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VOLUME 25, NUMBER 9
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September 2018
SEPTEMBER 2018
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Truly Global Community
State Department Initiative
THAILAND
A
Brings International Students
to U.S. Community Colleges
renewed focus on Starting with Democratic America’s community policymakers touting the proscolleges has emerged in pects of free community education and policy college circles over tuition, and continuing the last several years, especially Trump administration with the as the cost of university tuitions sis on apprenticeship ’s emphacontinues to soar. and the role of community colleges in
•
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COMMUNITY COLLEGE
BY MIKE CROWLEY
vocational training, a tier of the U.S. higher education system that has stood in the shadow of “traditional” four-year colleges now finds itself in the spotlight. SEE COMMUNITY • PAGE 24 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT
Northern Virginia Community College helps administer the State Department’s Community College Initiative (CCI), which for over 10 years has brought international students to community colleges across America.
| SEPTEMBER 2018 | 23
Energy
Russians to Increase Gas Flow to Europe Via Nord Stream 2 The Nord Stream 2 pipeline could double the amount of gas that Russia supplies Germany, helping the continent meet its growing energy needs but potentially holding it hostage to the Kremlin. / PAGE 9
PHOTO: ALBERT GONZÁLEZ FARRAN - UNAMID
Environment
A Parched Planet Could Ignite More Conflict in Hotspots Experts warn that water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could spark more instability in some of the world’s most conflict-prone regions. / PAGE 12
Culture
Women Shape ‘Heavy Metal’ Women artists use metal to create artwork that breaks the male-dominated mold. PAGE 34
DEMOCRATIC LIMBO Ever since Thailand’s last military coup in 2014, the ruling junta has promised elections, only to repeatedly postpone them. But Thai Ambassador Virachai Plasai urges patience for his Southeast Asian nation as it looks for the “sweet spot” in adapting democracy to Thai culture. / PAGE 17
United States
Business
Mattis: Trump’s Stalwart Soldier
Saudi Women Entrepreneurs Break Down Walls
Amid the daily drama of D.C.’s own version of “The Apprentice,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has quietly stood behind President Trump while trying to leave his mark on national security policies. / PAGE 6
A group of Saudi women entrepreneurs came to D.C. recently to get their ventures off the ground while breaking down stereotypes. / PAGE 14
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2 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
Contents
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
29
17 12 14
36
23
NEWS 6
LAST SOLDIER STANDING Defense Secretary Mattis quietly survives Trump’s purges with a mixed track record.
9
POWER OF ENERGY Critics of Nord Stream 2 worry the pipeline will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.
12 WATER WARS Water scarcity, intensified by climate change, threatens stability in the world’s hotspots. 14
ACCELERATING SOCIAL CHANGE
At D.C.’s Halcyon Incubator, Saudi women startups shatter stereotypes.
22
MEDICAL Moderate drinking in middle age may help to ward off dementia.
EDUCATION 23
LOCAL MEETS GLOBAL
A State Department initiative brings foreign students to U.S. community colleges.
LUXURY LIVING 29
SWISS ROOTS
The Swiss ambassador’s residence has built its roots around a sturdy oak in Dumbarton.
17 COVER PROFILE: THAILAND While Thais wait for democracy, the military junta consolidates its power.
CULTURE
21
34
NORDIC VANTAGE POINT Op-ed: A green economic transition is both possible and profitable.
WOMEN GO METAL
Women artists take on the male-dominated field of metalworking in “Heavy Metal.”
35
MELODIC ANNIVERSARY
The Embassy Series celebrates its 25th season of cultural exchange through music.
36
ABSTRACTION IN AMERICAS
The Art Museum of the Americas exhibition reflects on Latin America’s artistic evolution.
37
CANADIAN-VIETNAMESE TRAVELOGUE
Canadian artist ponders “Diversity and Identity” in a visual diary of Vietnam.
REGULARS 38
CINEMA LISTING
40 EVENTS LISTING 42 DIPLOMATIC SPOTLIGHT 46 CLASSIFIEDS 47 REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 3
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ON THE COVER Photo taken at the Embassy of Thailand by Lawrence Ruggeri of RuggeriPhoto.com.
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50TH MERIDIAN BALL EMBASSY PATRONS MERIDIAN INTERNATIONAL CENTER IS GRATEFUL FOR THE GENEROUS SUPPORT AND HOSPITALITY OF: The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
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WD | United States
Last Soldier Standing Defense Secretary Mattis Quietly Survives Trump’s Purges with Mixed Record BY AILEEN TORRES-BENNETT AND ANNA GAWEL
E
very industry loves its insider baseball. Politics is no exception. The Trump administration has been catnip for Washingtonians who relish the “Game of Thrones” plot twists that play out on a daily basis. What will Trump do, or tweet, next? Who will be fired? Who will make the cut in the seemingly relentless D.C. version of “The Apprentice?” Amid the daily drama stands Secretary of Defense James Mattis, President Trump’s stalwart, quiet soldier. The seasoned military careerist, who was the head of U.S. Central Command during the Obama administration, has managed to hold onto his job in an administration plagued by the highest turnover rate in modern White House history. There are two nicknames for Mattis: “Warrior Monk” and “Mad Dog.” He earned the former by being an insatiable student of war and remaining unmarried. He earned the latter by being, as Trump so enthusiastically called him, a “killer” on the battlefield. Mattis supposedly prefers to be known as a “Warrior Monk” than “Mad Dog.” Being a “killer” may have gotten him into the administration, but being a cool and levelheaded intellectual is helping him stay there. How much longer he stays, however, is another matter. The president is reportedly frustrated by what he sees as his defense secretary slow-walking many of his proposed initiatives, such as banning transgender troops from openly serving in the military. Speculation is also rife about how much influence Mattis wields in a revolving-door Cabinet, particularly with the addition of prominent hawks such as National Security Advisor John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, who has taken the reins of the North Korea portfolio as secretary of state. The rumors are nothing new. From the beginning, observers wondered whether the retired four-star Marine general would mesh with his boss, given how different the two men are in temperament and experience. Whereas Trump made billions as a real estate magnate and reality television star, Mattis steadily moved up the ranks of the military over four decades, becoming a battle-hardened veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whereas Trump avidly consumes TV headlines minute by minute, Mattis reportedly has a personal library of over 6,000 books. Beyond their personal and professional differences, Mattis and Trump diverge on key policy issues, including NATO, Russia, Syria, Afghanistan, the value of diplomacy and alliances, how to run the Pentagon and America’s role in the world. But Mattis has been deft at downplaying his disagreements with Trump while studiously working behind the scenes to blunt the edges of his boss’s harsh rhetoric. Mattis must be both military man and diplomat, especially when it comes to NATO, an area where he has demonstrated skill in maneuvering to preserve the security bloc without stepping on Trump’s toes. He must often calibrate his actions to counterbalance Trump’s public denunciations, laying a soothing hand on traditional allies’ shoulders after his boss lashes out at them, while also guarding against the re-emergence America’s old adversary Russia after the president welcomes Vladimir Putin with open arms. In some areas, Mattis’s head-down, deliberative approach has succeeded; in others, the internationalist scholar has failed to sway a president who won office on an isolationist America First platform. Mattis has for the most part reassured nervous NATO
6 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph F. Dunford Jr. bow their heads during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on May 28, 2018.
CREDIT: DOD PHOTO BY ARMY SGT. AMBER I. SMITH
“
As long as Mattis keeps his head down and remains totally focused on the U.S. military and its mission, which is what he does so well, he will stay out of Trump’s crosshairs. JIM TOWNSEND
”
former deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy
allies that the U.S. remains committed to their defense. The picture is more mixed with Russia, which Mattis sees as a long-term threat. On the one hand, the administration has agreed to an array of sanctions against the Kremlin; on the other, the president is often reluctant to concede that the Kremlin is responsible for the transgressions behind those sanctions, most notably election meddling. Trump also reluctantly agreed to Mattis’s advice to send several thousand U.S. troops to Syria and Afghanistan, a huge concession given the president’s disdain for foreign entanglements. It’s a concession that could easily be taken back. In April, Trump abruptly announced he would withdraw U.S. troops from Syria as soon as possible, taking military leaders by surprise. But a few weeks later, Mattis quietly reversed course, saying the U.S. was in it for the long haul in Afghanistan, where Americans are training local forces to fight the Taliban, and in Syria, where the Pentagon wants to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State and curb Iran’s rising influence. It wasn’t the first time Trump has caught Pentagon leaders off guard. After the president’s meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Trump announced a sus-
pension of U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises, which the Pentagon considers vital to maintaining readiness on the volatile Korean Peninsula. According to a June 25 NBC report, Mattis was blindsided by the move. Nevertheless, Mattis dutifully defended the decision, saying it increased room for diplomats to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the North’s nuclear weapons program. Ironically, when Mattis served under Obama, many Democrats pegged him as a warmonger for his hawkish views on Iran and Islamic extremism. Today, many of those same Democrats see Mattis as their best hope to pacify Trump’s combative instincts. Despite his qualms about the Iran nuclear agreement, for instance, Mattis argued — to no avail — that it was better for the U.S. to remain in the agreement than to abandon it altogether. He also differed with his boss on withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, cutting the State Department’s budget, imposing tariffs on allies and creating a so-called Space Force branch within the military. Trump’s supporters say these disagreements are a normal part of policymaking and reflect the fact that while the president takes his defense secretary’s opinions into account, he ultimately makes his own decisions as commander in chief. Trump’s critics, however, have called Mattis one of the “grown-ups” in the room who keeps the president’s whims in check. Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster used to be among those “grown-ups,” but he, like former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, got on the wrong side of the boss and were axed, depriving Mattis of two close allies in the administration. One of the reasons Mattis has retained his job could simply be that he refrained from calling the president an “idiot” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner,” as McMaster reportedly did when Trump wasn’t around, or a “moron,” as Tillerson did, also when Trump wasn’t around. In a typical office, such remarks might be norSEE MAT T IS • PAGE 8
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Mattis CONTINUED • PAGE 6
mal water-cooler venting. But in administration where private gossip is routinely leaked and the boss is notoriously thin-skinned, Tillerson and McMaster’s days were numbered. It didn’t help that neither seemed to ever develop a genuine rapport with the president. Maybe Mattis learned a lesson from Tillerson and McMaster’s missteps, or perhaps he is more selfdisciplined and patient, keeping his venting contained to an ironclad few and adapting to his boss’s temperament and sensitivities. “I’m not paid for my feelings. I save those for my girlfriend,” Mattis said at a press conference in February. He was referring to his feelings about Trump’s idea to stage a grand military parade in Washington, D.C., a display critics say would be a waste of money. Trump was eager to move ahead with the parade until he found out the cost would be nearly $100 million (inaccurately pinning the blame for the price tag on local city officials). But the parade flap is merely a sideshow to the meatier issues Mattis confronts, namely reassuring allies while repelling adversaries. So far, he has handled NATO with skill and is treading carefully with Russia while overseeing a larger defense budget.
NATO’S PROTECTOR Mattis and Trump have sharply differing perspectives on NATO. The secretary of defense has maintained a low profile, as usual, while trying to assuage fears that Trump will irrevocably weaken the 69-year-old alliance. Trump has repeatedly derided NATO member states for not spending enough on defense and only begrudgingly committed to the bloc’s Article 5 collective defense clause that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Mattis, who headed NATO’s Supreme Allied Command for Transformation from 2007 to 2009, is a strong supporter of NATO. “History is clear,” Mattis said at his Senate confirmation hearing. “Nations with strong allies thrive, and those without them wither.” But instead of publicly contradicting his boss, Mattis has gone to work quietly shoring up America’s participation in the alliance. According to a May 29, 2017, report in The New Yorker titled “James Mattis, A Warrior in Washington,” Dexter Filkins wrote that Mattis was put to the test early on after Trump’s condemnation of NATO as “obsolete” rattled allies. Filkins wrote that German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen immediately called Mattis after Trump’s inauguration. “He managed to distance himself from everything President Trump had said without appearing disloyal,” von der Leyen told Filkins. “When Mattis arrived in Brussels a few weeks later for a NATO gathering, he implored U.S. allies to spend more on defense — but he never threatened to pull out of the alliance if they didn’t,” Filkins wrote, noting
CREDIT: DOD PHOTO BY TECH SGT. VERNON YOUNG JR.
Above, Secretary of Defense James Mattis speaks with Marines and key personnel at the new NATO building in Brussels on June 7, 2018. At right, Mattis speaks to reporters during a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Alaska on June 24, 2018. The four-star Marine general has usually been reserved with the media, a trait that has served him well as he studiously avoids criticizing President Trump in public.
that one former defense official told him that Mattis is “walking a very fine line.” While that line is getting tighter and tighter, Mattis has notched several significant achievements under his belt. Among other things, he has shepherded through additional funding to improve Europe’s deterrence capabilities and fortify its eastern flank in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its muscle-flexing in the region. More recently, at the NATO summit in July, senior national security officials pressed ambassadors to finish a formal policy agreement before the summit began in an effort to prevent Trump from scuttling it, according to an Aug. 9 New York Times article by Helene Cooper and Julian E. Barnes. The article said Mattis, Bolton and Pompeo were all keen to avoid the kind of breakdown that occurred at the contentious G7 summit a month earlier, when Trump refused to sign the final communiqué. “Described by European diplomats and American officials, the efforts are a sign of the lengths to which the president’s top advisers will go to protect a key and longstanding international alliance from Mr. Trump’s unpredictable antipathy,” they wrote, noting that the communiqué ensured that allies “could push through initiatives, including critical Pentagon priorities to improve allied defenses against Russia.” That includes formally inviting Macedonia to join the alliance and a pledge to support the “30-30-30-30” agreement spearheaded by Mattis. That plan would require 30 land battalions, 30 air fighter squadrons and 30 warships ready to deploy within 30 days. “Threats to our collective security have not waned, whether terrorism to the south or Russia’s aggression and hybrid threats to the east,” Mattis said in a press conference in June
8 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
CREDIT: DOD PHOTO BY ARMY SGT. AMBER I. SMITH
at the NATO Defense Ministerial in Brussels. He told reporters that the alliance “has made significant progress” on burden sharing in the last year. Like Trump (and Obama), Mattis wants other NATO countries to increase their spending on collective security, although he has relied on praise and pressure over outright threats to persuade allies to shoulder more responsibility. “On the burden sharing, in 2014, it was a watershed year in NATO, when only three nations’ military spending was at 2 percent of GDP,” Mattis said. “By 2017, all nations had reversed the downward trend … in defense spending, and last year we also saw the largest across-NATO increase in military spending in a quarter century. “Now, in 2018, eight nations are already meeting the 2 percent pledge benchmark, and I salute the 15 allies who are on track to reach 2 percent by 2024,” he added. Mattis wrapped up his press conference by asserting that the U.S. is committed to the NATO alliance that, for nearly 70 years, “has served to uphold the values and the principles on which our democracies were founded.”
THE RUSSIA THREAT NATO was formed in 1949 to stave off aggression by the Soviet Union. After the Cold War, NATO redefined itself to stay relevant, with members banning together to, for instance, fight terrorism in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks (the only time, incidentally, that Article 5 has ever been invoked).
Today, Cold War-era tensions are back, as a resurgent Russia threatens European nations from the Baltics to the Balkans with everything from airspace incursions to fake news. In some ways, Russia is also a dire threat to the administration, which is fending off charges of collusion that could, in theory, lead to Trump’s impeachment. Yet the president has remained steadfast in his belief that the U.S. could partner with Vladimir Putin to cooperate on areas such as Syria. Still, it’s hard for anyone to get a read on Trump’s Russia strategy. Trump is loath to admit that Russia meddled in the U.S. election despite overwhelming evidence by his own intelligence agencies that it did. At the same time, Trump kicked out (albeit reluctantly) 60 Russian diplomats and closed a consulate in response to Moscow’s alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil. He also agreed to provide lethal weaponry to Ukraine to fight Russian-backed separatists in the east (a move supported by the Pentagon), and his administration has imposed a slew of tough sanctions against the Kremlin (albeit largely under pressure from Congress). The Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki, which followed the NATO summit in Brussels, further muddied the waters. Only translators were present with Trump during his two-hour sit-down with Putin, so no high-level officials know exactly what transpired during the tête-àtête. Critics argue that Mattis should have been in the room because of all the Russia-related national security
issues involved, from cyber hacks to nuclear weapons. The meeting supposedly resulted in agreements, but no details have surfaced. Mattis has long been clear that he views Russia as a geopolitical threat. Weeks before the Helsinki meeting, he warned that Putin seeks to “undermine America’s moral authority” and “shatter NATO.” “For the first time since World War II, Russia has been the nation that has redrawn international borders by force in Georgia and Ukraine while pursuing veto authority over their neighbors’ diplomatic, economic and security decisions,” he said. Trump, however, stunned allies with his deferential appearance next to Putin in Helsinki, where he sided with the Russian leader over his intelligence agencies’ conclusion that the Kremlin interfered in the U.S. election. The controversial performance came just days after Trump blasted NATO allies such as Germany for being captive to Russia. Once again, Mattis found himself in the role of peacemaker, putting a positive spin on the Helsinki meeting when asked by reporters whether the U.S. should hold more direct talks with the Russians. “It’s essential that leaders talk with one another,” Mattis said. “It’s most important that we talk with those countries that we have the largest disagreements with. I mean that’s how you repair those disagreements… I’ve always said diplomacy leads our foreign policy. This is diplomacy in action.” “Mattis has been remarkably successful in maintaining linkages with the allies despite skepticism by the White House,” said Mark Cancian, who served with Mattis in Iraq and is currently a senior adviser in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “For example, U.S. efforts in Eastern Europe, called the European Deterrence Initiative, have increased to $6.5 billion in the FY 2019 budget, even though there has been great concern about the level of contributions by the Europeans.” NATO allies have put their trust in Mattis despite worries not only over Trump’s embrace of Putin, but also his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and imposition of tariffs on European Union member states. But concerns are mounting that Mattis is not a strong enough voice in Trump’s ear, according to a July 9 Reuters article by Phil Stewart and Robin Emmott. But the biggest fear of all: a potential Mattis departure. “In an administration that has seen a high degree of turnover, former NATO official Alexander Vershbow said some of his European contacts ask him from time to time about the possibility that Mattis might leave the job,” Stewart and Emmott wrote. “That’s the nightmare scenario for the Europeans, that Mattis could depart,” Vershbow told Reuters.
