title: Arctic Ocean

text: As noted, the process of ice formation and movement is a key driver in Arctic Ocean circulation and the formation of water masses. With this dependence, the Arctic Ocean experiences variations due to seasonal changes in sea ice cover. Sea ice movement is the result of wind forcing, which is related to a number of meteorological conditions that the Arctic experiences throughout the year. For example, the Beaufort High—an extension of the Siberian High system—is a pressure system that drives the anticyclonic motion of the Beaufort Gyre. During the summer, this area of high pressure is pushed out closer to its Siberian and Canadian sides. In addition, there is a sea level pressure (SLP) ridge over Greenland that drives strong northerly winds through the Fram Strait, facilitating ice export. In the summer, the SLP contrast is smaller, producing weaker winds. A final example of seasonal pressure system movement is the low pressure system that exists over the Nordic and Barents Seas. It is an extension of the Icelandic Low, which creates cyclonic ocean circulation in this area. The low shifts to centre over the North Pole in the summer. These variations in the Arctic all contribute to ice drift reaching its weakest point during the summer months. There is also evidence that the drift is associated with the phase of the Arctic Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Much of the Arctic Ocean is covered by sea ice that varies in extent and thickness seasonally. The mean extent of the Arctic sea ice has been continuously decreasing in the last decades, declining at a rate of currently 12.85% per decade since 1980 from the average winter value of . The seasonal variations are about , with the maximum in April and minimum in September. The sea ice is affected by wind and ocean currents, which can move and rotate very large areas of ice. Zones of compression also arise, where the ice piles up to form pack ice.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Icebergs occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island, and icebergs are formed from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada. Icebergs are not sea ice but may become embedded in the pack ice. Icebergs pose a hazard to ships, of which the "Titanic" is one of the most famous. The ocean is virtually icelocked from October to June, and the superstructure of ships are subject to icing from October to May. Before the advent of modern icebreakers, ships sailing the Arctic Ocean risked being trapped or crushed by sea ice (although the "Baychimo" drifted through the Arctic Ocean untended for decades despite these hazards).


title: Arctic Ocean

text: The Arctic Ocean is contained in a polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges. Winters are characterized by the polar night, extreme cold, frequent low-level temperature inversions, and stable weather conditions. Cyclones are only common on the Atlantic side. Summers are characterized by continuous daylight (midnight sun), and air temperatures can rise slightly above . Cyclones are more frequent in summer and may bring rain or snow. It is cloudy year-round, with mean cloud cover ranging from 60% in winter to over 80% in summer.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: The temperature of the surface water of the Arctic Ocean is fairly constant at approximately , near the freezing point of seawater.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: The density of sea water, in contrast to fresh water, increases as it nears the freezing point and thus it tends to sink. It is generally necessary that the upper of ocean water cools to the freezing point for sea ice to form. In the winter, the relatively warm ocean water exerts a moderating influence, even when covered by ice. This is one reason why the Arctic does not experience the extreme temperatures seen on the Antarctic continent.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: There is considerable seasonal variation in how much pack ice of the Arctic ice pack covers the Arctic Ocean. Much of the Arctic ice pack is also covered in snow for about 10 months of the year. The maximum snow cover is in March or April—about over the frozen ocean.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: The climate of the Arctic region has varied significantly during the Earth's history. During the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum 55 million years ago, when the global climate underwent a warming of approximately , the region reached an average annual temperature of . The surface waters of the northernmost Arctic Ocean warmed, seasonally at least, enough to support tropical lifeforms (the dinoflagellates "Apectodinium augustum") requiring surface temperatures of over .


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Due to the pronounced seasonality of 2–6 months of midnight sun and polar night in the Arctic Ocean, the primary production of photosynthesizing organisms such as ice algae and phytoplankton is limited to the spring and summer months (March/April to September). Important consumers of primary producers in the central Arctic Ocean and the adjacent shelf seas include zooplankton, especially copepods ("Calanus finmarchicus", "Calanus glacialis", and "Calanus hyperboreus") and euphausiids, as well as ice-associated fauna (e.g., amphipods). These primary consumers form an important link between the primary producers and higher trophic levels. The composition of higher trophic levels in the Arctic Ocean varies with region (Atlantic side vs. Pacific side) and with the sea-ice cover. Secondary consumers in the Barents Sea, an Atlantic-influenced Arctic shelf sea, are mainly sub-Arctic species including herring, young cod, and capelin. In ice-covered regions of the central Arctic Ocean, polar cod is a central predator of primary consumers. The apex predators in the Arctic Ocean—marine mammals such as seals, whales, and polar bears—prey upon fish.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Endangered marine species in the Arctic Ocean include walruses and whales. The area has a fragile ecosystem, and it is especially exposed to climate change, because it warms faster than the rest of the world. Lion's mane jellyfish are abundant in the waters of the Arctic, and the banded gunnel is the only species of gunnel that lives in the ocean.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Petroleum and natural gas fields, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, sand and gravel aggregates, fish, seals and whales can all be found in abundance in the region.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: The political dead zone near the centre of the sea is also the focus of a mounting dispute between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark. It is significant for the global energy market because it may hold 25% or more of the world's undiscovered oil and gas resources.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: The Arctic ice pack is thinning, and a seasonal hole in the ozone layer frequently occurs. Reduction of the area of Arctic sea ice reduces the planet's average albedo, possibly resulting in global warming in a positive feedback mechanism. Research shows that the Arctic may become ice-free in the summer for the first time in human history by 2040. Estimates vary for when the last time the Arctic was ice-free: 65 million years ago when fossils indicate that plants existed there to as recently as 5,500 years ago; ice and ocean cores going back 8,000 years to the last warm period or 125,000 during the last intraglacial period.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Warming temperatures in the Arctic may cause large amounts of fresh melt-water to enter the north Atlantic, possibly disrupting global ocean current patterns. Potentially severe changes in the Earth's climate might then ensue.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: As the extent of sea ice diminishes and sea level rises, the effect of storms such as the Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 on open water increases, as does possible salt-water damage to vegetation on shore at locations such as the Mackenzie Delta as stronger storm surges become more likely.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Global warming has increased encounters between polar bears and humans. Reduced sea ice due to melting is causing polar bears to search for new sources of food. Beginning in December 2018 and coming to an apex in February 2019, a mass invasion of polar bears into the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya caused local authorities to declare a state of emergency. Dozens of polar bears were seen entering homes, public buildings and inhabited areas.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Sea ice, and the cold conditions it sustains, serves to stabilize methane deposits on and near the shoreline, preventing the clathrate breaking down and outgassing methane into the atmosphere, causing further warming. Melting of this ice may release large quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, causing further warming in a strong positive feedback cycle and marine genera and species to become extinct.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: Other environmental concerns relate to the radioactive contamination of the Arctic Ocean from, for example, Russian radioactive waste dump sites in the Kara Sea, Cold War nuclear test sites such as Novaya Zemlya, Camp Century's contaminants in Greenland, and radioactive contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.


title: Arctic Ocean

text: On 16 July 2015, five nations (United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark/Greenland) signed a declaration committing to keep their fishing vessels out of a 1.1 million square mile zone in the central Arctic Ocean near the North Pole. The agreement calls for those nations to refrain from fishing there until there is better scientific knowledge about the marine resources and until a regulatory system is in place to protect those resources.


title: United States Department of State

text: The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nations, its primary duties are advising the U.S. president on international relations, administering diplomatic missions, negotiating international treaties and agreements, and representing the United States at the United Nations conference.


title: United States Department of State

text: Established in 1789 as the first administrative arm of the U.S. executive branch, the State Department is considered among the most powerful and prestigious executive agencies. It is headed by the secretary of state, who reports directly to the U.S. president and is a member of the Cabinet. Analogous to a foreign minister, the secretary of state serves as the federal government's chief diplomat and representative abroad, and is the first Cabinet official in the order of precedence and in the presidential line of succession. The position is currently held by Antony Blinken, who was appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate on January 26, 2021, by a vote of 78–22.


title: United States Department of State

text: As of 2019, the State Department maintains 273 diplomatic posts worldwide, second only to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It also manages the U.S. Foreign Service, provides diplomatic training to U.S. officials and military personnel, exercises partial jurisdiction over immigration, and provides various services to Americans, such as issuing passports and visas, posting foreign travel advisories, and advancing commercial ties abroad. The department administers the oldest U.S. civilian intelligence agency, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and maintains a law enforcement arm, the Diplomatic Security Service.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Articles of Confederation did not designate a separate executive branch of the government. Foreign affairs were delegated to the Committee of Secret Correspondence by the Congress of the Confederation in 1775, based on the Committee of Correspondence that was used by the colony of Massachusetts to communicate with the other colonies. The Committee of Secret Correspondence was renamed the Committee of Foreign Affairs in 1777. In 1781, the Department of Foreign Affairs was established as a permanent body to replace the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and the office of secretary of foreign affairs was established to lead the department.


title: United States Department of State

text: The U.S. Constitution, drafted September 1787 and ratified the following year, gave the president responsibility for conducting the federal government's affairs with foreign states. To that end, on July 21, 1789, the First Congress approved legislation to reestablish the Department of Foreign Affairs under the new government, which President George Washington signed into law on July 27, making the department the first federal agency to be created under the new Constitution. This legislation remains the basic law of the Department of State.


