A Clear Voice on AIDS
By MARK GREEN (U.S. Global Leadership Coalition)
We seem only to think about the rest of the world when we have little choice but to do so – when our awareness is dragged there by conflict or catastrophe. It’s even true for a former ambassador like me who should know better.
In so many ways, the recent elections consumed all of my time and attention. Professionally, at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), I was working overtime to host public forums on “smart power” in places like Richmond, Philadelphia and Tampa, and to offer ourselves up as an unbiased policy resource to campaigns on both sides of the aisle. On the side, I was involved in several projects aimed at developing policy recommendations for the next administration and congress. Even though most of this work focused on foreign policy, it was diplomacy and development at the macro level, at 35,000 feet. I never really thought about ordinary Africans walking the streets or Central Americans hauling their produce to the local market. We focused more on acronyms and agencies than we did families and small villages.