REPORT CARD Many experts say Mattis has fared well in an exceedingly difficult position. The blunt-talking but generally press-averse Marine still appears to have the respect of the president, and if he disagrees with Trump’s calls, he refrains from commenting on it in public. SEE MAT T IS • PAGE 46
Europe | WD
The Power of Energy Critics of Nord Stream 2 Worry Pipeline Will Increase Europe’s Reliance on Russian Gas BY JOHN BRINKLEY
N
either hell nor high water nor Donald Trump will stop Germany from increasing its dependence on Russian natural gas. Russia already supplies at least 50 percent of Germany’s natural gas and it will supply as much as 80 percent after completion of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, expected in the fourth quarter of 2019. Nord Stream 2, which is to run alongside the existing 800-mile Nord Stream pipeline that transports gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, is controversial for reasons economic and geopolitical. It bypasses Central and Eastern European nations, depriving them of lucrative transit fees and leaving them vulnerable to gas shutoffs by Moscow. Critics say Nord Stream 2 will also leave the European Union overly reliant on Russia, which provides the bloc with roughly 40 percent of its natural gas imports. Norway and the Netherlands are Western Europe’s biggest producers of natural gas, but their supplies are running out, while demand for gas is on the rise. Russia, on the other hand, has huge natural gas reserves in Siberia. President Trump opposes completion of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, whose sole shareholder is Russian energy giant Gazprom. “Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive to Russia because it’s getting so much of its energy from Russia. So, we’re supposed to protect Germany but they’re getting their energy from Russia,” Trump said on July 11. He also wants Europeans to buy more natural gas from the United States. German Chancellor Angela Merkel countered that Nord Stream 2 is a sovereign economic decision removed from politics. From a financial standpoint, she’s right: Purchasing American liquefied national gas makes little sense because it is far more expensive than Russian gas. Supporters of Nord Stream 2 also point out that Germany’s close economic ties to Russia haven’t softened Merkel’s political resolve in response to Russian aggression. She has steadfastly upheld sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea, for example, even when they’ve hurt German business interests. On that note, Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, offered a subtle rebuke to Trump’s claim that she is captive to Russia. “I’ve experienced myself a part of Germany controlled by the Soviet Union, and I’m very happy today that we are united in freedom,” she said. But the EU is far from united on Nord Stream 2. Brussels has said the project goes against the bloc’s goal of diversifying its energy sources. Former President Barack Obama also criticized Nord
PHOTO: BY BAIR175 - OWN WORK, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CC BY-SA 3.0
Two pipes are welded together on the Castoro Sei vessel as part of the Nord Stream pipeline. Nord Stream 2 is to run alongside the existing 800-mile Nord Stream pipeline that transports gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
“
Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive to Russia because it’s getting so much of its energy from Russia. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
Stream 2, saying it would make Western Europe too dependent on Russia. “This doubling of one pipeline from one source, instead of creating multiple routes from multiple sources across that territory, does not appear to enhance Europe’s energy security,” former Deputy Energy Secretary Elizabeth SherwoodRandall said in March 2016. Poland, Belarus and Ukraine also oppose Nord Stream 2 because Russian gas pipelines traverse their territories en route to Western Europe and they’re afraid Russia will stop using them after Nord Stream 2 goes online. Russia pays those countries billions of euros per year in transit revenues. Those payments would stop if Russia were to stop using those pipes. On the flip side, Europe is Russia’s largest gas market, so cutting off supplies would cost Russia large amounts of money at a time when its coffers already have been depleted by Western
”
sanctions and lower oil prices. But Nord Stream 2 could insulate Russia from the economic pain of shutting pipelines in Eastern Europe, leaving countries like Ukraine out in the cold. And the Russians have shown that they are not above using their pipelines as instruments of political coercion. Gabriel Collins, an expert in international energy and environmental regulation at Rice University, said Russia had disrupted oil and gas supplies to its European neighbors at least 15 times during the past 25 years. “Russia does this to gain leverage over [its] neighbors and advance its strategic priorities,” Collins wrote in a July 2017 paper titled “Russia’s Use of the ‘Energy Weapon’ in Europe.” Ukraine has gotten the worst of it. In January 2009, Russia cut off almost all its gas exports to Europe, leaving people across the continent without heat. President Vladimir Putin said he had turned off the tap because Ukraine had
been siphoning gas from the pipeline that crosses its territory and not paying for it. Ukraine denied that. In less than a week between March and April 2014, the Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom raised the price of its gas deliveries to Ukraine from $268.50 per thousand cubic meters to $385.50, then to $485. This happened shortly after Russia invaded Crimea. Gazprom said it did so because Ukraine had not been paying its bills. “This rapid price increase was suspiciously timed — coming on the heels of Russia’s invasion of Crimea — and transcends the bounds of commercial normalcy,” Collins wrote. “I think when you’re looking at the Ukrainian position itself, an awful lot of that is also driven by fear of losing the transit rents that come when Russian gas crosses their territory on its way into Central and Western Europe,” Collins said in a phone interview. “You’re talking billions of euros per year worth of transit revenues, and that’s not something that they’re inclined to see go.” Putin said recently that Nord Stream 2 wouldn’t affect gas deliveries via the Ukraine pipeline. “There are some people you don’t SEE N OR D S T R EAM 2 • PAGE 11 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 9
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Nord Stream 2 CONTINUED • PAGE 9
take at their word and I would put President Putin right at the top of that list,” Collins said. For Germany, the reward of increased gas supplies outweighs the risk of Russia stopping the flow of that gas. “Germany is going to get all the tariff revenue,” said Amy Jaffe, an energy and environment expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “They’re going to be the hub where natural gas is going to trade in Europe. You have all these pipelines that end in Germany and then the Germans will be responsible for sending natural gas beyond Germany. They will have hub services, they’ll have the benefit of that to their economy. They can charge other people a fee for sending on the gas, and they’re taking that revenue away from Poland or Belarus or Ukraine, depending on how the thing plays out.” Ironically, these transit nations’ losses may not only be Germany’s gain, but Western Europe’s as well. With Germany at the helm, Nord Stream 2 could ensure a more stable flow of gas to Europe. That’s because Russia is far less likely to cut off gas supplies to Germany, which it relies on heavily for trade, than it is to shut down pipelines in antagonistic countries such as Ukraine. In addition, Western European countries have made adjustments to protect themselves from Russia’s duplicity, such as storing reserves of natural gas and developing alternative sources of energy among themselves. They “have the ability to trade electricity,
so maybe the French could sell you nuclear power over a wire that connects to one country or another. And also, you have a lot more renewable energy, which in the end is in competition with Russian gas and electricity,” Jaffe said. “So, Europe has definitely responded, and that response means that if the Germans get cut off, there will be these alternative avenues to get them increased supply to replace what they lost from Russia.” Trump has offered another alternate solution to Europe’s dependence on Russia for natural gas: He said Europe should become a “massive buyer” of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from the United States. That is unlikely. Importing U.S. LNG is almost twice as expensive as getting gas through a pipe from Russia. Gas has to be liquefied, shipped across the Atlantic, then de-liquefied at an LNG receiving terminal. Germany
doesn’t have one. In the first quarter of 2017, only 1 percent of Europe’s natural gas receipts came from the United States. Despite these economic realities, Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) recently introduced a bill that would slap mandatory sanctions on companies helping to build Nord Stream 2 (several private European firms are financing the project) and streamline U.S. LNG exports to NATO allies to strengthen Europe’s energy security. Outside of some environmental objections, however, Nord Stream 2 looks like a done deal. Germany has approved all permits for the project and construction is well underway. U.S. sanctions may be the only way to halt the project. Any such sanctions, however, would widen the rift between the U.S. and its European allies, especially after Trump’s controversial NATO summit where he called Europe a
“foe” and repeatedly disparaged Merkel while cozying up to Putin. At that summit, Trump also overstated Germany’s energy reliance on Russia, saying Germany gets “between 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline.” While oil and gas accounts for 60 percent of Germany’s energy consumption, it comes from a variety of sources, not only Russia, with the other 40 percent coming from coal, nuclear power and renewables. So, Russian oil and gas in fact accounts for about 20 percent of Germany’s total energy mix. Nevertheless, Germany is already the largest buyer of Russian gas, and Nord Stream 2 will significantly increase Western Europe’s energy reliance on Russia at the expense of transit countries in the East. The project “would dramatically change the gas supply map of Europe,” wrote Margarita Assenova, an associate scholar at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in the June 2018 report “Europe and Nord Stream 2.” “For the first time, Gazprom would have direct, unobstructed access for the majority of Russian natural gas exports to lucrative Western markets. By redirecting most of its gas exports to Germany, Russia would be able to bypass Ukraine and most of the Central and Eastern European countries that rely exclusively on Russian gas,” Assenova wrote. “I would say the president wasn’t 100 percent wrong” when he said Germany was captive to Russia, Jaffe told us. What he should have said is: “How is Germany going to ensure that those three countries [Poland, Belarus and Ukraine] are going to have a secure economic future if Germany takes away their tariff revenue?” WD John Brinkley is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 11
WD | Environment
The War Over Water Water Shortages, Intensified by Climate Change, Threaten Stability in World’s Hotspots BY RYAN R. MIGEED
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n 2015, the Obama administration identified climate change as a national security threat in its National Security Strategy (NSS). While the Trump administration removed that threat from its own NSS, a shortage of resources — especially clean drinking water — is a persistent problem in many of the world’s hotspots. That problem, exacerbated by climate change, has and will continue to cause internal and international conflicts, according to experts. For example, violence in Nigeria between settled farmers and cattle herders who travel seasonally for grazing land has claimed six times more lives than the terrorist group Boko Haram in the first half of 2018, according to a July 26 report by Alexis Akwagyiram for Reuters. The violence is “driven by competition over dwindling arable land” and a rapidly booming population, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,300 people between January and June this year, the article said. The land battles have taken on dangerous ethnic and religious overtones, with the semi-nomadic herders largely made up of Muslims, while Christians of various ethnicities account for the majority of farmers. The data comes from the International Crisis Group, which wrote in its report that the conflict’s roots lie partly “in climate-induced degradation of pasture.” “As drought and desertification have dried up springs and streams across Nigeria’s far northern Sahelian belt, large numbers of herders have had to search for alternative pastures and sources of water for their cattle,” the report says. The violence threatens to destabilize what is already an explosive security environment ahead of the country’s 2019 general elections. Globally, 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services and 2.1 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services, according to the World Bank, which noted that if current trends continue, the world will face a 40 percent shortfall of available water supplies by 2030. The effects will be felt from California — which is grappling with the worst wildfire in state history, fueled in part by parched conditions — to droughtplagued Cape Town, which earlier this year narrowly avoided “Day Zero,” the day when all water taps run dry. But wealth is a major factor in how people cope with these dwindling resources. The major drivers of the growing lack of access to water — exacerbated by reduced rainfall due to climate change — are population growth and poverty, according to Aaron Wolf, a professor at Oregon State University’s Water Resources Graduate Program. “People who aren’t in poverty can adapt to climate variability,” Wolf told The Diplomat. But in an interconnected world, the repercussions of extreme weather patterns will be felt by everyone, as potentially hundreds of millions of climate refugees flee to richer nations and the competition for scarce resources sparks conflicts that transcend borders. Some have even pointed to water shortages as a factor in Syria’s civil war and the rise of the Islamic State. “In Syria, a devastating drought beginning in 2006 forced many farmers to abandon their fields and migrate to urban centers,” Joshua Hammer reported for Smithsonian Magazine in June 2013. “You had a lot of angry, unemployed men helping to trigger a revolution,” Wolf told the magazine. Indeed, poor farming conditions in the region fos-
12 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
CREDIT: UN PHOTO / OLIVIER CHASSOT
A woman in northern Darfur walks toward a water distribution site led by the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in July 2009. Many experts say water scarcity has exacerbated or fueled conflicts in the world’s trouble spots, such as the Darfur region in Sudan.
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The most important thing that can be done is to promote … water-sharing agreements, so that when problems arise, they can be managed. AARON WOLF
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professor at Oregon State University’s Water Resources Graduate Program
tered the Islamic State’s early recruitment efforts, as Peter Schwartzstein reported for National Geographic last November. A few weeks after the winter rainfall came up short in 2009 in the Iraqi farming village of Shirqat, jihadist recruiters approached “the most shabbily dressed farmers” and promised them quick, easy money, according to Schwartzstein’s reporting. “With every flood or bout of extreme heat or cold, the jihadists would reappear, often supplementing their sales pitches with gifts. When a particularly vicious drought struck in 2010, the fifth in seven years, they doled out food baskets,” he wrote. As the cases of Iraq and Syria illustrate, environmental stresses often go hand in hand with sectarian tensions. In fact, the battle for precious water resources is largely taking place in regions that are already prone to sectarian and political fighting, namely the Middle East and Africa, adding another layer of instability to already volatile situations. That’s not to say competing interests can’t find common ground. The threat of water scarcity-induced
conflict is not necessarily a matter of the shortage itself, but a lack of agreement over how to share the water, Wolf told The Diplomat in a phone interview.
IMPORTANCE OF WATER TREATIES Researchers at Oregon State University compiled a database of every water-related interaction between two or more countries from 1948 to 2008, whether a conflict or cooperative effort. According to Wolf, the study found that regions with water-scarce environments were much more likely to cooperate if they have “formal treaties, informal working groups or generally warm relations.” In fact, the historical trend is toward more cooperation, not less. More countries have been signing treaties or informal agreements to share water in recent years than they have in the past. Those treaties have proven surprisingly resilient. As Wolf wrote in a 2009 report for World Politics Review (WPR), the Mekong Committee — which works with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to jointly manage their shared water resources, including the Mekong River — continued to meet and share data during the Vietnam War. Backchannel talks between Israel and Jordan over use of the Jordan River and its tributaries have continued from 1953 to the present day, despite the fact that the two countries did not sign an official peace treaty until 1994. “The Indus River Commission survived two wars between India and Pakistan. And all 10 of the countries that share the banks of the Nile are currently involved in negotiations over cooperative development of the basin,” Wolf wrote. “The most important thing that can be done is to promote the treaties, the water-sharing agreements, so that when problems arise, they can be managed,” Wolf
told us. For example, Wolf said, no one expects a conflict between the U.S. and Canada, which share the Columbia River basin — providing water to seven U.S. states and the Canadian province of British Columbia — because of generally good relations between Washington and Ottawa, and the 1964 Columbia River Treaty that ensures its equitable use. It is “unilateral actions to construct a dam or river diversion in the absence of a treaty [that are] highly destabilizing to a region,” Wolf wrote in his 2009 WPR article. That observation is borne out in long-simmering international water disputes that have recently reached a boiling point because of controversial decisions to build dams that could divert resources from one country to another.
OPENING THE FLOODGATES Ten states share the Nile River basin, but Ethiopia’s ambitious Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project, which is halfway completed, has caused an uproar in Egypt, where the Nile supplies nearly 85 percent of the country’s water for drinking, industry and farming. The dam is expected to more than double Ethiopia’s current electricity production — critical in a country where three-fourths of the population lacks access to electricity. But officials in Cairo worry the dam will severely reduce the river’s flow northward to Egypt. While former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted during the Arab Spring in 2011, said last year that he would have taken military action to destroy any dam Ethiopia built on the Nile, diplomatic negotiations between the two countries, along with Sudan, have made headway, especially under Ethiopia’s progressive new prime minister. But the $4 billion megaproject is still fraught with controversy. In July, the dam’s project manager, Semegnew Bekele, was found dead in his car in Addis Ababa, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head. Officials have not speculated about the cause while an investigation is underway. A similar dispute is brewing between India and Pakistan. Muhammad Daim Fazil, a faculty member at the University of Gujrat Sialkot Campus in Pakistan, argues in a March 2017 article that a “water war is in the making” after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision in 2016 to suspend meetings of the Indus Commission, which was established by the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. Indian officials have openly floated the idea of exiting the treaty altogether even though experts say it is essential to preventing water wars from erupting between the two archrivals. New Delhi’s suspension of talks was in retaliation for a terrorist attack on an Indian military base, which New Delhi says is proof that Islamabad needs to do more to rein in extremists on the border. But the attack and others like it may be factors themselves in the complex, cyclical strife over watersharing in the first place. India has constructed dozens of hydroelectric and irrigation projects, as well as larger dams, to support its rapidly
CREDIT: UN PHOTO / KIBAE PARK
Contaminated water fills the Karial slum in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka in June 2010. According to the World Health Organization, contaminated water is the cause of 5 million deaths every year.
growing population. Pakistani politicians have long blamed India for Pakistan’s water shortages, and in recent years, militant groups have taken matters into their own hands. “Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Pakistani militant group allegedly responsible for the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, even accused India of ‘water terrorism,’” according to a 2011 report by William Wheeler for National Geographic News. At the time of the controversial move to suspend water talks, Modi said, “Water that belongs to India cannot be allowed to go to Pakistan.” The rhetoric has been particularly alarming for Islamabad because New Delhi controls the upstream waters of the Indus River — which is Pakistan’s primary source of freshwater and sustains its agricultural industry — and could shut off flow to Pakistan with dams and hydroelectric projects. Even if India and Pakistan don’t directly clash over the Indus River dispute, violence could break out within Pakistan as dwindling water supplies are diverted to certain communities over others, potentially triggering sectarian fighting in the already-volatile, nuclear-armed nation. There are 54 such states around the world whose territory is entirely or mostly within international water basins, making them essentially dependent on their neighbors for sharing water, according to Wolf. Even the water shortages in Syria and Iraq are linked to Turkey’s dam and hydropower construction. Since 1975, Turkey’s decades-long dam projects at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have cut water flow to Iraq by 80 percent and to Syria by 40 percent, according to Hammer’s reporting. But even where water treaties do exist, they are dependent on the time period in which they were written.
ADAPTING TO CHANGE “The agreements don’t reflect changing conditions,” said Sherri
Goodman, who served as America’s first deputy undersecretary of defense specializing in environmental security from 1993 to 2001 and is currently a senior fellow at the Wilson Center. “Often, there’s been a history of mismanagement” of water resources, Goodman said. “And then recently, climate change has created more complications” like increased drought. Population growth is also a factor putting increased stress on water supplies. According to the World Economic Forum, the world’s fastest-growing populations are in the Middle East and Africa, where water shortages are already acute. “Population growth, waves of refugees and drought have turned Jordan [into] one of the water-poorest countries on earth. Therefore, while water scarcity is very real, whether the situation turns into crisis and conflict often depends on other factors,” said Gidon Bromberg, who co-founded and co-directs EcoPeace Middle East. EcoPeace Middle East, a nongovernmental organization, works with Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians to achieve sustainable development and peace in the region, promoting solutions to water scarcity. It is also an illustration in itself of how conditions on the ground can change. When the organization was initially established in 1994, the year that Israel and Jordan signed their peace treaty, “our focus was on the environment out of concern that peace would lead to overdevelopment,” Bromberg told The Diplomat. “Since the Second Intifada, our focus has been to use the common concerns related to our shared environment as a means to help solve the conflict and build trust,” he said. Water treaties can be one solution to managing water shortages, but in Goodman’s view, they must be adaptable to changing realities on the ground.
SOLUTIONS TO WATER SCARCITY Another solution is desalination, a process of straining the salt out of saltwater to make it suitable for drinking or irrigation purposes. The development of desalination was pioneered by Israel over the last decade as it sought relief from one of the region’s worst droughts on record. Israel now gets 55 percent of its domestic water from desalination — and even has a surplus, according to Rowan Jacobsen in a July 2016 report for Scientific American. This has helped transform a country once threatened by drought into a regional “water superpower,” in the words of Haim Gvirtzman, a hydrogeologist at the Hebrew University. The surplus allowed Israel to sell the excess to its neighbor. In a 2013 water-swap agreement, Israel agreed to sell Jordan a large quantity of water from the Sea of Galilee at what in Israel is considered a discounted rate, according to a report by Bromberg and Giulia Giordano of EcoPeace Middle East. Selling water at a discounted rate can create a cooperative relationship, “associated with a political stability dividend,” the report suggests. But Israel did not achieve a surplus from desalination alone. The state ran national campaigns encouraging citizens to conserve and reuse water, and invested in wastewater management and recycling. Israeli entrepreneurs also invented drip irrigation, which uses a network of pipes to drip only the necessary amounts of water onto crops’ roots rather than the traditional farming method of flooding the fields with large amounts of water, much of which is wasted, as reported by Ruth Schuster for Haaretz. Experts speaking at a June 1 Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) panel on the link between water scarcity and security agreed that a holistic approach is necessary — one that involves both new innovations and simple solutions, such as using less
water. Panelists mentioned various new technologies such as waterless toilets being pioneered by the Gates Foundation and advanced software for municipal governments to monitor and cut down on water leakage. “When I was in Senegal, I saw something called an omni processor which essentially … burns sewage to create fresh water and then ash, which is used as a fertilizer,” said Luke Wilson, deputy director and co-founder of the Center for Water Security and Cooperation. “But a lot of it is local. You have to look at the local level, and I think that’s where you see these ideas of how do we implement these technologies,” added Wilson, who noted that desalinization alone is often a “quick fix.” Indeed, desalination requires high energy use, which in turn requires water. And if the process relies on fossil fuels, it releases more greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately contributing to climate change. “While desalination is a necessity, it is only part of the solution to water scarcity,” Bromberg told The Diplomat. “Desalination should be the last choice and should build on investments in best water practices including high-efficiency, reuse and appropriate water pricing.” Bromberg cautioned that desalination should be powered by renewable energy sources, such as solar power, to counterbalance the heavy cost of energy it requires. In finding and implementing solutions to water scarcity, the U.S. can be a key partner. “The U.S. has long played the important role of setting the conditions for parties at the subnational and national level to develop cooperative practices,” Goodman told us. One area where the U.S. can contribute is by sharing its science and technology capabilities, and its large amount of data resources, she said. The U.S. has also historically played an important role in working with the different countries along the Nile River basin to encourage watermanagement cooperation, Goodman noted. “In my view, the U.S. should continue to show that leadership to bring these parties together and address the issues associated with building [the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam],” Goodman said. International cooperation and sound domestic policies are essential to averting water-related crises, although oftentimes it takes a disaster to serve as a wakeup call. This year, Cape Town, South Africa, became the first major city in the world to face the possibility of “Day Zero,” when a government is forced to shut off taps to homes and businesses because water reservoirs have been depleted. “For months, citizens have been urged to consume less, but more than half of residents ignored those volunteer restrictions,” wrote Craig Welch in a March 5, 2018, article for National Geographic. Cape Town illustrates the difficulties of enforcing water usage, as well as the disparities between the environmental have and have-nots. At the CFR discussion, Joshua Busby of the University of Texas at Austin SEE WAT ER • PAGE 16
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WD | Bus iness
Accelerating Social Change At D.C. Business Incubator, Saudi Women Startups Shatter Stereotypes BY KARIN ZEITVOGEL
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unners say that if you want to really get to know a neighborhood, get lost running in it. (This works as long as you find your way back to where you started.) Foodies say the best way to get to know a place is to eat where the locals eat. And the director of policy and international programs at D.C. business incubator Halcyon, Josh Mandell, says if you want to really learn about a country, meet that country’s entrepreneurs. That point was illustrated perfectly at the Georgetown-based Halcyon Incubator in the first two weeks of August, when Halcyon’s red brick building became home to 16 young social entrepreneurs from Saudi Arabia. The Saudi cohort was the second speed-dating-for-entrepreneurs group to pass through Halcyon this summer, and the incubator’s first partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said Mandell. The seven ventures (see related sidebar) that ended up coming to Washington were identified through a partnership Halcyon has established with Taibah PHOTO: KARIN ZEITVOGEL University in Medina. “Taibah University has scores of startups and young en- LabOnClick, a digital platform that aims to streamline communication between dentists and dental lab technicians, was greeted enthusiastically trepreneurs so we formed a partnership by attendees at a pitch event at Halcyon House in Washington, D.C., in August 2018. with them, developed a selection process and identified seven companies that we and Saudi Arabia, and especially about thought would be a good match with women,” she said. “I hope we’ll be able to the Halcyon Incubator,” said Mandell. fix these ideas in lots of the people we’ve “We’re delighted that it ended up being a met.” cohort of all women founders.” For instance, she said, one of the adJOSH MANDELL For a fortnight, the women (and one visers she met in Washington asked her man) lived, breathed and dreamed their director of policy and international programs at the Halcyon Incubator if she could get a loan from a bank, or if ideas, backed by Halcyon, a nonprofit only her husband could. “I was like,” she founded to help early-stage entrepreexplained, using expressions she picked neurs, artists and innovators realize their their pitches to a full house, including questions and are so interested and want up during previous visits to the U.S. ventures and promote the social good. Michael Ready of George Hacks, a group to learn as much as they can. And a lot of and time spent in Australia, “Of course The Saudi cohort forged ties with an ar- that organizes hackathons at the George the myths around Saudi women, not be- not. Anyone can get a loan. Your gender ing afforded all of the opportunities they doesn’t matter, as long as you match the ray of advisers, mentors and, inshallah, Washington University (GW). “We’re hosting the women tomorrow should, have not been apparent to me at criteria.’” investors who’d give them money, and they learned how to transform their na- at the GW innovation center as a sort all since I’ve been with them.” Some of those misconceptions, howA dynamic mother of three with a ever, are rooted in reality, particularly scent projects into sustainable, scalable of breaking of the ice between the two countries and establishing relationships fourth on the way, Heba Zahid is also given Saudi Arabia’s abysmal track rebusinesses. Every day was packed to the rafters with them,” Ready told The Washington an assistant professor at the faculty of cord on women’s rights. In the conservawith activities. A typical day kicked off Diplomat. “We’ll try to find the resources applied medical science at Taibah Uni- tive Sunni kingdom, women’s lives are a one-hour breakfast talk by an expert in D.C. to help them start their ventures versity and does research on breast can- essentially dictated by a guardianship on topics like branding, marketing and and to connect them with the right peo- cer. She was part of a husband-and-wife system, whereby their male guardian team that wants to promote recycling in (husband, father, brother, etc.) controls communications. There were discus- ple to grow their mission.” At the same time the Saudi Arabia. She said the most impor- whether they can marry, divorce, obtain sions on sales, entrepreneurs developed tant lesson she learned during her two a passport, rent an apartment or file a business planning, their business ideas and weeks at Halcyon was that you can’t do legal complaint, among other major life team building, neALSO SEE: contacts, and became everything by yourself. gotiations, compadecisions. Women dress according to IsSaudi Women Take “I want to be an entrepreneur. I want lamic law, wearing an abaya (long cloak) better acquainted with ny finances and inAmerica, they were also to have a happy family. I want to be a pro- and head covering, and are restricted tellectual property. Halting Steps Forward helping America become fessor at the university because I love my from interacting with men in public, There were visits PAGE 16 better acquainted with job. I want to continue to do cancer re- which is why universities, parks and othto organizations search. The people I met here taught me er public spaces are usually segregated. Saudi Arabia. around Washing“There were myths to that time management, asking for help ton, such as the Crown Prince Mohammed bin National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Com- be dispelled on both sides,” said Mandell. when you need it and delegating to other Salman, 32, has embarked on an ambimerce, where the businesswomen held “We expected them to be very conserva- people are all key to success,” said Zahid. tious modernization effort to moderate Zahid also hoped she and the other the role of Islam in Saudi society. He a two-hour roundtable with U.S. CEOs tive and a little reserved, for instance, but who do business in the Middle East, they’re outgoing, dynamic, creative, very women entrepreneurs will help to dispel won plaudits last year for finally allowand Middle East CEOs who do business inquisitive, very engaged with everyone some of the myths about Saudi women ing women to drive. But he’s also jailed in the U.S. On the second to last day of we introduce them to. I have to cut off in general. “There are a lot of misunSEE S AU DI W OMEN • PAGE 16 their stay in D.C., the women presented every session because they have so many derstandings about the Middle East
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14 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
There were myths to be dispelled on both sides.
