bout de papier, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1999) — Spring 1999 // Printemps 1999, p. 2
As Editor of bout one sometimes feels a bit like the kid in the candy store — you want to savour the moment, with so much good to choose from and every choice bound to make you happy. In the bout business, this translates into a rich flow of innovative story ideas, often-unsolicited written submissions from both current and former Foreign Service officers, intellectual feasting at bout editorial board meetings, and the freedom to pick and choose themes and highlight issues affecting the contemporary Foreign Service that we believe bout readers need to be aware of.
Thus “PAFSO Forum” this issue highlights the work of the Foreign Service Community Association (FSCA) in addressing a range of issues relating to spousal opportunities in the Foreign Service, including the frequent career and financial disruption for the ’significant other’ in a rotational Foreign Service. The FSCA recently sponsored a spousal life conference involving DFAIT and representatives from a large number of diplomatic missions in Ottawa, where the most important spousal issue identified was financial – the lack of continuity in employment opportunities while on posting, which entailed a significant loss of second income and pension earnings. As Nancy Fraser points out in “PAFSO Forum” ’, these are issues of increasing salience for Foreign Service couples where financial imperatives are such that for many, a two-income family is no longer the exception but the norm.
The Nordic countries, Great Britain and the US are all addressing these concerns in various ways, which may contain lessons for the Canadian foreign service. DFAIT, meanwhile, has set up a Task Force with the FSCA to explore a number of these issues, including the possibility of employment insurance and pension benefits for rotational spouses when abroad, and a requirement for Heads of Mission to aggressively promote spousal employment at post. This issue must be given high priority by PAFSO and DFAIT management or we risk seeing the rotational Foreign Service become less and less attractive, particularly from a financial remuneration point of view in a two-income world.
Au nombre des articles de fond dans le présent numéro figure un hommage à Fulgence Charpentier, l’aîné des membres du service extérieur, retraités ou actifs, et le doyen des représentants de la presse de langue française au Canada. Nous présentons également un enrichissant extrait des nouveaux mémoires d’Earl Drake, «A Stubble Jumper in Striped Pants: Memoirs of a Prairie Diplômât». Un autre article de fond, par Réjean Frenette, guide les lecteurs dans les coulisses du Forum de Davos, une des réunions annuelles les plus exclusives des dirigeants politiques et d’affaires au monde.
Nous présentons aussi des perspectives actuelles des anciens chefs de mission Geoffrey Bruce, Paul Lapointe, Marc Faguy et Ted Lee sur l’évolution d’AECI et du programme international au cours des 25 dernières années. Dans «Housing in Brunei», Richard Belliveau examine l’architecture et les modes de vie variés à Brunei, tandis que l’article de Roger Lucy, «Team Byzantium» donne un dynamique aperçu des traquenards de la négociation diplomatique et du développement d’un pays sous l’Empire romain.
Sous la rubrique «Commentaires» du présent numéro, Arthur Blanchette, membre du Conseil de rédaction sénior de bout, évalue les missions commerciales d’Équipe Canada, sous la direction du Premier ministre, en Asie et en Amérique Latine. Dans «Travel to Far and Wide», Nick Coghlan nous emmène faire la connaissance de paysans et de paramilitaires dans le golfe de Darien entre le Panama et la Colombie.
Pour marquer le cinquantenaire de la fondation de l’OTAN et au moment où la guerre du Kosovo ramène carrément cet organisme dans les manchettes, Hector Mackenzie, membre de l’Équipe de rédaction, a compilé pour la rubrique «From the Archives» une série d’échanges diplomatiques qui explorent le rôle de Hume Wrong, ambassadeur du Canada aux États-Unis, dans l’élaboration du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord.
For “Books in Review”, we thank Kurt Jensen for his examination of Bill Macdonald’s “The True Entrepid and the Unknown Agents” ’, which looks at the life of Bill Stephenson, the Canadian-born head of British intelligence activities in the United States during the Second World War. “In Memoriam” recognizes the passing away of Margaret Meagher and Saul Rae.
A Aalto, who “welcomes the coming of spring from his yurt in Tuva”, again graces our pages with “Liebnitz and the Double Helix: A Diplomaniac enigma”. Good luck in wrapping your mind around this one…
The posting season and new HQ assignments will mean fresh faces in Ottawa and abroad. If you are returning to Ottawa this summer and wish to be part of the bout editorial team, please let us know. If you are about to leave Ottawa and embark upon the exotic, bear in mind bout’s unquenchable thirst for good copy, and keep your camera handy!
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Originally published in / Publié à l’origine dans bout de papier, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1999) — Spring 1999 // Printemps 1999, p. 2. Read the rest of this issue / Lire le reste de ce numéro →
