Welcome to my home page and note the changed e-mail above.
I resigned from the U.S. Foreign
Service on
February 25, 2003, after almost 20 years in the State
Department. My resignation
letter inspired some fine
people. Now I am neck-deep in a book on the Greek
revolutionary organization/terrorist group "17 November."
Their 27-year history is full of insights into the human condition,
discouraging for the most part but also grimly amusing.
The
longer I live in Athens the more I am sucked into local melodramas.
One of them has generated lovely rumors that I am a secret agent
(and an American ex-diplomat foolish enough to research a book on
terrorism in Greece by talking to actual suspects can expect raised
eyebrows). For the record, I am what I seem, a writer with rapidly
dwindling savings, a relatively wide knowledge of Greece
and Greek, and a weakness for analytical rigor and doomed but
virtuous causes.
Since
2003 I have been lecturing,
including a year at Princeton University, writing
articles, and grappling
with why we routinely misread the behavior of
foreigners. Watching the disaster in Iraq, Americans
now appreciate the need for humane, realistic diplomacy. My
book Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an
Unloved Superpower (Potomac Books 2006, paperback
edition Sept. 2007, Greek translation Nov. 2007) is aimed first at the
thousands of young Americans who (correctly) see the Foreign Service
as a fine career option. The
reviews
have been enthusiastic. Diplomacy
Lessons is also a great reminder for your favorite
foreign-policy pundit that fixing the planet is more complicated
than he/she suspects.
There
are moral/political as well as educational/recreational reasons
for buying
my book. I resigned five
years short of a pension, though I can look forward to $19K per year beginning in
2017. My example should not deter other civil servants
from speaking up when preventable disaster looms.
Ties to
Greece date back to 1979 when I studied
archaeology at the American School of Classical
Studies. Until May 2009 I wrote a monthly column called
"Diplomat in the Ruins" and occasional pieces for the Athens News.
New owner, businessman Petros Kyriakides, decided to intervene to
protect the English-speaking community (or the sensibilities of his
advertiser-friends) from non-ethnocentric views. You can still read
my old articles by clicking
here -- some of them have stood the test of time.
I spent much of September
and October 2008 helping Democrats Abroad
Greece get out the vote for Barack Obama. For some reasons, click
here. Now the fate of the planet seems to depend on
President Obama's handling of multiple, hugely difficult crises. He
is doing well. But
sending new troops to Afghanistan is a mistake.
Fellow FSO Ann Wright's book Dissent: Voices of
Conscience, from