-ed in the New York Times.

POLITICS Continued on Page 26

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Sponsored Report

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September 2011

Palestine’s Economic Challenge: Breaking Barriers to Achieve Real Growth BUSINESS & INVESTMENT Whether or not the United Nations recognizes Palestine as its 194th member nation come Sept. 20, the reality is that this nascent state faces enormous economic challenges that will endure for years to come.

It may not seem that way, given rosy World Bank projections and the construction frenzy gripping Ramallah and its immediate environs. However, that can be highly misleading, warns Hasan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian minister of economy.

“Our economy has been doing relatively well, but this is not sustainable,” Abu Libdeh said in a phone interview from Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. “Our growth during the last few years is basically thanks to heavy government spending and international assistance — and this is not how you achieve growth.”

At present, annual per-capita income stands at $1,500 in the West Bank and $1,300 in Gaza. Earlier this year, the World Bank projected 2011 growth would exceed 8 percent, he said, “but many things have since changed in the Arab world and internationally, which have resulted in a severe retraction of the economy.”

He added: “This has not been a good year for Arab assistance to the Palestinian people. Less than 20 percent of what was promised has been delivered. I will be very delighted to see growth of 5 percent this year.”

Mohammad Shtayyeh, president of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR), agrees with that grim assessment.

PECDAR, with the capacity to spend $100 million annually, oversees infrastructure development in the Palestinian territories and is also engaged in specific activities like microcredit for women.

“You see new buildings rising in Ramallah every day, because 32 banks have their headquarters here, the president sits in Ramallah, and 1,200 NGOs are here,” he said. “But this money is generated from outside the West Bank. Ramallah is not really the model for development. There is very little economic activity in the rest of the area.”

Shtayyeh, who was minister of public works and housing up until a few months ago, noted that Palestinians have no access to the entire Jordan Valley, which comprises 18 percent of the West Bank’s total land area.

“That’s where agriculture is the most important sector, yet it’s heavily dominated by agriculture cultivated by settlers who deny access to Palestinians,” he said.

In addition, 62 percent of the rest of the West Bank is under direct Israeli control. “There isn’t any development in this area. You need to get a permit to do this or do that from the Israeli military governor, and they usually don’t give permits for this sort of thing,” he said.

“Going to the United Nations will move the issue forward politically, because it will actually help us get membership in new venues. For example, we will become full members of the World Bank, the IMF and all economic and political institutions. On the ground, this is not going to change much. Things will not

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The Washington Diplomat

be dramatic immediately, but you need to break the Israeli occupation first and get rid of it in order for the Palestinian economy to function.”

And that won’t happen a moment too soon for Shtayyeh, who said that while Israel exports around $4 billion in goods and services to the Palestinian Authority each year, the PA’s exports to Israel come to only $350 million to $400 million.

“This month, the Palestinian Authority will not be in a position to pay its salaries,” he said. “Our minister of finance had to borrow $1 billion from commercial banks, and up to $200 million in arrears to the private sector. The situation is already really difficult, and the budget crisis has nothing to do with us going to the United Nations. It’s been here for quite some time.”

Abu Libdeh said the Paris Protocol of 1994 specifically regulates Israeli-Palestinian economic activity.

“Unfortunately, this protocol hasn’t been fully respected by the Israeli side, the result of which is that our economy suffers greatly from its inability to grow in accordance with its potential,” he explained. “Without very significant measures from the Israeli side to relax their firm hand on the Palestinian economy and some of their so-called security measures against imports and exports, we will not see serious economic growth — even if we manage to get U.N. backing for the creation of a Palestinian state. On the contrary, some members of the Israeli government have been threatening that if we go to the U.N., they will collapse the Palestinian economy.”

Some members of the U.S. Congress, too, have warned that if the vote goes forward, the United States will cut off all economic assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

“Any penny less than what was promised now will have very serious repercussions on us,” Abu Libdeh warned. “I think the U.S. should weigh its options. If Congress does pass that law and stops its assistance to the Palestinians, it will only result in the deterioration of the well-being of the people, and this will lead to a shifting to the right.”

Mohammad Mustafa, chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, said the $200 million contributed annually by the United States represents a fraction of the funding that the PA receives. Most of its funds come from Europe, Japan and the Arab world.

Even so, he said, “the loss of this money would obviously have a negative impact on the Palestinian Authority’s finances. It’s not something we’re looking forward to. My feeling is that at the end of the day, the U.S. will understand and appreciate the Palestinian point of view, and therefore we hope they will do the right thing.”

Mustafa, who’s originally from the town of Tulkarem, explained that the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) is a publicly owned fund with around $870 million in assets under management.

“Our main objective is to invest — along with our partners in the Arab world — in strategic sectors in Palestine: real estate development, the energy sector and telecommunications,” he said.

Mohammad Mustafa, chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, which is publicly owned and has around $870 million in assets under its management, says that the fund’s main objective “is to invest — along with our partners in the Arab world — in strategic sectors in Palestine: real estate development, the energy sector and telecommunications.”

Among other things, the PIF took the lead in helping to establish a second mobile operator, Wataniya Palestine, back in November 2009. Qatar-based Qtel is the majority shareholder in Wataniya Telecom, which in turn owns 57 percent of Wataniya Palestine.

In less than two years, Wataniya has grown to 415,000 subscribers in the West Bank; it’s preparing to expand to Gaza in early 2012.

But Mustafa complained that it took three years to win approval for radio spectrum allocation and importation of mobile telecom equipment from Israel’s Ministry of Communication.

“Palestine’s economic development has been undermined and constrained by the existing political arrangement. It’s been very limited in terms of creating job opportunities and employment,” said Mustafa, who spent 23 years in the United States — 16 of them at the World Bank. “As a result, what we have today is two-fold: a government with a high budget deficit, and a very high unemployment rate.”

At present, that jobless rate stands at 17 percent in the West Bank and 35 percent in Gaza, translating into overall unemployment of 24 percent.

“You cannot create sustainable economic development and strong private-sector investment under occupation,” Mustafa said. “There’s very high political risk and there’s no control of borders, including crossing points with neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan. The Palestinian Authority has no control over ports and airports, which makes the movement

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September 2011

Sponsored Report

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September 2011

Religious Tourism Holds Unrivaled Promise for Palestinians Home to the world’s oldest city (Jericho), the birthplace of Jesus Christ (Bethlehem) and the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Hebron), Palestine has unrivaled potential for religious and archaeological tourism — yet realities on the ground are keeping potential travelers and investors away.

Kholoud Daibes, the country’s minister of tourism and antiquities, said tourism last year generated revenues of around $900 million, or 15 percent of Palestine’s GDP. “That gives you an idea how it would be if the political situation were stable, if we had control of our borders, if we had an airport gateway with the possibility of welcoming tourists directly,” she said. “These are the ABCs of any tourism destination, which are lacking here. It is very challenging for us and also for the private sector to develop tourism with all these restrictions on movement and limited control over our cultural and historical sites.”

In 2007, the Ministry of Tourism reported only 400,000 visitor arrivals. Last year, with the easing of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, arrivals skyrocketed to around 2 million. Yet maintaining or even increasing that level requires political stability.

“Most of our tourists spend only a few hours or a day on the Palestinian side. We are trying to increase the length of that stay,” explained Daibes, who joined the government in March 2007 and for a time was also minister for women’s affairs. “There has been a significant increase in overnight stays. We hope we can sustain that growth this year.”

Traditionally, the main source of tourists to Palestinian holy sites was Western Europe (Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain) and the United States. But in the last few years, that’s changed — and now Palestine’s top source of tourism is Russia, followed by Poland and other former communist countries.

“For many years, these people have not been able to travel, and now they’re open and there’s big demand,” Daibes said. “And once there’s peace and political stability, we will be open for people from Muslim countries as well. There’s such big untapped potential.”

Daibes was speaking from Bethlehem, which is visited by 80 percent of all tourists to Palestine. The birthplace of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem is also home to the Ministry of Tourism — making that ministry the only one not headquartered in Ramallah.

A continued source of frustration is the Israeli military authority does not allow Israeli citizens to travel into Palestinian terriortory, which limits tourism dollars. “Most of our tourists come through Tel Aviv. Since there is no direct access, tourists have to come through another country, in this case, Israel,” she said. “Also, Israelis are not allowed to enter into Palestinian territory. For example, groups cannot enter if the guide is an Israeli. This violates our agreement to guarantee access and freedom of movement for professionals working on both sides.”

She added: “Most of the tourists who come to the Holy Land visit both sides. Yet our share of the tourism revenue is only 5 to 7 percent. They spend only a few hours on the

TOURISM

September 2011

Palestinian side. This is a very unfair situation.”

One bright spot is the dramatic growth in hotel infrastructure. Within the last four years, said Daibes, the number of hotel rooms has doubled to about 5,000. The main hotels are in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho and Gaza.

“This shows that the private sector is ready to invest, but there are no mega-projects in tourism,” she said. “Some projects are in the planning stage, especially on the shores of the Dead Sea, but they cannot be implemented under the current situation.”

Palestine is home to the birthplace of Jesus Christ and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, above, as well as the world’s oldest city in Jericho, bottom photo, and other religious landmarks that attracted some 2 million visitors last year, although the government’s tourism revenue is still only a fraction of what their Israeli counterparts generate from visits to the Holy Land. Photos by Larry Luxner.

The Washington Diplomat Page 25

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September 2011

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of people and goods extremely difficult.”

In addition, he said, “we work with foreign companies who want to come and see how things look like and do their due diligence. It’s very difficult to get visas for them, especially for people of Palestinian or Arab origin.”

Abu Libdeh said the potential if these difficulties were removed is tremendous: “This is a country where many projects are needed, and because of the fact that we have special arrangements with many other countries, Palestine could become a hub for producing high-quality goods. We have a very skilled and educated labor force.”

“There are people who make money out of war, and people who make money out of peace,” Mustafa says. “I think there are very good opportunities here in Palestine. Things are calm, so the environment is actually good. American businessmen can invest in many industries: manufacturing, vegetable products, textiles, real estate development, tourism. It’s just that people are very frustrated because of the lack of political progress. The occupation has been ongoing for 44 years, and people would like to see the end of it. The issue is not salaries, it’s dignity.”

A wave of construction has swept Jenin, one of the largest towns in the northern West Bank; however, acAnother issue is the boycott encouraged by some overseas cess to roads and Israeli checkpoints have also stifled development. Palestinians say that without a political activists of products manufactured or grown in Israeli settlements solution, they won’t be able to sustain the economic strides they’ve made in recent years. in the West Bank to protest that occupation. Abu Libdeh confirmed that the PA actively boycotts products made under such conditions “The number of Palestinians working in Israel came down from 200,000 at its and strives to ensure that those products are not sold in the areas it peak to around 60,000 now, and between 20,000 and 25,000 of them are working controls. in settlements,” said Mustafa, noting that the jobs Palestinians once had in Israeli “In spite of the fact that Israel does not fully respect the Paris Protocol, we cities and kibbutzim have since been taken over by Thais, Romanians and other intend to continue respecting and adhering to it, meaning that Israeli products will be welcome in our market, but that settlement-made products are forbidden. foreigners.

“Obviously, our people don’t go to the settlements because they enjoy it, but Those Palestinians trading in Israeli settlement products will be taken to court, because they’re so desperate they’ll look for any job. That’s a measure of their according to the law.”

In addition, strictly enforced Israeli regulations on the importation of materials desperation,” Mustafa said. “If the Palestinian economy were allowed to develop, needed for development, like fuel oil and certain dual-use chemicals, has limited there would be no need to work in Israel or their settlements.”

According to a recent World Bank annual report, “Ultimately, sustainable the ability of Palestinian companies to grow and prosper. At the same time, economic growth can only be underpinned by a vibrant private sector. The latremittances from Palestinian laborers working in Israel have declined sharply ter will not rebound significantly while Israeli restrictions on access to natural in the 10 years since security restrictions were imposed after the violent intifada resources and markets remain in place. ” uprising of 2000.

POLITICS

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“We cannot wait indefinitely while Israel continues to send more settlers to the occupied West Bank and denies Palestinians access to most of our land and holy places, particularly in Jerusalem. Neither political pressure nor promises of rewards by the United States have stopped Israel’s settlement program.”

Abbas added: “Contrary to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel asserts … the choice is not between Palestinian unity or peace with Israel; it is between a two-state solution or settlement-colonies.”

“Netanyahu has not really been a partner in peace, and he was never interested in the peace process. He just talks about security, security, security,” charged Mohammad Shtayyeh, president of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction. “I would like to see an Israeli leader who is ready to stand up and say, ‘I’m ready to end the occupation of 1967.’ This is the kind of leader I’d like to see, not one who plays with words.”

So would Abu Libdeh, who said the U.N. resolution is absolutely essential in the face of stepped-up settlement building by Israelis in the disputed West Bank, which is home to some 2.6 million Palestinians and nearly 300,000 Jews living in 185 settlements. Much smaller Gaza has another 1.6 million people — virtually all of them Palestinians — crammed into a strip of land measuring only 360 square kilometers.

If the vote to admit Palestine as a member state

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fails in the U.N. Security Council as expected, it’ll be because President Barack Obama has promised a U.S. veto. And if that happens, warns Abu Libdeh, it won’t be good for anyone.

“We will witness a gradual rise in poverty, but I warn against Americans holding the Palestinian food basket hostage in accordance with what Israel likes,” he said. “The Palestinians have gone out of their way to accommodate Israel to reach a peace treaty. Unfortunately, Israeli society is moving toward the right, and the current existing government is incapable of moving forward because they don’t believe in peace.

Look at all of Netanyahu’s speeches. This is not a cabinet you can make peace with.”

Abu Libdeh added that Israel’s Knesset should redirect money that would otherwise be spent on building West Bank settlements to marginalized Jews and Arabs living within the pre-1967 borders. Those funds could also be used to ensure more affordable housing within Israel proper, addressing an issue that drove tens of thousands of Israelis to the streets this summer to protest the high costs of living.

“The current crisis in Israel is encouraging some fanatical leaders within Israeli society to call upon Israelis to settle in the West Bank because it might be cheaper. This may result in accelerated settlement activity, which will eventually make it almost impossible to have a Palestinian state, and this is going to be catastrophic for Israel too.”

Abbas says that all arguments lead to the same conclusion: Palestine deserves its own state, which in the

end would also guarantee Israel lasting security.

According to Wafa News Agency, Abbas recently told visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store that going to the UN “does not mean abandoning negotiations, which remains the first choice for the Palestinian leadership.”

“We have the capacity to enter into relations with other states and have embassies and missions in more than 100 countries. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union have indicated that our institutions are developed to the level where we are now prepared for statehood. Only the occupation of our land hinders us from reaching our full national potential; it does not impede United Nations recognition,” he wrote in the New York Times.

“It is important to note that the last time the question of Palestinian statehood took center stage at the General Assembly, the question posed to the international community was whether our homeland should be partitioned into two states. In November 1947, the General Assembly made its recommendation and answered in the affirmative.

“Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled Palestinian Arabs to ensure a decisive Jewish majority in the future state of Israel, and Arab armies intervened. War and further expulsions ensued,” Abbas added. “Minutes after the State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948, the United States granted it recognition. Our Palestinian state, however, remains a promise unfulfilled.”

September 2011

LIVING L U X U R Y

■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ September 2011

Quarter of Change After Years of Revitalization, Penn Quarter’s Personality Shines

by Jacob Comenetz At the symbolically significant halfway point between the White House and Congress, located on two hillocks above the Potomac marshland, Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original plan for the city of Washington envisioned a national cathedral, or pantheon to American heroes, to be constructed on a low ridge of dry land at the intersection of 8th and F Streets, NW. But in 1836, the technology-obsessed young nation began building a more practical, worldly structure on that spot. A massive granite monument to American ingenuity, the U.S. Patent Office, towered above the modest two- and three-story brick buildings that rose around it. Together with the General Post Office building across F Street, where construction began in 1839, it anchored the neighborhood of government workers, merchants and laborers who lived and worked in the core of the nascent capital city.

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Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

PHOTO: WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY

■ INSIDE: The ghosts of great Civil War battles are immortalized all along the circles of Embassy Row. PAGE 32 ■

LUXURY LIVING September 2011

The Washington Diplomat Page 27

Continued from previous page The area’s early development was also shaped by the commercially vital 7th Street, connecting the farm country to the north with Washington’s Central Market, located at the intersection of 7th and Pennsylvania, as well as to the Potomac wharves, a gateway to distant markets. This commercial corridor, which quickly became the neighboorhood’s main street, proved strategically important during the Civil War, when Union soldiers encamped in the downtown area marched up and down the road to defend the city against the Confederate Army from the string of forts they built on its perimeter. In fact, during the Civil War, the ornate U.S. Patent Office became a temporary military barracks, hospital and morgue, housing wounded soldiers on cots alongside glass cases holding models of inventions that had been submitted for patent applications.

Though the neighboorhood prospered from the federal government’s expansion through the latter half of the 19th century and during World War II, when the population of Washington swelled dramatically, the suburban exodus in the 1950s and ’60s, a move affecting cities nationwide, led to its gradual decline. Five days of riots, triggered by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, further cemented downtown D.C.’s downward spiral.

“It was downtrodden, and there wasn’t much to do,” recalled New York native Jo-Ann Neuhaus. Still,“it was never a slum,” added Neuhaus, an urban planner and neighborhood activist who played a decisive role in the area’s redevelopment over a 20-year career with the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation from the 1970s into the 1990s.

FROM PATENTS TO PATENT LEATHER During that time, the area now known as Penn Quarter (short for Pennsylvania Quarter) has undergone multiple personality changes, overcoming a long period of urban blight and decay and shedding its early federal government roots, while retaining some of that early charm.Today, the U.S. Patent Office is home to the National Portrait Gallery. And the General Post Office? The Hotel Monaco, a Kimpton boutique

T

Today, Penn Quarter stands for the phoenix-like revival of one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods: a place not only of chic apartments, tony hotels and celebrity chef-run restaurants, but also of a large and growing assemblage of entertainment and cultural offerings, unrivaled in Washington. property that maintained much of the building’s original architecture, has been going strong in that location for a decade now.

Penn Quarter’s reinvention continues to this day, as the neighborhood evolves from the chain restaurants and generic entertainment ventures that popped up after the MCI Center began revitalizing Chinatown in 1997. Today, although the sports complex, now named the Verizon Center, still anchors the action in the heart of Chinatown/Gallery Place, the area increasingly boasts specialty, highend eateries and bars, trendy boutique shops and quirky galleries (among them the Spy Museum and the newer National Museum of Crime and Punishment).

Although Penn Quarter is widely associated with Chinatown — which some consider to be a part of Penn Quarter while others view as its own distinct neighborhood — the area encompasses a swath of Northwest D.C. roughly between 5th and 10th Streets (exactly how far out it extends from 7th Street is an issue of debate) and north of Pennsylvania Avenue up to Massachusetts and New York Avenues.

An eclectic roster of businesses has transformed this relatively compact stretch into one of the city’s most unique, jam-packed destinations. The Blue Mirror, Garfinkel’s, and Murphy’s five and dime store of yesteryear have all been replaced by the likes of H&M, Zara and the soon-to-be-opened

PHOTO: DESTINATION DC

The International Spy Museum, opened in 2002, was part of an early wave of development in Penn Quarter that began after the MCI (now Verizon) Center was built in 1997 and continues to this day.

Anthropologie. Penn Quarter is also at the vanguard of D.C.’s dining scene, from Mike Isabella’s recently opened Graffiato (see this month’s dining review on page 56) to upscale restaurant-lounges such as the massive Buddha Bar and the even more decadent Sax featuring live cabaret shows.

Similarly, the arts and culture scene is thriving, propelled by

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September 2011

the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Newseum, Landmark’s E Street Cinema, Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, the Goethe-Institut German cultural center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and — long overdue — Riot Act, a brand new comedy club to compete with the aging DC Improv.

Alongside the commercial growth, sparkling new condominiums have arisen from razed parking lots, while historic landmarks such as churches have withstood the development wave. And although the tide has definitely turned in Penn Quarter, poverty and homelessness remain pronounced in some pockets.The result is that on any given day, you’ll see tourists, sports fanatics, foodies, street musicians, drag queens and even drug addicts form a strangely fascinating parade of people that embody Penn Quarter’s diverse heart.

ANATOMY OF A REVITALIZATION During an hour-long interview peppered with personal anecdotes and recollections of long-defunct eateries and movie theaters of a bygone era, Neuhaus described how the “supreme” development plan created by the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC) set the stage for the Penn Quarter’s revitalization. As key properties along Pennsylvania Avenue, such as the Willard InterContinental Hotel, were restored, and others such as the Market Square development framing the new Navy Memorial were built, some highprofile tenants decided to move into the area, lending it cachet. Initially, lower office rents provided an incentive to businesses. Shifting attitudes about city centers as retail destinations also contributed to the reawakening.

While PADC focused on developing retail and office space west of the FBI building (constructed in the mid-1960s), to the east it required developers vying for construction

rights to offer residential space as well. Thus the stage was set for the neighborhood to once again become a place where people, after a 100-year hiatus, could not only work, but live as well.

Neuhaus is one of them. After transfering to George Washington University in 1962, she lived in Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle and American University Park, as well as 25 years in Bethesda, Md., where she raised her children before moving to the upscale Ventana condominiums on F Street, between 9th and 10th Streets, in 2006. Directly adjacent to her current digs is Booth Alley, where Lincoln’s assassin escaped after shooting the 16th president in Ford’s Theatre in April 1865. “I walk along and say ‘Wow, history!’”

Even while living in the suburbs, Neuhaus said she “always really believed people like to live in cities.” In the late 1980s, to encourage the incipient downtown movement, Neuhaus, through PADC, gathered five key developers and formed a neighborhood association, which she still heads today.

One of the association’s first tasks was to rebrand the area. Hiring a PR firm and working with focus groups, the association eventually settled on the name “Pennsylvania Quarter” due to the associations it conjured with the Latin Quarter in Paris or the French Quarter in New Orleans. Even so, it took “many, many years” before the new name was adopted by the media (first the national, then the local, Neuhaus noted), and became part of the Washington vernacular sometime in the mid to late 1990s.

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city’s oldest neighborhoods: a place not only of chic apartments, tony hotels and celebrity chefrun restaurants, but also of a large and growing assemblage of entertainment and cultural offerings, unrivaled in Washington.

Reading Eve Zibart’s September 2004 article “Penn Ultimate” in the Washington Post, one is struck by just how much has changed even in the past seven years. The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery were then in the midst of a years-long rennovation. They would reopen on July 4, 2006. Sidney Harman Hall, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s architecturally stunning second venue on F Street across from the Verizon Center, was being built.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company was on the verge of moving to its new location on D Street just off of 7th.The 2008 opening of the Newseum, with its glamorous Wolfgang Puck Asian fusion restaurant the Source, was still several years out on the horizon. The International Spy Museum, launched in 2002, was in its infancy, though it had already counted 1 million visitors. It had not yet been joined by the Museum of Crime and Punishment, another 2008 addition, not to mention the profusion of bars restaurants that have sprung up in the interim.

