The Foreign Service Journal, February 2009

as observers from seven organizations that do not, were in attendance at Co- lumbia University Law School in New York City for the movement’s launch in early December. Featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Facebook founder Dustin Moskowitz and Oscar Morales, among other speakers, the conference was streamed by Howcast ( http://info. howcast.com/youthmovements/su mmit ). For more information, go to www. state.gov/r/us/2008/112310.htm for the transcript of the Nov. 24 brief- ing at the department, where Glass- man and Cohen discuss the initiative in detail. Another “First” In celebrating the historic election of the first African-American president of the United States, another historic “first” has been neglected. Barack Obama is the first modern American president to have spent some of his formative years outside the United States. He is a Third Culture Kid, as Ruth van Reken, one of the foremost authorities on this phenomenon, points out in the Nov. 26 Daily Beast blog ( www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and- stories/2008-11-26/obamas-third- culture-team ) — and this may exert a significant influence on his administra- tion. Obama is a TCK himself, and they proliferate among his top appointees. For example, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett was a child in Tehran and London; Treasury Secretary-des- ignate Tim Geithner grew up in East Africa, India, Thailand, China and Japan as the son of a Ford Foundation executive; and National Security Ad- viser-designate James L. Jones was raised in Paris. Not merely trivia, this could have a lot to do with the practice of the new administration, says van Reken. Chil- dren who spend a portion of their de- velopmental years outside their “passport country” — and the adults they become — share a global per- spective, social adaptability and intel- lectual flexibility. They tend to be quick to think outside the box and can appreciate and reconcile different points of view, according to the body of sociology and other literature on in- dividuals raised globally. Beyond whatever diversity in background or appearance they may bring to the party, there is a diversity of thought among them as well. In 1984, Dr. Ted Ward, then a soci- ologist at Michigan State University, hailed TCKs as “the prototype citizens of the future.” The future is now! This edition of Cybernotes was com- piled by Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra. F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... A mericans are beginning to wake up to our dangerous language lag — a weak chink in the nation’s armor. As a leader in the Free World, the United States cannot afford to continue to be tongue-tied in the world arena. — From “Foreign Language: Chink in America’s Armor?” by Jacob Ornstein, FSJ , February 1959.