Diplomacy is the practice of building relationships between people and countries in order to achieve mutual goals. Diplomacy, however, requires trust. Trust is an indispensable and noble virtue that opens great opportunities for cooperation and transparency. Without trust, there would likely be a lack of cooperation and transparency that could hinder diplomatic relations.

It is the first step to forming relationships, and in diplomacy, its role is central to assessing the needs and perspectives of others and building confidence in them. One of the great leaders who embodied this virtue well was former Secretary of State Geroge Shultz.

George Shultz served in four Cabinet-level positions. During the Nixon administration, he served as Secretary of Labor, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Secretary of the Treasury. However, he is most known for serving under the Reagan administration as the Secretary of State. During his long and reputable career, Shultz implemented trust as a value into all aspects of his work. From building trust with his colleagues to building trust with interlocutors abroad. He was confident that when trust was in the room, good things happened.

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During the prolonged years of the Cold War, USIA [United States Information Agency] executed over a dozen exhibits highlighting components of American life to be shared with the people of numerous cities throughout the Soviet Union. Ranging from areas of transportation, to education, to medicine, these exhibits introduced the citizens of the USSR to America’s most prominent technological innovations as well as the general way of life in the United States.

One of USIA’s most enticing exhibits was entitled Photography USA. Attracting more than 1.5 million visitors, Photography USA displayed over 800 photographs depicting American life. While the exhibit provided the opportunity for Soviets to explore different aspects of American society, Photography USA also allowed many university students and recent college graduates to travel overseas to the Soviet Union with USIA to act as exhibit guides. Two exhibit guides who would later go on to enter the Foreign Service were Philippe Du Chateau and Jane Miller Floyd.

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Is anything ever truly up to chance? Or are these moments of chance instead a culmination of one’s hard work? Possibly both? Regardless, these moments of chance—or rather, serendipity—are something with which former U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Counselor Kelly Kammerer is familiar. Throughout Kammerer’s career in the Foreign Service, he describes several notable moments of serendipity that substantially changed the trajectory of his life.

While it is possible that these moments were simply a result of Kammerer being in the right place at the right time, it is undeniable that his persistent work ethic and charisma were a large factor for why Kammerer received these opportunities.

Kammerer began his Foreign Service career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia where he worked in the “most isolated and poorest” part of the country, Chocó State. Here Kammerer was primarily concerned with assisting the community to build infrastructure such as schools, teaching English at the public schools, and volunteering at the tuberculosis hospital. After two years, Kammerer went on to law school where he obtained his degree before joining the Peace Corps and then eventually applying for a position with the U.S. Department of State. Upon leaving this interview, Kammerer serendipitously ran into USAID Assistant General Counsel Denis Neil, an old college friend. In learning that Kammerer was looking for a job, he offered him a position.

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A primary purpose of public diplomacy is to promote the interests of the United States. Public diplomacy officers on the frontlines of diplomacy represent the public face of U.S. embassies, often communicating and building cultural relations with people in the host country from all walks of life. One way they engage foreign audiences is through education programs.

Education programs help establish exchanges between students and people of different cultures, which then become relationship builders. This is the domain and responsibility of cultural affairs officers: to build relationships between the embassy and the local community through different programs.

Mark Tauber served as Cultural Affairs Officer at the United States Embassy in Bucharest, Romania from 2002 to 2005. While he was in Romanina, he represented the embassy on the local Fulbright Commission, which selected “local scholars for one-year study programs in the U.S.” These programs offer opportunities in research, graduate studies, and English teaching. In addition to selecting future scholars, Mark would assist the American Fulbrighters when they arrived in the country for their year-long residency “with orientation and enrichment programs.” Managing this program was itself a full-time job, which Mark relished, and it contributed to making his tour in Romania one of his best professional experiences.

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