"A world of zero risk is not a world in which American diplomacy can deliver," U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken said as he introduced his plan for modernizing American diplomacy at the Foreign Service Institute.
Part of that plan, he said, would address the overly strict security protocols that prevent our diplomats from doing their jobs. Some in Congress agree and are working to pass legislation to do the same.
And it's long overdue. Diplomacy is about relationships and trust — to build them you need to meet people where they are and be part of their world. It's hard to be an effective diplomat from inside a bunker.
I know because I've tried. I spent eight months at that same diplomatic training center learning Somali, at U.S. taxpayer expense, before I joined the U.S. Mission to Somalia in 2016. It was an exciting time. We had our first ambassador to Somalia in 25 years, signaling a new era of diplomatic engagement with an important counterterrorism partner.
Had I known that I would not set foot in any part of Somalia outside the Mogadishu International Airport compound during my 20 months with the mission, I might not have been so enthusiastic about my studies. Thanks to risk aversion in Washington, U.S. diplomats are still not allowed to travel outside that heavily guarded compound where our embassy is now located. Burdensome security protocols and inadequate resources make it hard to travel elsewhere in the country too.
Somalia can be dangerous, but even staff of small European missions manage to move around Mogadishu, join discussions at the presidential palace, and travel on United Nations flights to participate in events or meetings elsewhere in the country. None of this was available to us. Instead of managing the risks, like everyone else, the U.S. government sought to avoid them entirely. This came at a cost.
If our ambassador needed to meet the Somali president, we had to persuade him to come to us on the airport compound — an embarrassment on both sides. When the president called meetings of international partners, we would be stuck trying to connect via video. Years before the COVID-19 pandemic would normalize Zoom, this was partially effective at best.
This sent a message that Somalia wasn't important enough for us to make diplomacy work, even when everyone else could.