The Foreign Service Journal, April 2019

10 APRIL 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL On Economic/Commercial Diplomacy I’d like to make two comments regard- ing the excellent article by Shaun Don- nelly and Dan Crocker, “Six Elements of Effective Economic/Commercial Diplo- macy,” in the January-February FSJ . First, I agree with the authors’ recom- mendations. When I went to Mexico as ambassador in 1993, I had six objectives I wanted to accomplish. At the top of the list was to grow the commercial relation- ship between our countries. I would note that at this time, the Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, was fully supportive of elevating commercial development as a top priority at U.S. embassies. This was a fundamental change. As CEO of the American Stock Exchange and before that on the House Ways & Means Committee, I had concluded that private-sector com- mercial development should be a major part of our foreign policy. It would create wealth worth defend- ing and would lead to another important objective: promotion of democracy. I witnessed that in Mexico. After we passed the North American Free Trade Agreement and commerce flourished between our countries, the demand for openness in Mexico’s politi- cal system took hold. That was the end of the one-party rule that had governed Mexico for more than seven decades. My second comment concerns the Foreign Commercial Service, which was created by an amendment I co-sponsored with Congressman Bill Frenzel (R-Minn.). We had led a Ways & Means Task Force on U.S.-Japan Trade from 1978 to LETTERS 1980. Among our findings was that the commercial officers at State were largely ineffective at selling U.S. goods and ser- vices abroad, and that the “commercial cone” was the least desirable career path at State. After exploring several options, Bill and I decided to legislate removal of this function from State and pass it over to the Commerce Department as the FCS. That has been largely successful. James R. Jones Chairman, Monarch Global Strategies LLC U.S. ambassador to Mexico, 1993-1997 Member of Congress (D-Okla.), 1973-1987 Washington, D.C. Economic Diplomacy Stories Inspire I’m up reading the January-Feb- ruary FSJ at 1:30 a.m. I loved the Tay - lor guitar story, which I’ll share with my guitar-playing husband later. Bob Taylor sounds like an amazing guy who worked so well with the embassy to form a great partner- ship with Cameroon. He’s replant- ing trees that get used for making guitars, and doing it with local labor! The other stories were inspiring too. And the photos are smashing. A class act. Most people have no idea what our embassies do—and do for our coun- try. The Taylor guitar story is a perfect example. I hope it will be widely read. Linda Michel FSJ reader Owings Mills, Md. Father-and-Son Ambassadors The interview with Ambassador Ron Neumann in the December FSJ includes the observation that only the Neumann and Adams families have produced father-and-son ambassadors. Not so! The Francis family of Troy, New York, also produced a father-and-son team: John M. Francis and his son Charles S. Francis. Furthermore, like the Adams family, they followed each other to represent the United States in the same country a generation apart. According to the State Department’s Office of the Historian, John M. Francis served as minister resident in Greece from 1871 to 1873; as minister resident/ consul general in Portugal from 1882 to 1884; and as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Austria from 1884 to 1885. His son Charles was envoy extraor- dinary and minister plenipotentiary to Greece from 1901 to 1902, with accredita- tion to Romania and Serbia. Later, like his father, he was ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Austria, from 1906 to 1910. The Francis family were newspaper publishers in Troy and prominent sup- porters of the Republican Party. Stephen Muller FSO, retired Troy, New York Responding to Radically Simple Ideas Writing in the November 2018 FSJ , Mr. JC Windham raised some creative ideas for improving the Foreign Service. While I do not agree with all his ideas, I applaud his initiative. In particular, he recommended elimi- nating management officer positions and having each of the specialist sections report directly to the deputy chief of mis- sion (DCM). I have found that the coordinating role of management counselors at post is absolutely essential, and it’s impracti-

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