The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2014

32 JULY-AUGUST 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL in Washington could have written them just as easily as I did from China. Almost all the data was on the Internet, and much of it was in English. The fetishization of reporting at many posts has led to an odd phenomenon. Even as overseas posts are reporting more than ever—not just by cable, but by email, both official and personal— Washington’s attention span is getting shorter. Many desk officers could spend all day doing nothing but reading (or just skimming) all the cables and emails and press summaries and Ops Center briefs and daily activity reports that pop into their inboxes. “Inbox management” has become as critical a skill in Washington as drafting a briefing memo, much less running an office. The department is drowning in information. But howmuch reporting actually gets read? Howmuch ever reaches bureau front offices—not to mention the seventh floor? And if it doesn’t get read, how can it influence policy? We need to get back to basics. State should review the role of political officers in the Foreign Service, to help us refocus our work and set expec- tations. (We might start by looking at the recent emphasis on “economic statecraft,” and how it has revitalized the work of economic officers.) Senior officers should mentor and train newer officers not just in cable drafting, but in how to identify and engage contacts, and how to elicit and synthesize information. We should focus less on producing quantity reporting about our host countries, and focus more on clear, concise reporting that helps Washington understand those countries. We need to help the department better manage all the information it receives—not just add another cable or email to someone’s inbox. Good reporting is vital to diplomacy. It provides a record for others to learn from our successes, and our failures. It can inform, advise and even influence the making of policy at the highest lev- els. But diplomacy is more than some kind of glorified journalism. We still have to go talk to people and influence them. We have to hit the damn ball. Since joining the Foreign Service in 2002, Christopher W. Bishop, a political officer, has served in Shanghai, Khartoum, Yokohama and Washington, D.C. In August, he will begin Chinese-language and area studies instruction in Taipei at the American Institute in Taiwan. Bring in the Noise: Using Digital Technology to Promote Peace and Security By Daniel Fennell Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Washington, D.C. Running at full speed on projects at our overseas posts, it’s not easy to break focus and find time to send reports back to Wash- ington. But like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, an activity in the field needs to make some noise if you want anyone in Wash- ington to know it struck the ground. Working in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Opera- tions has impressed on me how field reporting can promote the use of new tools to fight conflict and instability. For example, our team in Honduras helped mount a conference with young technology-savvy participants, international funders and local government officials to identify tech-based solutions for addressing destabilizing violence in the country with the highest murder rate in the world. This event, called a “Tech- Camp,” was jointly organized by CSO, the Office of eDiplomacy and Embassy Tegucigalpa. It was a new experience for our bureau, but looked like an innova- tive way to address drivers of conflict. Field reporting painted an engaging picture of 13 groups pro- posing ideas involving digital platforms. Some, like coordinated social media strategies, were free. Others, such as a new com- puter-based crime-tracking system and a plan to allow anony- mous incident reporting, won basic funding from an international nongovernmental organization. All of the proposals sprang from local groups using local expertise to find solutions to citizen secu- rity problems—meeting a central goal for the U.S. mission. Field reports on the TechCamp, including cables, email and even video clips, caught the attention of our bureau leader- ship and our Burma engagement team, which believed that a TechCamp would work there, too. That team adopted the basic elements of the Honduras event, and the Burma version, mounted in partnership with Embassy Rangoon and the Spirit of America foundation, was another success. We are now seeking opportunities to set up similar events One of the hidden benefits of serving inWashington is seeing how field reports that get into the right hands can improve policy and operations. —Daniel Fennell