The Honorable Secretary Hillary Clinton - "Importance of People to People Exchanges"

On November 6,  at the No Limits Public Policy conference in Washington, DC, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out again a central tenant of her tenure as the U.S.’ top diplomat: 21^st century diplomacy takes more than government to government interaction—it also requires substantial people to people contact in which we “try as directly as possible to reach people through governments, around governments, under governments, in every way possible.”

A fuller quote from Clinton’s speech is as follows:
 

“Every conflict we have in the world today is really bound up in whether people will invest in the future, whether they will seek common ground with others, or whether they will either stay frozen or go backwards. And part of our job in the State Department is to better explain what it is the United States represents. We got a little off track over the last eight years. We’re trying to get back on track today. I was very pleased that – some of you know Judith McHale was appointed the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, and she is traveling the world, looking for the ways that we can better connect so that we can tell our story. Because everyone has a story to tell, and everyone needs to be thinking about how we better tell America’s story.

“Whenever I travel, as Terry said, I try not just to meet with diplomats and officials, but to go out and meet with people. And that’s been kind of a interesting experience the last nine months, because a lot of people thought, “Well, why are you doing that?” Well, it’s because no matter what society you’re in, public opinion matters to a greater or a lesser degree, but it matters. You can be an authoritarian dictator, but you still have to listen to what people are saying and thinking. And we needed to do some concerted work to try to create a better communication between our country and others.

“That’s why I’ve held town hall meetings from Santo Domingo to Moscow to Nairobi to Bangkok. I even appeared on what’s called the Awesome Show in Indonesia. (Laughter.) And at every turn, I have listened and responded, but also stood up for what I think are our core values. It is critical in today’s world that we recognize information is not compartmentalized; it doesn’t stay in official channels or in diplomatic cables. It is pervasive.

“And we are now using the new tools of technology. Some of you might remember during the demonstrations in Iran during the post-election period, the way people were finding out where they should go and learning what was happening was through Twitter. And the young men and women who work for me in the State Department, the twenty-somethings, realized that Twitter was going to shut down for some kind of technical rebooting whatever they do. (Laughter.) So these young people called Twitter and said, “You can’t shut down. The demonstrators in Iran are depending on you.” I mean, that could not have happened five years ago. And so part of what our challenge is, is to really try as directly as possible to reach people through governments, around governments, under governments, in every way possible. We’re also doing more to build partnerships, which I think are key to our success. Again, another long-time friend of many of us, Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley, is now heading up our global public-private partnerships effort. And she’s reaching out, working with business, working with NGOs to create opportunities for people to contribute to America’s diplomacy.”

Mark Overmann
Assistant Director & Senior Policy Specialist
Alliance for International Educational & Cultural Exchange
Washington, D.C. 20036
MOvermann@alliance-exchange.org