This transformation keeps marching forward, notes Kate Gibbs of Destination DC. In addition to newly opened restaurants Hill Country and Carmine’s on 7th Street and the Riot Act Comedy Theater at 8th and E, Gibbs pointed to the massive construction project at the site of the former convention center, where the City Center DC complex of retail, office and hotel space — large enough to be touted as a new “neighborhood” by its developers — broke ground this spring.

Though in 2004 Zibart could still write that “tourists and locals alike are venturing into

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almost virgin territory, working their way north from the Mall to a new campus of museums,” such a description is now passé. The “Quarter” has long since made its comeback.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of today’s Penn Quarter is the architectural interplay between old and new. Walk down almost any street and you’ll see restored 19th-century brick façades, many with elegantly adorned cornices, seamlessly integrated with modern residential and office buildings.

For example, the Gallup Organization headquarters at 9th and F Streets blends the French renaissance revival style of the 1867 Lansburgh building, designed by prolific Washington architect Adolf Cluss, with a sleek modern office building via an airy staircase and foyer.

Across 9th Street, the undulating glass canopy of the Kogod Courtyard at the center of the National Portrait Gallery in the old Patent Office building, completed in 2007 and designed by Sir Norman Foster (also designer of the Reichstag cupola in Berlin), provides another example of the area’s striking architectural fusion. On any given day, the courtyard hosts museum-goers, lunchers enjoying free Wi-Fi, or special cultural events.

Head up the curving staircase on the F Street side of the building to a one-room exhibition that sheds light on the events and individuals, from sports team owner Abe Pollin, to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), that shaped the Penn Quarter of today.The exhibition could hardly find a more fitting setting.

The display highlights the efforts of the DC Preservation League, founded in 1971 as “Don’t Tear it Down,” in saving many of the historic edifices that give downtown Washington its unique character today. It seems that virtually every building, including the Patent Office, was at one time threatened with demolition.

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The Washington Diplomat

September 2011

ing the 19th century.

Before completing our tour at the FroZenYo shop In conserving the buildings, activists also helped to prearound the corner from Ford’s Theatre, we visited serve Penn Quarter’s cultural heritage, including the multithe FreshFarm farmer’s market on 8th Street ple waves of immigrants that closely mirror broader trends between D and E, a Thursday afternoon institution in in U.S. history. Careful observers can learn much about this Penn Quarter. Market manager Andrea Cimino told history by venturing somewhat off the beaten path. of the big-name chefs who regularly come to shop On an unusually pleasant Thursday in early August, I met here, including José Andrés, founder of area restaua Slovenian friend arriving from New York near the rants including Zaytinya, Jaleo and America Eats Chinatown Arch, and together we set out to uncover some Tavern. The latter, a pop-up restaurant that opened of these lesser-known aspects of the neighborhood.

July 4 in the former Café Atlantico/Minibar space on We started with lunch at the Wok and Roll Restaurant at 8th Street (and will close next January), serves 604 H St., NW, where we enjoyed delicious Chinese-Japanese American classics in partnership with the current fare amid historic surroundings. We were actually eating in National Archives exhibit “What’s Cooking, Uncle the 1843 Mary E. Surratt Boarding House, where the charisSam?” depicting the federal government’s role in matic actor John Wilkes Booth met with conspirators shaping the national palate. (including, to a greater or lesser degree, Ms. Surratt), to plan The National Archives, built in the 1930s where the Lincoln assassination. Though I had walked by this spot PHOTO: THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY 8th Street meets Pennsylvania Avenue as part of the a hundred times, I’d never before noticed the Federal Triangle development project, stands where Penn Quarter has undergone explanatory sign on the site.

D.C.’s sprawling Central Market once supplied Washington a cultural renaissance of sorts, Our next stop was at 3rd and G Streets, where kitchens, both humble and grand. The Andrés-Archives with additions such as the the oldest synagogue building in Washington — culinary collaboration provides yet another example of recently constructed Sidney an understated yet graceful red brick structure Penn Quarter’s mixing of old and new, drawing on downHarman Hall of the used by the Adas Israel congregation from 1876 town Washington heritage to fit the zeitgeist.

Shakespeare Theatre to 1908 — today sits tucked against the on-ramp The neighborhood today is not without problems— Company, above, about two to Interstate 395. To enter the Lillian & Albert Neuhaus (the “queen of Penn Quarter,” as Gibbs called blocks from the Gallery Place/ Small Jewish Museum, as it is now called, we had her) cited noise pollution in an area not zoned as residenChinatown Metro, where much to ring the bell at the Jewish Historical Society of tial as one persistent complaint she hears. A 2007 City of the neighborhood’s developGreater Washington, one block west on G Street.

Paper story told of a peevish 6th Street resident who ment has been centered.

We were soon treated to a private tour by archipoured a bottle of water from the window of her condo PHOTO: DESTINATION DC vist Claire Uziel, who used historic photographs onto an unsuspecting crowd chattering outside a nightto illustrate her stories of the building and its congregation. One showed the synagogue being club below. moved three blocks east from its original location at 6th and G in 1969.

Meanwhile, to deter youth loitering along 7th Street by the Verizon Center, various aural tacAnother historic property of the Adas Israel congregation, a 1906 synagogue at 6th and I tics are being employed, from classical music to high-pitched buzzes.The ethical implications of Streets, is today part of the cultural revival of Penn Quarter. Restored in the early 2000s, the these, as well as the merits of a D.C. police program to engage teenagers who hang out in the historic building now hosts diverse cultural events. area, are being debated in various online forums.

After a brief stop in the outstanding gift shop of the cavernous National Building Museum, Even with these universal urban problems, the general verdict is that Penn Quarter’s renaisbuilt in the 1880s to house the U.S. Pension Bureau, we continued on to the German-American sance has been successful — years in the making but long overdue. The heart of downtown Heritage Museum of the USA, opened in March 2010 in the 1888 townhouse on 6th Street built Washington is beating once again.

by German immigrant John Hockemeyer. This small museum, complemented by the GoetheInstitut, recalls the huge influence of German immigrants in shaping today’s Penn Quarter dur- Jacob Comenetz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

WALK THROUGH HISTORY

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[ memorials ]

Battle-Scarred Statues Civil War Heroes Immortalized Along Circles of Embassy Row

W

by David Tobenkin

hile 150 years have passed since the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in the waters off Charleston, South Carolina, sparked the Civil War, many of the Union’s leading generals can still be seen walking or riding the streets of Washington, D.C. A surprising number of bronze and stone memorials to American military heroes can be found along Massachusetts Avenue, NW, ensconced among the foreign embassies, chanceries and ambassadorial residences of Embassy Row. Many of the top Union brass, alas, are located elsewhere:Their commander in chief, Abraham Lincoln, is honored elsewhere throughout the city, most notably at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, in charge of overall command of the Union Army and later elected president, has a place of honor in front of the U.S. Capitol in the largest sculptural formation dedicated to any American war hero. President James Garfield, a major general in the Civil War who was later elected president and assassinated in the first year of his term in 1881, has a monument nearby.William Tecumseh Sherman’s equestrian statue, honoring the famed architect of the Union Army’s scorched-earth “March to the Sea” campaign in Savannah, Georgia, lies just south of the U.S. Treasury Department building near the White House’s Ellipse green space.

As for the Confederate generals who made up the Southern secessionist forces — well, to the victor belong the statue spoils.An exception is Albert Pike, a Confederate general pardoned by President Andrew Johnson (in part, some surmise, because both men were freemasons), whose statue lies near Judiciary Square.

Still, learning about the many field command generals and admirals of the

Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan is depicted in a scene from his most famous Civil War victory, the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek in Shenandoah Valley, Va., in the circle that bears his name, which is surrounded by embassies such as Greece, Latvia and Ireland, as well as the Egyptian Residence, pictured above.

Union Army and Navy who line Embassy Row can make for a pleasant stroll through both history and some of Washington’s most desirable neighborhoods.

These Civil War heroes benefited from a remarkable confluence of events.The growth, both during and after the war, of the very federal government that the Union sought to preserve drove the expansion of Washington, D.C.The conflict that nearly split the nation apart and killed more than 600,000 soldiers was still fresh on everyone’s mind — and the main characters of that conflict were obvious choices to be centerpieces for the city’s newly landscaped monumental circles and squares.

Here’s a look at some of the cast of Civil War personalities whose memorials now populate Embassy Row, going southeast along Massachusetts Avenue, NW:

GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN (1831-88) Sheridan Circle, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, 23rd Street and R Street, NW At the center of the circle’s wide, grassy field lies a bronze equestrian statue of the diminutive, mustachioed Sheridan, a pugnacious and famously aggressive Union cavalry officer who was the George Patton of his day, in a scene from his most famous victory, the Battle of Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, Va., in 1864. Sheridan, on his prized warhorse Rienzi, rushed nearly 20 miles from Winchester, Va., toward his soldiers, who were retreating after an initial

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The family of Samuel Francis Du Pont thought that the original statue built to honor the Civil War hero was too stiff, so the family replaced it with the current monument depicting three allegorical figures that anchors Dupont Circle.

Confederate attack. Waving his hat as Rienzi reared up, Sheridan persuaded them to return to the front to mount a counterattack that led to a Union victory. The sculpture, designed by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum, captures the action beautifully and is mounted on a low pedestal, allowing a particularly good view.

If William Sherman’s scorched-earth campaign that obliterated parts of the Deep South made him reviled among many as the “Scourge of the South,” Philip Sheridan’s campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley, the breadbasket for Confederate military commander Robert E. Lee’s troops, had a similar purpose and end. After laying waste to that valley, Sheridan himself wrote in his report, with typical directness, that, “A crow would have had to carry its rations if it had flown across the valley.” Rienzi, renamed Winchester after the battle, lives on at the National Museum of American History, where the stuffed and mounted horse is on display. Sheridan is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The circle that bears his name is remarkable because, unlike many of the other Massachusetts Avenue circles and squares — notably Dupont Circle — the spectacular original beaux-arts mansions built around it at the turn of the 20th century remain intact. Jutting out from Sheridan Circle are the embassies of Greece (designed by famed architect George Oakley Totten), Latvia (the former residence of renowned painter and arts patron Alice Pike Barney), Ireland and Romania, the South Korean chancery, as well as the ambassadorial residences of Egypt and Turkey (the palatial former house of bottle cap magnate Edward Everett, also designed by Totten). A small memorial on the southeast corner of the circle memorializes the 1976 assassination that took place on Sheridan Circle of exiled Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and a friend by assassins sent by the Pinochet government.

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SAMUEL FRANCIS DU PONT (1803-65) Dupont Circle, at the intersection of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire Avenues, and P and 19th Streets, NW At the center of one of the city’s largest and most well-known traffic circles is a marble fountain honoring the Civil War admiral, though Du Pont himself is not depicted. Du Pont was the hero of the Battle of Port Royal, South Carolina, whose capture in 1861 allowed the Union to establish a critical naval blockade further south off the coasts of the Confederate states of Georgia and Florida. Du Pont subsequently led a failed attempt to capture the heavily defended port of Charleston, South Carolina, a defeat for which he was blamed. However, a later investigation determined that senior commanders had ordered the assault despite misgivings expressed

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Stately Elegance in Dupont Circle

After the Civil War, the growth of the very federal government that the Union sought to preserve drove the expansion of Washington, D.C. — and the heroes of the conflict that nearly split the nation apart were obvious choices to be centerpieces for the city’s newly landscaped monumental circles and squares.

Continued from previous page

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by Du Pont.

Du Pont was born into the famous industrialist family of the same name, but ironically his branch of the family had not yet attained wealth when he was a boy.

Thus, at the tender age of 12, he joined a U.S. Navy ship as a midshipman, launching a stellar career in which he rapidly advanced, along the way increasing professionalism, improving training, and fighting corruption in the U.S. Navy.

After Du Pont’s death soon after the Civil War’s conclusion, the Du Pont family pressed Washington to authorize a monument in his honor, which was eventually granted, resulting in a stiff statue of Du Pont standing at attention. Never popular, the family itself offered to replace that statue with the current monument designed by Daniel Chester French, sculptor of the iconic Abraham Lincoln statue in the Lincoln Memorial, which was erected in 1922. The Dupont Circle statue depicts three allegorical figures representing attributes necessary to any seaman’s success: a woman, Sea, holds a ship in her hands; a man, Wind, holds a billowing sail; and a second woman, Stars, holds a globe with one small star visible. An inscription at the statue’s base mentions Du Pont himself.

While no embassies are located directly on Dupont Circle, the PNC bank building on the northeastern corner occupies the space of a mansion that once housed the former Chinese legation in a mansion that was later torn down. The Embassy of Portugal is just northwest of the circle on Massachusetts Avenue, and the Colombian ambassador’s residence is nearby as well, on 20th and Q Streets. Also of note on the circle are the historic Patterson and Wadsworth beaux-arts houses at P Streets and Massachusetts Avenue, respectively.

Just north of Dupont Circle at Connecticut Avenue and Q Street, carved into the stone along the lip of the north escalator entrance to the Dupont Circle Metro Station, are verses from poet Walt Whitman’s poem “The Wound-Dresser,” describing his experience tending to wounded Civil War soldiers as a volunteer nurse when he stayed in D.C. during the war:“Thus in silence in dreams’ projections / Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals / The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand / I sit by the restless all the dark night — some are so young / Some suffer so much — I recall the experience sweet and sad…”

LIEUTENANT GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT (1786-1866) Scott Circle, at the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Rhode Island Avenue and 16th Street, NW The bronze equestrian statue of Scott, the general in chief of the Union forces at

In addition to gaining fame during the Civil War, Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott was also a hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. The bronze equestrian statue of him on Scott Circle was cast by sculptor Henry Kirke Brown from cannons captured by Scott during the Mexican-American War.

the start of the Civil War and a hero of the War of 1812 as well as the MexicanAmerican War, is situated on a tall pedestal and was cast by sculptor Henry Kirke Brown from cannons captured by Scott during the Mexican-American War. Scott, looking distinguished in mutton chop sideburns, holds the reins with one hand and the other elbow out akimbo. The statute faces due south down 16th Street toward the White House, which can actually be seen from Scott Circle, where the Australian and Philippine embassies reside.

(Incidentally, all horse statues in the city must face toward the White House to avoid having their back sides pointed in that direction.)

Scott was 74 years old at the war’s start and too old to fight in the field, but he realized, contrary to popular opinion, that it would be a lengthy war and helped to design the overall strategy that allowed the Union forces to prevail. His Anaconda Plan relied on a blockade of the South and on Union presences in Northern Virginia and along the Mississippi River to apply economic pressure on the South. He died little more than a year after the Union victory in May 1866.

Other monuments in green spaces around the circle include a memorial to Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician who founded the homeopathic school of medicine, and a statue of Daniel Webster, a renowned senator, orator and opponent of slavery who nonetheless spearheaded many efforts in the first half of the 19th century to avoid a conflagration between the North and the South over the issue.

See STATUES, page 38

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from page 34

Statues GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS (1816-70) Thomas Circle, at the junction of Massachusetts and Vermont Avenues, and 14th and M Streets, NW An equestrian statue of Thomas sculpted by John Quincy Adams Ward and erected in 1879 stands in the center of the circle and faces due south. Born in the secessionist South, Thomas wedded a Northerner, opposed slavery, and threw his lot in with the Union, causing his Southern family to disown him.

He produced a long string of battlefield successes in Kentucky and Tennessee, including leadership of Union troops in defensive action at the Battle of Chickamauga in Tennessee that ultimately saved the Union Army at Cumberland The equestrian statue on Thomas Circle from destruction in 1863 and honors Gen. George H. Thomas, a Southerner gave him the nickname, “The who married a Northerner, opposed slavery, Rock of Chickamauga.”The statue and threw his lot in with the Union, causing notes that it was erected by a his Southern family to disown him. grateful Army of the Cumberland.

Thomas also won a decisive victory against Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood in Franklin and Nashville,Tennessee, in 1864.

At the outer edge of Embassy Row, the circle is largely urban, surrounded by office buildings and churches, including the prominent National City Christian Church.

David Tobenkin is a freelance writer and licensed D.C. tour guide who leads tours of Embassy Row. He can be reached at dtobenkin@yahoo.com.

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EDUCATION ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat

■ September 2011

Under Pressure

Are the Rigors of Testing Producing Generation of Students Under Strain?

by Stephanie Kanowitz If you’re older than 20, chances are you look back on childhood as an easy time when the biggest decision you faced was when that next game of tag with your friends would be. But youngsters today might have different memories when they’re older. They may look back at their formative years and say, “Remember your standardized test prep?”

Case in point: A kindergartener in Arlington, Va., tells her family about her day at school, and after listening to what she learned, her third-grade brother says, “You should really remember what you’re learning in kindergarten because they’re going to be testing you on some of this stuff in third grade.”

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■ INSIDE: Revolution added an urgent relevancy to a new exchange program focused on entrepreneurship in Egypt. PAGE 43 ■

September 2011

EDUCATION

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Continued from previous page

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The test that third-grader referred to is a standardized one required of public school students nationwide under the No Child Left Behind Act, passed Jan. 8, 2002, during the administration of President George W. Bush. Considered the most sweeping change to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, No Child’s stated goal is equal educational achievement among students across the country. Failing to comply with the law means less federal dollars for schools receiving Title I funding, which is granted to school districts with many students living at the poverty level — 90 percent of schools nationwide, according to an overview of the law on PBS.org.

In addition to boosting accountability, the other implicit goal of No Child is to add unity and clarity to the current patchwork of local school systems so that students in Alabama are educated to the same standards as those in California or Vermont. Proponents of standardized testing also point to statistics in many parts of the country that have shown an increased proficiency in the core subjects of reading, math and science. “Personally we think that testing is very important in order to get tools to improve the education of our children and know their educational needs,� said Rodrigo Rojas, minister counselor at the Embassy of Colombia. He has two daughters, a seventh-grader at Julius West Middle School and a third-grader at Beall Elementary School, both in Rockville, Md. But many teachers and parents worry that No Child fails to take into account the vast array of differences among local school districts and individual states, imposing rigid rules that can rob schools of federal money even when they’ve shown improvement.

Congress had tried to address those concerns since 2007, to no avail. So in August, the Obama administration decided to use its executive power to break the congressional impasse and offer his own sweeping changes to No Child.

The administration will now provide regulatory relief to states through waivers that can override requirements mandated by No

Child, such as achieving 100 percent proficiency in math and reading by 2014 — what U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called a “slow-motion train wreck.�

Now, states will create their own accountability systems to measure progress — which doesn’t necessarily mean lowering the bar. Before, Duncan said many schools were already “dummying down� their standards to meet No Child’s criteria, “forcing districts into one-sizefits-all solutions that simply don’t work,� he said at a press conference.

PHOTO: CHAD MCDERMOTT / ISTOCK Most educators praised the move, having long argued that the growing test-centric culture was depriving teachers of flexibility, while putting too much strain on children who were studying only to pass a test rather than learn the actual material.

The more general debate over standardized testing is especially relevant in the Washington area, where overachievement is the norm — starting from kindergarten all the way up to high school, college and beyond. Whether it’s a third-grader barely able to lift a backpack overloaded with books, the high school senior taking adrenaline pills to stay up and study for a test so they can get into a good university, or their parents working a typical 12-hour Washington workday, the pressure to succeed is deeply ingrained in the D.C. mindset. “It’s putting too much pressure on children and taking them away from learning how to think and how to solve problems as opposed to what they’re trying to do now, which is teach them the things that might be seen on the test,� the Arlington mom said. “I think teachers need to know what their children are learning, but I really think it takes away from learning in the moment and learning how to think and process. “We’re missing out on the great stuff of education in terms of teaching children how to think and how to give them open-ended questions and ways to solve different kinds of problems rather than A, B, C or D,� she added.“I think it’s more of a society kind of thing, especially in the area that we live in, where there are high expectations for children and for schools.�

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“It’s a much different world than the world the parents of kids who are in school today grew up in.”

Georgetown University

— MEL RIDDILE associate director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals

Center for Language Education and Development

REPORT CARD ON TESTING Testing is nothing new and has been around since at least the early 1900s. But rather than a pop quiz checking a student’s mastery of a given week’s spelling list, this new generation of exams has become a highstakes evaluation that can determine whether students move on to the next grade or earn a high school diploma — and whether schools qualify for critical federal funds.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, said Mel Riddile, associate director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), which has 27,000 members and is in touch with more than 1 million students through its honor societies and the National Association of Student Councils.

“It certainly changed the face of education,” Riddile said of standardizing testing. “For example, 15 years ago, only about 20 percent of the students in the country took algebra I. Today and since 2004, every student in Virginia has to not only take algebra I in high school and pass it, but they have to pass the state algebra exam as part of their requirements to graduate from high school. It’s a much different world than the world the parents of kids who are in school today grew up in.”

And despite toughening graduation requirements, the graduation rate didn’t falter in Virginia, he added. “So even though the standards were higher, we did a good job of preparing our kids to take those tests and pass those tests and they turned out not to keep kids from graduating. We raised the bar and didn’t lose kids from graduating, which is a very good thing.”

Ensuring that students earn the degrees they receive is of course the pro. The con is that the tests are motivators only for typically underachieving kids. “For the above-average student, standardized state tests are more of an inconvenience and a nuisance than they are anything else,” Riddile observed.

Those kids would rather focus on collegeentry exams such as the SAT or resumeenhancing ones like Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests. Passage of the latter two is considered equivalent to passing college-level courses.

Performance on those is where most of the real achievement anxiety comes into play, according to Riddile, because more kids than ever before are applying for acceptance to

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competitive colleges. “Colleges are besieged with applications in record numbers,” he said.

STANDARDIZED STRESSES High stakes can translate into high anxiety.

Documentaries such as “Race to Nowhere” and books like “The Blessing of a Skinned Knee” by Wendy Mogel are fighting back against the education reforms, saying the pressure to perform is creating a generation of stressed-out students obsessed with acing tests.

Dr. Angelica Kloos, assistant professor of pediatrics in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Children’s National Medical Center, said she has been seeing students with high anxiety over passing tests related to the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, the Virginia Standard of Learning and the Maryland School Assessment, in addition to their regular midterms and finals.“It is hard to say where the pressure comes from,” she said.“I believe it comes from a combination of several influences. Society and familial pressures may be internalized in some children, leading to a higher likelihood of experiencing negative school pressure.”

Warning signs of stress include avoidance of school and related activities; frequent, nonspecific body aches, such as headaches and stomachaches, for which no medically related

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cause is found; difficulty sleeping; and behavioral changes, such as irritability, tantrums and aggression that appear worse on school days, Kloos explained.

