On the Front Lines with an American Diplomat: Todd Crawford ’94


Q: Tell us a little about the work you are doing now.


A: I am a United States diplomat. As an officer in the United States Foreign Service, I work in our embassies around the world with foreign counterparts to address a variety of complex diplomatic issues, and I try to make progress on foreign policy challenges in support of US interests and values. I spend most of my time meeting with foreign diplomats, government officials, and other prominent figures, and reporting my judgments back to Washington, DC, about potential possibilities and pitfalls in my country of assignment. I have just finished my assignment at the US Embassy to the Holy See in Rome, Italy, as the Deputy Political and Economic Affairs Chief. I served previously at US Embassy Sana’a, Yemen, as well as in the Bureau of European Affairs at the State Department and in the National Security Council at the White House.


Q: Why do you think this work is important?


A: Diplomacy is at base a profession dedicated to the humble notion that so long as the sovereign nations of the world are speaking with one another, they are less likely to go to war. In addition to resolving and preventing conflicts (the first carrying a far easier measuring stick by which to gauge progress), diplomacy can promote development, create global wealth, and holds perhaps our best hope at mounting a meaningful assault on the looming specter of climate change, through international mitigation agreements. I agree with Secretary of State John Kerry and others’ assessment that climate change is our era’s gravest threat, and I would like to play a constructive role in heading off the worst that awaits us if we do less than we must.


Q: What inspired you to enter the Foreign Service?


A: I suppose I caught the international affairs bug (among others) in the Peace Corps, where I spent two years teaching constitutional law and English to budding lawyers and judges at a law school in western China. I had finished law school and was malcontent; my values and life goals at odds with the prevailing winds in the world of New York City corporate law into which I was about to descend. So, I made a left turn and became a volunteer. Going from big firm, big city living to life in the Peace Corps was above all an abrupt shift


Q: Diplomacy is a never-ending job. What do you do after a setback to stay motivated and focused?


A: I think the answer is something many of us keep refining well into our Foreign Service careers. Generally speaking, our diplomats are overachievers who emerged from a year-long series of application examinations, interviews, and simulation exercises to earn a spot in an entering diplomat orientation class. A group like


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from all-money-no-soul to all-soul-no-money. I saw diplomacy as a profession in which I could make a difference—and a living.


Q: Communication and persuasion are at the heart of what you do. Tell us more about winning over a listener, whether they are a US policy maker or a foreign government. What makes you successful?


A: Empathy. If I forget where my listener is coming from and what drives them, or if I judge or dismiss them for having a wildly different perspective than mine, or in more extreme cases if they hold values and exhibit behaviors I find morally repugnant and I show my disdain, then my argument may suffer dramatically. I try to avoid that outcome, especially when I bear the weight of advocating an important US policy abroad. Instead, I take what I know about my listener, imagine what they must be thinking and feeling, place that in the context of their pragmatic considerations, and use that as my rhetorical starting point.


“I am indebted to OES for nourishing from a young age my ability to communicate effectively. There is a vast chasm between knowing a thing and being able to accurately, precisely, and persuasively express that thing to people.”


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