Former Secretary of State George C. Shultz spoke of “tending the diplomatic garden,” an apt metaphor for the ceaseless effort to cultivate the relationships abroad necessary to advance American interests. Diplomacy, like many professions, relies on the trust established by getting to know people, with their culture and all their ambitions. In order to succeed now, at home and abroad, we need to tend our domestic garden. The same best practices we have used abroad for decades can help us get down to the business of national reconciliation.
At a university lecture years ago, I heard diplomacy described as a train moving down the tracks of U.S. values and democracy. I now have nearly 20 years of service to our country, advocating for U.S. interests as a foreign service officer. When I came home last August to live in the United States for the first time in six years, I admit it felt like the train had jumped the tracks. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2019 listed the United States as a “flawed democracy,” ranking our nation on par with Malta and behind countries such as Mauritius and Costa Rica. Pew polling indicated that only 20% of U.S. adults trusted the federal government “to do the right thing.” Despite those disturbing data points, I was proud and relieved to see on November 3 that the bedrock of our democracy is still strong. Voter turnout reached new highs, according to the Washington Post, and local officials and volunteers supported our greatest civic liberty in their traditionally reliable fashion.
That strong turnout must begin to translate into the political will to confront our shared challenges. Whichever side of the aisle you sit on, we cannot accept that every four years half of our country feels left out. We need to use every tool at our disposal toward the end of a more perfect union. We cannot afford inaction in an age of pandemic, disinformation, climate change, and international competition. We need to build or rediscover those relationships among Americans that allow us to cooperate to ensure that, as Senator Vandenberg famously said, “politics stop at the water’s edge.” The greatest rebuttal to the advocates of autocracy globally is the demonstration of the power of our democratic values.
The best way to advance American diplomacy abroad is to strengthen our relationships as citizens at home. We need to reinforce the democratic pillars that have made America the leading democracy in the world.
So how can we begin to mend our divides, embrace our democratic legacy, and affirm our place in the world? A recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations, “Revitalizing the State Department and American Diplomacy,” calls for 300 new economic foreign service officers abroad. While this would be welcomed, I suggest sending them first to small business councils across America. They could explain what they offer abroad, and learn from businesses what is needed to stimulate job creation and income recovery at home.
As a former Peace Corps Volunteer I can tell you the best return the U.S. taxpayer got from my experience was making me a better U.S. citizen. We need to revisit and expand the National and Community Trust Act of 1993 to encourage a mission focus on getting to know our fellow countrymen again. The act was designed to address “pressing unmet human, educational, environmental, and public safety needs.” It should be expanded now to focus on domestic cross-cultural exchanges. The act could offer zero- or low-interest loans for higher education to offset student debt, while pulling people out of their bubbles and relocating them for a year or more to projects identified at the state and local levels. We should discuss making national service mandatory — or at least creating disincentives for avoiding it, such as refusing access to government-issued low-interest loans. Let’s also move the headquarters of the operation from D.C. to, perhaps, Iowa. Three hundred and seventy thousand scholars have participated in the Fulbright program since 1946. Let’s encourage them to hit the U.S. circuit and share their knowledge in town councils, church congregations, and VFW halls. Finally, let’s talk about local DMVs offering a civics review course in addition to the rules of the road when you renew a license.
None of these ideas is comprehensive — there is no silver bullet. There are additional conversations needed on education reform and media literacy, among others. My point is it won’t matter how many relationships we’ve invested in abroad if we don’t turn our primary attention to the tending of our domestic garden. Our common goal must be to shape a better America that we can project to the world; one that opens the door to our engagement abroad and defeats autocracy. We all have a role, and I can think of no better gift we could offer one of our greatest public servants, the estimable Secretary Shultz, on his 100th birthday, than to dig in and try.
Chase A. Beamer, a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, is a national security affairs fellow at the Stanford University Hoover Institution. He has served in diplomatic posts in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Government.