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SIDEBAR
Saudi Ventures at Halcyon B
itGo was inspired by the fact that kids spent a lot of time playing online games and grownups spend an almost equal amount of time trying to get them to stop. Instead of continuing this futile exercise, BitGo gamifies community service, allowing players to be the hero in a videogame that shows them the benefits of helping their communities. “By playing the game with a personalized avatar and doing community services in the gaming world, you will soon be immersed in doing good and finding happiness in helping people you care for,” co-founders Asmaa AbdelMohsen Alabdallah, Zainab Hawsa and Nadaa Muhammad Samman say. It makes video games “more than a game,” they say. Ebtehal Nayef AlMohammadi founded Exteer after being told one too many times by a prospective employer that she needed experience to get a job. “I’d just finished university, so how could I have experience? I stopped looking for work and set about trying to solve this problem.” The result was Exteer, which matches job seekers with certain talents and companies that can give them the experience to get a job in their chosen field. The services provided by the startup could be expanded to include job placement and recruitment. Husband-and-wife team Heba Zahid and Hamza Moshrif founded GreenDesert to encourage the people of Saudi Arabia to recycle. “We don’t have the culture to do that,” said Zahid. “If you want to recycle cans, you have to collect them and take them somewhere. In some Saudi cities, that isn’t even possible.
So we had the idea of launching an app or a website to encourage people to recycle. When you recycle something, you’ll get rewards that you can exchange in pharmacies or grocery stores or cinemas. We want to partner with shops and big companies whose stuff we use on a daily basis.” LabOnClick is a digital platform that aims to streamline communication between dentists and dental lab technicians. “We have around 9,000 dentists in Saudi Arabia and only 80 dental labs,” LabOnClick co-founder Aliyaa Zaidan told The Washington Diplomat. “With this platform we hope to find ways to communicate with dental labs all over the world, to reduce mistakes that arise from miscommunication between dentists and labs, and possibly to allow patients to come to the dentist fewer times to have all their work done. Dentists will also be able to use the app to choose which lab they want to work with, which will help dentists in rural areas.” Medvation was created to help kids see their ideas come to fruition, founder Sakhaa Bandar Alsaedi says. “It’s an online, interactive educational platform to teach kids everything new in AI, robotics and 3D printing. If you teach kids to think and invent something, you teach them to solve problems,” she said. The platform also sells the learning/creation tools that teachers and students need and is planning to launch a kind of food truck for innovation, a mobile “library” where kids and their families can shop for tools and kits and take part in workshops. Medvation already has 150 clients.
PHOTO: KARIN ZEITVOGEL
Heba Zahid and her husband Hamza Moshrif present their startup project, GreenDesert, to an audience at the Halcyon Incubator in Washington, D.C. GreenDesert seeks to encourage Saudis to recycle.
Taibah VR co-founders Reem Mohammad, Samar Rashed and Seham AbdulJalil spotted a business opportunity in the millions of people who visit Islam’s second holiest city, Medina, every year to participate in the pilgrimage known as the Hajj. They are looking for funding to develop a virtual reality (VR) headset that visitors can rent to learn about the history of the city and Islam. Currently, Medina has just one museum where the history of the city is presented using static models. “We asked some visitors if there were VR glasses and they no longer needed to do research about Medina,
would they use them. They were very excited and encouraged us to launch.” Wahedoon is an app that helps autistic children improve their communication skills through games and educational activities. It’s currently the only app in Arabic in Saudi Arabia. Co-founder Nouf Khalid Hammad, along with Raghad Khalid Hammad, started the venture to help the more than 500,000 children with autism in Saudi Arabia. A prototype is already on the market and has been very successful. — Karin Zeitvogel
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Saudi Women CONTINUED • PAGE 14
several prominent women’s rights activists who campaigned for the ban to be lifted. And when Canada criticized the imprisonments, the kingdom expelled the country’s ambassador in Riyadh and froze trade and investment deals with Ottawa, signaling to the world that Prince Mohammed’s reforms have their limits (also see related sidebar). Despite the gender disparities not only in Saudi Arabia but throughout the Middle East, women in the region have, in fact, been able to make a deeper mark in the startup world than their U.S. counterparts. One in three startups in the Arab world is founded or led by women, a higher percentage than in Silicon Valley, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) says in a report published earlier this year. In 2013, 35 percent of entrepreneurs in the Middle East were women, compared with 10 percent worldwide, according to an article in The Economist magazine. And according to the 2016/17 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report, published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa are 60 percent more likely than their male counterparts to offer innovative solutions and about 30 percent more likely to have an international reach. Young women in the Arab world lead
LEARN MORE: More information is available at https:// halcyonhouse.org/incubator/ selection-criteria-and-process.
startups in tech, finance and entertainment, and many women-led startups are involved in social entrepreneurship, the report says. One reason for this is that “with the tech industry still relatively new in the Arab world, there is no legacy of it being a maledominated field,” says the IFC report. Another reason is access to digital platforms, which means women can launch a business from home and don’t have to worry about cultural constraints, transportation, child care, discrimination and social censure, the report notes. Halcyon actively seeks out social ventures, which Mandell defines as those that weave their social impact throughout their business plan. “These are companies whose main ideas are transformative, that improve society, whether in education, health, agribusiness, energy,” he said. “Most if not all of the women’s ventures are social enterprises in every sense. We teach them to think much bigger, so their enterprises can have a global impact.” The two-week intensive program that the Saudi women attended is one of two summer programs run by Halcyon. A group of South Korean entrepreneurs had taken part in a similar two-week program just prior to the Saudis. But Halcyon Incubator’s bread and butter is its 18-month fellowship, which offers a diverse cohort of fellows free residency and workspace, mentorship, leadership coaching, support from business consultants and a stipend to help turn their entrepreneurial vision into reality. In the competitive admissions process for the fellowship, Halcyon seeks “innovative social ventures that sell a core product or service to achieve impact,” and that are scalable. Applications for next year’s fellowship opened on Aug. 15 and close on Oct. 10, with pitch day held on Nov. 13. WD Karin Zeitvogel (@Zeitvogel) is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
SIDEBAR
Saudi Women Take Halting Steps Forward I
n 2004, nearly eight in 10 Ph.D.s awarded annually in Saudi Arabia went to women, and by some counts (those that included women-only colleges), women made up 75 percent of students in the kingdom, writes Eleanor Abdella Doumato in a chapter on Saudi Arabia in the 2010 book “Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance.” These achievements came despite the fact that “the Basic Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not guarantee gender equality,” Doumato writes. “To the contrary, gender inequality is built into Saudi Arabia’s governmental and social structures, and is integral to the country’s state-supported interpretation of Islam, which is derived from a literal reading of the Koran and Sunna.” Things are changing, but haltingly. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the first in line to the throne, loosened restrictions on women’s dress, expanded their role in the workforce and even allowed them to drive. The young prince said on “60 Minutes” in March that women are equal to men. Bin Salman is also steeped in entrepreneurship and business. Before he became involved in the government, he established several companies. He served as secretary-general of the Riyadh
Water CONTINUED • PAGE 13
noted that city officials had to make “difficult tradeoffs” — for example, diverting shrinking water supplies from poorer neighborhoods to wine-producing areas outside the city to keep the lucrative wine industry, which brings in much-needed foreign revenues, alive. Fellow panelist Luke Wilson also pointed out that Cape Town’s wealthier citizens were able to drill wells and tap the city’s aquifer. “But the informal settlements, the poor in the city, were still left behind” — despite laws mandating that water be equally distributed. Wilson said enforcing those laws and getting ahead of water crises are key to preventing them in the first place. “We keep getting these wakeup calls and we’re not taking advantage of them,” he warned. By announcing that Day Zero was a real possibility, Cape Town officials were finally able to spur citizens to conserve water. “Capetonians started showering standing over buckets to catch and re-use that water, recycling washing machine water, and limiting loo flushes to once a day,” Krista Mahr reported May 8 for The Guardian. Ultimately, though, above-average rainfall helped the city avert, or rather postpone, disaster, with Cape Town’s “Day Zero” pushed back to
CREDIT: UN PHOTO / HARANDANE DICKO
The U.N. stabilization in Mali, which has been plagued by extremist violence, completed a project in 2017 to bring water to two villages near Timbuktu. The villages had experienced recurrent problems accessing drinking water for the villagers and their animals.
mid-2019. Now, environmentalists wonder if officials have learned their lesson. The city’s shortage of water was driven in part by climate change, which officials did not take into account. Instead, they assumed rainfall patterns would remain relatively stable, or at least not change too quickly, according to Welch. But then came three straight years of drought. If drought conditions persist into next year, Cape Town could find itself right where it started. And if the doomsday scenario of zero water becomes a reality, there’s no telling what will happen in a city of 4 million people that remains deeply divided by the legacy of apartheid and economic inequality.
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CLIMATE CHANGE AS ‘THREAT MULTIPLIER’ Goodman is best known for coining the phrase “threat multiplier” in 2006 to help military planners understand how climate change affects relations between states, alters the “threat landscape” and, thus, plays a part in military readiness. “[Climate change] adds an additional level of instability in any given situation,” Goodman told The Diplomat. That thinking has largely been adopted by the Pentagon. In 2010, the U.S. military’s Quadrennial Defense Review called climate change “an accelerant of instability or conflict,” the first time it identified climate change
Competitive Council, as special adviser to the chairman of the board for the King Abdulaziz Foundation and member of the board of trustees for the Albir Society. In 2013, the prince was named personality of the year by Forbes Middle East for supporting Saudi youth and their development through the MiSK Foundation, a nonprofit that, among other things, develops startups in the country through incubators. In spite of the progress that’s been seen recently in Saudi Arabia, constraining laws still affect women, and Human Rights Watch said in a report in 2018 that Saudi authorities have “stepped up the arrests, prosecutions and convictions of peaceful dissident writers and human rights advocates” protesting some of those laws. Among those detained at the end of July are women’s rights activists Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah, both of whom have challenged Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system and had pressed for women to be allowed to drive. A tweet by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland decrying the arrest of Badawi, who has Canadian citizenship, led to a diplomatic rift between the Saudis and Canadians that, at the time of this writing, showed no signs of being resolved. — Karin Zeitvogel
as a national security threat. Examples of the effects of climate change on the U.S. military abound. As drought hit Afghanistan in 2006, where U.S. troops were fighting the Taliban, “one soldier was killed for every 24 convoys to resupply fuel or water,” according to a November 2015 article by Dan Vergano for BuzzFeed. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Houston, Texas, “the National Guard had to be mobilized to aid in the humanitarian efforts, diverting resources from other national security priorities,” as previously reported in The Diplomat. In both cases, U.S. forces were left vulnerable due to extreme weather conditions. Even if clashes break out in other nations where American troops aren’t present, the U.S. could find itself sucked into a war if the clashes spiral out of control. In South Asia, for example, the headwaters of the Indus River originate in the disputed region of Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim as part of their territory. But the waters are fed by glaciers in the Himalayan Mountains. Those glaciers regulate the Indus River’s flow, “acting as a natural water storage tank that freezes precipitation in winter and releases it as meltwater in the summer,” according to Wheeler’s report for National Geographic. Faster melting of the glaciers due to climate change means more severe flooding in the short term and less water in the long term, because
the glaciers cannot produce more water than what they store naturally. A reduced flow of the Indus River to Pakistan will only exacerbate the political animosity that already exists over Kashmir and play into Pakistani politicians’ claims that India is responsible for blocking water flow to Pakistan. The region is “of great concern,” Goodman said, because “Pakistan is a nuclear-armed, unstable country already, now plagued by increasing floods, melting Himalayan glaciers, changing precipitation patterns and historically has also suffered from mismanagement in water practices, particularly in the agriculture sector.” India and Pakistan have already fought three wars over Kashmir. The shrinking of the glaciers that feed their shared water source could be the cause of a fourth. And any conflict between two nuclear-armed enemies could easily spill far beyond their own borders. That’s why Wilson says water scarcity, no matter where it happens, is everyone’s concern. “Every aspect of human life is connected in one way or another to water. Economics, every product that is made, relies on water. Every watt of energy relies on water…. Every health installation relies on water. Every piece of food relies on water,” he said. “So every aspect of our lives is dependent on water.” WD Ryan R. Migeed (@RyanMigeed) is a freelance writer based in Boston.
Cover Profile | WD
Waiting for Democracy Military Junta in Thailand Promises Elections While Consolidating Its Power BY LARRY LUXNER
W
hen it comes to democracy, Asia — especially South and Southeast Asia — can stand tall. In 2015, Nepal adopted a new federal constitution, ending a decades-long insurgency by Maoist rebels. The neighboring Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan replaced its absolute monarchy with a constitutional monarchy in 2008. Indonesia, Malaysia and to a degree Vietnam have all adopted democratic forms, and even the repressive military regime in Myanmar managed to organize multiparty elections in 2015 — its first in decades. But the Kingdom of Thailand is regressing. Ever since the army overthrew the civilian government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on May 22, 2014, and suspended the Thai constitution following months of violent street protests, a military dictatorship has been running the country. And almost since the beginning, the ruling junta — officially called the National Council for Peace and Order — has been promising that general elections would be held, only to repeatedly push back the date of said elections.
ALSO SEE: Thailand’s Laem Chabang Aims to Become One of Southeast Asia’s Busiest Ports PAGE 19 In late June, Thailand’s deputy prime minister, Wissanu Krea-ngam, announced yet another delay, indicating that voting would actually take place some time between Feb. 24 and May 5 of next year. Meanwhile, the current ban on political activity will be relaxed in September to let legally registered parties prepare for the 2019 election. “The most important thing is to look forward,” said Virachai Plasai, Thailand’s envoy to the United States. “Technical reasons related to promulgations of laws and regulations have delayed the process, but the current government has been following a road map, and at the end of this road map there will be a free and fair election.” Plasai, 57, has been ambassador here for half a year now. Interviewed by The Washington Diplomat at his official residence on Decatur Place, he seemed happy to discuss the pending return of democracy to Thailand. “People are starting to get excited about having the opportunity to cast their vote again,” he said. “In March, when the government opened up registration, nearly 100 parties registered to
participate — some old faces, but also some new ones too.” A native of Bangkok, Plasai won a government scholarship to study at the University of Paris on the condition he come back and work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After earning his law degree in 1986, he did just that, returning to represent the Thai government in a number of high-profile legal cases, and serving as a panelist and arbitrator at the World Trade Organization. He also served as Thailand’s ambassador to the Netherlands and its permanent representative to the United Nations in New York before taking up his current assignment in Washington. Plasai’s first official act, which took place April 23 — his first day on the job — was to host 50 dinner guests at the St. Regis Hotel. The event was sponsored by Thailand’s Prince Mahidol Award Foundation, which had just bestowed a $100,000 prize on a division of the National of Institutes of Health for its work on the Human Genome Project. In our interview, Plasai emphasized the enduring “excellent relations” between Thailand and the United States. The 200 years of friendship date back to an Aug. 15, 1818, letter written by Phaja Surivongmontri to then-President James Monroe. That was the year Capt. Stephen Williams arrived in Bangkok after a year-long journey from Boston, seeking to buy sugar. The letter proposed continued trade, contact and cooperation — and eventually resulted PHOTO: LAWRENCE RUGGERI
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This government came in with a clear purpose from day one: to return to democracy. It’s like if you take a four-hour trip to New York that turns out to be six hours. But you’re on that road to New York and you eventually arrive there. VIRACHAI PLASAI ambassador of Thailand to the United States
in the 1833 Treaty of Amity establishing formal diplomatic relations between the two countries. “Our American friends value democracy very highly, which we understand. So they have expressed concern [about our election process], and as friends, we understand that,” the ambassador said. “It’s been clear to everybody that this government is keeping its word. For the last two or three years, we’ve been laying down the new legal foundations for what we think should bring about a better form of democracy more suited to Thai culture.”
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LITTLE TOLERANCE FOR DISSENT
Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand — a little larger than California — is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Its 69 million inhabitants make it the 20thmost populous nation in the world, and the fourth-most populous in the 10-member ASEAN bloc after Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam (see related sidebar “ASEAN Cultural Center: An Unusual Tourist Attraction in Bangkok”).
Thailand is also a newly industrialized country with exports of cars, trucks, auto parts, electronics, machinery, rice, processed foods and other goods accounting for more than 70 percent of its $450 billion economy. Its annual percapita GDP of around $6,000 and its heavily developed infrastructure rank favorably compared to nearby Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. Yet the concept of democracy is a relatively new development for this ancient Buddhist kingdom, which has been ruled as a monarchy since the Phra Ruang dynasty of the 13th century. But the ambassador insists that the issue of Thailand’s bumpy road to democracy isn’t its monarchy but rather its cultural beliefs. “We have been an independent people for thousands of years,” he said. “This has nothing to do with the monarchy. It has to do with culture and basic thinking, the Thai way of life, which in many respects are not compatible with democracy. Our individualistic, Buddhist approach goes against the basic idea of democracy, of collective responsibility SEE T HAILAN D • PAGE 18 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 17
PHOTO: BY MAREK SLUSARCZYK, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CC BY 3.0
Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, a representation of the 1932 Constitution, sits on top of two golden offering bowls above a turret. Since 1932, Thailand has gone through 25 general elections, 19 coups d’état and 20 constitutions.
Thailand CONTINUED • PAGE 17
and respecting majority rule.” To prove his point, Plasai cited the Netherlands, where he lived for six years. The Dutch have a king who presides over one of the world’s wealthiest and most advanced democracies. “In our culture, we tend to accept and tolerate foreigners. We are a culture of moderation and tolerance,” he said, noting that Thailand established its first overseas embassy in 1608, in the Netherlands. “Democracy is something that we imported from the West, but it’s not homegrown,” he added. “There is no doubt that most Thais now believe this is the best form of governance. But since this is an imported concept, it needs to be adapted to local conditions. We’ve been trying to do this for nearly 80 years, and still we haven’t found a sweet spot.” Indeed it hasn’t. Since 1932, the country has gone through 25 general elections, 19 coups d’état and 20 constitutions. And while Thais may be accepting of foreigners, the current dictatorship has little tolerance for dissent at home — especially among supporters of the Shinawatra family dynasty. Those supporters tend to come from poorer rural areas in the north and east who often complain of marginalization by the Bangkok political and military elite. Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire telecommunications magnate, democratically came to power as prime minister in 2001 on a populist platform, pledging to reduce poverty, expand infrastructure, health care and education, and take on the establishment. He was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2005 by his base — mostly farmers and the working class — but was accused of corruption, abuse of power and autocratic backsliding. Mass protests erupted by so-
PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER
A woman scavenges for clams along a beach near Laem Chabang.
PHOTO: BY TAKEAWAY - SELF-PHOTOGRAPHED, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CC BY-SA 4.0
called “yellow shirts” made up largely of royalists, ultranationalists and the urban middle class who opposed Thaksin’s rule. After the uprising, the military ousted Thaksin, who now lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai. But in 2011, his sister Yingluck was elected prime minister. The political establishment saw Yingluck as a proxy for her deposed brother and she, too, was ousted by the military in 2014 and fled the country. She was also found guilty of mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme that cost the government billions of dollars and would face jail time if she ever returned to Thailand. Tens of thousands of “red shirts” — Thais who voted for the Shinawatras — began turning out to protest the military coups and judicial rulings. Years of titfor-tat protests between the red shirts and yellow shirts resulted in sporadic violence and crippled Bangkok, culminating in the 2014 military takeover. Since then, the junta has maintained an iron grip on power, stifling dissent and firmly entrenching itself in everyday Thai life. But tensions still percolate
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PHOTO: MICHELLE MARIA / PIXABAY
The city of Chiang Mai is a center of Buddhism and culture in northern Thailand.
Agriculture forms the backbone of Thailand’s economy, employing roughly half of the workforce. Above, farmers harvest rice in Chiang Mai province.
PHOTO: BY TAKEAWAY - OWN WORK, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CC BY-SA 3.0
ALSO SEE: ASEAN Cultural Center: Unusual Tourist Attraction in Bangkok PAGE 20 between the Bangkok establishment and supporters of the Shinawatras, revealing the country’s deep-seated class divisions. Earlier this year, the fugitive brother and sister were spotted in Singapore, and reports have surfaced that Thaksin is calling for unity among his banned Pheu Thai Party ahead of potential elections in 2019. Pheu Thai Party members have begun registering to campaign in those elections,
but the junta has cemented its control over future governments through a new constitution, and it is likely to stamp out any resurgence of the Shinawatras’ dominance over Thai politics. While support for the Shinawatras still runs high, in many circles, the military remains popular as well for restoring order and reviving an economy battered by protests that deprived it of muchneeded foreign revenue. For other Thais, fatigued by years
PHOTO: BY USER:DILIFF - OWN WORK, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CC BY-SA 3.0
Above, the BTS Skytrain passes through Sathon, the business district of Bangkok, Thailand’s largest commercial and financial center. The Thai capital was rocked by years of protests between so-called “yellow shirts” who supported the military coup against former Prime Ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck, and “red shirts” who had voted for the Shinawatras. At left, red shirt protesters hold a mass rally at the Ratchaprasong intersection in downtown Bangkok in 2010 to mark Thaksin’s ouster four years earlier.
of mass demonstrations that paralyzed their country, they have begrudgingly accepted the junta’s clampdown as a necessary evil. Ever since the 2014 coup, campaigning and political gatherings of more than five people have been illegal. There have been intermittent demonstrations, although protesters — generally university students — are usually outnumbered by police officers in black uniforms wielding batons, pepper spray and tear gas. Amnesty International, in a recent report titled “They Cannot Keep Us Quiet,” criticized Thai authorities, and specifically the National Council for Peace and Order, for unleashing a “systematic crackdown” on anyone who disagrees with the regime. “Authorities continue to flagrantly use deeply repressive laws and decrees to target human rights defenders, activists and political opponents peacefully exercising their
human rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly,” said the Londonbased nonprofit. “These laws must be lifted without delay.”