Being a student in a high-powered city like D.C. and its surrounding suburbs might not help either, she added.“I would guess that the pressure to achieve is higher in areas like D.C. or New York, where there is perhaps an emphasis on educational and financial success.�

Indeed, the Washington region is home to 300-plus private or independent schools, according to Washingtonian magazine. Many are exclusive — and expensive — institutions that attract children of the city’s business and government elite (including numerous diplomats) and also have a reputation for churning out leaders in society. Yet despite being bastions of educational achievement, they don’t have to adhere to mandatory standardized testing.

The Washington International School (WIS) is a private school whose curriculum is based on the IB program. Instead of the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, the school’s 900 pre-kindergarten through 12thgraders from 90 countries periodically take standardized tests offered by the Educational Records Bureau and the International Schools’ Assessment. “These tests give us the opportunity to compare how our students are doing in reading, writing and mathematics as compared to students in other independent and international schools,� said Jim Reese, middle and upper school curriculum and staff coordinator. “The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program exams, which our grade 12 students take as school-leaving exams, are standardized as well.�

To help students cope with pressure and prep for the tests, WIS builds independent study into their days and holds seminars on stress reduction. “For students in grades six to 10, we have advisory and life skills programs, as well as special assemblies that at various times throughout the academic year focus on effective time management, organizational skill development and stress reduction,� Reese explained.

But William Layman, director of admissions at the independent Field School in Georgetown, said not all schools are test-happy — or convinced of their usefulness. For instance, Field doesn’t offer AP classes. “I think for most parents they think, ‘Well, how are you going to get into a good college if you don’t have a lot of AP classes on your transcript?’ The truth is AP classes ‌ are classes whose primary motivation, virtual sole motivation, is to prepare you for that AP test. That AP

PHOTO: JANI BRYSON / ISTOCK

test is a test that’s written somewhere else and basically covers a whole lot of facts,â€? Layman said. “The idea of firing facts at kids like they were tennis balls coming out of one of those tennis ball machines ‌ that’s just not how we see education.â€?

NATURE VS. NURTURE Lots of factors affect student performance in school, but life away from school — in the home — is perhaps the biggest. “Unfortunately you can predict student achievement by ZIP code around the country, and it’s really related to the education level of the parents and the education level is related to the income the parents earn,� Riddile of the NASSP said.“Better-educated tends to be betterearning.�

Fairfax County,Va., is the highest educated in the country, and parents there give their children an academic edge by virtue of their own experiences, he said. “When their children are young, they expose them to more vocabulary, those kids enter school with a clear cognitive advantage in terms of language skills, they often become better readers and that leads to better math, and they’re better students all around — not because they have more ability, but because poorer kids don’t have the resources that middle-class kids have.When those under-resourced kids enter school, schools have to try to make up the deficit from the day they walk in. “It’s not about ability,� he summarized. “Sometimes it’s about who your parents are, what the expectations are, and what you’ve been exposed to.�

But what kids are exposed to, many experts agree, should include some time to be a kid.“As a mother and a teacher, I find the American teen years are often filled with academic and social stress,â€? said one English teacher at Richard Montgomery High School in Montgomery County, Md. “I think teens are best off when they are fully involved in school and co-curricular activities‌. Parents need to focus and keep kids focused on real achievements, and not define success by admittance into Harvard, Yale or Stanford.â€?

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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EDUCATION

September 2011

[ exchange ]

Enterprising Revolution LearnServe Egypt Exchange Seizes Moment of Opportunity

by Jacob Comenetz

O

n Jan. 25, the “Day of Rage” that sparked the Egyptian revolution and the demise of President Hosni Mubarak, Omar AbdelMaksoud, a mechanical engineering student at the British University in Cairo, received a Facebook invitation to “join the revolution” in Tahrir Square.

Clicking “maybe,” he called a friend who had already joined the tens of thousands of protestors thronging the square. Hearing that not much yet was actually happening, AbdelMaksoud told the friend he would call back later. He had to get ready for a trip to Turkey in any case.

Like many young Egyptians, Abdel-Maksoud expected the protests, a recurring facet of life in Cairo, to die away. During the week he was away, the protests did the opposite: they escalated. He watched the fighting in the streets unfold on Al Jazeera. People were being brutalized for trying to assert their rights. AbdelMaksoud knew then that nothing could make them go back.

On Feb. 11, the “Day of Departure” when Mubarak’s resignation was announced, AbdelMaksoud witnessed history in the making.“It was like a party,” he said, describing the atmosphere in Cairo’s central square.“Egypt focuses on the heart.We’re a very emotional country.”

Nearly six months after the revolution, Abdel-Maksoud was sharing his firsthand account at a July 20 dinner and discussion hosted by John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The dinner was for the 12 participants — six Egyptian students and six from American universities — of the LearnServe Egypt (LSE) exchange program.

LSE was conceived by Chris Caine, president and CEO of Mercator XXI, an international consulting company based in Washington, D.C., together with “coach” Kathy Kemper of the Institute for Education, as a way to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership and teamwork among young people.

Though the program originated several months prior to the Arab Spring, it could not have come at a more opportune time, focused on a lynchpin country in the Arab world on the cusp of historic change.

And it got to the heart of the very issues propelling that change: a young generation looking for opportunity and a voice. Given that the Arab Spring was largely a reaction to a rigid, patriarchal economic order that stifled innovation and failed to create jobs for masses of unemployed youth, LSE’s focus on entrepreneurship took on a whole new relevance and urgency. Experts agree that any new political system that emerges in Egypt must be buttressed by a robust private sector, if it is to develop as a liberal democracy. As the Economist put it in a June 25 briefing: “If the economy improves, that should help consolidate democracy; if it falters, so will political reform.”

EGYPT’S X FACTOR Five weeks into LSE’s six-week inaugural session, the group of 19- to 23-yearold students and recent graduates were seeking wisdom on how entrepreneurship could benefit the Arab Spring’s young, still fragile aspirations for democracy.

At the CSIS dinner, Hamre opened by citing an econometric study done by the World Bank on the origins of national wealth in 190 countries. According

September 2011

PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER

Omar Abdel-Maksoud, left, a mechanical engineering student at the British University in Cairo, and Reem Shalaby, a software engineer from Cairo, were among the six Egyptian participants who joined six American students for LearnServe Egypt, a new exchange program designed to foster young leadership and entrepreneurship.

to the report, while both the natural resources and human-created infrastructure were significant determiners of a country’s prosperity, a third, more nebulous “x factor” proved to be of overwhelming importance: “a residual factor, having to do with the quality of the workforce, a sense of shared purpose, the quality of the government to protect intellectual property,” as Hamre described it. “It’s the intangible product of good government — where government is effective, society prospers.”

While the question of what form Egypt’s post-revolution government will take remains open, programs such as LSE had the potential, Hamre said, to help Egypt find its way, establishing a harmonious, mutually beneficial relationship between the public and the private sector.The future of this keystone country of the Arab world will very much be determined by the successful cultivation of the entrepreneurial spirit exhibited by the LSE participants — the embodiment of the young protesters who first took to the streets clamoring for change.

The meeting with Hamre — “an experience that was once in a lifetime and one I will never forget,” as one LSE participant described it — inspired confidence that this generation could be the crucial “x-factor” in Egypt’s future. It was time, Abdel-Maksoud said, for his emotional country to focus on entrepreneurism.

FACEBOOK FACILITATION Despite talk of the “Twitter and Facebook revolution” as the main driver of the Arab Spring, more traditional economic and political grievances fueled the unrest. Nonetheless, social media played a key, facilitating role in the Egyptian

EDUCATION

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The Washington Diplomat Page43

Continued from previous page protests, and it continues to unite the tech-savvy, well-educated youth — including the LSE participants.

So it was that Abdelrahman Khalifa, a junior majoring in business administration at the American University in Cairo (AUC), learned of LearnServe Egypt on the business school’s Facebook page. Attracted by the program’s concept of developing a socially responsible business plan in three cross-cultural teams comprised of Egyptian and U.S. students, he decided to apply.

After his interview with Hesham Wahby, the Cairo-based representative of Mercator XXI, Khalifa did not think he would be admitted. “Yet I got accepted and suddenly I found myself working on the U.S. visa procedures and preparing to join Phase I back there at AUC dorms,” he wrote on the LSE blog (www.ifeegypt.org).

In Phase I, five American and one Chinese participant from U.S. institutions including Johns Hopkins University, American University, Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania traveled to Cairo for two weeks in late June to meet their Egyptian counter-

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parts and brainstorm ideas for possible business solutions to social problems.They received instruction and guidance from a bevy of speakers including marketing professors from AUC, entrepreneurs and CEOs of technology start-ups, and other business leaders, including Wael Fakharany, country manager of Google Egypt.

During this initial phase, participants narrowed dozens of business ideas down to just three through repeated pitching. On the final day in Cairo, they stood before a pitch-judging panel of senior business leaders — an exercise that would be repeated at the program’s culmination four weeks later in Washington, D.C. Among the goals of LSE was to give participants the chance to practice presenting before investors in a realworld setting, according to Dr. Laura Sicola, a Philadelphiabased linguist and cross-cultural communication expert affiliated with Mercator XXI who worked with Caine and Kemper to direct the program.

The second part of the program embraced the very social media tools that are redefining modern communication, whether on the street or in a boardroom.

After working together for two weeks in Cairo, the Americans returned home and participants confronted “the modern reality of working in virtual teams,” as Sicola described Phase II. As the three teams of four, each balanced between Egyptian and American participants, emailed, Skyped, and tweeted one another, they worked on many other aspects of their business plans: conducting financial studies, market research, investigating funding sources and regulatory obstacles, and starting to write company proposals. They were also confronted with a strategic decision point, of whether to continue or — REEM SHALABY redirect their initial plan. software engineer from Cairo Despite being thousands of miles apart, the use of modern communications technology encouraged participants to learn about cultural differences — and similarities — and for American participants to reflect on their time in Egypt.

“There is a lot of momentum in Egypt to implement real change and take control of the country,” wrote Cornelius Queen, a recent international studies graduate of Johns Hopkins University, in a July 11 blog post. “I feel that I am so fortunate to have been there at such a historic time.”

“LearnServe Egypt 2011 program was six weeks only, but I felt like it was a whole year program in terms of the experience and knowledge gained.

It’s an opportunity that happens once in your lifetime.”

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Over the course of the six-week LearnServe Egypt program, participants spent two weeks in Egypt and two weeks in the United States, as well as two weeks whereby the teams used email, Facebook, Skype, Twitter and other technology to work on their business plans remotely.

Working in virtual teams also made him realize how important technology has been in fomenting change. Though improving physical infrastructure takes time, “technology has been a key catalyst in mobilizing Egypt’s citizenry” to leapfrog to the future, Queen said.

“Technology has allowed people to circumvent previous impediments due to a lack of infrastructure.The Egyptians I’ve met, especially Reem [Shalaby] from my team, are so tech-savvy and know everything going on with Google Plus, Java, Twitter. It’s a real advantage because social networking technology has created a platform where information can be exchanged at the tap of a mouse,” Queen wrote.“Hamdulillah [thank God] for this wonderful innovation!”

more affordable version of solar power based on proven water technology.

Team Zaina’s (meaning “beautiful” in Arabic) plan for preserving rural communities, though less technology oriented, would market highquality handicraft fashion accessories made from widely available palm leaves.The project would capitalize on the popular fair trade movement that has helped local, indigenous artisans from around the world sell their crafts in lucrative, faraway markets such as the United States.

Formulating these plans through iterative stages of research, pitching and refining, participants began to see LSE as “not just a learning experience.” According to Skyla Lilly, a rising junior at American University who worked on the Zaina project:“Once we started getting feedback, we realized it’s something viable, something we really could do.” Added her colleague from American University, Jordan D’Eri: PHOTO: LEARNSERVE EGYPT “None of us really think that when these two weeks are over, that’s it. Each of our teams reached a point when we stopped thinking of the deadline as an end to the project, and realized this is something we’re really going to do.”

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

‘GO STRAIGHT TO THE CLOUD’

Modern technology also figured prominently in the three business plans developed by LSE participants, each geared toward socially responsible ventures. Team “Istiklal,” Arabic for “independence,” created a plan for an NGO that would train Egyptians with disabilities in computer literacy and provide job training and counseling services for people who often live in the shadows.The endeavor would tackle an under-recognized issue in the Arab world, where being disabled often carries a deep social stigma and many governments have yet to develop widespread policies to address the problem.

Ratum Technologies takes aim at an issue that affects all Egyptians — and much of the world for that matter: energy and resource scarcity. Ratum’s goal is to “become [Egypt’s] most reliable and cost-effective supplier of solar water heaters,” helping the country overcome the economically ruinous policy of fuel subsidies and transition to a greener energy future using a

In Phase III of the program, the participants met up again in the United States to pitch their final business models to panels of investors and members of the business, government and media community. The Egyptian participants joined their U.S. counterparts in D.C. on July 18 and were greeted with a welcome reception hosted by Egyptian Ambassador Sameh Shoukry.

Over the next two weeks, the teams pitched their ideas, attended business classes, worked with mentors and visited businesses similar to their ventures, splitting their time between Washington, Philadelphia, and Easton, Pennsylvania — home of Caine’s alma mater, Lafayette College.

On the sultry afternoon of July 19,The Diplomat caught up with the LSE group as they met

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Continued from previous page LearnServe Egypt was developed by Chris Caine, head of the consulting company Mercator XXI, Kathy Kemper of the Institute for Education and Philadelphia-based linguist Laura Sicola as a way to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership and teamwork among young people.

with former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, now a corporate adviser and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, in a Rosslyn, Va., office tower overlooking D.C. Again, the subject of modern technology was integral to the advice given to the LSE teams.

Williams tapped leadership lessons from his time in office to answer participants’ questions about how to influence politics in a time of unpredictability.The former mayor said that to shape the future, it was essential to build trust in the present by creating a long-term vision while highlighting short-term wins along the way. In addition, it was important to communicate and share information with people in a streamlined manner, using the latest technologies available.

These universal rules, he said, apply to Egypt today. “A country like Egypt should go straight to the cloud,” he said. Using technology in the right way, government and citizens can build trust, keeping each other honest through incremental steps.

THE NEXT PHASE In describing LearnServe Egypt at the CSIS dinner, Sicola focused on the program’s intensity, both in the quantity and quality of experience it packed into a brief time span. Rather than being a “touchy-feely” educational exchange, she said participants had been surprised “both at how intensive and intense” it had been thus far. This, she said,“really elevates the level of dignity to it.”

The Washington Diplomat, having attended not only the CSIS dinner, but also several other components during Phase III (including a session on July 21 at the Beacon Hotel in D.C., where LSE participants pitched their business plans to this newspaper) can corroborate this.

What consistently stood out was the passion among both organizers and participants — for Egypt’s future, for their business ventures, for each other, and for the experience.

Though passion alone will not be enough to solve Egypt’s deep-seated social and economic woes, without the vital ingredient of entrepreneurship — and the related willingness to take risks — the country will not be able to develop a successful democracy. Wahby of

Mercator XXI’s Cairo office put it best:“Actually, the revolution is another business venture,” he said, making the connection between the PHOTO: LEARNSERVE EGYPT recent uprising and yearning for economic opportunity. “It’s the people who want better business opportunities who were leading the revolution,” he said.“The revolution was just that next step of removing barriers.”

At the conclusion of the program on July 29, following a final, polished pitch of their business plans to investors at Mercator XXI’s headquarters in downtown Washington, LSE participants faced emotional goodbyes. In an age of social media, however, they will not be quite so far apart as in the past. And LearnServe’s vision of fostering 12 next generation leaders is just beginning.

“LearnServe Egypt 2011 program was six weeks only, but I felt like it was a whole year program in terms of the experience and knowledge gained. It’s an opportunity that happens once in your lifetime,” Reem Shalaby, a software engineer and LSE participant, wrote.“For me, LearnServe Egypt 2011 isn’t the end of a phase of my life. It’s the start of another one.”

Jacob Comenetz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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U.S.- ARAB CHAMBER SELECTS OMANI AS

“AMBASSADOR OF THE YEAR” technology, better business practices, regulatory systems, busi and trade & investment facilitation. capacity-building, an signing ceremony, held on March 7 in The MOU signin with an Oman-U.S. Economic Forum, conjunction w was conducted conduct in the presence of H.E. Hunaina Al-Mughairy Al-Mughai and Hon. Richard J. Schmierer, U.S. Ambassador to Oman.

Am

H.E. Hunaina Al-Mughairy, First Arab Woman oman Ambassador in the United States, Wins Top Honors.

At an awards ceremony on July 20th, in n Washington DC, the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) named H.E. Hunaina Al-Mughairy, hairy, the Sultanate of Oman’s Ambassador to the United States, as its “Ambassador of the Year.” Upwards wards of 200 business and government leaders ders participated in the awards luncheon at the he Four Seasons Hotel, including nine corporatee sponsors whose companies are doing business in Oman.

NUSACC’s “Ambassador of the Year” NUSA award awar is presented annually to a member of the Arab diplomatic corps in the t United States for his or her outstanding Un contributions to U.S.-Arab relations. co This is the seventh year that the T award has been presented, and a previous honorees have included top diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia, Qatar, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.

“H.E. Hunaina Al-Mughairy knows the United States as well as any ambassador in this country,” said David Hamod, President and CEO of the U.S.-Arab Chamber. “In part because of her familiarity with Americans and U.S. institutions, she has been remarkably effective as Oman’s representative in the United States.”

This is the first time that NUSACC has presented the award to the Sultanate of Oman. In receiving this prestigious prize, Ambassador Al-Mughairy noted, “It is often said that it is easy to sit down and take notice but it is difficult to stand up and take action. For all of you, in business or in n politics, I thank you for standing up and taking ng action. Without your enthusiasm, commitment, ent, and sheer hard work, I would not be in a position sition to receive this award today.”

Corporate sponsors for this year’s award ceremony consisted of companies representing a variety of sectors, highlighting Oman’s growing economic diversity.

These sectors include aerospace & aviation (Boeing), banking (Citi), consulting (Booz Allen Hamilton), co defense & security (L-3 / MPRI and de Raytheon), energy (ExxonMobil and Ray Occidental Petroleum), and law (Baker Occ Donelson and DLA Piper). Several of Done these companies offered congratulatory remarks at a the luncheon.

President of NUSACC, David Hamod, presents Ambassador Hunaina Al-Mughairy with the Ambassador of the Year award.

Heather Pederson of Boeing observed that Pe Ambassador Al-Mughairy serves as a “role model” A on both personal and diplomatic levels. Ms. Pederson also commended Her H Excellency for her leadership, and that of her colleagues in Muscat, on being named one colleag of the first Arab countries to t sign the Capetown Convention on aviation – a step that has greatly grea benefited Omani and American companies. companies

“I have been in my current post as Oman’s Ambassador mbassador to the United States for the past five years, and nd it has truly been an amazing and enriching experience,” she continued.

“It has given me an opportunity to meet with th a wide range of U.S. Government representatives and business ess leaders in order to build upon the already excellent relations that hat exist between our two countries, the Sultanate of Oman and the United nited States of America.”

The ambassador has spent a total of 16 years in the United States, including two years at New York University, where she earned a Master’s degree in economics. Prior to her arrival in Washington as Ambassador, Her Excellency served as Representative in New York of the Omani Center for Investment Promotion and Export Development (OCIPED). In that capacity, she worked diligently to attract investment to the Sultanate, an experience that provided her with an opportunity to get to know Americans from all walks of life.

The Honorable George (“Cran”) Montgomery, former U.S. Ambassador to Oman and now a representative of the Baker Donelson law firm, said, “I can’t imagine anyone more deserving of this award. Hallmarks of Ambassador Al-Mughairy’s tenure will certainly be the honor of serving as the first lady Ambassador from the Arab world to Washington, and imbuing the Oman Embassy with a new sense of energy and purpose.”

“In my travels from coast to coast, especially in my role as Chair of the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, I have found the American people to be friendly, family-oriented, and eager to learn about other cultures,” said Ambassador Al-Mughairy. “I have visited 35 states all across this great nation, and the hospitality of the American people is truly remarkable.”

Laura Lane of Citi recalled that Ambassador Al-Mughairy brought “a secret magic” to gaining Congressional approval of the Oman-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). She noted that the Ambassador combines “silent strength” with “great grace” in her immensely effective diplomacy.

Ambassador Al-Mughairy played an instrumental role in negotiating the U.S.–Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which was signed in 2006 and entered into force in January 2009. The FTA with the United States is one of few such agreements around the world, elevating Oman to the “gold standard” of global destinations qualified for trade and investment. Under the terms of the FTA, bilateral trade in almost all sectors is duty-free, with a handful of remaining tariffs to be phased out over ten years.

George Salem of DLA Piper law firm also cited Ambassador Al-Mughairy as an “architect” of the U.S.-Oman FTA. He went on to note that her posting to the U.S. “provided a huge boost to the United States, to the Arab world, and to Arab women. She exemplifies an effective ambassador.”

In FTA-related testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, David Hamod, NUSACC’s President and CEO, said this about Oman: “Under the thoughtful leadership of H.M. Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, Oman has been transformed from an economic backwater to one of the most progressive and attractive nations in the region. And unlike some of its neighbors in the Arabian Gulf area, Oman has achieved this status without the benefit of huge energy reserves -- relying instead on the resilience, determination, and entrepreneurial spirit of its people.”

In the words of the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, “Both nations share a seafaring heritage, mutual commercial interests, a tradition of tolerance, and a desire for contact with other cultures as some of the distinguishing features of this long-term relationship.”

Commercial relations today, supported by the FTA, are on the upswing. A World Travel and Tourism Council report from last year identified Oman as a “fast mover,” estimating an increase in tourism revenues alone from $4.36 billion in 2010 to $7.6 billion by 2020. Moreover, the Sultanate is on track to receive more than $3 billion annually in U.S. goods and services by the year 2013, according to recent research conducted by the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce.

Two recent events have served to boost Oman’s commercial relations with the United States.

First, the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Oman last year to promote small and mediumsized enterprises in cooperation with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Second, the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) and the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) signed an MOU earlier this year to establish the Oman – U.S. Joint Business Council, the first bilateral entity of its kind between the two nations. The new Council, now in formation, is expected to concentrate on the transfer of knowledge and

September 2011

Sponsor testimonials concluded with Ian Davis of Occidental Petroleum, who related a story of Ambassador Al-Mughairy visiting his daughter’s school and joining students in an impromptu singing of a song in Swahili. A picture of Her Excellency singing with the students still hangs prominently in the school. Through such grace and friendliness, Mr. Davis said, Ambassador Al-Mughairy has touched many people and truly brought together a wide range Omanis and Americans.

Mr. Davis read aloud a congratulatory letter from Oxy’s Executive Chairman, Dr. Ray Irani. “This recognition is well deserved,” Dr. Irani stated. “During your tenure, Oman’s accomplishments, including the approval of a U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement, have earned the respect of your peers in the Administration, Congress and the Washington on diplomatic community, and the he admiration of the business community ity whom you so generously support.”

