Comments on: U.S News & World Report: How the Peace Corps Benefits Diplomatic Security http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/2012/12/26/how-the/ John Coyne Babbles is a collection of comments, opinions, musings, and outrages from this RPCV who served with the first group (1962-64) in Ethiopia. Sun, 26 May 2013 02:12:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Leo Cecchini http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/2012/12/26/how-the/comment-page-1/#comment-2740 Leo Cecchini Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:24:26 +0000 http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/?p=6630#comment-2740 Joey I conducted most of my business outside the embassy. Today's "fortress" embassies make it very difficult to have people come to it for business appointments. Consular services, however are delivered with a minimum of access problems. Joey

I conducted most of my business outside the embassy. Today’s “fortress” embassies make it very difficult to have people come to it for business appointments. Consular services, however are delivered with a minimum of access problems.

]]> By: Joey http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/2012/12/26/how-the/comment-page-1/#comment-2734 Joey Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:48:57 +0000 http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/?p=6630#comment-2734 Thank you, Leo, for this information based on your long and valuable diplomatic experience. I concur that our embassies have to be well protected. I am not positive about international law, but I thought that an attack on an embassy was considered an attack on the soil of the actual country whose embassy had been breached...potentially an act of war. I think the other side of the "fortress" embassy Model causes the question: Does this model discourage or intimidate host country citizens who may have legitimate business at the US embassy? What impression does a Fortress America give to a host country? Thank you, Leo, for this information based on your long and valuable diplomatic experience. I concur that our embassies have to be well protected. I am not positive about international law, but I thought that an attack on an embassy was considered an attack on the soil of the actual country whose embassy had been breached…potentially an act of war.

I think the other side of the “fortress” embassy Model causes the question: Does this model discourage or intimidate host country citizens who may have legitimate business at the US embassy?
What impression does a Fortress America give to a host country?

]]> By: Leo Cecchini http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/2012/12/26/how-the/comment-page-1/#comment-2733 Leo Cecchini Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:45:00 +0000 http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/?p=6630#comment-2733 I suggest you read my blog on the same subject, "Diplomatic Security," to see how this security acutally works. I lived 42 years under "diplomatic security" so understand how it affects your ability to do your job. I mentioned in my blog that my basic security rule when outside the diplomatic mission itself was to remain anonymous, just another man on the street. The only country in which I served where I did not speak the local language was Finland but strangely enough it was the one country where I looked most like the local folk. Using my basic rule I travelled far and wide in all the countries in which I was stationed and met people from all walks of life. Because of my main pursuits, economics and commerce, I was particularly well acquainted with the local business communities as well as academics in those fields and various government offices beyond the foreign ministries. My most frequent "research" was to simply walk through local markets and commercial centers. Nothing like mixing with shoppers to get a feel for what was happening. Yes, our embassies look more and more like fortresses and for good reason, witness the recent attacks on our embassies in Egypt and Pakistan, and of course our consulate in Benghazi. But contrary to the popular Peace Corps myth, American diplomats, be they RPCVs or not, do not confine their activities to behind embassy walls, unless their work is totally mission oriented, such as diplomatic security, administration, and consular services. Reporting officers, commercial officers, military liaison officers, DEA officers, and more have to go out into the local community to do their jobs. And when they do it helps to blend in with the local crowd. I suggest you read my blog on the same subject, “Diplomatic Security,” to see how this security acutally works. I lived 42 years under “diplomatic security” so understand how it affects your ability to do your job. I mentioned in my blog that my basic security rule when outside the diplomatic mission itself was to remain anonymous, just another man on the street. The only country in which I served where I did not speak the local language was Finland but strangely enough it was the one country where I looked most like the local folk.

Using my basic rule I travelled far and wide in all the countries in which I was stationed and met people from all walks of life. Because of my main pursuits, economics and commerce, I was particularly well acquainted with the local business communities as well as academics in those fields and various government offices beyond the foreign ministries. My most frequent “research” was to simply walk through local markets and commercial centers. Nothing like mixing with shoppers to get a feel for what was happening.

Yes, our embassies look more and more like fortresses and for good reason, witness the recent attacks on our embassies in Egypt and Pakistan, and of course our consulate in Benghazi. But contrary to the popular Peace Corps myth, American diplomats, be they RPCVs or not, do not confine their activities to behind embassy walls, unless their work is totally mission oriented, such as diplomatic security, administration, and consular services. Reporting officers, commercial officers, military liaison officers, DEA officers, and more have to go out into the local community to do their jobs. And when they do it helps to blend in with the local crowd.

]]> By: Don Messerschmidt http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/2012/12/26/how-the/comment-page-1/#comment-2731 Don Messerschmidt Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:07:23 +0000 http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/?p=6630#comment-2731 Both ignorance of local culture and short rotations in-country conspire to undermine the effectiveness of diplomats abroad. From firsthand experience in Nepal, especially during the Maoist uprising of 1996 to the mid-2000s with all the attendant difficulties to life and diplomacy that it caused, I can only say that (without undermining Peace Corps independence from the State Department) our diplomats should make every effort to learn from the experience that exists among the non-diplomats living abroad or recently returned. Longer lasting country assignments abroad and knowledge of local languages should also be encouraged more strongly among our diplomats. And, not least, encouraging RPCVs to join the foreign service should also be pursued. (submitted by anthropologist Don Messerschmidt, RPCV Nepal-2 '63-65 + decades of living in Nepal since then, during thick and thin...) Both ignorance of local culture and short rotations in-country conspire to undermine the effectiveness of diplomats abroad. From firsthand experience in Nepal, especially during the Maoist uprising of 1996 to the mid-2000s with all the attendant difficulties to life and diplomacy that it caused, I can only say that (without undermining Peace Corps independence from the State Department) our diplomats should make every effort to learn from the experience that exists among the non-diplomats living abroad or recently returned. Longer lasting country assignments abroad and knowledge of local languages should also be encouraged more strongly among our diplomats. And, not least, encouraging RPCVs to join the foreign service should also be pursued. (submitted by anthropologist Don Messerschmidt, RPCV Nepal-2 ‘63-65 + decades of living in Nepal since then, during thick and thin…)

]]> By: Dennis Grubb http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/2012/12/26/how-the/comment-page-1/#comment-2730 Dennis Grubb Thu, 27 Dec 2012 09:37:30 +0000 http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/?p=6630#comment-2730 Onward and upward...we have been singing this tune for fifty years but so few President's (including this one) and fewer Secretary's of State ( except Hillary) have ever listened... Dennis Grubb Onward and upward…we have been singing this tune for fifty years but so few President’s (including this one) and fewer Secretary’s of State ( except Hillary) have ever listened…

Dennis Grubb

]]> By: FlacoBob http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/2012/12/26/how-the/comment-page-1/#comment-2729 FlacoBob Thu, 27 Dec 2012 04:31:22 +0000 http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles/?p=6630#comment-2729 Time to take out our old copies of the Ugly American, in 50 plus years the State Department still operates behind walls. How many Diplomats and Diplomatic Security folks really get out and learn about the people they see behind those walls? Excellent piece, thanks Marian and John! Time to take out our old copies of the Ugly American, in 50 plus years the State Department still operates behind walls. How many Diplomats and Diplomatic Security folks really get out and learn about the people they see behind those walls? Excellent piece, thanks Marian and John!

]]>