An Exchange on "Listening" in Public Diplomacy

An email exchange (posted here with the kind permission of Professor Albro*) regarding the Professor's article, Dilemmas of a Dyslexic Public Diplomacy:

Hi Rob [Professor Albro], Thank you for your important piece. Will cite with pleasure in today's Public Diplomacy Review. Meanwhile, you might find this minor observation on my "Notes and Essays" blog pertaining to your scholarly article amusing; my parti pris, I assure you, in no way denigrates the importance of listening in public diplomacy, but suggests that US public diplomats "in the field" are not the only ones guilty of the sin of paying no attention to what others are saying -- indeed, these diplomats' audiences/interlocutors can at times be blamed for this transgression as well.

I base the above unscientific generalization on my twenty-year US diplomatic experience (mostly in Eastern/Central Europe/the Balkans, 1981-2002), where programs/events organized (e.g., by the US Embassy) to create a truthful dialogue (I include one-on-one meetings such as a luncheon) are sometimes seen by local audiences/luminaries as an opportunity to engage (on their part) in an endless monologue.

Indeed, at the risk of exaggerating and being overly ironic, I would suggest that, in some foreign countries, it's really not expected, on occasions supposedly organized to be exchanges of ideas and opinions, for a US diplomat to utter a word in the local language or in English. Her local interlocutors, essentially, don't really want her to open her mouth at all (except, at restaurants, constantly to swallow food, a sure way to keep "the US official" quiet), but rather for her to attentively be awed by what they -- the host country pundits -- have to pontificate about.

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit this, but I found such conversational passivity expected of a diplomat from some important Embassy contacts professionally less challenging than trying, tactfully and forcefully, to make a point, especially a positive one, about the United States. Saying nothing and just listening (or, quite honestly, in all-too-many cases, just pretending to listen, especially when your interlocutor goes on and on and on, incessantly), is a safe, carefree way to carry out public diplomacy (no one can quote you in the press; and how can you offend anyone when you say nothing?).

As a professional diplomat ("no comment'), silence (sorry, I meant "listening") you know won't get into trouble with bureaucracies in Washington or the host country, even (especially?) in today's interconnected social-media world, by putatively "listening" --  i.e. "saying nothing."

More seriously, though, it seems to me artificial to create a dichtomony between listening and speaking. You don't really listen if you don't speak, and you don't really speak if you don't listen.

And, most important, the best part of any Foreign Service career (I would say) is sharing ideas, in intelligent give-and-take conversations, with distinguished persons (who cares about their social/economic/academic status) overseas, particularly young and upcoming ones, at a not-too-solemn social occasion that leads to further discussion -- and not just online. But such opportunities are certainly not automatic, especially when dealing with officials.

In the case of listening, nobody's perfect -- Americans or the rest of the world.

Best, John

P.S. Again, based on my overseas experience, a rather rare -- and laudatory -- American phenomenon, certainly not a univeral one, is that in the U.S. speakers/teachers will often ask their audience/students, "Do you have any questions?" thereby suggesting they are eager to "listen" to what those supposedly listening to them have to say. Overseas, and I would include Great Britain in this category based on my service in London (granted, in the early 80s of the oh-so-distant past century); the notion of a speaker, in the sea-walled island, asking for the opinions of his listeners is not always the rule.

Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:23:02 -0600
From: robert.albro@verizon.net
To: johnhbrown30@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: RE: Cultural Diplomacy and Listening

Hi John -- Many thanks for this! I very much appreciate your notes from the field about listening -- especially their wry delivery -- and I feel your pain! As an anthropologist who spends time doing ethnographic fieldwork -- long days spent listening to others digress -- and trying to facilitate often challenging conversations among policy stakeholders with often sharply diverging perspectives, I can only sympathize.

It's true: listening is not in itself going to get anything done. And others are just as capable of monologue -- strategically so. It's fair to say, with my take on listening, this is as much a kind of cultural critique of ourselves as a direct plea, if you will. So, programmatically we could do more to listen. But, I'm really talking about "listening" as an opportunity to more firmly situate the practice of diplomacy -- as a dialogue with others -- within its negotiated (in the spirit of dialogue) social, political, cultural/interpretive -- and linguistic -- contexts of meaning not only for "us" but also for "them."

I very much appreciate your take on this.

Best,

Rob

Robert Albro
International Communication
School of International Service
American University

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*The below is an edited, expanded version of the 12/15/11 email from JB to Professor Albro regarding his article; the professor did not see this expanded version in its final form, but ok'd its being posted without his reviewing it.]