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“Act like you are the boss,” Susan counseled, “or people will take advantage of you.”
This meant that when I raised a foreign policy topic with him, I wasn’t launching an interesting discussion. Rather, I was making an implicit demand.
“People tend to think about themselves,” he told me. “It is highly unlikely your colleagues are thinking about you at all.”
Government, I discovered, was a lot like high school: people tended to dish on their peers behind their backs rather than to their faces.
the shorthand of whether we were “respected” or “not respected,” and whether we were “effective” or “not effective.”
But I knew I did not yet have the relationships, the clout, or the mastery of bureaucratic processes I needed to maximize my impact.
“the willingness of those who are neither perpetrators nor victims to accept the assigned role of bystander, believing . . . the fiction that we do not have a choice.”
When I was not included in meetings—meetings that, when I did get to attend, usually proved underwhelming—I began to feel as though my colleagues didn’t trust me or value what I had to say.
Above all, I realized that I had allowed the indignities I felt to crowd out the basic, thrilling reality that I worked at the White House for President Barack Obama.
But we took one another’s ideas seriously. This meant never leaving them simply hanging in the air, which typically happened in large group discussions.
But for the first time, I began aggressively reaching out to women who had made an impression on me in meetings,
trying to convince them to join my small team rather than waiting for them to apply. I also dedicated more energy to building coalitions with like-minded individuals across government. And I regularized the practice of holding several meetings each week with outside groups to be sure I was continually being exposed to fresh thinking.
He advised me to start by doing triage: patients with life-threatening conditions should be seen first. At the same time, I needed to look for opportunities. Was there a place in the world that was ripe for reform? Was there a conflict or situation where, with more diplomacy, resources, or pressure, the United States could make a positive impact?
They don’t have another hope besides America.”
believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear.
I was his human rights adviser responsible for atrocity prevention,
But when people asked, “Do you miss having your own voice?” I could barely fathom the question. “The reason I was exercising my voice before was to influence people in jobs like the one I now have,” I would say. “A voice is not an end in itself.”
we drafted a directive that President Obama soon issued to his cabinet, declaring that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States”
The rule of law was an essential foundation for peace and economic development,
look for pressure points, identify potential allies, and work the system. And
Supporting at-risk LGBT people in other countries was breaking new ground.
“gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,”
LGBT Americans had to consider whether they would be harassed, denied service, or even lynched for their sexual orientation.
But just because we couldn’t right every wrong did not mean we couldn’t—or shouldn’t—try to improve lives and mitigate violence where we could do so at reasonable risk.
“Better is good, and better is actually a lot harder than worse”—a
You work at the White House. There is no other room where a bunch of really smart people of sound judgment are getting together and figuring out what to do. It will be the scariest moment of your life when you fully internalize this: There is no other meeting. You’re in the meeting. You are the meeting. If you have a concern, raise it.”
American diplomats were our primary eyes and ears on the ground in the Middle East, and while some were entrepreneurial, managing to explore the societies in which they lived, others were out of touch with what was referred to as “the street”: students and young adults, people who lived outside of major cities, and those with lower socioeconomic status. The security regulations put in place after the September 11th attacks compounded the disconnect, as diplomats were sometimes also restricted in their movements.
the US government heard little from citizens who were growing angry with the inequality, corruption, and repressiveness of life in outwardly stable countries like Tunisia and Egypt.
“This is why we know so little about what is actually going on anywhere.”
Polling already showed that the more repressive governments became in trying to keep a lid on brewing discontent, the less legitimacy they had with their people.
key trends—like mass unemployment, a population predominantly made up of young people, technology that increased the average person’s ability to see elites’ standard of
was a bit embarrassed to rely on Hillary for help on household issues given that she would soon be my senior policy adviser—if I was fortunate enough to be confirmed—but she insisted on using her vacation time to help me.
“admiring the problem,”
We also urged staff to dedicate a specific time in their week to talk to someone outside government who knew about the issues they were working on. For
created a speakers’ series, where academics and journalists would come to the Mission to share their experiences.
“the tyranny of the inbox.”
decided to find occasions to highlight the impact being made by refugees and immigrants in the United States. In addition, I would work with my team to embed LGBT rights within the DNA of the UN and to try to secure the release of political prisoners.
“I’m not fully familiar with what you are describing, but I will look into it, and we will get back to you with a response.” “Rather than commenting on the specifics, let me say this generally . . .” “I’m not going to speculate on . . .” “What we should all be focused on is . . .”
people won’t speak freely to you if they think you are more interested in making a media splash than engaging in real dialogue.”
was not prepared to choose between public and private diplomacy; both have their place.
Once he had latched onto something, getting him to let go was almost impossible. This relentlessness was an enormous asset.
The United States of America is the greatest country in the world, and you, America, are here.”
The second consequence of visiting Ambassador Doubane and hearing his story was that I decided to try to meet with each of the UN ambassadors to learn theirs.
“Nobody’s better than you, but you’re better than nobody.”
Most significantly, regardless of their size, wealth, or geopolitical heft, I could show them America’s respect.
For example, although Cape Verde is a country of just 546,000, some 400,000 people of Cape Verdean descent live in the United States. Likewise, more than 15,000 people from the Marshall Islands, which only has a population of 53,000, reside in Springdale, Arkansas, with most of them working at the Tyson Foods headquarters.
The islands that formed Kiribati had a combined population of 112,000 people. Among them, the highest elevation was just six feet. The ambassador was skeptical his country would survive. “We are falling into the sea,” he said. His government was encouraging citizens to consider moving elsewhere under a plan it called “migration with dignity.”
These countries were counting on the United States to lead the world in finding a solution. Their ambassadors encouraged people who denied or doubted the global scientific consensus on climate change to visit their homelands. “We are losing so much time,” one said.
Vitaly said, “Peace between our two countries. Whatever happens, we must preserve that. It was no fun before.”
we decided to run a resolution in the General Assembly that rejected the upcoming referendum and the redrawing of Ukraine’s borders.