title: United States Department of State

text: In September 1789, additional legislation changed the name of the agency to the Department of State and assigned it a variety of domestic duties, including managing the United States Mint, keeping the Great Seal of the United States, and administering the census. President Washington signed the new legislation on September 15. Most of these domestic duties gradually were transferred to various federal departments and agencies established in the 19th century. However, the secretary of state still retains a few domestic responsibilities, such as serving as keeper of the Great Seal and being the officer to whom a president or vice president wishing to resign must deliver an instrument in writing declaring the decision.


title: United States Department of State

text: Reflecting the fledgling status of the US at the time, the Department of State under Secretary Jefferson comprised only six personnel, two diplomatic posts (in London and Paris), and 10 consular posts. When Jefferson took charge of the department, one clerk oversaw The Foreign Office and another oversaw the Home Office. Congress authorized the department hire a chief clerk for each office in June 1790, but the offices were consolidated under a single clerk the following month. In 1793, responsibility over patents was transferred from the cabinet to the Department of State. The office of superintendent of patents was created to carry out this responsibility, but the office was not recognized by Congress until 1830.


title: United States Department of State

text: For much of its history, the Department of State was composed of two primary administrative units: the diplomatic service, which staffed US legations and embassies, and the consular service, which was primarily responsible for promoting American commerce abroad and assisting distressed American sailors. Each service developed separately, but both lacked sufficient funding to provide for a career; consequently, appointments to either service fell on those with the financial means to sustain their work abroad. Combined with the common practice of appointing individuals based on politics or patronage, rather than merit, this led the department to largely favor those with political networks and wealth, rather than skill and knowledge.


title: United States Department of State

text: In 1833, Secretary of State Louis McLane oversaw a major restructure of the Department of State into a formal collection of seven bureaus: the Diplomatic Bureau; the Consular Bureau; the Home Bureau; the Bureau of Archives, Laws, and Commissions; the Bureau of Pardons and Remissions, Copyrights, and the Care of the Library; the Disbursing and Superintending Bureau; and the Translating and Miscellaneous Bureau. His successor John Forsyth reduced this number to just four the following year, overseen by a chief clerk: the Diplomatic Bureau; the Consular Bureau; the Home Bureau; and the Keeper of the Archives, Translator, and Disbursing Agent.


title: United States Department of State

text: The office of Commissioner of Patents was created in 1836. In 1842, the Department of State was required to report to Congress on foreign commercial systems, and a clerk within the department was assigned the responsibility of arranging this information. This position was established as the Superintendent of Statistics in 1854 and the Statistical Office was created within the department. In 1853, the office of Assistant Secretary of State was created to oversee the heads of each bureau.


title: United States Department of State

text: A Commissioner of Immigration existed between 1864 and 1868. An Examiner of Claims was established in 1868 to address claims by American citizens against foreign nations, but it was abolished in 1868 and then reestablished in 1870 under the newly established Law Bureau. In 1870, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish reorganized the department into twelve bureaus: the Chief Clerk's Bureau, two Diplomatic Bureaus, two Consular Bureaus, the Law Bureau, the Bureau of Accounts, the Statistical Bureau, the Bureau of Translations, the Bureau of Pardons and Commissions, the Bureau of Domestic Records, and the Passport Bureau. The bureaus of law, translations, and domestic records each consisted of a single person responsible for that duty. A mail division was established in 1872 and the office of Keeper of Rolls was made independent of the Chief Clerk's Bureau in 1873.


title: United States Department of State

text: Congress legally recognized the bureau system and provided official salaries for some bureau positions in 1873. Following Congressional recognition, several acts of Congress modified the structure of the bureaus between 1874 and 1882. At the end of the nineteenth century, the department consisted of the Chief Clerk's Bureau, the Diplomatic Bureau, the Consular Bureau, the Bureau of Accounts, the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, the Bureau of Appointments, and the Bureau of Archives. Other offices, such as that of translator, also operated separately from the bureau system.


title: United States Department of State

text: In 1903, the Bureau of Foreign Commerce was transferred to the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor, and the bureau was replaced by an office to facilitate the transfer of information between consular offices and the new department. The Passport Bureau was restored the same year, and its name was changed to the Bureau of Citizenship in 1907. The department underwent a major reform in 1909 when Congress expanded its funding. Separate divisions were established within the department for Latin American Affairs, Far Eastern Affairs, Near Eastern Affairs, Western European Affairs, and Information. An additional Division of Mexican Affairs was established in 1915. The Bureau of Trade Relations was abolished in 1912 and replaced by an Office of Foreign Trade Advisers, and the Office of the Adviser on Commercial Treaties was split from this office in 1916.


title: United States Department of State

text: During World War I, the Bureau of Citizenship was tasked with vetting every person that entered or departed from the United States to ensure public safety. New branches for the Bureau of Citizenship were opened in New York and San Francisco. In the final months of World War I, the Bureau of Citizenship was split into the Division of Passport Control and the Visa Office. Other changes made during World War I include the conversion of the Division of Information into the Division of Foreign Intelligence in 1917 and the establishment of the Correspondence Bureau in 1918. The Division of Russian Affairs was established in 1919, and the Division of Political Information were established in 1920.The Department of State underwent its first major overhaul with the Rogers Act of 1924, which merged the diplomatic and consular services into the Foreign Service, a professionalized personnel system under which the secretary of state is authorized to assign diplomats abroad. An extremely difficult Foreign Service examination was also implemented to ensure highly qualified recruits, along with a merit-based system of promotions. The Rogers Act also created the Board of the Foreign Service, which advises the secretary of state on managing the Foreign Service, and the Board of Examiners of the Foreign Service, which administers the examination process.


title: United States Department of State

text: The post-Second World War period saw an unprecedented increase in funding and staff commensurate with the US's emergence as a superpower and its competition with the Soviet Union in the subsequent Cold War. Consequently, the number of domestic and overseas employees grew from roughly 2,000 in 1940 to over 13,000 in 1960.


title: United States Department of State

text: In 1997, Madeleine Albright became the first woman appointed secretary of state and the first foreign-born woman to serve in the Cabinet.


title: United States Department of State

text: The 21st century saw the department reinvent itself in response to the rapid digitization of society and the global economy. In 2007, it launched an official blog, Dipnote, as well as a Twitter account of the same name, to engage with a global audience. Internally, it launched a wiki, Diplopedia; a suggestion forum called the Sounding Board; and a professional networking software, "Corridor". In May 2009, the Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) was created to provide remote internships to students. The same year, the Department of State was the fourth most desired employer for undergraduates according to "BusinessWeek".


title: United States Department of State

text: From 2009 to 2017, the State Department launched "21st Century Statecraft," with the official goal of "complementing traditional foreign policy tools with newly innovated and adapted instruments of statecraft that fully leverage the technologies of our interconnected world." The initiative was designed to utilize digital technology and the Internet to promote foreign policy goals; examples include promoting an SMS campaign to provide disaster relief to Pakistan, and sending DOS personnel to Libya to assist in developing Internet infrastructure and e-government.


title: United States Department of State

text: Colin Powell, who led the department from 2001 to 2005, became the first African-American to hold the post; his immediate successor, Condoleezza Rice, was the second female secretary of state and the second African-American. Hillary Clinton became the third female secretary of state when she was appointed in 2009.


title: United States Department of State

text: In 2014, the State Department began expanding into the Navy Hill Complex across 23rd Street NW from the Truman Building. A joint venture consisting of the architectural firms of Goody, Clancy and the Louis Berger Group won a $2.5 million contract in January 2014 to begin planning the renovation of the buildings on the Navy Hill campus, which housed the World War II headquarters of the Office of Strategic Services and was the first headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Executive Branch and the Congress have constitutional responsibilities for US foreign policy. Within the Executive Branch, the Department of State is the lead US foreign affairs agency, and its head, the secretary of state, is the president's principal foreign policy advisor. The department advances US objectives and interests in the world through its primary role in developing and implementing the president's foreign policy. It also provides an array of important services to US citizens and to foreigners seeking to visit or immigrate to the United States.


title: United States Department of State

text: All foreign affairs activities—US representation abroad, foreign assistance programs, countering international crime, foreign military training programs, the services the department provides, and more—are paid for out of the foreign affairs budget, which represents little more than 1% of the total federal budget.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Department of State conducts these activities with a civilian workforce, and normally uses the Foreign Service personnel system for positions that require service abroad. Employees may be assigned to diplomatic missions abroad to represent the United States, analyze and report on political, economic, and social trends; adjudicate visas; and respond to the needs of US citizens abroad.


title: United States Department of State

text: The US maintains diplomatic relations with about 180 countries and maintains relations with many international organizations, adding up to 273 posts around the world. In the United States, about 5,000 professional, technical, and administrative employees work compiling and analyzing reports from overseas, providing logistical support to posts, communicating with the American public, formulating and overseeing the budget, issuing passports and travel warnings, and more. In carrying out these responsibilities, the Department of State works in close coordination with other federal agencies, including the departments of Defense, Treasury, and Commerce. The department also consults with Congress about foreign policy initiatives and policies.


title: United States Department of State

text: The secretary of state is the chief executive officer of the Department of State and a member of the Cabinet who answers directly to, and advises, the president of the United States. The secretary organizes and supervises the entire department and its staff.


