A whole new world

Columbia’s latest World Leaders Forum event was a small and casual affair when compared to some of the high key speakers earlier in the semester. “Diplomacy in the Digital Age,” an hour long discussion with the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Matthew Barzun, focused on how the digitization of the world has changed the goals and methods of diplomats. Even the venue fit the more understated nature of the event, taking place in the main auditorium of Earl Hall as opposed to the marble floored atrium of Low.

Regardless, Ambassador Barzun (who continually asked to be called Matthew as opposed to Ambassador Barzun) led a strong discussion centered around listening to the concerns of those he meets in his diplomatic work. The 30 minute Q&A illustrated this point, as Barzun dedicated a majority of his time to responding to questions from the two moderators, Director of the European Institute Adam Tooze and Adjunct Professor at SIPA Alexis Wichowski, as well as members of the audience.

Barzun, whose grandfather Jacques Barzun was a famous mid-20th century intellectual as well as a professor at Columbia, began his presentation by discussing the beginning of his career in the State Department. Barzun held leadership roles in both of Obama’s campaigns, but lacked any formal experience in diplomacy until 2009 when he was appointed ambassador to Sweden. In 2013, he was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom, which he soon realized would be a challenge.

Before arriving in the UK, Barzun’s experience with British culture consisted of “Monty Python, Doctor Who, and Betty Hill.” Thus, he asked many for advice on his new role, including the newly reelected Obama. He recalled in particular one piece of advice he received about the British media, saying that the “British press will build you up and tear you down.” Proving this point, a British newspaper soon after ran a front story about Barzun’s appointment and described him as “a potato with hair.” Similarly, after David Cameron’s failed vote to initiate military action against Bashar Al-Assad, a newspaper ran a headline lamenting the “death of the Special Relationship.” Barzun joked that the relationship was “seven decades in the making,” and that he’d “killed it in seven days” after being appointed ambassador.

Barzun then launched into an exploration of the changing terms of diplomacy, comparing the relationship between digitization and diplomacy to the relationship between mobilization and telephones. In the past, the idea of having a “mobile telephone” would have been inherently conflicting, as telephones could not be moved. Now, however, saying “mobile phone” or “cell phone” is almost redundant, as phones have become so mobile in their inherent nature. Diplomacy, in the same vein, had been considered something that could only be done in person and behind closed doors, but with the increasing digitization of the world, diplomats are making use of increased online networks to further their causes. Our period, then, is a transition between the “mutually exclusive” phase of digital diplomacy and the “almost redundant” stage where digitization is considered part of the nature of diplomacy.

Barzun jumped off this explanation to outline the three main accomplishments he had strived for in his role as Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The first consisted of traveling to 109 places of education around the UK, mostly appealing to 17 or 18 year olds, and speaking about policy in the US and the UK. Through his discussions, he learned the issues which United Kingdom students view as frustrating in relations between the United States and United Kingdom mostly relate to gun control, police brutality, and racism.

His second accomplishment was developed from his experiences with businessmen from the United Kingdom finding the experience of traveling to the United States to always be excruciating, despite taking flights regularly. Therefore, Barzun helped to institute a system of border security for those from the UK, reducing waiting times for United Kingdom citizens from 45 minutes to 45 seconds.

His last accomplishment was beginning to connect US and UK networks together, both in terms of internet traffic as well as security networks. This aimed to connect the two countries together in a manner which would further cooperation on national security as well as simply connect the two countries together via the internet.

Barzun then entered into a Q&A round. Most of the questions dealt with broad policy implications, specific questions about the United Kingdom, or the State Department. Two notable responses stood out during his Q&A, the first of which was his response to a question asking for advice for students who want to work in the government. His response linked back to his relative inexperience in the foreign service, saying that he didn’t “feel particularly qualified to give advice” but had three things to keep in mind: policy, process, and people. When diplomats focus too much on policy and implementation, they ignore the concerns of the people. The idea of always emphasizing the people as a diplomat was a consistent theme throughout his presentation.

In responding to a question about responding to conflicts involving cryptocurrency, Barzun admitted that he simply “did not know” at this point in time. As this is such a new issue in diplomacy, the State Department hasn’t developed policies to be used, meaning that although he recognizes the continuing usage as possibly problematic, he knew of no solution but to wait. Wichowski lauded his response, stating how assuring it was to hear a diplomat admit that he “just didn’t know” when presented with such an issue.

In a fashion which Barzun would greatly approve of, the video of his talk will be uploaded for the public within a few days.

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