About the Author: Tom Weinz is the dedicated Foreign Service Liaison Officer for Pacific Partnership 2011.

For the third year in a row I have celebrated Fourth of July as part of a Pacific Partnership mission, many hours before similar celebrations began in the United States. In fact, as I write this, the fireworks are probably just beginning over the Mall in Washington, D.C. 

Pacific Partnership 2011 (PP11) is in the city of Kolonia, in the state of Pohnpei, in the independent country of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The Caroline Islands (originally named Islas de Carolina for King Charles II of Spain in the late 1600s) emerged from the battles of World War II as a United Nations Trust Territory, administered by the United States. Two separate island groups within the Carolines, Palau and the FSM, later declared independence, with the FSM signing a Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1986 (amended in 2003), which defines U.S.-FSM relations… more »