title: United States Department of State

text: Under the Obama administration, the website of the Department of State had indicated that the State Department's 75,547 employees included 13,855 foreign service officers; 49,734 locally employed staff, whose duties are primarily serving overseas; and 10,171 predominantly domestic civil service employees.


title: United States Department of State

text: Since the 1996 reorganization, the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), while leading an independent agency, also reports to the secretary of state, as does the US ambassador to the United Nations.


title: United States Department of State

text: As of November 2018, people nominated to ambassadorships to 41 countries had not yet been confirmed by the Senate, and no one had yet been nominated to ambassadorships to 18 additional countries (including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Egypt, Jordan, South Africa, and Singapore). In November 2019, a quarter of US embassies around the world—including Japan, Russia and Canada—still had no ambassador.


title: United States Department of State

text: From 1790 to 1800, the State Department was headquartered in Philadelphia, the national capital at the time. It occupied a building at Church and Fifth Street. In 1800, it moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., where it briefly occupied the Treasury Building and then the Seven Buildings at 19th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.


title: United States Department of State

text: The State Department moved several times throughout the capital in the ensuing decades, including six buildings in September 1800; the War Office Building west of the White House the following May; the Treasury Building once more from September 1819 to November 1866; the Washington City Orphan Home from November 1866 to July 1875; and the State, War, and Navy Building in 1875.


title: United States Department of State

text: Since May 1947, the State Department has been based in the Harry S. Truman Building, which originally was intended to house the Department of Defense; it has since undergone several expansions and renovations, most recently in 2016. Previously known as the "Main State Building""," in September 2000 it was renamed in honor of President Harry S. Truman, who was a major proponent of internationalism and diplomacy.


title: United States Department of State

text: As the DOS is located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, it is sometimes metonymically referred to as "Foggy Bottom".


title: United States Department of State

text: The US Department of State has in the recent years rolled out Professional Exchange Fellows who have risen to professional ranks in their lives and are chosen by the US Embassies worldwide to be a professional fellows of the State Department spending time in the United States and interacting with their American colleagues, leadership and counterparts.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the Fulbright Program, competitively selected US citizens may become eligible for scholarships to study, conduct research, or exercise their talents abroad; and citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States. The program was established to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Fulbright Program provides 8,000 grants annually to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university lecturing, and classroom teaching. In the 2015–16 cycle, 17% and 24% of American applicants were successful in securing research and English Teaching Assistance grants, respectively. However, selectivity and application numbers vary substantially by country and by type of grant. For example, grants were awarded to 30% of Americans applying to teach English in Laos and 50% of applicants to do research in Laos. In contrast, 6% of applicants applying to teach English in Belgium were successful compared to 16% of applicants to do research in Belgium.


title: United States Department of State

text: The US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsors the Fulbright Program from an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress. Additional direct and in-kind support comes from partner governments, foundations, corporations, and host institutions both in and outside the US The Fulbright Program is administered by cooperating organizations like the Institute of International Education. It operates in over 160 countries around the world. In each of 49 countries, a bi-national Fulbright Commission administers and oversees the Fulbright Program. In countries without a Fulbright Commission but that have an active program, the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy oversees the Fulbright Program. More than 360,000 persons have participated in the program since it began. Fifty-four Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes; eighty-two have won Pulitzer Prizes.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Jefferson Science Fellows Program was established in 2003 by the DoS to establish a new model for engaging the American academic science, technology, engineering and medical communities in the formulation and implementation of US foreign policy.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Fellows (as they are called, if chosen for the program) are paid around $50,000 during the program and can earn special bonuses of up to $10,000. The program's intent is to equip Fellows with awareness of procedural intricacies of the Department of State/USAID, to help with its daily operations. The program is applied for, follows a process starting in August, and takes about a year to learn a candidate's ranking results. Awards are not solely achievement based, but intelligence and writing skills should support one's suitability for the position as the committee determines. A candidate applies for the program online, which entails submitting a curriculum vitae, a statement of interest and a written essay. Opportunity is provided to upload letters of recommendations and nominations to support one's application.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Franklin Fellows Program was established in 2006 by the DoS to bring in mid-level executives from the private sector and non-profit organizations to advise the department and to work on projects.


title: United States Department of State

text: Fellows may also work with other government entities, including the Congress, White House, and executive branch agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, and Department of Homeland Security. The program is named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, and aims to attract mid-career professionals to enrich and expand the department's capabilities. Unlike the Jefferson Science Fellows Program, a Franklin Fellowship is a year-long volunteer position for which one may obtain sponsor support or participate out of personal resources. Participation areas assigned to Franklin Fellows are determined by several factors, including issues of priority to the country as well as a candidate's degree of career seniority and personal interests.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) (pronounced ) is a program of the DoS for emerging leaders from Southeast Asia. The program was launched by President Barack Obama in Manila in December 2013 as a way to strengthen leadership development, networking, and cultural exchange among emerging leaders within the age range of 18 to 35 years old from the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Timor Leste.


title: United States Department of State

text: YSEALI's programs include competitive exchange fellowship programs to the United States, virtual and on-ground workshops within Southeast Asia, and seed grant funding opportunities. The programs fall under the key core themes of civic engagement, sustainable development, economic development, governance, and the environment.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is a program of the DoS for emerging young leaders in Africa. It was begun in 2010 by President Barack Obama to promote education and networking among emerging African leaders through the Mandela Washington Fellowship which brings them to study in the United States for six weeks, with follow-up resources, and student exchange programs. In 2014, the program was expanded to include four regional "leadership centers" in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.


title: United States Department of State

text: Diplomats in Residence are career Foreign Service Officers and Specialists located throughout the US who provide guidance and advice on careers, internships, and fellowships to students and professionals in communities they serve. Diplomats in Residence are located in 16 population-based regions throughout the United States.


title: United States Department of State

text: In 1978, the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) formed an office to use excess military and government aircraft to support counter-narcotics operations of foreign states. The first aircraft used was a crop duster used to eradicate illicit crops in Mexico in cooperation with local authorities. The separate Air Wing was established in 1986 as use of aviation assets grew in the war on drugs.


title: United States Department of State

text: After the September 11 attacks and the subsequent War on Terror, the Air Wing went on to expand its operations from mainly anti-narcotics operations to providing security support for United States nationals and interests, primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Safe transports for various diplomatic missions were undertaken, requiring acquisition of larger aircraft, such as Sikorsky S-61, Boeing Vertol CH-46, Beechcraft King Air and De Haviland DHC-8-300. In 2011, the Air Wing was operating over 230 aircraft around the world, the main missions still being counter narcotics and transportation of state officials.


title: United States Department of State

text: In 1964, at the height of the Cold War, Seabees were assigned to the State Department after listening devices were found in the Embassy of the United States in Moscow; this initial unit was called the "Naval Mobile Construction Battalion FOUR, Detachment November". The U.S. had just constructed a new embassy in Warsaw, and the Seabees were dispatched to locate "bugs". This led to the creation of the Naval Support Unit in 1966, which was made permanent two years later. That year William Darrah, a Seabee of the support unit, is credited with saving the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia from a potentially disastrous fire. In 1986, "as a result of reciprocal expulsions ordered by Washington and Moscow" Seabees were sent to "Moscow and Leningrad to help keep the embassy and the consulate functioning".


title: United States Department of State

text: The Support Unit has a limited number of special billets for select NCOs, E-5 and above. These Seabees are assigned to the Department of State and attached to Diplomatic Security. Those chosen can be assigned to the Regional Security Officer of a specific embassy or be part of a team traveling from one embassy to the next. Duties include the installation of alarm systems, CCTV cameras, electromagnetic locks, safes, vehicle barriers, and securing compounds. They can also assist with the security engineering in sweeping embassies (electronic counter-intelligence). They are tasked with new construction or renovations in security sensitive areas and supervise private contractors in non-sensitive areas. Due to Diplomatic protocol the Support Unit is required to wear civilian clothes most of the time they are on duty and receive a supplemental clothing allowance for this. The information regarding this assignment is very scant, but State Department records in 1985 indicate department security had 800 employees, plus 1,200 marines and 115 Seabees. That Seabee number is roughly the same today.


title: United States Department of State

text: Headquartered on Navy Hill, across the street from the Harry S. Truman building, ARCTU is a component of the Army Reserve funded and staffed by Military Intelligence Readiness Command's National Intelligence Support Group but under operational control of the Bureau of Counterterrorism. It is also a senior member of Diplomatic Security's Foreign Emergency Support Team, which responds to global crises on short notice. Little information is available on the unit, though they often wear civilian clothes like other military enablers of the State Department mission.


title: United States Department of State

text: In FY 2010 the Department of State, together with "Other International Programs" (such as USAID), had a combined projected discretionary budget of $51.7 billion. The United States Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 2010, entitled 'A New Era of Responsibility', specifically 'Imposes Transparency on the Budget' for the Department of State.


title: United States Department of State

text: The end-of-year FY 2010 DoS Agency Financial Report, approved by Secretary Clinton on November 15, 2010, showed actual total costs for the year of $27.4 billion. Revenues of $6.0 billion, $2.8 billion of which were earned through the provision of consular and management services, reduced total net cost to $21.4 billion.


