The Foreign Service Journal, April 2016

12 APRIL 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL State’s Convening Power Helps Syrian Refugee Children “T his is an unusual event for us,” said Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom, opening a Nov. 16 gather- ing, “Bridging the Education Gap for Refugee Children in Turkey,” at the Department of State. “In most cases, we host discussions or conferences where we ask our partici- pants simply to listen instead of problem- solve,” she added. “But not today.” The event—an initiative spearheaded by the Office of Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken in partnership with the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration—convened more than 100 leaders from government, interna- tional financial institutions, nonprofit organizations, education foundations, tech companies and others to explore solutions on how to provide roughly 400,000 school-aged Syrian refugee chil- dren in Turkey with access to education. Coming just days after the world had witnessed horrific terror attacks in Bei- rut and Paris, the meeting added a sense of urgency to the challenge of prevent- ing the disenfranchisement of an entire generation of Syrian youth. The United States, primarily through PRM and USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, has contributed more than $4.5 billion in humanitar- ian aid since the start of the civil war in Syria. Turkey alone has received more than $325 million in U.S. funding for its humanitarian response to the crisis via U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations, including for the opera- tions of schools. Turkish officials and international humanitarian aid organizations esti- mate that of the 700,000 school-aged TALKING POINTS To me the most important single quality of a diplomat is empathy, which is not the same as sympathy; it simply means you understand. You take great pains to understand where the other side is coming from. If you’re trying to alter their behavior or adjust their behavior in ways that are congenial to your own interests, you need to understand that side first. Understanding requires a diplomatic presence; it requires reporting officers to help us understand what’s going on in another country. —Ambassador Robert Hutchings, at the Feb. 18 Book Notes event featuring his new book, Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy (Oxford University Press, 2015). Watch the event at www.afsa.org/video. Contemporary Quote Syrian refugee children in Turkey, only 300,000 have access to education. Some have likened the challenge of sending the remaining children to school to hav- ing to increase the capacity of New York’s public school system—the largest in the United States—by 50 percent within a two- to three-year period. Following remarks by Ali Ozturk, adviser to the deputy prime minister of Turkey who has responsibility for man- aging the Syrian crisis response; Anthony Lake, the executive director of UNICEF; and Meighan Stone, president of the Malala Fund, participants broke into smaller discussion groups to brainstorm solutions. Ideas flowed on how to build more schools, arrange for basic transportation, provide child protection and psychoso- cial services, and offer vocational train- ing to young adults. Many participants commented on how much they appreciated the opportunity to expand their profes- sional networks, and the department is now following up on some of the day’s proposals. The event mirrored a similar effort in Turkey where the U.S. mission brought together major U.N. organizations, NGOs and private-sector institutions to identify ways to collaborate on the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Perhaps such events, which lever- age America’s convening power to find solutions to today’s global challenges, will soon become a hallmark of Ameri- can diplomacy and development efforts rather than an anomaly. —Maria C. Livingston, Director of Professional Policy Issues Bridging the Gap at Georgetown I n January, the Carnegie Corporation gave an $840,000 grant to the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University’s “Bridging the Gap” initiative, with the goal of connect- ing practitioners and theoreticians in the world of international affairs. The grant, titled “From Scholar’s Theory to Practitioner’s Work, and Back,” will promote diplomacy as a key interna- tional policy tool. To be shared by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and the Mortara Center for International Studies, the grant monies will fund three major “bridging the gap” pillars: (1) educa- tion, by updating and expanding ISD’s