H.E. Hunaina Al-Mughairy (left), Oman’s Ambassador to the United States and Laura Lane of Citi share a light moment during the awards luncheon.

The Washington Diplomat Page 47

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September 2011

culture & ■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM

arts

entertainment

■ SEPTEMBER 2011

CULTURE

Banking on Art A budding painter and writer living the artist life in Colombia, Félix Ángel probably never imagined himself working for a bank, but over the last 20 years, he’s let his imagination gone wild at the InterAmerican Development Bank. PAGE 52

MUSIC

Concerted Team Effort Jerome Barry and his wife Lisette shared a belief in the power of music to smash cultural barriers that gave birth to the Embassy Series, which has staged hundreds of concerts and become its own smash hit. PAGE 55

FILM REVIEWS

Revealing ‘Souls’ Russian director Aleksei Fedorchenko’s “Silent Souls” speaks volumes with mesmerizing cinematography that makes up for the minimalist script. PAGE 58

DINING Mike Isabella may not have won “Top Chef,” but he proves his chops with his first restaurant, Graffiato. PAGE 56

Nordic Food Days featured cuisine from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

PHOTOS: DAKOTA FINE FOR THE EMBASSY OF SWEDEN

FOOD

SHREWD

SAVORY It used to be that embassies only served up their cooking skills at national day receptions. But now, they’re dishing up new ways to showcase their native cuisines, spicing up traditional public diplomacy with some savvy self-promotion by highlighting what’s always been a key ingredient in any culture: food. PAGE 50

[ food ]

Delectable Diplomacy Embassies Cleverly Offer Taste of Culture With Cuisine PHOTO: TRAVEL CHANNEL MEDIA

by Stephanie Kanowitz

T

he way to cultural understanding may be through our stomachs. Indeed, Washington’s melting pot of foreign embassies stirs up gastronomic opportunities to travel and taste the world without leaving the city’s 100-square-mile radius.

“Food is different in that it appeals to all of the senses, including taste and smell, and is a participatory as well as personal experience,” said Alejandra de la Paz, director of the Mexican Cultural Institute. “This inclusive, engaging aspect of food works to create bridges of understanding.”

That’s why more and more embassies are reaching out through their kitchens — spicing up traditional public diplomacy efforts with what’s always been a key ingredient in any culture: food. After all, viewing a piece of art or listening to a lecture is one thing; sampling a home-cooked meal or exotic delicacy is quite another. Embassies have realized that showcasing their native cuisines — and tapping into the growing foodie phenomenon across America — is an irresistible and clever strategy to highlight their national cultures.

It used to be that embassies showed off their culinary prowess only at national day receptions, with a staple dish here and there. Now, however, they’re serving up new options for tasting authentic cuisine, whether it’s through partnerships or solitary endeavors, and turning up the heat with some savvy self-promotion.

FRUITFUL PARTNERSHIP Washington is home to a critically acclaimed array of international restaurants, specializing in everything from Afghan kabobs to British gastropubs to Mediterranean mezes, and many embassies take advantage of local restaurant weeks to showcase their edibles. For example, the second annual Belgian Restaurant Week in D.C. was held July 15 to 21 with 11 restaurants participating, up from three last year.

The signature event was a dinner at the Belgian ambassador’s residence.

“For us, it’s good because it enhances the perception about Belgian cuisine,” Ambassador Jan Matthysen said. “More and more, food is very present in the perception about countries and also in the way people in fact enjoy their lives.”

Matthysen described Belgian fare as a mix of modern and traditional.

Typical ingredients include mussels, chocolate and beer.

“With Belgium becoming more popular and the beer culture becoming more popular in Washington, D.C.,” starting a Belgian Restaurant Week seemed an obvious move, said chef Bart Vandaele, owner of Belga Café and founder of the event.

On June 20, the House of Sweden hosted the kickoff to Nordic Food Days — a weeklong culinary showcase that brought top Nordic chefs to D.C. — with a tasting dinner for 200 at the Swedish Embassy that highlighted “new Nordic cuisine,” which is described as back-to-basics cooking that celebrates purity and freshness.

Chefs from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden prepared mostly fishcentric dishes, a hint at what they would make at their host restaurants around town: Masa 14, DC Coast, Birch & Barley, Vidalia, and Marcel’s. Their special menus included black lobster, sea snails, Icelandic cod and char, halibut, Norwegian diver scallops, and lamb saddle.

The five Nordic nations will join culinary forces again this fall on Oct. 26 for a Nordic Food Day showcase in all 130 D.C. public schools. A food competition among culinary students in the Nordic countries is currently under way to pick the top five winners to come to D.C. and participate in the event. Their recipes will be used to prepare a total 50,000 portions of food to feed 30,000 Washington students.

Another citywide culinary event, Songkran Thai Restaurant Week, celebrates Thailand’s new year and has been part of this area’s food scene since 2008. Dozens of restaurants in the metro area participated April 11 to 17 this year, but to spice things up, the Royal Thai Embassy kicked off the celebrations by hosting for the first time a

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PHOTO: TRAVEL CHANNEL MEDIA

Embassies got a big boost in their efforts to promote their cuisine when the Travel Channel show “Bizarre Foods” featured an episode on Embassy Row, as host Andrew Zimmern, above left, ate with ambassadors such as Erlan Idrissov of Kazakhstan, who served up beshbarmak horsemeat. Many embassies have long been active in the local dining scene. At left, Thai Ambassador Kittiphong na Ranong joins Carole Geitner (wife of the treasury secretary) and chef Michael Ginor for the launch of Songkran Thai Restaurant Week, which partners with dozens of restaurants in the D.C. area to celebrate Thailand’s new year.

luncheon on April 11.

Kittiphong na Ranong and 11 During the event, event Ambassador Ambass Agriculture Minister Rapibhat Chandarasrivongs spoke before Michael Ginor, an award-winning chef in New York, gave a cooking demonstration of giant shrimp green curry and papaya salad. All the dishes served were traditional Thai foods, such as kaeng phed ped yang, a roasted duck with red curry; goong kratiem, pan-fried giant shrimp with garlic; and Thai jasmine hom mali rice, said Nilobol Pimdee, first secretary at the embassy, who organized the event.

Other events included “A Taste of Iceland,” a three-day event in February in which the Icelandic Embassy partnered with DC Coast, Sushi Rock, Yellowfin and the Wind Up Space to showcase not only Iceland’s food, but its music and tourism industry as well. More recently, Colombia Week, part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in May, included a dinner at Café Atlántico with Colombian Ambassador Gabriel Silva that included a seven-course tasting menu and Colombian coffee from Juan Valdez.

SINGLE SERVINGS While some embassies promote their native foods with the help of local restaurants,

September 2011

The city’s Nordic embassies have been among the most successful in highlighting their food — from a booth at this year’s RAMMY (Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington) gala dinner to the Swedish Embassy’s TV spot in Andrew Zimmern’s “Bizarre Foods.” The Swedish Embassy also hosted the kickoff reception for Nordic Food Days — a weeklong culinary showcase that brought top chefs from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to D.C. restaurants.

others have avoided having too many cooks in the kitchen and handled the effort themselves.

The Mexican Cultural Institute’s fourth annual “Mexican Table” series of cooking demonstrations and tasting dinners is one example. Several times a year, chef Patricia Jinich, star of “Pati’s Mexican Table” on WETA, and guest chefs such as Joe Raffa from Oyamel and Alejandro Ruiz from Oaxaca show attendees how to make traditional dishes, from appetizers to desserts.After the demo, the 100 guests eat a dinner of the foods they prepared and take home a goody bag of recipes and ingredients so they can replicate the dishes at home.

“What is special about Mexican Table beyond the instructive element is the way in which Pati elaborates on the history of the food, dish or ingredient, as well as its meaning and function in Mexican culture,” de la Paz said. “The importance of food in Mexico has recently been acknowledged by UNESCO, which added traditional Mexican cuisine to its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in recognition of its historical importance, its role in community-centered culture and its symbolic, ceremonial and ritual value in everyday life.”

The events, which often sell out, have different themes. Some have featured foods from different states while others have focused on holiday themes — such as the upcoming Mexican fiestas in December — or ingredients, such as the “cacao route” this October.

Indeed, culinary-centered seminars offer embassies the chance to educate audiences about a product that can be essential to a country’s culture, economy and identity — much like Juan Valdez coffee is to Colombia.

To that end, on June 22, the Embassy of Indonesia hosted for the first time a “Chocolate Fest” dinner and dessert reception in conjunction with the World Cocoa Foundation to shed light on a critical but little-known aspect of the Indonesian economy. “Indonesia is very important to the cocoa and chocolate industry,” said Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation.“Many people don’t know that. It’s the third largest producer of cacao in the world.”

RECIPES FOR RECOGNITION

PHOTO: DAKOTA FINE / EMBASSY OF SWEDEN

Middle Eastern nation represented. Christa Waegemann, social secretary at the embassy, noted that it participated as a means of outreach. “I think it’s a common ground for everyone,” she said of food.“Everyone likes to eat and therefore it’s the easiest way to bring people together.”

The chef from the Belgian Embassy won last year’s challenge, and Ambassador Matthysen said that was a boon.“It brought us a lot of visibility later on and goodwill, so we love it,” he said.

The U.S. State Department also organizes events to expose Washingtonians to new foods.

In June, it held “A Taste of New Zealand” for area students to cook lamb chops, fish and chips, and a Kiwi-style vegetarian mini pie at Blair House, hosted by U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall and New Zealand Ambassador Michael Moore. Other events with children at President Barack Obama’s guesthouse have included tastes of China, Mexico and India.

“Serving food that combines the best of American cuisine and celebrates the visiting culture is a priority for us,” said Kamyl Bazbaz, an Office of Protocol spokesman. “Food can really help set the stage for diplomacy.”

PHOTO: THOMAS COLEMAN Cultural Tourism DC has provided embassies with a venue to cook for Washingtonians and compete amongst themselves, in part by playing off the Ambassador of the Bahamas Cornelius Alvin Smith, popular Bravo TV show “Top Chef.” Since 2009, the annual Embassy Chef left, and chef Michael Nathan Adderley of the Challenge has offered an inventive forum to promote the diplomatic “neigh- Embassy of Bahamas show off the dish that Adderley borhood” here, said Linda Donavan Harper, executive director of Cultural prepared for the 2011 Embassy Chefs Challenge, lobTourism DC, which strives to spotlight D.C.’s culture and heritage beyond its ster cup tostones featuring fresh Bahamian lobster. monuments.

The Embassy Chef Challenge occurs in two parts.At one, the chefs must prepare something from a basket of food they receive at the event. The other, which is open to the public and regularly attracts hundreds of guests, is a culinary competition where the NO FLASH IN THE PAN One of the more far-reaching and high-profile features of embassy foods has been a chefs serve a dish representative of their countries and the guests and a jury vote on the cream of the crop. Lars Beese, chef at the Royal Danish Embassy, won top honors at this show on the Travel Channel in which Andrew Zimmern, host of “Bizarre Foods,” makes year’s challenge, held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, for the rounds along Embassy Row. Earlier this year, he sat down with ambassadors and venhis asparagus soup and roast duck breast with apple and plum chutney. Jose Luis tured to the French Residence for organ butter, the House of Sweden for sour herring and Fernandez of the Peruvian Embassy of Peru won the “Peoples’ Choice” nod for his blood pudding, the Peruvian Residence for fried guinea pig, and the Embassy of Kazakhstan for some beshbarmak horsemeat. It was a journey that proved Washingtonians Peruvian ceviche.

Erlan Idrissov, ambassador at the Embassy of Kazakhstan, which served up a lamb don’t have to travel far from home to find the exotic right next door.

More locally, Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya of the Embassy of Sri Lanka and his shashlik dish at the challenge, wrote in a blog after the event: “Some say that the best diplomacy is conducted over the table full of delicious food, in a relaxed environment. wife were featured in a segment of “Diplomatic Plates” on an NBC 4 news broadcast in The competition was about joy and celebration of friendships among the participating April. In the clip, the ambassador says the most exotic thing about Sri Lanka is its food as he took viewers through his residence to see pictures of his country and hear some of its embassies and American public.”

The Embassy of the Bahamas participated to increase awareness of its cuisine, said history, in addition to watching cashew curry get made.

“We’ve become so curious about food, particularly here in D.C., where we have such Ambassador Cornelius A. Smith.

“Our cuisine is one of the untapped treasures of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, a broad range of multiculturalism that we can find the ingredients here,” Cultural Tourism and the Embassy Chef Challenge was a golden opportunity to make a statement about DC’s Harper said.“We can go home and try our hand at using a new spice or fixing a new the viability of Bahamian cuisine as a driver of gastronomic tourism,” he said.“Eating with meal. We might not be able to travel to that country, we might not be able to hear their Bahamians is a mark of a certain favor with a family, and so it is that in observing the ritu- concert pianist every night, but we can take a cooking class and learn how to enrich our als surrounding Bahamian eating, a person can come to know what is important to our lives through cooking.” culture: family, community, decency and obligation to God.” The Embassy of Iraq joined the challenge this year for the first time and was the only Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

September 2011

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[ culture ]

IDB’s Ángel After Nearly 20 Years, Cultural Diplomacy Pioneer Retires

F

by Gary Tischler élix Ángel is a widely recognized, prolific artist who has shown his work all over the world and who — in his younger days in Colombia — lived the artistic life as any artist should: He painted, studied, wrote an underground novel and was part of a budding, lively art scene in his native Medellín.

At the time, he probably hoped to achieve professional success, have his work exhibited, appreciated and understood, and his writing read and respected. Ángel might have envisioned himself in his 50s as an established artist, moving ahead, always changing, stretching boundaries and shifting gears.

But he may not have exactly imagined himself as the director of a cultural center run by a big multilateral bank, nurturing an ever-growing, innovative art program in a global epicenter of politics.

Well, Ángel the artist and Ángel the director have both been busy, as has his imagination. And now he’s getting ready to retire. Not from being an artist — that would be impossible to imagine. But he is preparing to retire after nearly 20 years as curator and 11 years as director of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Cultural Center in D.C., a twist and turn in his career that was probably not in the plans of his fertile imagination.

Over lunch at the IDB, he still sounded a little perplexed and surprised about having essentially worked at a bank for the last two decades.

“To tell you the truth, I had not anticipated running a cultural center at an international bank,” he told The Washington Diplomat. “It was something that offered itself. I was asked to consult in the development of a cultural center in the beginning [1992] and then I was asked to become the director. And here we are.”

Where we are is like nowhere else in the city. The IDB, established in 1959, is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. However, unlike the World Bank and IMF, whose development financing is also far-reaching and influential, the IDB is unique in that it boasts a thriving, legitimate cultural arm that, under Ángel’s direction, has become an unrivaled showcase for art related to the bank’s 48 member countries, ranging from Argentina to Venezuela, and many unexpected places in between.

“Félix Ángel, as director of the IDB Cultural Center, has helped create a unique institution with his creativity, insight and imagination.With the exhibitions he has presented over the years, and through the various activities of the center, he has presented all the diversity of Latin American culture and art to Washington and the world,” said Luis Alberto Moreno, IDB president since 2005 and a fellow Colombian native who served as Bogotá’s former ambassador in Washington.“He has built a major reputation for the IDB in the cultural arena.” Ángel has built that reputation with a steady stream of concerts, lectures and films, and by mounting consistently original, consistently eclectic exhibitions whose sheer titles speak to the depth of ideas cultivated at the center over the last two decades: “What a Time It Was: Life and Culture in Buenos Aires, 1880-1920”;“Parallel Realities: Five Pioneering Artists from Barbados”; “Vive Haiti! Contemporary Art of the Haitian Diaspora”;“Of Earth and Fire: Pre-Columbian and Contemporary Pottery from Nicaragua”; and “Two Visions of El Salvador: Modern Art and Folk Art.” More recently, there have been extensive shows featuring contemporary Jamaican artists, expatriate Latin artists in Canada, and the current exhibit on Latin American artists of Italian descent, in part commemorating the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification.

“The exhibitions are the most visible part of what the center does,” Ángel said.“This is true also of the lectures, the readings, the films and concerts. We present the face of not just the IDB itself but of Latin American culture to the world, and to this city, with its political community and its international presence. But we are an intricate and important part of what we call the mother ship, the economic support activities, the cultural support and projects we engage in with our various member nations.”

In addition to collaborating with the Latin and Caribbean embassies in Washington, Ángel has been working with the Organization of American States’ Art Museum of the Americas — whose own art program has also been expanding — most recently teaming up for the “About Change” series of exhibitions.

Change in fact is a constant theme in Ángel’s artistic endeavors, which have chronicled how the tides of history — from ancient civilizations, to colonization and dislocation — along with modern-day forces such as urbanization, immigration and globalization have all shaped the region and propelled the enduring search and struggle for identity. It’s been both an individual and universal quest as artists from vastly different nations try to forge a common yet specific identity. And the IDB Cultural Center has

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PHOTOS: DEBRA CORRIE

taken us on this journey, spanning the most remote islands of the Caribbean, places of both pristine beauty and grinding poverty, to the bustling streets of Mexico City, to dusty villages in Guatemala and the jungles of Peru. Ángel has devoted the time and travel necessary to pull these kinds of exhibitions together, meeting face to face with hundreds of artists, curators, museum heads, potters, students, videographers and anyone else with a hand in art. Along the way, he and his team have had a hand in discovering worthy groups, individuals and projects supported by the IDB. Over the years, this writer has been along for the ride, documenting many of the Cultural Center’s exhibitions in the pages of The Diplomat. It has definitely been an education — on artists and movements, cities and places, as well as an entire continent and history — and you realize over time that Ángel has compiled a powerful story, with every exhibition like a chapter in a book still being written.What you end up with is not necessarily a story of great epochs, but the stories of everyday people, whether from Belize, the Bahamas or Brazil, who are keenly aware of their past, of once-grandiose ruins and European shadows, as they create art that is reflective of this geography and history, while at the same time reacting to the present and thinking toward the future.

“It is very much like a story,” Ángel said.“And it connects with what the mother ship does, with creating partnerships.We find the stories of younger artists, we capture what young people are doing with video art, and we have worked with all the regions and embassies here. It is a kind of tapestry, yes. We have no museum of Latin American art here, yet. It’s something I would like to see.”

In a way, it’s something the city already sees at the IDB Cultural Center, an unofficial museum of Latin American art — and a personal and professional fulfillment for Ángel.

Particularly gratifying was a 2009 exhibition and series of events celebrating the 50th

September 2011

anniversary of the IDB, including a display on the culture and history of Medellín, Ángel’s hometown, where the IDB board of directors held its annual meeting (also see “Medellín Moves Up: IDB Celebrates 50th Anniversary in Colombia’s City of Change” in the April 2009 issue of The Washington Diplomat). In honor of the landmark event, Ángel organized “50 Years, 50 Works: The Art of Latin America and the Caribbean in the 20th Century,” which also traveled to the city where he graduated as architect from the University of Colombia and where he first garnered critical acclaim as an artist and writer, having penned an underground novel called “Te Quiero Mucho Poquito Nada (I Love You, and I Love You Not)” in 1975.

He can still vividly recall a visit in the 1990s when he experienced firsthand the raging drug wars that almost tore the city apart. “A car bomb exploded on the street where I was staying,” Ángel said. “I could have been easily killed. It was a devastating, powerful blast.”

The Medellín of the 1990s is nothing like today’s transformed city, where camera-toting tourists are more visible than machine gun-carrying soldiers. Ángel and IDB President Moreno share a Colombian heritage, and hope, that permeates both men.

“Colombia is a country of big ideas, of optimism, of great creativity and imagination.There is, even in times of troubles, an enormous vitality and energy and pride in our cultural heritage. Colombian people are forward looking. Felix embodies all of those qualities,” Moreno told us.

“He is the pioneer,” Moreno added.“He will be difficult to replace.”

For his part, Ángel credits the support he’s received at the center.“I could not perform my role without the help of my team, which is something like a family here. I will miss work-

ing with the talented, creative people that have been with me,” he said, citing Soledad Guerra, his assistant general coordinator and all-around right-hand person; Anne Vena, the concert, lecture and film series coordinator; Elba Agusti, cultural development program coordinator; and Debra Corrie, IDB art collection management and conservation assistant. Ángel has helped to put together his last exhibition here, on Latin American artists of Italian descent, and appears ready to move on after bringing dozens of such exhibitions to life. “I can say we have accomplished a lot here, and we have taken the center to a certain place,” Ángel said. “I have to move on. I think it’s in a place where it moves onto the next phase. I have never stopped being an artist, and I can take stock and focus.”

That focus has not only helped him to create acclaimed art, but to lead a center that made the IDB a player in the city’s cultural diplomacy, long before people were using that phrase as second-nature.

Retiring doesn’t seem all that surprising to him, but the fact that he has been building up the IDB Cultural Center for almost 20 years still seems to surprise him.

A wall at the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center depicts the many artists, singers, authors and others who’ve participated in the center’s extensive series of exhibitions and events over the years.

“Well, I am still an artist, and always have been,” Ángel said.

“It is who I am. And I want to continue to explore my art to the fullest. But I think what we — and it is a cooperative enterprise — have done here, well, I am very proud of that.”

Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

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[ music ]

Barry Driven Embassy Series Duo Revels in Sweet Sounds of Success

by Rachael Bade

A

disquieting uncertainty may have blanketed Cairo and much of the outside world following Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s surprising resignation on Feb. 11 after nearly 30 years in power. But at least for a few hours on March 4, Egyptians diplomats put worries about the future aside and sat quietly in the ambassador’s Washington residence to take a respite from revolution.

They were listening to music.

In the mission’s first public event since the Arab spring began, Caroline Chéhadé, a young Egyptian-Canadian violinist, played Beethoven’s “Spring Sonata” for the crowd — a song that centered on “hope and peace,” she said.

For nearly two decades, Washington’s much-praised Embassy Series has sought to connect people of different cultures through what founder Jerome Barry calls “musical diplomacy.”

“Forget about the political system,” said the worldrenowned vocalist who started the concert series in 1994.

“We’re not even talking about that. This is about real people, bringing them together.”

“Everybody loves music, so you find a commonality by doing something that everybody likes,” added his wife and co-founder Lisette. “No matter what your background or culture is, you learn to respect each other’s different arts — it’s a way of communicating at a different level.”

PHOTOS: MORRIS SIMON / THE SIMON FIRM FOR THE EMBASSY SERIES

Above, Belgian violinist Lorenzo Gatto, center, joins Embassy Series co-founders Lisette and Jerome Barry, who have staged hundreds of concerts at embassies and ambassador residences since 1994.

At left, Jerome Barry talks with Ambassador of Iraq Samir Sumaida’ie. Next May, the Iraqi Cultural Center will host an Embassy Series concert featuring the Two Rivers ensemble that combines jazz with maqam.

