The Foreign Service Journal, October 2004

O ct. 1 marks five years since the United States Informa- tion Agency was absorbed into the State Department. Most State employees aren’t aware of the anniversary and don’t know why they should care. However, some of us remember Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s words on the day of the merger, when she stressed that public diplomacy must “survive and thrive in its new home.” It is, she pro- claimed, “a national security impera- tive.” Since that day, public diplomacy has survived, but has it thrived? Is it easier or harder today to promote and carry out creative public diplomacy ideas and programs that provide the context, create the relationships, and build the bridges for understanding the U.S. abroad? Do we even have a common definition within the State Depart- ment of what public diplomacy means? From a purely administrative point of view, the merger might be consid- ered a success. Budgets were sorted out, offices were shuffled into various bureaus, new officers were main- streamed into State’s A-100 classes, and grants and contracts were made to conform to State Department rules. Public diplomacy training, after sever- al years of only basic course offerings, has been revamped and increased to levels comparable with other cones. The department also deserves credit for ensuring that public diplomacy offi- cers are filling a decent share of princi- pal officer and DCM jobs. Change brings pain, of course, and many individuals, offices and programs took hits. Some longtime local employees found themselves “cross- walked” into other sections of the embassy and a number of educational advisers and English teachers were upset to learn that their long-held employment contracts were now labeled “illegal.” A shortsighted deci- sion killed the overseas designation of “USIS” (the U.S. Information Service), the well-known, well-respected brand- name associated with many of our partnerships abroad. To reassure employees facing these and other transformations, Secretary Albright promised a marriage of equals: “In joining the Department of State, you change it forever.” The truth, how- ever, is that State managed to swallow the much-smaller USIA with a small burp and virtually no change in habits. After all, as one State colleague said to me, “Why should we change just because USIA has joined us?” Lessons Learned — and Not Learned But by not changing, the depart- ment missed the chance to try to forge something better out of what it had absorbed. The general failure of imagination on the part of the U.S. government reported by the 9/11 Commission applies here as well. State did not take the opportunity to re-examine its own procedures and to develop and grow the resources it gained — even though the past five years have brought endless analyses of the failures and flaws in our conduct of public diplomacy. Despite other- wise strong and innovative leadership, State has not shown that it has capital- ized on the public diplomacy assets it received in 1999. Instructions to “pay particular attention to PD,” while nice to read, do not by themselves ensure the conditions and environment for public diplomacy to thrive. In the few areas where State did take a page from USIA’s book — such as finally ensuring Internet access for all employees — everyone benefited. Prior to the merger, State officers wondered why USIA had better equipment and Internet access. The answer was simple: most USIS sec- tions made technology a budget prior- ity, back when public affairs officers controlled their own funds. Secretary Powell’s commitment to Internet access for all employees has since boosted the rest of the department to the pre-merger USIA levels of con- nectivity, but credit for the current level of speed and accessibility to OpenNet Plus is also due to the stub- bornness of public diplomacy units that refused to accept services inferior to what they had come to expect from the former PDNet. State has not capitalized on the public diplomacy assets it received in 1999. A Failure of Imagination B Y B EATRICE A. C AMP O C T O B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 S PEAKING O UT