title: United States Department of State

text: Total program costs for 'Achieving Peace and Security' were $7.0 billion; 'Governing Justly and Democratically', $0.9 billion; 'Investing in People', $4.6 billion; 'Promoting Economic Growth and Prosperity', $1.5 billion; 'Providing Humanitarian Assistance', $1.8 billion; 'Promoting International Understanding', $2.7 billion; 'Strengthening Consular and Management Capabilities', $4.0 billion; 'Executive Direction and Other Costs Not Assigned', $4.2 billion.


title: United States Department of State

text: The Department of State's independent auditors are Kearney & Company. Since in FY 2009 Kearney & Company qualified its audit opinion, noting material financial reporting weaknesses, the DoS restated its 2009 financial statements in 2010. In its FY 2010 audit report, Kearney & Company provided an unqualified audit opinion while noting significant deficiencies, of controls in relation to financial reporting and budgetary accounting, and of compliance with a number of laws and provisions relating to financial management and accounting requirements. In response the DoS Chief Financial Officer observed that "The Department the equal of any large multi-national corporation."


title: United States Department of State

text: Since 1973 the primary record keeping system of the Department of State is the Central Foreign Policy File. It consists of copies of official telegrams, airgrams, reports, memorandums, correspondence, diplomatic notes, and other documents related to foreign relations. Over 1,000,000 records spanning the time period from 1973 to 1979 can be accessed online from the National Archives and Records Administration.


title: United States Department of State

text: In the 2015 Center for Effective Government analysis of 15 federal agencies which receive the most Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (using 2012 and 2013 data), the State Department was the lowest performer, earning an "F" by scoring only 37 out of a possible 100 points, unchanged from 2013. The State Department's score was dismal due to its extremely low processing score of 23 percent, which was completely out of line with any other agency's performance.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Call of Duty: WWII is a 2017 first-person shooter game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It was released worldwide on November 3, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One. It is the fourteenth main installment in the "Call of Duty" series and the first title in the series to be set primarily during World War II since "" in 2008.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: The game's campaign is set in the European theatre and is centered around a squad in the 1st Infantry Division following their battles on the Western Front and set mainly in the historical events of Operation Overlord. The player controls Ronald "Red" Daniels, who has squadmates who can supply the player with extra ammunition, health, or grenades as well as a targeted grenade and target spotting; none of these are automatically replenished in the campaign. The multiplayer mode features map locations not seen in the campaign. The mode also features the new Divisions system, replacing the create-a-class system that previous games in the series used. A social hub, named Headquarters, was also implemented into the game, allowing for players to interact with each other.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Sledgehammer Games were interested in bringing the series back to World War II after developing their previous title, "" (2014), which featured advanced movements and futuristic warfare technology. Studio head Michael Condrey stated that he was unsure if a World War II game would feel right after creating a futuristic title like "Advanced Warfare", but the developers ultimately decided to create a game in this time period. They also chose to include atrocities and Nazi concentration camps in the campaign mode to deliver an authentic war story.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Upon release, the game received generally positive reviews from critics. Praise was given towards its story, the changes to combat, multiplayer modes, and visuals. However, it was criticized for the single-player's lack of innovation and similarity to past games set in the same era. The game was a commercial success, generating $500 million of revenue within just three days of its release. It became the highest-grossing console game of 2017 in North America, and generated over in worldwide revenue by the end of the year.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "Call of Duty: WWII" is a first-person shooter game. Not similar to its recent predecessors, it removes the advanced system of movement present in the two previous "Call of Duty" titles, which included double jumping and wall running. Instead, it features a return of traditional movement to the series, taking it back to an original "boots on the ground" (which refers to non-aerial ground combat) gameplay style. The game features an unlimited sprint mechanic, seen in the previous two titles. Instead of a "slide" movement mechanic, which allowed players to slide quickly on the ground, "WWII" features a "hit-the-deck" mechanic that allows the player to leap forward and throw themselves on the ground in order to get to cover quickly, similarly to a previous mechanic known as "dolphin dive" in Treyarch's "" and "".


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "WWII" is the first title since the original game and "" not to feature health regeneration in the campaign. Instead, players must find health packs scattered throughout levels, or rely on their medic squadmate to provide health packs. Other members of the player's squad can provide ammunition, grenades, call in mortar strikes, or spot enemies and reveal their position in form of silhouettes. In certain sections of the game, enemy soldiers in the campaign can be captured, and wounded allies can be dragged to cover. In some parts of the campaign, players are able to control vehicles.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: The multiplayer mode for "Call of Duty: WWII" was revealed on E3 2017, which took place from June 13–15. Sledgehammer Games announced features such as the new headquarters social space, divisions, war mode and the return to "boots-on-the-ground" gameplay. Players who pre-order the game were invited to a closed beta, which was released initially for the PlayStation 4, and later released on other platforms.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: In online multiplayer matches, players are randomly assigned either to Allies or Axis side. With regards to playing as the latter, Glen Schofield, co-founder and co-studio head at Sledgehammer, said "The big distinction that Germans still make today is that between the German military and the Nazis. We made sure we made that distinction in the game, that the Germans were doing their duty".


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Instead of the usual create-a-class system, "WWII" features Divisions. Players can choose one out of five (later eight) divisions, each with their own different basic combat training, division training and weapon skills. Players need to progress through ranks in divisions in order to use additional perks, in addition to a global perk system named Basic Training. The divisions featured in the game are:


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: On April 6, Sledgehammer Games announced an overhaul to the Divisions system, which includes massive changes to the meta of the system: Division-specific weapon skills are selectable as attachments for the corresponding weapon classes rather than being tied to the Divisions (with LMG bipods and sniper sharpshooter abilities being available by default), and several Division trainings are switched out/adjusted to better promote their recommended playstyle, without posing limitation of customization on the players. Other global changes include allowing suppressors on pistols, usage of rocket launchers without needing the Launched basic training, and infinite sprinting.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "WWII" also features Headquarters mode, which acts as a social space in the game. The hub is set on the Omaha Beach in Normandy, three days after the invasion when Allies retake the beach and turn it into a base. 48 players can be in the Headquarters at a time, and take part in various activities. For example, players can watch other players open loot boxes while in the Headquarters. There is a firing range in the hub, where all players can practice their shooting skills with all weapons, as well as a field where they can test scorestreaks. There are also areas where players can engage in "1v1" fights, as other players watch the duels.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: The end-game "killcam" highlight shown at the end of multiplayer matches has been changed to "Bronze Star", which show kills "deemed most impressive" (counted by most points gained in a row). The exception to this is the Search & Destroy game mode, which does not use Bronze Star killcam. Search & Destroy uses a final killcam, showing the last kill in the round.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: A new game mode, War, is introduced as a "narrative-driven" multiplayer game mode, developed in partnership with Raven Software. In War, two teams of 6 players perform objectives as either the Allied or Axis faction, inspired by some of the iconic World War II battles, such as storming Normandy on D-Day as the Allied, or defending the Normandy bunker as the Axis in the map Operation Neptune. In addition to War, popular game modes such as Team Deathmatch, Domination and Hardpoint return, as well as Gridiron, a "boots on the ground" variation of Uplink, which was originally introduced by Sledgehammer Games in "". Several fan-favorite modes, as well as new modes, are introduced in time-limited events throughout the season, such as Demolition or Infected.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "WWII" includes a zombies cooperative game mode, similar to previous entries by Treyarch and Infinity Ward, with its own original storyline set in alternate history and separate from the campaign. The game mode, dubbed "Nazi Zombies" in reference to its first iteration in Treyarch's "", is also set in the events of World War II, as the Third Reich makes a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the war by creating an undead army in the final stages of the war. While the mode is based on science-fiction and is a fictional take on the war, Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey said that the story of the mode is based on some "real events". He also revealed that the experience is similar to "Dead Space", a third person shooter horror video game directed by both Condrey and Schofield during their work time at EA Redwood Shores.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: In regards to gameplay, "Nazi Zombies" retains the wave-based survival formula that have been used in all previous Zombies entries, with new additions. A class system is introduced, where players can opt for one of four combat roles: Offense, Control, Medic and Support, which provide different in-game abilities. Class loadouts are also included, with equippable Raven Mods, which are perks similar to the multiplayer mode. Sledgehammer Games also attempted to rationalize some of the popular mechanics, such as weapon wallbuys and currencies, with realistic explanation that fit within the lore of the game mode. "Nazi Zombies" includes a hint system, where portions of the main story quest are given directional hints for players to find and progress. In regards to the story quest, Sledgehammer's creative director Cameron Dayton reveals that there is a "casual path" for new and casual players where they can progress with the story, while a "hardcore" path, which is considered the official canon, exists with hidden objectives, and expands more on the story beyond what the casual path contains.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: United States Army Private First Class Ronald "Red" Daniels (Brett Zimmerman), of the 1st Infantry Division, takes part in the Normandy landings with his platoon, including Private First Class Robert Zussman (Jonathan Tucker), Technical Sergeant William Pierson (Josh Duhamel), and First Lieutenant Joseph Turner (Jeffrey Pierce). Following the landings, Zussman is stabbed by a German soldier, resulting in his hospitalization.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Zussman returns to duty in time for the American breakout Operation Cobra, where American forces reclaim the town of Marigny. The platoon is ordered by Colonel Davis (Matt Riedy) to conduct an operation with British Special Operations Executive officers Major Arthur Crowley (David Alpay) and Vivian Harris (Helen Sadler) to intercept a German armored train carrying V2-rockets. Daniels and Zussman derail the train before being escorted back to their squad by French Resistance leader Camille "Rousseau" Denis (Bella Dayne).