‘WORK IN PROGRESS’ Plasai defended the current situation by urging patience and civility following the promulgation of a new interim constitution in 2017. “You have to distinguish between two things. The first is violation of existing laws, and you have to deal with that, because otherwise there is no rule of law. On the other hand is the genuine expression of opinions and views, which is guaranteed by the new constitution,” he said. “Sometimes, people try to blur these and make the two overlap. And sometimes they do overlap, but not all the time.” An example of this gray area is criticism of a government action backed by inac-
curate information, which is itself a violation of existing law. “We see this as a work in progress,” said the ambassador. “This government came in with a clear purpose from day one: to return to democracy. It’s like if you take a four-hour trip to New York that turns out to be six hours. But you’re on that road to New York and you eventually arrive there.” There should be absolutely no doubt, he assured this reporter, that “if we meet again this time next year, by then we will have a new government. These technical delays are in order to lay down the new legal foundation, which in my view should do the job.” That’s because “it provides for political and constitutional solutions to many of the impasses that we found ourselves in before the coup,” said Plasai, suggesting that violence erupted because those solutions were simply lacking. “For example, it’ll be possible for the new parliament to vote for somebody to become prime minister without having to go through another election, which is timely and costly.” Yet an unelected Senate and other elements of the new constitution “lay the foundations for prolonged military control, even if the junta fulfills its promise to hold elections,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in its latest report on Thailand. It also warns that Thailand is still in crisis four years after the coup. “The military has banned political activity and public assembly, enforced media censorship, arbitrarily arrested dissidents, and detained civilians in military facilities. Authorities have used lese majeste [insulting
Thailand at a Glance National Day July 28 (1952) birthday of King Wachiralongkon Location Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan
Flag of Thailand
Capital Bangkok Population 68.4 billion Religious groups Buddhist 94.6 percent, Muslim 4.3 percent, Christian 1 percent (2015 estimate)
GDP (purchasing power parity) $1.2 trillion (2017 estimate)
GDP per-capita (PPP) $17,900 (2017 estimate) GDP growth 3.9 percent (2017 estimate) Unemployment 0.7 percent (2017 estimate) Population below poverty line 7.2 percent (2015 estimate)
Industries Tourism, textiles and garments, agricultural processing, beverages, tobacco, cement, light manufacturing such as jewelry and electric appliances, computers and parts, integrated circuits, furniture, plastics, automobiles and automotive parts, agricultural machinery, air conditioning and refrigeration, ceramics, aluminum, chemical, environmental management, glass, granite and marble, leather, machinery and metal work, petrochemical, petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, printing, pulp and paper, rubber, sugar, rice, fishing, cassava, world’s second-largest tungsten producer and third-largest tin producer SOURCE: CIA WORLD FACTBOOK
the monarchy], sedition and computer crime charges to suppress free speech,” HRW said.
ASEAN: ‘CORNERSTONE OF FOREIGN POLICY’ In the midst of all this uncertainty, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is scheduled to take over the one-year presidency of ASEAN
from Singapore on Jan. 1, 2019. A sternly worded opinion piece in the Jakarta Post said the trade bloc — whose secretariat is located in Jakarta — shouldn’t let it happen. “This time, the change is much more than a regular transfer of chairmanship,” said the July 31 article by Kornelius Purba. “The Thai junta does not deserve the position amid strong waves of democratization in this region. We
just witnessed how Malaysians responded to a corrupt leader. Myanmar is also undergoing a major transformation of democracy, although de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has not been able to fully control the country. The Philippines and Indonesia belong to a club of democratic nations despite domestic problems.” The editorial added: “ASEAN will unnecessarily humiliate itself in front of the global community when the regional grouping introduces Prayuth as the chair next year…. Thailand deserves the right to chair ASEAN — but not under a junta that has continued to cling to powers it robbed from the people four years ago.” But objections to Thailand’s chairmanship are likely to be minimal. Thailand is a founding member of the bloc, which prides itself on noninterference in the domestic affairs of its member states and finding solutions by mutual consensus. Plasai said the bloc “is a cornerstone of our foreign policy, so we take this chairmanship very seriously.” He identified the three pillars of that policy as regional security, economic integration among ASEAN’s 10 member states, and the promotion of social and cultural integration. “Our goal is full and deep economic integration,” he said. “We have always looked at the EU as our role model, but we can’t any more. Brexit is the opposite of what we want.” To that end, Thailand is pushing its Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), an ambitious $45 billion project that aims to turn three eastern SEE T HAILAN D • PAGE 20
RELATED STORY
Thailand’s Laem Chabang Aims to Become One of Southeast Asia’s Busiest Ports L
AEM CHABANG, Thailand — For 27 years, visitors have marveled at the spectacular view from atop Laem Chabang’s 141-meter observation tower at this Thai port city. Zooming to the top by elevator in less than 30 seconds, one can enjoy a 360-degree panorama of Thailand’s busiest port below while walking along a circular hallway lined with the flags of all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Looking southeast, blue and orange cranes made in Denmark can be seen loading and unloading containerized cargo. Also visible are the port’s cruise ship terminal and immigration office. Directly south — way out on the horizon — are the distant hotels of Pattaya, and to the east are no less than 60 wind turbines, which generate electricity for the entire area. If port officials get their way, this view will be even more impressive seven years from now. Upon completion of the port’s planned Phase III project in 2025, Laem Chabang will rank among the world’s top 15 ports in terms of cargo, up from 22nd place in 2015. And that’s key to Thailand’s economic recovery under the current military junta, said Porntipa
PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER
The Port of Laem Chabang exports 98 percent of Thailand’s vehicle production.
Taweenuch, director of the general administration division of the Port Authority of Thailand, which oversees Laem Chabang and three smaller ports. “We have now finished a feasibility study, as well as an environmental and health impact statement,” she said in a recent interview here. “We hope that by the end of this year, we can open international bidding and have a contractor. Dredging will take at least three or four years.” Phase III construction is ex-
pected to cost 140 billion Thai baht, or around $4.2 billion — making this one of Thailand’s single biggest infrastructure projects under the umbrella of the much-hyped Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), which aims to transform Thailand’s eastern provinces into a leading ASEAN economic zone. The EEC, which covers 13,000 square kilometers, bills itself as the “metropolis of the future” and the “gateway to Asia.” In fact, Thailand’s eastern seaboard is home to some 3,788 factories and already ranks
as a major production base for electronics and vehicles. Laem Chabang’s Phase III expansion is among the EEC’s five high-priority projects, which also includes integrated air, rail and highway connections, as well as modernization of U-Tapao International Airport. The competition should begin by year’s end, with bidding for the terminal operator to commence some time around February 2019. Companies from China, Singapore and South Korea are likely to dominate the bidding process, Taweenuch said. “The government owns the land, and we construct and invest in the basic infrastructure, such as dredging, reclamation and public utilities,” she said. “Then we invite the private sector to bid to be terminal operators.” Laem Chabang, spread over 1,500 hectares, currently has 250 employees working at 15 terminals. “In the 1980s, the government launched the Eastern Seaboard project. But more than 30 years later, we are at capacity and it’s very necessary to launch this project,” Taweenuch said. “This is the first time this [military] government has tried to boost the economy of our
country. In the past, we worked independently, but now we have to work together.” Since 2009, Laem Chabang port’s volume has been growing at 7 percent. Last year, it handled 7.6 million 20-foot equivalent units (known in the shipping industry as TEUs) of cargo. That accounts for 77.3 percent of Thailand’s total TEUs, and 6.6 percent of all cargo shipped into and out of ASEAN. Yet it’s still outranked by Singapore, the region’s leading port, and ports in Malaysia and Indonesia. “But we don’t have to compete with Singapore, because Singapore is a transshipment port and we are not,” Taweenuch noted. “We’re a destination port.” Laem Chabang, located 125 kilometers southeast of Bangkok along the Gulf of Thailand, already exports 98 percent of Thailand’s vehicle production. It helps that half a dozen auto factories — Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Isuzu — are within a 250-kilometer drive. This year, the port expects to ship 1.2 million autos and trucks overseas. When Phase III is completed, the port’s total capacity will rise to 18 million TEUs of goods and 3 million vehicles. — Larry Luxner
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 19
Thailand CONTINUED • PAGE 19
provinces — Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao —into a manufacturing and technology hub, with strong land, air and sea links to Thailand’s ASEAN neighbors. Funding for the project will come from a mix of state funds, public-private partnerships and foreign direct investment. The government predicts the EEC will generate 100,000 jobs a year by the time it’s completed in 2021. “The EEC is a continuation of what we started in the 1980s and will serve as a springboard for the region. We also plan to link the airports as well as help Myanmar develop a land bridge,” said Plasai. Crucial to the EEC’s success will be a major planned expansion of Thailand’s largest port (see related sidebar “Thailand’s Laem Chabang Aims to Become One of Southeast Asia’s Busiest Ports”). The junta is also putting greater emphasis on building rail links and improving transport and logistics near its borders with Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, with an eye toward securing tariff-free entry for the region’s goods into the EU. Such policies have clearly sparked interest in the region. Last year, Thailand jumped 20 places, from 46th to 26th, in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. Thailand has completed 12 free trade agreements with 17 countries, and it’s currently negotiating three more with its ASEAN partners and six others, including Pakistan and Turkey. In 2017, Thailand’s economy grew by 3.9 percent, with expected GDP growth to reach 4.6 percent this year. Yet the looming trade war between the United States and China — a war sparked largely by rhetoric from President Trump — could potentially harm the Thai economy. China is now Thailand’s largest export market, buying 12.4 percent of the country’s goods last year. Veteran economist Sompop Manarungsan warned back in March that “Thailand’s exports would also be adversely impacted, and our export target of 8 percent growth this year may not be met.” The ambassador put it more bluntly: “When two elephants clash, the grass will be crushed. In this case, we are friends with both elephants, but we are the grass.” Regardless of coups or trade wars, there’s one industry in Thailand that seems to flourish no matter what: sex tourism. Before we wrapped up our interview, The Diplomat asked Plasai what his country might do to stop, or at least put a damper on, what many say has become a national embarrassment. “It’s a double-edged sword. Tourism is good, but you also have to manage the not-so-good side of tourism,” he responded. “Like everything, there’s a demand and a supply side. We can work on the supply side, by making sure there’s no human trafficking. Many U.S. states have laws that punish people who patronize prostitutes. But if tourists are coming to Thailand for this purpose, it means there’s still a demand.” WD Tel Aviv-based journalist Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.
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PHOTO: LARRY LUXNER
The ASEAN Cultural Center in Bangkok is the only one of its kind located in any of the 10 countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
SIDEBAR
ASEAN Cultural Center: Unusual Tourist Attraction in Bangkok B
ANGKOK — A museum showcasing a trade bloc may seem boring, but Bangkok’s new ASEAN Cultural Center is anything but. The museum, which opened in August 2015, is the only one of its kind located in any of the 10 countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. And next year, as Thailand assumes the rotating presidency of ASEAN, it’ll take on even more prominence. “Lots of delegations will visit us, so we’ll keep on rotating new exhibits from all our member countries,” said Urusaya Intrasuksri, director of this little-known tourist attraction, which is run by Thailand’s Ministry of Culture. “We’re here to share, not to compete.” Covering 900 square meters and occupying the entire third floor of the Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Arts Center, the ASEAN Cultural Center attracts about 2,000 visitors a month. During the week, the place receives mostly foreigners, many of them planning to visit other ASEAN countries and seeking information. On weekends, the museum is packed with Thai students on field trips. Intrasuksri, who’s worked for the Ministry of Culture for 20 years, recently gave The Washington Diplomat a tour as part of a five-day organized press trip to Thailand. Visitors to the museum are greeted with an informational video about how and why ASEAN was formed and a bit about each of its 10 member nations: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore,
LEARN MORE: For more on exhibits and events, visit the museum’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ aseanculturalcenter/. Thailand and Vietnam. Together, the 10 countries cover 4.5 million square kilometers and are home to 645 million people. They boast a combined GDP of $2.72 trillion and last year attracted more than $100 billion in foreign direct investment. “In order to do business, you need to know the people you’re working with and learn some of the basic dos and don’ts,” Intrasuksri explained. “If you understand how they think and how they’ll perceive you, it will be easier for you. Culture is the foundation of everything.” Culture is, in fact, the main focus of this museum. “We try to depict the similarities and differences of the diverse cultures in this area,” she said. “We display everything as 10 countries. We’re not picking one country to show it off, but rather the common heritage that we share.” One interesting feature is the “magic door” that, when opened by two staffers — one on each side — a different video appears, showing traffic whizzing by the leading national landmark of each country. These include everything from the Grand
Mosque of Brunei to Merkati Square in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. When it comes to religion, ASEAN is quite diverse. Islam accounts for around 40 percent of the bloc’s total population, led by Muslim-majority nations Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Sizeable Muslim communities also exist in the Philippines, Myanmar and Singapore. Buddhism dominates in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia, while Christianity is the dominant religion in the Philippines. All these religions are represented at the museum, which also includes touch-screen panels that allow visitors to hear greetings in the national languages of each of the member states. Another fun feature is an interactive display that photographs visitors in virtual national costumes. “I stumbled upon this cultural center when visiting the Ratchadamnoen Art Center downstairs,” wrote Stephanie Kee of Penang, Malaysia, in a recent online review. “I was pleasantly surprised by how interactive and fun this center is. Coming from an ASEAN country, I really appreciate the materials exhibited.” Added Svetlana Lazareva of Ukraine: “This center is amazing — very smart and easygoing way of presenting information.” Right now, there’s a temporary exhibit on the spiritual and economic dimensions of rice, the so-called “grain of ASEAN.” Another recent exhibit, “Marry Me,” featured wedding traditions in each of ASEAN’s 10 member nations. — Larry Luxner
Nordic Vantage Point | WD
Going Green Op-Ed: A Low-Carbon Economic Transition Is Both Possible and Profitable BY NORWEGIAN AMBASSADOR KÅRE R. AAS
T
ransitioning to a green (lowcarbon) economy is the name of the game these days. Following up on the Paris climate agreement, countries all over the world are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curtail climate change. An increasing number of businesses are discovering that this is not only possible, but may also be profitable. It is often said that we are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, one driven by knowledge and technology. Throughout history, change has often been met with resistance. Today, I notice some people saying that a transition to a green economy will be expensive, is unnecessary and may be a threat to our standard of living. I believe the opposite. The future will inevitably have to be green. Some of the biggest companies in the world understand this. Some of the largest investors and funds understand this. They all change their investment strategies accordingly. Technological innovation and investment in low-emission solutions are already creating new opportunities for economic growth, new jobs, increased profit and a better future for our planet. Those who do not jump on the bandwagon risk losing out. PHOTO: PIXABAY In my own country, Norway, the More than 25 percent of new cars sold in Norway are fully electric, and the country is on track to meet its target of 100 percent zero-emission transition to a green economy is in full swing, new car sales by 2025. and accelerating. The government’s ambition is to provide for a low-carbon economy by 2050. A market-based approach, where business and industry seek to achieve green competitiveness, will contribute to reducing emissions while at the same time creating jobs and economic growth. But policy tools will also be important. One A third area that I want to highlight is carbon climate change — how sea level rise, more exof them is carbon pricing, which has proven to have great influence on people’s behavior. By capture and storage. This technology is neces- treme weather patterns and so on will affect us making the polluter pay, carbon pricing stimu- sary for limiting climate change. Two full-scale economically. Perhaps more importantly, the lates technological change: the low-emission so- carbon capture and storage projects are now be- commission will also look at how climate polilutions win through. Eighty percent of Norway’s ing developed in Norway: one at a waste incin- cy-related changes in markets, valuation and the emissions are covered by either a carbon tax or eration plant in Oslo, another at a cement fac- assessment of future assets will affect the Nortory in the county of Telemark. A final wegian economy. What’s profitable now may not the emissions trading system — or decision on funding the construction be profitable in the future. The commission will both. of a full-scale CO2 capture, transport deliver its report by December. The transformation toward 2050 and storage network is expected in a is being realized by building a comEvery country has to find its own way to precouple of years. bination of policies over time. One pare for the future. But no country can go it These two projects demonstrate that alone if we are to reduce carbon emissions and example is in transportation, which carbon capture and storage is impor- their global effects. That is why international cois a major source of greenhouse gas tant and relevant far beyond the energy operation is so important. Norway will continue emissions. So far this year, more sector. In industries such as cement to work with countries and private companies than 25 percent of new cars sold in production, carbon capture and stor- everywhere to move forward toward a prosperNorway are fully electric. We are age is one of the very few options avail- ous low-emission economy. WD on track to meet our target of 100 KÅRE R. AAS able for emission reductions. percent zero emission new car sales ambassador of Norway to the United States Transformation will be challeng- Nordic Vantage Point is a series of columns by 2025. ing, and risks need to be managed. written by Kåre R. Aas, who has served as This is also happening in shipping. We have our first fully electric car ferry, The Norwegian government has therefore set up Norway’s ambassador to the U.S. since and we have 63 fully electric car ferries in com- a commission of experts to assess how climate September 2013, prior to which he was mission that will be introduced between 2021 change will affect the country and the econo- political director at the Ministry of Foreign my. This includes the physical consequences of Affairs in Oslo. and 2022.
“
Eighty percent of Norway’s emissions are covered by either a carbon tax or the emissions trading system — or both.
”
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 21
WD | Medical
Brain Buffer Moderate Drinking in Middle Age May Help to Protect Against Dementia BY AMY NORTON
M
iddle-age people who drink moderately — no more than a glass of wine a day — may have a relatively lower risk of developing dementia later in life, researchers report. The study, which followed 9,000 British adults for over two decades, found that both heavier drinkers and abstainers had a higher dementia risk than moderate drinkers. Moderate drinking was defined according to the recommended drinking limits in the United Kingdom: no more than 14 “units” of alcohol per week. That translates to one medium-size glass of wine, or roughly a pint of beer, each day. People who were nondrinkers in middle age were 47 percent more likely to eventually be diagnosed with dementia, versus moderate drinkers, the findings showed. Meanwhile, when people drank beyond moderate levels, their risk of dementia rose in tandem with their alcohol intake. Among people who had more than a drink per day, dementia risk rose by 17 percent with every additional seven units of alcohol they downed per week. That’s equivalent to three to four glasses of wine. None of that, however, proves there is something directly protective about moderate drinking, experts stressed. “No one is saying that if you don’t drink, you should start,” said Dr. Sevil Yasar, an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in As for nondrinkers, she echoed Baltimore, Md. what Yasar said: “Our finding on She wrote an editorial pubabstainers should not motivate lished with the study Aug. 1 in people to start drinking alcohol.” the British Medical Journal. That is partly because of the “Why does abstaining appear many health risks tied to drinkdetrimental when it comes to ing — from liver disease to several dementia risk?” Yasar said. “We cancers, including breast, liver don’t know.” and throat cancers, she explained. The researchers tried to acThe findings are based on 9,087 count for other health and lifeBritish adults who were 50, on style factors. But it’s still possible average, at the study’s start in the that there’s something else about 1980s. Over the next couple of the average nondrinker that exdecades, 397 were diagnosed with plains the higher dementia risk, dementia. Yasar said. In general, middle-age adults DR. SEVIL YASAR What does seem clear, she who were either teetotalers or added, is that people should relatively heavier drinkers were associate professor of medicine limit their drinking — possibly more likely to develop dementia, at Johns Hopkins University to levels even lower than those the researchers said. in Baltimore currently recommended in the The risk appeared clearest United States. among the heaviest drinkers: PeoU.S. guidelines differ from the U.K.’s, suggesting ple who ended up in the hospital for alcohol-related that men can safely have up to two drinks per day. diseases were over three times more likely to deWomen are advised to limit themselves to one per velop dementia than other study participants were. day. According to Sabia, that suggests heavy drinkSéverine Sabia, the lead researcher on the study, ing can contribute to dementia by directly harmsaid that the advice to men may need to be revis- ing the brain. ited. On the other hand, abstainers in this study “It is possible that in countries like the U.S., there tended to have more risk factors for heart disease: needs to be a downward revision of the threshold They were heavier, exercised less and had a higher that carries harm,” said Sabia, a researcher with rate of type 2 diabetes, for instance. And those difthe French national research institute Inserm. ferences explained part of the link to dementia —
“
Why does abstaining appear detrimental when it comes to dementia risk? We don’t know.
”
22 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
PHOTO: PIXABAY
though not all of it. Research suggests that many of the same factors that raise the risk of heart disease may also boost the risk of dementia, possibly due to poorer blood flow to the brain.
LEARN MORE: For more on Alzheimer’s Association has advice on lifestyle and brain health at www.alz.org/ help-support/brain_health/10_ways_to_ love_your_brain.
Yasar pointed out that “what’s good for your heart seems to also be good for your brain.” Many studies have found that moderate drinkers tend to have better heart health than nondrinkers or heavy drinkers. However, it’s not clear that the alcohol, per se, is the reason. So, Yasar said, it cannot be assumed that light drinking helps thwart dementia by boosting a person’s heart health. “Luckily,” she added, “there are many ways to improve your cardiovascular health, like regular exercise, eating a healthy diet and not smoking.” WD Amy Norton is a HealthDay reporter. Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Education A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat
•
September 2018
PHOTO: NORTHERN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Truly Global Community State Department Initiative Brings International Students to U.S. Community Colleges •
A
renewed focus on America’s community colleges has emerged in education and policy circles over the last several years, especially as the cost of university tuitions continues to soar.
Starting with Democratic policymakers touting the prospects of free community college tuition, and continuing with the Trump administration’s emphasis on apprenticeship and the role of community colleges in
BY MIKE CROWLEY
vocational training, a tier of the U.S. higher education system that has stood in the shadow of “traditional” four-year colleges now finds itself in the spotlight.
Northern Virginia Community College helps administer the State Department’s Community College Initiative (CCI), which for over 10 years has brought international students to community colleges across America.
