Ex-ambassador says diplomats needed Former U.S. ambassador Ronald Neumann told the World Affairs Council in Oxnard that he thinks President Barack Obama is on the right track in focusing more clearly on diplomacy. Neumann, whose last diplomatic post was ambassador to Afghanistan in 2007, is on a speaking tour for the American Academy of Diplomacy, of which he is president. He spoke to the council Friday night at the Courtyard by Marriott Oxnard. Neumann said his purpose was to raise awareness about the desperate need for more funding and personnel to effectively carry out America’s global diplomatic mission. With two wars and numerous global hot spots, the diplomatic corps is stretched thin, he told Friday’s group. Neumann, whose diplomatic career has spanned 37 years, said he had four years of training and three years of language instruction to prepare him for his work. Trainees now receive six months of training. Some languages, he said, can be taught in six months, but others, like Chinese, Arabic and Afghani dialects, can take up to two years to gain proficiency. In problem spots like Iraq and Afghanistan, diplomatic tours are one year. Diplomats often serve without their families, because of the dangers involved. It’s a constant rotation of personnel, and when a person rotates out, there is not always a replacement, leaving diplomatic staffing depleted and inconsistent, he said. Neumann said many countries want people on the ground to talk to. They are societies that function through personal relationships, not through the media or Internet connections. He said the U.S. Agency for International Development, the independent government agency that conducts foreign assistance and humanitarian aid, has had its funding cut drastically. The U.S. military, with much more personnel, often has to take on diplomatic tasks, to the detriment of its military objectives, Neumann said. Military personnel are not trained in diplomacy and can’t complete long-range tasks that drive development projects, he said. Neumann noted the United States has resorted to contractors for work it can’t do itself. When the contracts run out, it often loses people with valuable experience. The government must adequately staff its diplomatic missions and stop using contractors and the military for those duties, he said, to improve consistency and stability. The Obama administration seems to be starting off in a positive way, he said. Stephen Lefevre, an associate vice president and political science professor at CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo, asked Neumann about Obama’s appointment of Richard Holbrooke as a special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Holbrooke is a former U.N.ambassador who brokered a peace agreement in Bosnia. Neumann said it made sense. Holbrooke will be dealing with a different situation than in Bosnia, where there were stronger local leaders and more emphasis on signed strategic agreements. In Afghanistan, with its border incursions and tribal regions, the situation in much less defined, Neumann said. “What we need to add in terms of dollars over a five-year period to accomplish our (diplomatic) goals is equal to one half of 1 percent of the defense budget,” Neumann said. “Whatever changes Obama makes won’t matter if we do not put the needed personnel and funding into the mix.” “Whatever changes Obama makes won’t matter if we do not put the needed personnel and funding into the mix.”
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