Live Green, Wear Black.: REVIEW: Outpost: A Diplomat at Work by Christopher R. Hill (3-stars)

I get the feeling that Chris Hill loves to write and keep notes -- and much like my MA thesis, without really strong feedback from an editor (or two), folks like us run the risk of putting in too much material without a strong focus or even ensuring that everything included is actually interesting to a broader audience.

Ambassador Hill has had a VERY interesting career -- he even is able to encapsulate it (on page 317 of 430) effectively when he talks about sitting through a nomination hearing in the Senate:

"[...] I was running a grainy slide show in my head of things I had done in the course of my government career. Peace Corps, the Solidarity movement in Poland, reporting on democracy demonstrations in South Korea in the spring of 1987, meeting in remote prison work camps with the families of political prisoners in Albania in 1991, gaining access to mass graves in Bosnia in 1995, meeting with displaced persons in central Kosovo and helping to provide them with food and shelter in the summer of 1998, a midnight visit to the Stenkovac refugee camp to protect Roma under attack from angry gangs of Kosovo refugees, working (quietly and effectively) with Chinese officials to allow North Korean refugees to get out of the diplomatic compound in Shenyang on to new homes in South Korea, convincing Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen to release immediately Kem Sokha and other arrested members of the human rights movement."

One could make a really interesting set of stories based on those highlights and still have enough space to discuss how the career impacted him personally (emotionally) and what it was like moving around a wife and family as a Foreign Service Officer.

Some of the stories are very funny and interesting: talking about being in Skopje when protestors decided to attack, using the flag pole as a battering ram. Everyone inside took shelter in a safe room in the basement -- cracking jokes, even when riot police arrived and knocked on the door of the vault (could be a Land Shark!) and even one Czech reporter named Bijana who was DYING to light up her cigarette. That was a good anecdote!

Another good anecdote was showing up at midnight at the refugee camp to extricate a Roma family was also very inspiring. Another good anecdote involves preventing his driver from being kidnapped conscripted by rebel forces:

“I owe you a beer for that.” He kept his eyes on the road, driving at breakneck speed, and said softly in a very sober tone, “Bottle of whiskey.”

Unfortunately, this is not followed up with discussion of measures taken after that incident to avoid endangering his local employees/staff in such situations.

Tips on working as an FSO include:

"Airplane flights always allowed for the best staff meetings even though there was no table and people had to perch on seats facing the wrong way or sit on the floor of the aircraft to hear."

His boss overreacted when someone was late to a meeting, and his internal dialogue went like this:

On the one hand I thought that at forty-three I was a little too old to be screamed at in a way that I hadn’t heard since childhood.
On the other hand, I composed myself long enough to think about the unimaginable pressure he was under.

This is a great example of self-awareness and avoiding escalating a situation - and after his boss yelled at him, the late arrival walked in the door excusing himself due to bad traffic.

Tips on talking to the press during negotiations:

"Avoid citing what the other side is saying in negotiation. They could simply deny it or say something even more difficult to live with after you have called them out on it. And don’t talk specifics and certainly don’t engage in speculation or hypothetical questions. Beyond that, there is much that can be discussed."

Tips on changing verbiage in agreements that have been approved for two weeks -- pass it off as a translation error, and make sure you have a wingman:

“Really, ‘exist peacefully together’ is much better English. Ambassador Randt, don’t you think so?” “Absolutely.” (Memo to self: buy that man a beer.)"

He goes into a hilarious <i>Lord of the Rings</i> fugue when Hillary Clinton calls him to a meeting to ask him to take on the assignment of Iraq, finding himself in a friendly meeting "as if I were a sort of Foreign Service Bilbo Baggins at the conclusion of my adventures." He jokes "Oh my God, Iraq, the real fire of Mordor, wait! I thought dealing with North Korea was the fire of Mordor!?"

His wry observations of Foreign Service worker motivations for working in Iraq are ascribed to specific motivations or career goals: Arabists who want to tick off a box; a place of penance where previous errors made in one's professional career could be absolved; folks close to retirement building their nest egg with the extra hazard pay. This is funny stuff!

