The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2020 17 PDAA Honors Outstanding Public Diplomacy Initiatives T he Public Diplomacy Association of America’s 2020 Awards for Achieve- ment in Public Diplomacy are out. And whether engaging difficult-to-reach audi- ences in the Middle East, countering Rus- sian disinformation in the Baltics or reset- ting a historically contentious bilateral relationship in Africa, the recipients used a mix of outside-the-box thinking, deep understanding of their audiences and superb leadership abilities to demonstra- bly advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. The four winners are: Zennia Paganini, Public Affairs Officer, Yemen Affairs Unit (based at Embassy Riyadh); the Public Affairs Section, Embassy Luanda; Meghan Luckett, Assistant Public Affairs Officer, Embassy Vilnius; and Riad Yazbeck, Cul- tural Affairs Specialist, Embassy Beirut. The ongoing multiyear civil war between the Yemeni government and insurgent Houthi forces led to the reloca- tion of Embassy Sana’a to Riyadh in 2015. From this office in exile, PAO Zennia Paganini maintained connections with Yemenis in Yemen but also those scat- tered throughout the Middle East. She created the MAP initiative—Make a Place for Yemeni Youth—that works to educate diaspora youth, support Yemenis’ economic empowerment and strengthen the country’s civil society institutions. A historically contentious quarter- century relationship between the United States and Angola formed the backdrop for the work of PAO Deneyse Kirkpatrick and her seven Locally Employed staff at Embassy Luanda. They broke new ground in strengthening the embassy’s relations with the Angolan government and open- ing new avenues of bilateral cooperation. The initiative centered on the 2019 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the first African slaves arriving in the United States. Programs ranging from hip-hop to cooking highlighted the two nations’ shared cultural heritage. A relentless Russian disinforma- tion campaign has targeted Lithuania, intended to stoke nostalgia for its Soviet past, drive wedges in Lithuanian society and portray the country as a failed state rather than the modern democratic suc- cess story it is. Assistant PAO Meghan Luckett played a central role in Embassy Vilnius’ efforts to successfully counter this false nar- rative and remind Lithuanians of the inspirational role their country played in unshackling other captive Soviet bloc nations. She convinced the nation’s pub- lic broadcaster to join the embassy’s multidimensional “Courage to Be Free” campaign, immediately boosting that campaign’s visibility and impact. Riad Yazbeck, the senior cultural affairs specialist at Embassy Beirut, capi- talized on his connections in Lebanon’s Shia community to advance not only public diplomacy initiatives but also the embassy’s political reporting on this major player in Lebanese politics. PDAA is a nonprofit, voluntary asso- ciation of public diplomacy profession- als, with some 400 members. No Longer Seoul Mates I n 2019, South Korea paid $923 million toward the cost of keeping America’s 28,500 troops in the country, mostly to cover the salaries of local staff and utility bills for bases. It spent another $10 billion to build a new base for them. No good deed goes unpunished, however. In November 2019 the U.S. chief negotiator proposed raising the Republic of Korea’s 2020 contribution to $5 billion; his Korean counterpart rejected that demand as excessive. The agreement lapsed at the end of last year. Over the past several months, nego- tiators have narrowed the gap between the two sides, and a deal was believed to be close. But on April 1, General Robert B. Abrams, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, placed nearly half its 9,000-strong local workforce on indefinite unpaid leave, for the first time in the history of the 70-year alliance. Although he insisted the decision simply reflected a lack of “programmed funds” due to the lapse of the cost-sharing agreement, Seoul almost certainly sees it as a hardball tactic. Public Affairs Officer Zennia Paganini, who works for the Yemen Affairs Unit in Riyadh, talks with Yemeni students in Cairo. COURTESYPUBLICDIPLOMACYASSOCIATIONOFAMERICA