The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

10 MARCH 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTERS Manage Risk George Krol’s “Practical Lessons for Today’s Foreign Service” (December 2021) is a splendid piece. The lessons he draws from his early tour remain valid. They underscore the importance of reporting that draws on broad under- standing of the society, which can only be done by getting away from the desk. This, in turn, underlines the importance of managing risk but not being imprisoned by it—something that Secretary Blinken says is important, but about which the State Department has done little. The American Academy of Diplo- macy’s effort to rewrite accountability review legislation is part of this effort, which would benefit from more robust State support. I hope the Foreign Service Institute will make reading and, more importantly, discussing Ambassador Krol’s article a regular part of A-100 training. Ronald E. Neumann Ambassador, retired President, American Academy of Diplomacy Washington, D.C. Language Lessons Regarding George Krol’s excellent practical lessons, I have a minor bone to pick with the first one (“Use the Language”). I was in Helsinki when he was in Len- ingrad. Due to the usual security prob- lems with our mission to the USSR, we (well, my superb office management spe- cialist, the late Sally Snow) typed every classified message, which the officers in Leningrad had written out in longhand on yellow legal pads. I occasionally lent a hand in deciphering their scribblings. But over in the consular section, we had a native Estonian speaker: Elokai Ojamaa. In 1990-1991, she was the go-to contact for Estonian independence movement representatives who could easily get to Helsinki. One of their motivations, and complaints, was that the Leningrad consulate offi- cers who visited Tallinn insisted on speaking their hard-learned Russian, which the Estonians found insulting. When I was with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (then the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe) human rights observer mis- sion to Kosovo in 1993, the ethnic Albanian Kosovars did not want to talk to me in my Bulgarian-accented Serbian, but would engage when I trotted out my rusty German and Italian. I would add that when I was in (now North) Macedonia, one of our Ameri- can staffers (of Serbian origin) insisted on speaking her native language to our locally employed staff, which they, too, found insulting. Her excuse was that when Macedonia was part of the former Yugoslavia, the natives had to learn Serbo-Croatian. In two cases, the offended parties also spoke excellent English; in the Kosovo case, it was about resisting Serbian oppression. A little cultural awareness, along with adroit use of our language skills, goes a long way. Larry Butler Ambassador, retired Thomaston, Maine, and Reston, Virginia Distinguish Between Chinese and the PRC Asian American colleagues have privately expressed concern at the sub- title “Countering Chinese Aggression in International Organizations” in the artic le on the 2021 William R. Rivkin Awardee Anny Vu and at use of the phrase “counter Chinese efforts to undermine democratic values” in a separate article featuring the 2021 Mark Palmer Award recipient, both in the December 2021 FSJ . To colleagues who shared their view with me, I heard you. As one of the cur- rent State AFSA representatives, I believe the words of our publication, the FSJ , matter, and we need to be precise when sharing these stories with our community and beyond. As an Asian American FSO, I, too, found use of the terms “Chinese aggres- sion” and “Chinese efforts” confusing and misplaced because they conflate Chinese ethnicity and the Chinese diaspora with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While the first article does clearly focus on the award recipient’s work to influence and advance U.S. interests and confront PRC tactics, the subtitle sets up the reader to think the aggression occurring in the multilateral space stems from or could be linked with any individual of ethnic Chi- nese origin or a member of the Chinese diaspora of any nationality. This appears to be inconsistent with the Biden administration’s commitment to advancing the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. At the same time, there is now depart- mentwide guidance on the use of PRC nomenclature, thanks to the tireless work of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs China desk, the EAP Diversity and Inclusion Council, and the Asian Ameri- can Foreign Affairs Association.