SOOTHING SOFT DIPLOMACY Kicking off its 18th season this month, the Embassy Series invites diplomats and Washingtonians to embassies or ambassador residences to enjoy intimate musical performances featuring guest artists who are either natives of the host countries or well-versed in their musical styles and traditions. Most of the artists have performed at world-class venues and garnered accolades and awards, or represent the up-and-coming talent of their nation, and the concerts are capped with receptions of native cuisine, wine and socializing.

“We wanted to have such a high-quality event that people say, ‘Wow, what a memory,’” Barry told us.

It’s a formula that’s worked well for the Embassy Series, which has hundreds of concerts under its belt. Performances regularly sell out and have steadily expanded over the years. In addition to the series’ longtime European embassy partners such as Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Lithuania, nations such as Turkey,Afghanistan, China, Ukraine, Iraq and even Cuba have come on board over the years (also see “Axis of Engagement: Embassy Series Sings Praises of Cooperation Over Confrontation” in the October 2009 issue of The Washington Diplomat).

The growth ties in with the Barrys’ original hopes for an organization that unites people of different cultures or political views though a mutual appreciation for classical music.

It was an unconventional idea back in the early 1990s, but who better to execute the abstract, ambitious concept than Jerome Barry, a passionate vocalist with linguist skills that would make any State Department employee jealous, with fluency in nine languages (and the ability to sing in 27).

he Embassy Series kicks off its 18th season on Sept. 15. Highlights of the first half of the 2011-12 season include:

Embassy of Austria – Fri., Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m.

Blending violin, cello, bass-baritone and piano, this evening of “high strings and deep voice” at the Austrian Embassy promises to be memorable. The Austrian artists will perform song and chamber works by composers Franz Schubert, Richard Wager and Joseph Haydn, among others. Tickets are $50.

Embassy of Lithuania – Thu., Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m.

To commemorate victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania, Jerome Barry will raise his baritone voice to highlight cantorial music that Jews composed in the ghettos of Vilnius during World War II. Violinist Peter Sirotin and pianist Edvinas Minkstimas will accompany Barry. Tickets are $80.

Embassy of the Czech Republic – Fri., Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m.

Award-winning Josef Spacek represents the vanguard of young violinists, having toured his native Czech Republic and more than a dozen countries in guest appearances with the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Philharmonia, the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, the Brno Philharmonic,

Season Highlights

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September 2011

See EMBASSY SERIES, page 57

the Russian Chamber Philharmonic and others. Tickets are $80.

Embassy of Israel – Tue., Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m.

Israeli pianist Ran Dank, who made his debut with the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Hayes Piano Series at the Kennedy Center, will perform a repertoire that includes Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 29” in B-flat major and several of Chopin’s “Preludes.” Tickets are $50.

Embassy of Hungary – Nov. 9 to 10, 7:30 p.m.

Pianist Ádám György returns to the Embassy Series having performed throughout Europe, Asia and North America, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and

Singapore’s Esplanade. Tickets are $80.

Embassy of Ukraine – Wed., Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m.

The Gerdan ensemble featuring Andrei Pidkivka on flute, Solomia Gorokhivska on violin and singer Karlin Kirilov offers a kaleidoscope of traditional Eastern European melodies and rhythms.

Also keep an eye out in December for an evening of Christmas music at the Embassy of Luxembourg, pianist Matei Varga at the Romanian ambassador’s residence, and cellist Efe Baltacigil along with pianist Amy Yang at the Turkish ambassador’s residence.

— Rachael Bade

The Washington Diplomat Page 55

[ dining ]

Fame and Substance Mike Isabella’s Graffiato: ‘Top Chef’ Recognition with Jersey Italian Roots

by Rachel G. Hunt

I

n June, the Chinatown/Penn Quarter transformation continued with the opening of chef Mike Isabella’s first restaurant, Graffiato, in an abandoned print press building on 6th Street. After three successful years as the executive chef of Zaytinya under the direction of José Andrés during which time Isabella’s work garnered much critical acclaim, and two stints on television in Bravo’s popular show “Top Chef,” Isabella has turned his attention to a project that allows him to explore the possibilities of the traditional Italian cooking he learned from his grandmother growing up in New Jersey.

Using a small plates concept, Isabella has designed a menu that brings together influences from his prior work in New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta, as well as his travels where he mastered the nuances of Latin, Greek and Middle Eastern cuisine. His dishes, many based on classic Italian favorites, are complex amalgams of these different traditions.

Broken into sections by type of food or technique, the menu offers a range of dishes created with primarily locally sourced ingredients. (The names of many of Graffiato’s local suppliers are painted on a wall in the upstairs dining room above the ham bar.)

The menu features several different pastas, each of which is delicious.

Hand-cut spaghetti, prepared with olive oil, poached cherry tomatoes and basil, is divinely simple. The roasted potato gnocchi, served with rich braised pork shank ragu and creamy burrata, is a more robust dish. A smooth white corn polenta is cleverly accented with small spicy pork meatballs and a soft egg. On a recent visit, however, the undisputed star of the pastas was the sweet corn agnolotti. Served in a buttery sauce with chanterelles and pine nuts, it’s a surprising but delightful twist on more traditional versions.

Graffito’s first-floor dining area is home to a large wood-burning oven that Isabella uses to create pizza and a number of roasted dishes.The pizzas are edible palettes where Isabella mixes flavors like colors to create delicious and sometimes unexpected culinary masterpieces. Melted leeks, farmhouse cheddar, bacon and baby potatoes give a hardy New England twist to the Vermont pizza, and in a Graffiato nod to his home state, Isabella has cre707 6th St., NW ated the Jersey Shore. Rings of fried calamari top a tomato and provolone (202) 289-3600 base that’s drizzled with a sweet hot www.graffiatodc.com cherry pepper aioli. But perhaps the most surprising of the pizzas is the Turk.

Lunch: Mon. - Fri., 12 - 5 p.m.

Built with pistachios, apricot and ricotta, Dinner: Sun. - Tue., 5 p.m. - 12 a.m. it has a slightly Middle Eastern punch. (kitchen closes at 10 p.m., Other delicacies coming out of the wood bar and pizza oven remain open); oven include tender pork ribs rubbed with Sicilian oregano and served with a Wed. and Thu., 5 p.m. - 1 a.m. thick coriander yogurt, as well as octopus (kitchen closes at 11 p.m.); — one of Isabella’s favorite dishes — served roasted over a potato puree, corn Fri. and Sat., 5 p.m. - 2 a.m. and kalamata olives. (kitchen closes at midnight) If downstairs has the wood oven, upstairs the focus is the six-seater ham Appetizers/small plates: $6 - 19 bar that faces into the kitchen. Guests can Pizzas: $14 - 18 watch as the chef slices PorcSalt Holiday Desserts: $5 - 8 Ham from Pennsylvania, smoked country Dress: Casual ham from Tennessee, or speck from Virginia for the charcuterie plates. Cheeses can round out the plates, with several excellent domestic artisanal varieties on tap.

Graffiato’s vegetable dishes are also a rare treat. One of the measures of a chef’s skill is the ability (and willingness) to work with the mundane as well as the sexy ingredients, and at Graffiato, diners wanting to go vegetarian will not feel like

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PHOTOS: JESSICA LATOS

Among the inventive pasta dishes at Graffiato, the sweet corn agnolotti served in a buttery sauce with chanterelles and pine nuts is a surprising twist on more traditional Italian versions.

second-class citizens. The roasted cauliflower, done with pecorino and mint and garnished with thin twists of red onion, is one of the best preparations of this sometimes bland staple that I’ve ever tasted.

Isabella also transforms humble red beets with chili and pork-fried almonds. More exotic and innovative, the fresh fennel is sliced paper thin and mixed with fresh stone fruit (most recently perfectly ripe peaches) hazelnuts and moscato. It’s superb.

Renovations to the former two-story industrial space are spare yet striking, not to mention costly, with Isabella and his partners — including Volt owner and fellow “Top Chef” contestant Bryan Voltaggio as well as Hilda Staples — putting nearly $1.5 million into Graffiato. DMS/Perla designers gave the space a gritty feel with a nod to the building’s origins.Those familiar with the design firm’s work at Volt and Charlie Palmer Steak will recognize its characteristic minimal use of color and decorative elements. Exposed brick, cinder block and ductwork, wood

September 2011

and metal furnishings, and stark but effective lighting create an interesting effect that’s vaguely reminiscent of a factory lunchroom. (Isabella’s own decorating talent shows up in the handsome bamboo and oak tables he built with the help of his father-in-law.)

James Horn, Graffiato’s general manager and a former colleague of Isabella’s from Zaytinya, heads up Graffiato’s beverage program, a role he has played successfully in a number of other local spots. Horn has chosen an interesting collection of domestic and imported wines produced by smaller labels, along with a selection of craft beers that change periodically. He’s also developed a list of unusual cocktails that, like Graffiato’s food, pairs ingredients in surprising ways.

The Tony Starr combines a very smoky Illegal Mezcal with sweet fruit puree, Solerno blood orange liquor and lime. It’s a powerful concoction. A bit gentler, the Staring at the Sun blends the smooth oak of Basil Hayden’s bourbon with apricot nectar, ginger and basil.

Though both drinks sound quite sweet in their description, neither is. Rather, the ingredients accentuate the complexities of the handcrafted small-batch liquors rather than dominate them.

Isabella has said that the ingredients he would never go without are olive oil, sea salt, lemon, dill and chive.

All of them make appearances in the savory dishes at Graffiato, and interestingly, some even appear in the sweet ones. A thin slice of a dense, rich, slightly sweet chocolate tart is set off with olive oil and a sea salt gelato. Unlikely as it may sound, the combination works. Nutella cookies sandwich the decadent hazelnut confection in between chocolate wafers studded with sea salt. For those who like sweeter dishes, the panna cotta served with a topping of mixed tropical fruits is a good choice, although even this dish is not particularly sweet.

Given Isabella’s celebrity status on both the D.C. and national food scene, it’s not surprising that Graffiato has been doing well since it opened. Even early on a weekday night, tables are full and even bar space is hard to come by. It’s best to book well in advance to avoid waiting. In this case though, the hype that is so often showered on new restaurants in D.C. is justified.

Isabella is doing something special here. On a recent visit, it seemed that nothing could be better than the dish you just tried, until the next one came along. The consistency and quality in such a new establishment is unusual and commendable.

Graffiato is not out to be a fine dining experience, so dress is casual, as is the service, but in a good way.What Isabella is striving for is good and interesting food. And he succeeds. But with excellence comes price, and Graffiato is not inexpensive. A small plate-based operation, the portions are not large and the menu is so

Antonín Dvořák’s ‘Mutual Inspirations’

PHOTO: JESSICA LATOS

Mike Isabella, a finalist on Bravo’s popular TV show “Top Chef,” taps his New Jersey roots and the Italian cooking he learned from his grandmother for his first restaurant, Graffiato.

tempting that it’s easy to try many more dishes that you’d originally intended.

Chinatown continues to mature from the Verizon Center-supported chains that dominated this destination spot when it embarked on its first wave of redevelopment. Diners now have the opportunity to sample truly creative work by talented chefs like Isabella who have chosen to use their celebrity to set up shop in this area. It both tells you something about how far the D.C. dining scene has come and how much further it continues to go, because Graffiato undoubtedly will set a new standard for the area.

Rachel G. Hunt is the dining reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.

from page 55

Embassy Series Married in 1966, the Barrys engulfed themselves in the music scenes of Italy, Germany and Israel, living abroad for almost a decade. Jerome performed in more than a dozen countries, while Lisette became his number-one fan.

After returning to the United States more than 30 years ago, they settled in Silver Spring, Md. Jerome began performing at various embassies and eventually co-created an eight-person chamber ensemble in 1981.

But he and Lisette weren’t satisfied. Washington, D.C., they thought, was too political — everyone was stiff from the Cold War.Where was international art and culture in a city with more 175 embassies?

“Sometimes you have to rear up on your hind legs and say, ‘Stop! This is no good.’ We artists have to stick up for what we think is important,” said Jerome, a Boston native at heart and in accent.

And what was important to Jerome and Lisette was music.

The duo started a nonprofit that would give rising musicians from various cultures the opportunity to perform at their countries’ embassies, while also embracing a new form of “soft diplomacy” — long before the term came into vogue.

“People may ask what a concert has to do with anything, but sharing musical traditions establishes interpersonal relationships that bind people together over noncontroversial things,” Jerome said.

Politics, he added, are out of the picture: “My idea is not to confront people, even though I don’t necessarily agree with the political views of everyone I work with.The goal is to build connections with people instead of questioning their values or complaining about what their governments are doing. What we

September 2011

Plan Your Entire Weekend. www.washdiplomat.com

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong listened to Antonín Dvořák’s symphonic masterpiece “From the New World” during his historic landing on the moon. Meanwhile, the famous Czech classical composer found inspiration in the music of Native and African Americans in the United States, where he lived from 1892 to 1895 as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City PHOTO: ED PFUELLER / THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PUBLICATIONS — a far cry from his humble roots in a The Catholic University of America Czech village outside of Prague. Many of Orchestra will perform Antonín Dvořák’s the students Dvořák taught in New York would later instruct American musical “New World Symphony” as part of icons such as George Gershwin and “Mutual Inspirations,” a citywide festival Duke Ellington. honoring the Czech composer’s 170th These cross-cultural connections form birthday. the backdrop of “Mutual Inspirations,” a citywide musical festival spearheaded by bishop of Prague. the Czech Embassy in Washington in On Oct. 1, the Library of Congress honor of Antonín Dvořák’s 170th birthgets in on the action with an exclusive day. symposium led by Dvořák scholar More than 500 local and international Michael Beckerman, who will address artists will perform in 30 concerts and the composer’s dream of portraying the events, many American or world presoul of American music through African mieres, at more than a dozen venues American rhythms. And on Oct. 28, the across town, from the Washington National Cathedral Washington National concludes the Cathedral, to the Phillips festivities with Dvořák’s Collection, to the National “Columbian Te Deum” presented Gallery of Art. The festival by the 150-voice Cathedral For a complete listing — held under the Choral Society and special patronage of Czech guest soprano Alexandra of events, please visit Foreign Affairs Minister www.mutualinspirations.org. Berti from the Czech Karel Schwarzenberg — Republic. starts Sept. 8, the day of Dvořák’s birthThe Czech Embassy itself is hosting a day, and ends Oct. 28, the Czech National variety of events as well, including a conDay. cert in collaboration with the Embassy Highlights include a concert-drama of Series on Oct. 21 (see sidebar on page Dvořák’s famed “New World” symphony 55), another collaboration with held at the National Museum of the Washington Musica Viva for the world American Indian on Sept. 17 featuring premiere of “Dvořák Jazz Dances” by the Catholic University of America contemporary composer Charley Gerard, Orchestra. Also, on Sept. 25, the Basilica along with an exhibit that runs throughof the National Shrine of the Immaculate out September of paintings and photoConception pays homage to Dvořák and graphs inspired by Dvořák’s timeless to the 200th birthday of Saint Jan “New World” symphony.

Nepomucene Neumann in a special mass celebrated with Dominik Duka, the arch— Anna Gawel

have to do is to create goodwill among the people: Let them know you care; share their music; share their culture.”

Beyond the high-minded aspirations of their project, there was also a practical aim: helping young talent earn a decent living. According to Jerome, only one in seven conservatory music graduates find a job, even though many “work like dogs.”

American culture today, Lisette added, is too star-struck by sports, and there are few opportunities for young artists to find work that pays.

THE BUSINESS OF ART With those goals in mind, Barry and Lisette launched the Embassy Series in 1994, eventually dubbing their quaint Silver Spring home as headquarters. As director, Jerome became the artistic brain of the operation. For those first few years, Jerome scheduled appointments with ambassadors and cultural attachés to pitch his concept of hosting small recitals at embassies and residences, at a time when opening a foreign mission’s doors to the public seemed, well, foreign.

Meanwhile, Lisette took on sales and fundraising and became the nonprofit’s primary contact with customers. And after all these years, she still reads each of Jerome’s emails and edits his business memos.

In 1994, the couple scheduled a mere six performances for a trial run of the Embassy Series. Four European embassies at which Jerome had previously performed agreed to host the concerts.

Since then, Barry and Lisette have watched their fledgling startup flourish. Today, more 1,000 Embassy Series musicians have performed at more than 60 embassies. The series grew to its biggest season in 2006 with 42 concerts — which was “just too much,” Jerome said — and now averages about 25 performances a year.

And those 25 slots are competitive, Jerome said. Now, embas-

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sies pitch performance ideas and concert dates to the Barrys so often that they don’t always have enough space and have to postpone proposed concerts for future seasons.

There’s also no shortage of musicians interested in performing. Lisette receives about 200 inquiries each month and says there’s usually too many applications to sift through.

And the nonprofit’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed by the media. CNN producers, for example, showed up for the Egyptian concert in March. At a concert at the Iraqi Cultural Center last October, Al Jazeera and two Iraqi TV stations brought their cameras along.

And most important, the audience keeps coming back for more. One frequent Embassy Series visitor said his family has cut back on all entertainment spending in the wake of For more the economic downturn — except for information the Embassy Series. on the Jerome, noting that about 95 percent Embassy of the concerts sell out, credits this Series, please call popularity with keeping them afloat (202) 625-2361 or visit throughout the years.After all, most new www.embassyseries.org. arts groups tank within two seasons, Jerome said, due to a lack of funding.

“People always ask me, ‘How are you doing this?’ And I say, ‘Well, I haven’t missed a meal.’ Let me put it this way: We artists — and we’ve been like this since we were married — do this because we love it. We enjoy being in society in a meaningful way.”

Eventually, the couple hopes someone will take over the organization, or at least “adopt the model” of musical diplomacy.

But until then, the Barrys will keep directing the music, “for at least another five or 10 more years,” Jerome said.

to learn

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Rachael Bade is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 57

[ film reviews ]

Poetic ‘Silent Souls’ Watching Paint Dry on Cinematic Russian Canvas Speaks Volumes

by Ky N. Nguyen

F

[

or audiences watching Russian director Aleksei Fedorchenko’s third feature, “Silent Souls,” they get pretty much what might be expected from the title. There’s very little dialogue, and not a whole lot happens, plot-wise, in screenwriter Denis Osokin’s adaptation of the minimalist script from Aist Sergeyev’s novel, “The Buntings.” The extremely slow pace is not that far from watching paint dry, as a skeptic might remark.

Yet the bright painting-like images filling the CinemaScope frames are stunningly jawdropping, earning director of photography Mikhail Krichman the Best Cinematography award at the Venice Film Festival. The mesmerizing pictures produce a gentle rhythm reminiscent of — yet distinctive from — the soothing sensation of films by esteemed Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, who casts his long shadow over all of Russian cinema.

As “Silent Souls” opens,Aist (Igor Sergeyev) cycles a bike through the woods with two buntings — tiny birds — locked in a cage behind him. When he’s not embracing his passion as a photographer and writer, Aist PHOTO: SHADOW DISTRIBUTION works in a paper mill owned by Miron Yuriy Tsurilo plays Miron, a paper mill owner who travels thousands of miles to help his best friend cremate (Yuriy Tsurilo), his best friend. When Miron’s dear wife Tanya (Yuliya Aug) passes away, he asks Aist to join him in conducting the funeral rites his wife’s remains on the banks of the Volga River, at the site of their honeymoon, in “Silent Souls.” of their descendents, the Merjan, a Finno-Ugric tribe based in pretty impressive for a feature debut. western central Russia’s Kostroma Oblast region around On a broader level, “Circumstance” Lake Nero. In the 1600s, the Merjan were assimilated into the delivers pointed political and social predominant Russian culture, but they retain and practice commentary about how Iran’s repressome ancient customs today. sive regime serves to imprison its citiThe pair embark on an epic road rip over thousands of zens. It reveals a fascinating, rarely seen miles to cremate Tanya’s remains on the bank of the Volga look at an underground scene in modRiver, at the site of their honeymoon. The buntings come ern Iran involving illegal dance clubs in along for the ride, providing a musiwhich the participants attend at the cal soundtrack to the journey. As Silent Souls risk of arrest and corporal punishment.

Miron recalls personal, intimate (Ovsyanki) A not insignificant portion of young moments with Tanya, he comes to (Russian with subtitles; 75 min.) people experiment with drugs and sex, the realization that Aist was in love The Avalon Theatre leading a few to go so far as making with Tanya as well. Miron concedes porn videos. that she should have married Aist ★★★★✩ From a personal perspective, instead. This confession doesn’t faze “Circumstance” acts as a coming-of-age Aist, whose thoughts linger on memories of him and his story of two young teenage girls who father rowing on the water and performing rituals together. find their place in the world. Best pals The juxtaposition of these sequences evoke the Merjan PHOTO: BRIAN RIGNEY HUBBARD forever since they were small children, concept of the paired gods of love and water. Other Merjan practices depicted include bathing in vodka and tying color- Nikohl Boosheri as Atafeh, left, and Sarah Kazemy as Shireen discover the friendship between Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) and Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) ful threads to the pubic hair of a bride, a process that is more friendship and forbidden love in Iran’s underground in “Circumstance.” has developed into a budding love fascinating to view than one might initially think.Throughout affair. As young people often do when they don’t fit within the trip, Aist serves as a tour guide for the audience, explaining Circumstance societal norms, they rebel, but not so openly and boldly by what is happening on screen via voiceovers full of words of Western standards — this being Iran. Shireen and Atafeh dream (Farsi with subtitles; 106 min.) wisdom. of escaping to freedom in Dubai. In the meantime, their video Landmark’s E Street Cinema work consists of helping to dub Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” into Farsi, Opens Fri., Sept. 9 ‘Circumstance’: Iran’s Underground a production including humorous instructions from the direcIranian-American writer-director Maryam Keshavarz, who has resided tor to act more gay at times — and less gay at others. ★★★★✩ in Iran as well as the United States, helms the gripping “Circumstance,” An orphan who lives with her uncle, Shireen is haunted by which captured the Audience Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Her deft story is the memory of her activist parents, whose anti-government literature led them to die as driven by parallel threads that weave together elegantly as the film closes — and not political dissidents in prison. Atafeh has led a much more privileged life, with a surgeon exactly in that saccharine, Hollywood happy ending kind of way, either. Shooting in Beirut, mother, Azar (Nasrin Pakkho), and an affluent father, Firouz (Soheil Parsa), whose time at Lebanon, her assured direction draws compelling performances from the talented ensem- Berkeley only fueled his natural secular and liberal leanings. Yet he advises his daughter ble cast. There are some weaker characters and plot elements, but the overall result is that she must accept the limits placed upon their freedom by the fundamentalist mullahs

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September 2011

leading the government.

That’s certainly the road now taken by Atafeh’s brother Mehran, in a convincing transformation played by Reza Sixo Safai. As an ex-drug addict who successfully completed rehab, he has converted into an ultra-conservative religious fanatic who prays five times a day, which he believes has cleansed him of his sins. On the other hand, he believes Atafeh is badly soiled by her persistent liberties. His solution to break up his sister’s lesbian relationship: marry Shireen.