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: A week later, Rousseau and Crowley infiltrate a German garrison in Paris to retrieve explosives in preparation for the platoon's assault upon it. Rousseau places explosives on the entrance and assassinates Ordnungspolizei "SS-und Polizeiführer" Heinrich (J. Paul Boehmer) for his murder of her family, allowing the platoon to liberate Paris.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Two months later, the platoon enters Aachen, supported by tank commander Staff Sergeant Augustine Pérez (Christian Lanz). They are ordered to take over a German-occupied hotel. They discover civilians inside the hotel's basement, and Turner orders their evacuation. After Daniel rescues a young girl named Anna (Lilith Max), German soldiers open fire on a truck carrying the civilians, killing Anna's older sister, Erica. Pierson sends the truck away without protection.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: At the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the platoon is ordered to take Hill 493. Pierson and Zussman are tasked with advancing towards the hill, while Turner and Daniels cover them until they can meet at the bottom. Turner's squad discovers that Pierson flagrantly ordered an attack on the hill, forcing Turner to join in. The platoon destroys artillery positions, but the Germans attack with a Tiger II tank. Daniels is injured disabling the tank, which is destroyed by Pérez, who is killed by the tank in turn. Turner is wounded rescuing Daniels, and sacrifices himself to cover the platoon's escape. In the aftermath, Pierson becomes head of the platoon and promotes Daniels to Corporal.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: During the Battle of the Bulge, the platoon is surrounded by Germans. African-American combat engineer Howard (Russell Richardson) helps the platoon contact air support. The platoon captures several German soldiers, and discovers that the Germans plan to destroy the bridge at Remagen, the last bridge over the Rhine. After destroying the explosives in transit, the platoon attacks a nearby air base to destroy the remaining explosives. The attack fails, resulting in Zussman being captured. Daniels disobeys Pierson and attempts to pursue the truck carrying Zussman, but is hospitalized and Pierson denys him from the platoon. In Stalag IX-B, Zussman is beaten by SS officer Metz (George Regout) and sent to a concentration camp.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: After recovering for eight weeks, Daniels refuses to abandon Zussman. He learns about the events that changed Pierson in the Battle of Kasserine Pass: instead of Pierson recklessly leading his men to their deaths, as believed, he disobeyed orders to retreat in a failed attempt to save part of his platoon. Daniels confronts Pierson and tears up his honorable discharge papers when Pierson doubts his notions of sacrifice. The platoon capture the last bridge over the Rhine. They head into Germany, liberating concentration camps in search of Zussman, eventually reaching the Berga concentration camp, which they find abandoned; the camp's survivors were sent on a death march. Daniels finds and saves Zussman by killing Metz before he can execute him.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: At the end of the war, Daniels parts ways with his platoon and returns to Texas, reuniting with his wife and newborn son. He visits the grave of his older brother, Paul (Chris Browning), who died from injuries he sustained after fighting a wolf that Daniels failed to shoot, and places his Bronze Star medal on the grave.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Austrian engineer Marie Fischer (Katheryn Winnick) is sent on a mission to her hometown village of Mittelberg by her commanding officer, Major Hank Rideau (Darin De Paul), to retrieve lost artifacts stolen by the Nazis for experimentation, as well as rescue her brother, Klaus, who provided the information. Klaus has been unwillingly working with their lead scientist Peter Straub (Udo Kier) and weapons expert Colonel Heinz Richter (Tomm Voss) on a project to exploit a new energy dubbed "Geistkraft" (literal translation: ‘Spiritforce’) to assist the Nazi party's war efforts. Marie is accompanied by Scottish history professor turned art thief Drostan Hynd (David Tennant), Art Historian turned French Resistance fighter Olivia Durant (Élodie Yung) and United States Army Captain Jefferson Potts (Ving Rhames), all of whom have significant knowledge on the stolen arts and relics. However, on their train ride to Mittelberg, the group is attacked by an unidentified colossal being. Marie is stranded from the others, and finds herself taking temporary refuge at a small house nearby, where she holds out against hordes of dead German soldiers reanimated by Geistkraft, until she is able to make her way to the village.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: After reuniting with the other three, Marie and the crew proceed further down into the village's hidden bunker, where Straub has set up his laboratory. There, they fend off against Straub's undead horde, as well as Richter, whose obsession on weaponization of Geistkraft puts him at odds with Straub. Eventually, the group recovers the artifact, the Hilt of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's Sword. They then encounter the creature from earlier, a humanoid-shaped amalgam of numerous body parts sewn and stitched together, dubbed the Panzermörder (literal translation: 'Armor Killer'), with Klaus fused into the creature's chest. Using special magnetized batteries, the group manages to stun the Panzermörder and attach the batteries onto it. Richter's zeppelin, flying above the village, attempts to pull the batteries back, which pulls the creature along as well. The Panzermörder struggles to escape, and destroys the zeppelin and itself, freeing Klaus from its body. The Hilt's power somehow revives Klaus, but in a seemingly possessed state, he staggers into the village while ignoring Marie's pleas. He tells the crew to prevent "the Emperor"'s return, before activating a fire trap, disappearing in the engulfing flame.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Days later, the crew receives intel of Straub's sighting at the islands of Heligoland, where he has been storing his undead army. They travel to the island in pursuit of Straub, as well as the next piece of Barbarossa's Sword. The crew comes into struggle with the Nazi Kriegsmarine forces protecting the island as well as Straub's latest undead creations, as he prepares for an assault on Britain. Upon solving several ancient riddles, they find a ritual chamber dedicated to the goddess Nerthus, where they acquire the Pommel of Barbarossa's Sword. The crew then calls the British Royal Air Force in for an airstrike to destroy the facility on the island; in an effort to escape, they go up against the Meistermeuchlers (literal translation: Master Assassins), zombies that are engineered to adapt to their enemies' combat style and skills. After defeating the monstrous creatures, they manage to stow away on one of Straub's zeppelins, as he and his forces return to Berlin in response to Adolf Hitler's call for rescue.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: The zeppelins arrive at Berlin as the Red Army begins their invasion into the city. Realizing that the Russians will be outmatched by the undead army, the crew grabs onto one of the zombie drop pods and lands onto the ground. After assisting the Red Army by drawing Straub's attention away from them, the four recover three Geistkraft-powered melee weapons hidden around the city by the Nazis. Using the weapons as keys, they uncover a hidden courtyard, where they find the final piece of Barbarossa's Sword, the Blade. With all parts of the Sword collected, the crew infiltrates Straub's zeppelin for a final showdown, where he ends up being overwhelmed and brutally killed by his own zombies. They battle against Straub's last creation, the Stadtjäger (literal translation: 'City Hunter'), then make it back to the city where they hold out against the endless zombie horde until Rideau arrives and extracts them.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: In the wake of Straub's demise, the undead army is unleashed all across Europe. United States President Harry S. Truman authorizes Rideau, now General, to form the Bureau of Archaic Technologies, a special task force consisting of global elite Allied agents, in order to combat the new threat. Unable to reassemble the Sword of Barbarossa on their own, Marie and Drostan deduce that their only option is to find the legendary forge of Thule. Jefferson, now promoted to Major, leads the team to New Swabia, Antarctica, in search of the forge upon discovery of increased Nazi activity in the region. Rideau leads a team of new Bureau recruits to transport the pieces of the Sword by different routes to New Swabia. The B.A.T. operatives head to a port at Málaga, Spain, and board a ship across the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, they encounter resistance from the undead army, but manage to prevail. At New Swabia, the crew find the forge, and upon successful deciphering of ancient Thulian runes, they finally reassemble the Sword after Rideau delivers the remaining pieces. Afterwards, the crew battles against the Guardian of the forge, and emerges victorious. The four manage to escape the forge as it collapses, but unbeknownst to them, Geistkraft energy begins to flow intensively beneath the area.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: On their flight back from New Swabia, the crew's plane is shot by a bolt of Geistkraft lightning, and crash-lands near the site. They then find themselves within the Lost City of Thule, the source of the Geistkraft energy. The team uncovers ancient weapons once wielded by the Raven Lords, elite warriors who are meant to bring balance to a cycle of life and death, and uses them against the undead horde. B.A.T. agent Vivian Harris, who is sent by Rideau to recover Barbarossa's Sword from the crash, is driven insane by its power, and uses it to awaken the God King, a gigantic Thulian entity who claims to be the influence behind Straub as well as Barbarossa. The God King seemingly overpowers the four, but Klaus, who has been reborn as the Rook, arrives and charges them with Geistkraft, bestowing them the title of Raven Lords, allowing them to defeat the God King. Rideau then contacts the four, revealing his true status as a member of the Order of the Ravens, an ancient cult dedicated to serving the Raven Lords; he insists that they must now embrace their newfound titles and destiny, and lead the Order in the ongoing battle against the remaining undead forces.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "Call of Duty: World War II" is the second game in the "Call of Duty" franchise developed by Sledgehammer Games, and the fourth to benefit under publisher Activision's three-year development cycle (the first being Sledgehammer's "") in order for a longer development time for each game. A new "Call of Duty" title set in World War II was alluded to in a 2014 "" launch interview with Michael Condrey, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games. In the interview by "Metro", the interviewer asked him what the possibilities of where the next "Call of Duty" could go in terms of setting. Condrey responded, "Some of my favorite pieces of entertainment are set in World War II." "Band of Brothers", I'm a massive fan of "Band of Brothers"." Condrey dived further into the subject, "And that's a great hero's war, kind of the last that was recognized as a noble cause in a war. So yeah, I think a next generation game with the latest production values and robustness in a World War II setting like "Band of Brothers" would be amazing. Now, how would it play and how would the multiplayer work after the new movement set in "Advanced Warfare"? That's a tougher question than I've had to tackle yet…".