SEE C O MMU N IT Y • PAGE 24 THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 23
Community CONTINUED • PAGE 23
A State Department program called the Community College Initiative (CCI) celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2017 and in many ways anticipated the current focus PHOTO: STATE DEPARTMENT BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS on the value and growing importance of Moises Gomez of Colombia attended Northern Virginia community colleges. But it has added an Community College in Annandale and is now an international twist to a local phenomenon. award-winning photographer in his country. Instead of encouraging more Americans to attend community college, CCI’s goal ganizations. is to bring foreign students to experience For example, during the 2016-17 the vast network of community colleges school year, Bunga Yuniasari of Indonethroughout the U.S. sia took courses in public safety at the Since CCI’s inception in 2007, the State Northeast Wisconsin Technical ColDepartment’s Bureau of Educational and lege and interned with the Green Bay Cultural Affairs reports that over 2,800 PHOTO: STATE DEPARTMENT BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS Police Department. Now back in her students from 21 countries have enrolled home country, Yuniasari works as an Bunga Yuniasari of Indonesia took courses in public safety at the Northeast Wisconsin Technical at over 75 U.S. community colleges as part College and interned with the Green Bay Police Department. Now back in her home country, architectural and civil engineer with PT of the program. The students have studied Yuniasari works as an architectural and civil engineer. Bhimasena Power Indonesia, where she such diverse subjects as agriculture, aptouts the “valuable workplace skills from plied engineering, business management and administration, information technolher CCI experience,” such as factoring evacuation route requirements into the design ogy, and tourism and hospitality management. of building entrances. Given that community colleges now serve nearly half of all Americans pursuing a Likewise, Muhammad Ferdaus of Bangladesh studied public safety in Boston, higher education, CCI offers international students a prime opportunity to interact where he contributed over 600 hours volunteering for groups such as the American with their U.S. peers, helping students learn from each other and build the networks Red Cross. Now back in Bangladesh, he is pursuing a postgraduate degree in disaster and skills they need to succeed in a globalized world. management and also trains women and girls working in the garment and textile in“According to the 2017 Open Doors Report, less than 2 percent of community coldustries about environmental safety, worker rights and emergency management syslege students in the United States have the opportunity to study abroad,” Anthony tems. Ferdaus’s community service led him to be selected as one of 1,000 Sustainable Koliha, director of the State Department Office of Global Educational Programs, told Development Goals (SDG) Talents for the global nonprofit initiative UNLEASH and The Diplomat. “Through the Community College Initiative program, American comas one of 200 Global Young Leaders Fellows with the organization Women Deliver. munity college students learn about the world by living and studying alongside their Volunteering is a key component of CCI. Participants engage in “service learning,” international peers, thereby expanding their perspectives, developing friendships and which connects students to local civic organizations and community service activities building skills to succeed in the global workforce.” to improve their leadership skills. “Through different service events, I learned that CCI emphasizes real-world work experience in addition to academics. On top of a year of coursework, during which students obtain professional certificates where SEE C OMMU N IT Y • PAGE 26 possible, CCI participants pursue hands-on internships with local businesses and or-
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Community CONTINUED • PAGE 24
volunteering is not an act of charity, but it is an act of community,” Egyptian Amira Ahmed Mahmoud, who studied at Santa Rosa Junior College in California, said in a recent State Department report on CCI’s first 10 years. “The number of hours you spend volunteering is time you give to the future. In addition, CCI teaches students practical skills such as English proficiency, resume writing and tips for working in a U.S. business environment. The goal is similar to what educators hope community colleges offer Americans: a pathway to better job prospects. Over 80 percent of CCI participants reported being employed about one year after completing the program, according to the State Department report, while 93 percent of CCI alumni said they “used the knowledge and experience gained in the program to introduce new ways of doing things at work.” As part of this emphasis on the real-world application of academics, the program encourages students to develop an action plan they can implement back home. For example, “Juliet Malambe, Nkululeko Victor Masombuka and Daniel da Silva Farias returned to their home countries to implement the collaborative action plan they developed while in the United States to help reduce the digital divide in South Africa and Brazil,” the State Department’s CCI report said, noting that the three received a donation of 40 computers to help them provide hands-on computer training. “Their efforts also inspired the Global Education and Services department at their host college, Fox Valley Technical College, to consider a study abroad program for U.S. students to travel to South Africa and provide upkeep, teaching and other services for the computer labs,” the report said. Another advantage of U.S. community colleges is their diversity. Because these colleges are often home to minorities, CCI participants are exposed to a range of Americans from different backgrounds. While CCI embraces cultural exchange, its emphasis on practical experience mirrors the increasing recognition among U.S. policymakers that the traditional university system is leaving too many Americans behind and needs to be complemented by apprenticeships and vocational education to help young jobseekers. The skyrocketing costs of American higher education over the past several decades
PHOTO: STATE DEPARTMENT BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Community College Initiative alumni Juliet Malambe, Nkululeko Victor Masombuka and Daniel da Silva Farias returned to their home countries to implement the collaborative action plan they developed while in the United States to help reduce the digital divide in South Africa and Brazil.
have priced out many students or left graduates who are already struggling to find jobs saddled with crippling student debt. According to the College Board, the average annual cost of tuition and room and board at a four-year, in-state public college rose over 3 percent to just above $20,000, while a private institution today will run students nearly $47,000 a year. Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve, outstanding student debt in the United States climbed to $1.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, compared to $600 billion just a decade ago. These staggering loan burdens have prompted state and local governments to begin offering reduced or free tuition at community colleges. The trend was already underway when, in his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama said that Republican-governed Tennessee and Democratic-controlled Chicago showed that free community college was possible. In the speech, Obama said that he wanted “to spread that idea all across America, so that two years of college becomes as free and universal in America as high school is today.” Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont elevated the issue further after winning the 2016 Democratic primary in New Hampshire, saying in his acceptance speech that in order to have the best-educated workforce in the world, “we are going to make public col-
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PHOTO: NORTHERN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Scott Ralls, president of Northern Virginia Community College, says the international students who come to his school as part of the State Department’s Community College Initiative “have added a new layer of vitality” to the school and helped it “rededicate itself to the importance of educational exchanges.”
leges and universities tuition-free.” According to U.S. News & World Report, since 2015 many states have enacted programs to offer tuition-free community college programs, including New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Montana, Minnesota, Kentucky, Arkansas and Nevada, with Maryland on tap to begin offering free community college in 2019. The idea has gained steam quickly, but it was far less prominent when CCI began in 2007. According to the State Department’s CCI report, then-Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes said the goal of the program was “to provide educational and exchange opportunities to a broader and more diverse segment of young people overseas, including women, minorities and those from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.” That in turn would allow students “to have a voice and serve as leaders in their societies,”
which is “essential for future peace, security and prosperity of our world.” CCI was created at a time when America needed to foster goodwill internationally. The U.S. under the Bush administration had spearheaded the invasion of Iraq in 2003, straining relations with key allies and damaging America’s international standing. While the range of countries involved in CCI spans the globe, large concentrations of students have come from countries in the Muslim world, where bulging youth populations face bleak job prospects and where the U.S. has a vested interest in promoting stability. According to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, of the 2,800 students who had participated in CCI as of 2017, the largest number came from Egypt (778), followed by Pakistan (432) and Indonesia
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SEE C O MMU NI T Y • PAGE 28
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Community College Initiative by the Numbers
Community CONTINUED • PAGE 27
(323). But CCI students hail from all over the world, with significant numbers from India (250), Brazil (262) and South Africa (212). Business management and administration is the program’s most popular subject, with 38 percent of students pursuing it — perhaps not surprising given the broad scope of fields where business skills can be applied. It is closely followed by subjects that are also currently popular among U.S. students pursuing community college and vocational schooling, namely information technology (representing 17 percent of CCI students) and engineering (9 percent). CCI’s benefits go both ways, with the program seeking “to internationalize and promote U.S. community colleges.” Foreign students tend to be less susceptible to the perception many Americans have that community colleges represent a lower class of higher education, intended for students who didn’t perform well academically or who come from poor backgrounds. In reality, however, as U.S. employers increasingly prize technical skills in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math), that perception is quickly changing, as many community colleges offer practical training in these areas at a fraction of the cost — and on schedules that are more manageable for working students. U.S. community colleges that have teamed up with CCI agree that it has served to highlight what they can offer to domestic and international students alike. Scott Ralls, president of Northern Virginia Community College, which administers the program, said participants “have added a new layer of vitality” to the school and helped it “rededicate itself to the importance of educational exchanges.” These exchanges are especially critical at a time when the United States has found itself under fire for its isolationist policies under President Trump’s America First agenda. “As CCI students return to their home countries, they become our best representatives and advocates, for they have come to understand who we are as Americans,” Ralls said. Mick Starcevich, president of Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, says the program has made his school “better able to create a global learning environment
PHOTO: STATE DEPARTMENT BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS
in the classroom that meets the reality of the world today.” Similarly, Northampton Community College President Mark Erickson says that as a result of CCI, “our interest as a college both in bringing the world to us — attracting more international students — but also pushing our students out into the world increased significantly.” At a time when the State Department has been in the news primarily for its retrenchment, CCI serves as a reminder of the variety of educational programs that the agency administers. Many of those programs are under threat by the administration’s proposed budget cuts and restraints on immigration. But just as U.S. policymakers are increasingly recognizing the real-world benefits of “nontraditional” education, State Department officials hope policymakers also realize that those same benefits can help students far beyond our borders — in the process helping community colleges evolve from local learning centers to global education gateways. WD Mike Crowley is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.
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Luxury Living A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat
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September 2018
PHOTO: MOLLY MCCLUSKEY
The Capitol Alternative Swiss Embassy Builds Roots at Historic Single Oak Site at Dumbarton •
T
he story of the Swiss property in Washington begins, as so many great stories begin, with a tree. It’s an ancient tree, planted long before there was a Swiss
Embassy in Washington, or even a legation, before there was a neighborhood along the street where the Swiss Embassy and residence now lie — before there was even a street. It dates back so
BY MOLLY MCCLUSKEY
The Swiss government purchased property in the area known as the Rock of Dumbarton in 1941. In 1953, the legation upgraded to an embassy, and in 2004, the embassy tore down the building and replaced it with the current ambassador’s residence.
far that, before there was a Washington, D.C., that tree sat on a swath of land that was known as the Rock of Dumbarton. SEE S WI SS • PAGE 30
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 29
Swiss CONTINUED • PAGE 29
The Rock of Dumbarton (as in Dumbarton House, Dumbarton Oaks, Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy, Dumbarton Bridge, etc.) was a tract of 795 acres deeded to Scotsman Ninian Beall in 1703. Beall was a particularly tall man with flaming red hair, exiled after being captured at the Battle of Dunbar and is widely regarded as the founder of Georgetown. (Some people contend that Dumbarton should be spelled Dunbarton, because Dunbar was the town where Beall and other Scottish soldiers were imprisoned by the British, so it’s likely he named the area Dun-barton as a wry reference to his capture.) “Ninian was patented multiple land grants of which it is said many he never claimed,” Scott Scholz, the deputy director and curator at the historic Dumbarton House, told me. “One such land grant of his was the land that the White House sits on today.” Another one of the parcels became part of Observatory Circle, transferred to the federal government in 1901 for “the preservation of delicate astronomical instruments from smoke, the heat of crowded dwellings and undue vibrations caused by traffic,” read one newspaper article at the time of the transfer. In 1751, the town of Georgetown was formed in what was then the colony of Maryland, partially by land sold to Maryland by Beall and, later, by land confiscated from his son. The remaining land was then sold and developed in part and parcel over the subsequent centuries, until one parcel of that land became Single Oak, which later became the land that now houses the Swiss delegation.
PHOTOS: MOLLY MCCLUSKEY
The Swiss Residence on Cathedral Avenue is a modernist building impressive for its deceptive minimalism, designed to evoke the grey and white of the Alps in winter.
QUESTIONABLE MATH, UNTOUCHED REAL ESTATE
If you’re scratching your head and wondering if a prime piece of real estate such as the Rock of Dumbarton would really sit vacant for nearly 200 years, the answer would be, “Dear reader, I suspect it did.” At what is now 3000 Cathedral Ave. NW, there was once a 17-acre estate called Woodley. That estate, not STRONG AS OAK coincidentally also once part of the Rock of Dumbar“Historic home within city for sale,” read a ton, was the location of a summer home owned by listing in The Washington Post in 1939. “Rock Presidents Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, James of Dumbarton stands on ridge once figured Buchanan and Grover Cleveland. It passed hands for Capitol site.” among dignitaries and military officials and hosted “One part of the Rock of Dumbarton tract foreign diplomats and relatives of future national anhas been called Single Oak because it is domithem lyricist Francis Scott Key, who allegedly carved nated by a giant age-old tree of that variety, his initials into the woodwork there as a young boy. standing out in stately grandeur from among In 1929, then-Secretary of State Henry Stimson many other beautiful old trees,” it continued. owned Woodley and, upon leaving office, attempted It may have just been a claim to enhance to give the property to the federal government to bethe mystique of the property, but legend has it come the official home of subsequent secretaries of that George Washington himself once looked state. His offer was declined, lest all government ofat Single Oak and thought, “Now there would ficials come to expect a grandiose estate of their own. make an ideal spot for our federal seat.” Woodley was also offered as a backup site for the NaIn 1926, future Vice President Henry Waltional Gallery of Art if the Constitution Avenue localace built a house there. tion fell through, and floated as a suggestion for the Even today, in the face of modern traffic vice president’s home. and local condominiums, this property on a I suspect that in all of those years, with various hill is a stunning spot comprising six acres of owners selling the land but keeping a few acres here greenery close to the National Zoo and the and there for themselves, and then later selling those Washington Cathedral. It’s steps away from few acres, that Single Oak was left largely untouched the empty plot of the Benin Embassy on Ca- 1939 ARTICLE IN THE WASHINGTON POST during much of that period. That includes a front lawn thedral Avenue, sparsely populated in a city where croquet was played and views of the Washingwhere space is at a premium. ton Monument were left unobstructed. A current map of 2920 and The Swiss government purchased the property in 1941, 3000 Cathedral Ave., NW, in what is now Woodley Park shows they majestic oak and all. In August of that year, the Swiss celstill sit on the same property, undeveloped except for a private, K-12 ebrated their country’s 650 years of democracy with yodeling DID YOU KNOW? Shortly after prep school next to the embassy and residence. heard throughout the neighborhood. In 1953, the legation the Swiss announced their intention to Those of you who read the last issue of Diplomatica will recall that upgraded to an embassy, and the Swiss in Washington wel- tear down Single Oak and build a new the current de facto Taiwan Embassy is also on a large tract of land, comed their first official ambassador. larger than the White House, named Twin Oaks. And it, too, once For the first few decades of their residency, the Swiss team residency, the Arbor Day Foundation held was part of the Rock of Dumbarton. operated from Single Oak. A new chancery was built by a four-month-long open voting process, According to Scholz, the section of the rock that includes the Swiss architect William Lescaze in 1959, while the ambas- after which the oak tree was designated Swiss Embassy was named “The Addition, to...” as in, “The Addition sador lived in Wallace’s Single Oak manor. In 2004, the em- America’s National Tree. to the Rock of Dumbarton,” and was detailed in a deed from Beall’s bassy tore down the home and replaced it with the current son George to George’s son (another George), in 1757. residence, a modernist building impressive for its deceptive “‘The Addition, to’ was approximately 1,200 acres and went minimalism, designed to evoke the grey and white of the Alps in winter. roughly from just south of Massachusetts Avenue to just north of the Cathedral, roughly From the air, the residence resembles the Swiss cross, built on an axis so that visitors Wisconsin Avenue to the east side of the National Zoo,” Scholz wrote in an email. entering the front door have a direct line of sight from the arctic entryway to the Wash“Wouldn’t we all like to own this tract of land today?” he mused. ington Monument, visible thanks to a break in the tree line that seems rather mysterious Wouldn’t we all, indeed. WD and not at all sanctioned. An authentic Swiss clock, similar to the one functioning as a meeting point for wayward travelers in Zurich’s HB train station, adorns the drive. A flat, Diplomatica is a new, multimedia project by Molly McCluskey (@MollyEMcCluskey) glassy water feature lays parallel to the parking area — a hazard, I’m told for more than exploring the hidden histories of diplomatic properties in the United States and around the one driver who has attempted to leave after a cocktail reception and found themselves, world. To subscribe to Diplomatica, nominate an embassy or sponsor an issue, and their vehicle, swimming. please contact diplomaticadc@gmail.com.
“
One part of the Rock of Dumbarton tract has been called Single Oak because it is dominated by a giant age-old tree of that variety, standing out in stately grandeur from among many other beautiful old trees.
”
30 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
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32 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
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All Right Notes As the Embassy Series turns 25 this season, the organization remains the only one of its kind in D.C., as it brings international talent to the city’s foreign missions and demonstrates the enduring power of musical diplomacy. / PAGE 35
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WOMEN
GO METAL “Heavy Metal” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) has nothing to do with rock music but everything to do with shattering stereotypes that using metals to create art is the domain of men. / PAGE 34
ART
Continental Collection The OAS Art Museum of the Americas is reflecting on the historical and cultural legacy of Latin American art by re-examining and showcasing its own impressive collection. PAGE 36
ART
‘Diversity and Identity’ The thought-provoking “Diversity and Identity” is both a vivid personal travelogue of Vietnam and a subtle meditation on our interconnected world. PAGE 37
Blanca Muñoz’s “Bujía”
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MARLBOROUGH GALLERY MADRID; PHOTO © ARTURO MUÑOZ
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 33
WD | Culture | Art
Solid Showing ‘Heavy Metal’ Demonstrates Women’s Underappreciated Role in Metalworking •
BY KATE OCZYPOK
Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018 THROUGH SEPT. 16 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS 1250 NEW YORK AVE., NW
(202) 783-5000 | WWW.NMWA.ORG
“H
eavy Metal” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) has nothing to do with rock music but everything to do with shattering stereotypes that using metals to create art is the domain of men. Women, in fact, have worked in the field of metalworking for centuries, as evidenced by the NMWA’s own collection of silverwork crafted by British and Irish women in the 18th and 19th centuries. But while large-scale bronze cutline PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; © CHERYL EVE ACOSTA; PHOTO BY GENE STARR and steel sculptures created by men are frequently hailed as “fine” art, more subtle, delicate metal Cheryl Eve Acosta’s “Fossilium” works, often fashioned by women, are described as “decorative” art, according to the museum. home as a cozy haven and a prison of sorts. The NMWA exhibit, the fifth installment of the muTreanor mentioned how interesting it is to see seum’s ongoing “Women to Watch” series, seeks to diswhat contemporary artists have done with similar pel this archaic and patronizing cliché. “Heavy Metal” materials that their 18th- and 19th-century peers features contemporary female artists who work with a once used. variety of metals and techniques, creating wall-size instalWhile Treanor couldn’t name a specific favorlations, breathtakingly beautiful jewelry and reinventions ite (they’re all like her children, she said), she did of objects that we see in our everyday lives. proudly describe the exhibit as amazing work by The exhibit highlights over 50 pieces by 20 artists who amazing women. “I think that the beauty in the exwork with materials like silver, cooper, bronze, pewter, hibition lies in the variety of the work,” she added. aluminum and others. Some of the artists have a background in jewVirginia Treanor, associate curator for the museum, elry making, others in welding and smelting, and curated the last “Women to Watch” exhibition in 2015 some in recycling everyday materials to create titled “Organic Matters.” She enjoyed the experience and extraordinary amalgamations. All of the artists, decided three years later that she’d be up for the challenge however, capitalize on the different and someagain. times opposing characteristics of metals – their The women artists manipulate and fashion metals in sturdiness, their malleability, their practicality sly, striking ways, such as incorporating discarded alumiand their mysterious aura as both a molecular num can tabs and ball chains into large-scale installations. microcosm of our natural world and a macroAlice Hope does just that with her cylindrical weaving of cosm of the larger universe. red metal ropes that look otherworldly but are in fact The overarching goal of the “Women to Watch” made of Budweiser tabs. Paula Casseries is to highlight emerging or underrepresenttillo goes more high-tech, using ed artists, both in the U.S. and abroad. NMWA has industrial byproducts to creoutreach committees in different U.S. states and ate sculptures whose form countries, mostly from Europe and South AmeriPHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; © CHERYL EVE ACOSTA; PHOTO BY GENE STARR is first modeled using ca. “Each artist represents one committee, Treanor computer software and noted. “This exhibit includes seven international Alice Hope’s “Untitled” then welding together artists.” the individual components. KatherEven some of the artists residing in the U.S. have ine Vetne’s “Selling the Dream” relies international origins. Caroline Sardi, who manipuon three lead crystal Avon pitchers, lated steel for her piece, is from Argentina. Leila melted and mirrored with silver niKhoury lives and works in Ohio but her parents are trate, to create an undulating, dripping from Syria. She plays on the durability of metals to metallic glob that looks like it slithered reflect on the concept of memory as she creates inPHOTO: SIENNA PATTI straight out of a Hollywood sci-fi movie. dustrial-looking works that serve as a personal and Lola Brooks’s “My thinking in selecting metal as a theme really came from an collective remembrance of places destroyed by the “four&twenty” appreciation for the fact that women have been working in metal war in Syria. for a long time, a lot longer than most people realize,” Treanor As far as looking ahead to the next “Women to said. “Historically, metal work on a large scale was seen as very Watch” segment, Treanor said that committees are laborious and often associated with men. I hope that in 2018 this exalready assembling to organize it. They are hophibit isn’t so much of a revelation to people.” ing for the debut of the next exhibit in the series Certain artists in the exhibit play with these masculine tropes and in 2020. WD gender stereotypes. Holly Laws uses ironing boards topped with copPHOTO: OURTESY OF THE ARTIST; PHOTO BY JOHN JANCA per and bronze to conjure an almost creepy effect. Wearable sculpKate Oczypok is a contributing writer Katherine Vetne’s “Selling the Dream” for The Washington Diplomat. tures by Carolina Rieckhof Brommer examine the contradiction of 34 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
Music | Culture | WD
Hitting the Right Notes Embassy Series Celebrates 25th Season of Cultural Exchange through Music •
J
BY CANDACE HUNTINGTON
“
erome Barry knew he had a knack for music from the age of 7. The Boston native and founder of the Embassy Series was born into a musical family and pursued music with a passion, singing at his synagogue and performing Irish songs on local Boston radio and television. JEROME BARRY Recognizing his own potential, a young Barry persisted in his musical education. Along the way, he found another the Embassy Series. passion during his undergraduate years Barry and his wife Lisette’s commitat Northeastern University — language. ment to uniting cultures in an apolitical It wasn’t until years later that Barry environment is apparent in the range — who is fluent in nine languages and of artists spotlighted over the last quarcan sing in nearly 30 — realized the poter century. The Embassy Series gradutential music had to unite people across ally expanded to feature artists from 88 cultures. countries, including those in Africa, In 1994, Barry combined his passions the Middle East and South America for music and language and founded whose musicians don’t always receive the Embassy Series, a nonprofit orgaprominent recognition in mainstream nization that has hosted hundreds of performance circles. While programs concerts featuring international artists often feature traditional classical reperat their D.C. embassies and ambassadotoires from the likes of Beethoven and rial residences in an effort to promote Mozart, the Embassy Series also strives cultural exchange. to showcase folk music and artists from Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, minority ethnic groups, as well as nonthe Embassy Series has expanded from Western instruments such as the oud, a its initial focus primarily on European pear-shaped stringed instrument comnations such as Austria and Germany to monly used throughout the Middle East. encompass cultures and countries spanMusical diplomacy and the notion of ning nearly every corner of the globe. “soft power” was a relatively new conThe diverse list includes Afghanistan, cept in 1994, yet the tremendous success Argentina, China, Cuba, Egypt, Indoneof the Embassy Series over the last 25 sia, Iraq, Israel, Peru, South Africa, Tuyears illustrates the enduring impact of PHOTO: WWW.KEVINKENNEDY.COM nisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela and cultural exchange. And Barry has seen Jerome Barry, seen above at the Embassy of Luxembourg, founded the Embassy Series Vietnam, among many others. this power in action. in 1994 to bring international musicians to D.C. The organization has since hosted The political overtones behind many “There are many people that come to hundreds of concerts at the city’s embassies and ambassadorial residences, including of the concerts are hard to miss — our concerts that don’t agree with our the Embassy of Armenia, below, and Embassy of Jordan, bottom photo. Egypt and Tunisia in the aftermath of politics. But we’re fine, we’re listening to the Arab Spring, for example; Afghanimusic together and we’re respecting each stan and Iraq following the U.S.-led invasions; other’s opinions. It’s very important to respect one the debut of China’s new embassy in D.C. as a another’s opinions,” he said. symbol of its emergence on the global stage; After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Embassy a rare diplomatic opening with Cuba despite Series highlighted nations from the Eastern bloc. its bitter history with America. Even an upRussian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithucoming concert celebrating the 100th anniveranian, Slovak and Ukrainian artists performed, sary of the birth of South African icon Nelson many for the first time in the United States, with Mandela is tinged with the deep-seated legacy the goal of demonstrating that music transcends of racism that continues to resonate, both politics. around the world and at home. Barry doesn’t shy away from countries that aren’t But the focus of the Embassy Series has alon the best terms with the U.S., whether it be China ways been on the music and its ability to unite, or Cuba. Current events often form the backdrop of not the power of politics to divide. concerts. In 2010, as the Iraq War was still raging The organization is the only one of its kind and American troops were fighting to stamp out in D.C. Barry spent nine years touring sectarian battles, the Iraqi musical ensemble SafaPHOTO: EMBASSY SERIES Europe as a baritone vocalist, performafir performed at the newly opened Iraqi Cultural ing 120 concerts annually. After soakCenter. More recently, the Embassy Series featured Sufi music ing up the music scenes of Rome, Paris, at the Pakistani Embassy. Amsterdam and other international Having dealt with embassies for so long, Barry has develcities, he returned to D.C. and noticed oped a rapport with many ambassadors that he believes is esthe political tension that the demise of sential to preserving relationships in good times and bad. “We the Soviet Union left in its wake. With put them on the spot when we need to, but we have a friendly new D.C. embassies forming to accombanter, too, which is good. There are so many ambassadors that modate former Soviet republics, Barry I’m fond of,” Barry said, “and when you ask to work with them, PHOTO: MORRIS SIMON / THE SIMON FIRM FOR THE EMBASSY SERIES wanted a musical space that was able to they understand. They love America, they’re able to work well bridge these cultural gaps while leaving politics at the door. here and they’re open-minded.” “We started going to these embassy concerts and found that not many It hasn’t all been smooth-sailing, though, and that has nothing to do with people were involved in it. Most embassies wanted to invite congressmen and politics. Running a small arts nonprofit always entails significant financial hurWhite House staff. We thought, ‘No, a lot more could be done,’” Barry said in dles. The Embassy Series hosts roughly two dozen concerts a season — an aman interview with The Washington Diplomat. bitious undertaking given the costs of instrument rentals, artist compensation As co-founder of the Washington Music Ensemble in the early 1980s, Barry SEE EMBASSY SERIES • PAGE 47 had the opportunity to forge relationships with diplomats, paving the way for
We respect artists because we are artists. Performing is a way for us to grow.
