American Diplomacy 2018

Andrew Cooper presents arguments for and against celebrity diplomats in his 2007 Beyond Hollywood and the Boardroom: Celebrity Diplomacy. While many of his arguments against such a cultural phenomenon are valid; most celebrities don’t have the same educational and career backgrounds as a foreign service officer, there is the potential for conflicting business interests, and celebrities are often out of touch with the average joe off the street, there is one major problem with his reasoning. He wrote it down in 2007. By all accounts, foreign and domestic, American diplomacy has undergone a one hundred and eighty degree turn from its heading in 2007.

            This is, to some degree, to be expected. American diplomacy is a system designed to undergo leadership changes every four to eight years. Along with that we usually see some changes in our foreign policy. The last few years, however, have produced such a switch that foreign diplomatic counterparts report confusion as to whom they are supposed to liaise with, in matters as far-ranging as agricultural trade and health initiatives. Posts that are usually filled briskly after a presidential transition stand vacant, not only at the State Department, the first place you think of for handling diplomatic matters, but also at the Department of Treasury, Department of Agriculture, and the myriad of other much-maligned bureaucratic institutions that keep us all in marmite and inexpensive clothes from Target.  

            Cooper’s focus is less on trade functions and more on healthcare and other humanist concerns. Here too we usually see changes as a result of presidential transfers of power. Typically in regard to whether or not we fund organization who engage in activities with which certain of our moralistic ideals disagree. This time around we’ve tightly trimming funding to non-governmental organizations who spread their gospel of non-abstinence-based birth control methods.

            Here is where Cooper’s argument that celebrities might not have a place in the diplomatic market loses acceleration. Here in 2018 the dedicated efforts of NGOs and local governments, many of whose programs were funded by celebrity-backed organizations like the Gates Foundation, have nearly eradicated pesky little concerns like polio. If the United States as a formal governmental organization is going to take a backseat on these issues, who better to carry on with the work that our cultural representation to much of the world? Now who knows the number for George Clooney’s office?

Andrew F. Cooper, “Beyond Hollywood and the Boardroom: Celebrity Diplomacy,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (2007).