The Foreign Service Journal, June 2013

18 JUNE 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL CAPITOL HILL AND FOGGY BOTTOM: BRIDGING THE CULTURAL DIVIDE Though the world looks different from the eastern and western ends of the National Mall, there are actually many similarities between the congressional and diplomatic cultures. BY CHARL ES A . STEVENSON Charles A. Stevenson, a lecturer at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, is the author of America’s Foreign Policy Toolkit: Key Institutions and Processes (CQ Press, 2012). He was a Senate staffer on defense and foreign policy issues for 22 years and served for a year on the State Department’s Policy Plan- ning Staff, handling political-military affairs. He also taught FSOs and military officers at the National War College for 13 years. FOCUS ON WORKING WITH CONGRESS C apitol Hill might as well be a for- eign country as far as most Foreign Service officers are concerned. Whether as an ambassador-des- ignate making the rounds or as an office director giving a substantive briefing, the average FSO has little understanding of what drives life on the Hill. Equally disconcerting, most members of Congress and their staffs have at best a fuzzy idea of what an overseas mission is all about. I’ve worked on the seventh floor of Main State, the Secre- tary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and the Senate floor of the Capitol, and have seen people in all those places regularly misperceive and misunderstand each other. My hope is that dispelling some of the myths each side believes about the other might help to bridge the cultural divide between Capitol Hill and Foggy Bottom. Myths about the Hill in Foggy Bottom Myth 1: Congress is only beholden to special interests. People at State have a jaded opinion of politicians—not unlike their fellow citizens, who hold Congress in low esteem no matter which party is in control. The prevailing view is that lawmakers