”
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 35
WD | Culture | Art
Collector’s Paradise Second in Series of Exhibitions Spotlights Diversity of Abstraction in Americas •
BY JEFFERY MILES AND ANNA GAWEL
Art of the Americas: Collection of the Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States THROUGH OCT. 14 ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS 201 18TH ST., NW
(202) 370-0147 | WWW.MUSEUM.OAS.ORG
T
he Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) is reflecting on the historical and cultural legacy of Latin American art by reexamining and showcasing its own impressive collection. The latest exhibit at the museum is the second in a series of displays to highlight the comprehensive catalogue of the AMA’s permanent collection that debuted in 2017. The project, which was curated by Adriana Ospina, began five years ago as a way to expose the museum, and its holdings of over 2,000 works, to a broader audience. AMA is the oldest museum of Latin American and Caribbean art in the United States and is home to one of the world’s leading collections of modern and contemporary art from the Western Hemisphere. That collection began in 1949 with a donated painting by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari to help the Organization of American States (OAS) spotlight the contemporary art of its member states. Once the art program outgrew its original space, it moved to what is now the present-day AMA, which since 1976 has hosted an array of exhibitions and artists from countries such as Argentina, Belize, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and the United States. The current exhibit, “Art of the Americas,” chronicles the fundamental artistic trends that have evolved in Latin America over the decades, such as new figuration, geometric and lyrical abstraction, conceptual art and optical and kinetic art. It was organized in coordination with a number of curators, along with several former museum employees, who delved into the collection’s vast archives to select pieces emblematic of the AMA’s eclectic approach to collecting contemporary art. Many famous artists from the Americas, including Cundo Bermúdez, Agustín Fernández, Alejandro Obregón and Jorge de la Vega, had their first solo exhibitions in the Gallery of the Pan-American Union, now the OAS. To illustrate the diversity of the AMA’s holdings, the exhibit juxtaposes different facets of the permanent collection with an emphasis on the abstract art forms that emerged in Latin America in the wake of World War II. These include informalism, a movement first developed in France that is open to interpretation and embraced the randomness of gestures and use of materials over specific ideas that dictated the painting’s subject matter. To further highlight this shift in focus, the museum switched its normal exhibition layout. It is usually set up so that the first-floor galleries display geometric abstraction and the second floor represents different movements in the Americas. For this exhibition, the AMA flipped the concept to spotlight the many varied forms of abstraction that influenced the region, which itself often mirrored the chaotic, unpredictable and turbulent nature of the abstract movement. As scholars Mariola Alvarez and Ana Franco put it in their upcoming publication “New Geographies of Abstract Art in Postwar Latin America,” it is time “to demonstrate the messy and much diverse history of abstract art especially in contrast to the increasingly pervasive presence of geometric abstraction as the face of Latin American art of the postwar years.” This variety can be seen in works like Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros’s “Madre Niña,” an intricately drawn lithograph that portrays the almost identical faces of a peasant mother and her child as they stare with seemingly angry eyes at something off the canvas. In contrast, Brazilian artist Maria Martins’s bronze sculpture is reminiscent of ancient Mayan deities, while Nicaraguan Armando Morales’s oil painting is a bold, concrete-like panoply of slabs, shapes and textures.
36 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
PHOTOS: COLLECTION OAS ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS
The Art Museum of the Americas highlights signature pieces from its collection such as Manabu Mabe’s “Agony,” above, Fanny Sanin’s “Acrylic No. 6,” at left, and Maria Martins’s “Boiuna.”
The exhibition also pays tribute to the diverse, wide-ranging collecting practices of AMA founding director José Gómez Sicre, including his focus on modernist primitivism among Central American and Caribbean artists. In particular, Cuba, where Gómez Sicre is from, has long held a prominent position in the AMA and as a founding member of the OAS. Despite the communist island’s ideological differences with the U.S. and a number of member states, the AMA continues to highlight Cuba’s integral role in the artistic development of the region with exhibitions such as 2016’s “(Art)Xiomas-CUBAAHORA: The Next Generation.” The goal of the museum is to strengthen regional solidarity and cooperation among the OAS’s 35 member states, although that’s an easier feat artistically than it is politically. While Latin America is no longer plagued by colonialism, military coups, dictatorships and violent clashes between left-wing and rightwing factions, a new wave of political upheaval has gripped the region. In Brazil, corruption has upended this year’s presidential election. In Colombia, a much-heralded peace agreement with FARC rebels may unravel with the country’s shift toward the right with the election of President Iván Duque. And Venezuela is in economic shambles under the authoritarian mismanagement of Nicolás Maduro, sparking a refugee crisis that is further straining relations among OAS member states. But division is nothing new for the bloc, which represents a broad spectrum of countries with varying problems and political systems. And while the AMA seeks to encourage unity by promoting the art of all OAS member states, the museum itself illustrates the wide variety of different art forms that have shaped and enriched the region’s identity, culture and history. WD Jeffery Miles is an editorial intern at The Washington Diplomat. Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.
Art | Culture | WD
Inspired Travels Canadian Artist Ponders ‘Diversity and Identity’ in Visual Diary of Vietnam •
BY KATE OCZYPOK
Diversity and Identity THROUGH OCT. 27 EMBASSY OF CANADA ART GALLERY 501 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., NW HTTP://INTERNATIONAL.GC.CA/WORLD-MONDE/ UNITED_STATES-ETATS_UNIS/ART_GALLERY-GALERIE_ART. ASPX?LANG=ENG
T
he aesthetically gorgeous, thought-provoking “Diversity and Identity” is an ode to Canadian artist Renée duRocher’s trip to Vietnam. It is both a vivid personal travelogue and a subtle meditation on our multicultural, interconnected world. The vibrant colors pay tribute to an equally vibrant nation, as duRocher paints the Vietnamese rice fields, sumptuous tamarinds and traditionally dressed people she encountered on her journey. There are also literary parallels with duRocher’s visual essay, which was inspired by the writings of Vietnamese-born, Canadian-based author Kim Thùy, who selected poetic snapshots that duRocher incorporated into her work. “For the past 20 years, my trips have become my muses. My inspiration comes from places visited while traveling in foreign countries,” DuRocher told us. “It is always something unexpected, like a temple or an archaeological site.” While visiting Vietnam, duRocher said she was inspired by the beauty of the landscapes and the cultural pride in the communities she saw in north Vietnam. Calling herself an artist of intuition, duRocher said she never knows what her paintings will look like. She usually begins on a large canvas or paper using a big brush and doing free, broad strokes of dripping colors. “I explore at first the transparency of the color,” she said. “There is always a form or a color that inspires me and that is when the work really starts. My paintings are usually between abstract and figurative but they are always very colorful.” DuRocher names Matisse, Picasso and Francis Bacon as artists she admires. She likes their boldness and capacity to transform reality. She also enjoys the work of Canadian artist Jean Paul Lemieux, Mexico’s Frida Kahlo and Betty Goodwin of Quebec, which is where duRocher is from as well. While Vietnam isn’t exactly the first country that one would associate with Canada, the two in fact share extensive links. “From 1975 through 1992, Canada welcomed more than 100,000 refugees from Vietnam and the majority were migrants from the sea,” duRocher said. As author Thùy pointed out, these Vietnamese immigrants and their descendants form an integral part of the larger Canadian community, enriching the cultural landscape. DuRocher chose to name the exhibit “Diversity and Identity” for several reasons. She decided on diversity because “we are different in our culture,” and identity because “those cultural communities who live in the north of Vietnam wear their community costumes on a day-to-day basis.” DuRocher said she was touched by people’s dedication to wearing those costumes as a way to preserve their identities in a rapidly globalizing society. “They live with very little, are friendly with each other and seem happy,” she said. “Particularly on a market day, it was very colorful and a
PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF CANADA
The Embassy of Canada showcases Quebec-born artist Renée duRocher’s trip to Vietnam in “Diversity and Identity.”
unique experience. I have a very good visual memory and seeing everyone wearing traditional costumes was exciting and a visual treat for me.” DuRocher also learned about various Vietnamese traditions, such as taking marriage photos one year before the actual ceremony, often done in famous gardens or in front of grand palaces. The exhibit includes “The Blue Mountains of Sapa,” which depicts a vast, lush landscape interspersed with the portrait of a young girl from the Hmong community, whose blue-tinted attire mirrors the hue of the mountains. “Vietnam is a very green and luxurious country; in this painting I succeeded in transmitting that,” duRocher said. DuRocher wants guests who visit her exhibit to understand that Vietnam is a land of mountains. Every inch is used to cultivate products like rice, pepper and tobacco. At the same time, she focuses on the people who inhabit this rugged landscape. She noted, for instance, that the majority of Vietnam’s residents are under 30 because older residents died in the Vietnam War. As for upcoming projects, duRocher will have another exhibit in D.C. at the Zenith Gallery, which will open her show on Sept. 14. Later this fall, she will also have a show at St-Laurent + Hill in Ottawa. WD Kate Oczypok is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 37
WD | Culture | Film
Cinema Listings *Unless specific times are listed, please check the theater for times. Theater locations are subject to change.
ENGLISH Bel Canto Directed by Paul Weitz (U.S., 2018, 102 min.) A world-renowned opera singer becomes trapped in a hostage situation when she’s invited to perform for a wealthy industrialist in South America. Angelika Pop-Up Opens Fri., Sept. 21
Blindspotting Directed by Carlos López Estrada (U.S., 2018, 95 min.) Lifelong friends Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal co-wrote and star in this timely and wildly entertaining story about the intersection of race and class, set against the backdrop of a rapidly gentrifying Oakland. Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema
The Bookshop Directed by Isabel Coixet (U.K./Spain/Germany, 2018, 113 min.) In 1959 England, free-spirited widow Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) risks everything to open a bookshop in a conservative East Anglian coastal town. While bringing about a surprising cultural awakening, she earns the polite but ruthless opposition of a local grand dame (Patricia Clarkson) and the support and affection of a reclusive book loving widower (Bill Nighy). Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
Colette Directed by Wash Westmoreland (U.K./Hungary/U.S., 2019, 111 min.) After marrying a successful Parisian writer Willy, Colette (Keira Knightley) is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. Colette’s fight over creative ownership and gender roles drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionizing literature, fashion and sexual expression. Angelika Mosaic Opens Fri., Sept. 28
Crazy Rich Asians Directed by Jon M. Chu (U.S., 2018, 120 min.) New Yorker Rachel accompanies her
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | September 2018 fans—until now. Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
longtime boyfriend Nick to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. Excited about visiting Asia for the first time but nervous about meeting Nick’s family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life. It turns out that he is not only the scion of one of the country’s wealthiest families but also one of its most sought-after bachelors (English, Mandarin and Cantonese). Angelika Mosaic Angelika Pop-Up Atlantic Plumbing Cinema
Three Identical Strangers Directed by Tim Wardle (U.K., 2018, 96 min.) New York, 1980: Three complete strangers accidentally discover that they are identical triplets, separated at birth. The 19-yearolds’ joyous reunion catapults them to international fame, but it also unlocks an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes beyond their own lives - and could transform our understanding of human nature forever. Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema West End Cinema
Eighth Grade Directed by Bo Burnham (U.S., 2018, 93 min.) A rare film that perfectly captures the awkwardness of adolescence, this poignant comedy focuses on 13-year-old Kayla as she endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence and makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Full Metal Jacket Directed by Stanley Kubrick (U.S., 1987, 116 min.) After the harrowing experience of boot camp, Matthew Modine and company exchange one hell for another when they see action in Vietnam. AFI Silver Theatre Sun., Sept. 9, 9 p.m., Mon., Sept. 10, 9:30 p.m.
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection
Unarmed Verses PHOTO: SUNDANCE SELECTS
Primrose is one of five dogs selected to be trained as a guide dog for the blind in “Pick of the Litter.”
The Little Stranger
Nico, 1988
Pick of the Litter
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Ireland/U.K./France, 2018, 111 min.) During the long hot summer of 1948, Dr. Faraday is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, but it is now in decline and its inhabitants are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how disturbingly, the family’s story is about to become entwined with his own. Angelika Mosaic
Directed by Susanna Nicciarelli (Italy/Belgium, 2018, 93 min.) Approaching 50, Nico leads a solitary, low-key existence in Manchester, far from her 1960s glam days as a Warhol superstar and celebrated vocalist for cult band The Velvet Underground. Her career seems over, but her new manager gives Nico some needed drive to hit the road again to tour Europe, although she continues to struggle with addiction and personal demons. Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Directed by Don Hardy Jr. and Dana Nachman (U.S., 2018, 81 min.) Meet Patriot, Potomac, Primrose, Poppet and Phil — five spirited, adorable Labrador retriever puppies who, from the moment they’re born, begin an incredible journey to become guide dogs for the blind. It’s a rigorous two-year process that will take the pups from the care of selfless foster volunteers to specialized trainers and finally, if they make the cut, to a lifelong human companion. Landmark’s Theatres Opens Fri., Sept. 14
Love, Gilda
Directed by Julien Faraut (France, 2018, 95 min.) “In the Realm of Perfection” revisits the rich bounty of 16-mm-shot footage of the left-handed tennis star John McEnroe, at the time the world’s top-ranked player, as he competes in the French Open at Paris’s Roland Garros Stadium in 1984. West End Cinema
Directed by Lisa Dapolito (Canada/U.S., 2018, 88 min.) In her own words, comedian Gilda Radner reflects on her childhood, her comedy career, her relationships and, ultimately, her struggle with cancer. Landmark’s Theatres Opens Fri., Sept. 21
Juliet, Naked
Directed by Craig William Macneill (U.S., 2018, 105 min.) This psychological thriller is based on the infamous 1892 murders of the Borden family. Angelika Mosaic Opens Fri., Sept. 21
Directed by Jesse Peretz (U.S., 2018, 105 min.) “Juliet, Naked” is the story of Annie (the long-suffering girlfriend of Duncan) and her unlikely transatlantic romance with once revered, now faded, singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe, who also happens to be the subject of Duncan’s musical obsession. AFI Silver Theatre Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema
38 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
Lizzie
The Miseducation of Cameron Post Directed by Desiree Akhavan (U.S., 2018, 91 min.) In 1993, a teenage girl is forced into a gay conversion therapy center by her conservative guardians. Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Operation Finale Directed by Chris Weitz (U.S., 2018, 123 min.) The thrilling true story “Operation Finale” follows the 1960 covert mission of legendary Mossad agent Peter Malkin as he infiltrates Argentina and captures Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who masterminded the transportation logistics that brought millions of innocent Jews to their deaths in concentration camps (English and Spanish). AFI Silver Theatre Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema
RBG Directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West (U.S., 2018, 97 min.) At the age of 84, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But without a definitive Ginsburg biography, the unique personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior’s rise to the nation’s highest court has been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest
Directed by Charles Officer (Canada, 2017, 86 min.) “Unarmed Verses” follows the precociously talented Francine, a 12-year-old girl who is, along with her family and community, facing eviction from their lowincome housing block in Toronto. Armed with a luminous, undaunted creative spirit and a restless, generous intelligence, Francine turns to artistic expression as she and her friends prepare to record music and poetry together. AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Sept. 3, 7:30 p.m.
We the Animals Directed by Jeremiah Zagar (U.S., 2018, 94 min.) While brothers Manny and Joel grow into versions of their loving and unpredictable Paps, young Jonah is sheltered by his mother in the cocoon of their home. More sensitive and conscious than his older siblings, trying to navigate his way around his macho father and brothers while discovering his artistic and sexual leanings, Jonah increasingly embraces an imagined world all his own. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Papillon Directed by Michael Noer (Czech Republic/Spain/U.S., 2018, 133 min.) Based on the international bestselling autobiographic books, this film follows the epic story of Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld who is framed for murder and condemned to life in the notorious penal colony on Devil’s Island. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema
PHOTO: NICOLA DOVE / FOCUS FEATURES
Oliver Zetterstrom stars as a young Dr. Faraday in the haunting thriller “The Little Stranger.”
Film | Culture | WD
TURKISH
The Wife Directed by Björn Runge (Sweden/U.S./U.K., 2018, 100 min.) After nearly 40 years of marriage, Joan and Joe Castleman (Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce) are complements. Where Joe is vain, Joan is self-effacing. And where Joe enjoys his very public role as Great American Novelist, Joan pours her considerable intellect, grace, charm and diplomacy into the private role of Great Man’s Wife. As Joe is about to be awarded the Nobel Prize, this film interweaves the story of the couple’s youthful passion and ambition with a portrait of a marriage, 30-plus years later, filled with shared compromises, secrets, betrayals and mutual love. Angelika Mosaic Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Directed by Morgan Neville (U.S., 2018, 94 min.) For over 30 years, Fred Rogers, an unassuming minister, puppeteer, writer and producer, was beamed daily into homes across America. In his beloved television program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Fred and his cast of puppets and friends spoke directly to young children about some of life’s weightiest issues, in a simple, direct fashion. Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema West End Cinema
JAPANESE An Autumn Afternoon Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1962, 113 min.) The last film by Yasujiro Ozu was also his final masterpiece, a gently heartbreaking story about a man’s dignified resignation to life’s shifting currents and society’s modernization. Though the widower Shuhei has been living comfortably for years with his grown daughter, a series of events leads him to accept and encourage her marriage and departure from their home. Freer Gallery of Art Wed., Sept. 5, 2 p.m.
The Third Murder (Sandome no satsujin) Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan, 2018, 124 min.) Leading attorney Shigemori takes on the defense of murderrobbery suspect Misumi, who served jail time for another murder 30 years ago. Shigemori’s chances of winning the case seem low— his client freely admits his guilt, despite facing the death penalty if he is convicted. But as he digs deeper into the case, the onceconfident Shigemori begins to doubt whether his client is the murderer after all. West End Cinema
Ayla: The Daughter of War Directed by Sıtkı Can Ulkay (Turkey/South Korea, 2017, 125 min.) In 1950, amid the ravages of the Korean War, Sergeant Süleyman stumbles upon a half-frozen little girl with no parents and no help in sight. Frantic and on the verge of death, the girl captures Süleyman’s heart. He risks his own life to save her, smuggling her into his army base and out of harm’s way (Turkish, Korean and English). Freer Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 16, 6 p.m.
Big Big World
PHOTO: JOHN BEALE
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor” shows how Fred Rogers, left, seen here with Francois Scarborough Clemmons, broke ground with his children’s show that also tackled weighty issues.
