State Departent

Maria Winters DiMarco is an MAIR student who will be finishing her last semester of school interning at WeConnect International in Washington, DC.

This summer, I had the opportunity to intern with the State Department in the Environment, Science, Technology, and Health section (ESTH), housed within the Econ office at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. The embassy compound in Rome actually houses three separate missions — the U.S. Mission to Italy, the U.S. Mission to the Holy See, and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Agencies in Rome, so I had the opportunity to not only learn from the Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) in my section, but also from people from various cones within the Foreign Service and those who are employed through the State Department outside of the FS.

The ESTH section is responsible for facilitating cooperation between the United States and Italy on many topics, including but not limited to: International Climate Change Negotiations and Sustainable Development, Emissions Trading System, Civilian Space Cooperation (manned and unmanned scientific missions), Resource Conservation and Wildlife Protection, Marine Science, Illegal Fishing, and Technical Aspects of Nuclear Nonproliferation. My responsibilities included attending related conferences and events in Rome and reporting back to the office on main highlights and drafting the quarterly newsletter that gets sent to DC and other embassies around the world. I also aided in the development of a memo that outlined an interpretation of Italian law enforcement for environmental crimes.

In addition to these tasks, I was also able to shadow FSOs in the consular section, and met with FSOs in the Political and Public Diplomacy tracks, as well. The embassy was very focused on ensuring that interns received a comprehensive understanding of how the mission operates and what life as an FSO is really like. As an MAIR student on the career track for Governance, Diplomacy, and International Organizations, I appreciated having this opportunity to experience the types of careers the State Department can offer after graduation. I encourage any student who thinks they may potentially be interested in diplomacy and the foreign service to apply for a State Department internship. I have met several FSO reps at job fairs and while they are helpful in answering questions, nothing replaces the actual experience of seeing their work in action and having the opportunity to assist the mission, even just for a short period of time.

Maria Winters DiMarco (11th from left) and group photo with the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Kelly Degnan (10th from left)

This post has been reblogged from PAIA Insider. Read the original post.

BY BETH GAWNE

Beth Gawne is a MPA/MAIR student, and a regular contributor to PAIA Insider.

I’ve been thinking about bureaucracy a lot lately, especially as I hit my 4th week in the Department of State. This past summer, the MPA students took “Public Administration and Democracy,” where we learned that basically bureaucracy exists to get things done. Sure, there’s the glitz and glamor of policy and politics, but when it gets down to it, bureaucracy lies at the heart of a functioning society. Of course, back then my impression of what that meant was in terms of making sure the lights come on and the buses run (sometimes even on time). However, I never realized how that related to foreign affairs until now.

Source: http://media.fakeposters.com/results/2012/01/28/zniah5e4q3.jpg — *Not even tanks can escape the bureaucracy of the toll booth operator!*

Bureaucracy helps make US embassies safe. Bureaucracy uphold US diplomatic relationships with other nations. Bureaucracy keeps nasty weapons out of the wrong hands. Heck… bureaucracies even help us MAIR interns get to our internships when we fly! When it comes to State Department bureaucracy, there’s a lot of waiting around for clearances, for badges, and even for access to a computer. You have to check a document that 10 other people have checked, then forward it on for 5 more people to check over. I used to think this was over-kill, but then when I considered what might happen without these checks… well, those things that I mentioned in the first few sentences might not be the case anymore. International security and foreign relations might be compromised without these basic steps that so annoy all of us.

Whether it’s diplomacy, humanitarian aid, international organizations, trade, or nonproliferation, bureaucracy makes sure that policies can be put into place. It helps the right people get the right resources in order to make sure everyone can do their job. Without it, we’d just have a bunch of words and nothing being done. All of the things that people want to actually do in the world wouldn’t be able to happen if bureaucrats weren’t rolling up their sleeves and typing up some memos to an embassy. It’s just amazed me how many of the officers in DOS rely on this kind of bureaucracy to make sure things happen. International relations isn’t just a set of theories and abstract concepts about security or development work…. instead it’s filled with real people doing real work to make the world a better place. And the rules that govern them help keep it all relatively in order despite everything that’s working against it.

*(source: http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-the-only-thing-that-saves-us-from-bureaucracy-is-its-inefficiency-an-efficient-bureaucracy-is-the-eugene-mccarthy-330947.jpg)*

If it’s one last thing I’ve learned in the State Department– besides lots of foreign affairs– it’s that MAIR students learn just as much about bureaucracy as MPA students. We may not have the requirement to take the specific class on it (although thanks to Maxwell we’re still 100% able to take the class), but we sure as heck learn about it during our time here anyway. The internship has been an incredible way to take all of the big concepts we learned in the classroom in Syracuse and apply it directly to what we want to be doing in the first place. This is even more important when you consider how hard it is to get your foot in the door in some of these places.

Also, it wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging the mad writing skills that Maxwell has helped me gain– I’ve gotten so many compliments on my memos!

To find out about how Beth Gawne’s experiences at the State Department began, read her other article: Intern by day, student by night.

Maria Winters DiMarco Researches Environmental Crimes at U.S. Embassy in Rome

Bureaucracy: How Things Get Done in Foreign Affairs