The Foreign Service Journal, May 2019

16 MAY 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A n unusual and fascinating website has been launched for sharing newly declassified cables in conjunction with release of The Back Channel: A Mem- oir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal , the new book by Ambassador (ret.) William J. Burns. Burnsbackchannel.com, hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (where Burns serves as president), contains a searchable archive of nearly 100 declassified cables, memos and emails written during Amb. Burns’ 33-year Foreign Service career with the State Department. (See p. 18 for the FSJ interview with Amb. Burns.) The first document in the archive, a cable written from Amman in 1984, details “The Changing Face of Jordanian Politics.” Later cables from Jordan continue to document the situation in the country and region: “AYoung Man in a Hurry,” for example, explains the changes that unfolded in the 100 days since the death of King Hussein and the installation of his son Abdullah as king. In a secret memo written a few days after Saddam Hus- sein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Amb. Burns outlined options for containing the Iraqi leader, beginning with “multilateral political and economic pressure.” He then spent several SITE OF THE MONTH: THE BACK CHANNEL ARCHIVE pages detailing how to make these options work. A 1994 secret cable from Embassy Moscow details Rus- sia’s “increasingly assertive” foreign policy moves and describes the political and social upheaval in Russia following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. “Even with the most positive of outlooks, there can be no ignoring the sobering list of potential problems on the hori- zon,” the cable reads. In it Burns advises to better prioritize among the list of concerns, as we can no longer expect to “have it our way,” and recommends looking for “creative ways to accommodate the compelling Russian urge for a seat at the great power table.” The site also includes memos and cables from Tunis, Tehran, Damascus and other hotspots across the globe, as well as global scene setters to welcome incoming Secretar- ies of State. requirements by Congress) and also of Fiscal Year 2018 funding. The decision’s application to prior- year funds will cause significant disrup- tion of ongoing programs administered by NGOs, private sector implement- ers and government agencies—many designed to help address the root causes of migration. The activities are in areas such as community gang preven- tion, police training and agricultural value chain improvements. Congress is likely to request an accounting of what accounts will be affected, and whether this reversal of funding applies to specific legislative earmarks funding bills. Meanwhile, the policy debate may also include questions over the metric for judging success in the programs already in place, which were designed to have long-term impact on the key migration drivers of violence (especially from gangs) and unemployment. State Department Plans to Merge Bureaus to Counter Disinformation O n April 12 The Washington Post reported on State Department p lans to merge the Bureau of Public Affairs, which oversees domestic communica- tions concerning the Secretary and the department, with the Bureau of Interna- tional Information Programs, which is responsible for messaging overseas. The two bureaus will be combined into one new Bureau of Global Public Affairs. Announced by Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Michelle Guida, the merger is intended to help counter dis- information campaigns by Russia, China and others by combining domestic and overseas communications, allowing the department to disseminate information rapidly across social media platforms. The two branches have tradition- ally been kept separate because of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which pro- hibits the U.S. government from devel- oping propaganda targeting Americans. But the Act has become obsolete in the internet era, when news stories and tweets have an instant worldwide reach,