Greg Delawie Confirmed as Ambassador to Kosovo

In all the excitement over the Supreme Court decision, I forgot to mention that the Senate confirmed our new Ambassador to Kosovo, Career Foreign Service Officer Greg Delawie.

I talked about him a bit here. But the short version is I hear great things about him and am looking forward to working for him in Kosovo. He will be sworn in this Friday and is expected in Kosovo next month.

He has his own twitter account, by the way. I encourage you to follow him at @AmbDelawie if you are interested in what is going on in Kosovo and our embassy there.

Confirmed at the same time was Julieta Valls Noyes as Ambassador to Croatia. Julieta is currently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, but I knew her when she was in charge of the Operations Center. I was working on INR Watch at the time, and I watched her support her people in a way they hadn't been supported before. Morale improved considerably under her direction, and many of the ways I try to manage my staff come from watching her. Her embassy is incredibly lucky to have her.

More Consulting

Today was another day choke full of consultations.

Again, I found them really useful. But I just have to say, the PD offices in the Pharmacy Building (SA-05) are just nuts. If you think that Main State is challenging to navigate, try those offices! There is no rhyme or reason to the office numbering. In Main State, if an office is say, 5432, you know that it is on the 5th floor, 4th cooridor in numerical order. Odd cooridors run one way, even the other. Pretty simple.

Not so with the ECA, IIP, etc offices.

For example, you might have office number 3x02.

Okay, so you know 3rd floor.

But then you arrive at the third floor and you there are doors to your left and right. But no numbers. You just guess. Hmmm...this starts with O? But wait, there's an H.

So you just wander around until you find a kind soul to direct you. And even they admit that after being there for two years, they still have to guess. They only know where the cubicles are that they normally visit.

I was late to two meetings there today because of this "system," or lack thereof. But one of those was cancelled at the last moment, and the other was with a kind, understanding soul.

I got lots of great ideas today.

The meeting with the Fulbrighters was great too...but I didn't mean to be one of the speakers...

I got there after the meeting started...it was a briefing on the Baltics by our INR analyst, the same one who came to our area studies three times and provided the only substantive info on the Balts during our 10 MONTHS there. I just wanted to hear what he had to say and then meet the folks headed to Estonia afterwards.

I walked in about 30 minutes into the talk (because I had a meeting beforehand and then had to make it across town, so he knew I'd be late) and quietly found a seat. After a few minutes, he noticed I was there...and stopped his talk to say hello and to intriduce me to the group.

Then he asked me to come sit up front...I said, no no, I am just here to listen. Then the Fulbright coordinator insisted I come sit at the table. So I did. But I wasn't prepared to say anything to them. So I just told them I wanted to get all their emails so we could keep in touch, and that I looked forward to working with them in Estonia.

And speaking of INR (the speaker...keep up), I encourage you to get briefings with them. Too often, folks forget INR, and they are a font of knowledge. They can tailor a briefing to your clearance level, and let me tell you they are all awesome. You will only find experts of their calliber in the finest universities. And check out INR/OPN too. They do media analysis and polling in our countries. They will have some great unclassified info for you. I had two INR briefings today in addition to the Fulbrighter talk, one with the analyst and one with the analyst from OPN, and they were great.

You will be better prepared for having done it.

Secrets of the State Department

Changing Connections reports going to a speech on February 13 given my Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research Randy Fort (my boss....through several layers of people normally but I am working directly for him as his Staff Assistant this week).

Secrets from the State Department

"During Presidents’ Weekend, 28 students traveled with Miss Brinson and me to Washington, D.C. for NAIMUN, North American Invitational Model United Nations, hosted by Georgetown University. NAIMUN began of Thursday, February 13, with a Keynote Address that promised to deliver STATE SECRETS. A conference room housing over 2850 student delegates and their moderators suddenly hushed.

Mr. Fort, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, manages the production and dissemination of all-source intelligence analysis to the Secretary of State, other senior policymakers, and heads the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Assistant Secretary of State Randall M. Fort gave the Keynote Address for the opening of the 45th North American Invitational Model United Nations Conference on November 14, 2008.

Thirty-two years ago, Mr. Fort was a participant at a Model UN and he remembered being bored by the Keynote, so he wanted to do something different. He offered his audience of 3000 spectators “secrets from the State Department.” At that moment, his audience quieted.

The secrets were a formula for success: 4 secrets containing 3 words each—words to live by.

1. DO GOOD WORK. Come to someone’s attention that you are better than the mediocrities because you will enable opportunities for yourself.

2. DEVELOP AN EXPERTISE. Find something you love and become an expert, a skills set that will serve you forever.

3. BUILD YOUR ROLEDEX. Know people who can contribute to your career.

4. MAINTAIN YOUR INTEGRITY. Don’t compromise your ethics. Mr. Fort said this secret was the most important component to success.

After a short but motivating keynote, Mr. Fort devoted the rest of his presentation to fielding a Q and A session."