| Former ambassador will speak Thursday Tuesday, March 8, 2011 By Andy Piper, TH Online The Soviet Union had fallen, the Cold War had ended and the U.S. military reigned supreme after the first Gulf War. A book written by Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History and the Last Man," heralded Western democracy's triumph. Complacency set in, according to former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Boyatt. "The nation went into a mini-isolationist period," Boyatt said. "It ended when Yugoslavia fell apart." But the ranks of the U.S. diplomatic corps continued to dwindle until 9/11, said Boyatt, who will speak Thursday at the Dubuque Area Committee on Foreign Relations dinner at the Dubuque Golf and Country Club. Boyatt, director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, participated in a study of the foreign service that estimated a 5,000-person deficit. The study also revealed that 30 percent of the positions that require fluency in a foreign language are filled by persons who did not have sufficient skills. As political turmoil spreads throughout the Arab world, diplomatic efforts are needed at all levels. "We are running behind where we need to be," Boyatt said. "We have made some progress and are probably 60 percent of the way back. We are now faced with a very difficult fiscal situation, and it is going to be hard to convince Congress to continue resolving this situation, but resolve it we must." Boyatt said as the military draws down in Iraq and eventually in Afghanistan, the U.S. will turn to soft power rather than military power. Efforts will focus on building political and judicial systems and spurring economic development. "Let's assume the democratic government is peaceably established in Egypt," Boyatt said. "That would warrant some additional assistance on our part. ... We will need people who speak Arabic and who have the cultural skills to be successful."
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