From Staff Reports

Liz Colton, a diplomat, journalist, educator and author, offered her perspective on recent upheavals in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East that have drastically altered the volatile region’s dynamics during a Leadership Asheville Critical Issues Luncheon Sept. 26 at the Asheville Country Club.

Despite her many vocational pursuits, the Asheville native said she was acting essentially as an analyst as she addressed about 125 people during her speech and a question-and-answer period that followed.

Her topic was “Global Politics: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Media.”

Colton has worked in more than 100 countries on six contents. Her most recent diplomatic assignment was as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt.  

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, she was an Emmy-winning journalist for ABC News and other media, working in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia.

She has been a Fulbright Scholar, a university professor and executive editor of 10 newspapers. She holds several degrees, including a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Her consulting firm, E.O. Colton & Associates, based in Asheville and Washington, D.C., promotes global collaboration. Colton currently serves as adviser and program director for the American Committees on Foreign Relations.

Colton began by emphasizing, “My talk today is nonpartisan” as “we’re right in the middle of the election politics. 

“It doesn’t matter which party the president is with or who the secretary of state is,” as an American Foreign Service official, “you’re doing the work for the United States” people.

She told of being in Khartoum, Sudan, in 2005, when she had one of the most memorable experiences of her career.  

There were many Muslims and a number of Christians there, but the U.S. did not “have that good of relations with” Sudan.

“The news had come out the day before that there’d been an incident” of desecrating copies of the Koran — the Muslim holy book — by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay.

“Being in a Muslim country, we (at the U.S. consulate) did not think this was very good.”

America’s then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a statement, saying, in effect, “I will state right now that we deplore these actions” and that the U.S. government does not condone the desecration of the sacred texts of Muslims, or any other faith.

While Colton said she was please with Rice’s statement, the American Embassy “wasn’t very well-protected,” and “we heard that, at the Islamic university, that the professors and students were going to march across a bridge over the Nile (River) and protest at the American Embassy.”

Thinking fast, Colton had Rice’s statement translated into the native language and had copies made and called the news media “to make sure everyone knew the U.S. Embassy would welcome the demonstrators.

When the protesters arrived later at the Embassy, Colton said six or so of the top leaders were invited inside, where she had a translator available to help her.

She recollected that she told the native leaders that “first, I’d like to wecome you to our Embassy. You are welcome here. We congratulate you on your free and peaceable assembly.” She then gave the leaders copies of Rice’s speech in translation.

“The tall, distinguished-looking leaders looked at each other — and this is not what they expected ... They went back to their people, had a confab and then back across the bridge.”

Using her aforementioned story as an example, Colton said that, during her service as a U.S. diplomat, “I felt the people-to-people kind of relationships had an impact.” In the specific case she cited, “for a while, there wasn’t any antipathy” between the natives and U.S. Embassy staff.

In her advice to whomever is the next president, Colton said, “For some time, people have recognized that politics and the media are interconnected. They are inextricably intertwined.”

“You don’t have foreign policy without a relationship with the media — at some level,” she said.

“You can say you can’t control the media, but you can work with the media,” Colton said. “In a democracy ... the diplomat has one role, the media, another role.

“The fact is, you can’t control the (news reporters), but you can work them ... This is missing very much” in today’s U.S. foreign policy, she said.

“One thing I see right now is foreign policy leaders are not working closely with the media to explain” what is happening.

At that point, she reviewed the history of why the U.S. is in the situation it finds itself in the Middle East today. Among many details, she recounted the Camp David Accords resulting in a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, brokered by then-President Jimmy Carter. She also told of the U.S. Embassy Iran being stormed in November 1979, with 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days. (Some sources have said the hostage crisis played a pivotal episode in future U.S.-Iranian relations, as Iranians and other Muslims pointed with pride to the successful strike against the Americans.)

She added that, in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, “the world went from two superpowers to one superpower (the U.S.).” Predictably, Colton said, American “became the object of everyone’s blame and scapegoating” for all of the world’s problems.

“In the 1980s during the Cold War, I didn’t feel this antipathy toward America” around the world.

“So there was no antipathy, but nothing takes up the 1990s in the Middle East. We had an office called the Office of the Hegemon.