MANDARIN The Great Buddha+ Directed by Huang Hsin-yao (Taiwan, 2017, 104 min.) Mixing class-consciousness with dirty jokes, this film tells the story of Pickle and Belly Button, two amiable working-class stiffs who make a shocking discovery while going through the dash-cam footage of Pickle’s wealthy playboy boss (Mandarin, Taiwanese dialect and English). Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Sept. 21, 7 p.m.
Legend of the Mountain Directed by King Hu (Taiwan/Hong Kong, 1979, 184 min.) A traveling scholar, intent on translating a Buddhist sutra, loses his way in the mountains. Time and space collapse around him as he continues his journey, encountering ghostly visitations amid a haunting fantasia of color, light and landscape. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 23, 2 p.m.
Love Education Directed by Sylvia Chang (China/Taiwan, 2017, 120 min.) Legendary Taiwanese actress and director Sylvia Chang plays a dying woman in her latest film effort. Memories of her father inspire the woman to move his grave from his home village to the family’s current city. But his feisty first wife refuses, touching off a family scuffle that becomes a social media sensation. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Sept. 28, 7 p.m.
On Happiness Road Directed by Sung Hsin-yin (Taiwan, 2017, 111 min.) The Freer|Sackler teams up with the Global Taiwan Institute for an evening of Taiwanese snacks,
the delightful animated feature “On Happiness Road” and director Sung Hsin-yin as a special guest. An “ambitious, affecting mix of history and nostalgia that avoids cheap sentimentality” (Hollywood Reporter), Sung’s semi-autobiographical film covers decades of Taiwanese history through the eyes of an expatriate. Her return home following her grandmother’s death prompts bittersweet nostalgia and self-reflection. Freer Gallery of Art Tue., Sept. 25, 7 p.m.
Traces of the Brush: The Heartprint of Fu Shen Directed by Eros Zhao (U.S./Taiwan, 2018, 65 min.) A Taiwanese scholar, collector, artist, and educator, Fu Shen is one of the most distinguished traditional connoisseurs of Chinese painting — and one of the last practitioners of this demanding discipline. Directed by his final pupil, this documentary explores Fu’s extraordinary career, including his time as a curator here at the Freer|Sackler from 1979 to 1994. Freer Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 30, 2 p.m.
SWEDISH After the Rehearsal Directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden/West Germany, 1984, 70 min.) Taking place within the confines of a single stage set and merging theater, memory and autobiography, this intimate film focuses on a veteran theater director preparing for his fifth production of August Strindberg’s “A Dream Play.” When he encounters both his ambitious young lead and the washed-up star of a former production, the encounters and connections between the three characters form a poignant meditation on life, theater and the
process of connecting the two. AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Sept. 3, 5:45 p.m.
Fanny and Alexander Part One and Two Directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden/France/West Germany, 1983, 175 min./150 min.) In the tour-de-force opening, ] brother and sister Fanny and Alexander celebrate a splendorous Christmas in 1907 Sweden. However, their fate takes a turn for the worse when their theatermanager father dies and their mother remarries a stern bishop. Escape from his household leads them, by an indirect path, into the life of an old Jewish antique dealer whose life still has room for the mysticism and magic of an earlier time (Swedish, English, German and Yiddish). AFI Silver Theatre Sat., Sept. 1, 1:05 p.m. (Part One) Sun., Sept. 2, 1:05 p.m. (Part Two)
Directed by Reha Erdem (Turkey, 2016, 101 min.) Teenagers Ali and Zuhal grew up in an orphanage and share a bond as strong as that between brother and sister. When Ali moves out on account of his age, Zuhal is put into the dubious care of a foster family and kept away from Ali. In a desperate attempt to save Zuhal from an arranged marriage, Ali commits a terrible crime, and they find themselves on the run, away from civilization and into the woods. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Sept. 14, 4 p.m.
Saraband Directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden/Denmark/Norway/Italy/ Finland/Germany/Austria, 2003, 107 min.) Ingmar Bergman’s final film is a sequel to 1973’s “Scenes from a Marriage,” which returns to the characters of Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) as they meet once more after 30 years without contact. The family is still mourning Anna, Henrik’s muchloved wife, who died two years earlier, yet who, in many ways, remains present among them. Marianne soon realizes that things are not all as they should be, and she finds herself unwillingly drawn into a complicated and upsetting power struggle (Swedish, English and German). AFI Silver Theatre Mon., Sept. 10, 7:15 p.m.
Qatar, 2017, 128 min.) Climate change has caused the near-extinction of human life in this spellbinding dystopian sci-fi film. Genetically engineered seeds, which have all but wiped out real grain, are mysteriously failing to work. While the establishment struggles to find answers, scientist Erol searches for a famed geneticist who disappeared some years ago after predicting this doomsday scenario. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Sept. 14, 1 p.m.
Sideway Directed by Tayfun Pirselimoğlu (Turkey, 2017, 119 min.) The residents of a small town set between a stormy sea and an ominous forest are going insane. A black ship anchored far away, a shrill sound, strange cases of arson, missing people and the sun suddenly turning black lead the townsfolk to believe that the Antichrist is around. A young, modest guy with a mysterious mark on his back arrives in this bizarre place. Could he be Christ arriving to save the town? Freer Gallery of Art Thu., Sept. 13, 7 p.m.
PHOTO: GRAEME HUNTER / SONY PICTURES CLASSICS / META FILM LONDON LTD
Glenn Close, right, gives a powerhouse performance as the spouse of literary giant Jonathan Pryce in “The Wife.”
Butterflies
The Wild Pear Tree
Directed by Tolga Karaçelik (Turkey, 2018, 112 min.) Siblings Cemal, Kenan and Suzi have grown apart since leaving the tiny village where they grew “up, and going their separate ways. But when their estranged father demands that they return home immediately, Cemal, the eldest, is tasked with convincing his brother and sister to journey back to places they have been striving to forget. Freer Gallery of Art Fri., Sept. 14, 7 p.m.
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey/France/Germany/Bulgaria Macedonia/Bosnia-Herzegovina Sweden, 2018, 188 min.) An aspiring writer returns to his hometown to try to further his career, only to be forced into a reckoning with his father’s shadowy past in this film suffused with the philosophical, visual, and narrative richness that characterize Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films (director in attendance). Freer Gallery of Art Sun., Sept. 16, 1 p.m.
Grain Directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu (Turkey/Germany/France/Sweden/
Culture arts & entertainment
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THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 39
WD | Culture | Events
Events Listings *Unless specific times are listed, please check the venue for times. Venue locations are subject to change. ART
multiculturalism, journeys and family memories. Touchstone Gallery
Sept. 7 to 29
Through Sept. 3
Inner Monologue
World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean
This new group exhibition features more than 30 ceramic sculpture works by Korean artists Ahrong Kim, Gunyoung Kim and Kyungmin Park, who explore the world of internal emotion and thought expressed through a visceral, tactile medium. Each artist immigrated to the United States from Korea in their 20s and were shaped creatively by the experience of communicating in a foreign language. This challenge of translating one’s inner monologue into external messages led to their artistic interest in the human body and facial expressions as psychological indicators. As keen observers of such non-verbal cues, they found the experience materialized in and affected their work, which emphasizes selfawareness and self-reflection as much as interpretation of others. Korean Cultural Center
The first major traveling exhibition dedicated to the arts of the Swahili coast reveals the diverse interchanges that break down barriers between Africa and Asia in a space that physically connects the Smithsonian’s African and Asian art museums. The Swahili coast, where East Africa meets the Indian Ocean, has long been a significant cultural, diplomatic and commercial intersection for Africa, Asia and Europe for millennia. “World on the Horizon” offers audiences an unprecedented opportunity to view over 160 artworks brought together from public and private collections from four continents. National Museum of African Art
Through Sept. 4
Expanding Spacetime: Works by Chae Eun Rhee and Sky Kim The vivid and evocative paintings of Chae Eun Rhee and Sky Kim ask viewers to imagine how the human mind and body transcend the constraints of time and space. As female artists who have each lived in Korea and the United States, Rhee and Kim employ fundamentally different visual styles and subjects, but both aspire to integrate a sense of spirituality into their work by crossing traditional boundaries between imagination and reality. By examining what makes us who we are, from the cellular to the unconscious, both ask viewers to visualize their own inner worlds that are deeply personal, rarely seen and startling to behold. Korean Cultural Center
Sept. 4 to Dec. 16
Without Provenance: The Making of Contemporary Antiquity Artist Jim Sanborn provides a critique of the contemporary art market that sells stolen or forged antiquities. The artist’s imagined world, which would make complete sense to an ancient Roman, is one wherein the skilled artist-craftsmen of contemporary Cambodia (who we now call forgers and who muddle the art market) would be understood to be what they are: gifted copyists. Their works would be bought for what they are — copies — and valued for what they offer: powerful evocations of the artistic genius of Khmer art of the distant past. American University Museum
Sept. 5 to 30
Passages and Borders Artist Rosa Vera travels between two cultures — Latin American and North American — to explore issues of
Sept. 8 to September 2019
Shaping Clay in Ancient Iran Potters in ancient Iran were fascinated by the long-beaked waterfowl and rams with curled horns around them. This exhibition of ceramics produced in northwestern Iran highlights animalshaped vessels as well as jars and bowls decorated with animal figures. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Through Sept. 9
Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia Approximately 60 works, drawn from the collection of Miami-based collectors and philanthropists Debra and Dennis Scholl, spotlight nine leading Aboriginal Australian women artists. The artists are from remote Aboriginal communities across Australia, and the subjects of their art are broad, yet each work is an attempt to grapple with fundamental questions of existence, asking us to slow down and pay attention to the natural world. The Phillips Collection Sept. 9 to Dec. 31
Corot: Women Camille Corot is best known as the great master of landscape painting in the 19th century. His figure paintings constitute a much smaller, less well-known portion of his oeuvre, but arguably are of equal importance to the history of art. Dressed in rustic Italian costume or stretched nude on a grassy plain, Corot’s women read, dream, and gaze, conveying a mysterious sense of inner life. His sophisticated use of color and his deft, delicate touch applied to the female form resulted in pictures of quiet majesty. National Gallery of Art
40 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
Sept. 12 to Oct. 14
If I Forget This observant, political-but-personal family drama set in 2000 centers on the dynamics of a modern Jewish family in D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood. Brought together by their elderly father’s 75th birthday, the adult children of the Fischer family squabble over what to do with their long-held and now lucrative 14th Street property, igniting debates on religion, politics and history. Tickets are $29 to $90. Studio Theatre Sept. 14 to Jan. 31, 2019
Vested Values “Vested Values,” a selection comprising more than 40 works of various Mexican contemporary artists, explores the representation of nature and its sociocultural environment. Each of the works reveals how particular methods of production, implementation and execution of contemporary art can offer a complex impression of the diverse elements that define a society, which in turn promotes a continuous dialogue on both experience and perception. Each of the works originates through an arrangement with Mexico’s Tax Administration Service that allows Mexican artists to pay their taxes with their artworks. Today, artists can pay their income tax using media that ranges from digital art to photography. Mexican Cultural Institute Through Sept. 16
Baselitz: Six Decades The first major U.S. retrospective in more than 20 years of Georg Baselitz, one of Germany’s greatest living artists, marks the artist’s 80th birthday. With more than 100 works, including iconic paintings, works on paper, and wood and bronze sculptures, highlighting every phase of Baselitz’s six-decade career from the 1950s to today, this milestone exhibition features work never before seen in the U.S. and cements Baselitz’s reputation as one of the most original and inventive figurative artists of his generation. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Sept. 16 to Jan. 13
Rachel Whiteread As the first comprehensive survey of the work of British sculptor Rachel Whiteread, this exhibition brings together some 100 objects from the course of the artist’s 30-year career, including drawings, photographs, architecture-scaled sculptures, archival materials, documentary materials on public projects and several new works on view for the first time. Throughout her celebrated career, Whiteread has effectively recast the memories of these locations and objects to chart the seismic changes
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | September 2018 in how we live, from the late 20th century and into the 21st. National Gallery of Art
and speak to the theme of human migration. New York Avenue, NW
Through Sept. 27
Sept. 29 to Jan. 21
Floating Islands: Ceramic Ikebana Vessels
Japan Modern: Photography from the Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection
Explore how a beloved Japanese tradition is being reinterpreted and inherited in the United States with ceramic ikebana vessels created by some of the most talented potters working within the U.S. today. Several of the artists have lived and studied in pottery towns in Japan such as Bizen, Mashiko and Shigaraki, where they were able to hone their art and bring back methods of making and firing to the United States. Japan Information & Culture Center Through Sept. 23
Form and Function: The Genius of the Book Dive deep into one of the world’s greatest technologies: the book. Discover a history beyond what’s printed on the page, seen in the structure, craftsmanship and beauty of this often-overlooked marvel. Folger Shakespeare Library Sept. 27 to Nov. 18
Recovered Memories: Spain and the Support for the American Revolution “Recovered Memories” showcases Spain’s support for the American colonies prior to and during the Revolutionary War, and also highlights notable Spanish figures whose lives impacted the emerging new country. The exhibit takes the visitor on a chronological journey of Spanish-American relations beginning with Spain’s own Age of Enlightenment during the reign of Charles III, through the times of European and American revolutions, and ending with the technological advancements at the turn of the 20th century. Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain Sept. 28 to September 2020
New York Avenue Sculpture Project Mexico City-based sculptor Betsabeé Romero has been selected as the artist for the fourth iteration of the New York Avenue Sculpture Project, the only public art space featuring changing installations of contemporary works by women artists in Washington, D.C. Organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the New York Avenue Sculpture Project is a collaboration among the museum, the DowntownDC Business Improvement District, the DC Office of Planning and other local agencies. For this site-specific installation, Romero has created four sculptures of carved and painted tires that are assembled into totemic structures
Celebrating the Freer|Sackler’s recent acquisition of a major Japanese photography collection, this exhibition features a selection of works by groundbreaking 20thcentury photographers. Whether capturing evocative landscapes or the gritty realities of postwar Japan, this presentation focuses on Japanese artists’ search for a sense of place in a rapidly changing country. The images highlight destinations both rural and urban, in styles ranging from powerful social documentary to intensely personal. Freer Gallery of Art Sept. 29 to Jan. 21
Japan Modern: Prints in the Age of Photography When photography arrived in Japan in the mid-19th century, traditional woodblock printmakers were forced to adapt their craft to keep pace with the new medium. This exhibition explores Japanese artists’ reactions to the challenges of modernity, examining the collapse of the traditional woodblockprintmaking industry in the face of the printing press and photography, and then tracing the medium’s resurrection as an art form, through which printmakers recorded scenes of their changing country in striking new ways. Freer Gallery of Art
Through Nov. 12
Mark Bradford: Pickett’s Charge For his first solo exhibition in D.C., acclaimed artist Mark Bradford debuts a monumental site-specific commission inspired by Paul Philippoteaux’s 1883 cyclorama depicting the Battle of Gettysburg. Covering the curved walls of the Hirshhorn’s Third Level Inner Circle, “Pickett’s Charge” presents 360 degrees of abstracted historical narrative. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Through Nov. 25
Bound to Amaze: Inside a Book-Collecting Career Curator Emerita Krystyna Wasserman assembled NMWA’s collection of more than 1,000 artists’ books over a 30-year period. This focus exhibition celebrates her vision and features 20 notable artists’ books from the museum’s expansive collection. National Museum of Women in the Arts Through Nov. 25
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age The Dutch rose to greatness from the riches of the sea. During the 17th century, water was central to their economic and naval successes, but was also a source of pleasure and enjoyment. This exhibition explores the deep, multifaceted relationship the Dutch had with the water, including their gratitude for the sea’s bounty and their fear of its sometimes destructive power. National Gallery of Art Through Dec. 25
Through Oct. 14
Collection of the Art Museum of the Americas The OAS AMA | Art Museum of the Americas announces the second in a series of exhibitions accompanying “Collection of the Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States, curated by Adriana Ospina. Initiated five years ago, the project aims to rethink the study of the historical and cultural legacy of the Art Museum of the Americas, beginning with a comprehensive catalogue of the permanent collection. The catalogue highlights key pieces of the AMA art collection, representing fundamental artistic trends that have developed in Latin America, including new figuration, geometric and lyrical abstraction, conceptual art, optical and kinetic art. Over the years, the museum has provided valuable support in the expansion of the academic field of modern and contemporary art of Latin America and the Caribbean in the United States. OAS Art Museum of the Americas
Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts More than 300 works of art from the museum’s permanent collection are on view within this exhibition. Working in media as diverse as wood, ceramics, drawing, jewelry, mixed media, sculpture, painting, photography, printmaking, and video, these works of art reflect the visionary ideas and styles developed by men and women from more than half of Africa’s 55 nations. The installation is organized around seven viewpoints, each of which serve to frame and affect the manner in which African art is experienced. National Museum of African Art Through Jan. 6, 2019
Sense of Humor Humor may be fundamental to human experience, but its expression in painting and sculpture has been limited. Instead, prints, as the most widely distributed medium, and drawings, as the most private, have been the natural vehicles for comic content. Drawn from the National Gallery of Art’s collection, this exhibition celebrates this incred-
Events | Culture | WD
ibly rich though easily overlooked tradition through works including Renaissance caricatures, biting English satires, and 20th-century comics. National Gallery of Art Through Jan. 6, 2019
Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen Trevor Paglen is an award-winning artist whose work blurs the lines between art, science and investigative journalism to construct unfamiliar and at times unsettling ways to see and interpret the world. This is the first exhibition to present Paglen’s early photographic series alongside his recent sculptural objects and new work with artificial intelligence. Smithsonian American Art Museum Through Jan. 13, 2019
Fabergé Rediscovered Designed to delight and surprise, the treasures created by the firm of Carl Fabergé have inspired admiration and intrigue for over a century, both for their remarkable craftsmanship and the captivating stories that surround them. The fascination with Fabergé continues to uncover new discoveries about the storied jeweler to the tsars and his remarkable creations. This exhibit unveils recent research and explore how the 2014 discovery of a long-lost imperial Easter egg prompted new findings about Hillwood’s own collection. Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Through Jan. 21, 2019
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man Each year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a city of more than 70,000 people rises out of the dust for a single week. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected and many are ritually burned to the ground. Cutting-edge artwork created at Burning Man, the annual desert gathering that is one of the most influential events in contemporary art and culture, will be exhibited in the nation’s capital for the first time this spring. Renwick Gallery
DANCE Sept. 26 to 30
TWB Welcomes The Washington Ballet Artistic Director Julie Kent invites celebrated artists from the dance world to share the stage with TWB. The program, which includes acclaimed highlights from choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, as well as iconic masterworks like “Serenade” and “Les Sylphides,”provides a highly curated production that defines ballet as an art form over the last century. Tickets are $25 to $160. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater
DISCUSSIONS Sat., Sept. 1, 1:35 p.m.
Jacqueline Woodson at the National Book Festival Jacqueline Woodson, the 2018-19
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, will read and sign books at this year’s National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. She is the winner of Sweden’s Astrid ALMA Prize, the largest international children’s and young adult literature award in the world. A presentation on the children’s purple stage will be followed by a book signing. Washington Convention Center Wed., Sept. 5, 7 p.m.
Music as a Strategy of Cultural Policy in Nazi Germany Austrian historian Bernhard Achhorner discusses the role of music as part of the Nazi regime’s propaganda strategy to create and articulate national identity. The event is part of the embassy’s commemoration series to mark one of the darkest moments in Austria’s history, the so-called “Anschluss” of Austria to Nazi-Germany in 1938 and the painful events that followed. To RSVP, visit http://acfdc.org. Embassy of Austria Thu., Sept. 6, 6:45 p.m.
Blueprints of Empire: Ancient Rome and America Was Marcus Aurelius right? Do empires come and go, have their moment and then disappear from history’s stage? In their 2010 book “Power, Ambition, Glory,” Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes, and historian and classicist John Prevas examined the rise and fall of ancient empires through an analysis of the political and moral leadership of the rulers who shaped them, with a parallel look at modern CEOs and how they fit into the framework of history. Forbes and Prevas come together to compare these two empires, their similarities and differences, and speculate on what that connection holds for America’s future. Tickets are $45; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. National Museum of Natural History Thu., Sept. 6, 6:45 p.m.
The Many Cultures of Taiwan Taiwan and its many smaller offshore islands may not be huge in area, but they contain vast history, traditions, cultures and natural attractions. Get ready to explore many of the treats Taiwan has to offer during a single spectacular evening that includes the sounds of the eight-part harmony of the Bunun tribe, the flying fish festival of the aboriginal Tao people, as well as authentic Taiwanese music, food and drinks. Tickets are $45; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org. S. Dillon Ripley Center Sat., Sept. 15, 5:30 p.m.
Liv Strömquist at the Small Press Expo In the international bestseller “Fruit of Knowledge,” celebrated Swedish cartoonist Liv Strömquist traces how different cultures and traditions have shaped women’s health and beyond. In a conversation with Swedish Embassy cultural counselor Linda
Zachrison, Strömquist will discuss her work, creative process, activist ethos and more at the Small Press Expo, the premier platform for graphic novelists in the United States. White Flint Auditorium at Marriott Bethesda North Wed., Sept. 19, 6 p.m.
Philippine Mangyan Heritage: A Lecture and Poetry Reading of Pre-Colonial Literature The US-Philippines Society and Sentro Rizal Washington DC present a discussion on the Mangyan ancient culture and the Philippine oldest system of writing, Mangyan scripts, dating to the 10th century that are still in use today. The event features “Bamboo Whispers,” a book of the best 100 Mangyan “ambahan” (poem) in two scripts, with translations. A national treasure and registered with UNESCO, an ambahan chant will also be performed. For information, contact info@usphilsociety.org. Embassy of the Philippines Thu., Sept. 27, 6:45 p.m.
Conversation: NEA National Heritage Fellows: Manuel Cuevas and Ofelia Esparza Director of the Smithsonian Latino Center Eduardo Diaz holds a discussion with Manuel Cuevas and Ofelia Esparza, the two artists of Mexican heritage who are the 2018 recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. Born in 1933, Cuevas gained popularity sewing prom dresses in his hometown of Michoacán at the young age of 14. His talents later took him to Hollywood, where he began working with influential designers and artists ranging from Nathan Turk to Elvis Presley. Esparza is a MexicanAmerican altarista, or altar maker, whose work pays homage and evokes memory of people, events or places through the use of photos, traditional foods, flowers, handmade and found adornments. To RSVP, visit http://www.instituteofmexicodc.org. Mexican Cultural Institute
GALAS Sat., Sept. 15, 7 p.m.