Gangster Noir of ‘Brighton Rock’

[

With the film noirish “Brighton Rock,” British writer Rowan Joffe turns up the melodrama in a notable directorial debut. Joffe views his first feature behind the helm as a new adaptation of Graham Greene’s 1938 novel of the same name, rather than a remake of the Boulting brothers’ 1947 version, a classical British gangster flick. Joffe updates the setting to 1964, a heyday for the great British gangster, as he translates Greene’s story of a young razor-wielding sociopath who marries a waitress to silence her. Joffe’s script and characters work well enough, even if they are not fully successful. Still, the end prodBrighton Rock uct looks fabulous, with appropriately gloomy cinema(English; 111 min.) tography fueled by Martin Phipps’s compellingly vioLandmark’s E Street Cinema lent score.

Teenager Rose (Andrea Riseborough of “Made in ★★★✩✩ Dagenham,”“Never Let Me Go”) works as a waitress in the Snow Coffee Shop owned by Ida (Helen Mirren) in Brighton. One day, Rose comes across evidence associating the ambitious young mobster Pinkie Brown (Sam Riley of “Control”) to a revenge killing. To figure out what she knows, Pinkie chats her up.

Then, to keep her quiet, he makes her fall in love with him. Naïve Rose, a plain Jane with glasses, is easily smitten, having never seen the likes of the roguishly handsome thug.

Meanwhile, Pinkie can’t decide whether he can rely on Rose or if he should silence

September 2011

]

PHOTO: ALEX BAILEY / IFC FILMS

Pinkie (Sam Riley) is an up-and-coming gangster in 1960s Britain who seduces naïve Rose (Andrea Riseborough) to keep her from going to the police in “Brighton Rock.”

her for good before she ever has a chance to spill the beans to the coppers, as epitomized by a stunning scene at the White Cliffs of Dover. He’s seemingly indecisive about throwing her over the edge versus kissing her. Opting for the latter, he marries her, with full awareness that as his wife, Rose cannot testify against her husband.

However, Ida relentlessly pursues Pinkie, in part to protect Rose from the deeply disturbed boy she has married.

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

The Washington Diplomat Page 59

[ film ]

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

Czech A Walk Worthwhile (Dobre placená procházka) Directed by Milos Forman and Petr Forman (Czech Republic, 2009, 85 min.)

Uli and Vanilka are getting a divorce, but when they receive word from Liverpool that Vanilka’s rich aunt has bequeathed to their future child a small fortune, the couple and their friends concoct wily amorous capers to secure the money for themselves.

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

Dari War and Love in Kabul Directed by Helga Reidemeister (Germany, 2009, 87 min.)

Hossein and Shaima have loved each other since childhood. Going against their families’ hard rules and societal taboos, they see each other as much as possible and dream of living together in peace.

The Ballroom of Romance

Chasing Madoff

Directed by Pat O’Connor (Ireland, 1982, 65 min.)

Directed by Jeff Prosserman (U.S./Canada, 2011, 91 min.)

The frustrations and few joys of rural life in 1950s Ireland are depicted through the provincial dances at local halls that offered a momentary escape from bleak isolation.

Harry Markopolos and his team of investigators embark on a 10-year struggle to expose the harrowing truth behind the infamous Bernie Madoff scandal. (English and Spanish)

National Gallery of Art Sat., Sept. 17, 2 p.m.

Directed by Evan Glodell (U.S., 2011, 106 min.)

Directed by Olivier Megaton (U.S./France, 2011, 108 min.)

Two best friends spend their free time building “Mad Max”-inspired flamethrowers and muscle cars in preparation for an apocalypse, anticipating the day their imaginary gang will reign supreme, until one of the boys falls in love.

A young woman, after witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. (English and Spanish)

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

Contagion

A Boatload of Wild Irishmen

This action-thriller centers around the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.

Directed by Mac Dara Ó Curraidhín (Ireland, 2011, 84 min.)

This documentary examines the work of American Robert Flaherty (1884–1951), hailed as father of the feature documentary who filmed everyday lives and then using that material to create entertaining narratives.

National Gallery of Art Sat., Sept. 24, 2 p.m.

English

Wealthy writer Elizabeth Taylor, a six-time widow, learns she is terminally ill and resolves to write her memoirs at her island home, while Richard Burton, part poet, part gigolo, braves the sea and Taylor’s guard dogs to come calling in this camp classic.

Directed by Joseph Losey (U.K., 1968, 113 min.)

A renegade American journalist, his cameraman and a young Georgian schoolteacher are caught in the combat zone during the first Russian airstrikes against Georgia during their five-day war in 2008.

AFI Silver Theatre Fri., Sept. 2, 9:30 p.m., Wed., Sept. 7, 7 p.m.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Rowan Joffe (U.K., 2010, 111 min.)

Adam and Paul

Pinkie, a desperate youth who is hell bent on clawing his way up through the ranks of organized crime in 1960s Britain, seduces an innocent young waitress after she stumbles on evidence linking him to a revenge killing.

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Ireland, 2004, 83 min.)

Two homeless junkies wander the streets of contemporary Dublin, forever hanging on to the sad hope of finding some help from their friends.

escapes from his ordinary life by assuming the identity of a fantastic superhero at night, but his secret is jeopardized when he meets an unconventional daydreamer who becomes fascinated by his idiosyncrasies, which are equal only to her own.

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

The wealthy son of an English colonel identifies romantically with the Irish people, decides to settle down in Ireland, falls for a native Irish beauty, but in the end still manages to provoke his new neighbors when they try to set up a memorial for a celebrated rebel martyr.

National Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 4, 2 p.m.

The Guard Colombiana

Boom!

Directed by Renny Harlin (U.S., 2011, 113 min.)

September 2011

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Bellflower

The Goethe-Institut Mon., Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m.

5 Days of War

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Brighton Rock

Directed by John Michael McDonagh (Ireland, 2011, 96 min.)

An unorthodox Irish policeman with a confrontational personality is teamed up with an uptight FBI agent to investigate an international drug-smuggling ring.

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Sept. 9

Hunger Directed by Steve McQueen (U.K./Ireland, 2008, 96 min.)

National Gallery of Art Sat., Sept. 3, 1 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre

Set in 1981 within the walls of Belfast’s infamous Maze Prison, “Hunger” details the horrifying physical and psychological brutality faced by IRA prisoners in the days before and during a hunger strike initiated by the charismatic Bobby Sands.

James Joyce’s desire to portray what he saw as the spiritual “deadness” of Dublin are seen through the reflections of Gabriel Conroy and his wife as they attend a Christmas dinner at the home of his spinster aunts. [Preceded by “John Huston’s Dublin” (1980, 50 min.)]

Restless Directed by Gus Van Sant (U.S., 2011, 91 min.)

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

A terminally ill teenage girl falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals as both encounter the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII.

The Interrupters

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Sept. 23

Directed by Steve James (U.S., 2011, 125 min.)

Rocky Road to Dublin

The Dead Directed by John Huston (U.K./Ireland/U.S., 1987, 83 min.)

Directed by John Ford (U.S., 1952, 129 min.)

Retired American boxer John Wayne returns to the village where he was born in Ireland, falling in love with Maureen O’Hara. (Screens with “A Lad from Old Ireland” (1910, 10 min.))

Various area theaters

Directed by Steven Soderbergh (U.S./UAE, 2011, 102 min.)

The Quiet Man

This documentary explores violence in America through the story of three “violence interrupters” in Chicago who, with bravado, humility and even humor, try to protect their communities from the violence they once employed.

Directed by Peter Lennon (Ireland, 1968, 70 min.)

National Gallery of Art Sat., Sept. 17, 4 p.m.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Sept. 16

The Debt

Machine Gun Preacher

In late 1960s Dublin, émigré journalist Peter Lennon returns to Ireland to “reconstruct the plight of a community which, having survived 700 years of English occupation, nearly sank under the weight of its own heroes and clergy.”

[Preceded by “The Making of Rocky Road to Dublin” (2004, 30 min.)]

Directed by John Madden (U.S., 2010, 100 min.)

Directed by Marc Forster (U.S., 2011, 123 min.)

National Gallery of Art Fri., Sept. 2, 2:30 p.m.

Three former Mossad agents are famous for the 1965 death of war criminal Max Rainer but 35 years later, a local European paper publishes an article that the criminal is alive and the agents, now in their late 60s, decide to complete the assignment they never did. (English, German and Hebrew)

Sam Childers is a former drug-dealing biker tough guy who find God and becomes a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who’ve been forced to become soldiers.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Mr. Nice

In 1940s, coastal Ireland, a young girl loses her mother and brother and is exiled to the ancestral home, where she begins to unearth bizarre family legends.

The Double

Directed by Bernard Rose (U.K., 2010, 121 min.)

National Gallery of Art Sat., Sept. 10, 2 p.m.

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Sept. 30

The Secret of Roan Inish Directed by John Sayles (Ireland/U.S., 1994, 103 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

National Gallery of Art Sat., Sept. 24, 4 p.m.

Directed by Michael Brandt (U.S., 2011)

The Burning Wall

Amigo

Directed by Hava Kohav Beller (U.S., 2002)

A retired CIA operative is paired with a young FBI agent to unravel the mystery of a senator’s murder, with all signs pointing to a Soviet assassin.

Howard Marks, the biggest dope smuggler on the planet, has 43 aliases, four children, 25 companies worldwide, and hobbies ranging from nuclear physicist, writer and schoolteacher to spy, travel agent and rock promoter.

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Sept. 30

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

Down the Corner

One Day

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Joe Comerford (Ireland, 1977, 60 min.)

Directed by Lone Scherfig (U.S., 2011, 107 min.)

X, Y and Zee

After one day together on their college graduation in 1988, Emma and Dexter are shown each year on the same date to see where they are in their lives and how their friendship has evolved.

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Sept. 2

This documentary employs previously unseen historic footage and interviews with well-known dissidents to examine what leads individuals – initially alone and later on in large numbers – to stand up for freedom and civil rights. (English, Czech and German)

Apollo 18

The Goethe-Institut Thu., Sept. 29, 6 p.m.

Directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego (U.S., 2011)

The Butcher Boy

In this half documentary, half fictional narrative, five teenage boys in a working-class suburban development of Dublin struggle against crime, family life and school.

Decades-old footage from NASA’s abandoned Apollo 18 mission, where two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, reveals the reason the United States has never returned to the moon.

Directed by Neil Jordan (U.S., 1997, 110 min.)

National Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 11, 2 p.m.

This disquieting and darkly humorous depiction follows a boy’s descent into delinquency and apparent madness.

Griff the Invisible

Theater TBA Opens Fri., Sept. 2

National Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 18, 4:30 p.m.

Directed by John Sayles (U.S., 2010, 124 min.)

Legendary Filipino actor Joel Torre stars as a village mayor caught in the murderous crossfire of the Philippine-American War.

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The Washington Diplomat

Directed by Leon Ford (Australia, 2010, 93 min.)

Griff is an awkward office worker who

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Other Eden Directed by Muriel Box (Ireland, 1959, 80 min.)

Senna Directed by Asif Kapadia (U.K., 2010, 104 min.)

This documentary chronicles Brazilian Formula One racing legend Ayrton Senna’s remarkable story, charting his physical and spiritual achievements on the track and off.

(English and Portuguese)

Directed by Brian G. Hutton (U.K., 1972, 110 min.)

Irritated by architect husband Michael Caine’s latest affair with gamine Susannah York, scorned woman Elizabeth Taylor unleashes hellacious fury and occasional charm to scheme, wheedle and seduce her husband back into the fold.

AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Sept. 5, 4:45 p.m., Tue., Sept. 6, 9:05 p.m.

September 2011

Farsi Circumstance Directed by Maryam Keshavarz (France/U.S./Iran, 2011, 106 min.)

A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager’s growing sexual rebellion and her brother’s dangerous obsession.

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

French The Hedgehog (Le hérisson) Directed by Mona Achache (France/Italy, 2009, 100 min.)

Paloma, a young girl bent on ending it all on her upcoming 12th birthday, befriends a gruff matron who reads Tolstoy to her cat and a grumpy concierge who change her pessimistic view of life. (French and Japanese) Landmark’s E Street Cinema Opens Fri., Sept. 2

The Names of Love (Le nom des gens) Directed by Michel Leclerc (France, 2010, 102 min.)

A young, extroverted left-wing activist who sleeps with her political opponents to convert them to her cause is successful meets her match in a Jewish middle-age, middleof-the road scientist. (French, English, Greek and Arabic) Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Harun Farocki to compare labor in a traditional society with work in a highly developed society, merely providing the spectator with material for making the comparison.

The Goethe-Institut Mon., Sept. 19, 6:30 p.m.

Pianomania Directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis (Austria/Germany, 2009, 93 min.)

As Steinway & Sons’ chief technician and master tuner in Vienna, Stefan Knüpfer is dedicated to the unusual task of pairing world-class instruments with world-famous pianists. (German and English)

National Gallery of Art Sat., Sept. 10, 4:30 p.m.

Directed by Chang-dong Lee (South Korea, 2010, 139 min.)

A woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.

Cinema Art Bethesda at Landmark’s Bethesda Row Sun., Sept. 25, 10 a.m.

Kyrgyz

Hebrew

Directed by Aktan Arym Kubat (Kyrgyzstan, 2010, 80 min.)

Seven Minutes in Heaven (Sheva dakot be gan eden)

In this colorful modern-day parable of good and evil, a humble electrician devotes himself to helping his destitute neighbors in a windswept valley of Kyrgyzstan.

Directed by Omri Givon (Israel, 2008, 94 min.)

Galia, a young woman from Jerusalem, and her boyfriend Oren board a local bus that explodes, killing Oren and leaving Galia with memory loss as she attempts to stitch together the shattered fragments of her life and soul.

The Avalon Theatre Tue., Sept. 27, 8 p.m.

Mandarin The Empress Dowager (Qing guo qing cheng) This film by Li Hanxiang, the first of five he directed on the Empress Dowager, shaped popular perception of the woman who outlived three emperors and whose reign marked the end of imperial rule in China.

Hindi Soul of Sand (Pairon Talle)

Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Sept. 30, 7 p.m.

A watchman and his wife living at an abandoned mine are trapped in their tyrannical landlord’s schemes in this thriller set on the outskirts of Delhi.

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

Repertory Notes

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

Directed by Li Hanxiang (Hong Kong, 1975, 107 min.)

By Comparison (Zum Vergleich)

Polish Barrier (Bariera) Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski

A one-time medical student tries to diagnosis his own odd indifference to his world.

Hands Up! (Rece do gory) Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland, 1968-81, 76 min.)

The final film in the Andrzej cycle, “Hands Up!” —whose official ban precipitated Jerzy Skolimowski’s exodus — wasn’t screened in Poland until the 1980s, and this 1981 re-edited version of the surreal original is the only one now available.

National Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 11, 4:30 p.m.

Identification Marks: None (Rysopis) Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland, 1964, 75 min.)

An attractive young Jerzy Skolimowski cast himself as Andrzej, a callow student hero to find his niche in life while awaiting military service.

Directed by Raoul Ruiz (Portugal, 2010, 272 min.)

A jealous countess, wealthy businessman and a young orphaned boy connect with a variety of mysterious individuals across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil.

(Portuguese, French and English) AFI Silver Theatre Sept. 23 to 29

Spanish The Mexican Suitcase (La Maleta Mexicana) Directed by Trisha Ziff (Mexico/Spain, 2011, 86 min.)

This documentary tracks three lost boxes, found in a closet in Mexico City in 2007, that contained 4,500 photo negatives by three young exiles from Hungary, Poland and Germany who traveled to Spain together to fight fascism with their cameras.

AFI Silver Theatre Thu., Sept. 22

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

Turkish

Walkover (Walkower)

Three Monkeys (Üç maymun)

Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland, 1965, 77 min.)

Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylon (Turkey, 2008, 109 min.)

Jerzy Skolimowski’s second feature is again focused on the life of young protagonist Andrzej who, finished now with military duty, embarks on an amateur boxing career until he meets a government engineer with whom he runs off and regrettably evades an important match.

When a politician kills a pedestrian in a traffic accident, he convinces his driver to take the rap, with the promise of a big payoff when he gets out of prison. But that’s too long a wait for his wife and grown son, who hatch schemes to get the money early.

National Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 4, 4:30 p.m.

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

Portuguese Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa)

Plan Your Entire Weekend.

www.washdiplomat.com

by Washington Diplomat film reviewer Ky N. Nguyen

Please see International Film Clips for detailed listing information available at press time.

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE (AFI) SILVER THEATRE Programmed by cultural attachés from Washington embassies, the always-popular AFI Latin American Film Festival 2011 (Sept. 22-Oct. 12) brings the latest films that have gained notable recognition on the international festival circuit to the AFI Silver Theatre. The opening night film, “The Mexican Suitcase,” is presented by filmmaker Trisha Ziff.

The fall 2011 season of Harlan Jacobson’s “Talk Cinema” kicks off Sept. 25. Each Sunday at 10 a.m. offers a sneak preview and discussion of major specialty films, often with notable guest speakers.

The Sonic Circuits Festival Opening Night Event showcases two classic avant-garde silent shorts: Man Ray’s “Emak-Bakia” and James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber’s “Lot in Sodom” — with live musical accompaniment by the ensemble Stylus (Sept. 14, 7:30 p.m.).

Other AFI highlights include the exclusive D.C. run of recently deceased Portuguese auteur Raoul Ruiz’s “Mysteries of Lisbon” (Sept. 23-29) and “Good Morning Freedom! Spanish Cinema After Franco” (Sept.

9-22). Concluding series include “Elizabeth Taylor: A Screen Remembrance” (through Sept. 6); “Alfred Hitchcock Retrospective, Part III” (through Sept. 3); “Dennis Hopper: A Screen Remembrance” (through Sept. 8); “Keeping Up with the Coen Brothers” (through Sept. 6); and “Totally Awesome 5: Great Films of the 1980s” (through Sept. 8).

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

September 2011

Poetry (Shi)

The Light Thief (Svet-Ake)

German

A brick, its manufacture and its use, allow

(Poland, 1966, 77 min.)

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Directed by Sidharth Srinivasan (India, 2010, 98 min.)

Directed by Harun Farocki (Germany/Austria, 2009, 61 min.)

Korean

GOETHE-INSTITUT

Institute, Dublin.

To mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the series “Looking at the Other – Cultural Dialogue Through Film” (Sept. 12-26) reflects on cultural misunderstandings, which are often primary motivators of war and terrorism, with works such as: “Five Diverse Films from Pakistan” (Mon., Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m.), “By Comparison” (Mon., Sept. 19, 6:30 p.m.) and “War and Love in Kabul” (Mon., Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m.).

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

The program “Divided Germany – Fifty Years Construction of the Berlin Wall” (Sept. 28-Oct. 28) includes films, discussions and exhibition about the Berlin Wall’s historic separation of West Berlin not only from East Berlin, but also from East Germany, which borders around the entire city.

(202) 289-1200, www.goethe.de/ins/us/was/kue/flm/enindex.htm

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART “A Polish Quartet: Jerzy Skolimowski in the 1960s” looks back at the work of the prominent Polish auteur, a graduate of the famed Łódź Film School. Skolimowski started out co-writing scripts for two seminal films, Andrzej Wajda’s “Innocent Sorcerers” and Roman Polanski’s “Knife in the Water,” before completing four cheaply made, indie productions that looked at the angst of youth in a semiautobiographical manner with Skolimowski’s trademark flair.

“This Other Eden: Ireland and Film” (Aug. 27-Sept. 25) completes its retrospective of Irish films, in collaboration with the Irish Film

FREER GALLERY OF ART The Global Film Initiative’s Global Lens program seeks to raise crosscultural understanding by showcasing films from around the world. In Sidharth Srinivasan’s thriller “Soul of Sand” (Sun., Sept. 11, 2.p.m.), the night watchman of an abandoned Delhi mine and his wife become embroiled in their boss’s nefarious schemes, a greed symbolizing the clash between India’s booming economy and its traditional spirituality.

Aktan Arym Kubat’s “The Light Thief” (Fri., Sept. 16, 7 p.m.) presents a tale of impoverished Kyrgyzstan, in which a modest electrician makes a Faustian bargain with a big-shot property developer to deliver windgenerated power to his struggling community.

In conjunction with Turkish multimedia artist Hale Tenger’s video exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (through Nov. 6), “Moving Perspectives: Selected by Hale Tenger” screens two films picked by Tenger: Internationally acclaimed artist Steve McQueen’s biopic “The Hunger” (Fri., Sept. 9, 7 p.m.) delves into IRA prisoner Bobby Sands’s famous hunger strike against the deplorable conditions of the notorious Maze Prison in Belfast in 1981. In Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s “Three Monkeys” (Sun., Sept. 18, 2 p.m.), a politician convinces his employee to take the rap for a hit-and-run. Carol Huh, assistant curator of contemporary Asian art, talks about how both films influence Tenger’s work.

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

The Washington Diplomat Page 61

[ 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.

ART Through Sept. 3

Fame, Fortune, and Theft: The Shakespeare First Folio This exhibition traces the global history of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the first published collection of the Bard’s plays, depicting the ways in which this single book influenced the industries of conservation and book-collecting from the 1620s through the 21st century, eventually becoming a cause for idolatry in itself.

Folger Shakespeare Library Sept. 2 to 30

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

Through Sept. 4

are often obscured by the viewer’s angle.

Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border

Embassy of Austria

After a visit to his native Moscow, Vasily Kandinsky recorded his “extremely powerful impressions” in his 1913 masterpiece, “Painting with White Border,” which, for this exhibition, is reunited with more than 12 preparatory studies from international collections, including the Phillips’s oil sketch, and compared with other closely related works.

The Phillips Collection Through Sept. 4

Stella Sounds: The Scarlatti K Series For the first time in a museum exhibition, the Phillips Collection presents recent works from Frank Stella’s “K “series inspired by the 18th-century composer Domenico Scarlatti’s harpsichord sonatas.

The Phillips Collection

Sept. 23 to Jan. 15

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

Folger Shakespeare Library Sept. 24 to Jan. 29

Power/Play: China’s Empress Dowager Following China’s disastrous Boxer Rebellion, the Grand Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) used photographic portraiture to rehabilitate her public image, allowing a young aristocratic photographer to take elaborately staged shots of her and her court. As the only photographic series taken of the supreme leader of China for more than 45 years, these images represents a unique convergence of Qing court pictorial traditions, modern photography and Western standards of artistic portraiture.

Solomon Wondimu: SKIN – America in Black and White

Sept. 8 to Nov. 4

Born and raised in Ethiopia, Solomon Wondimu has been working on Human Skin Color Project for the past five years, using a palette of 3,000 different colors he has collected from skin-color swatches to question the distinct classifications of people as black or white.

