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r. Shervin Naderi is an internationally known Facial Plastic Surgeon, and named the 2010 Most Compassionate Doctor by the American Registry. Dr. Naderi has patients that travel from as far as Europe and Asia seeking rhinoplasty and revision rhinoplasty. His VIP patient list includes diplomats, actresses, models and beauty pageant contestants. As impressive are the numerous doctors and nurses who trust their own faces and the faces of their loved ones to no one other than Dr. Naderi and his expertise. His unique and ultra-specialized facial plastic surgery practice is focused nearly exclusively on aesthetic nasal surgery (rhinoplasty) as well as minimally invasive facial injections using Botox and fillers. He is a national clinical instructor for Allergan (makers of Botox and Juvederm) and Medicis (makers of Dysport, Restylane & Perlane), teaching other physicians minimally invasive cosmetic injections. Dr. Naderi is also an examiner for the American Board of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Naderi uses digital computer imaging on a 55” LCD screen to
show options and potential desired results when it comes to nasal reshaping. “Perfection is unrealistic,” he says, “but everyone can have a better nose that is perfect for their face.” Successful rhinoplasty can improve appearance and self-confidence; bad rhinoplasty can adversely affect not only appearance, but also breathing. “I often see patients who have had multiple previous unsuccessful surgeries,” says Dr. Naderi. “Some of these patients have gone overseas to save money, while others have spent a small fortune closer to home just to end up with a worse nose than the one they had.” Beyond his skill, artistry and knowledge of the face and nose, Dr. Naderi is a caring physician who often takes the time to talk patients out of unnecessary cosmetic surgery. Dr. Naderi’s priorities are safety and risk control, while achieving beautiful and natural looking results with the least downtime and discomfort. His staff reflects the same dedication to excellence with their warm, caring personalities and their commitment to privacy and concierge service.
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INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS: CONNECTING THE WORLD Finding a school where your child thrives provides a foundation for a successful future. More than half a million families each year choose independent private schools. The schools that belong to the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) share a commitment to providing safe environments in which young people can learn academic skills plus the importance of hard work, leadership, and good citizenship. Independent schools provide challenging academics and opportunities to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities, which prepares students for success at the next level. A study from the U.S. Department of Education found that 99 percent of students at NAIS schools graduated from high school and 90 percent of graduates attended four-year colleges. The Freshman Survey Trends Report, an annual study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, found that NAIS school graduates felt more prepared for the academic demands of college than their public school counterparts. As college freshman, NAIS graduates reported that they were more likely to ask questions in class and explore topics on their own, even though it was not required for a class.
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EDUCATION • EDUCATION • EDUCATION
independent schools
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The Higher Education Research Institute also found that graduates from NAIS schools were more likely than public school graduates to have had an internship and to have accepted an offer EDUCATE YOUR EDUCATE YOUR STUDENTS of employment before TO BECOME LEADERS IN AN STUDENTS INTERDEPENDENT WORLD. graduating from college. TO BECOME Independent education benefited graduates in adulthood too. The National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), administered by the U.S. Department of Education, found that NAIS graduates were more likely to exercise regularly, volunteer in their communities, and read newspapers and magazines daily as adults than graduates of other types of schools.
LEADERS IN AN INTERDEPENDENT WORLD.
Challenge 20/20 is an Internet-based program that pairs classes at any grade level (elementary and secondary) from public and private schools in the U.S. with similar-age classes in schools in other countries. Together, the teams (of two, three, or four schools) tackle real global problems over the course of a semester to find solutions that can be implemented at the local level and in their own communities.
The projects relate to water deficits, global infectious diseases, the fight against poverty, Challenge 20/20 connects schools in the United States biotechnology rules, with schools in other countries. Together, students work to identify local solutions to a global problem. education for all, and Through this globally based, experiential curriculum, students develop cross-cultural competency and communication skills. This program is an online biodiversity and ecoprogram that is free of charge and open to all schools. system losses, among other topics. Schools are paired up by NAIS, based on their interests and age range. First, they share their perspectives on the issue and define the impact of the issue globally and in their own communities. They work together to generate project ideas and to develop plans. Since 2005, Challenge 20/20 has connected thousands of schools. Each year, we receive more than 500 applications from schools in nearly 60 countries.
One program overseen by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), Challenge 20/20, helps nurture community engagement while building cross-cultural connections and awareness of global issues.
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EDUCATION • EDUCATION • EDUCATION
independent schools Finally, they share implementation strategies. The interaction with students from other countries and cultures is among the highlights of the program for many students. Developing cross-cultural communication skills is among the top assets listed by teachers too. A handful of schools request to be partnered with schools in specific regions to help practice language skills. Many groups continue communicating with their partners after the completion of the program, forging bonds both personal and institutional. Some schools have found that the program builds enthusiasm among parents and can drive volunteerism among community members too. Doctors or development workers may want to help
Programs like Challenge 20/20 help students connect with their communities and the world around them, hallmarks of a highquality education. For more information about independent schools, please visit www.nais.org/go/parents. For information about Challenge 20/20, please see www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.
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students study global infectious diseases, for instance, and lawyers may be able to share their expertise on intellectual property concerns. Many schools also partner with local community organizations, such as food banks or conservation groups as part of their local implementation strategies.
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Providing benefit solutions for the following business sectors and specialized situations: Global Health Insurance
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Located just blocks from the U.S. Capitol Building, the National Mall, Chinatown, Union Station, Verizon Center and Judiciary Square Metro! Stunning Views of the U.S. Capitol, Washington Monument and the city’s beautiful skyline await you... Ashton Judiciary Square features:
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Crescent Luxury Apartments offer cleaner, sleeker, more modern living that reduces your environmental footprint and enhances your everyday life! At the Crescent you’ll be conveniently located in Arlington, VA just a short walk to the East Falls Church Metro, a short drive to I-66, I-495, boutique shopping, bistros and fine dining restaurants in Tysons Corner. Enjoy the wonderful green-based property features including a tree-lined promenade walkway connecting to a large park, reserved parking for low-emission, fuel-efficient vehicles and abundant bicycle storage. Features and amenities include: • One & two bedroom furnished or • Elegant bathrooms with soaking tubs, unfurnished luxury apartment homes marble countertops and dual head showers • Spacious, energy-efficient living in a modern atmosphere • Premiere amenities including a state of the art fitness club, two courtyards with • European inspired kitchens, upgraded fire pits, outdoor grilling and dual sided cabinetry and granite slab countertops outdoor fireplace, plush clubhouse, • Extra large walk-in closets, high theatre room and much more! ceilings and certified green features
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Catering to the needs of the
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Catering to the needs of the
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ALL-NEW 2012 CADILLAC
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Jim Coleman Cadillac is pleased to announce:
The Jim Coleman Cadillac Exclusive Diplomat Vehicle Leasing/Sales Program. New Cadillacs priced from just $34,315. Choose from our incredible selection of sedans like the elegant All-New CTS. Sport Utility Vehicles, including the Escalade, Escalade ESV, and the all new SRX are all aggressively priced for this special sales event as well. Eligible participants include Ambassadors, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Diplomats Accredited to the United Nations, OAS, and other International Organizations, Career Counselor Officials, as well as Attaches and Career Administrative Officials of the Diplomatic Consular Missions. If you or any eligible participant is interested in learning more about the Jim Coleman Diplomat Vehicle Sales, please contact Michael Jaffe, Director Vehicle Sales, and I will be happy to discuss these special offers, terms and purchase details. It is our goal at Jim Coleman Cadillac to continue to be the leader in Diplomat Vehicle Sales for the Washington metro area. We offer the utmost in Customer Service and Satisfaction that includes: One Stop Shopping Rapid Response Time Ordering Made Easy and Convenient Models Customized to Your Personal Requirements Integrity and Fairness in all Your Transactions Knowledgeable & Experienced Cadillac Diplomatic Sales & Leasing Specialist Best Luxury Coverage in the Industry 4-years/50,000 mile New Vehicle Limited Warranty 5-years/100,000 mile Powertrain Limited Warranty 5-years/100,000 mile Roadside Assistance Please contact me at your earliest convenience, and I will make your next Cadillac purchase the pleasurable experience it should be.
Michael Jaffe Director of Diplomatic Sales MJaffe@JimColemanAuto.com Diplomatic Sales Hotline (240) 403-1257 JimColemanCadillac.com
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Jim Coleman Toyota Diplomat Vehicle Leasing/Sales Program. Jim Coleman Toyota would like to introduce our Diplomat Leasing/Sales Program. This program is available to all Ambassadors, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Diplomats Accredited to the United Nations, OAS, and other International Organizations, Career Counselor Officials, as well as Attaches and Career Administrative Officials of the Diplomatic Consular Missions. Through this program, you will receive great deals on some of our best-selling Toyota models. Choose from our incredible selection of sedans like the All-New Camry. Sport Utility Vehicles, including the Highlander, Venza, and the all new RAV4 are all aggressively priced for this special sales event as well. Here at Jim Coleman Toyota, we strive to remain the leader in Diplomatic Vehicle Sales for the Washington metro area. Special VIP appointments available to all eligible participants. Please contact Patrick Coleman, New Car Sales Manager of Jim Coleman Toyota for more details.
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NATO Summit in Chicago 2012 PAGE 62
DIPLOMATIC CONNECTIONS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dawn Parker AssistantS to the Editor Kyle Byram, Chanel Cherry Ashley Gatewood, Rose Minor BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Executives Evan Strianese, Kendra Edmonds, Amy Richardson Mongoose Atlantic, Inc. – Stephen Channon, George Hoffman, Amber Smith DESIGN & CREATIVE KDG Advertising, Design & Marketing msocha@kdgadvertising.com DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENTS and CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Roland Flamini, James Winship, PhD, Monica Frim, Meghan Lawson, Becky Davis, Maria Oparil
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Event Coordinator Assistants William Lewallen, Nate Subra, Colleen Tankei, Cristina Montesinos, Yuun Peñuelas, Jurong Kang
To contact an advertising executive CALL: 202.536.4810 FAX: 202.370.6882 EMAIL: info@diplomaticconnections.com DIPLOMATIC CONNECTIONS WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT IMS (Inquiry Management Systems) 304 Park Avenue South, 11th Floor New York, NY 10010 TOLL FREE: 877.467.8721 X701 Website: www.ims.com Marc Highbloom, Vice President marc@ims.ca Maria D’Urso, Project Manager Mariad@ims.ca CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHY Christophe Avril; Diane Bondareff/ Insider Images for UN Foundation
G20 Summit Page 55
To order photos from the events go to: www.diplomaticconnections.com Send any name or address changes in writing to: Diplomatic Connections 4410 Massachusetts Avenue / #200 Washington, DC 20016 Diplomatic Connections Business Edition is published bi-monthly. Diplomatic Connections does not endorse any of the goods or services offered herein this publication. Copyright 2012 by Diplomatic Connections All rights reserved. Cover photo credits: Amanda Peet, Diane Bondareff/Insider Images for UN Foundation; Senator Webb, Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images; Jada Pinkett Smith, Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images; Prince William, Stefan WermuthWPA Pool /Getty Images; Chelsea trophy, Alex Livesey/Getty Images; Colonel Zoltan Bone, Christophe Avril, Diplomatic Connections; U.S. Congressmen, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Russian President Putin, Alexei Nikolsky/ AFP/Getty Images; Pat Sajak and Canadian Ambassador Doer, Canadian Embassy; Chelsea versus Bayern, Odd Anderson/AFP/Getty Images; top center NATO Chicago group, Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images; G20 Mexico, Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Polish Ambassador Kupiecki, Christophe Avril, Diplomatic Connections.
