A Correspondent's View
How will the next global crisis be averted? Join National Public Radio's Diplomatic Correspondent Tom Gjelten as he discusses current threats to world peace.
Live Online
Midday
Thurs, July 16, noon-1 pm CT
How to Listen
Also broadcast on MPR News & Information Stations,
including 91.1 FM News in the Twin Cities.
Lecture
Thurs, July 16, 7 pm CT
Macalester College Chapel
Admission is free, but tickets are required. Pick up
your free tickets at Mississippi Market in Saint Paul, Wedge Co-op and
Linden Hills Co-op in Minneapolis, or Lakewinds Natural Foods in Minnetonka.
About Tom Gjelten
Gjelten returned to Washington in 1994 after eight years of overseas
assignments. From September 1990 to December 1993 he reported on the
reunification of Germany and its transition from communism to democracy and
market economics as NPR's correspondent for Eastern and Central Europe. In
addition, Gjelten has covered the war in the Persian Gulf, the breakup of
the Soviet Union, the Serb-Croat conflict in the former Yugoslavia, the war
in Bosnia, the drug wars in Columbia, and the crisis in Panama.
Today Gjelten is National Public Radio's diplomatic correspondent, covering the policy side of international issues from inside Washington.
Minnesota Public Radio's Broadcast
Journalist Series brings renowned radio journalists to Minnesota to share
their insights and career experiences.
The Broadcast Journalist Series is made possible by Macalester College and
Fish and Richardson P.C., P.A.
|
|
|
Gjelten stands in the ruins of Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo's
surviving newspaper, 1993.
Gjelten shares his thoughts about the state of diplomacy and stories from
abroad in this informal interview with MPR writer Bryce Eberhart.
Is there a political powder keg that's not getting a lot of attention from
international media right now?
If it's not in the news, I guess that rules out Kosovo and Macedonia which
are in the news. Aside from that, Cyprus is on the verge of becoming a very
dangerous situation. Cyprus is divided between a Turkish and a Greek side.
The Turkish forces there are talking about bringing in some sophisticated
weaponry they haven't had there before. The Greek side, who is recognized
internationally as the legal government of Cyprus wants to join the
European Union and they've been invited to. If that goes through, the Turks
have threatened to beef up their military presence on the island.
There have been clashes many times before over the last thirty years
between the Greeks and the Turks on Cyprus, and that could flare up in a
moment. That's a very dangerous situation because if there is real fighting
there, Turkey would come in on the side of the Turkish Cypriots, and Greece
would come in on the side of the Greek Cypriots, and you'd have a conflict
between two members of NATO.
How has being in the field made you a better reporter in the State Department?
Knowing what the situation really is like puts you in a much better
situation to report what they say because you can be a little bit of a
check on them. You go to a State Department briefing every day at 12:30
p.m. and the spokesman gives you a speech on the situation in Bosnia for
example. If you haven't been there, you more or less have to take his word
for it. If you've been there, you more quickly pick out the flaws in what
he is saying and it's much easier to come up with a tough question for him
because you know the weak points of the policy because you have seen it
implemented on the ground.
What is the state of diplomacy in the United States?
I have a general impression that the art or craft of diplomacy has suffered in the last 20 years. I know that the
state of morale in the Foreign Service is low. Foreign Service officers are
career professional diplomats who take the responsibilities seriously, who
believe in representing the United States and U.S. interests abroad and
working for better international relations. But often they are sidelined by
the political appointees who get named to senior diplomatic posts because
of their connections, friendships, or even their record of campaign
contributions. We have seen presidents - Republican and Democrat alike -
dole out ambassadorships as rewards for political loyalty or financial
support. Recently, we have also seen verbal assaults from Congress on
"State Department bureaucrats" and "briefcase-toting diplomats," and the
Foreign Service budget has come under constant attack.
Is there a particular diplomat that really sticks out in your mind as
exceptional?
I'd like to see more tribute given to people like Robert Frasure, the
diplomat who was killed in August 1995 outside Sarajevo when the armored
personnel carrier in which he was riding slid off a dirt road on a
mountainside. Frasure for the previous several months had been working
slowly and patiently but effectively to lay the foundation for a peace
agreement in Sarajevo. Ultimately the agreement was negotiated at Dayton
with much fanfare, but it would not have been possible without the
painstaking efforts of people like Frasure. In the current atmosphere of
State Department-bashing on Capitol Hill, people like Frasure don't get the
recognition they deserve. This cannot make foreign service more attractive
to young, bright people.
Did you know Robert Frasure?
I met him and talked to him. When you come to the State Department you need
to cultivate sources who may not be the main news makers but they're a good
source of information. When I was doing Bosnia, I couldn't just ring up
Richard Holbrook on the phone and get him to give me a background analysis
on diplomacy.
Frasure was a very candid, thoughtful, helpful guy. Two or three weeks
before he was killed I was working on a story. He talked in a down-to-earth
kind of way. You could never quote him by name, but you could quote him as
a senior State Department official. He was the kind of guy that instead of
giving you the official line, he gave you the actual situation.
You're married to NPR's Pentagon Correspondent Martha Raddatz. What is your
working relationship?
In my Rolodex I have a card with Pentagon numbers on it, and I have turned
that card over so the blank side faces me, and I wrote on the back, "See
Martha first." We sort of have a deal between us that I don't call people
at the Pentagon and she doesn't call people at the State Department unless
we check with each other first. So if I'm working on a story and need to
follow it up at the Pentagon, I ask her if she would like to make a call on
my behalf or if she will let me make it. She does the same thing if she has
a question for someone at the State Department. Many stories have both a
State Department and Pentagon angle and you can't always split them down
the middle, so we have to have a cooperative approach.
|