He talks about the generosity of others from time to time - after accepting the assignment, on the way out of that meeting, then goes into another great anecdote (and reading list) where he passed someone in the hall who recognized him as the new appointee: "...just met someone on the other end of the sixth floor whom I had never laid eyes on before, but who opened up his heart and his bookshelf to make sure I was going to get off to a good start."

I love the subtle and not so subtle criticisms of folks -- he presents Cheney as a pitiable figure but not effective, while Biden is earthy and engaged.

The concluding chapter gives great information that summarizes his perspectives on diplomacy and development:

"Finding practical answers to tough problems seems to take a backseat to ideology. Nowhere is this issue more pronounced than in weighing the rapid imposition of democracy against more evolving change."
"...human rights are not identical with democracy, which is a system of governance, certainly the best to protect those values."
"...in a country’s choice of governance, we would do well to lower our voices and offer our help when asked."
"...diplomacy is not a continuation of war by other means."

Hill also cautions against oversharing on social media -- not everything needs to be shared, and we don't have to be transparent about everything we know.

Ironically... that filter did not apply to some of the content of his book. Now here's the stuff I didn't like: filler and padding. There is so much filler in the form of excess and uninteresting detail. Like - do we really need to know the details of open bathroom doors and toilet seats left up in Holbrook's private office bathroom during Hall's first meeting? Or mundane details about arriving at the curb on East Forty-Seventh side entrance of the Waldorf-Astoria, hallways crowded with housekeeping carts as they exited the 35th floor and someone launched an assault on a saran-wrap covered tray of appetizers? Or who asked for 2 drinks after a long dehydrating flight from his host? I find these things excessively dishy - like referring to Condi Rice at "her petulant best." That seems to imply she got her way by acting childish.

Other times - he drops in an interesting detail that he didn't fully realize, such as "I was not surprised by the call, having been tipped off that it was coming." Wait? Someone calls and tells you you're getting a big fat promotion and you know this going to the meeting -- that call and an emotional reaction would have been interesting!

Sometimes it seems like he's writing more for a screenplay and providing guidance for stage direction. He repeatedly mentions "store bought" fatigues or camo in the discussions with revolutionaries. I beg an explanation -- what's the alternative? Being part of an army where $12MM USD is loose change found in sofa cushions and you have bespoke camo patterns and uniforms produced? I didn't understand the point of this detail.

Hall does provide historical background information -- sometimes it feels like larger context is missing. There are longs stretches of excruciating detail of back and forth minutiae -- like in the negotiations with Serbia and with North Korea. Those were probably based on personal notes from his trips there but I found them to be too much detail without broader context.

Another nit: 9/11 - it's mentioned 3 times in the entire book. I guess it had little impact to his negotiations in other areas? To his life? How did people respond in the embassy where he was stationed at the time? It is such a major event to give so little attention.

Finally - why is it that the word "cigarette" is mentioned more frequently than the names of his family all tolled? I want to know more about the balance of family and professional life. What was it like where he lived in different places -- did his wife and kids travel with him to every assignment?

There are a few mentions of visits with his kids: his son went to boarding school; in one move, his daughter said she was proud of him but he was ruining her life; another funny anecdote has his daughter Clara recommending dropping bombs.

Many of us are very interested in learning what it's LIKE to live as a FSO for decades -- not just filling in stories to fit the facts or providing observations that don't contribute to a better understanding of the situations or people. I'd trade all the filler for more personal observations about Ambassador Hill's personal preferences and experiences (like the story about a colleague bartering for cheap socks in Chinese).

Overall, I'm glad I read the book -- it was a lot more work than it should have been and makes me wonder about the rave reviews. Perhaps more folks are serious political wonks familiar with the details and delighted by the blow-by-blow of some of the negotiations. YMMV!

REVIEW: Outpost: A Diplomat at Work by Christopher R. Hill

RATING: 3-stars