The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2016 37 scension and will cooperate less. Our enemies gain an advantage when we underestimate them. 3 Improve your command of the local language, slang and idioms. Diplomacy is about preci- sion and nuances, and about connecting with those who don’t speak English. If there is a second or third language spoken by minorities, try to learn it. Even a 1/0 in such a language will provide unexpected insights and entrée. 4 Keep learning about history and foreign affairs, and stay abreast of current events in the United States. You represent the United States 24/7—you may be the one American a foreigner remembers, especially if you are a consular officer. Read about issues and trends outside foreign policy, too; you will need this breadth as you advance. Foreigners follow U.S. events closely, and they will look to you for the U.S. govern- ment and the American perspectives. Embassy Operations 5 Start learning about how embassies work— within the embassy, with the host country and with Washington. When done right, the U.S. government is with- out peer in terms of effective interagency operations under the authority of an ambassador or chargé (read the standard instruction letter for a new ambassador). At the same time, a good embassy is also a community (unlike the interagency in Washington). Keep an eye on employees’ and dependents’ sense of mission and morale; how the embassy carries out day-to-day as well as longer-term operations; how an embassy leads and manages organizational and policy change; how it manages security and prepares for crises; and how it carries out career development. You can also read about other U.S. embassies and posts at www.diplopundit.net. 6 Know the mission of your embassy—read the Mis- sion Strategic Plan, the USAID Country Strategy, and relevant speeches and testimony for starters. Talk to people in different sections and agencies; if possible, attend ambassador or deputy chief of mission (DCM) briefings. Ask yourself if the U.S. government’s assumptions about the host country are cor- rect, and if its policy objectives are realistic. Try to see how the embassy takes in information, receives human and financial resources, applies policies, carries out projects, engages the public and gets results. 7 Start learning how other U.S. agencies and the military carry out their work and how their operational cultures, values, roles and objectives can differ from and complement— and at times conflict with, overlap or try to supplant—those of the Foreign Service and State. State Department personnel are a minority at almost all embassies. Most of our cutting-edge work overseas is interagency and with other foreign partners. All U.S. military services have reading lists that offer insights into their cultures and strategic thinking; Foreignpolicy.com ’s “Best Defense” blog and Warontherocks.com are also quite informa- tive. The Foreign Service is an elite organization of which it is right to be proud, but don’t be elitist or arrogant. 8 Learn about the different sections and cones and spe- cialist tracks within State and the backstops in USAID, as well as the Foreign Commercial Service and the Foreign Agri- cultural Service, if they are present. If there are State Civil Service personnel on an excursion tour, learn about their profession. Learn about—and appreciate—the critical role of the Locally Engaged Staff (Foreign Service Nationals or FSNs, as they used to be called and still prefer). Support the FSNs and the FS special- ists; they actually make the embassy work. Don’t confuse rank with knowledge, authority, the ability to add value or power. As an Iraqi tribal leader once told me, “just because one has a degree does not mean one has wisdom.” 9 Respect the chain of command—but if no one can address your problem, see the DCM; if that fails, see the ambassador. Ambassador Steve McFarland with public university students in Guatemala during their annual protest march (Huelga de Dolores) in 2009. He was the first embassy official ever to engage with the traditionally anti-U.S. protest. COURTESYOFSTEPHENMCFARLAND