In 2005, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, went to Cairo (Egypt) and made a very strong speech. She challenged the leaders of the Middle East, including of Egypt, to change”

“In 2009, President (Barack) Obama wen to the University of Cairo and made a very strong speech — and it had a lot of impact.”

She said the U.S. has different kinds of relationships with countries in the Middle East. “We need to be flexible to bring them forward, if indeed that is possible.”

“If I were able to send a memo to the future (U.S.) president,” it would be to note that “domestic and foreign policy are not two separate things.

“The president should spell out what the foreign policy is ... The president should use diplomacy in every way possible.”

Colton added that “the president should be personally involved” in diplomacy — “personally building relationships with (foreign) leaders.”

For instance, she noted that former President Bill Clinton “had been very good friends” with Great Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair. “But President (George W.) Bush made close ties with Tony Blair, which was crucial” when he launched the joint military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Ultimately, foreign policy has to be bipartisan. Foreign policy doesn’t change much over time because it is American policy,” regardless of which political party holds sway.

To America’s leaders, Colton said, “work with journalists.” Instead, she lamented, as it is now, “If you (as a journalist) get on the wrong side of someone in Washington, you lose your access — and (eventually) your job.”

She also said, “Many diplomats never leave the building ... I could never understand that.” Instead, she said diplomats must be going out and meeting people to build good relationships.

“In the Middle East, the biggest problem is the Israeli-Palestinean conflict ... As long as that problem’s not solved, the U.S. will be blamed” for problems in the region.

“We don’t need to solve that problem, but rather, we need to encourage it be solved.”

“It certainly wasn’t true in the first term of President (George W.) Bush .... (Then-Secretary of State) Colin Powell couldn’t leave town because he was afraid of what (then-Secretary of Defense Donald) Rumsfeld might do.”

When Rice took over as secretary of state, “it wasn’t a problem (Rumsfeld’s meddling), so she was able to fly around the world,” meeting people and making friends.

“The president should be a world leader — and that’s nothing against (also) being a national leader ... He needs to be pragmatic and diplomatic — and not in an ‘Ugly American’ way.”

During a question-and-answer session afterward, a woman asked Colton, “How can we hope to express bipartisanship to foreign policy when we really don’t have it here among ourselves?”

“If you’re in Washington, these people are all friends, but they project the image (to their constituents) that they hate one another,” Colton replied.

Another woman asked, “How can we as voters get to the reality of what’s going on” when there is so much inflammatory rhetoric in today’s U.S. political scene?

Colton said she always advises her students — and others — that “you’ve got to read everything and watch as much as you can” of the news.

On a separate issue, she said, “I consider this nonpartisan — up until two weeks ago, people were saying foreign policy was not very important” in the presidential election, “but that is the elephant in the room ... How can we have a strong economy when we don’t develop good relationships around the world for our products and ideas?”

A woman asked Colton her thoughts on U.S. financial support to Israel.

“Well, we also give monetary support to Egypt, starting in 1968,” Colton replied. “We need to be very clear with the Israelis, Palestinians and Egyptians on what our expectations are — on paper.”

“We shouldn’t just be giving the aid without specifying our expectations,” she said. “But unfortunately,” neither the U.S. government nor the secretary of state have done that.

A man asked how Colton would suggest defusing the cultural differences between Islamic countries and the U.S.

“The tragedy is that it’s only a small group that’s causing the problems,” Colton said. “All we can do is to continue to reach out and show them our ideals ... At the same time, we need to reach out to Christians, Buddhists” and those of other faiths equally, too.

“Again, our First Amendment is a very important part of our foreign policy ... As a journalism professor ... regarding hate language, I think there is a limit, but we’re also against language that incites hate and death.”

Perhaps with tongue-in-cheek, a man asked, “What lessons have we (the U.S.) learned from Iraq and Afghanistan?”

As the crowd chuckled at the irony of the question, Colton said, “I don’t know anybody — looking back — who felt it was right that we were there.

“In looking back, the misinformation that was used to inspire it — I have a terrible feeling about it.”

A woman quoted Bill Clinton saying the Muslims cannot react to every insult — and asked Colton’s view of that assertion.

“I agree,” Colton said. “I was being a diplomate as being a friend ... A lot of diplomats don’t make friends, so when they talk (to others), it sounds condescending.”

Speaking of Muslims, she said, “In that world, they can’t even comprehend that a movie could be made — and not by the government —and it’s just out there.”