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Sledgehammer Games was hesitant to reveal all the authentic settings from World War II that developers have put into the game's storyline. Activision initially refused to deny claims that Nazi extermination camps would be featured in the game. Adam Rosenberg of Mashable wrote that video games set during World War II tended to be "Holocaust deniers" in the sense that they avoided broaching the subject for business reasons, but that this could be the very first "Call of Duty" World War II based game where the Holocaust would be depicted. Senior creative director Bret Robbins said in an interview "Some very, very dark things happened during this conflict and it felt wrong for us to ignore that." He further stated "We absolutely show atrocities. It's an unfortunate part of the history, but you can't tell an authentic, truthful story without going there. So we went there." Robbins argued that audiences can now handle games with more maturity and nuance, "People are ready for it. They want it", he said. When asked directly over Twitter as to whether or not the story campaign would allow gamers the opportunity to play as soldiers from the Axis powers such as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Sledgehammer Games confirmed that the campaign gameplay would be limited to Allied forces. More specifically, Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condrey confirmed that the game will focus exclusively on the Allied powers.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: The Windows version of the game was developed in a collaboration with Raven Software. In regards to it, Raven's CTO Dwight Luetscher stated that they were trying to focus on the Windows platform, as well as the community, by responding to their needs for it to excel. The Windows version features several notable changes, including removal of controller aim assist and addition of sensitivity slider for aim-down-sights mechanic.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: All pre-orders excluding the PC version included access to the private beta, which was made available first on the PlayStation 4 from August 25–28, followed by a second week for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from September 1–4. The PC beta was announced as an open beta, and ran from September 29 – October 2 on Steam. Players who participated in the beta received the Beta Combat Pack for the full game, which contains a special in-game helmet, emblem and calling card. The game is available in three editions: Base Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition and the Pro Edition. The Pro Edition was sold exclusively at GameStop, with pre-orders of the game at GameStop also included a limited edition hat.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Upon the game's release, online servers were down for most of the day, inhibiting players from playing online multiplayer, as well as some not being able to access the campaign and Nazi Zombies. Activision acknowledged the problem and announced they were working to resolve it.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "Call of Duty: WWII" offers four downloadable content map packs, each containing three regular multiplayer maps, one War map, and one Nazi Zombies map. Players who purchase the Season Pass, which grant access to all four map packs on release, also receive Carentan, a remake of the multiplayer map of the same name featured in "Call of Duty" and "Call of Duty 2".


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: On December 19, 2017, Activision released a preview trailer for the first downloadable content pack, The Resistance, containing 3 new multiplayer maps: Anthropoid, Valkyrie, Occupation (the latter of which is a remake of Resistance from ""); 1 new War map: Operation Intercept; and 1 new Nazi Zombies map: The Darkest Shore. The map pack was released January 30, 2018, first on PlayStation 4, and on March 1, 2018, for Xbox One and Steam.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: On April 6, 2018, Activision announced the second downloadable content pack, The War Machine, containing 3 multiplayer maps: Egypt, Dunkirk, V2; 1 new War map: Operation Husky; and 1 new Nazi Zombies map: The Shadowed Throne. The map pack was released April 17, 2018, first on PlayStation 4, and on May 17, 2018, for Xbox One and Steam.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: On June 19, 2018, Activision announced the third downloadable content pack, United Front, containing 3 multiplayer maps: Monte Cassino, Market Garden, Stalingrad; 1 new War map: Operation Supercharge; and 3 new Nazi Zombies maps: Into the Storm, Across the Depth, and Beneath the Ice, referred to collectively as The Tortured Path. The map pack was released June 26, 2018, first on PlayStation 4, and on July 26, 2018, for Xbox One and Steam.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: On August 23, 2018, Activision announced the fourth and final downloadable content pack, Shadow War, containing 3 multiplayer maps: Airship, Chancellery, Excavation; 1 new War map: Operation Arcane; and 1 new Nazi Zombies map: The Frozen Dawn. The map pack was released August 28, 2018, first on PlayStation 4, and on September 27, 2018, for Xbox One and Steam.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: In addition to the map packs, the game also received several free multiplayer maps as part of seasonal events. On December 7, 2017, Sledgehammer released Winter Carentan, a winter-themed version of the Carentan map to all players as part of the Winter Siege event. On March 13, 2018, Shipment 1944, a remake of the map Shipment from "" was released to all season pass holders, and to all players three days after. On April 17, 2018, Sledgehammer Games introduced a new map, HQ, based on the same Headquarters social hub, as a playable map in several party modes. On May 29, 2018, the Nazi Zombies map Gröesten Haus is brought into Multiplayer as a playable map for zombie-themed game modes as part of the Attack of the Undead event. On July 30, 2018, a new map, Sandbox, is added for free to all PlayStation 4 players as part of the Days of Summer event, and on August 30, 2018 for Xbox One and Steam players.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Before the game's release, its sparse use of the Swastika symbol, as well as the diversity of playable German soldiers in the online multiplayer, drew some criticism. During E3 2017, Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condrey explained that swastikas were removed from the multiplayer and Zombies modes as "Including Nazi symbols wouldn't bring honor, nor be appropriate, without the rich history of a WW2 story to ground their context in Multiplayer" and that the multiplayer experiences were "shared, global ones, so we needed to adhere to local laws and regulations", referring to Germany's censorship laws on the imagery of swastikas. On the other hand, swastikas would be included in the campaign, stemming from wanting to be "historically accurate and tell the story we wanted to tell ... the best way to represent history, which was very important to us." Condrey also empathized with complaints that including black and female German soldiers in the multiplayer was historically inaccurate (as in reality Nazi Germany never recruited people from such denominations), saying he wanted the game to appeal to a diverse audience and being reflected in their player avatar: "it's also about putting you - this is about you - in World War 2 ... that evolution of your character means it's important for us to allow you to choose to be you, and to have a hero that represents who you are, whomever you choose that to be."


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "Call of Duty: WWII" received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while the PC version received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Miguel Concepcion of "GameSpot" awarded the game a 9/10, writing that the campaign was "moving" and "salutes the brotherhood that grows and strengthens on the battlefield" with "a supporting cast of well-crafted personalities", as well as praising the game's "excellent visuals and sound design". In his 8.5/10 review for "EGMNow", Nick Plasses similarly wrote that the campaign's protagonists were "well characterized and [...] the cause for the game's most impactful conflicts". He praised the lack of regenerating health which gave the game "new levels of strategy and exploration, ultimately adding more entertainment than frustration", and that the reliance on fellow soldiers "necessitates more strategic positioning and resource management".


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "IGN"s Miranda Sanchez awarded the game 8/10, saying the campaign was a "more human perspective than we've seen in recent years", with interesting and diverse characters. However, she criticized some action sequences for conflicting with the game's serious tone, as well as several repetitive and frustrating missions. She wrote that the Zombies was the standout mode in the game, which helped strike "a rewarding balance for the diehard zombies fans [...] and those that just want to jump in and have a good time", although criticized that the experience suffered when playing with other people. Daniel Tack from "Game Informer" gave the game an 8.75/10, stating that he felt the campaign was the only drawback overall; despite capturing a "signature explosive feel through various adrenaline-fueled moments", he thought progression felt tedious as a result of "standard gunplay and endless killing fields". He praised the multiplayer as the "shining star of the three modes", especially enjoying the game's new War mode in terms of its variety, and highlighted the return to the traditional gameplay and range of customization options.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "Destructoid"s Chris Moyse praised the game as a "satisfying experience" and the campaign as "one of the series' best in some time", but felt that "it also makes little effort to overhaul the brand as a whole, playing it incredibly safe when the opportunity for reinvention was right there for the taking." "Polygon"s Russ Frushtick generally praised the multiplayer, calling it "strong and enjoyable", but criticized the campaign, writing that "just about every mission feels like déjà vu, as if I'd played it before in another game" and that "Changing the time period so dramatically only helps to highlight how little has changed since the franchise's total re-imagining with "Call of Duty 4"." Jeff Gerstmann of "Giant Bomb" was more critical of the game, calling the characters "lifeless and generic" and the antagonists "faceless Nazis", stating that "the game doesn't really feel like it's doing anything cool to take advantage of its setting and time period" and summarising "despite all of Activision's big talk about "boots on the ground" action and how this was going to be some big deal, the setting change didn't bring any new and exciting inspiration with it. This feels like the most wheel-spinning, by-the-numbers "Call of Duty" they've made thus far."