Wolf Trap Ball This annual black-tie evening of celebration, dinner and dancing on Wolf Trap’s magnificent Filene Center stage — one of the largest stages in America — is being hosted this year in partnership with the British Embassy. A prominent cross-section of local and national leaders attends the Wolf Trap Ball, including members of the diplomatic corps, Congress, state and local governments, media and philanthropic leaders, and executives from national and international businesses. Tickets start at $750. Wolf Trap
MUSIC Thu., Sept. 6, 6:45 p.m.
Recital with Musicologist Ana Alongso-Minutti While the romance between Chavela
Vargas (1919-2012) and Frida Kahlo (1907-54) has been a matter of much speculation, the love and devotion Chavela had for Frida was undeniable. In this presentation, Dr. Ana Alonso-Minutti of the University of New Mexico explores the figure of Frida from the eyes and voice of Chavela Vargas. Defiance, suffering, spirituality, and homoerotic desire inhabit the mythology of Chavela’s Frida. To RSVP, visit http://www.instituteofmexicodc.org. Mexican Cultural Institute Sept. 8 to 19
Viva V.E.R.D.I. – The Promised End Italian composer Giuseppi Verdi’s “dream project” was to compose an opera based on Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” his favorite play and a work whose unique meditation on themes of living and dying with meaning stayed seared into the composer’s consciousness his entire life. He started the project many times, but never completed it. The InSeries opens its season with a wholly original work that seeks to “give Verdi his Lear” by blending the Requiem with a one-woman meditation on “King Lear” that is at once a performance of the play and commentary on it. Tickets are $45. Source Theatre Tue., Sept. 18, 4 p.m.
Shoes (1916) with Live Film Score by Alexis Cuadrado The Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and SPAIN arts & culture present the world premiere and live performance of a new original film score composed by Alexis Cuadrado for the 1916 silent film “Shoes.” The film follows the story of a young woman who struggles to replace her only pair of shoes, which are falling to pieces, while supporting a family of six with a deadbeat father. For information, visit https://shoescuadrado. eventbrite.com. Georgetown University Copley Formal Lounge Wed., Sept. 26, 5:45 p.m.
The 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Nelson Mandela South African cellist Jacques-Pierre Malan returns to the Embassy Series with an outstanding contingent of South African performers in a special program to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth. Tickets are $95, including buffet, wine and valet parking; for information, visit www.embassyseries.org. Embassy of South Africa
THEATER Through Sept. 2
The Bridges of Madison County A sweeping romance about the roads we travel, the doors we open and the bridges we dare to cross, this 2014 Tony Award-winner for Best Score and Orchestrations captures the
lyrical expanse of America’s heartland and the yearning entangled in the eternal question of “what if?” Tickets are $55. Andrew Keegan Theatre Through Sept. 2
Melancholy Play: A Contemporary Farce Tilly, a bank teller, is consumed by a melancholy so exquisite that everyone she meets becomes infatuated with her. But when Tilly inexplicably discovers happiness, her joy wreaks havoc on the lives of her paramours. Please call for ticket information. Constellation Theatre Company at The Source Sept. 3 to 30
Gloria The squabbling editorial assistants at one of New York’s most prestigious magazines are all chasing the same dream: a starry life of letters and a book deal before they turn 30. When an ordinary day at the office suddenly becomes a living nightmare, two survivors transform the experience into career-making stories. Which one of them will get to own the truth? Call for ticket information. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Sept. 4 to 23
Macbeth Rampant ambition and minds unhinged: Shakespeare’s murderous tragedy is seen anew here, set in London’s famous Bedlam asylum for a groundbreaking production integrating period music into a famous variation of the play. Tickets are $27 to $79. Folger Theatre Sept. 6 to Oct. 7
Like Water for Chocolate Tita, the youngest of three sisters, falls in love with Pedro, but her mother forbids Tita to marry him. When Pedro marries the oldest sister, Rosaura, the three of them must live in the same house. To avoid temptation, Tita turns to cooking. Soon her delicacies provoke tears, laughter, burning desire and more to those who partake (Spanish with English surtitles). Tickets are $48. GALA Hispanic Theatre Sept. 6 to Oct. 14
Turn Me Loose This intimate and no-holds barred drama chronicles Dick Gregory’s rise as the first Black comedian to expose audiences to racial comedy. In confronting bigotry head-on with biting humor and charm, Gregory turned his activism into an art form, risking his own safety at each performance. Tickets are $40 to $95. Arena Stage Sept. 12 to 30
Theater J: The Pianist of Willesden Lane Set in Vienna in 1938 and London during the Blitzkrieg, “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” tells the true and inspiring story of Lisa Jura, a
young Jewish pianist whose dream of making her concert debut at the storied Musikverein concert hall is dashed by the onset of World War II. Despite devastating personal loss, her music enables Jura to endure and pursue her dreams. Performed by Jura’s daughter, Grammy-nominated pianist Mona Golabek, “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” combines enthralling story telling with breathtaking live performances of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and more. Tickets are $44 to $74. A special concert and reading will also be held Thu., Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. at the Embassy of Austria (for information, visit http://acfdc.org). Kennedy Center Family Theater Sept. 20 to 23
Svanda Theatre: Four Plays from Prague The prestigious Czech company Svanda Theatre performs “The Good and the True,” which weaves together testimonies of two Auschwitz survivors who led similarly extraordinary lives, but never actually met; “Pankrác ’45,” based on the real-life incarceration of five women in the Pankrác Prison during a time of post-WWII national cleansing in Czechoslovakia; and the one-act plays “Protest” and “The Debt” — as part of the celebrations surrounding the 100th anniversary of Czech independence. For ticket information, visit https://performingarts.georgetown.edu/theater-andperformance-studies-season. Georgetown University Davis Performing Arts Center Mon., Sept. 17, 6:30 p.m.
Dominio Público (Public Space) Award-winning Spanish artist Roger Bernat presents the U.S. premiere of “Dominio Público,” a unique participatory theater spectacle that aims to map societal structures. For information, visit www.spainculture. us/city/washington-dc/. Georgetown University Red Square Through Sept. 23
Passion Set in 1860s Italy, this gorgeous musical ignites a fiery love triangle when a handsome army captain is transferred to a remote military outpost and into the blinding infatuation of Fosca, the ailing cousin of his superior. Fosca’s fervent longing draws him in as it threatens to upend his career in an exhilarating tangle of obsession, desire, madness and above all, passion. Please call for ticket information. Signature Theatre Sept. 25 to Oct. 28
The Comedy of Errors Two sets of twins, each with the same name — what could go wrong? Everything, apparently. Leave logic behind and delight in the confusion of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, where servants misplace their masters, wives overlook their husbands and sons forget their fathers. Call for ticket information. Shakespeare Theatre Company
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 41
WD | Culture | Spotlight
Diplomatic Spotlight
September 2018
Taiwanese Cuisine at Twin Oaks
Canada Day 2018
Stanley Kao, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the U.S., and his wife Sherry Sung hosted a dinner banquet to pay tribute to the 130th anniversary of Twin Oaks and to promote Taiwanese food culture. Nearly the size of the White House compound, Twin Oaks is the largest private estate in D.C. and serves as the unofficial Taiwanese residence. Ching-long Huang, head chef at Taipei Non-Lai Restaurant, designed a menu of Taiwanese delicacies, including Triple Delight Starters made of pickled tomatoes, king oysters mushrooms in Japanese sauce and orange-flavored sweet potato, as well as boneless Formosa short-rib with mixed vegetables.
Hundreds of people came out decked in red and white to fête Canada Day at the country’s embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 1. In addition to live music, food, drinks and games, guests were treated to pose with the Stanley Cup, which was won this year by the Washington Capitals hockey team.
Sherry Sung and TECRO Representative Stanley Kao greet Ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis Thelma Philip-Browne.
TECRO Representative Stanley Kao talks with Ambassador of Honduras Marlon Ramsses Tábora Muñoz.
Ambassador of Swaziland Njabuliso Gwebu, Ambassador of Guatemala to the OAS Gabriel Edgardo Aguilera Peralta and Sherry Sung.
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), center, talks with TECRO Representative Stanley Kao and his wife Sherry Sung. PHOTOS: TECRO
Maryland Secretary of State John Wobensmith talks with TECRO Deputy Representative Christine Hsueh.
TECRO Representative Stanley Kao and Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah).
Chef Ching-long Huang.
TECRO Representative Stanley Kao talks to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), co-chair of the U.S. Congressional Taiwan Caucus. The Fruit Jewel Box.
42 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
TECRO Press Counselor Daniel Yilung Huang talks to Victorino Matus of The Weekly Standard.
The Four Seasons Treats consists of honey mustard smoked salmon, scallops with sakura shrimp, shaoxing wine chicken and cheese sausage with walnuts.
PHOTOS: CONNECT 2 CANADA
Spotlight | Culture | WD
Monaco’s Midsummer Soirée Ambassador of Monaco Maguy Maccario Doyle welcomed fellow ambassadors, members of the administration, supporters of the arts and other guests to a midsummer soirée at her residence on July 18. “The month of July has taken a very special meaning for all of us in the principality. It was on July 12, 2005, that our sovereign, Prince Albert, ascended to the throne of Monaco — an occasion which we are so proud to mark surrounded by the warmth of so many dear friends,” Maccario Doyle said. “I am thrilled to see many friends of Monaco from many different fields — diplomacy, politics, government, business, arts and entertainment, and even aerospace.” On that note, The Washington Diplomat will be hosting an Ambassador Insider Series on Sept. 6 at The Line Hotel featuring Maccario Doyle and Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, who will discuss future trends in space. In November, Monaco will celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Orleans with a series of cultural and culinary events to mark the deep historical ties between Monaco and the Big Easy. Also in November, Monaco commemorates 60 years of NASA with its “Pioneers and Innovators of Our Time” program featuring some of today’s preeminent leaders in air and space travel and technology. Ambassador of Kazakhstan Erzhan Kazykhanov, journalist Jan Smith, Ambassador of Turkmenistan Meret Bairamovich Orazov, Irina Borisovna Orazova and Danara Kazykhanova.
Alyssa Brawner, realtor Jamie Brawner, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, Jackie Bolden, Ambassador of Monaco Maguy Maccario Doyle, former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Director of the National Air and Space Museum Ellen Stofan and Tim Dunn. PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF MONACO
Alicia Adams, vice president of international programming for the Kennedy Center, and Mary V. Mochary.
President of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-USA J.B. Kelly and Alexandra Golaszewska.
The Washington Ballet’s Brittany Stone and Brooklyn Mack.
Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht, Ambassador of Qatar Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani and Ambassador of Monaco Maguy Maccario Doyle.
Ambassador of Rwanda Mathilde Mukantabana, Shahin Mafi of Home Health Connection LLC, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce and wife of the Azerbaijani ambassador Lala Abdurahimova.
Anna Gawel of The Washington Diplomat and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.).
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THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 43
WD | Culture | Spotlight
Diplomatic Spotlight
September 2018
Embassies Show Gay Pride
Joanna Breyer Book Party
A range of embassies came out to celebrate LGBT rights by participating in the Gay Pride Parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, including diplomats from Britain, Australia, Canada and the Nordic countries. The British Embassy kicked off its Gay Pride participation in 15 cities across America as part of its Love is GREAT campaign. “The U.K. was the first foreign embassy to march in Pride parades in the U.S.,” said British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, “and we continue to participate each year because celebrating diversity, protecting human rights and promoting open society are core British values.” Meanwhile, the embassies of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden joined the parade with a float crafted to look like a Viking ship.
Friends of psychosocial counselor Joanna Breyer, wife of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, joined her at the McLean home of journalist Jan Smith to celebrate Joanna Breyer’s new book, “When Your Child Is Sick: A Guide to Navigating the Practical and Emotional Challenges of Caring for a Child Who Is Very Ill.” Educated at Oxford and Harvard, Joanna Breyer spent over 25 years at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, helping to inform her book that provides expert advice for families struggling with a sick child. PHOTO: SCOTT MARDER PHOTO: SCOTT MARDER
British diplomats participate in D.C.’s Capital Pride Parade.
The British Embassy participates in D.C.’s Capital Pride Parade as part of its Love is GREAT campaign.
PHOTOS: © TONY POWELL
Author Joanna Breyer, Chief Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland, literary agent Susan Ginsburg and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
PHOTO: UK IN THE US
The British host a pre-party ahead of the Gay Pride Parade at the residence.
PHOTO: SCOTT MARDER
British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch and his wife Lady Vanessa Darroch.
PHOTO: UK IN THE US
The British host a pre-party ahead of the Gay Pride Parade at the residence.
Coach Kathy Kemper, founder of the Institute for Education; wife of the South Korean ambassador Sunae Woo; journalist Jan Smith; author Joanna Breyer; FCC Chairman Ajit Pai; and Dr. Janine Van Lancker.
The Nordic countries crafted a float in the shape of a Viking ship.
At the Capital Pride Parade, employees from all five Nordic embassies, along with their families, wore colorful shirts with the logo #Nordics4Equality.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) talks about how her own family had been personally touched by child illness.
Ambassador of Denmark Lars Gert Lose, Ambassador of Norway Kåre R. Aas, Ambassador of Sweden Karin Olofsdotter and Ambassador of Finland Kirsti Kauppi join supporters at the Capital Pride Parade.
Ambassador of Norway Kåre R. Aas, Ambassador of Denmark Lars Gert Lose and his wife Ulla Rønberg.
In all five Nordic countries, marriage equality is the law and same-sex couples are able to adopt children.
Director, President and CEO of the Wilson Center Jane Harman and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
PHOTO: CONNECT 2 CANADA PHOTO: CONNECT 2 CANADA
The Embassy of Canada participates in D.C.’s Capital Pride Parade.
44 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
Members of the Canadian Embassy participate in D.C.’s Capital Pride Parade.
PHOTO: CONNECT 2 CANADA
The Embassy of Canada participates in D.C.’s Capital Pride Parade.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and Kathleen Biden.
Spotlight | Culture | WD
Bastille Day 2018
Philippine Independence Day
Comité Tricolore hosted its annual Bastille Day celebration at the French Embassy on July 13, with the theme of celebrating Alsace, the historical region in northeastern France on the Rhine River plain. Hundreds of guests turned out to sample specialties by local chefs, sip champagne and wine, listen to live gypsy jazz by the Hot Club of Baltimore and participate in an online auction. Proceeds go to Comité Tricolore, a nonprofit that serves French and French-American organizations of the D.C. area to share ideas, develop relationships and promote French culture.
The Embassy of the Philippines toasted the country’s 120th anniversary of independence with a lavish reception at the Trump International Hotel. As part of the Independence Day celebrations, the embassy also hosted “Hibla ng Lahing Filipino,” a traveling exhibition that showcases Philippine textiles and weaving traditions. The display at the embassy’s chancery annex included lectures, weaving demonstrations, and embroidery workshops featuring pineapple and silk (piña-seda) weavers and embroiderers from Kalibo, Aklan and Lumban, Laguna Philippines.
PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF FRANCE
Ambassador of France Gérard Araud welcomes guests to the French Embassy for the 2018 Bastille Day celebration. Ambassador of the Philippines Jose Manuel G. Romualdez and U.S. Undersecretary of Navy Thomas Modly offer a toast at the Trump Hotel Independence Day reception.
National Museum of the Philippines Jeremy Barns, Museum Assistant Director Ana Labrador, Ambassador of the Philippines Jose Manuel G. Romualdez and Filipino artist Virgilio Almario. Ambassador of the Philippines Jose Manuel G. Romualdez, right, and National Museum of the Philippines Jeremy Barns, left, cut the ribbon to formally open the “Hibla ng Lahing Filipino” exhibition, while National Commission for Culture and the Arts Chairman Virgilio Almario and National Museum of the Philippines Assistant Director Ana Labrador look on. The exhibit “Hibla ng Lahing Filipino” included weaving demonstrations.
“Hibla ng Lahing Filipino” is the country’s first permanent textile gallery that highlights the indigenous artistry of Filipinos through traditional textiles.
International Student House Garden Party Ambassador of Malta Pierre Clive Agius and Wenhong Chen, an ISH-DC resident scholar from China.
The International Student House of Washington, D.C. (ISH-DC) held its annual garden party at its R Street residence in the heart of Dupont Circle, where the nonprofit houses roughly 300 international scholars over the course of the year. Since its establishment in 1934, more than 15,000 young scholars and professionals from about 140 countries have lived at ISH-DC house. PHOTOS: INTERNATIONAL STUDENT HOUSE OF WASHINGTON, D.C.
Wife of the Portuguese ambassador Isabel Vital (in red), wife of the ambassador of Liechtenstein Laurette Jaeger (in gold), Ambassador of South Africa Mninwa Johannes Mahlangu and ISH-DC Executive Director Tom O’Coin.
President of the ISH-DC Board of Directors Cynthia Bunton and Justice Shorter, a disability integration advisor for FEMA and an ISH-DC alumna.
Ambassador of the Philippines Jose Manuel G. Romualdez welcomes guests to the Independence Day reception.
National Commission for Culture and the Arts Chairman Virgilio Almario and professor Erwin Tiongson discuss Philippine culture and the arts during an event co-organized by the Philippine Embassy and the U.S.-Philippines Society.
Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and his wife Dr. Deborah Malumed.
Above, the exhibit “Hibla ng Lahing Filipino” included weaving demonstrations. Ambassador of Iceland Geir H. Haarde and Lawrence Dunham of Protocol Partners.
Ambassador of Austria Wolfgang Waldner and Ambassador of Belgium Dirk Wouters.
Chairman of Capital Investment Management Hani Masri; Associate Vice President of Van Scoyoc Associates Buzz Hawley; and Director of International Government Relations at Archer Daniels Midland Co. Lorraine Hawley.
PHOTOS: EMBASSY OF THE PHILIPPINES
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 45
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Mattis CONTINUED • PAGE 8
There has been speculation that Mattis has fallen out of favor with Trump and is no longer in his inner circle. That is debatable, said Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy and currently an adjunct senior fellow in the Center for a New American Security’s Transatlantic Security Program. “I don’t think Mattis was ever in Trump’s inner circle. That’s a pretty exclusive and eclectic group,” he said. “But there have been stories that Trump is relying more on his own instinct and close circle of friends and less on experts/ professionals, including Mattis. But that has quieted down. I don’t think military issues are a top priority or interest for Trump, except as political props. “As long as Mattis keeps his head down and remains totally focused on the U.S. military and its mission, which is what he does so well, he will stay out of Trump’s crosshairs,” Townsend said. Townsend, who worked for more than two decades on European and NATO policy at the Pentagon, said Mattis’s major accomplishments as defense secretary to date include “keeping the transatlantic defense community together, both bilaterally and at NATO, while also being tough with allies to increase defense
CREDIT: DOD PHOTO BY TECH SGT. VERNON YOUNG JR.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis holds a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on June 8, 2018. While President Trump has railed against NATO members for not spending enough on defense, Mattis has quietly reassured allies that the U.S. remains committed to the bloc.
spending.” On the domestic side, Cancian of CSIS said one of Mattis’s greatest accomplishments is increasing the defense budget. “After 2014, with the Russian annexation of the Crimea, the surge of ISIS [Islamic State] and continued Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, a large gap had opened between DoD’s resources and its strategy. The defense budget
46 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018
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needed to increase in order to close this gap. Although there was a bipartisan consensus about this, Mattis, working with the White House, was able to get a budget agreement that provided increased resources at a level that was higher than most experts expected would be achievable,” Cancian said. The defense budget got a boost this year with the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act
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of 2018, which raises the caps on both defense and nondefense spending in fiscal 2018 and 2019. The result: one of the biggest defense budgets in modern U.S. history. On Aug. 13, Trump signed the 2019 defense bill, which authorizes $716 in top-line spending, including $639 billion for the Pentagon’s base budget and $69 billion for overseas contingency operations funding. “The National Defense Authorization Act is the most significant investment in our military and our war fighters in modern history,” Trump declared in front of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. “We are going to strengthen our military like never ever before and that’s what we did.” Among other things, the bill gives troops a pay raise and authorizes money for 77 F-35 fighter jets and 13 new warships. The defense bill also reinforces the position held by Mattis and many national security leaders: that the U.S. needs to treat Russia as a great-power competitor (although Trump notably objected to several Russia-related provisions that could handcuff his ability to cooperate with Moscow on issues such as Crimea). But details of specific spending priorities still have to be ironed out by Congress — and that’s exactly where Mattis the “Warrior Monk,” not the “Mad Dog,” will likely play his usual behind-the-scenes role to shape the country’s national security policies. WD Aileen Torres-Bennett is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat. Anna Gawel (@diplomatnews) is managing editor of The Washington Diplomat.
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Embassy Series CONTINUED • PAGE 35
and travel, and the cultural cuisine served at the receptions, all of which, Barry stresses, is essential to creating the international ambience for which the series is known. The artists, however, come first. “One of our missions is supporting our artists. It costs money, it’s a lot of work and you have to be devoted to it. If you don’t have passion and talent, you haven’t got it. We respect artists because we are artists,” Barry said. “Performing is a way for us to grow. “The first thing that always gets cut is the arts,” he lamented. “That’s not good because the arts brings people together in a nonpolitical, non-confrontational way. These people are just like us. Music is a way of presenting their country in a positive way.”
With 25 years under his belt, Barry has no intention of slowing down. This upcoming season will highlight artists from Afghanistan, Belgium, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Peru and Slovakia. It kicks off with South African cellist Jacques-Pierre Malan, who will perform at the embassy on Sept. 26 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mandela’s birth. It is concerts like these that Barry values the most — bringing in music from other cultures to give audiences a better appreciation of the nation on a deeper level. And Barry plans to continue looking outside the box for artists. As for the organization’s future direction, the founder is intent on keeping the Embassy Series going after he retires and is looking to the younger generation for musicians with his passion to take the lead, because, as Barry puts it, “what better way to bring people together than through music.” WD Candace Huntington is an editorial intern for The Washington Diplomat.
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LEARN MORE:
For more information, on the Embassy Series, visit www.embassyseries.org, or read past articles in The Washington Diplomat, including: “Axis of Engagement: Embassy Series Sings Praises of Cooperation Over Confrontation” in the October 2009 issue; “Embassy Series Duo Revels in Sweet Sounds of Success” in the September 2011 issue; and “Embassy Series Marks Its 20th Anniversary Season” in the October 2013 issue.
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 47
Education Re-Imagined As the first truly global school, we are creating an innovative personalized approach to education. We have cultural and language immersion for day and boarding students so they can excel as global citizens. Accepting applications now at our Washington D.C. campus for September 2019. VISIT OR CALL OUR PARENT INFORMATION CENTER CALL 202 417 3615 FIND OUT MORE AT WHITTLESCHOOL.ORG
ILLUSTRATION: VIOLETA LÓPIZ
48 | THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | SEPTEMBER 2018