State Department officials visit USC
The officials discussed youth engagement, foreign policy and social media strategy.
By EVA HARTMAN
The United States Department of State has a reputation for bureaucracy, suits and mystery. Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Bill Russo is on a mission to change that.
“There’s a really big moment that we’re in right now,” Russo said while speaking to USC students Tuesday morning. “A kind of dual crisis of credibility and connection. Institutions around the world, governments, media, probably academic institutions as well, are seeing trust decline and are trying to understand how to maintain credibility and believability with audiences.”
The visit was a part of his tour of West Coast universities and media centers, a piece of the State Department’s broader goal of connecting with the American public. He was accompanied by Abby Finkenauer, the Biden administration’s Special Envoy for Global Youth Issues, for a tour of the Annenberg Media Center with Dean Willow Bay, a roundtable discussion with Master of Public Diplomacy students and an exclusive interview with the Daily Trojan.
“We are engaging with young people all over the United States about why foreign relations is important, why they should be paying attention,” Finkenauer said in the interview with the Daily Trojan. “[We’re] demystifying what the State Department is and how much we need young people in the United States from all over to be looking at that as a career pathway; whether it’s the internships, whether it’s civil service or Foreign Service.”
The Department is concerned about its image, as Gen Z’s views on foreign policy are radically different from those of older generations. According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, only 12% of Gen Z believes the United States should prioritize countering China, and 70% believe the wars in the Middle East were unnecessary and unproductive.
The challenges the State Department is facing — how to create trust and inspire connection — are “challenges that I don’t think we can solve without the knowledge and enthusiasm and energy of young people,” Russo said to the Daily Trojan.
The Assistant Secretary’s solution? Social media influencers.
The first test of Russo’s proposal arrived in February when the State Department invited American chefs of varying ethnic, geographic and culinary backgrounds to showcase their skills and discuss how sharing meals is a major aspect of diplomacy. Then came the cameras.
“We invited 10 influencers to come, and basically what we did — we did something that was very uncomfortable for anyone who’s ever been in government — we said, ‘Okay, we’re going to let you enter the room and then go,’” Russo said.
The event was a success, he said. Russo knows the demographic intersection of those who watch State Department briefings and those who watch social media food content is essentially nonexistent, but by inviting influencers with established platforms of ordinary citizens into the halls of the federal government, the State Department was able to share their work and mission in an accessible, relatable and entertaining way.
“We’re trying to figure out how to do it more frequently, in a more sophisticated fashion, how to actually get metrics and evaluate it,” he said. “But this, to me, is the future of what we need to do to be a little bit more compelling, to be credible by partnering with people who have an authentic connection with their audiences.”
Gen Z’s views on foreign policy are different from older generations. The State Department faces the challenge of creating trust and inspiring connection in the young population, Assistant Secretary Bill Russo said. (Emma Silverstein / Daily Trojan)
Sarah Schornstein, a former State Department intern and a graduate student studying public diplomacy, appreciated both the officials visiting campus and their efforts to use multiple platforms to reach younger generations.
“The State Department is very bureaucratic,” Schornstein said, “and they’re just figuring out the importance of social media. When I interned there, I was making videos for my office and I swear to you, some of these people who are working there were like, ‘This is an incredible video,’ and it was just like a slideshow of pictures … so it’s really refreshing to see a younger generation of people working there.”
Finkenauer herself is another key to the State Department’s relatability mission. As a former member of the Iowa House of Representatives and Congress, she readily admits that she was “really surprised” when she was asked to become the Special Envoy for Global Youth Issues.
“I grew up in a really small town,” she said to students. “I did not grow up accumulating stamps on my passport.”
However, that unconventional background has become her strongest asset.
“[President Biden] knows how important it is to engage young people both domestically but also internationally and get them from thinking about caring about policy to actually becoming policymakers themselves,” Finkenauer said. “[With my] background of not coming from the traditional way of entering politics or becoming a policymaker, [they needed me] to do this and connect with young people who have had different pathways to this place.”
Russo and Finkenauer were both eager to discuss efforts to engage students in foreign policy and elaborated on their appreciation for USC’s public diplomacy programs.
“In the world of public diplomacy, there aren’t too many academic programs that are specifically focused on the work that our team does each and every day,” Russo said in the interview. “We wanted to see firsthand the incredible work going on [at USC].”
Though their work is far from over, Russo and Finkenauer are enthusiastic about continuing to share the work of the State Department with the public, both American and foreign.
“We have a real opportunity to kind of put forward a different vision for what diplomacy is, for what the State Department is, for what the government is and for what the government can do,” Russo said to the Daily Trojan. “Showing up and having these conversations and better understanding how we can do that is an investment in the future of American foreign policy.”
