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With the United States' reentry into UNESCO after a 19-year absence and a leadership transition at the Department of State, we are poised for a much-needed reinvigoration and rethinking of American cultural diplomacy efforts.
At her first "town hall meeting" with her staff, secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first remark was: "The lesson of the day is to be good to your interns-you never know what's going to happen. I was, indeed, here...as an intern in 1977 in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. I worked on arts programming. It was a great experience." In all the discussion that followed, there was no further mention of the arts, other than a joking reference to Rice's early training as a pianist and her realization that she might have the talent for a piano bar but not for Carnegie Hall.
Secretary Rice then went on to talk about the State Department's role "in promoting the interests and values of the United States at this extraordinary time." She characterized the government's efforts as "transformational diplomacy." "[W]e have to be doers," she said. "What we're really doing in our diplomacy is we're partnering with people in other countries to give them capacity to move toward democracy or to move toward prosperity...partnering with people to make their lives...