Diplomacy in the Electronics Age

It is yet another reminder of the new electronic world we live in. Two senior American diplomats, thinking their conversation about the Ukraine was private, were actually not talking on a truly secure line. In fact, they were caught saying unflatterings things about the European Union in a phone call that was the subject of non-friendly eavesdropping. US officials say they strongly suspect Russia of leaking the conversation by posting it on YouTube. The security breach came as the Russia-hosted Winter Olympics opened under tight security to prevent possible terrorist attacks, an event that has already raised congressional complaints that Russia has not been sufficiently open with US and other security units trying to protect their athletes and nationals during the Games. TV news these past few weeks has focused on the distrust between Washington and Moscow that is growing despite the Obama administration's attempt to "reset" US-Russia relations. So, what is the latest fuss all about? A call between the top US diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, was tapped into and recorded. It was then posted. What can be heard are the Nuland and Pyatt voices discussing their opinion of various Ukrainian opposition figures and whether or how they could fit into a post-Yanukovich government. The voices also discuss international efforts to resolve Ukraine's ongoing political crisis. At one point, the Nuland voice colorfully suggests that the EU's position should be ignored, saying "F--- the EU." The White House and State Department stopped just short of directly accusing Russia of surreptitiously recording abd posting the phone conversation. The State Department said, however, that the incident marked a "new low in Russian tradecraft" because a Russian government official was the first or one of the first to call attention to the audio conversation that was posted on YouTube. Both the White House and State Department pointed to the Russian official's tweet and Russia's clear interest in what has become a struggle between pro-Moscow and pro-Western camps in Ukraine, the former Soviet Republic. White House press secretary Robert Carney said : "I think it says something about Russia's role." He would not comment on the substance of the conversation. His comment was directed to an aide to Russian deputy prime minister, Dmitry Rogozin, who made one of the first tweets about the YouTube video, which shows photos of Nuland and Pyatt and is subtitled in Russian "The Marionettes of Maidan" in a reference to the name of the Kiev Square where protests began. Maidan was later adopted as the name for the protest movement itself. Before the existence of the video became widely known on Thursday, the Rogozin aide, Dmitry Loskutov, tweeted : "Sort of controversial judgment from Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking about the EU." State Department spokesperson Jan Psaki did not dispute the authenticity of the recording and said that Nuland had apologized to European Union officials for her remarks. "It is no secret that Ambassador Pyatt and Assistant Secretary Nuland have been working with the government of Ukraine, with the opposition, with business and civil society leaders to support their efforts," Psaki said. "It shouldn't be a surprise that at any points there have been discussions about recent events and offers and what is happening on the ground." Psaki added that it is the Ukrainians who must decide their future. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the shoe was on the other foot in this eavesdropping episode. Recently, it has often been a question of the US NSA tapping the phone calls of other governments. But, in all fairness, the American government has never released content from its cache of collected NSA data. If, as seems likely, the Russian government was behind the YouTube leak, then the world needs to re-evaluate its approach to the use of telephones, even those that have until now been considered secure, for diplomatic and other governmental strategic conversations. The use of diplomatic pouches may seem today like something out of the 19th century, but they served an important purpose - they protected diplomatic conversations from other governments and interlopers. While today's use of emails and telephones has made swift decisionmaking and communication with diplomats and others "on the ground" in crisis situations much easier, they are not secure. Any encryptment can be broken. And, the truth is that today's diplomats and government officials, being children of the Electronics Age, don't think of electronic security except when it concerns their credit cards and bank accounts. Accustomed to doing and saying everything electronically, they treat state secrets as just another topic to be handled electronically. And there are negative results that offset the speed of electronic decisionmaking. First, while "top level" may apply because of job titles, these leaks will most often come from junior political appointees whose use of electronic decisionmaking cuts out the possibility of senior cabinet-level input, leaving policymaking in the hands of those ill-equipped to make such decisions. Second, the very speed of the Internet means that junior level decisions may often be acted upon before more senior heads can join the conversation to give perspective to the policy issue under consideration. And finally, diplomats born into the Electronics Age may actually need to be trained about being careful in the electronic environment they work in. They need to understand that being comfortable with putting their lives on social media does not mean that they should be comfortable, that is trusting, discussing diplomacy there. It is not a safe place for diplomatic affairs.