Photographer Friederike Brandenburg visualizes the paradoxical relationship between beauty and decay as he ventures into isolated places of nature otherwise presumed to be untouched by man, where he finds objects — some aesthetic, some absurd — discarded by human civilization.

Hillyer Art Space

The Goethe-Institut

Sept. 3 to Dec. 14

Sept. 14 to March 4

Elusive Pioneer of American Documentary Photography

Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley

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

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

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

American University Katzen Arts Center

Sept. 15 to Oct. 15

Sept. 3 to Dec. 14

YAS: Young Architects of Spain, a Window to the Unknown

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

Left Behind (Zurückgelassen)

National Museum of African Art

Spanish architecture has become a global point of reference over the last quarter of the 20th century, but this exhibition shows that architectural excellence can also be found in the unknown work carried out in the studios of a new generation of inspirational architects under 40.

American Institute of Architects (AIA) Sept. 18 to Jan. 8

American University Katzen Arts Center

The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries

Sept. 3 to Dec. 14

The Pastrana Tapestries — among the finest surviving Gothic tapestries — will be on view together for the first time in the United States.

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

American University Katzen Arts Center

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The Washington Diplomat

National Gallery of Art Sept. 23 to Dec. 30

Urban_Landscapes Art from Europe and the United States imagines urban areas with great potential for diversification and transformation, playing with known architecture and structures and how the ideas behind them

September 2011

McClancy represent contemporary progressive political leaders in ways that reveal the magnitude of the challenges they face and the leadership they must assume. A special panel discussion on June 8 at 7 p.m. features Howard Dean and will discuss the next of the arts in democratic development. For information, visit www.democraticwoman.org.

The Woman’s National Democratic Club Through Oct. 2

The Guerrilla Girls Talk Back The Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous artist-activists, critique the sexism and racism pervading contemporary culture through their populist art production, which includes posters, books and live performances in which they wear gorilla masks.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Oct. 2

Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind Featuring 75 works by 42 artists including Elaine de Kooning, Louise Nevelson, Margo Humphrey, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith and Kiki Smith, “Pressing Ideas” explores the breadth of experimentation in lithography and women’s contributions to a workshop that stretches creative boundaries.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Sept. 25 to Jan. 2

Through Oct. 2

Warhol: Headlines

Left Behind: Selected Gifts from the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection Featuring photographs of unpopulated spaces in which a human presence is not evident but implied, this exhibition celebrates recent gifts from the Podestas to the Phillips.

National Gallery of Art

The Phillips Collection

Sept. 25 to Jan. 15

Through Oct. 2

Andy Warhol: Shadows

In the Tower: Nam June Paik

Created in the last decade of Andy Warhol’s life, “Shadows” comprises 102 silkscreened and hand-painted canvases featuring distorted photographs of shadows generated in the artist’s studio — forms that at once suggest and mock the bravura brushwork of the abstract expressionists.

A new exhibition featuring 20 works by groundbreaking contemporary artist Nam June Paik (1923–2006) is the third in a series of shows installed in the Tower Gallery that centers on developments in art since the midcentury.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Through Oct. 9

Through Sept. 29

NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration

occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification.

Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Through Oct. 22

Mexico Through the Lens of National Geographic With more than 150 articles, no country has seen more coverage in National Geographic magazine than Mexico, generating a stunning archive of visual imagery documenting the country’s culture, history and physical beauty — a slice of which can be seen in this selection of 132 photographs drawn from the National Geographic’s archives.

Mexican Cultural Institute Through Oct. 23

Chris Martin: Painting Big Chris Martin’s large-scale abstract paintings are tactile and stitched-together, incorporating found objects and collage into their abstract geometries and rhythmic patterns and relating as much to the physical world as to his own memories and experiences.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Through Oct. 28

Publishing Modernism: The Bauhaus in Print How is it that an art school that was open for a mere 14 years — during which time it suffered chronic financial shortfalls, survived a turbulent political situation, claimed just 33 faculty members, and graduated only about 1,250 students — came to have such a lasting impression on modern design and art education? Despite these difficulties, the Bauhaus did precisely that.

National Gallery of Art Through Nov. 6

Perspectives: Hale Tiger

The Phenomenon of Solidarity: Pictures from the History of Poland, 1980-81 “The Phenomenon of Solidarity” commemorates the 30th anniversary of the founding of the movement, highlighting formative moments in its history such as the strikes of August 1980 and the enforcement of martial law in 1981, as well as the Solidarity Trade Union’s relations with the communist regime and the prevailing social sentiment toward the movement.

Woodrow Wilson Center Through Sept. 30

Democratic Principles This exhibit of 22 portraits by Elizabeth

National Gallery of Art

Multimedia artist Hale Tenger, born in Izmir, Turkey, creates videos and installations that examine the tangible and intangible traces of events, filming the façade of the St. George Hotel in Beirut — the site of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon — while it was being renovated from 2005 to 2007.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

More than 70 pieces of art — from the illustrative to the abstract — offer a look at the works commissioned by the NASA Art Program, which was established soon after the inception of the U.S. space program in 1958 as a way to communicate the accomplishments, setbacks and sheer excitement of space exploration over the past five decades to the public.

Through Nov. 27

The Gothic Spirit of John Taylor Arms John Taylor Arms (1887–1953), an American printmaker, believed in the uplifting quality of Gothic art and the power of close observation, skillfully transcribed. This exhibition presents selected examples from the artist’s entire career, from his early New York works to his finest images of European cathedrals.

National Air and Space Museum

National Gallery of Art

Through Oct. 21

Through Nov. 27

Latin American Artists of Italian Descent

Italian Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection: 1525-1835

This selection of artwork by Latin artists of Italian descent offers a symbolic yet significant exploration of the Italian cultural influence in Latin America, on the

The splendors of Italian draftsmanship from the late Renaissance to the height of the neoclassical movement are show-

September 2011

cased in an exhibition of 65 superb drawings assembled by the European private collector Wolfgang Ratjen (1943–97).

National Gallery of Art

DISCUSSIONS Fri., Sept. 16, 7 p.m.

Deciphering the Art of the Ancient Maya and the Year 2012 Art historian and archaeologist David Stuart, the foremost expert on Mayan hieroglyphs, discusses Mayan predictions about the end of the world and his most recent book, “The Order of Days: The Maya World and the Truth about 2012.”

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building Tue., Sept. 20, 5:30 p.m.

Embassy Night With a 23-year history of connecting the area’s leading firms to top international markets, the World Trade Center Institute’s annual Embassy Night brings together the region’s key decision makers, executives, ambassadors and senior embassy representatives spanning more than two dozen countries. Among the business connections highlighted at this year’s Embassy Night are Brazil and ARINC; Indonesia and Jhpiego; South Africa and Emergent BioSolutions; Britain and BWI; and Uruguay and the University of Maryland. Tickets are $200; for information, visit www.wtci.org/embassy_night_2011.

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

DANCE

10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, with events such as “A Concert to Honor” on Sept. 9 featuring Brahms Requiem performed by the Marine Chamber Orchestra and U.S. Navy Band; “A Concert for Hope” with Denyce Graves, Alan Jackson and Patti LaBelle on Sept. 11; as well as an interfaith vigil on the morning of Sept.

11 when the cathedral tolls its 12-ton funeral bell to mark the moments when airplanes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and crashed in Pennsylvania. For information, visit www.calltocompassion.com.

Washington National Cathedral Fri., Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m., Sat., Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m.

Arpas de América Latin American Harp Festival Teatro de la Luna presents Hildo Aguirre of Colombia, Pedro Gaona of Paraguay and Angel Tolosa of Venezuela, three masters of the Latin American harp. Tickets are $30.

Gunston Arts Center

THEATER Through Sept. 4

Julius Caesar The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual “Free For All,” a much-loved Washington tradition that has offered free performances to the public for the past 20 years, kicks off the company’s 25th anniversary season with a revival of its acclaimed production of “Julius Caesar” and his famed life-and-death struggle for power in Rome.

Sidney Harman

Sat., Sept. 3, 8 p.m.

Sept. 7 to Oct. 16

KanKouran: Legends

The Habit of Art

A local institution based in D.C., the KanKouran West African Dance Company celebrates the legacy and artistry of dance’s living legends, Melvin Deal and Chuck Davis. Tickets are $30.

Deep in the bowels of London’s National Theatre, Benjamin Britten is having trouble with his latest opera and seeks out his collaborator, poet W. H. Auden, after a 25-year separation — as both aging artists wrestle with their desires, jealousies, the ephemeral connection between creativity and inspiration, and all the reasons their friendship fell apart.

Tickets are $35 to $69.

GW Lisner Auditorium Sat., Sept. 17, 7 p.m.

Sayat Nova: Journey Through Time Boston’s Sayat Nova Dance Company takes its name from the famous 18thcentury troubadour, Sayat Nova, whose beautiful music and poetry captures the essence of the Armenian soul and spirit.

Tickets are $35 or $45.

GW Lisner Auditorium

MUSIC Sun., Sept. 4, 7 p.m.

The Studio Theatre Sept. 9 to Oct. 23

Trouble in Mind Battle lines are drawn within a newly integrated theater company on Broadway in 1957 as it prepares to open a misguided race play on the Great White Way. Please call for ticket details.

Arena Stage

Satinder Sartaaj

Sept. 10 to 24

Satinder Sartaaj (Sartaj) is a Punjabi folk singer known for his distinct voice, poetic couplets and raging stage personality.

Tickets are $35 to $80.

Tosca

GW Lisner Auditorium Fri., Sept. 9, 7 p.m.

Pianist Roberto Hidalgo Praised as a pianist of great technical skill and interpretive warmth, Roberto Hidalgo performs works by Carlos Chávez, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Manuel de la Falla and Frederic Chopin. Admission is free but reservations are recommended and can be made by emailing rsvp@instituteofmexicodc.org.

Mexican Cultural Institute Sept. 9 to 11

A Call to Compassion The Washington National Cathedral presents a three-day commemoration of the

September 2011

The Washington National Opera’s 201112 season begins with Puccini’s “Tosca” starring American soprano Patricia Racette as Floria Tosca, who tries to save the life of her artist lover in 19th-century Rome against the backdrop of Napoleon’s invasion. An opening night gala will be held Sept. 10, and a free opera screening will be held Sept. 22 in the outfield at Nationals Park. Tickets start at $55.

Reservations for the opening night gala start at $1,000.

Kennedy Center Opera House Sept. 13 to Oct. 9

Please call for ticket details.

China Comes Back to Kennedy Center who leave their hometown in search of More than 300 artists will converge big dreams in the big city but are conon the Kennedy Center this fall for fronted with the harsh realities of mod“China: The Art of a Nation,” featuring ern Chinese society (Sept. 21); the dance, theater, music, opera and a National Ballet of China in a mixed variety of other cultural offerings. program of “The Red Detachment of Inspired by the Kennedy Center’s Women Acts I and II,” “Swan Lake Act acclaimed Festival of China in 2005 II” and “Yellow River” that brought a whopping 900 (Sept. 22-24); the Inner artists to Washington, D.C., Mongolia Chorus (Sept. the series is being presented 25); the Beijing People’s in cooperation with the For more information Art Theatre, China’s preChinese Ministry of Culture. on “China: The Art mier professional theater Among the highlights are of a Nation,” visit company, performing one several free performances www.kennedy-center.org. of its best-known plays, on the Millennium Stage, “Top Restaurant,” chronicling the histoincluding the Shenzhen Lily Children’s Choir (Sept. 12), the Tangshan Shadow ry of a Peking roast duck restaurant over half a century (Sept. 30-Oct. 1); Puppet Theatre, founded in 1943, preand the Beijing Dance Theatre, the senting works such as “Crane and the country’s first contemporary dance Tortoise,” and “A Clever Monkey, troupe (Oct. 26-27).

Monkey King Battles the White-Boned Also, an outdoor sculpture garden Demon” (Sept. 15), as well as the Sichuan Song and Dance Troupe (Sept. exhibition will be on display from Sept.

12 to Oct. 31 that was curated by the 16).

National Art Museum of China to Other shows to look out for include: showcase traditional and contemporary The National Theatre of China’s “Two Chinese artwork.

Dogs’ Opinions on Life,” an improvisa— Anna Gawel tional comedy on two dog brothers

to learn

more

Tickets are $25 to $130.

The Shakespeare Theatre Harman Hall Sept. 14 to Oct. 2

Macbeth Synetic performs its wordless production of Shakespeare’s story of murder, madness and self-destruction, driven by the outsize ambitions of a husband and wife, as part of its Silent Shakespeare Festival.

Please call for ticket details.

Synetic Theater at Crystal City Sept. 15 to Oct. 9

¡Ay, Carmela!

When a vaudeville comedy duo accidentally fall into the hands of Franco’s fascists troops during the Spanish Civil War, they witness an execution and are forced to perform for other captives in this heartbreaking portrayal of love, loss and the inhumanity of war by José Sanchis Sinisterra, one of Spain’s most acclaimed contemporary playwrights. Tickets are $34 or $38.

GALA Hispanic Theatre Sept. 23 to Oct. 30

Parade Ostracized for his faith and Northern heritage, Jewish factory manager Leo Frank is accused of murdering a teenage factory girl in this Tony-winning musical drama based on the true story of Frank’s trial and lynching in early 20th-century Atlanta. Tickets are $ Ford’s Theatre

Kennedy Center Opera House Through Oct. 2

Through Oct. 16

The Boy Detective Fails In the twilight of a childhood full of wonder, a Billy the “boy detective” faces a mystery he can’t comprehend: the shocking death of his young sister and crime-solving partner Caroline. Ten years later, a 30-year-old Billy returns to his quiet New Jersey town after an extended stay at St. Vitus’ Hospital for the mentally ill determined to right old wrongs.

Call for ticket information.

Signature Theatre

TOURS/SHOWCASES Sun., Sept. 18, 12 p.m.

27th Anniversary Kalorama House and Embassy Tour This annual tour hosted by the Woodrow Wilson House opens the doors to the embassies and ambassadorial residences that reside in the Kalorama neighborhood. This year’s tour features the residence of the European Union ambassador, a magnificent home built in 1926; the temporary residence of the Cypriot ambassador, which, despite its imposing limestone façade, is only one room deep, the result of the oddly shaped lot on which it sits; the residence of Colombian ambassador, inspired by Chateau Balleroy, located in Normandy, France; and the Slovenian Embassy, an aluminum and glass chancery built in the 1960s that has undergone a complete remodeling to showcase Slovenian design. Tickets are $40; a pre-brunch tour package is available for $75. For information, visit www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org.

The Woodrow Wilson House

Oklahoma!

The best-selling show in Arena Stage’s 60-year history is back for 12 weeks.

Inspired by the toughness of the prairie, Artistic Director Molly Smith sets her production in the robust world of territory life filled with a cast as rich and complex as the great tapestry of America itself, set against the backdrop of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless music.

Sat., Oct. 1, 12 p.m., Sun., Oct. 2, 12 p.m.

Russian Bazaar The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist presents two days of Russian culture, food, folk music, handicrafts and children’s activities. For information, visit www.russianbazaar.org.

Russian Orthodox Cathedral

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

Convenient location for Embassy personnel.

Only $40 for a 10 week course.

Ray Bradbury’s

Sponsored by The Global Neighborhood Center.

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

202-363-4090

Sept. 28 to Oct. 16

Lungs A couple negotiates sex, parenthood, and responsibilities large and small in Duncan Macmillan’s intimate drama about chance, change and consequence.

Tickets are $20.

Plan Your Entire Weekend.

www.washdiplomat.com

Live on stage.

Sept. 7 – Oct. 9

The Studio Theatre

FELA! Winner of three Tony Awards, “FELA!” is the true story of the legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms ignited a generation and whose civil rights struggle defied a corrupt and oppressive military regime.

re-imagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo that brings this enduring story about the survival of the human spirit to life. Tickets start at $39.

Arena Stage

Sept. 28 to Oct. 30

Les Misérables Cameron Mackintosh presents a new, fully staged 25th-anniversary production of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical “Les Misérables,” featuring

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

240.644.1100 or

ROUNDHOUSETHEATRE.ORG

Bethesda

The Washington Diplomat Page 63

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

September 2011

Singapore’s National and Armed Forces Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché at the Burmese Embassy Col. Tin Aung, left, joins U.S. Navy Foreign Liaison Deputy Director Debbie Gustowski at the Singaporean National and Armed Forces Day reception.

PHOTO: EMBASSY OF LIBYA

Libyan Embassy Flag-Raising

Ambassador Ali Aujali, the new representative of the Libyan Transitional National Council to the United States, is surrounded by supporters as he raises the new flag over Libya’s reopened embassy in the Watergate complex.

Indonesian Batiks

From left, U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Ambassador of Singapore Chan Heng Chee, Hong Le Webb, and Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Asia Pacific subcommittee, attend the reception honoring Singapore’s 46th National Day and 43rd Armed Forces Day held at the Embassy of Singapore.

From left, U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove greets Ambassador of Singapore Chan Heng Chee and Deputy Chief of Mission Siew Gay Ong at the Singaporean National Day reception, where Ambassador Chan delivers an annual progress report, noting that the country was rebounding strongly from the recession of 2009, recording economic growth of 14.7 percent for 2010.

Ambassador of Liechtenstein Claudia Fritsche, left, greets Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché at the Singaporean Embassy Brig. Gen. Siak Kian Cheng at the reception honoring Singapore’s 46th National Day and 43rd Armed Forces Day.

PHOTO: EMBASSY OF INDONESIA

From left, Director of the Textile Museum Maryclaire Ramsey, Director of the Indonesian Textile Museum Indra Riawan, Adiati Siregar, and Ambassador of Indonesia Dino Patti Djalal watch as the ambassador’s wife Rosa Rai Djalal ceremonially opens an exhibition of Indonesian batik garments from Jakarta at the embassy in Washington by hitting a Javanese gong.

Belgian Independence Day

Ambassador of Cambodia Hem Heng, left, greets Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché at the Singaporean Embassy Brig.

Gen. Siak Kian Cheng at the reception honoring Singapore’s 46th National Day and 43rd Armed Forces Day.

Air Attaché at the Swedish Embassy and Mrs. Col. Ken Lindberg attend the reception honoring Singapore’s 46th National Day and 43rd Armed Forces Day.

From left, Dr. Richard Huw Jones and his wife Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée Jones-Bos join Executive Director of Cultural Tourism DC Linda Harper and her husband Robert Demers at the Belgian National Day reception.

Hungary’s Herend China

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

From left, wife of Monaco’s ambassador Ellen Noghes, wife of the Belgian ambassador Agnes Julia Aerts, Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen, Ambassador of Monaco Gilles Noghès, and Institute for Education CEO Kathy Kemper attend the Belgian National Day reception held at the ambassador’s residence.

Ina Ginsburg, left, joins outgoing Ambassador of Austria Christian Prosl at the Belgian National Day reception.

Aniko Gaal Schott, a well-known HungarianAmerican interior designer in Washington who decorated the Hungarian and Turkish Residences, tries her hand at painting one of Herend’s famous china patterns.

Ambassador of Slovakia Peter Burian, left, talks with Ambassador of Slovenia Roman Kirn at the Belgian National Day reception.

From left, Ambassador of Ukraine Olexander Motsyk, wife of the Uzbek ambassador Gyul Asal Nematova, wife of the Ukrainian ambassador Natalia Terletska, and Ambassador of Uzbekistan Ilhomjon Tuychievich Nematov attend the Belgian National Day reception.

Page 64

The Washington Diplomat

From left, Ambassador of Hungary joins Tamas Klein, a fifth-generation Herend designer from Budapest, and Timothy Albrecht, owner of the Bethesda shop Consider It Done, at an afternoon tea and exhibition at the ambassador’s residence to showcase Herend, Hungary’s worldfamous china collection.

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of Belgium Jan Matthysen join Mrs. and Ambassador of Macedonia Zoran Jolevski at the Belgian National Day reception.

September 2011

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Egyptian National Day Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée Jones-Bos, left, joins Ambassador of France François Delattre at the Egyptian National Day reception.

PHOTO: JUAN MANUEL HERRERA / OAS

Azerbaijan Donates to OAS From left, Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev, Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS) José Miguel Insulza, and Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the U.S. and OAS Yashar Aliyev attend a reception commemorating Azerbaijan’s donation of $20,000 for OAS programs on peace, human rights, and children and youth.

From left, Ambassador of Russia Sergey I. Kislyak, Ambassador of Egypt Sameh Shoukry, his wife Suzy Shoukry, and wife of the Russian ambassador Natalia Kislyak attend the Egyptian National Day reception at the Egyptian Embassy.

From left, Ambassador of Qatar Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri, Egyptian journalist and Mrs. Hafez Al-Mirazi, Ambassador of Oman to the United States Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al Mughairy, and her husband, Ambassador of Oman to the United Nations Fuad. M. Al-Hinai, attend the Egyptian National Day reception.

Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché at the Egyptian Embassy Maj. Gen. Mohamed Elkeshky, left, joins U.S. Army Foreign Liaison Director Col. Joseph K. Smith at the Egyptian National Day reception.

South African Women’s Day From left, President and founder of the Communities of Peace Foundation Gerry Eitner, Ambassador of South Africa Ebrahim Rasool, and Jan Du Plain of Du Plain Enterprises Inc. attend a reception at the South African Embassy to celebrate the country’s Women’s Day. Eitner was presented with a cloth made by South African orphans to include in her Children’s Cloth of Many Colors, which will be presented in Cape Town next month.

Ambassador of Bahrain Houda Nonoo, center, joins Ambassador of Bangladesh Akramul Qader and his wife Rifat Sultana Akram at the Egyptian National Day reception.

From left, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy Philip L. Verveer, Ambassador of Egypt Sameh Shoukry, Ambassador-atLarge for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, and wife of the Egyptian ambassador Suzy Shoukry attend the Egyptian National Day reception.

Ambassador of South Korea Han Duk-soo, left, greets Ambassador of Italy Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata at the Egyptian National Day reception.

iLive2Lead at U.S. Senate Luxembourg National Day

PHOTOS: MARY SCHNACK & ASSOCIATES

From left, Ambassador of Monaco Gilles Noghès, Ambassador of Luxembourg Jean-Paul Senninger, and recently departed Ambassador of Estonia and Mrs. Väino Reinart attend the Luxembourg National Day reception at the embassy.

Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda Deborah Mae Lovell, center in purple, and Ambassador of Zamba Sheila Siwela to her right were among more than a dozen ambassadors who joined 40 young women from across the world for the iLive2Lead Young Women’s Leadership Summit at the U.S. Senate.

PHOTOS: GAIL SCOTT

From left, Dr. Richard Huw Jones and his wife Ambassador of the Netherlands Renée Jones-Bos, wife of the Spanish ambassador Teresa Valente, wife of the Luxembourg ambassador Louise Akerblom, and Ambassador of Spain Jorge Dezcallar de Mazarredo attend the Luxembourg National Day reception.

