The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

54 MAY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL story to the world. There had been 378 performers and speakers, from all 50 states, and 175 events attended by almost 9,000 indi- viduals. It was all put together and managed by the USA Pavilion team of more than 300 colleagues, who engaged our diverse guests in more than 30 languages. By all accounts, U.S. participation in Expo 2020, the first world’s fair to take place in the Middle East–North Africa–South Asia (MENASA) region, was a resounding success, not least because it almost didn’t happen at all. From long-standing issues of funding and the inertia of several decades of U.S. gov- ernment dithering to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the obstacles were daunting. In overcoming them, we proved that the State Department could manage this $60 million project, and that it was worth doing again in the future. Significantly, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 President Joe Biden signed into law on Dec. 29, 2022, to fund the government enables the State Department— for the first time ever —to spend money on a U.S. pavilion at a world’s fair. This is the story of the journey to Expo 2020 Dubai and its leg- acy. It is a tribute to the hundreds of colleagues who brought the pavilion to life against all odds in the midst of a global pandemic. And it is a testament to our private partners who contributed to creating a pavilion experience that the American people, regard- less of political affiliation, could be proud of. For me, it is the story of a 30-year journey frommy first visit to a world’s fair in Taejon, South Korea, to serving as the deputy commissioner general at the USA Pavilion in Dubai. A “Tent in the Desert”? Today, many are unaware what a world’s fair is, that it still exists; and even fewer have ever been to one. It is curious, too, that so few colleagues—public diplomacy or otherwise—have worked on what is arguably the world’s largest public diplo- macy event. There are many reasons why this is so. Historically, the fairs were executed by a different agency that no longer exists (USIA, the U.S. Information Agency). Also, there are legal limits on domestic messaging regarding foreign policy (Smith-Mundt). Further, the public-private partnership model of the last three decades meant that few State colleagues had the opportunity to work on the project. And the last world’s fair in the United States was in 1984, nearly four decades ago, in New Orleans. But when a colleague in the regional bureau asked, “Why do you need so much money to build a tent in the desert?” the extent of our public awareness challenge became clear. My introduction to world’s fairs was Taejon Expo 1993, a specialized exposition and one of the first held in a developing country. I joined the Foreign Service after visiting Hannover Expo 2000 as a 20-year-old intern at U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt. Seeing that empty, grassy field where the USA Pavil- ion should have been—due to funding challenges, the United States had missed the fair altogether—changed my life forever. I became expo-obsessed and have attended every world expo since. In college, I wrote an article for Frankfurt’s Community Liaison Office newsletter and a letter to my congressman advo- cating federal funding for U.S. participation in world’s fairs. As a newly minted junior officer, I wrote to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) encouraging participa- tion in Expo 2005 Aichi, Japan, and later to the executive secretary about Expo 2010 Shanghai. After Expo 2015 Milan, I wrote about the history of U.S. participation in world’s fairs, events that I have referred to as the “Olympics of public diplomacy” (see “World’s Fairs Today: A Visit to Milan, Lessons for Dubai, ” in the October 2015 FSJ ). The USA Pavilion illuminated at night in Dubai, 2021. USAPAVILIONEXPO2020DUBAI