The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

14 JULY-AUGUST 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL T he Executive Abroad is an interactive map showcasing the history of international travel by presidents and Secretaries of State. Produced by the Digital Scholar- ship Lab at the University of Rich- mond, which focuses on research and development of innovative digital humanities projects, the map is part of DSL’s project, American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History. Users can search by the name of a president or Secretary of State to find out where in the world they have visited, and how often visits to that city or country have taken place. By clicking on the various highlighted cities, users can see the meetings that took place during each visit. “Executive travel represents an important form of soft power, and this map projects its growth during what’s been called the American Century,” the authors of the website state. —Andrea Philbin, Editorial Intern SITE OF THE MONTH: www .http://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/executiveabroad/ we get for this small 1 percent of the federal budget is unmatched. When the State Department and USAID have the resources they need to create stable and growing markets for American goods, it’s truly an American jobs program.” Signatories include a number of Fortune 500 companies—Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nike, Land O’Lakes, Cargill, Loews, UPS, Kellogg, DuPont, Microsoft, Mars, General Electric, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble and Marriott—alongside dozens of local chambers of commerce and businesses from all sectors and regions. —Gemma Dvorak, Associate Editor Colin Powell Speaks Out on the 2018 Budget I n a May 24 op-ed for The New York Times , former Secretary of State an d former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell spoke out in opposition to the Trump administration’s 2018 bud- get proposal to reduce State Department and foreign assistance spending. The proposed budget would be “inter- nationally irresponsible, distressing our friends, encouraging our enemies and undermining our own economic and national security interests,” Powell said. Powell spoke fromhis experience as Secretary, rebuilding the department after a decade of budget cuts that had left it unable to function effectively, and his experience in the military working alongside diplomats and aid workers to strengthen America abroad. While agreeing that it is necessary to review, reform and strengthen the State Department and USAID, the former Sec- retary of State said that gutting the foreign affairs budget would, in effect, lower our flag at outposts around the world and make us less safe: Confronting the chal- lenges of the modern world needs more than just a military that is second to none, but also well-resourced, effective and empowered diplomats and aid workers. If Americans want to keep the reputa- tion the country has built over the years as a beacon of hope to the world, Powell argues, then the conversation has to begin by acknowledging that it can’t be done on the cheap. —Gemma Dvorak, Associate Editor Justice Delayed, Justice Denied? F ive years ago, in the May 2012 Journal (“The Power of Video”), we reported on the international campaign to capture Joseph Kony, one of Africa’s most brutal warlords. Since its 1987 founding, Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army has forcibly recruited approximately 100,000 children to serve as soldiers or sex workers, killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of people throughout Central Africa, and displaced at least twomillion others. We noted that Invisible Children, Inc., a nonprofit founded to raise awareness of If someone leaves a void, I guarantee someone will fill it… Today, the economy and social aspects are linked to the environmental aspects, but they are also linked to the security aspects, they are linked to the risks of conflict. …If you leave a void to others to occupy, you might be creating a problem to your own internal security. —U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, responding to a question on climate change after a speech at New York University, May 30. Contemporary Quote