September 2011

U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall, center, joins students from Afghanistan, Botswana, Nepal and all around the world for a summit organized by Live2Lead, a D.C. nonprofit that provides worldwide leadership skills training for young women.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), left, and Ambassador of Singapore Chan Heng Chee hosted 40 women at the U.S. Senate as part of the iLive2Lead Young Women’s Leadership Summit.

The Washington Diplomat Page 65

DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT

The Washington Diplomat

September 2011

Interfaith Iftar at Pakistan From left, Father Allen Timothy, National Vice President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA Naseem Mahdi, retired U.S. Naval Cmdr.

Harlan Ullman, Defense Attaché at the Bangladeshi Embassy Mohammad Abdul Moeen, Ambassador of Chad Mahamoud Adam Bechir, and Rabbi Gil Steinlauf listen to Ambassador of Pakistan Husain Haqqani, at left, deliver remarks at an interfaith Iftar reception held at the Pakistani Embassy.

PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF PAKISTAN

Moroccan National Day

From left, Mrs. and Ambassador of Egypt Sameh Shoukry join Ambassador of Djibouti Roble Olhaye, dean of the diplomatic corps, for the Moroccan National Day reception held at the Organization of American States.

From left, Ambassador of Mali Mamadou Traore joins Ambassador of Morocco and Mrs. Aziz Mekouar for a reception at the Organization of American States honoring the 12th anniversary of the ascension of Mohammed VI to the Moroccan throne.

Ambassador of Bahrain Houda Nonoo, left, and Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al Mughairy, right, celebrate Morocco’s National Day with Ambassador of Morocco Aziz Mekouar and his wife Maria Felice Cittadini Cesi.

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As the flagship newspaper of the diplomatic community, each issue regularly features in-depth, exclusive interviews with foreign ambassadors as well as U.S. and foreign heads of state. The Washington Diplomat also has incisive news stories on the latest developments in international affairs, business, diplomacy and other timely topics. Our monthly culture section offers reviews ranging from art and photography exhibits to film, theater and dining and our Diplomatic Spotlight section offers a glimpse into the busy Washington social scene. Don't miss out... subscribe today.

Ambassador of Senegal Fatou Danielle Diagne stands by a picture of King Mohammed VI of Morocco at a reception honoring the 12th anniversary of his ascension to the throne.

U.S.-Arab Chamber Events Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Al-Mughairy, left, receives the “Ambassador of the Year” award from National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Hamod at a luncheon held at the Four Seasons.

Below from left, Franz Kolb, director for the Middle East in the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, leads an ambassadorial panel featuring National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) President and CEO David Hamod, Ambassador of Morocco Aziz Mekouar, Ambassador of Oman Hunaina Al-Mughairy, and Ambassador of Tunisia Mohamed Tekaya, who all attended the National Governors Association conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, as part of a trip organized by the NUSACC.

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Nordic Food Days at Sweden From right, Ambassador of Sweden Jonas Hafström, Ambassador of Norway Wegger Christian Strommen, and Ambassador of Iceland Hjálmar Hannesson help to launch the weeklong culinary showcase Nordic Food Days at the House of Sweden, where chefs presented their new Nordic cuisine to 200 guests.

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Page 66

The Washington Diplomat

September 2011

AROUNDTHEWORLD

THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT

September 2011

HOLIDAYS AFGHANISTAN Sept. 9: Assassination of Cmdr. Ahmad Shah Masood ANDORRA Sept. 8: Patron Saint, National Holiday (Mare de Deu de Meritxell) ANGOLA Sept. 17: Nation’s Founder and National Heroes’ Day ARMENIA Sept. 21: Independence Day

BULGARIA Sept. 6: Reunification Day Sept. 22: Independence Day CAMBODIA Sept. 24: Constitution and Coronation Day CANADA Sept. 5: Labor Day CHILE Sept. 18: Independence Day Sept. 19: Armed Forces Day

EL SALVADOR Sept. 15: Independence Day ETHIOPIA Sept. 11: Ethiopian New Year GUATEMALA Sept. 15: Independence Day GUINEA Sept. 28: Referendum Day GUINEA-BISSAU Sept. 24: Independence Day

COSTA RICA Sept. 15: Independence Day

HONDURAS Sept. 15: Independence Day

CZECH REPUBLIC Sept. 28: Day of Czech Statehood

ISRAEL Sept. 28-30: Rosh Hashanah

BOTSWANA Sept. 30: Botswana Day

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Sept. 24: Day of the Virgin of Mercedes

BRAZIL Sept. 7: Independence Day

EAST TIMOR Sept. 20: Liberation Day

JAPAN Sept. 21: Respect for the Aged Day (Keirou no hi) Sept. 23: Autumnal Equinox (Shuubun no hi)

BELIZE Sept. 10: St. George’s Caye Day Sept. 21: Independence Day

LIBYA Sept. 1: National Day

Independence Day of 1810

LIECHTENSTEIN Sept. 8: Nativity of Our Lady

MOZAMBIQUE Sept. 7: Victory Day Sept. 25: Armed Forces Day

LUXEMBOURG Sept. 5: Luxembourg City Fete MACEDONIA Sept. 8: Independence Day MALAYSIA Sept. 16: Malaysia Day MALI Sept. 22: Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic MALTA Sept. 8: Our Lady of Victories Sept. 21: Independence Day

NICARAGUA Sept. 14: Battle of San Jacinto Sept. 15: Independence Day PALAU Sept. 1: Labor Day PAPUA NEW GUINEA Sept. 16: Independence Day PARAGUAY Sept. 29: Battle of Boquerón QATAR Sept. 3: Independence Day

MARSHALL ISLANDS Sept. 1: Workers’ Day Sept. 30: Customs Day

RWANDA Sept. 25: Kamarampaka Day

MEXICO Sept. 16: Mexican

ST. KITTS and NEVIS Sept. 19: Independence

Day SLOVAKIA Sept. 1: Slovak Constitution Day Sept. 15: Lady of Sorrows Day SOUTH AFRICA Sept. 24: Heritage Day SWAZILAND Sept. 6: Somhlolo Day (Independence Day) TAJIKISTAN Sept. 9: Independence Day TRINIDAD and TOBAGO Sept. 24: Republic Day UZBEKISTAN Sept. 1: Independence Day VIETNAM Sept. 2: Vietnamese National Day YEMEN Sept. 26: September Revolution Anniversary (1962)

APPOINTMENTS Germany Peter Ammon presented his credentials to the State Department on Aug. 9 to become ambassador of Germany to the United States. Ambassador Ammon, a career diplomat who has been posted to London, Dakar and New Delhi, most recently served as state secretary at the German Ambassador Peter Ammon Foreign Office, before which he was ambassador to France from 2007 to 2008. He also previously served at the German Embassy in Washington, from 1999 to 2001, as economic minister. As director-general for economics at the German Foreign Office from 2001 to 2007, he helped to prepare the G8 world economic summits for German Chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel, while from 1996 to 1999, he was head of policy planning and speech writer to the German president. Ambassador Ammon holds a doctorate in economics from Berlin’s Free University. He is married to Marliese Heimann-Ammon, and they have two grown daughters, Ariane and Christina. His personal interests include working out, hiking, and listening to the music of Bob Dylan.

from page 20

Alaska indigenous tribes, and populations there who are looking for better ways to integrate them and represent them, so Alaska was a great model for them to learn from.”

Indeed, Chile’s Patagonia region and Alaska share many traits, Fermandois discovered.“We have this beautiful landscape, we have glaciers, fjords, an untouched nature, sea, and we have beautiful mountains, we have native people we need to take care of, native cultures, languages,” the ambassador said, noting that he has briefed officials in his country on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which enabled indigenous people to become shareholders in regional companies and benefit from development. “That’s something very, very close to what we need in Chile in our region in the south.”

Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki found efforts to protect wildlife remarkable in Alaska, an important trading partner with his country. “I … was impressed that people, I think, have made a lot of effort to keep it that way, preserve it. It doesn’t come naturally so I was very much impressed,” Fujisaki said, musing on the sheer abundance of space.“Alaska, all together, you have about 700,000 people and the space is four times Japan. In Japan, we have 120 million in the size of California — 80 percent mountain.”

Although new to Experience America, Fujisaki had been to Alaska before — when he was a junior high school student making his first trip to the United States. His travels required a layover in Anchorage.“I came through Anchorage airport and I still remember the big polar bear and the key chains I bought with little gold flakes in it,” Fujisaki recalled. “I went back and saw the polar bear, but this was a newer bear that was caught in the

September 2011

PHOTO: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT / AMBASSADOR OF BRUNEI DATO PADUKA HAJI YUSOFF BIN HAJI ABDUL HAMID

More than three dozen ambassadors from Washington, joined by their spouses, traveled to Alaska this summer as part of the twice-yearly Experience America initiative organized by the State Department’s Protocol Office, a program launched in 2007 by former Chief of Protocol Nancy Brinker that has taken envoys to California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Georgia and Texas.

1970s, it says. It was not the same old bear, but still it was awesome.”

Irish Ambassador Michael Collins was pleasantly surprised by the influence of his fellow countrymen in the far-flung U.S. state.

“I was a little surprised but greatly heartened by the contribution of Irish-Americans to Alaska politically, economically and culturally,” he said. “It was good to learn that the governor of Alaska, Sean Parnell, is of Irish background, as of course is the mayor of anchorage…. Even when we got as far north as Barrow, during our visit to the North Slope to learn about the importance of the oil industry for Alaska, we met with native Alaskan Mayor [Edward] Itta who proudly announced that he too was partly Irish.”

Of course, not all lessons were governmental in nature. Fermandois was one of a few ambassadors who sampled Barrow’s local fare of skin-on raw whale slices that were the size of a third of a finger.

“It’s very hard. It’s like the beginning of chewing gum, something like that,” he explained. “But then you feel the flavor of the ocean, of the Arctic. It’s like eating the ocean. I found it very, very good, very tasteful.

“And let me tell you that being Chilean and being so proud of our wine, it was surprising that there is no alcohol there,” he added. “We didn’t drink anything apart from water. In Chile, we would join that meat with white wine at least.”

The rendition of the Rolling Stones hit

“Satisfaction” that kicked off Fermandois’s impromptu concert exemplifies how the ambassadors got to learn about one another without the usual formal D.C. trappings “The ambassadors are singing along. You’ve got the Russian ambassador who is swaying to the Beatles with the ambassador of St. Lucia,” Bazbaz said. “If you stay in Washington and you’re only working in Washington, I think you would miss a lot of what makes America so unique. How often will they get an opportunity to go to Alaska? Some of these embassies can’t plan a trip themselves.

They don’t have the pre-existing interest to go, but at the same time, as an ambassador to the United States, it’s their job to learn the most they can about the country and cable that back.”

“These trips help strengthen the diplomatic community by allowing ambassadors from different parts of the world who normally would not work together to forge new relationships,” Protocol Chief Marshall added.

“We really relaxed and got to know each other better,” Fujisaki agreed. “In Washington, there are many ambassadors around, but you don’t really spend that much time [with them].You try to meet more Americans. So it was a very good occasion.”

The benefits of Experience America go both ways.“For us, if we can sow some seeds for a business connection, we’ve been able to succeed,” Bazbaz said. “And if we’ve been able to create this goodwill, which is so important — for the ambassadors to leave Alaska and say, ‘We understand America a little better now. We understand how diverse and how different it really is’ — I think it’s a great thing.”

The next Experience America trip will take place in October in another distinct American destination: New Orleans.

Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 67

from page 10

Terrorism battlegrounds by using a “broad, sustained, and integrated campaign that harnesses every tool of American power — military, civilian, and the power of our values.” For example, it aims to chip away at al-Qaeda’s ideology by upholding core U.S. values and calls for “disrupting terrorist plots, measurably reducing the financial support available to the group, and inflicting significant leadership losses.”

“Our efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan have destroyed much of al-Qa‘ida’s leadership and weakened the organization substantially.

Meanwhile, in recent years the source of the threat to the United States and its allies has shifted in part toward the periphery — to groups affiliated with but separate from the core of the group in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” the strategy says.“Therefore, this National Strategy for Counterterrorism maintains our focus on pressuring al-Qa‘ida’s core while emphasizing the need to build foreign partnerships and capacity and to strengthen our resilience. At the same time, our strategy augments our focus on confronting the al-Qa‘idalinked threats that continue to emerge from beyond its core safehaven in South Asia.”

Perhaps most significantly, the unwritten centerpiece of Obama’s counterterrorism strategy is surgical strikes against high-level militants — attacks based on increased intelligence-gathering that are largely carried out by unmanned aerial drones. For better or worse, these remotely piloted drones have revolutionized warfare for years to come and, in a sense, outsourced the terrorism fight from man to machine.

Like the increased deployments of U.S. Special Forces teams to conduct highly targeted raids, the use of Predator drones against terrorists began under Bush but greatly expanded under Obama, who’s conducted more drone strikes in the past two years than were waged during Bush’s entire eight-year presidency. Obama has also reportedly authorized the drone program to operate in six countries — Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen — which is twice as many as Bush.

The U.S. government doesn’t comment on the classified CIA program, but the Long War Journal, which has tracked the drone strikes, estimates that nearly 2,000 insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal areas have been killed since 2006. Although drone attacks have taken out many top-level commanders, the program has come under increased criticism as a counterproductive copout. Some ethicists question the growing reliance on unmanned weaponry that puts no American lives at risk to kill foreigners — especially in countries that the United States is not technically at war with, as seen in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

America’s tactical successes with drones have also led to a global race with nations such as China eager to develop the technology for their own purposes. Beyond the moral implications of extrajudicial assassinations, drones sever America’s ability to potentially gain valuable intelligence from captured operatives.

Even former top officials have come out against the overreliance on drones, including retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair, who was Obama’s director of national intelligence until May 2010.

“Qaeda officials who are killed by drones will be replaced. The group’s structure will survive and it will still be able to inspire, finance and train individuals and teams to kill Americans,” Blair wrote in an Aug. 14 New York Times op-ed.“Moreover, as the drone campaign wears on, hatred of America is increasing in Pakistan.

American officials may praise the precision of the drone attacks. But in Pakistan, news media accounts of heavy civilian casualties are widely believed. Our reliance on high-tech strikes that pose no risk to our soldiers is bitterly resented in a country that cannot duplicate such feats of warfare without cost to its own troops.”

And although the drones are considered highly accurate, their toll on civilians has been hotly disputed. Counterterrorism advisor Brennan said in June that for nearly a year,“there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we’ve been able to develop” — a claim that many experts derided as highly unlikely. One recent investigation by the British Bureau of Investigative Journalism concluded that at least 45 civilians were killed in 10 strikes inside Pakistan’s tribal area over the last year.

Still, U.S. officials have clearly sought to minimize civilian casualties, and oftentimes the Pakistani government has been tacitly on board with the strikes. Moreover, unlike other weaponry, the drones and intelligence driving them have indeed been highly precise — and hugely successful — forcing al-Qaeda to scramble and hunker down in the face of a constant, invisible aerial onslaught that’s picked off its top leadership.

To that end, in perhaps the most dramatic moment in a decadelong fight for the United States that’s produced few clear-cut victories, Obama announced in a national address in May that he had overseen the killing of Osama bin Laden — in part by using the very “effective, coordinated intelligence” he called for back when he wasn’t commander in chief in his Chicago speech in 2002.

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CREDIT: U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY LCPL. ROBERT R. CARRASCO

A U.S. MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle flies over Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The use of Predator drones against combatants began under the Bush administration but greatly expanded under President Obama, who has reportedly authorized the drone program to operate in six countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

“I think it was a pretty gutsy call and it paid huge dividends and brought to justice a figure that we’ve been after for 10 years. So I think that’s a pretty positive reflection on Obama’s character and his courage to make a tough decision,” said David Barno, a retired Army lieutenant general who was the top commander of U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and is now a senior advisor and fellow at the Center for a New American Security in D.C. Politicians and pundits came together in a rare moment of bipartisan praise for the Obama administration and the U.S. military for hunting down the world’s most wanted man. Some have even speculated about whether the demise of al-Qaeda is now finally in sight. “U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed al-Qaeda to the brink of collapse,” wrote Greg Miller in the Washington Post.

Although the Pakistani-based organization may never be formally defeated, and offshoots such as its Yemini-based affiliate remain extremely dangerous, al-Qaeda’s power has clearly been weakened.

COUNTERTERRORISM CONTINUITY Obama has generally won plaudits for eroding al-Qaeda’s strength and killing its top-ranking leaders, but how much credit one administration deserves over the other remains a point of contention.

After the initial elation over the bin Laden operation faded, subtle sniping between Republicans and Democrats erupted over how much of the intelligence initially used to track the 9/11 mastermind had been gathered under the previous administration.

Yet whether it’s thanks to hard work or sheer luck, the fact remains that since 9/11, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, al-Qaeda has not been able to carry out another catastrophic attack on U.S. soil. And in a much broader sense, the country’s national security apparatus has benefited immeasurably from the sheer experience of having been in combat for almost a decade, experts say.

U.S. Special Forces, for instance, racked up countless raids before the bin Laden mission. Barno pointed out that it was this know-how acquired by the Navy Seal Team Six having been at war for years in the region that allowed Obama to make his bold gambit to raid bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.“Hands down, without question you now have the most capable Special Forces that the United States has ever had due to having done so many of these kinds of missions,” he said.

Barno and others contend that on the first day of Obama’s presidency, he basically inherited the same tools and challenges as Bush had, which is why there’s been an overall continuity between the two administrations’ approaches to counterterrorism that’s largely gone unnoticed.

“In practical terms, as far as I can tell, there is not two degrees of difference between what we are doing globally in terms of our counterterrorism enterprise today than what we were doing in

2008 or 2007,” Barno argued. “The labeling of it is different … the optics of it are different … the public international perception of it may be significantly different. But the realities of it are not.”

Yet one big reality is strikingly different: the state of the U.S. economy. Asked if he thought Obama has narrowed his counterterrorism ambitions because of economic constraints, Barno was careful to distinguish between the counterinsurgency efforts that have been under way for years in Afghanistan and Iraq and what the United States is doing to combat terrorism around the world.

“Oftentimes there’s a conflation between the counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan of 100,000 troops and counterterrorism worldwide,” Barno said.“Those are not the same efforts.”

Counterterrorism tactics and missions are an element of the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan that is winding down now, but the entirety of the U.S. counterterrorism strategy is much broader than that, and that larger effort is unabated from what it was a few years ago, he explained.

Barno said that drawing down troops in Afghanistan and Iraq may be due to financial pressures and a reassessment of what kind of counterinsurgency campaign the U.S. government wants to wage in those places, but it does not signal a major shift in the underlying counterterrorism fight.

“Yes, the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan that we’ve chosen to prosecute is extremely expensive. It’s $100 billion a year for us to put those troops there and we’re looking for other ways to accomplish those objectives. We’re starting to march down our troop strength there at the end of the summer. And so there is a small, or at least partially economic, component to that,” he said.“But I don’t think that’s what’s driving the counterterrorism fight into some new more surgical, cheaper direction.”

Walt of Harvard University, however, believes there is more of a cost-cutting component to the way Obama’s strategy has developed.

“I don’t think you want to underestimate the impact of the financial crisis because that has forced a number of people to say that our resources are not infinite and that we’re going to have to be smarter about this,” he told The Diplomat. “We can’t go after every conceivable bad guy who’s out there. We want to focus on the bad guys who are trying to attack the United States and we want to focus on al-Qaeda. And I think one manifestation of that has been the fact that we actually did finally get Osama bin Laden in part, I think, because the Obama people did put more time and resources into trying to do that.”

Barno says one reason why U.S. counterterrorism efforts have become more precise is because that is just what the commanders and intelligence officials have learned works best. And our armed forces have simply honed their skills over the last 10 years. He also emphasized that even if Obama has taken steps to reduce America’s presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, the resources that have been dedicated to targeting terrorism worldwide have not changed, either since Bush or during the course of Obama’s term.

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“I think the counterterrorist fight is staying a constant in all of this,” he said, adding that the fight has been highly effective under both administrations. And cost, he said, is not as much of a factor in strict counterterrorism campaigns compared to what it takes to put down an insurgency.

“It does not consume anything like those kinds of dollars and it operates in a very focused, precise, surgical way that’s integrated with intelligence and law enforcement all around the world. That’s going to remain steady and, more likely than not, it will actually grow in the coming years.”

Barno and Walt both pointed to the bang-foryour-buck success that can be achieved with drone strikes and Special Forces teams. But Walt went further than Barno in saying that Obama was deliberately choosing these methods to harness the same fighting power over the enemy because they are cheaper and “less politically visible.” Overall, given today’s economic realities, any realignment of a counterterrorism strategy would have to accomplish the task at hand while “avoid-

September 2011

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“And so we see in the Obama administration an increased reliance on Special Forces, an increased reliance on drone strokes — that is, more strikes and in more places — as a way of aiming the power directly on the problem rather than seeing the goal as being a vast reorganization of whole societies as a way of dealing with the problem,” Walt explained. “We do now know how to run drones and do Special Forces raids.

And, for the most part, that kind of activity is off of the headlines, it’s not on the front pages every day, it can happen sort of off there in the shadows,” he said. “So I’m not surprised Obama has found this as a tempting way to proceed. It is certainly a lot better than trying to invade and conquer countries that we don’t understand very well.”

Barno also points out that the expansion of the drone program under Obama is a natural progression because this “tool” has become markedly better in recent years.

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“The sophistication and integration of the military and intelligence capabilities have grown immeasurably. Whereas five years ago even, the fidelity you could have in your intelligence to be able to create the confidence in the targets that are being presumably struck by the current drone program — that wasn’t there,” Barno said. “You simply didn’t have the intelligence networks. You didn’t have the granularity in your intelligence, the sophisticated system that you’ve got today.”

He added: “I think the reality is that there’s been a growing recognition that those strikes have been very effective in hitting the targets that they’ve been aimed at. So that I think contributes to the desire to use them.”

Barno noted that another seldom-recognized aspect of America’s counterterrorism work is that U.S. Special Forces are increasingly being used in training programs around the world to help the troops of other countries in their fight against insurgents and terrorists.That is part of a continuing strategy to help America’s adversaries boost

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their own strength, which in turn furthers our interests by easing the demands on U.S. forces.

“I think there’s a policy recognition that that’s not the best option for the United States,” Barno said of large deployments of U.S. soldiers overseas.“It embroils us in long-term conflicts with a lot of troops and a lot of expense and a lot of American lives lost at the end of the day. And there’s some lessons learned from the last 10 years that we’re going to try to use to steer us in a different direction for the next 10 years.

“And one way you’re going to do that is through early pre-emption and through the use of special ops forces and the use of intelligence and the use of other countries’ military intelligence capabilities and a lot of collaborative efforts with them — to get at these things at the front end before they grow into these large fights.”

Luke Jerod Kummer is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. Anna Gawel is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.

The Washington Diplomat Page 69

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