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APARTMENTS and HOUSING Ashton Judiciary Square UDR 14 Crescent Falls Church UDR 14 Dittmar Realty – Courtland Towers 15 Dittmar Realty – Randolph Towers 15 AUTOMOTIVE - CARS and LIMOUSINE SERVICES Admiral Leasing 76 BMW of Rockville 2 Car Services – VIP Gold Car Back COVER Jim Coleman Cadillac 16 Jim Coleman Toyota 17 CHOCOLATES Neuhaus Belgian Chocolates 96 COMMercial Real Estate ULM Holding Corporation 1 COMMUNICATIONS InTouch USA Wireless Communications 33 Diplomatic Connections Reception, October 30th, 2012 at the Mandarin Oriental Washington, D.C. 94 EDUCATION – INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS Archbishop Riordan High School 7 British School of Washington 11 Florida Air Academy 10 Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles 9 Loyola School 11 Marvelwood School 10 Miss Porter’s School 7 Pinecrest School 10 Sandy Spring Friends School 8 The Kew-Forest School 8 Trinity – Pawling School 9
PAGE 82 HOTELS, DINING and ACCOMMODATIONS 2100PRIME.COM 6 Double Tree Hotel by Hilton Hotel Bethesda – Washington, D.C. 69 [The] Fairfax at Embassy Row 6, 90 - 93 Fairmont Washington, DC – Georgetown 65 The Federalist Restaurant 32 Four Seasons 75 [The] Hay-Adams INSIDE Back COVER InterContinental - Willard InterContinental – Washington, DC 77 InterContinental - Cleveland Clinic 5 [The] Madison 27 [The] Mandarin Oriental Washington, D.C. 94 & 95 [The] Peninsula Beverly Hills INSIDE FRONT COVER Trump International Hotel & Tower * Chicago 3
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Medical Rhinoplasty and Cosmetic Surgery - The Naderi Center 4 PROTOCOL Protocol Partners 13 TRAVEL, INSURANCE, PASSPORTS AND VISAS Insurance - Travel Insurance Center 12 VFS Global 13
ENTERTAINMENT [The] Embassy Series 74 FURNITURE Furniture - RocheBobois 33
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Articles Canada – Pat Sajak – GI Film Festival 78 Chicago – NATO 62 G 8 at Camp David 50 G 20 in Mexico 50 Hungary – Interview with Colonel Zoltan Bone 28 Japan – PM Noda’s visit to Washington 20 Poland – Secretary Clinton at the Residence 34 Poland – Interview with Ambassador Kupiecki 40 Prince Harry – Brazil, Belize, Bahamas and Jamaica 82 State Department – Jada Pinkett Smith, topic of Human Trafficking 58 United Nations Foundation – The Shot@Life Campaign and Amanda Peet 70
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Jewel Samad/AFP/GettyImages
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President Obama extends to shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2012.
By James A. Winship. Ph.D. Think Japan and spring time in Washington, D.C., and thoughts immediately turn to cherry blossoms and festivals. Spring 2012 did mark the 100th anniversary of Japan’s initial gift of cherry trees to the United States, but this was not the only anniversary in U.S.-Japan relations being celebrated in 2012. At almost the same time, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiko Noda arrived in Washington to acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of San Francisco (also known as the Treaty of Peace with Japan) and the Security Treaty Between the United States and Japan. These are the agreements that officially marked the end of World War II in the Pacific, the end of the American occupation of Japan and the beginning of a mutual security relationship between the
United States and Japan that would limit the future development of Japanese military forces in exchange for American guarantees of Japanese security. Though Prime Minister Noda’s visit was somewhat overshadowed by a diplomatic confrontation between the United States and China. This was over the fate of Chinese dissident and human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who had taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and who has since been allowed to come to the United States after an extended process of diplomatic wrangling. However, the importance of the Noda-Obama summit should not be underestimated. Their meeting was the first bilateral summit in Washington between a Japanese leader and an American President since the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) had wrested power from the Liberal
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Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda arrives at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on April 30, 2012. The leaders of Japan and the U.S. met recently to look at new ways to cooperate in defense, hoping to show that the alliance is back on track after a rocky few years and amid fears that North Korea will test another nuclear bomb.
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Jewel Samad/AFP/GettyImages
Japanese soldiers from the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force train in urban assault with American Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Brigade during a bilateral exercise at Fort Lewis’ Leschi Town.
Democratic Party (LDP), which dominated Japanese politics and controlled government for more than 50 years, in 2009. Though the two men had previously met at the United Nations General Assembly sessions in New York and at the Asia Pacific Cooperation (APEC) forum in Hawaii, this summit represented the culmination of months of extensive staff work and behindthe-scenes negotiation between the two governments. Historically, the Japan-U.S. relationship was built on a Cold War world view and the concern to block Soviet advances in the Asia Pacific region. With the end of the Cold War, however, the long-feared Soviet threat was replaced with a series of regional concerns related to the economic rise of China and its military modernization program, the threat of nuclear proliferation from North Korea, freedom of the seas and access to undersea resources responding to international terrorist threats, and dealing with competing economic interests in the region. Additionally, U.S.-Japan relations have been strained by economic slowdowns in both countries by U.S. foreign policy initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by the rapid turnover of governments in Japan — six different prime ministers and foreign ministers from two different political parties — in the last seven years. In their joint press conference, President Obama noted that when he and Prime Minister Noda first met, “We agreed to modernize our alliance to meet the needs of the 21st century.” “Mr. Prime Minister,” the President continued, “I want to thank you for the personal commitment you’ve brought to this effort. You’ve called the alliance with the United States Japan’s ‘greatest asset.’ And in our work together we’ve seen your trademark determination and humility.” Describing the bilateral alliance with the United States as “the lynchpin of Japan’s diplomacy,” Prime Minister Noda noted that, “The United States contains elements of instability such as North Korea, maritime conflicts and military build-ups . . . major opportunities and challenges exist side by side in the region. [In our joint statement] the United States and Japan clearly show their determination to utilize their respective capabilities and resources to the maximum extent possible dividing up responsibilities and roles for the peace and prosperity not only of the Asia Pacific, but of the world.” The joint statement resulting from the Noda-Obama meeting covers five major areas of shared vision between the two countries: a renewed commitment to shared responsibility for the security of Japan and the Asia Pacific region, including arrangements for the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan and the broader region; increased bilateral trade and investment to support economic growth, including strength-
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Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Senator and Chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee Jim Webb (L) shakes hands with Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba prior to their talks at Gemba’s office in Tokyo on April 6, 2012. Webb was in Japan to exchange views on North Korean issues with Japanese officials.
ening energy cooperation and the possibility of the United States selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan; further developing the rule of law and supporting human rights based on the developing norms of international law, freedom of commerce and navigation and peaceful resolution of conflicts; acting as partners to deal with critical issues such as the security challenges posed by North Korea and Iran and the early stages of democratic transition in Myanmar (Burma); and deepening ties between the people of the two countries. While these five areas of shared vision use coded language to deal with a wide range of specific issues, the most important issues are those dealing with regional security and the deployment of U.S. forces in Japan and in the wider Asia Pacific region. The issue of U.S. forces and bases in Japan has long been contentious and is deeply enmeshed in the domestic politics of each country. Japanese politicians have long resented the presence of U.S. forces in Japan, and 24
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large numbers of U.S. forces have been moved southward to Okinawa where the presence of the bases is heavily resented as evidence that Okinawans are regarded as second-class citizens by politicians in Tokyo. Members of the United States Congress, by contrast, express concern that Japan accepts a “free ride” on U.S. security guarantees thereby limiting its own military spending. At the same time, for many members of Congress, the U.S. presence in Japan represents absolutely essential “forward basing” should it ever become necessary to deploy forces in East Asia. In preparatory discussions leading up to the NodaObama meeting, U.S. and Japanese officials appeared to have reached a tenuous compromise on the issue of U.S. forces and bases in Japan, notably on the future of Futenma Air Base on Okinawa. Under this working agreement, 9,000 U.S. Marines would be shifted from Okinawa, half of them to Guam and half shifting between bases in Hawaii and Austra-
lia on a rotational basis. At the same time, the question of a Futenma Replacement Facility is left somewhat open. It is possible that a new base could be built in Henoko, another less populated area of Okinawa, the preference of the Marine Corps leadership, or Marine Corps aircraft vital to support Marine Expeditionary Forces could be deployed to existing U.S. bases elsewhere in Japan. While progress on these difficult issues was welcomed, there was an immediate response from legislators in both countries. Members of the Japanese Diet expressed immediate concern about the environmental effects and costs of building a new facility at Henoko. Members of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee — Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jim Webb (D-VA) and John McCain (R-AZ) — issued a letter asserting the oversight and funding responsibilities of the U.S. Congress. “We require,” the Senators insisted, “additional information regarding how this proposal relates to the broader strategic concept of operations in the region, the Marine Corps’ concept of operations, master plans, and alternatives to base realignments on Guam and Okinawa, as well as the positioning of U.S. Air force units in the Asia Pacific region.” Inevitably, diplomacy must recognize that there is more to diplomatic negotiation than simply reaching new agreements between negotiators. In truth, the negotiating teams must take full account of the domestic political atmosphere in their respective countries. To be sure negotiators can break new ground and attempt to pull their respective leader-
ships toward agreement. But they must also understand the domestic political framework in which they are required to operate. In the words of the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee that worked out these preliminary agreements, “These adjustments are necessary to realize a U.S. force posture in the Asia Pacific that is more geographically distributed, operationally resilient, and politically sustainable” while at the same time maintaining deterrence and mitigating the impact of U.S. forces on local communities in Japan. Working agreements on force re-deployment may have been achieved, but the goal of operational resilience remains under debate, and the desideratum political sustainability seems still out of reach. In addition to his formal meetings with President Obama, Prime Minister Noda was honored by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a dinner held at the National Geographic Society Museum. In Secretary Clinton’s words, “We are here tonight to celebrate the friendship between the United States and Japan. This is a bond between us that promotes security, stability, and prosperity not only in the Asia Pacific but around the world. Our countries are standing side by side to meet the most important challenges of our time.” To underscore this commitment to strengthening bonds between the United States and Japan, Secretary Clinton announced two initiatives. The first is born of Operation Tomodachi, the joint humanitarian relief operations carried out between the U.S. military and the Japanese Self-Defense
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton toasts with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as Clinton hosts a dinner for Noda at National Geographic April 30, 2012, in Washington, D.C. Noda had met with President Obama for talks at the White House earlier that day.
Botton left: The Military Sealift Command fleet replenishment oiler USNS Yukon (T-AO 202) leads the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer JS Mineyuki (DD 124) and the training vessel JS Asagiri (TV 3516) during a joint forces passing exercise in the Pacific Ocean in June of 2011. Bottom right: Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Col. Hisanori Fukada, center right, temporarily in charge of cleanup for one of the districts in Ishinamaki, Japan, speaks with U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Brea Hapken, left, who was in charge of cleanup, at Minato Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Japan.
Forces following the extremely destructive 2011 earthquake in the Tohoku region of Japan. The TOMODACHI (“Friendship”) Initiative will be designed to encourage an increased volume of student and young professional exchanges between Japan and the United States. At the same time, Secretary Clinton also announced a reciprocal gift of 3,000 dogwood trees from the people of the United States to the people of Japan. These are intended, like the cherry trees that surround the Tidal Basin in Washington, Clinton noted in her toast to Prime Minister Noda, to “serve as a symbol of the strong relationship and friendship between our countries.” Prime Minister Noda’s visit to Washington also included a personal visit with members of the Fairfax County Search and 26
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Rescue Team that flew to Japan immediately after the 2011 earthquake to aid in the search for survivors and a visit with the family of JET Program English teacher, Taylor Anderson, who died in the tsunami following the earthquake after getting her Japanese students to safety. Reflecting on his visits “with these true friends of Japan,” Prime Minister Noda noted that he “felt anew that the U.S.-Japan alliance must be unshakeable, indeed that it is unshakeable.” That doesn’t mean, however, that domestic politics in both countries and regional events in East Asia won’t continue to test the boundaries of on-theground, functional cooperation between the United States and Japan in a time when political, economic, and military realities are changing rapidly in the Asia Pacific. n
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An exclusive interview with Colonel Zoltan Bone Defense, Military and Air Attaché at the Embassy of Hungary by Roland Flamini
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olonel Zoltan Bone has the build of a football player, is a karate black belt, has been a member of the Hungarian military pentathlon team, and saves American grandmothers and little girls from drowning. But his day job is Defense, Military and Air Attaché at the Embassy of Hungary. He recently talked to Diplomatic Connections about his country’s quantum leap from member of the Soviet-run Warsaw Pact in the Cold War to membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and about Hungary’s subsequent role in NATO.