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: "Eurogamer" ranked the game 38th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017", while "EGMNow" ranked it 20th in their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017. The game was nominated for "Best Shooter", "Best Graphics", "Best Multiplayer" and "Best Spectator Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: The game earned over 500 million within its first three days of release. On December 20, 2017, it was announced that the game had generated over in worldwide revenue, and was the highest-grossing console game of the year in North America. By the end of 2017, the game had over 20.7 million players, 12.1 million players on PlayStation 4, 7.8 million players on Xbox One, and 825,000 players on Steam.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: The PlayStation 4 version sold 168,234 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the best-selling game of that week in the country.


title: Call of Duty: WWII

text: Not long after "WWII" was released, a fatal incident occurred in which Ohio resident Casey Viner, angered over friendly fire that ruined an online match in a tournament that cost $1.50 in betting, threatened to swat his teammate, Wichita resident Shane Gaskill. Gaskill posted his previous home address in McCormick and challenged Viner to swat him. Viner contacted Los Angeles resident Tyler Barriss, who called the Wichita Police Department (WPD) claiming to have murdered his father and taken his mother and sibling hostage. He provided them with the McCormick address used by Gaskill. WPD officers arrived at the address, now occupied by 28-year-old Andrew Finch. A single officer, Justin Rapp, shot and killed Finch, claiming he believed Finch reached for his waistband.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (first included in Barrie's 1902 adult novel "The Little White Bird"), then to write "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up", a 1904 West End "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Although he continued to write successfully, "Peter Pan" overshadowed his other work, and is credited with popularising the name Wendy. Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. Barrie was made a baronet by George V on 14 June 1913, and a member of the Order of Merit in the 1922 New Year Honours. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, which continues to benefit from them.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: James Matthew Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, to a conservative Calvinist family. His father, David Barrie, was a modestly successful weaver. His mother, Margaret Ogilvy, assumed her deceased mother's household responsibilities at the age of eight. Barrie was the ninth child of ten (two of whom died before he was born), all of whom were schooled in at least the three Rs in preparation for possible professional careers. He was a small child and drew attention to himself with storytelling. He grew to only 5 ft 3 in. (161 cm) according to his 1934 passport.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: When James Barrie was six years old, his elder brother David (their mother's favourite) died in an ice-skating accident on the day before his 14th birthday. This left his mother devastated, and Barrie tried to fill David's place in his mother's attentions, even wearing David's clothes and whistling in the manner that he did. One time, Barrie entered her room and heard her say, "Is that you?" "I thought it was the dead boy she was speaking to", wrote Barrie in his biographical account of his mother "Margaret Ogilvy" (1896) "and I said in a little lonely voice, 'No, it's no' him, it's just me. Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her. Eventually, Barrie and his mother entertained each other with stories of her brief childhood and books such as "Robinson Crusoe", works by fellow Scotsman Walter Scott, and "The Pilgrim's Progress".


title: J. M. Barrie

text: At the age of eight, Barrie was sent to the Glasgow Academy in the care of his eldest siblings, Alexander and Mary Ann, who taught at the school. When he was 10, he returned home and continued his education at the Forfar Academy. At 14, he left home for Dumfries Academy, again under the watch of Alexander and Mary Ann. He became a voracious reader and was fond of penny dreadfuls and the works of Robert Michael Ballantyne and James Fenimore Cooper. At Dumfries, he and his friends spent time in the garden of Moat Brae house, playing pirates "in a sort of Odyssey that was long afterwards to become the play of "Peter Pan". They formed a drama club, producing his first play "Bandelero the Bandit", which provoked a minor controversy following a scathing moral denunciation from a clergyman on the school's governing board.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie knew that he wished to follow a career as an author. However, his family attempted to persuade him to choose a profession such as the ministry. With advice from Alexander, he was able to work out a compromise: he would attend a university, but would study literature. Barrie enrolled at the University of Edinburgh where he wrote drama reviews for the "Edinburgh Evening Courant". He graduated and obtained an M.A. on 21 April 1882.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Following a job advertisement found by his sister in "The Scotsman", he worked for a year and a half as a staff journalist on the "Nottingham Journal". Back in Kirriemuir, he submitted a piece to the "St. James's Gazette", a London newspaper, using his mother's stories about the town where she grew up (renamed "Thrums"). The editor "liked that Scotch thing" so well that Barrie ended up writing a series of these stories. They served as the basis for his first novels: "Auld Licht Idylls" (1888), "A Window in Thrums" (1890), and "The Little Minister" (1891).


title: J. M. Barrie

text: The stories depicted the "Auld Lichts", a strict religious sect to which his grandfather had once belonged. Modern literary criticism of these early works has been unfavourable, tending to disparage them as sentimental and nostalgic depictions of a parochial Scotland, far from the realities of the industrialised nineteenth century, seen as characteristic of what became known as the Kailyard School. Despite, or perhaps because of, this, they were popular enough at the time to establish Barrie as a successful writer. Following that success, he published "Better Dead" (1888) privately and at his own expense, but it failed to sell. His two "Tommy" novels, "Sentimental Tommy" (1896) and "Tommy and Grizel" (1900), were about a boy and young man who clings to childish fantasy, with an unhappy ending. The English novelist George Gissing read the former in November 1896 and wrote that he "thoroughly dislike[d it]".


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Meanwhile, Barrie's attention turned increasingly to works for the theatre, beginning with a biography of Richard Savage, written by Barrie and H. B. Marriott Watson; it was performed only once and critically panned. He immediately followed this with "Ibsen's Ghost", or "Toole Up-to-Date" (1891), a parody of Henrik Ibsen's dramas "Hedda Gabler" and "Ghosts". "Ghosts" had been unlicensed in the UK until 1914, but had created a sensation at the time from a single "club" performance.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: The production of "Ibsen's Ghost" at Toole's Theatre in London was seen by William Archer, the translator of Ibsen's works into English. Apparently comfortable with the parody, he enjoyed the humour of the play and recommended it to others. Barrie's third play "Walker, London" (1892) resulted in his being introduced to a young actress named Mary Ansell. He proposed to her and they were married on 9 July 1894. Barrie bought her a Saint Bernard puppy, who played a part in the 1902 novel "The Little White Bird". He used Ansell's first name for many characters in his novels. Barrie also authored "Jane Annie", a comic opera for Richard D'Oyly Carte (1893), which failed; he persuaded Arthur Conan Doyle to revise and finish it for him.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: In 1901 and 1902, he had back-to-back successes; "Quality Street" was about a respectable, responsible old maid who poses as her own flirtatious niece to try to win the attention of a former suitor returned from the war. "The Admirable Crichton" was a critically acclaimed social commentary with elaborate staging, about an aristocratic family and their household servants whose social order is inverted after they are shipwrecked on a desert island. Max Beerbohm thought it "quite the best thing that has happened, in my time, to the British theatre".


title: J. M. Barrie

text: The character of "Peter Pan" first appeared in "The Little White Bird". The novel was published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton in 1902, and serialised in the US in the same year in "Scribner's Magazine". Barrie's more famous and enduring work "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" had its first stage performance on 27 December 1904 at the West End’s Duke of York's Theatre. This play introduced audiences to the name "Wendy"; it was inspired by a young girl named Margaret Henley who called Barrie "Friendy", but could not pronounce her "R"s very well. The Bloomsbury scenes show the societal constraints of late Victorian and Edwardian middle class domestic reality, contrasted with Neverland, a world where morality is ambivalent. George Bernard Shaw described the play as "ostensibly a holiday entertainment for children but really a play for grown-up people", suggesting deeper social metaphors at work in "Peter Pan".


