Originally published on the CGS blog on December 5, 2014.
It’s probably not too much to ask that a prospective ambassador know a little bit about the country they want to work in, right? Or that they actually have been to that country? Well, apparently it is.
Recent Senate confirmations have put Colleen Bell and Noah Mamet in Hungary and Argentina respectively as US ambassadors. One would think that they are diplomats of some sort, with prestige and experience in the country in which they’ll be working. Unfortunately, ths is not the case. Both Bell and Mamet have absolutely no experience or background in the countries they’re going to. But don’t just take it from me – allow Jon Stewart to further illustrate these points.
But surely they must have SOME qualifications, right? Why else would they be approached for the position? The shocking reality is that they are not remotely equipped to head an overseas office of the United States. Bell is best known for her work as – wait for it – a soap opera producer. When asked about the US’ strategic interests in Hungary, Bell did her very best to try to sidestep the question, but couldn’t quite get past John McCain. Mamet, on the other hand, runs his own PR and communications firm. If that weren’t enough to take him out of the running, you won’t believe this: Mamet has never even been to Argentina and doesn’t speak Spanish. The only reason these two were nominated by the President is that they were big time donors to his campaigns, giving well over $500,000. So it would seem that a political ambassadorship in the US can indeed be bought.
On this topic, an ABC news anchor said, “This is not uncommon, but it is uncomfortable.” You can say that again. As a matter of fact, this disturbing trend is growing in an American political system that is being threatened by plutocracy.
It should be no wonder that there has been a backlog of appointees who have had to wait quite some time before they could be confirmed. Why would Republicans, like stalwart John McCain, even want to entertain the idea of voting for someone who hasn’t even been to the country? Why would anyone, for that matter? Well, for someone who sought to reform the political appointee system, President Obama is doing a bang-up job thus far.
Sadly, according to Justine Drennan, this is a trend that is decades old and is not going away in the near future, at the cost of our international reputation and quality of governance. She finds that usually 30% of appointees are political and 70% are career diplomats, but that the former statistic is close to 40% in the Obama Administration.
This doesn’t mean that all political appointees are unqualified. However, there is a fine line between a career diplomat and someone who has never been to the country in question. It leads this writer to think that maybe he should set up a Kickstarter to raise $500,000 and buy an ambassadorship. Surely as a graduate student studying international affairs at a reputable university in the nation’s capital, I have more qualifications than a soap opera producer, right? In any case, could I prove any worse at being an ambassador then Bell or Mamet? I suppose we will have to wait and see.