Diplomatic Connections: Could you start by talking about your career in the
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military, and your work in the United States; I understand this is your second tour in Washington.
Colonel Bone: I joined the Hungarian Army in 1988, went to military college and graduated as a lieutenant in the infantry in 1991. Some years later, I got my master’s degree in international relations and policy and joined the Ministry of Defense working on international relations, and eventually — in 2003 — was assigned to the embassy in Washington as Assistant Defense, Military and Air Attaché. Back in Budapest, my last position was deputy director of international cooperation at the ministry, when I left in
Colonel Zolten Bone
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Diplomatic Connections: Do you ever miss being back
we are deployed together and we fight together. It’s a unique opportunity to work with U.S. forces.
with the infantry?
Diplomatic Connections: Is this your first partnership
Colonel Bone: Sometimes I do. I really like being with
with an American unit in a joint operation?
the troops. I served in the Balkans, first in Kosovo and then in Macedonia. The Kosovo crisis was a very interesting experience.
Colonel Bone: Actually, next year the Hungarian Armed
August of 2011 to come here.
Diplomatic Connections: The Hungarian military was in Iraq and is also in Afghanistan. In Iraq, Hungary deployed a transportation unit?
Colonel Bone: Transportation yes — an important task and a difficult one because that was when roadside bombs, so-called IEDs, started to be a real threat, and we had to deal with it. Unfortunately, we lost soldiers in combat operations in Iraq and in Afghanistan — as have other nations. In Iraq, we also took part in the NATO Training Mission of Iraqi Officers and NCOs.
Diplomatic Connections: And in Afghanistan? Colonel Bone: In Afghanistan, we have both military and civilians in a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), and we have other training and mentoring teams. Serving in Afghanistan is important not only because we serve there as a NATO member, but also because we serve together with troops from other countries. For example, with the Hungarian PRT in Baghlan province there are Montenegrin, Croatian and Albanian forces. In one mentoring team, training Afghan troops, we serve together with the Ohio National Guard —
Forces celebrate 20 years of cooperation with the Ohio National Guard. Like other European countries, our army has ties with the U.S. National Guard. Ohio helped us in the transition to NATO, we have had joint exercises with them and now we are in Afghanistan together. Serbia is now also linked to the Ohio National Guard so it’s become a tri-lateral cooperation, and we’re helping Serbia to prepare for participation in international missions.
Diplomatic Connections: Is the Hungarian Army a conscript or a professional army?
Colonel Bone: The Hungarian Army has been a professional army for nearly 10 years. Twenty years ago, we had a 120,000 force based on conscripted soldiers. Right now we have 29,700 men and women in the Hungarian military — all professionals — and we have to be more efficient than ever. For 60 years, we had no wartime experience: during the Cold War our troops were not at war, although they were always preparing for a war that — luckily — never happened. Now, we are participating in military operations, peacekeeping missions. We’ve been facing real combat situations. It’s a big difference.
Diplomatic Connections: What does being in NATO
Colonel Zolten Bone
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mean to the Hungarian Army?
Colonel Bone: Membership of NATO and the European Union are the two important cornerstones of the Hungarian state and the Hungarian military. Being part of the European Union and part of the Alliance helps provide stability for the region, and it helps us politically and economically.
cooperation. Next year, we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of this connection.
Diplomatic Connections: I understand that you have had some unusual extracurricular activities in the United States.
Colonel Bone: Oh, that’s a story I like. In 2004, in my first
the Hungarian Army has faced the challenge of an important transition. A significant aspect of this transition has been reequipping itself. How has that progressed?
term in the embassy, a friend invited me to Virginia Beach for a swim. A grandmother and her little granddaughter had to be saved from the water. The big waves were pushing them back. When I realized that they were in trouble, I swam out and brought them to the shore. I was lucky to be there.
Colonel Bone: Re-equipping is still ongoing. All the
Diplomatic Connections: What do you view as one of
former Warsaw Pact countries are striving to modernize their military equipment, as we are doing. But acquiring Western technology has proved financially difficult for all of us. It takes time and, also, it takes a lot of money. For some areas we receive U.S. technology — weapons and weapons systems, communication systems — all of which are essential if we are to participate in peacekeeping operations and in Afghanistan. In recognition of our role in Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress has approved financial support. This year, Hungary received slightly more than $13 million in military aid.
the main accomplishments of the NATO Summit that took place in Chicago recently?
Diplomatic Connections: Since the end of the Cold War,
Diplomatic Connections: How does a national army like that of Hungary juggle its commitment to country with its commitment to an international organization, such as NATO?
Colonel Bone: As NATO members, all troops have to be able to cooperate with those of other nations, and you have to be prepared for that — and we are doing well in this regard. At the same time, we need to maintain our military traditions as Hungary has a very long, more than a thousand year-old, military history.
Diplomatic Connections: How about cultural differences between NATO forces; does that present problems?
Colonel Bone: During my career I never felt it was a prob-
Colonel Bone: Subsequent to the summit, we are in expectation of some “deliverables” concerning Afghanistan and Smart Defense.
Diplomatic Connections: Tell me about Smart Defense. Colonel Bone: The economic view is that many of the countries, including the U.S., had to reduce their defense budget, so we had to find ways to cooperate to make our resources go further. In Hungary, at Papa Airbase, we run the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) — 12 nations came together to create this niche. It has reached 7,000 flying hours mainly in Afghanistan operations, but also in Haiti for disaster relief. The participating nations combined their resources to buy three C17s for general use in NATO. Then there are also Centers of Excellence set up to answer questions about specific areas of military activity. In Hungary, a Center of Excellence for Military had been established with the participation of other nations. Another example: Spain has a Center of Excellence for Counter IED operations. In Hungary we cooperate by providing essential C-IED practical courses for allied troops.
lem; I saw it as added value. Each nation has something to share, something unique and individual.
Diplomatic Connections: Finally, here is a “postcard”
Diplomatic Connections: How many times have you
Colonel Bone: America is a great place to work, it is very
visited the U.S. besides your assignments?
professional. I have had a very positive experience as an officer, as a diplomat and also as a private person. I’ve made many friends, not only from the military and from diplomacy, but from civilian life. I knew about America before my designated post in Washington, but living here has helped me understand the United States and its culture better.
Colonel Bone: Many times; I’ve been practicing karate for more than 30 years, and my karate master lives in Seattle. I am a black belt. Due to my current position, I am travelling in the United States quite often, most recently I’ve visited the National Guard in Ohio with the Hungarian Chief-of-Staff when an agreement was reached on future
question: What do you think of the United States?
Diplomatic Connections: Thank you, Colonel Bone. n
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walks with Polish Ambassador Robert Kupiecki from the Ambassador’s residence to the Secretary’s. Diplomatic Connections was permitted exclusive access to photograph this “behind-the-scenes” private walk.
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Photography by Christope Avril
e welcomed her as a neighbor who should feel free to come over and borrow a cup of sugar, if need be. She pronounced the celebration “the equivalent of a block party.� Together the Ambassador of Poland to the United States and the Secretary of State, who now live just a few doors apart, welcomed hundreds of members of Congress, members of the administration, members of the diplomatic corps, business leaders, veterans, leaders of the Polish-American community and Holocaust survivors to the official opening of the new Polish Embassy residence on Whitehaven Street, just off Massachusetts Avenue. There were multiple reasons to celebrate. The construction project that had completely gutted D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | J uly - A u g ust 2 0 1 2
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Polish Ambassador’s Residence
the historic home that would now be the Ambassador’s residence was at long last completed. Poland was celebrating its Constitution Day, honoring the May 3, 1791, Constitution that was a landmark of Enlightenment political thought, including the ideas of popular sovereignty and separation of powers under a constitutional monarchy. President Obama had just announced that Polish Resistance fighter and Georgetown University professor Jan Karski would be posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts to make the Western Allies and the Polish government-in-exile aware of the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and the existence of German Nazi extermination camps on occupied Polish soil. And Ambassador Kupiecki, who will return to Poland to assume new duties in the Ministry of Defense, used the occasion to bid an early farewell to his many Washington contacts. Secretary of State Clinton observed that the United States and Poland shared a quest for freedom that began in the late 18th century. Ambassador Kupiecki picked up on the same theme noting that Poland was celebrating the anniversary of its first constitution (May 3, 1791). “Although it came four years after the U.S. Constitution,” he recalled, “it was the first document of its kind in Europe. The U.S. Constitution came out of the American fight for independence. We had a fight 36
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similar to yours but with a different outcome, unfortunately. You won your liberty and, in due course, became a superpower. We lost ours and were wiped off the map of Europe for 120 years. But that formative experience left us with a shared passion for freedom, democracy and human rights that is ingrained in our DNA. And this is what Poles and Americans share.” Acknowledging that Poland’s history had been much more challenging than that of the United States over the succeeding years, Secretary Clinton suggested, “That is why it is especially fitting and so satisfying to see Poland today, to see the extraordinary progress that the Polish people have made, to see their resilience rewarded.” Marking the progress of a free and independent Poland, Ambassador Kupiecki added that, “Today’s Poland is in the mainstream of European integration. We are solidly in the trans-Atlantic alliance. Poland’s economy continues to grow despite adverse global circumstances. We are becoming known as a country that creates solutions.” Underscoring the Ambassador’s characterization of Poland’s accomplishments, Secretary Clinton reiterated that, “Today we are close allies, working together on everything from defense to sustainable energy to innovation to information technology. And Poland does play a crucial role, not only
within Europe and the Euro-Atlantic alliance, but globally in helping us address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.” Turning from the philosophical underpinnings of constitutions to the mundane realities of construction, Ambassador Kupiecki recalled how the Polish government had purchased an historic Washington home designed in 1927 by noted architect Nathan C. Wyeth, who designed the White House Oval Office for President William Howard Taft and also the Longworth House Office Building, with the hope of creating a showcase of modern Poland that yet retained its deep roots in American history. Purchased from former Secretary of the Treasury, Nicholas Brady, who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the house was long the home of philanthropist Paul Mellon, founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art. The exterior of the building has been completely restored with painstaking care to retain the style and character of the original. Architects were careful to sustain the traditional exterior styling as they added a large multifunctional hall equipped with the latest technology to the residence. Inside the house, however a “full-gut rehab” left only the exterior and load bearing walls in place in order that the entire building could be brought up to 21st century standards for telecommunications, environmental controls, and energy efficiency while recreating the degree of comfort and elegance that an ambassador’s home warranted. All of this work was under the overall supervision of Monarc Construction. In his remarks to the assembled well-wishers, Ambassador Kupiecki recalled his 2009 arrival in Washington. “I must say that when I was beginning my term as Polish ambassador in the United States, I was ready and prepared to take on the U.S. Congress, the U.S. administration, even Washington’s famous bureaucracies, but I
must admit that I had no warning of what it takes to oversee the restoration of an historic building.” That may be true, but when entering the Ambassador’s office it is impossible to ignore the white construction hard hat that has been given a place of honor on his bookshelf. In an exclusive interview with Diplomatic Connections, Ambassador Kupiecki even went so far as to confide with some pride that the embassy staff had given him the nickname “Bob the Builder” after the wellknown British children’s animated television series “Bob the Builder” and its spin-off toys and games. “Can we fix it? Yes, we can!” became the watchword of the reconstruction project and the embassy staff. In his interview with Diplomatic Connections, the Ambassador noted that, “Poland has taken root in one of the most prestigious, one of the more beautiful residential areas in Washington, D.C. We have great neighbors — the British, the Danes, the Italians, the Brazilians, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Vice President’s residence. I cannot imagine a better place than this.” But he also expressed the hope that, “We added something to the neighborhood by lovingly restoring and modernizing one of its architectural gems while protecting the building’s unique historical value. Yes, we gained a lot from being part of this neighborhood, but we also offered a lot to the neighborhood. That’s my feeling and a source of utmost pleasure.” Concluding his formal remarks to Secretary Clinton and the guests assembled for their shared block party, Ambassador Kupiecki wondered aloud whether the name of the Ambassador’s new neighborhood ought to be changed from Whitehaven Street to Diplomatic Haven “because we look like we are in Paradise.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a speech during the formal ceremony and celebration of opening the Polish Ambassador’s residence. Ambassador Kupiecki is standing to the left.
