CYBERNOTES
50 Years Ago...
Today, whether or not he aspires to be a deputy chief of
mission, every officer of the Foreign Service should, in
the course of his career, become acquainted with as many
of the tools of his trade as possible. One of these accepted tools is now
cultural exchange.
— Donald Edgar, from “Cultural Exchange and the Foreign Service Officer,”
in the FSJ, June 1959.
Rights Initiative, a nongovernmental
organization that believes states should
be legally obligated to protect non-conflict IDPs under such circumstances.
IRRI acknowledges that the 1951
Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol do not mandate such protection,
but points to a new, binding protocol
that has come into force in the Great
Lakes region of Africa: the International Conference of the Great Lakes’
Protocol on the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons
(
www.refugee-rights.org/Publica
tions/RRN/2009/February/V5.I1.
Can TheICGLR.html). The protocol
addressing the Bujagali Dam Project
and establishment of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda
may be a model for wider international
adoption, as well.
— Betsy Swift, AFSA Intern, and
Senior Editor Susan B. Maitra
The Somali Piracy Poser
Until recently, the idea of pirates in
the 21st century sounded outlandish.
But the issue forced itself onto the U.S.
foreign policy agenda in April, when
Somali pirates took over the Maersk
Alabama, holding Captain Richard
Phillips hostage. After five days, U.S.
Navy Seals brought the drama to an
end, freeing the captain, capturing one
pirate and killing the rest.
On April 15, Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a
series of initiatives to combat the problem, including the formation of a State
Department team to press Somali government officials to act against pirates
on land, work with international peace-keeping circles to help the county police its own territory, and assist the
shipping industry with implementing
self-defense measures. An international contact group will also meet regularly to improve coordination of naval
patrols in the region and explore freezing pirate assets (
www.state.gov/sec
retary/rm/2009a/04/ 121758.htm).
At this writing, Somali pirates were
holding some 16 ships and more than
250 seamen (none American) for ransom. According to the Malaysia-based
International Maritime Bureau, such
attacks off the coast of Somalia increased tenfold during the first three
months of 2009 compared to the same
period in 2008, and are continuing at
the rate of two to three per week.
The vast geographic area involved
makes policing very difficult, if not impossible. Five naval ships, both American and others, are currently on
counterpiracy missions in the Gulf of
Aden and Indian Ocean regions. The
European Union, which launched a
naval operation in December with at
least 12 of the 27-member states, has
four to eight warships deployed in the
region and is seeking more spotter
