Storella Makes the Case for American Diplomatic Support for Rights Overseas
Ambassador Mark Storella, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Director of the School’s African Studies Center, delivered a TEDx Talk highlighting the potential and the limitations of American support for human rights abroad.
In a lecture entitled “Flights to Freedom: American Diplomacy and Human Rights,” Storella tells the story of work he was involved in as an American diplomat to help restore peace and freedom to Cambodia after years of civil war and genocide. In particular, he recounts the case of the Cambodian democratic opposition leader in 2005 who had already survived a bloody assassination attempt and who then faced spurious defamation charges and likely imprisonment and possibly worse. In a risky move, American diplomats helped the opposition leader sneak out of the country on a flight to freedom so that he could survive and contest future elections.
Despite all the setbacks for democracy and human rights in Cambodia, which remains an authoritarian state, Storella delivered a simple message: American diplomats cannot deliver rights themselves; however, American diplomats can provide hope and enough protection so that people overseas can fight another day for their own rights. In closing, Storella says, “Afghan girls, Cambodian human rights activists, and now the people of Ukraine still have hope. They have not abandoned the fight for their own rights. With all due humility and with appropriate care, I submit that the United States and American diplomats should not abandon the fight for rights overseas either.”
Storella’s full TEDx Talk can be viewed below.
Ambassador Mark C. Storella was a United States Foreign Service Officer for over three decades serving as Ambassador to Zambia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, and Dean of the Leadership and Management School of the Foreign Service Institute. Storella is a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Excellence in Service Award, the Thomas Jefferson Award presented by American Citizens Abroad, and several Department of State superior and meritorious honor awards. Learn more about Ambassador Storella on his faculty profile.