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie had a long string of successes on the stage after "Peter Pan", many of which discuss social concerns, as Barrie continued to integrate his work and his beliefs. "The Twelve Pound Look" (1910) concerns a wife leaving her 'typical' husband once she can gain an independent income. Other plays, such as "Mary Rose" (1920) and "Dear Brutus" (1917), revisit the idea of the ageless child and parallel worlds. Barrie was involved in the 1909 and 1911 attempts to challenge the censorship of the theatre by the Lord Chamberlain, along with a number of other playwrights.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: In 1911, Barrie developed the "Peter Pan" play into the novel "Peter and Wendy". In April 1929, Barrie gave the copyright of the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a leading children's hospital in London. The current status of the copyright is somewhat complex. His final play was "The Boy David" (1936), which dramatised the Biblical story of King Saul and the young David. Like the role of Peter Pan, that of David was played by a woman, Elisabeth Bergner, for whom Barrie wrote the play.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie moved in literary circles and had many famous friends in addition to his professional collaborators. Novelist George Meredith was an early social patron. He had a long correspondence with fellow Scot Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived in Samoa at the time. Stevenson invited Barrie to visit him, but the two never met. He was also friends with fellow Scots writer S. R. Crockett. George Bernard Shaw was his neighbour in London for several years, and once participated in a Western that Barrie scripted and filmed. H. G. Wells was a friend of many years, and tried to intervene when Barrie's marriage fell apart. Barrie met Thomas Hardy through Hugh Clifford while he was staying in London. He was friends with Nobel prize winner John Galsworthy.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie remained tied to his Scottish roots and visited his hometown of Kirriemuir regularly with his wards. When choosing his first personal secretary, Barrie chose E. V. Lucas's wife, Elizabeth Lucas, who had Scottish roots through her American parentage. After Elizabeth Lucas moved to Paris, France, Barrie chose Cynthia Asquith as his personal secretary.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: After the First World War, Barrie sometimes stayed at Stanway House near the village of Stanway in Gloucestershire. He paid for the pavilion at Stanway cricket ground. In 1887, he founded an amateur cricket team for friends of similarly limited playing ability, and named it the Allahakbarries under the mistaken belief that "Allah akbar" meant "Heaven help us" in Arabic (rather than "God is great"). Some of the best known British authors from the era played on the team at various times, including H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, G. K. Chesterton, A. A. Milne, E. W. Hornung, A. E. W. Mason, Walter Raleigh, E. V. Lucas, Maurice Hewlett, Owen Seaman (editor of "Punch"), Bernard Partridge, George Cecil Ives, George Llewelyn Davies (see below) and the son of Alfred Tennyson. In 1891, Barrie joined the newly formed Authors Cricket Club and also played for its cricket team, the Authors XI, alongside Doyle, Wodehouse and Milne. The Allahakbarries and the Authors XI continued to exist side by side until 1912.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie befriended Africa explorer Joseph Thomson and Antarctica explorer Robert Falcon Scott. He was godfather to Scott's son Peter, and was one of the seven people to whom Scott wrote letters in the final hours of his life during his expedition to the South Pole, asking Barrie to take care of his wife Kathleen and son Peter. Barrie was so proud of the letter that he carried it around for the rest of his life.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: In 1896, his agent Addison Bright persuaded him to meet with Broadway producer Charles Frohman, who became his financial backer and a close friend, as well. Frohman was responsible for producing the debut of "Peter Pan" in both England and the US, as well as other productions of Barrie's plays. He famously declined a lifeboat seat when the RMS "Lusitania" was sunk by a German U-boat in the North Atlantic. Actress Rita Jolivet stood with Frohman, George Vernon and Captain Alick Scott at the end of Lusitania's sinking, but she survived the sinking and recalled Frohman paraphrasing "Peter Pan": 'Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure that life gives us.'


title: J. M. Barrie

text: His secretary from 1917, Cynthia Asquith, was the daughter-in-law of H. H. Asquith, British Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916. In the 1930s, Barrie met and told stories to the young daughters of the Duke of York, the future Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. After meeting him, the three-year-old Princess Margaret announced, "He is my greatest friend and I am his greatest friend".


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie became acquainted with actress Mary Ansell in 1891, when he asked his friend Jerome K. Jerome for a pretty actress to play a role in his play "Walker, London". The two became friends, and she helped his family to care for him when he fell very ill in 1893 and 1894. They married in Kirriemuir on 9 July 1894, shortly after Barrie recovered, and Mary retired from the stage. The wedding was a small ceremony in his parents' home, in the Scottish tradition. The relationship was reportedly unconsummated, and the couple had no children.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: In 1895, the Barries bought a house on Gloucester Road, in South Kensington. Barrie would take long walks in nearby Kensington Gardens, and in 1900 the couple moved into a house directly overlooking the gardens at 100 Bayswater Road. Mary had a flair for interior design and set about transforming the ground floor, creating two large reception rooms with painted panelling and adding fashionable features, such as a conservatory. In the same year, Mary found Black Lake Cottage at Farnham in Surrey, which became the couple's "bolt hole" where Barrie could entertain his cricketing friends and the Llewelyn Davies family.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Beginning in mid-1908, Mary had an affair with Gilbert Cannan (who was twenty years younger than she and an associate of Barrie in his anti-censorship activities), including a visit together to Black Lake Cottage, known only to the house staff. When Barrie learned of the affair in July 1909, he demanded that she end it, but she refused. To avoid the scandal of divorce, he offered a legal separation if she would agree not to see Cannan any more, but she still refused. Barrie sued for divorce on the grounds of infidelity; the divorce was granted in October 1909. Knowing how painful the divorce was for him, some of Barrie's friends wrote to a number of newspaper editors asking them not to publish the story. In the event, only three newspapers did. Barrie continued to support Mary financially even after she married Cannan, by giving her an annual allowance, which was handed over at a private dinner held on her and Barrie's wedding anniversary.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: The Llewelyn Davies family played an important part in Barrie's literary and personal life, consisting of Arthur (1863–1907), Sylvia (1866–1910) (daughter of George du Maurier), and their five sons: George (1893–1915), John (Jack) (1894–1959), Peter (1897–1960), Michael (1900–1921) and Nicholas (Nico) (1903–1980).


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie became acquainted with the family in 1897, meeting George and Jack (and baby Peter) with their nurse (nanny) Mary Hodgson in London's Kensington Gardens. He lived nearby and often walked his Saint Bernard dog Porthos in the park. He entertained the boys regularly with his ability to wiggle his ears and eyebrows, and with his stories. He did not meet Sylvia until a chance encounter at a dinner party in December. She told Barrie that Peter had been named after the title character in her father's novel, "Peter Ibbetson".


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie became a regular visitor at the Davies household and a common companion to Sylvia and her boys, despite the fact that both he and she were married to other people. In 1901, he invited the Davies family to Black Lake Cottage, where he produced an album of captioned photographs of the boys acting out a pirate adventure, entitled "The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island". Barrie had two copies made, one of which he gave to Arthur, who misplaced it on a train. The only surviving copy is held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: The character of Peter Pan was invented to entertain George and Jack. Barrie would say, to amuse them, that their little brother Peter could fly. He claimed that babies were birds before they were born; parents put bars on nursery windows to keep the little ones from flying away. This grew into a tale of a baby boy who did fly away.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Arthur Llewelyn Davies died in 1907, and "Uncle Jim" became even more involved with the Davies family, providing financial support to them. (His income from "Peter Pan" and other works was easily adequate to provide for their living expenses and education.) Following Sylvia's death in 1910, Barrie claimed that they had recently been engaged to be married. Her will indicated nothing to that effect but specified her wish for "J. M. B." to be trustee and guardian to the boys, along with her mother Emma, her brother Guy du Maurier and Arthur's brother Compton. It expressed her confidence in Barrie as the boys' caretaker and her wish for "the boys to treat him (& their uncles) with absolute confidence & straightforwardness & to talk to him about everything." When copying the will informally for Sylvia's family a few months later, Barrie inserted himself elsewhere: Sylvia had written that she would like Mary Hodgson, the boys' nurse, to continue taking care of them, and for "Jenny" (referring to Hodgson's sister) to come and help her; Barrie instead wrote, "Jimmy" (Sylvia's nickname for him). Barrie and Hodgson did not get along well but served together as surrogate parents until the boys were grown.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie also had friendships with other children, both before he met the Davies boys and after they had grown up, and there has since been unsubstantiated speculation that Barrie was a paedophile. One source for the speculation is a scene in the novel "The Little White Bird", in which the protagonist helps a small boy undress for bed, and at the boy's request they sleep in the same bed. However, there is no evidence that Barrie had sexual contact with children, nor that he was suspected of it at the time. Nico, the youngest of the brothers, denied as an adult that Barrie ever behaved inappropriately. "I don't believe that Uncle Jim ever experienced what one might call 'a stirring in the undergrowth' for anyone—man, woman, or child", he stated. "He was an innocent—which is why he could write Peter Pan." His relationships with the surviving Davies boys continued well beyond their childhood and adolescence.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: The Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, erected secretly overnight for May Morning in 1912, was supposed to be modelled upon old photographs of Michael dressed as the character. However, the sculptor, Sir George Frampton, used a different child as a model, leaving Barrie disappointed with the result. "It doesn't show the devil in Peter", he said.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie suffered bereavements with the boys, losing the two to whom he was closest in their early twenties. George was killed in action in 1915, in the First World War. Michael, with whom Barrie corresponded daily while at boarding school and university, drowned in 1921, with his friend, Rupert Buxton, at a known danger spot at Sandford Lock near Oxford, one month short of his 21st birthday. Some years after Barrie's death, Peter compiled his "Morgue" from family letters and papers, interpolated with his own informed comments on his family and their relationship with Barrie. Peter died in 1960 by throwing himself in front of an Underground train at Sloane Square station.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie died of pneumonia at a nursing home in Manchester Street, Marylebone on 19 June 1937. He was buried at Kirriemuir next to his parents and two of his siblings. His birthplace at 9 Brechin Road is maintained as a museum by the National Trust for Scotland.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: He left the bulk of his estate to his secretary Lady Cynthia Asquith, but excluding the rights to all Peter Pan works (which included "The Little White Bird", "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens", the play "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up" and the novel "Peter and Wendy"), whose copyright he had previously given to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The surviving Llewelyn Davies boys received legacies, and he made provisions for his former wife Mary Ansell to receive an annuity during her lifetime.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: His will also left £500 to the Bower Free Church in Caithness to mark the memory of Rev James Winter who was to have married Barrie's sister in June 1892 but was killed in a fall from his horse in May 1892. Barrie had several connections to the Free Church of Scotland, including his maternal uncle Rev David Ogilvy (1822–1904), who was minister of Dalziel Church in Motherwell. James and his brother William Winter (also a Free Church minister) were both born in Cortachy the sons of Rev William Winter. Cortachy is just west of Kirriemuir and the Winters seem closely connected to the Ogilvy family.


title: J. M. Barrie

text: Barrie was appointed a baronet by King George V in 1913. He was made a member of the Order of Merit in 1922.