Alum describes life as a diplomat in Baghdad's Green Zone

Just as temperatures were peaking in Baghdad this summer, David Ng ('96) and his wife, Julie Eadeh, arrived and took up residence in a 10- by 20-foot metal trailer with no kitchen.

Ng, a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, works as an economics officer at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, reporting on Iraq's fiscal policy and conducting outreach to the Iraqi Parliament. With the permanent U.S. Embassy still under construction, he and scores of other diplomats work from offices in the Republican Palace.

With adaptations like concrete shelters, casualties from the rocket and mortar attacks that peaked during the summer are rare. But for Ng, knowing that he is relatively safe, especially compared to Iraqi citizens and American military personnel elsewhere in Baghdad, can't keep every explosion from unnerving him.

"Rationally, the odds of getting hit are slim," he says. "But in the 'fog of war' when you're hearing explosions around you, rationality goes out the window."

Ng and Eadeh, another career diplomat, who works as an assistant information officer in the Office of Public Affairs, visited the Flinn Foundation on Sept. 25 for an informal discussion with Flinn Scholars and Foundation staff about working for the State Department and their current service in Iraq. Their presentation followed a similar appearance at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, part of a three-week trip back to the United States.

Ng, who studied Mandarin at Peking University under the National Security Education Program's David L. Boren Scholarship for Study Abroad, earned degrees in East Asian studies, economics, and political science from the University of Arizona in 2001. He then received a master's degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the State Department in 2003 as a David L. Boren NSEP Fellow. That fellowship enabled him to work as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of Korean Affairs at the outset of the six-party talks process.

After officially entering the Foreign Service in 2004, Ng served as a Press Officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and as Tunisia Desk Officer. He and Eadeh met during diplomatic training at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Va. After completing that training in 2006, Ng served as Immigrant Visa Chief and handled the refugee portfolio in Sana'a, Yemen.

State Department employees around the world generally serve two- or three-year stints; in Iraq, assignments are one year. The shorter time in-country means less exposure to security risks, but also means that Ng and Eadeh, now in their fourth month in Baghdad, have less opportunity to get to know local populations well, one of the unofficial job duties of Foreign Service officers in most other countries.

Not being able to travel freely within Iraq complicates efforts toward cultural acclimation even further. On one of the rare occasions that he has attended a meeting outside of the Green Zone, Ng says, he traveled in a massive security convoy to a university; wherever they went, all non-convoy traffic had to come to a halt.

"It was pretty jarring to see what our movement to the university did to the Iraqis on the street. We completely disrupted whatever business they were conducting."

Still, having firsthand experience serving in the Green Zone has opened Ng's eyes to the challenges that the United States and Iraq must separately and collectively confront.

"You can't appreciate a war zone until you're there," he says. "It's a really difficult place to work."

While Ng and Eadeh are both aware of the arguments for removing American forces from Iraq, they express strong sentiments that withdrawal under the current circumstances—in the midst of continuing violence, and with so many aspects of civil government and infrastructure still not functional—would hardly be conscionable.

On a more positive note, Ng and Eadeh say that the conflict in Iraq and broader changes in U.S. foreign policy since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have led to important improvements at the State Department, particularly in its recruitment efforts.

Isolated from real-world skills, encyclopedic knowledge of world history and current affairs no longer holds as much value as it once did; recruiters are now particularly interested in identifying speakers of critical languages like Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, and Russian, even if they don't come from traditional public-policy and backgrounds.

Such changes are essential, Ng believes. "Just as the military is stretched thin, so is the Foreign Service," he says.

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For more information:

"U.S. diplomat shares experience of life in Baghdad's Green Zone ," The Arizona Republic, 10/05/2007