We also filmed this speech and we invite you to go to our website to view:
www.DiplomaticConnections.com
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton leaving the residence to walk to her own home at the conclusion of the ceremony. This photo was taken by Christophe Avril of Diplomatic Connections. Christophe was given the ability to photograph the guests who were invited to this exclusive event from an angle that is very difficult to attain. We included this picture to display the zeal that was demonstrated by the attendees towards Secretary Clinton. Her exclusive appearance was received with great enthusiasm. Ambassador Kupiecki is to her right.
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James Andrew Winship, Ph.D.
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wo old New Englanders meet every spring to walk a stone fence row and put the winter’s fallen stones precariously back in place one atop the next. Apparently to assure himself of the necessity of these repairs, the less neighborly of the two old men recites a kind of mantra as he stoops to replace frost disturbed pieces of the wall. “Good fences make good neighbors,” he intones. But the other voice in Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Walls,” is more sanguine — and just a bit mischievous — about nature’s persistent efforts to undue the stone stacking, boundary building predilections of human fearfulness. “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall; that wants it down,” he observes.
Crumbling walls, transcending boundaries, and creating political space could be a metaphor for Robert Kupiecki’s diplomatic career. He literally came of age as the Berlin Wall was falling — he keeps a piece of it in his office — and a new era of being an independent state free of the domination of Communism was dawning in Poland. Born in Warsaw in 1967, Ambassador Kupiecki has lived through dramatic changes in his country’s political system, has seen the courage of the generation of the Solidarity movement that challenged the hard power of the Communist Party establishment with the soft power of Polish cultural identity and has experienced firsthand the transformation of his country in the midst of his col-
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lege education. “I started my university under one system,” he recalls, “and I graduated under a quite different reality — a free and independent Poland.” Ambassador Kupiecki intended a career as an academician. He earned his master’s degree with Distinction from the department of history at Warsaw University as well as a Ph.D. in international relations. Then one day after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the political changes in Poland were well under way, “I took one of the leading Polish newspapers into my hands, and I saw an advertisement. It was like it was prepared for me because it started with the sentence: ‘If you are energetic, young, and educated . . . and if you want to serve your country, this is the National Academy of Public Administration, the place where you can train your talent and start your civil service.’” Taking full advantage of the new opportunities available to him, Ambassador Kupiecki graduated from the National Academy for Public Administration in Warsaw and continued his professional studies at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. During his studies at the National Academy in Warsaw, Ambassador Kupiecki was also affiliated with the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, including a placement at the Texas Department of Commerce in Austin, Texas. Kupiecki began working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994 where he soon became part of the very first Polish team dealing with Poland’s possible accession to NATO. “So,” he notes, “I was with this process (of NATO accession) from the very beginning until its successful completion in 1999.” At that point he was assigned to Brussels as Deputy Ambassador of Poland to NATO, part of the initial team that staffed the Polish mission to NATO. During that time, he participated in and led Polish delegations to the gatherings of many international organizations, including NATO, the OSCE, and United Nations forums dealing with arms control and disarmament, weapons of mass destruction and nuclear non-proliferation issues. Returning to Poland after five years in Brussels, he served as Director of the Security Policy Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2008, when he was nominated to be Poland’s next ambassador to the United States. Ambassador Kupiecki’s career has been filled with col-
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lapsing walls and remodeling relationships. The Berlin Wall came down and moved his career in an entirely new direction. Poland tore down the walls that had sequestered it from the rest of Europe as part of the system of Soviet satellite states and engaged in a democratic transition that broke through the barriers of an authoritarian state. As Central Europe resumed something like its historic identity, Poland led the way in joining and expanding the security and economic institutions of the new, enlarged Europe, including a redefinition of NATO itself. As Poland’s ambassador in Washington, he has literally demolished the interior walls of a Washington masterpiece while preserving the exterior walls in a way that honors tradition and simultaneously creates a home and a working place for the ambassador that is at the cutting edge of technology. But, more than that, Ambassador Kupiecki has nurtured Polish cultural tradition while reaching out to the Polish community across the United States. He is busily engaged in breaking down barriers to trade and tourism between Poland and the United States. And he has reached out to other states in transition to help them break the bounds of past repression and adopt the blueprints of political legitimacy, cultural tolerance, acceptance of dissent and diversity, the rule of law, and the transparency that requires accountability of systems of government that protect rights, establish security and stability, and value the human security of their citizens. Returning to Robert Frost’s poem, there is an expression of questioning concern that seems designed to take the measure of Ambassador Kupiecki’s accomplishments, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense,” observes the New Englander who doesn’t much like walls. Who knows what Polish diplomacy leavened with a little New England philosophy might accomplish? Ambassador Robert Kupiecki is trying to find out. He was kind enough to speak with us recently in his ornate, but understated, office in what is Washington, D.C.’s longest continuously in-use embassy building. Purchased by the new Polish Republic in 1919, just as modern Poland emerged from the chaotic political rubble of World War I, the building has housed Polish representations to the United States that have spoken with many different voices and divergent political ideologies but always with a pride of place and always with a distinctly Polish expression of national interests.
The Polish Roundtable Talks February 6 April 4, 1989
The fall of the Berlin Wall November, 1989
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He May Be Trained as a Political Scientist, but Ambassador Kupiecki Works to Build a Deeper Polish-U.S. Relationship and Redesign the Security Architecture of the New Europe Diplomatic Connections: Ambassador Kupiecki, thank you so much for allowing us to do this interview. Your roots are so deep in the NATO system and Poland’s experience with NATO, can you give us your reflections on the NATO meeting in Chicago this spring? Ambassador Kupiecki: This meeting was very special because it came in a presidential election year in the United States in the hometown of President Obama. So, for natural reasons, it sparked a lot of attention. And, a lot of questions were asked, “What is the message from the United States for the European allies?” “What are the expectations of the United States?” And, “What is the role that the U.S. sees for itself in the alliance?” Over the years we have reached a kind of consensus that NATO will act wherever it sees a challenge to the security of its own members and whenever there is a consensus for doing so. Collective operations are a preferred form of NATO actions, but in cases where consensus is a difficult matter, we have formulas of coalitions of the willing that enjoy broad political support among the alliance members. And over the last 10-plus years we’ve seen many kinds of operations. We’ve seen, I would say, heavily contested NATO air operations in the former Yugoslavia. We had an alliance operation in Afghanistan. We had an operation in Libya, which was much more a coalition of the willing operation but still had broad support within the alliance. It shows how flexible the NATO construct is when it comes to its operational challenges. Diplomatic Connections: Mr. Ambassador, for many years the question inside the enlarging NATO involved concerns about “out-of-theater” operations. These days it seems
as if almost all of NATO’s active missions are out of NATO’s traditional European theater — Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Bosnia — how do you see the balance between NATO’s traditional role of defending the territory of its members and what has become the evolving role of NATO involving itself in North Africa, in the Middle East, in Southwest Asia — Afghanistan?
Ambassador Kupiecki: I think what we have seen in recent years is a confirmation that those people who thought about an enlarged NATO at the beginning of the 1990s were absolutely right because the new NATO is a stronger NATO. It’s a NATO better prepared to tackle challenges that start outside of its borders. If you look at the newest members of the alliance, in general they — like Poland — try to keep their defense spending at a secure and NATO-acceptable level. They are strong trans-Atlanticists, and they try to do whatever they can do to support NATO missions. As far as your second question is concerned — the balance between the traditional mission and the new missions — I see no contradiction between these missions. There’s definitely a competition for resources because the world of challenges is different, the perception of threats is different. We need a new NATO, a new kind of military force, and new skills in our military forces. We need a lot more civilianmilitary coordination. If we assume that security starts at home and it starts in the vicinity of NATO — along NATO borders, then if we correctly think about this basic problem of the alliance there is increased likelihood that NATO members, if they feel secure in their homes, will be able and willing to provide for out of area operations. Diplomatic Connections: At least for President Obama, and for the United States, a large part of the conversation in Chicago involved the future of operations in Afghanistan and the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, while at the same time sustaining Afghanistan and its interior security forces over an extended period of time. What was your impression of the NATO allies’ feelings about the long-term commitment to Afghanistan, between now and 2014 but then over the 10-year horizon that President Obama was envisioning beyond 2014 to 2024? Ambassador Kupiecki: I think that the NATO concept of
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post-2014 engagement is still in creation. But, if we consider the Chicago summit as a building block helping to create a larger understanding of what NATO might do in Afghanistan, I would say that from that standpoint the meeting was quite successful. There was a financial achievement designed to sustain a NATO role in financing Afghan security structures. The response was much better than U.S. officials expected. Many countries committed their resources for this purpose. I’m not going to speak for other nations, but as far as Poland is concerned, we will remain in Afghanistan as promised through 2014 and after that date. We’ll change the formula of our presence, however. We’d rather move from combat operations to training and preparing Afghan security structures for doing their job. As an alliance, we do not want to deepen the dependency syndrome of countries where we have our own operations on their territories. We want to help them become responsible for their own security. Diplomatic Connections: Let’s turn the NATO question on its head and look at it from the East rather than from the West. We now have Vladimir Putin back in the presidency of Russia, and the consistent concern is that while you’ve indicated quite clearly that an enlarged NATO is a stronger NATO, from a Russian point of view their unremitting concern has always been: Is NATO really an anti-Russian alliance in disguise? Ambassador Kupiecki: This perception is incorrect. It’s a kind of Cold War syndrome that has been transformed to reassert itself in current Russian thinking in their political and military establishments. The facts contradict the underlying notion of this statement. NATO fights in the area that could be called the soft belly of Russian security. It fights in Afghanistan, and it fights for the security of this entire region. And if that is the case, then what kind of security threat can NATO be for the Russians? For many years NATO has made a great effort to establish and maintain lines of communication with Moscow. The NATO-Russia Council has a very broad program of interactions, consultations and areas of cooperation. There have been joint operations and peacekeeping collaborations between NATO forces and Russian forces. So, one can legitimately ask the question: Why does Russia still hold this perception of NATO as an organization hostile to Russia’s interests? We have to ask: To what extent is this perception 46
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based on real fact and to what extent is the alleged threat used for domestic purposes? Diplomatic Connections: President Obama, as he presented this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom awards, misspoke when citing Polish World War II resistance fighter Jan Karski by referring to “Polish death camps” rather than “Nazi death camps in occupied Poland.” How much of a crisis was that really? Clearly the press seized on it because it was a misstatement by the American President exacerbated by the fact that it is an election year here. What was the response in Poland? How do we as Americans understand the emotional content of that issue and the response to that misstatement among Poles or people of Polish descent? Ambassador Kupiecki: The media naturally focus on sensational, negative things rather than positive ones. The positive thing was that the President of the United States awarded Jan Karski the highest civilian award offered by the United States, namely the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is a confirmation of Jan Karski’s role in bringing the message and an eye-witness report of the Holocaust to the Western world. Obviously, the negative thing was that among all of the positive words of President Obama there were three unfortunate words — “Polish death camp.” These words are first historically incorrect. Second, the words were unintended, which President Obama confirmed in his letter to President Komorowski. There was no intention on the part of the President of the United States to use this term. Third, there simply were no Polish death camps. Death camps existed on Polish soil occupied by Germany, and they were operated and run by Nazi Germans. We fight against the words “Polish death camps” because people have started to forget. We don’t agree with the statements that it’s the simplicity of the English language, or that it’s merely a geographical description of something that happened on occupied Polish soil. No. Unless we correct the phraseology, irrespective of where it is used — whether it is used in the media or when it’s said by the U.S. President — in 20 years the next generation won’t differentiate who were the perpetrators and who were the victims. Diplomatic Connections: What’s the importance of the
