Nongovernmental Diplomacy

While at NATO I had a modest budget to help promote the organization in North America and Europe. I coordinated conferences, seminars, and visits with universities, civic organizations, service academies, nonprofit groups, sometimes the equivalent of well-intentioned knitting circles. I had the Danish Seaman’s Church visit once, several religious universities, and many European political parties and their youth wings. Most impressive in my memory was the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts—chartered to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1681 and a veteran unit of the Revolutionary War—all men, who filed into the largest room that could accommodate them at NATO, resplendent in red uniforms and epaulets. Each uniform was identical but displayed devices of their individual military service: US Marine Corps staff sergeant, US Air Force captain, US Army colonel, and so on. The company has an explicit public diplomacy mandate for “represent[ing] the Commonwealth and Nation on numerous overseas trips all over this world… contribut[ing] to the efforts of the Departments of State and Defense to further developing new friendships.” I sponsored publications with the US Military Academy, National Defense University, and the University of Copenhagen. Although we rarely worked with corporations, we did that, too: Microsoft, the BBC, and Lloyd’s of London all sponsored public events with NATO.