The Foreign Service Journal, September 2018

18 SEPTEMBER 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Business Council Calls for Diplomatic Backup O n June 26, the president of the Busi- ness Council for International Under- standing, Peter Tichansky, sent a letter to Secretary of StateMike Pompeo urging him to put more diplomats in the field to help U.S. businesses compete worldwide. A nonpartisan organization with 200 member companies, BCIU aims to expand international trade and commerce by assisting its members to engage interna- tionally. The letter states: “Since President Eisenhower established BCIU in 1955, we have worked to strengthen embassy effectiveness in leveling the playing field overseas—ensuring contracts are hon- ored, improving government procurement processes and generally bolstering the rule of law so American companies can compete and win. “We have always counted on State Foreign Service officers, along with their Foreign Commercial Service counterparts, to bring the full weight of the embassies to bear when host governments or govern- ment-backed businesses fail to honor contracts or engage in back-room deals to unfairly cut out competition. “We agree with the president’s intro- duction to the National Security Strategy: the U.S. faces a dangerous and complex world, filled with a wide range of threats that have intensified in recent years. We see it every day in business—our compa- nies face very sharp global competition, and our competitors often don’t always play by the same rules as we do. … “We need more backup, so we are writing to you to see if you would con- sider sending more diplomats to help level the playing field. We know that the American Foreign Service Associa- tion has been advocating putting more American diplomats in the field—shift- ing positions that are now in Washing- ton to overseas embassies to fight for our businesses. BCIU would like to strongly endorse this common-sense idea. “Our members tell us that their pri- vate sector and government customers abroad want more American business, not less; more American investment, not less. They want reliability and quality, and they want businesses that operate fairly. American business can answer that demand, but to do so they need to be able to count on fully staffed embassies to help remove the impedi- ments that keep them from doing busi- ness abroad. … “Mr. Secretary, we want to help you deliver on your vision, and that includes giving our companies every fair advan- tage around the world—including getting more of our diplomats in the field, work- ing for American prosperity, our busi- nesses and our values.” Facebook Live Event Goes Horribly Wrong S omeone on the State Department’s social media teamwasn’t think- ing about the bigger picture when they decided to schedule a Facebook Live Q&A session on traveling with children overseas titled “Family Travel Hacks” on June 19—a t the same time as the Trump administra- tion was under fire for separating migrant families at the border and locking the chil- dren up in detention centers in an effort to deter people from trying to cross our southern border. Some 2,300 children were separated from their families. The event, moderated by the well- intentioned “Carl and Kim” from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, was meant to answer questions for U.S. citizen parents planning to travel abroad with their children this summer. A State Department official told The Hill that the campaign was part of a “seasonal outreach campaign,” but it came across as particularly tone-deaf. The moderators weren’t prepared for the onslaught of questions such as “When travelling can we pick which size cage we want our children to be jailed in?” and “I have a 4-month-old. What sort of work will he be prescribed when taken into the camp? His skills include rolling over,” and “While in your camp, will the children learn a trade...like pick- ing veggies or digging ditches?”—along with hundreds of other comments like those posted to Facebook and Twitter ahead of and during the session. The administration backed off the practice of separating families following a June 26 court order requiring officials to stop detaining parents apart from minor children and to reunify those who have been separated. A federal judge in San Diego ruled that all families must be reunited within 30 days of that ruling and by July 10 if the children are younger than 5. These deadlines proved impossible to meet; as of mid-August, the government had reunited hundreds of children with parents, but it was still strug- gling to locate all par- ents and children who had been separated.