diaspora community of Polish heritage families — whether in London, Chicago or anywhere else around the world? What role does it play in Polish diplomacy? Ambassador Kupiecki: When we refer to “Polonia” or people of Polish descent living in the United States we speak about very different phenomena because we speak about people who were born in the United States and who are the third and fourth generation Poles living in the United States. We speak about younger waves of immigration dating back to the Second World War and post-Second World War, about waves of immigration where people were escaping Poland because they wanted to save their lives, or they simply wanted a better quality of life, or they felt they were politically repressed. Polish-Americans, or “Polonia,” provide an indispensable link between diaspora Poles and Poles living in the country of their fathers and grandfathers. Polonia was instrumental in our campaign after 1989 for NATO membership. Their voices of support generate significant political interest in the Congress of the United States and the administration. It is perhaps a brilliant example of the most successful political campaigns run by Polish-Americans for the benefit of the motherland. It was a unique communication between Poles living in diaspora and those living in Poland. Diplomatic Connections: May we segue to a more immediate issue between Poland and the United States – the issue of the visa waiver program? This has been a delicate question, if not an extremely sensitive question, between our two countries. Could you explain for us a bit about what the issue really is and what Poland would like to see in terms of being included in the visa waiver program? Ambassador Kupiecki: Over 20 years ago, Poland unilaterally waived visas for U.S. citizens traveling to Poland for tourism or business. But, over the last 20 years plus we have not gotten reciprocity from the United States on the visa issue. Twenty-three years seems to Poland, especially in light of its changed political system and the changed economic landscape, to be much too long a delay. Poland is a member of the European Union, which has an open labor market. There is no migration pressure from Poland to the United States. There is no single national security threat originating from Poland. So, I cannot find a good case for retaining the visa restrictions
on Polish citizens. It is a matter of equal treatment of Polish citizens by the United States. Let us not forget that it’s an issue that affects almost 10 million people living in this country whose relatives cannot travel freely to the United States, or before they do so they have to wait and pay for processing their application. The visa issue is a barrier to developing tourism, economic, and intellectual exchange between Poland and the United States. And it is fundamentally unfair to Polish citizens. It distorts and it spoils the image of the United States in Poland. It is no longer defensible in terms of national security or pressure on the labor market. President Obama promised my President that the visa issue will be dealt with by the end of his term. There is new draft legislation before the U.S. Congress, and we very much hope that by the elections, the issue will be solved. This is one of those things that, as Polish Ambassador, I hope my successor will not have to deal with. Diplomatic Connections: Let us turn to the issue of American bases or shared bases on Polish soil. There are really two issues here — the question of missile defense system components based in Poland and the question of basing U.S. fighter and transport aircraft in Poland, whether on a shared base or on an American base. These are possibilities that Russia has objected to strongly. How do you see the future of those base options in Poland? Ambassador Kupiecki: Those are two separate issues that are separate also in terms of timelines. But they are united by one thing: American presence on European soil, particularly American presence on Polish soil . . . in which we are interested. The first and more immediate option is the rotational presence of a U.S. air detachment on Polish soil. There will be no permanent base for this air detachment. There will be a small number of permanent personnel on one of the Polish bases and, on a regular schedule, American military assets will appear on Polish soil for training and for various other military missions which they will perform jointly with the Polish air forces. The other issue is missile defense. The current plans on the U.S. agenda indicate that by 2018 the third phase (“Aegis Ashore”), the so-called Phase Adaptive Approach, will be implemented and a U.S. missile base will appear in Poland. The construction will begin a few years earlier and the number of U.S. personnel stationed in Poland will grow
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systematically. It is going to be the largest U.S. military presence on Polish soil in history. Diplomatic Connections: And the sense is that Poland would welcome that presence? Ambassador Kupiecki: We would welcome that presence because it is a visible link between Poland’s security and the U.S. security. It very much falls within the tradition of our military cooperation with the United States. It reinforces American presence in Europe, which we are keenly interested in maintaining. It serves the purposes of NATO and strengthens NATO. And it offers a lot of opportunities for bilateral and regional cooperation between U.S. forces and Poland and other countries of the region. Diplomatic Connections: There has been a recent visit by Poland’s foreign minister to Burma/Myanmar. Is there a sense in which Poland’s experience in its own democratic transition is exportable to other areas of the world? Are there lessons to be learned from that democratic transition? Ambassador Kupiecki: If you look at the democratic transitions all over the world for the last 20 years plus, Poland and other Central European nations are by far the best examples of successful and broadly defined democratic transformations. We’re not talking about transformation of one sector of life, but broadly based transformation from undemocratic systems to market economies and a fully efficient democracy. Since Poland got such extensive support from other countries, now it’s time to pay back to those who are in need. There are many nations in need living in the vicinity of Poland. But those who live in more remote regions like Tunisia, like Libya, like Egypt, and also like Burma — where the Foreign Minister of Poland recently paid a visit and shared our experience of successful transformation, also have needs. We even held a seminar on the Polish experience that was heavily attended by the Burmese officials. Diplomatic Connections: You mentioned energy, and that has been a major concern in the region because of Russia’s dominance of energy markets. Yet, it does appear that Poland is potentially sitting on considerable energy resources that can be tapped by new techniques, particularly the “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing) technique. Those new exploration and exploitation techniques are at once promising and environmentally very controversial. How do you see Poland’s energy future? Ambassador Kupiecki: Poland’s energy strategy is based on diversification and moving away from the one fuel we have in abundance — coal, as well as diversifying the sources 48
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of our energy supplies. We are pursuing a comprehensive energy strategy, looking at everything from nuclear energy to renewable energy and, obviously, energy produced from coal which now represents the majority of our energy use. When it comes to the sources of our imports we are now — especially in terms of gas — dealing with Russia as virtually a monopoly supplier. Of course, we’d like to become more independent. Shale gas reserves open the prospect for decreasing our dependence and providing the possibility of full energy independence based on local supplies of natural gas.
Diplomatic Connections: Your time here as Poland’s Ambassador in Washington is drawing to a close. What are the accomplishments of which you are most proud, and what unfinished business will you be leaving to your successor? Ambassador Kupiecki: I’m proud of the deliverables that we were able to accomplish in three basic areas of our relations. In terms of the economy and trade, there has been more activity over the last couple of years. The trade balance is still below expectations and the possibilities of both countries given the size of the American economy and given the vigor and energy of the Polish market. But definitely trade between us is constantly growing. In the field of security and defense Poland has maintained — in concrete projects — its position as an ally and partner of the United States. Even in a period of severe budget cuts, and although Europe and the United States often look to very different areas with regard to security, the presence of the United States in Poland is increasing. So there is a good prospect of cooperation in this regard. And last in the area of democratization, which we are promoting as an area of strategic cooperation, there is a great deal of room for interesting and productive collaborations. Diplomatic Connections: What are you leaving on your desk for your successor to pick up? Ambassador Kupiecki: There is no specific issue that I’m handing off to the next ambassador. But, let us not forget that Polish-American relations encompass both rational expectations and a little bit of emotion. So, I think what will be the major challenge for Poland and the United States in the years to come — to balance emotional expectations with what’s realistic, what’s possible in these relations. Obviously, keeping this balance… keeping effective communication… will be, as usual, the role of the Polish Ambassador. It has been the case with the current Ambassador and it will be also the case with the future Ambassador. Diplomatic Connections: Well said. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. n
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If international relations were high school biology, we might say the Group of 8 (G-8) and the Group of 20 (G-20) belong to the same genus but different species. Both groups are gatherings of the leaders of the world’s largest economies, though there are often concerns expressed about which states are included and which states are excluded from the annual gatherings of the G-8 and the G-20. What is now the G-8 began life in 1975 as the G-6 and defined itself as a gathering of the world’s advanced market democracies — France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. Within a year Canada was added, and in 1997 Boris Yeltsin’s Russia was appended to the mix as it moved into the realm of market economies and fledgling democracies. Together, the G-8 states represent slightly more than 50 percent of the world’s economy, though they include
only 14 percent of world population. And therein lies the rub. While the G-8 represented most of the world’s largest economies, it had a distinctly Western and Northern bias to its membership. Japan was the only Asian country represented and no countries from Latin America or Africa were included. The creation of the G-20 sought not only to increase the number of economies involved in consultations but to dramatically diversify the membership and to recognize the growing importance of the rapidly emerging economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Beginning as a consultation of finance ministers in 1999, the G-20 emerged as a full-fledged leaders summit in 2008 at the behest of French President Nicholas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with the encouragement of U.S. President George W. Bush.
President Obama participates in the G-8 Summit working session focused on global and economic issues, in the dining room of Laurel Cabin at Camp David, MD, on May 19, 2012.
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Below: Frank Lampard and Jose Bosingwa (C) of Chelsea lift the trophy in celebration after their victory.
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Right: Bayern Munich’s German forward Thomas Mueller (L) and Bayern Munich’s German midfielder Toni Kroos (R) vie for the ball with Chelsea’s British midfielder Frank Lampard (C) during the UEFA Champions League final football match between FC Bayern Muenchen and Chelsea FC on May 19, 2012, at the Fussball Arena stadium in Munich, Germany.
Inset Photos: Official White House Photos by Pete Souza Alex Livesey/Getty Images
British Prime Minister David Cameron, President Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President of the European Commission JosĂŠ Manuel Barroso, and others watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final, in the Laurel Cabin conference room during the G8 Summit at Camp David, MD, on May 19, 2012.
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Official White House PhotoS by Pete Souza
President Obama talks with President François Hollande of France, Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in the living room of Aspen Cabin during the G8 Summit at Camp David, MD, on May 18, 2012.
The G-20 formulation immediately added what the G-8 had called the “Outreach Five” — China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa — to the consultations. To these countries were added Argentina, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Australia and the European Union. Together, this grouping accounts for more than 80 percent of Gross World Product, 80 percent of world trade, and more than two-thirds of global population. In addition, this grouping includes many of the world’s most dynamic economies accounting for more than 80% of the world’s economic growth. At this point the logic of argument becomes very simple: on virtually every measure of global economic activity, the G-20 is far more representative of the leading players in the 21st century global economy, more culturally diverse and more focused on the challenges of global economic development than is the G-8. The voices of the world’s leaders at the 2009 G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh even went so far as to suggest that the G-20 would replace the G-8 gatherings as “the premier forum for interna54
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A chocolate cake is presented to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan to celebrate his May 20 birthday, during the G8 Summit working dinner in Laurel Cabin at Camp David, MD, on May 18, 2012. Seated, from left, are José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada.
