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Ambassador Adam J. Ereli, F89, “Separating Rhetoric from Reality in U.S. Foreign Policy”

On October 13th, The Fletcher School hosted Ambassador Adam J. Ereli, F89, who addressed a full house as the first Charles Francis Adams speaker of the academic year. Ereli temporarily left his ambassadorial post in Bahrain to serve as the Public Affairs Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. His career has included appointments as Deputy Spokesman of the Department of State and as Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy for Overseas Communications in London.

Nostalgic for his Fletcher years, Ereli cited the rigorous atmosphere as excellent preparation for the work force. “Fletcher trains you to work at a very high level,” he said. Ereli studied with Ambassador Rugh and worked with Dean Sheehan in financial aid; both have become good friends and evidence of his enduring connection to the Fletcher community. Topping off his Fletcher experience, Ereli met his wife at the School, noting, “it’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

Ereli’s lecture underscored the importance of communication in diplomacy, persuasion, and policy success. “Words do matter,” Ereli said. Citing as evidence, Ereli singled out President Bush’s description of American action in the Middle East as a “crusade,” which invoked bitter regional history and led Muslims to view his program as anti-Muslim and anti-Arab. According to Ereli, this was an unintended consequence of President Bush’s malapropism. Bush’s attempts to backtrack failed; the words had been spoken and the damage was done.

Ereli presented President Obama’s Cairo speech as a positive example of using language that resonates with the local audience. To Ereli, this level of speaking, and the understanding of a people and a culture that it implies, was worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. This demonstrates the global value placed on communication and rhetoric.

During the talk, Ereli emphasized the need for policy continuity and bipartisanship by presenting four elements that define U.S. foreign policy in the post-September 11th world.

The first element is an increased commitment to multilateralism. Ereli sees international partnerships as essential to combat complex problems like terrorism, nuclear proliferation, regional instability, global poverty, disease and hunger. Ereli thinks that charges of U.S. unilateralism are overstated. The United States has demonstrated its commitment to multilateralism in a range of high-profile examples in both political and economic realms, claimed Ereli. These include Six-Party Talks with North Korea, the P5+1 in dealing with Iran, eventual UN involvement in Iraq, more emphasis on the G20, and a commitment to engage the world to curb nuclear proliferation.

Ereli cited development as the second pillar in contemporary U.S. diplomacy. A speech by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to the Council on Foreign Relations signified that the material conditions of people from around the world are now seen as a matter of national security. Ereli identified the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a proposition to tie development to economic and policy reform, as an example of successful encouragement of transparency and innovation in development projects. “This puts our money where our mouths are,” he said, “and makes our foreign assistance money go beyond grant aid.”

For Ereli, the third element of post-9/11 foreign policy is U.S. support for democracy and human rights. September 11th gave these issues a newfound poignancy and saliency and demonstrated that authoritarianism often breeds extremism. “The freedom gap came to be seen as the missile gap,” he said, “and as a strategic threat.” President Bush’s second inaugural address elevated democracy promotion to a strategic imperative, Ereli said, and advanced Secretary of State Rice’s belief that “the fundamental character of regimes matter more than distribution of power.” Ereli claimed that America’s security hinges on advancing democracy, human rights, security, and human development as part of one whole.

The final element of the new U.S. foreign policy, Ereli said, is an acknowledgement that military success alone does not equal victory. This is best exemplified by the decisive military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq that failed to procure stability in the midst of growing insurgencies. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq “transformed the way we work as a government,” Ereli said, “into a ‘whole of government’ approach, using all the instruments of national power.” As General Petraeus said, the “unity of our efforts,” brought civilian and military elements together to make the surge successful. The key to success, Ereli said, is in studying past situations in which military and civilian authorities understood each other, had commonality of purpose and mechanisms of administration, and worked together well. This is the way forward, Ereli emphasized, in combating the complex problems we face in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the rest of the new world order.

After his lecture, Ereli fielded a number of questions from Fletcher students and faculty. A question from Diplomatic Studies Professor Alan Henrikson about public diplomacy in the field led Ambassador Ereli to emphasize the growing emphasis on Foreign Service Officer empowerment. Ereli noted that Karen Hughes had realized the danger of neglecting perceptions of the U.S. in regional broadcasting, especially in the Middle East, which necessitated placing FSOs in front of TV cameras and loosening their clearance requirements. “Devolution becomes critically important,” Ereli declared. “In this new world, we have to do things in new ways.”