The Foreign Service Journal, June 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2016 29 of high-level diplomatic engagement and public diplomacy efforts, outside traditional foreign assistance programs. The Anti-Corruption Initiative In 2014, EUR decided to create a temporary senior anti- corruption coordinator position to develop an approach in conjunction with embassies, interagency partners and other international actors/donors. We tasked two dozen embassies in Central and Eastern Europe to draw up country-specific action plans. We committed to the principle that each post, rather than Washington, should develop its own action plan, ensuring that each plan would reflect local challenges and the resources available at each post to address them. The U.S. Mission to the European Union prepared its own action plan on how best to engage different parts of the E.U. to promote a coordinated approach. Next, we launched an internal anti-corruption Web page providing a variety of resources. A specially designed handbook guided posts through the stages of assessing the challenge in their host country; developing a post-specific anti-corruption plan; coordinating with Washington, laterally with other embas- sies and with other institutional and societal players; and deter- mining how best to measure progress. Rather than imposing a template on posts, EUR encouraged them to identify the main corruption-related issues in their respective societies and tailor proposed responses. EUR encouraged posts to develop multiple lines of effort. Those included high-level, bilateral diplomatic “asks” that could be included in the talking points of visiting U.S. officials, as well as continual ambassadorial engagement. A vital component is public diplomacy (PD) outreach to a variety of audiences, including host-country officials, media entities, business com- munities, social and nongovernmental activists and students, along with the tailoring of international visitor and other PD programs to corruption-related themes. Such efforts are particularly valuable in countries no longer receiving foreign assistance. For others, there are targeted assistance programs in rule-of-law capacity building and good OLESIATRACHUK/U.S.EMBASSYKYIV New members of the Kyiv Patrol police force take the oath in St. Sophia Square in 2015.