Heads of the G-20 leading economies pose for a family photo at the convention center in Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 18, 2012. The leaders of the world’s most powerful economies met for a G-20 summit confronted by turmoil in the eurozone, a critical election in Greece and worsening bloodshed in Syria. In the picture from front row L-R: France’s President François Hollande, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, U.S. President Barack Obama, China’s President Hu Jintao, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón, South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Middle row from left, European Commission’s President José Manuel Barroso, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Saudi Arabia Minister of Finance Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf. Back row from left, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, OECD Secretary General José Angel Gurria, World Bank’s President Robert Zoellick, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera, Benin’s President Boni Yayi, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Juan Somavía Director-General of the International Labour Organization, IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.
from both the G-8 and the G-20, and news outlets routinely headline coverage of these events with the observation that: “Leaders failed to reach agreement on issue X, Y or Z…” [read] Iran, Syria, North Korea or global economic recovery. To lament such supposed failures, however, is to fundamentally misread the nature of multilateral diplomacy. The real
story of gatherings such as the G-8 and the G-20 summits is that the work of the summits goes on year-round at gatherings of various ministerial groups. Look at the final declarations issued by the leaders summits. They are compendiums of issues and discussions that
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tional economic cooperation.” There are problems, however. Despite Europe’s current economic difficulties, the prolonged recession in the United States and the prickliness of U.S.-Russian relations, the G-8 is still seen as having more clear-cut common interests and more able to reach a working consensus than the G-20. Despite its larger size, some critics have argued that the G-20, even with invited guests — there were 24 participants at Los Cabos, Mexico, this year — is still not enough. Singapore, for example, has taken the lead in organizing what it calls the “Global Governance Group” comprised of 28 states that are not included in the G-20. And, inevitably, the larger the size of a gathering the more complex, discursive and indecisive become the outputs of the group. Critics routinely lament the lack of meaningful results
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US President Barack Obama (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a bilateral meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 18, 2012, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit. Obama and President Vladimir Putin met, for the first time since the Russian leader’s return to the presidency, for talks overshadowed by a row over Syria. The closely watched meeting opened half-an-hour late on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of developed and developing nations, as the U.S. leader sought to preserve his “reset” of ties with Moscow despite building disagreements.
have gone on throughout the year. This year’s Camp David Declaration includes 40 separate points, each dealing with critical global issues ranging from reinvigorating the members’ economies and combatting financial stresses, to energy and climate change, to food security and nutrition, to economic and political transitions in Afghanistan and the Middle East, to transnational crime and terrorism. So, too, with the G-20 Leaders Declaration. It consists of 85 points touching on everything from economic stabilization and global recovery, including concerns for employment and social protection, to needed financial sector reforms, to concerns with fighting corruption and green growth. These multilateral summits fulfill several important purposes even if they do not produce immediate dramatic results. Their final declarations are the result of painstaking diplomatic negotiations by the diplomats known in the trade as “sherpas” after the Nepali and Tibetan guides and bearers who lead climbers attempting to summit the world’s most difficult peaks. These are the diplomats who labor behind the scenes to find the places of agreement that will make their leaders look effective, all the while remaining as anonymous as possible. The summits legitimate their collective work and help to set 56
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the agenda for their future labors. These multilateral summits are also played before the leaders’ domestic political audiences and serve to highlight critical global issues even as they often encourage overly great expectations and unrealistic disappointments. Following on the idea that leaders are playing to their domestic political audiences as much as to their international counterparts, these multinational summits often become the occasion for one-on-one diplomacy dealing with specific bilateral issues “on the margins” of the larger conference. There was, for instance, considerable speculation about why newly reinstalled Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his predecessor and Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev to the Camp David Summit rather than attending himself. And, when President Obama and President Putin did meet at the G-20 in Los Cabos, there was much reading of body language for signs of frustration and pique between the two. There was also considerable attention paid to a meeting between British Prime Minister David Cameron and Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over the future of the Falkland Islands and the upcoming referendum to be held there under British sponsorship. President Obama also met with
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Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in Los Cabos to discuss issues of mutual interest — notably Syria, Iran and Iraq as well as Turkey’s diplomatic role in the Islamic world. These meetings start with far-flung agendas of crucial problems, produce fulsome outputs which will have varied impacts on the issues they address, and often end in frustrating generalities, dashed — if unrealistic — hopes, and a chorus of critics suggesting that such multilateral gatherings of the world’s leaders represent wasted time and energy. All of these things are true. And yet there is significant benefit to these meetings. At their best, they provide time and space for important face-to-face meetings and discussions — sometimes even discussions away from the inquiring minds of the press. They provide the potential for an intimacy of contact and candor away from the posturing that is so much a part of the public face of diplomacy. They provide the critical backdrop against which the detailed work of the diplomatic sherpas is defined and re-energized. And they help to define and highlight, if not solve, the most immediate and the most critical longterm issues on the global agenda. It has been a late spring, early summer of hyperactive multilateral diplomacy — the G-8 Camp David Summit, the NATO Summit in Chicago, multiple meetings of European leaders on the economic perils of the eurozone, and the G-20 meeting in Los Cabos. In his closing statement at the G-8 Camp David summit, President Obama not only listed interim accomplished, he also expressed the hope that “the surroundings gave us an opportunity to hold some intimate discussions and make some genuine progress.” Not a bad capsulization of the role of multilateral diplomacy and its potential consequences. Frustrating as the unfilled opportunities for progress might be, the effort is real — the behind the scenes impact often meaningful — and the results incremental but real. n
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 18, 2012.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hand with Saudi Arabian Minister of Finance Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf (L) as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff looks on during the family picture of the G20 Summit of Heads of State and Government in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico on June 18, 2012.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón (R) shakes hand with Saudi Arabian Minister of Finance Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf (L) prior to the G-20 Summit of Heads of State and Government in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico, on June 18, 2012. D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | J uly - A u g ust 2 0 1 2
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he State Department’s “Trafficking in Persons Report” is an annual reporting requirement mandated by Congressional approval of the Victims of Trafficking Protection Act of 2000 and supported by U.S. embassy staffs and non-governmental organizations around the world. The release of this year’s report took on special significance for two reasons: (1) the presence of actors Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith at the release ceremony presided over by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mario Otero — Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, and Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca — head of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; and, (2) 58
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the fact that this year’s report coincides with 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation (1862), President Abraham Lincoln’s declaration that legalized slavery and involuntary servitude would end in the United States. “While we call it human trafficking,” noted Ambassador CdeBaca during a teleconference briefing, “it’s kind of the new and modern term for an old evil. This is truly what President Obama has called the intolerable yoke of modern slavery.” “Trafficking,” the Ambassador continued, is defined as slavery. It doesn’t matter if someone is in their own country; it doesn’t matter if they’re in sex trades or in labor. If the person is not free to leave, if the person is unable to go
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get another position and is being held through some type of coercive force, that person is considered a trafficking victim, and that person is entitled to the protections that we look to government to provide.” Welcoming Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith to the release ceremony, Ambassador CdeBaca noted that their celebrity status offered them “a unique platform from which to act.” “When her daughter Willow began asking about [human trafficking] subjects, [Jada] didn’t just explain it away as something that happens over there. She got to work. She’s launching a new website to serve as a resource for victims and survivors and is an information hub for those who seek to learn more about this crime. Jada, we thank you for you advocacy.” At first, it may seem a long way from this summer’s animated feature film Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted to the vexing problem of human trafficking, and from the rollicking world of
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
the circus to the horror of more than 20 million people held in bondage worldwide, but the distance is surprisingly narrow when placed in the arena of human connection. Secretary Clinton reminded her audience of “the human
costs of this crime.” “Traffickers prey on the hopes and dreams of those seeking a better life. And our goal,” she reiterated, “should be to put those hopes and goals back within reach.” Casting diminutive, svelte actress Jada Pinkett Smith as the voice of the adorably plump Gloria the Hippo in the “Madagascar” animated film series might seem to be casting against type. But Pinkett Smith has all the sass, brass and allure needed for a woman portraying a hippo who finds love in Africa with a slightly nerdy, hypochondriac, bow tiewearing giraffe, Melman (David Schwimmer). Beyond that, she has the derringdo and determination to become the tight rope walker in the circus high-wire act as the zoo characters of the Madagascar series leave Africa trying to make their way through Europe and back to their beloved Central Park Zoo. Pinkett Smith describes Gloria as comfortable in her own skin. “See this is why I love Gloria: she’s a lot of girl, and she loves it.” The actress also sees Gloria as a role model for children. “Our images of ourselves are often based on how other people see us … and as soon as you (allow that to happen), you’re going to be an unhappy person. But the moment you understand your power and your beauty, your life changes… if you can carry that with you, you are going to be OK.” Her understanding of the importance of identity accounts in part for Pinkett Smith’s deep concern with the consequences of human trafficking in the United States and around the globe. She attributes her emotional connection to the soul destroying impact of trafficking on its victims, however, to the concerns expressed by her daughter Willow who was deeply impacted by viewing the video KONY 2012, created by Invisible Children, Inc. and released D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | J uly - A u g ust 2 0 1 2
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in March 2012. While the KONY video’s portrayal of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Rebellion Army, originally located in Uganda but now driven out of that country as remnants into The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, has come in for some criticism as being out of date and overly focused on a single perpetrator rather than his thousands of victims, its power to dramatize an often invisible issue and to personify evil in the person of Kony as an indicted war criminal and hunted fugitive from justice was undeniable. Hearing her daughter Willow’s concerns triggered Pinkett Smith’s guilt. In an interview with USAToday, she recalled, “I was actually really quite ashamed that I didn’t know about this particular situation in our country, because when you think about human trafficking, you think about it ‘over there.’ Wherever ‘there’ is.” “When you talk about modern-day slavery,” she continued, “you don’t see chains. It’s all about the mind... So, it’s a very layered, complex issue that’s going to take some time for us to figure out how to pull apart... Right now, we just have to get aware.” Recognizing the remarkable power of the KONY video to go viral on the Internet, Jada Pinkett Smith and her band Wicked Evolution teamed with Director Salma Hayek to make a music video entitled “Nada Se Compara” (“Nothing Can Measure”) in both Spanish and English. Starring Pinkett Smith, the video tells the story of young women literally seduced into the sex trade by traffickers who promise to fulfill their dreams. Throughout the video, Pinkett Smith appears nude not for the shock effect but to underscore the vulnerability of young women and men, girl and boy children who have been lured into the sex trade, forced labor and other forms of exploitation. At the very end of the music video, she slips into a ragged T-shirt emblazoned with a single word — STOP. In a multimedia world where speed of communication often trumps detailed analysis of problems, a video such as this one becomes undeniably powerful with greater impact on young people across cultures than a library full of government reports. Posted on the website “Don’t Sell Bodies” (www.dontsellbodies.org) the video can be downloaded and the website shared through a variety of social media. The website serves as an important portal for additional information on a variety of trafficking related issues and offers many opportunities for further direct involvement. Dealing with the multi-tiered forms and consequences of human trafficking can be a frustrating process of spreading awareness, discovering and disrupting trafficking operations, and — most critically — assisting the victims of trafficking 60
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to deal with the consequences of their enslavement and begin the often agonizing process of rebuilding their lives. The whole thing is not unlike Gloria the Hippo’s description of learning to walk the high wire: “It’s just like dancing, Melman,” Gloria (Pinkett Smith) observes, “One step forward, two steps back.” The directors of Madagascar 3 describe their story as about the four main characters discovering what it means to be home as they grapple with the obstacles and opportunities that confront them in Madagascar, Africa and Europe. “That’s what has
Valery Hache/AFP/GettyImages
been the core desire of our characters from the beginning,” observes co-director Eric Darnell, “to identify their place in the world.” On the “Don’t Sell Bodies” website Jada Pinkett Smith invites viewers to examine their own beliefs and to confront the modern problem of slavery in the world. “As individuals,” she observes, “we could be harboring beliefs about ourselves and the world around us that keep ourselves and our environment discontent. When we examine these beliefs, we
have located chains of enslavement and these invisible chains usually reach outside ourselves to enslave others. That is part of how slavery exists today.” “There are an estimated 20 million plus slaves in the world today,” notes Pinkett Smith. “I believe that if we work hard to free ourselves from our own invisible chains, we can abolish modern day slavery. Begin to free yourself today so that YOU can free others.” She ends her call to action with a simple sign-off, “jadapsmith.” n
(L-R) Jessica Chastain, David Schwimmer, Ben Stiller, Canadian actor Martin Short, Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris Rock arrive for the screening of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted presented out of competition at the 65th Cannes film festival on May 18, 2012, in Cannes, France. D I P L O M A T I C C O N N E C T I O N S B U S I N E S S edition | J uly - A u g ust 2 0 1 2
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President Barack Obama talks with Ryan Crocker, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, before a bilateral meeting with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during the NATO Summit in Chicago, IL, on May 20, 2012. General John Allen, Commander ISAF/ Commander, U.S. Forces - Afghanistan and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton listen at center.
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Heads of State and Government pose for the official family photo at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, during the NATO 2012 Summit May 20, 2012. (First row L-R): Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev, Prime Minister of Belgium Elio Di Rupo, Prime Minister of Albania Dr. Sali Berisha, President of the United States of America Barack Obama, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron, President of Turkey Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy, President of Slovenia Danilo Türk. (Second row L-R): President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic, President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus, Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of France François Hollande, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, President of Greece Karolos Papoulias, President of Hungary János Áder, President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Prime Minister of Italy Mario Monti. (Third row L-R): President of Latvia Andris Berzinš, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of The Netherlands Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg, President of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister of Portugal Pedro Passos Coelho, President of Romania Traian Basescu, President of Slovakia Ivan Gašparovic.
