The Foreign Service Journal, September 2014

36 SEPTEMBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL it and kept up a correspondence with them. It’s located at Cam- bridge University. You can find it through Cambridge online. They have about 150 oral histories now. SD: The oral histories are one of the best possible outreach tools—educational, and not just for students. SK: Exactly right. We really have three audiences. One is the professional Foreign Service officers, and they’re using these excerpts as discussion matters. Two, the general public. And the third audience is the pundits and others of the “chattering class” who teach and write about diplomacy. SD: The oral history collection seems like a great bridge between the study and the practice of diplomacy. With such a bridge, do you think academics can learn from the practitioners, and also the other way around? SK: My own prejudice is that if you’re practicing diplomacy, you’re doing something. If you’re teaching diplomacy and nobody’s reading about it, it’s just hot air. One of the things I really want to do is to develop a sense of history within the For- eign Service. SD: Any final thoughts to share? SK: I want to say a word about this little organization we have here, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Train- ing. Really, it’s quite small. And even though we can only pay McDonald’s-level wages, it’s kept going and most of the staff have stayed on. We are only about five people, and we each have our own specialty. Our interns have been a big help in so many ways. For one, they bring enthusiasm. And we give them “substantive” work. The goal for our first group of interns was to get things organized and put together our country readers. It took a long time, but now we’re pretty well caught up. Now we’re asking them to go through the transcripts and pick out tidbits and stories that can tie to foreign affairs today. We’ve got these on our website, www.adst.org. Thanks to Executive Director Chris Sibilla, our newest staff member, this website gets something like 35,000 hits a month. That means a great number of people in the public are able to understand what diplomats do. It shows that we don’t just sit around in striped pants writing treaties. SD: It’s been a pleasure talking with you, and I really appreci- ate your taking the time. SK: No, thank you! n