Bidding Hiatus II

Today marks a milestone in this season's bidding process: the day bids are due.

For the next couple of weeks, the various bureaus will be sorting and consorting and deciding which jobs to offer "handshakes" to which officers. Officially, no "handshakes" can be offered until Nov. 4. At that point, things can get pretty interesting and intense.

CAA is interested in some more, you guessed it, consular work. And feels pretty confident he'll find some. The thing is, in consular work, even when you're not looking for it, it finds you.

Cheers!

Bidding Hiatus

Sadly, sometime next year my tenure as Our-Man-In-Port Plaisance must come to a conclusion as I begin the next phase of my career involving "worldwide availability."

The Foreign Service has a, er, wonderful (yes, THAT's the word!) process by which FSOs find their next job(s). And I'm in the middle of it. And since the lobbying and bidding process itself is somewhat attention intensive, I needs must let things slide a touch in the CAA wing of the manse. Elsewise I may find myself Our-Man-In-A-Yurt (or worse).

So I expect to resume posting here at CAA after the middle of October, sometime.

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The average FSO spends, on average, about two-thirds of his/her/its career posted abroad (or "deployed," as it is sometimes appropriately termed) and the other third in a domestic assignment, about 90 percent of which are in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Some positions are available in various other domestic locations, primarily such things as passport centers (Bureau of Consular Affairs), field and resident offices (Bureau of Diplomatic Security), or in administrative, payroll, or logistic support facilities as in Charleston, S.C., and Miami, Fl.

There are also a number of outside-the-Department training, educational, broadening, or academic fellowship opportunities in places like Capitol Hill, the various DoD colleges and universities, and some civilian universities (Princeton, GWU, &tc.).

So it's not like there aren't jobs out there, although the supply/demand can flex a bit from year to year in terms of the available jobs.

Some plum jobs I'm considering:

PAO in Absurdsvanj*
NIV Unit Chief in Krasnya**
Staff Assistant to the Special Envoy to Harzia
Commercial Officer, Al-Alemand
Consular Chief, St. Nicholas
Political Officer, Franistan
Charge d'Affaires for Equatorial Kundu
Deputy Principal Officer, Grand Fenwick
ACS Unit Chief, Port Royal***
GSO, Loompaland****
Management Officer, Lower Slobbovia
Visa Chief, Macho Grande
Economics Officer, Centralia
Protocol Officer, Ohtar
Deputy Principal Officer, APP Qwghlm*****
Motor Pool Officer, Tijata
Fraud Prevention Chief, Varina
Cultural Affairs Officer, Zamunda
Post Security Officer, Zembala

and

Deputy Chief of Mission, Flyville******

Some domestic possibilities include:

Desk Officer for Berzerkistan
Desk Officer for Ecuarico
Post Management Officer for Kinakuta
Desk Officer for Malaguay
Refugee Affairs Officer for Mypos

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Cheers!


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* PAO = Public Affairs Officer
** NIV = Non-Immigrant Visa
*** ACS = American Citizens Services
**** GSO = General Services Officer
***** APP = American Presence Post
****** Bonus points for anyone who can correctly identify the source of this name.

re: "Could We Just Buy Off Gaddafi's Mercenaries?"

Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz has clearly been reading her Machiavelli.

Money quote(s):

"Gaddafi is relying on foreign mercenaries to serve as his security troops just like Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu relied on hired Palestinians. This is a sure sign that his regime has little to no internal support.

My spouse and I were explaining this to our son who asked, “So, since they’re mercenaries, couldn’t we just outbid Gaddafi?”

We laughed at the idea at first but then stopped to think. Back in the day when mercenaries were far more common, they could sometimes be bought off especially if it looked like their current employer would never be able to pay up. The basic economics of a mercenary life has not changed so maybe Gaddafi’s mercenaries would be just as susceptible to financial inducements as their historical predecessors. Gaddafi supposedly has a lot of money to pay his mercs with but I think it safe to say we have more and a much better track record of paying off."

re: "The Historical Record Does Not Treat the Timid Kindly"

No Double Standards at Muttering Behind the Hardline ("Just Trying to Make Sense of It All") is behind the curtain, (with the great and powerful Oz).

Money quote(s):

"In the interest of full disclosure, I find myself in my current position quite by accident. During the last bid cycle, the list was filled with jobs in places to which my wife would not go, as well as places my wife preferred with jobs that I could never swallow hard and take. Incidentally, Consular Chief in Tunis was one of those jobs; my wife wanted to go. I declined, because I was sure I'd be bored to tears. Whoops.

My time inWashington has been nothing short of enlightening, an epiphany, an opportunity to peak behind the curtain. Especially in this time of unprecedented change in the Middle East, to have a front-row seat to policy formulation in reaction to these events is beyond fascinating.But in this short post, let me pass to you a fundamental observation about decision-making in Washington: way too much thought goes into it. Don't misunderstand me: after the experience of the Bush administration, I deeply value an intellectually-rigorous National Security Council that turns issues over and over in a deliberate, rational, measured way. But the danger, in my experience, comes from the old adage of "paralysis of analysis." "

Ah, the agony of bidding, and the narrowing of possibilities as one becomes more senior. It's good to spend some time back in the homeland, even "inside the beltway" every couple of tours; one tends to lose touch with ones own culture. I'm still not sure who Lady Gaga is (or why I should care).

Aside from the gratuitous pimp-slap at the NSC staff of the previous administration (neither of us were, apparently, on it), his point about the "paralysis of analysis" is perfectly valid.

"History has proven time and time and time again that only the brave, only the courageous, only those who are willing to act on principle even in the absence of answers to all the outstanding questions -- only those are celebrated by countless future generations as heroes.

There is a huge risk in acting without any guarantee of success.

There is a massive risk in weighing in on behalf of the powerless when that action may be perceived as imperialism.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Consular officers are taught to make decisions, any decision, without dithering overmuch and in the absence of complete information. After all, aside from Caddyshack's Karl Spackler (who will, on his deathbed, achieve total consciousness) who ever has complete information?

"Courage is the quality by which a man executes a decision solely on the basis of principle without all the information he would ideally have, and without concern for the potential negative fallout that decision might have on his own political future.

A politician consumed primarily with his political legacy is doomed to failure.

A leader with the courage to go with his gut and push his chips in even without the conviction that he is holding the best hand -- this is the man who has the opportunity to achieve greatness."

Most of us don't think of it as courage, particularly. But: "it's why they pay us the big bucks."