Official White House Photos by Pete Souza
President Barack Obama talks with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during the NATO Summit in Chicago, IL on May 20, 2012.
Saul Loeb/AFP/GettyImages
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has enlarged its realm of consultation and cooperation by creating a series of ancillary agreements referred to as “networks of engagement” that are less binding in their requirements than the NATO Treaty itself. These include the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council — engaging states of Europe not signatory to the NATO Treaty, the Mediterranean Dialogue — engaging states in North Africa, the Istanbul Cooperation Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
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here is no better representation of the changed world of international relations in the 21st century than to look at changed configuration of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] and the range of missions it has undertaken in recent years. It is after all the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, yet its most recent operations have fielded forces in Libya, Afghanistan, Kosovo and undertaken counter-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa, training missions in Iraq, anti-terrorist maritime operations in the Mediterranean, and operational support for the African Union’s peacekeeping activities. In other words, this isn’t your grandparents’ NATO anymore. Far from being a symbolic cornerstone of the Cold War in Europe, NATO has become a tangible force in a post-Cold War world that has enlarged NATO’s President Barack Obama throws a football on the field at Soldier Field membership, reframed its following the NATO working dinner missions and stretched its in Chicago, IL, on May 20, 2012. areas of operations. At its birth in 1949, NATO’s mission was defined as promoting “stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area,” and to that end the states party to the North Atlantic Treaty “resolved to unite their efforts for collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security.” NATO was formed and for the first 40 years of its life functioned largely as a collective defense treaty between North America and Western Europe. That role is enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” Ironically, despite all the tensions of the Cold War, that provision of the treaty was never invoked until the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. With the end of the Cold War, however, NATO’s identity and its mission began to change. The treaty has been enlarged to include most of the former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe as well as the Baltic states and Albania. From its original 12 members NATO has expanded seven times to encompass 28 signatory states in 2012. In addition, NATO
Initiative — engaging four states from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Partners Across the Globe — engaging states of the Asia Pacific area. As the NATO-Chicago Summit approached the “White House Welcome” on the summit website (www.chicagonato. org), written by one of President Obama’s closest foreign policy advisors — Ben Rhodes, White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications (read: speechwriter), reflected these critical changes in NATO’s post-Cold War mission. “America’s relationship with NATO,” Rhodes noted “is a cornerstone of our engagement with the world. We will join with many non-NATO countries to build new partnerships so that NATO is truly the hub of a global security network.” That is a very long way from NATO’s mission as a collective defense treaty designed to meet any attempted Russian invasion of Western Europe. In the post-9/11 world of international security, NATO’s far flung “networks of engagement” have become a functional substitute for the Cold War network of security treaties the United States built around the world and a creative-work
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our partners.” [Emphasis added.] Leaders from 61 countries as well as the NATO Secretariat, the European Union and the United Nations gathered at “Chicago 2012: The Global President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen participate in a North Atlantic Crossroads.” Council meeting with heads of state and government Given the presduring the NATO Summit in Chicago, IL, on May 20, 2012. ence of all these partner nations, the Chicago summit was the largest in NATO’s history. It unfolded in a series of layered and overlapping meetings that brought together various combinations of member states and partner states. The 28 members of the formal NATO alliance met to consider how to sustain and develop the wide range of capabilities that NATO requires despite looming
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
around to the United Nations Security Council, without the frustrations of the great power veto that so often paralyzes Security Council action. It is an umbrella organization providing the diplomatic shelter under which a wide range of security conversations can be held and within which various “coalitions of the willing” can be formed to meet an ever changing variety of global security concerns. A White House fact sheet on “NATO Capabilities” issued during the Chicago summit asserts that, “NATO remains an essential transatlantic link and force multiplier for the United States, our Allies and
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defense budget cuts in the United States and Europe. They New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, the Republic of Korea, reviewed lessons learned from recent NATO operations and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. sought to identify critical capability gaps. There was also a The centerpiece of world attention at the Chicago separate meetNATO Summit, ing with four however, was partner states — the meeting Bosnia-Herzebetween the 28 govina, MacedoNATO Allies nia, Montenegro and the 22 partand Georgia — ner states that that are seekprovide assising full NATO tance — troops, membership. trainers and One of the resources — to most important the Internasessions found tional Security that the NATO Assistance Force U.S. President Barack Obama (C) laughs with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (L) as they arrive for the International Security leaders meeting in AfghaniAssistance Force meeting on Afghanistan during the 2012 NATO with the leaders stan (ISAF). Summit May 21, 2012 at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago. At right is ISAF Commander General John R. Allen. of 13 non-Allied These 50 states partner states contributing make significant financial and operational contributions to directly to the ISAF were joined by key regional stakeholders NATO-led operations worldwide. These states included: — Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Australia, Austria, Finland, Georgia, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. Also joining these discussions
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Leaders pose for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) group photo during the 2012 NATO Summit May 21, 2012, at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago, Illinois.
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were representatives of Japan, the European Union and the United Nations. Two issues were central to this meeting — transitioning the ISAF presence in Afghanistan from combat operations to full Afghan security responsibility by the end of 2014 and continued training and support for Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in the 10 year period following 2014. The Chicago Summit Declaration, issued by the heads of state and government of the North Atlantic Council, characterized their work on Afghanistan as taking “further important steps on the road to a stable and secure Afghanistan and to our goal of preventing Afghanistan from ever again becoming a safe haven for terrorists that threaten Afghanistan, the region and the world. The irreversible transition of full security responsibility from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) is on track for completion by the end of 2014. We will, however, continue to provide strong and long-term political and practical support through our Enduring Partnership with Afghanistan.” The Declaration also
Above: First Lady Michelle Obama and Valérie Trierweiler of France, center, watch a student cooking demonstration at the Gary Comer Youth Center in Chicago, IL, on May 20, 2012. Below: First Lady Michelle Obama and the spouses of NATO Summit leaders watch a performance at the Gary Comer Youth Center in Chicago, IL, on May 20, 2012. Seated with Mrs. Obama from left are: Sanja Music Milanovic of Croatia; Hayrünnisa Gül of Turkey; Anne-Mette Rasmussen, NATO; Liri Berisha of Albania; Ingrid Schulerud of Norway and Valérie Trierweiler of France.
made clear that, “NATO is ready to work towards establishing, at the request of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, a new post-2014 mission of a different nature in Afghanistan, to train, advise and assist the ANSF, including the Afghan Special Operations Forces. This will not be a combat mission.” Though Afghanistan’s future tended to dominate the Chicago discussions, the extensive preparatory work that had been done for the conference allowed the NATO leaders to formalize several other areas of agreement ranging from continued support for operations in Kosovo to new standards for consultation and practical cooperation with partner states based on the recent experience with “Operation Unified Protector” in Libya and from putting in place the early stages of a ballistic missile defense system in Europe to protecting and promoting the rights of women and children in areas of armed conflict, in peacemaking processes, and in establishing post-conflict governments that respect the rule of law and protect human rights. President Obama wrapped up the conference by noting that “NATO has been the bedrock of common security, freedom and prosperity for nearly 65 years. It hasn’t just endured. It has thrived because our nations are stronger
when we stand together. We saw that most recently in Libya, where NATO afforded capabilities that no one else in the world could match.” While applauding the agreement that had been reached on transition in Afghanistan, the President acknowledged that, “This will not mark the end of Afghanistan’s challenges or our partnership with that important country. But we are making substantial progress against our core objective of defeating al Qaeda and denying it safe haven, while helping Afghans stand on their own. We leave Chicago with a clear road map to bring our war in Afghanistan to a responsible end.” The meetings between the NATO Allies and their global partners, the President concluded, “were unprecedented. To see the breadth of those countries represented here is to see how NATO has truly become a hub of global security.” Ambassador Ivo Daalder, United States Permanent Representative to NATO, summarized the Chicago meetings by saying that, “We laid out a concept that we needed to build a partnership with global reach, an alliance that was not a global alliance but an actor in the global world. That was the vision that was laid down in Lisbon (2010). And at Chicago, we turned that vision into a reality.” n
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The UN Foundation and its Shot@Life campaign unveil a PSA on the Toshiba Vision Screen in New York’s Times Square, Friday, May 11, 2012, to show how people in the U.S. can help mothers in developing countries protect their children from deadly diseases with life-saving vaccines.
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In celebration of Mother’s Day, actor, mother and Every Child By Two Vaccine Ambassador Amanda Peet, center, World Health Organization’s Dr. Jacob Kumaresen, left, Real Simple editor Kristin van Ogtrop, second left, Shot@Life’s Devi Thomas, third left, World Moms Blog founder Jennifer Burden, second right, and Toshiba’s Satoshi Kawada, right, join the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign to unveil a PSA on the Toshiba Vision Screen in New York’s Times Square, Friday, May 11, 2012, to show how people in the U.S. can help mothers in developing countries protect their children from deadly diseases with life-saving vaccines.
Diane Bondareff/Insider Images for UN Foundation
The UN Foundation and its Shot@Life campaign unveil a PSA on the Toshiba Vision Screen in New York’s Times Square, Friday, May 11, 2012, to show how people in the U.S. can help mothers in developing countries protect their children from deadly diseases with life-saving vaccines.
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Diane Bondareff/Insider Images for UN Foundation
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o help celebrate Mother’s Day, The United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign unveiled a compelling new video on the world-renowned Toshiba Vision Screen in New York City’s legendary Times Square. Highlighting the importance of providing vaccines to children in developing countries to protect them from preventable diseases, the PSA marks a major milestone for the UN Foundation’s new campaign. Influential leaders across all sectors joined together for the launch event, including actress and Every Child by Two Ambassador Amanda Peet; the World Health Organization’s Dr. Jacob Kumaresen, Real Simple Editor Kristin van Ogtrop, Shot@Life’s Devi Thomas, World Moms Blog founder Jennifer Burden and Toshiba’s Satoshi Kawada. The PSA focuses on the value of vaccinations for children around the world and how every child deserves a shot at living a healthy life, no matter where they live. “Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease, but those deaths can be prevented with access to vaccines that cost just a few dollars. We hope this PSA inspires the millions of people who travel through Times Square to take action and join the campaign,” said Devi Thomas, Director of Shot@Life. “We are thankful to Toshiba for providing its world-famous Vision Screen to help amplify the discussion about vaccines and the role we all play in helping to create a safer and healthier world.” As a mother and an Every Child by Two Vaccine Ambassador to the Shot@Life campaign, Amanda Peet has been a passionate advocate of vaccines for children for years. “It’s proven — vaccines are life-saving. I can’t imagine my children not reaching major milestones because of a preventable disease like pneumonia, diarrhea, measles or polio. No mother should have to imagine that,” said Peet. “We know vaccines work and for only $20, we can help protect a child from these four diseases. All children should have the opportunity to lead healthy lives and experience all of life’s priceless moments.” With its April kick-off launch in Atlanta, GA during World Immunization Week, the Shot@Life campaign helps connect and educate Americans to champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries. The campaign is building a movement
In celebration of Mother’s Day, actor, mother and Every Child By Two Vaccine Ambassador Amanda Peet joins the UN Foundation and its Shot@ Life campaign to unveil a PSA on the Toshiba Vision Screen in New York’s Times Square, Friday, May 11, 2012, to show how people in the U.S. can help mothers in developing countries protect their children from deadly diseases with life-saving vaccines.
(Left) UN Photo/Evan Schneider ; (Right) UN Photo/Olivier Chassot
Here a child receives the polio vaccine in the Al Salam IDP camp, North Darfur, Sudan.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon administers 2 drops of a polio vaccine to a 5-month-old baby in Mwandama Millennium Village, Malawi.
(Left) UN Photo/Jawad Jalali; (Right) UN Photo/Khadivi
Vaccinating a one year old boy against polio — aiming to reach 7.7 million children and more under the age of five throughout Afghanistan.
“Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease, but those deaths can be prevented with access to vaccines that cost just a few dollars.”
Immunizing a child against polio in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The prospect of ending endemic polio in Afghanistan now lies within sight.
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in the United States for people to learn about, advocate for and donate vaccines. “We have the ability to prevent 1.5 million deaths each year simply by getting vaccines to the children that need them,” said Thomas. “With the costs of vaccinations being so little, it is simple and vital for everyone to take part in such a crucial, global issue. Healthy children help create a healthier world for everyone.” Not only does expanding access to vaccines strengthen our ability to fight disease globally, but it also keeps our families healthy here at home. By voicing your support for vaccines, you can ensure that the U.S. government invests in vaccines and will continue to save lives. Everyone can be a part of the solution to make the world a better and healthier place. n
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon administers a dose of a polio vaccine to a child brought by his mother.
Classical Concerts Held in the Intimate Settings of Embassies and Ambassadors’ Residences Since 1994, the Embassy Series has worked with over 100 ambassadors, hosted 300 plus concerts in 46 embassies involving more than 500 artists from the Washington area. By extending public access to the embassies in the Nation’s Capital, the Series offers its audience the opportunity to participate in a cultural exchange - to watch and listen to a musical performance that highlights the contributions of a particular country. Such a backdrop allows the audience to “get a feel” for the nation being represented, which is key to promoting and celebrating the diversity of both a host embassy and Series patrons. These wonderful experiences are accentuated by a reception at the host embassy or residence immediately following the concert, where guests are encouraged to interact with the featured artists and the diplomatic community .
Visit EMBASSYSERIES.org
for tickets, upcoming concerts and exclusive sponsorship opportunities or call 202-625-2361 74
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UpComIng EvEntS...
MUSIC OF THE VILNA GHETTO EXPERIENCE
09/09/2012 – 3:00 pm GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY GASTON HALL
LORENZO GATTO, VIOLIN ROBERT GIORDANO, PIANO
10/04/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF LATVIA
VERONIKA DOBI-KISS, SOPRANO GEORGE PEACHEY, PIANO
10/10/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF HUNGARY
FAIRFAX SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
10/19/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF AUSTRIA
ISRAEL CHAMBER PROJECT 10/25/2012 – 7:30 pm VENUE TO BE ANNOUNCED
ANDRE GORICAR, SILENT FILM PIANIST 10/31/2012 – 7:30 pm • EMBASSY OF SLOVENIA
UN Photo/Mark Garten
For more information, visit www.shotatlife.org and www.unfoundation.org.
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Pat and Lesly Sajak with Canadian Ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer, at the International Warriors Night reception. 78
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Rear-Admiral Richard Greenwood presents special guest Pat Sajak with an “Ameripack” cherry wood wine caddy highlighting the Commander’s coin.
The
GI Film Festival honored military excellence and unparalleled sacrifice recently when the Canadian Defence Liaison Staff (CDLS(W)) hosted the International Warrior Night at the Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., with special guest Pat Sajak. The GI Film Festival, in its sixth year, is the only festival in the United States to focus exclusively on the experiences of military service members. The week-long event screens both short and feature length films, as well as narrative documentaries. The International Warrior Night highlighted a collection of short films from across the globe that explored the unyielding commitment and dedication of military service members. The evening began with Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Martin, the Canadian Forces Public Affairs Attaché, introducing the visionary founders of the festival, Brandon Millet and Laura LawMillet. The co-founders spoke of its history as well as the special relationship between their program and the Embassy of Canada, which has hosted GI Film Festival events and screenings for the past several years. “We are very grateful for the friendship of the
Canadian Embassy and of Colonel Martin in particular,” said Brandon Millet. “The Embassy has been our second home for the past four years now and we just love it here.” The full house of almost 200 guests enjoyed seven short films from Germany, the United States, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. Halifax-native Alyssa Buchanan directed the Canadian short film entry called “Those Forgotten.” It tells the story of two veterans of the Second World War. The old friends, played by Howard D’Arcy and David Hughes, happen to be the last survivors of a shipwreck who compete to be remembered as the last remaining sailor from the famed disaster. This award-winning film made its East Coast premiere at the GI Film festival. The German entry, entitled “Bridges: A Living Graphic Novel,” was honored as the Best International Film. It was produced by Florian Freriches and had its United States premiere at the Canadian Embassy. A story is told of an American Second World War pilot, Captain Bridges, who
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Left to right: Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Martin, Public Affairs Attaché, Alyssa Buchanan, director of Canadian short film “Those Forgotten;” Ron Luscinski, director of American short film “High Threat Scenario;” Pat Sajak, David John Kelly and Roger Sciberras, screenwriters and stars of Australian short film “Sacrament;” Brandon Millet and Laura Law-Millet, co-founders of the GI Film Festival.
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crash lands in Berlin and his eventual return to that city after the war. “Bridges” used a distinct visual style, including hand-painted scenery and color tinting, to make the film feel similar to a moving graphic novel. “We were proud to host the GI Film Festival for a fourth year,” said LCol Martin. “It’s a wonderful event that allows the voices of those in uniform to be heard through the medium of film.” Following the screening, celebrity host Pat Sajak took the stage and led a Q&A session. Mr. Sajak, himself a veteran of the Vietnam War, entertained the crowd with his famous TV personality humor. Canadian Defense Attaché Rear-Admiral Richard Greenwood and Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer were also present to welcome guests. The Embassy’s involvement with this exciting week did not end there. As the festival continued, an additional screening was presented of the award-winning documentary “If I Should Fall” followed by a short Q&A with the director, Brendon Culliton. The film tells the moving story of Marc Diab, a 22 year-old trooper with the Royal Canadian Dragoons who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009. The documentary uses interviews with Diab’s fellow troopers and Lebanese-Canadian family, as well as his home movies to tell a universal story of extreme sacrifice and loss. “It was important to us to be able to show this prize-winning Canadian film here at the Embassy,” noted LCol Martin. “It’s a moving story that both Canadians and Americans can appreciate. “ The Canadian Embassy also hosted the “Filmmaker’s Boot Camp,” a day-long workshop aimed at helping up-and-coming independent artists learn some of the intricacies of film production and distribution. n
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Prince Harry travels in a horse-drawn carriage procession to Buckingham Palace during the Diamond Jubilee Lunch on June 5, 2012, in London, England.
Stefan Wermuth - WPA Pool/Getty Images
Opposite: Prince Harry visits Bustamente Children’s Hospital on March 6, 2012, in Kingston, Jamaica. Prince Harry was in Jamaica as part of a Diamond Jubilee Tour, representing Queen Elizabeth II, taking in Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Brazil.
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Members of the British royal family (L-R) Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Prince Charles, Prince of Wales; Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry and Prince William stand aboard the royal barge ‘Spirit of Chartwell’ during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames in London on June 3, 2012.
T
he sigh of relief from Buckingham Palace was almost audible from here. Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee turned out to be a blockbuster of a success, with huge crowds braving the rainy weather to see their 86-year-old sovereign not quite walking on water, but gliding along the River Thames in a magnificent red and gold barge to replicate the royal progressions of centuries ago when the Thames was London’s main thoroughfare because the streets were narrow, unpaved and bumpy. Nobody in 2011 thought the jubilee, with its abundance of color and well choreographed ceremonial, would actually be anything less than a huge success; but the groundswell of public affection for the kindly, white-haired matron who has 84
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By Roland Flamini
reigned for 60 years exceeded all expectations. There are a couple of good reasons for this. Queen Elizabeth is at the high watermark of her popularity: polls show more people in the United Kingdom supporting the monarchy than at any time since the monarch’s coronation at the young age of 25. Another reason is the rock star status of Prince William and Prince Harry, sons of the late Princess Diana. In a sense, this year’s four-day historic celebration received a boost from Prince William’s marriage last year to college sweetheart Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge. The choice of a commoner as Britain’s future queen generated enormous goodwill towards the royal family.
With Prince William married, Prince Harry has been stealing a bit of the limelight from his older brother, and is clearly enjoying it. The third in line to the British throne, who is 27 in September, has turned out to be intelligent, good-natured and with his charming sense of humor is capable of making fun of his position as the “spare” to the heir.
Armed, helmeted police escorted the prince at the Alemao Compound favela. Just two years ago, Brazilian security forces fought a pitched battle to wrest control of this neighborhood from drug traffickers. Crowds of cheering children surrounded Prince Harry with great enthusiasm as he walked past shacks that clung to the hillside and lifted toddlers.
On his visit to Brazil to promote British trade, and to the Caribbean in March to help celebrate the queen’s jubilee, he occasionally poked fun at his brother by donning a mask of
In Jamaica, he showed off his reggae moves with teenagers, and raced against the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, a triple Olympic medal winner who holds the world 100-meter
Prince William’s face.
record. Like his mother — but few other British royals — he squats down low to talk to children at eye-level.
The trip — or “royal tour” as Buckingham Palace terms such visits — covered Rio de Janeiro, Belize, the Bahamas and Jamaica. In Rio, the prince displayed his seemingly inexhaustible energy: he visited one of the notorious hillside slums — the favelas — where a British charity had funded a recreation center, and played rugby and volley ball with youngsters on one of Rio’s leading beaches.
Then in May, Prince Harry visited the United States to receive a humanitarian award from a prominent think tank in Washington, D.C., for his work in Afghanistan and Iraq veterans rehabilitation. He was accompanied by Sir David Manning, a former British ambassador to the United States appointed by the queen as an adviser to the two royal princes.
Stefan Rousseau/AFP/GettyImages
Prince William (C), Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (L) and Prince Harry (R) prepare to board the royal barge ‘Spirit of Chartwell’ during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames in London on June 3, 2012. Queen Elizabeth II sailed on a ceremonial barge down the Thames at the center of a 1,000-boat pageant to mark her Diamond Jubilee.
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Prince Harry plays with Arthur Edwards - Pool / Getty Images
children during a Premiership Rugby training session on Flamengo Beach on March 10, 2012, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
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Arthur Edwards - Pool / Getty Images
Prince Harry plays rugby with children during a Premiership Rugby training session on Flamengo Beach on March 10, 2012, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
It was Manning who planned last year’s visit to Canada and Los Angeles by the royal newlyweds, Kate and William. In Jamaica, Prince Harry also took part in a small arms demonstration with members of the Jamaican Armed Forces. He regards himself as a soldier first and foremost. In 2008, the prince spent eight weeks in Afghanistan with his regiment, the Blues and Royals, but was immediately ordered home when a newspaper report broke a promise of silence and revealed that he was in the war zone. The prince hopes to return to Afghanistan, this time as an Apache helicopter pilot. “I’ve done my training; it’s cost the Army money to train me,” he told the American television journalist Katie Couric. “If they didn’t think they could get me out there, then they wouldn’t have put me through this training, It’s as simple as that.”
public signal of the continuity and stability of the British monarchy: the present incumbent and its future, standing together. The two princes are close to Queen Elizabeth, whom they call “granny.” Harry revealed recently that it was the queen who told him that he could go back to Afghanistan — perhaps a subtle way of saying that the decision required her approval. Replying to a question from Katie Couric, the prince said he doesn’t need an appointment to visit his grandmother. “I’m sure if I rang her up (Brit for ‘called her’) and said, ‘Could I come over for a cup of tea?,’ she would say, ‘Yes, please do.’ Hopefully.” n
The high profile of the two princes during the Jubilee celebrations, including appearing with the queen on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at the close of the four-day festivities was widely seen as a
Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images
Britain’s Prince Harry chats with children at the Complexo do Alemao shantytown in Rio de Janeiro on March 09, 2012. The Complexo do Alemao was a sprawling favela that is home to 200,000 people which has been reformed since police and soldiers stormed the area in 2010 to evict drug dealers.
Britain’s Prince Harry (L) congratulates a girl of the Maré Shantytown after giving her a medal as part of a social project, during the British and Brazilianthemed sports day on Flamengo beach in Rio de Janeiro on March 10, 2012.
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