Franklin Pierce Huddle Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
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If students were to watch this interview, how would you advise them to prepare for the future, say, if they had an interest in diplomacy and an interest in what you're characterizing as the lesser-developed, poorer parts of the world, and helping them have a voice in Washington, or through other means?
I'm not sure. Years ago, I read a book called Economics of Underdevelopment, by Agarwala and Singh. That was what I did, in answer to your question; in other words, I found a book. There's another one called Tropical Gangsters, which is about Equatorial Guinea, written by a development specialist [Robert Klitgaard], who went there. He surfs on the weekends, while he works during the week on development matters. Everybody has to find their own magic and their own formula. But I guess what I would say is, if you have a wide range of interests, you're flexible, you want to live overseas, and you want to be on the cutting edge of real diplomacy, join the Foreign Service. It's a great job.
Where you are now was the site of the great game of diplomacy in the nineteenth century ...
That's right.
... I assume that's still going on, right? I mean, there is still, under the surface, a jockeying for position among the great powers?
Yes. I don't put it in those terms, but, yeah, that's correct. Everybody's always wondering whether there will be jockeying between Russia, for example, and the United States. The simple answer is, we have complementary interests, we have places where we can work collaboratively. Of course, there are areas where there's going to be some wariness or suspicions left over from the Cold War.
What I've learned by being the person right out there is that for the most part, actually, our interests are fairly easily made compatible. In the United States, there's no intention to maintain long-term, permanent bases in Central Asia. It just isn't in the cards. I think President Putin and the more sophisticated of his government more than realizes [this]. They work with us on that basis.
One final question, and that is the following: What lesson would you suggest that students learn from this intellectual journey that you took? You obviously did the life of the academic or at least prepared for it, but then applied that in this world of policy. Along the way, there were some bumps, even an encounter with death, as you've described. Is there one lesson for you that comes out that you would like to point out from others from this journey?
I'm not sure. My daddy always told me, "Never give free lessons to anybody." But I guess the best I can come up with is that if you have a good academic preparation in an area, and you decide not to stay in teaching itself, the Foreign Service is one of the nicest ways to graft your knowledge onto something that's a little bit more active in day-to-day contemporary politics.
On that note, Ambassador Huddle, I want to thank you very much for joining us today and sharing your story with us.
Thank you very much.
And thank you very much for joining us for this Conversation with History.
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