Diplomacy In Strange Times

U.S. Ambassador Vincent Battle, a Reason Interview

Tim Cavanaugh | November 13, 2003

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reason: Have you had any contact with the leadership?

Battle: None whatsoever. Some other western embassies do, and we then have the ability to chitchat with them. But we have had and will have no contact with them.

reason: But if they're part of the government here, isn't that sort of a distinction without a difference?

Battle: I have never met any of the Hezbullah members of parliament. I meet with many members of parliament, from across the political spectrum, with the exception of the Hezbullah members.

reason: Lebanon is known to be pretty dangerous diplomatic assignment. One of your predecessors, Francis Meloy Jr., was assassinated in 1976. Previous embassy buildings have been blown up. The reporter Robert Fisk described the embassy we're in right now as an armed encampment; to get here you have to pass through an enormous amount of security. Staff members don't go out without a pretty heavy bodyguard. So what kind of impression can you form of a country under those circumstances?

Battle: Blessedly, Lebanon is a very open society, and I would say that despite the security-imposed restrictions that we operate under, it is a society that we're able to understand and know better than many places where we live very open lives. That's a tribute to Lebanese society. It is very open across a broad spectrum of society. So we have some security restrictions but they really don't impede our ability to know the country. This is my sixth year in Lebanon. It's simply a red herring to suggest that because we live in a secure environment we aren't able to access the society and learn about. One of the criticisms directed against me is that I travel too much around Lebanon and I shouldn't be so interested in traveling to every part of the country. My view is that diplomats are accredited to the whole country, not just to bits and pieces of it. It's a beautiful country, with extremely good infrastructure; you can get where you want to be pretty quickly. It's a pleasure to be here not only because it's an enjoyable place but because it's a place you can get to understand.

reason: The State Department has launched several high-profile efforts lately to communicate better in the Arab world—namely Radio Sawa, Hi Magazine and an upcoming television network. These have been criticized, and I have been one of the critics, for providing mostly entertainment, to which Arabs already have abundant access, and for not providing a serious presentation of American policy, and a forum to react to that policy.

Battle: I would have thought the Arab world had no shortage of forums for discussing policy.

reason: But not with Americans, and not with the American position directly represented.

Battle: Hi and Sawa are part of a public diplomacy campaign that is growing. There is a perceived need to increase our communications with the Arab world, and for the Arab world to increase its communications with the United States as well. We're making efforts to do that. Some of those efforts are more successful than others. Some have been criticized. As you know, there was a recent advisory committee on public diplomacy in the Muslim world that reported to the Secretary of State and laid out a number of criticisms of public diplomacy efforts.

In my experience, the public affairs sections of our embassies do a very, very good job of providing this kind of exchange on a whole range of issues—political and other kinds of issues. In Lebanon we have a very active Fulbright program, a very active program to send Lebanese high school kids to the United States. We have an English language expert here who is working with university audiences. We ourselves from the embassy spend time in Lebanese universities in open forums with the student body. In Lebanon you have many American universities where you have American staff—at the American University of Beirut and at the Lebanese American University.

I think the committee is right in its report to raise some criticisms and point out ways we can do a whole lot better. Radio Sawa has a very good part of the market in Jordan; in Lebanon there's more competition and the market share is much lower, although Sawa is also new here. Hi magazine I think is still in its test/pilot phase, so we're looking at that to see whether it's really worth pursuing or not. And I would anticipate that the State Department will find many other things to glean from the committee's report that will help us improve our public diplomacy function.

reason: On the economy: Lebanon's external debt is about as large as California's, where we just recalled a governor over the debt—and the country is a fraction of the size of California. There's very little local industry here. My impression is that, although there's a lot more stuff these days, the economy and people's view of it are even more depressed than when I first started coming here ten years ago. There is still a lot of economic interference from Syria, and Syria's ability to turn a dollar into a dime is legendary. So what reasons are there to be hopeful about Lebanon's economy?

Battle: The macroeconomic indicators here are pretty good. The exchange situation is extremely good. The ability of the Lebanese to mobilize support from the international community at the donors conference, which they did a year ago, speaks to their ability and credibility in the international arena. They do pay their debts. They recognize that debt management is a huge issue, not only with the international community but also with internal creditors, with the bankers here. There's credibility with the banking sector, which allows the government to structure some of its debt.

There are some growth sectors here. Tourism, believe it or not, is a growth sector here, and this is an arena in which Lebanon is highly competitive. They've been most successful in the Arab tourism market; they're trying to orient some of their efforts toward the European market and I think they will have some success there. In the paper recently there was a wonderful image of two cruise ships docked in the Beirut harbor at the same time.