The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2019 33 Diplomacy and the Foreign Service Today FSJ: Is the United States being “outplayed” in Africa by China? By Russia? How can the United States best compete for influence and business in Africa? HJC: The United States is not being “outplayed” in Africa by China and Russia. China is doing a lot of infrastructure work in Africa financed by soft loans. The amount of debt toward China is now so large, there is no way the Africans can pay it back. In addition, the work done by Chinese state-owned com- panies is often shoddy. Roads wear out in two years. As for Russia, they have nothing to offer beside arms and mercenaries. They like, of course, to take control of goldmines to pay for their services. U.S., European and Japanese investors are all doing far more good work in Africa than China and Russia. The big problem remains the absence of security for investors. Despite this, the United States is in Africa in a big way and is highly respected. FSJ: What are the essential ingredients for a successful diplomat? HJC: The successful diplomat should be interested mainly in absorbing the culture of other nations in order to better understand why they make certain decisions and say what they do. Curiosity is probably the most important element of successful diplomacy. I spent most of my career abroad asking questions. FSJ: Is the Foreign Service as an institution strong today? How has the role of the Foreign Service changed? HJC: The Foreign Service is more important and more essen- tial than ever. The world is very diverse and very complicated. CNN and Al-Jazeera cannot tell the policymaker what is really going on abroad. The Foreign Service, on the ground abroad, is the main instrument for Washington to be able to decide on policies toward countries and regions. Also, with so many U.S. government agencies having personnel abroad in U.S. embassies, the Foreign Service is needed to coordinate so that everyone is on the same page. FSJ: What areas, either functional or regional, would you