bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), p. 2
DEAR READERS,
I don’t know quite how it happened that I have come to be the Editor-in-Chief of bout de papier replacing my friend Dan Livermore. But I have and I am and now I have to get on with it, so to speak. This first issue has taken longer than I would like to get out but I think I have now hit a rhythm and have a better idea of what is and will be required to make bout a success, which by definition means read, enjoyed, and appreciated across the Foreign Service and beyond, as it was in its heyday.
To do this requires content, and ideally content which reflects the present as well as the past, that teases out issues of interest to the Foreign Service, that provides perhaps a different perspective on some key developments globally and in international relations. And some fun, of course, in the form of the impossible, at least as far as I’m concerned, puzzles by A. Aalto, and the aroma of good food thanks to The Hungry Diplomat. In the weeks to come, with the constant and most welcome support of Pam and the magazine’s editorial board, which I hope to expand, I would like to plan out the next two issues for 2022 quickly. There is no shortage of subjects which can be covered, finding writers is proving more of a challenge. But for those of you who are interested please reach out to me at [email protected]. Ideas for articles are most welcome as well, as are comments on those published in this issue. I would like to find a way to bring back the “letters to the editor” feature and therefore an ongoing dialogue with the readership of bout. So please don’t hesitate to raise your hand.
Coming back to bout, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my own career in the Foreign Service. When I left at the end of 2016, I sent a message to as many of my colleagues and friends as I could think of. It comprised a “stock-taking” of my life — and it is a life not a career — in the Foreign Service, drawing on the principles of “deliverology” which was much in vogue at the time.
Here are some extracts: “There were five postings, all of them memorable, but to three of which I retain a deep emotional attachment. Nine assignments at headquarters, seven of which I loved, two of which were less successful in my mind. Ironically the two less successful ones were the two I had lobbied most intensely to get. There were promotions, five in total over the years from FS-1D to EX-03, interspersed with some seven attempts — the slog to become an EX-01 was particularly long.
There were seven Heads of Mission, and I was lucky enough to get the chance to be one myself. There were 45 bosses overall (a list which includes bosses of bosses where they were a daily presence in my life). On the flip side, over the years I calculated that I have had a degree of responsibility for some 320 colleagues, both Canada-based and locally engaged. There have been 14 Under-Secretaries of State/Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which works out to about one every two years and eight months during my time. I worked very closely with six of them and grew to appreciate the near impossible nature of their jobs. There were 20 Secretaries of State for External Affairs/Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which works out to an average tenure of some 22 months for each of them.
The Foreign Service is not so much a job or a career as it is a life. In my case Moscow brought me a chance encounter with a curly-haired journalist which led to a wedding split between London and Saint Petersburg 18 months later and the birth, a year and a week later in 1996, of our glorious daughter. The postings also brought the opportunity to see places you wouldn’t have thought of seeing otherwise. Severomorsk in the Russian high Arctic, home of the Northern Fleet, and the Jewish Autonomous Region in Siberia, on the frontier with China, stick in my mind but there were many others on the more beaten track which were equally memorable. Italso brought the opportunity to meet and, if one was lucky, have conversations with people you wouldn’t have met otherwise. Often in the context of organizing summits (Yeltsin/Clinton, G8 and Commonwealth) of which I worked intensively on seven over the years.
The rhythm at headquarters was, of course, very different from that at post. There were way more meetings for one thing. Probably thousands. There were task forces, in my case the most memorable being 9/11 and the Asian tsunami. With the many crises came very long hours, particularly in the Media Relations Office and later in the Consular Branch. There was writing — a lot of it. Some of it tedious and pro forma. But the longer pieces were genuinely fun to work on and for some strange reason, I particularly liked writing speeches. There was the chance to get involved in “extra-curricular” activities. In my case the PAFSO Executive early in my career and the Women’s Network later on.
It is hard to sum up a career made up of so many disparate elements. But there was a constant sense of being part, no matter one’s role, of the making of history and, if things turned out well, of a better world. I think that is as true today as it was when I wrote it five years ago. Despite the enormous challenges of the past two years I hope you feel the same. Please get and stay in touch.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), p. 2. Read the rest of this issue →
