What the Obama Administration Really Thinks about Cultural Relations

"Passport" Image Credit: Lilit.

Interested in cultural relations or cultural diplomacy work? Don't join the Foreign Service, much less the US Government.

That's the message from the Obama Administration, according to Dr. John Brown, a retired US Foreign Service Officer who was one a handful of US Foreign Service Officers in 2003 who resigned in protest of the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq. Brown also edits the Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review.

Dr. Brown reports on a June 17 briefing he attended on Capitol Hill in which he asked a number of senior Obama Foreign Policy appointees about the importance of cultural diplomacy in the US government's global foreign policy outreach efforts.

Panelists included Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications; Rosa Brooks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy; and Kitty DiMartino, Chief of Staff for the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy.

Kitty Bartels DiMartino, a former Vice President at Discovery Communications and current Chief of Staff for the US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith McHale (former CEO of Discovery Communications) explained in greater detail what the Obama Administration thinks of investing in cultural diplomacy efforts. Says, Brown:

She underscored that cultural diplomacy is a tool of US foreign policy, not an activity in and of itself; those who see it thus, she said, should work for organizations other than the State Department, such as NGOs.

Fortunately, other governments think differently and support and fund cultural relations institutions. The British Council with whom we collaborate, for one example, is the British government's cultural relations outreach organization. The 74-year-old British Council is officially a charity and reports directly to Her Majesty the Queen. We are grateful that organizations like the British Council exist and, more importantly perhaps, that they include the United States citizens in the worldwide cultural relations and intercultural dialogue programs they create.

[John Brown's Notes and Essays: Cultural Diplomacy and Strategic Communications/Public Diplomacy]