The Foreign Service Journal, June 2019

48 JUNE 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS Book Notes: The Back Channel with Ambassador Bill Burns Before a packed house on April 10, Ambassador (ret.) Bill Burns spoke about the value of diplomacy, the state of State and his new best- selling book, The Back Chan- nel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal (Random House, 2019). Now president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Amb. Burns is a former Deputy Secretary of State, only the second career diplomat to hold that position. The 90-minute session started with FSJ Editor- in-Chief Shawn Dorman asking Amb. Burns questions about both the book and his 33-year career as a diplomat. The wide-ranging discussion covered Burns’ thoughts on Russian President Vladimir Putin, the collapse of the nuclear agreement with Iran, the future of the State Department and the U.S. role in a more “disordered” world order increasingly dominated by China. He described his experiences meeting Vladi- mir Putin as well as Muam- mar Gaddafi. Amb. Burns explained that the United States leads best by the “power of our exam- ple,” despite the fact that it’s been “tarnished badly in recent years.” He also talked about the changing face of the State Department, saying that we need to “look like the society we represent.” “When I entered the For- eign Service in the beginning of 1982, most American dip- lomats looked like me,” said Burns. “We’ve made painfully slow progress toward becom- ing more representative. By the end of my time four years ago, the gender balance at entry, junior and middle levels was close to 50-50 … and [was] still far too inadequate at senior levels.”Today, though, he said “that prog- ress has been reversed, and it’s going to take a lot longer to fix than it’s taken to break.” During the Q&A portion of the event, Amb. Burns answered queries about how to fix our troubled personnel system, and what today’s Foreign Service members can do to help make the department more agile. He explained why he decided to write this specific book at this time in history, and what steps he took to ensure he’d have access to the cables and notes he would need to put the book together. Burns said that to stay relevant in the policymak- ing process, the department needs to “encourage an atmosphere where people feel they can disagree with policy.” He criticized what he called the “particularly pernicious practice” over the last couple years of going after individual career officers because they worked on controversial policies in the previous administration: “That debases an institu- tion over time. You have to try to create an atmosphere in which people are going to challenge conventional wisdom sometimes.” He also lamented the dis- appearance of regular noon press briefings: “If you can’t explain publicly your policy, you generate a problem with your policy. If you can’t explain what you’re about effectively, your policy and your diplomacy are going to suffer.” Following the discussion, Amb. Burns signed books for the dozens of people who lined up to say hello. A recording of the event is available on AFSA’s YouTube channel (AFSAtube) and at www.afsa.org/video. n Amb. Burns poses with State Operations Center officers. AFSA/DONNAGORMAN Ambassador Burns on stage with FSJ Editor-in-Chief Shawn Dorman. AFSA/DONNAGORMAN A capacity crowd gathered at AFSA on April 10 to hear Amb. Burns discuss his book. AFSA/ASGEIRSIGFUSSON