According to the Foreign Service

Mixed feelings post:

As you probably know, I've been relatively iffy about Obama.  Not so much that he's going to do a horrible job, but rather that people seem to think that now that Obama is in office, things will get better.  But I don't really see the change that much.  "Change you can believe in" was one of the slogans, and I guess I never believe.  I just watch and see.

Well, last Thursday in my Global Career Development class, we had a presentation by this Foreign Service lady.  Of of the questions we asked her at the end was: "How much does your job change between administrations?"

The answer was that generally speaking, foreign policy stays the same between administrations, with an exception recently.

The ways things have actually changed?

1) The Bad Bush Effect.  First she told us that during the Bush administration, things got harder.  Originally, people loved Americans.  As a diplomat, people would be like: "We think you're wrong, but we like you and your country because you're American."  That stopped during the Bush administration, particularly after the start of the Iraq war.  "We think you're wrong, and we don't like you or your country because you're American."

I can personally vouch for this one, on reflection.  As you probably know, I've been traveling since before I was 1.  My first birthday was in Australia, and that was on the return end of traveling through China, my dad teaching in Helsinki, etc.  Grew up all my life traveling.  And people liked Americans.  The soft power was there, and damnit, it helped.  Americans were cool, people wanted to be like Americans (I always had mixed feelings about that last one).

As I turned into a teenager, that sense faded.  I always assumed it was me, some sort of nostalgia, but maybe not?

Anyway, Bush made diplomacy difficult, and while the elites generally knew better than to assume most US folks were like Bush, the foreign service had to really drive the public publicity that they try at.  Stuff so that people get to know normal americans.

In the mean time, they probably wished they could wear shirts like this. (By the end of the talk, I got the feeling that the Foreign Service had pretty legitimate reasons to be pissed at Bush.)

2)  She also noted climate change policy problems.  The Bush administration's views on climate change were widely variant from the global norm.  It's kind of tricky to talk with people about anything that is affected by climate concerns when, to your goverment, climate concerns don't exist.  How do you make a treaty on industrial pollution standards when the US and the rest of the world are working from a different base of assumptions?  (Yet another reasons for them to think that US folks are stupid.)

3) Abortion too.  According to Bush administration policies, federal government institutions were not allowed to provide funding to any health organization, governmental or not, that includes abortion as a possibility in their their health-control schema.  Which seems like a nasty jab at abortion - good if you are anti-choice, bad if you are anti-life (because I like being negative).

The problem in practice is that most governments only have one department of health, and that does everything.  So instead of cutting out the programs that provide the option of abortion in favor of those who don't provide that as an option, the policy wound up cutting the health programs of entire developing countries out of US funding.  And gods do some developing countries need adequately funded health programs. (Another reason for them to think that US folks are dicks.)

So, now with the change to Obama, the US has a fresh new face abroad, is now on the same page as everyone else for climate change, and can fund the health programs of developing worlds.

I haven't travelled abroad since Obama was elected.  I hope to see some change.  At least the foreign service gal did.