The Foreign Service Journal, March 2011

M A R C H 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 51 Truth be told, no single activity fully defines the sum and substance of what we do. Exchanges, the International Vis- itor Program, performances, exhibits, speakers, libraries, etc. — all are useful tools, but still just tools. Building Relationships Cultural affairs practitioners generally impart impres- sions and images that help make the audience more recep- tive to the specific information that the embassy press office delivers. The best analogy I can think of is that cultural af- fairs is to the press office what public relations is to advertising. I know I tread on dangerous ground here, for many of my colleagues would hate any parallels between public diplo- macy and any form of marketing communications. But as a well-re- spected public affairs officer once told me, “We don’t sell hamburgers.” He was right. Public relations is never a call to action, the actual sale; that role should be left for advertis- ing. Rather, cultural affairs develops relationships, so that when we do issue a call to action — support for a treaty, a vote in the United Nations, a commitment to send troops to Afghanistan — the host-country audience supports us, or is at least thoughtful in its criticism. Even if the foreign gov- ernment does not go along with our request, its citizens will resist the temptation to condemn us for asking — if we have done our cultural affairs work well. As my conversation with the young officer I mentioned at the beginning of this article continued, he asked what I need to know to do my job well. I told him that while there is a tendency to think that the key is to understand the host country, it is equally important to understand American cul- ture. In fact, the three skills any cultural affairs practitioner should develop are the ability to: understand American cul- ture; learn how to communicate effectively; and identify your primary audience. Culture Vultures Most of us spend little time analyzing our own culture. We think we instinctively know it simply from being con- stantly immersed in it. But that’s like thinking fish are nat- ural hydrologists just because they spend their whole lives in water. Every culture is a filter that defines how we experience the world. Unless we are aware of that, we don’t know what we’re missing, and we don’t know how to make comparisons with people who don’t have the same filters. So I encour- age my colleagues, particularly new ones, to study Ameri- can culture with their minds open, learn about their prejudices and trace them back — by reading widely, watch- ing movies and TV shows, listening to all kinds of music and, yes, studying cultural analysis. We also need to understand American culture because so many people all over the world wrongly think they al- ready understand it — and us — from watching our TV shows and films and listening to our popular music. If any- thing, the movies and programs most indicative of American culture are often the most misunderstood and unpopular overseas. “Fargo” is a good example: most Americans don’t get the duck stamp reference in that movie unless they’re from the Mid- west, so it is even less likely to make sense in places like Riyadh. Just as buying a Ford doesn’t give you automatic insight into life in America, neither does watching a Hollywood movie directed by an Australian in Budapest. An impor- tant part, then, of what we do in cul- tural affairs is challenging people’s preconceptions about the United States. But how can we do that if we don’t know our own culture? What We Have Here… The second element needed to do this job may seem ob- vious: the ability to communicate. Most people consider themselves experts at this. After all, didn’t we do well on university papers and then pass the Foreign Service exam? And haven’t we been talking for years? Doesn’t that make us world-class communicators? As a matter of fact, no. Far too many Foreign Service personnel have never studied how to put forward a message: planning a campaign, evaluating its effectiveness, identify- ing audiences and choosing among different forms of com- munication. Effective communication entails going beyond organizing events to create experiences that reach foreign audiences on multiple levels, both intellectually and emo- tionally. And to do that well, cultural affairs officers have to know why some performances and works of art still move us even though we already know the story behind them. The third key element of the cultural affairs function is the audience. Cultural affairs officers need to know how, and how quickly, inhabitants of the host country establish relationships. That will help indicate whether it is more pro- All cultural affairs officers should understand American culture, know how to communicate effectively, and be able to identify their primary audience.