Remarks made during
Ambassadors: Relics of the Sailing Ships?

No less an expert than U.N. Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali complained in a speech that satellite communication, like a force of nature, is distorting international diplomacy. The member states never take action on a problem unless the media take up the case, he said. When the media get involved, constructive statesmanship is almost impossible.

In just one example, Strobe Talbott was watching the Russian White House burn in the tumultuous events of September 1993, talking to a counterpart at the Russian Foreign Ministry, both of them watching CNN. Helicopters appeared on the screen. The Russian said to the American, "Why don't we wait a minute and watch how this plays out?"

For several minutes, as events unfolded on Black Monday, these two top diplomats, who were charged with working out the crisis, instead watched television while they sat on a secure line saying absolutely nothing.

This freeze-frame picture of their conversation makes starkly clear the intrusion of instant, global TV pictures into diplomacy.

Johanna Neuman
Annenberg Visiting Fellow and Convener

I think that actually the worst effect, the most insidious effect of television on policy making, has been the demand which is now laid on all our heads of government--prime ministers and presidents--to be instantly available and constantly available so that they are asked, effectively, to talk all the time about these crises as they develop, to engage in a kind of James Joyce stream-of-consciousness process of decision making.

This is a complete disaster. And, in that sense, I am absolutely determined to get back to the age of the sail. That is to say, to a point where, first of all, we decide what to do, and then we tell the media.

Sir Robin Renwick
British Ambassador to the United States

The media, by reporting constantly, especially the wire news services, CNN, and those who are dealing with constant or live reports, create a lot of noises. The task of identifying which of those noises is the real signal becomes more and more complicated.

The public is constantly bombarded with more and more information, with more and more facts, and it needs, on certain occasions, a road map to show which is the real signal to pay attention to, which of those facts is more important, and to put [the facts] in the right context.

If this is the case, then the role of the diplomat...in this age [is to] intervene exactly at that point. Basically, we are turning out to be more and more the expert interpreter of the reality, bringing in the mentality of the place in which we are serving.

Ruth Yaron
Minister Counselor for Press and Communications for the Embassy of Israel

I'd like to talk a little bit about what we did in Port-au-Prince and what I think is a new and very creative way of using the media.

We did away with the old negative truths. First of all, all diplomats are told, you can't really be friends with journalists and don't try to get too personal with them. Well, we didn't do that. And we did become friends. And it saved us a couple of times.

We made ourselves available all the time to CNN and the other networks. And any time they did a package, they invariably came to us because we were willing to go on record, as a lot of diplomats will not.

And so, Washington--the White House and the State Department--intentionally pushed the story to Port-au-Prince for the government aspect. So you had this integration of stories between the government and the media that I would suggest you don't have in other places.

And I think it paid dividends. Because any time you get your point across, it's good. And it's better if any story has a comment from the U.S. government point of view than if it does not.

Stanley Schrager
Senior Foreign Service Officer and Spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Haiti

I made a personal list of what is required from diplomats today. This is a partial list, but it has four elements.

One is a professional, and even a personal, relationship with elites in the country where you are. Now you have to talk to the opposition; you have to talk to different elements of the government in power. You have to talk to the press; you have to talk to dissidents. And you have to talk to normal people if the list I gave you before doesn't include those.

A second point: there is a need for a well-rounded understanding of a country if you are in a country, or of an issue, if you are an ambassador on an issue. And only if you are on the spot all the time can you get that kind of understanding. You cannot get it episodically.

Third is the ability on a daily basis to explain and to lobby for the U.S. position. Again, you have to be there full-time to be able to do that effectively.

And fourth is an ability to advise Washington based on what Washington needs to know. You have to know what Washington needs to know, and it is not always exactly what the media can purvey.

Warren Zimmermann
Senior Fellow of the RAND Corporation