Hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Robert F. Godec, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Tunisia, May 3, 2006

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And, Mr. Godec, congratulations on your 20th wedding anniversary today, is that what you said?

MR. GODEC:  It is today, Senator, thank you very much.

SEN. CHAFEE:  And we had a chance to chat a little bit earlier today and in that conversation we talked about you taking over as the head person of a large organization and basically how being that top person -- I know you've had experience as management as chargé in other areas, DCM, but now you are the top person of that particular embassy and what might be your philosophy on making sure that everybody's motivated in their various tasks from the bottom all the way to your second-in-command.  What might be your basic philosophy? I'll start with you, Mr. Godec.

MR. GODEC:  Mr. Chairman, first rate leadership at our missions is essential if we're going to carry out U.S. foreign policy objectives.  And I very much look forward to the challenge and the opportunity of leading my own mission if confirmed by the Senate.  I  would seek to build on the work at embassy Tunis done by Ambassador Hudson and earlier ambassadors to build one team.  It's critical I think that an embassy function as one team -- not as disparate bits of the U.S. government but as one integrated team to achieve U.S. foreign policy goals.

In my 20 years in the Foreign Service I've learned quite a bit from ambassadors and other leaders I've worked with on both leadership and management.  The best ambassadors and leaders that I've seen have been able to motivate people, to get them to succeed at tasks that they thought they might not be able to, to bring out the best in people and I would very much seek to do that.

From my experience broadly I've distilled sort of five basic principles that I try to follow in leadership.  The first is a firm commitment to following ethical principles.  It's essential that any leader of a mission or any organization be ethical.  The second is to become and stay competent, to stay informed, to understand what it is you're working on, to know a language if you need the language, to know a country if you're working in a country.  The third principle is to build relationships and build teams, to know people, to let them get to know you.  The fourth is to have a vision.  Any organization if it's
going to succeed has got to be led by someone who knows where he or she wants to go.  And in the case of a mission obviously ultimately that leader is the president's, but then there's the president's personal representative to execute the vision of the president and the secretary of State, to make certain it's communicated to everyone in the mission and that we're all pulling in the same direction.

And the last principle is to communicate and to do that constantly, effectively, clearly, ensure that people do, as I said, understand the vision. I'd be happy to talk a little bit more about any of those principles, but those are sort of the guiding principles that I would work under as a chief of mission in the Foreign Service. Thank you for the opportunity to reply to that question.

SEN. CHAFEE:  And thank you very much.  Having spent, how many years in the Foreign Service -- 25 did I read?

MR. GODEC:  It's 20.  A little over 20, Mr. Chairman.

SEN. CHAFEE:  So you've served under many leaders and, as you said, had a chance to observe and now you're going to be the top person.

MR. GODEC:  Hopefully, if confirmed.

SEN. PAUL S. SARBANES (D-MD):  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll be very brief.  Regrettably I have another engagement.  But I  wanted to come first of all because both of the nominees represent the workings of our career Foreign Service of which I've been very strongly supportive and I think this is the first ambassadorial post for Mr. Godec and for Mr. Ford.

I might comment that the root of being ambassador, U.S. ambassador in North Africa seems to be through Cameroon since you both have served there in the course of your career and I picked that up in looking at your resumes.

Mr. Godec, are you taking Arabic now?  Are you doing any language training in Arabic?

MR. GODEC:  Senator, I'm not doing any language training in Arabic at the moment.  I do have good French and will be doing some --

SEN. SARBANES:  French will carry you quite a ways in Tunisia but --

MR. GODEC:  Some brush-up.  I had also hoped to do some Arabic training this summer, although it would be relatively brief.
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SEN. SARBANES:  Mr. Godec, I presume you were in Nairobi at the time that our embassy was attacked there?

MR. GODEC:  Yes, Senator, I was in Nairobi.  I was not physically in the mission when the bomb went off.  I was with my wife north of the city.  As soon as we heard that a bomb had gone off we rushed back, getting back a few hours after the explosion took place.

SEN. SARBANES:  I'd like each of you to tell me a bit about the cooperation we're receiving from the countries to which you've been nominated to be ambassador on the fight against terrorism.  Including  terrorist financing, money laundering, the whole range of -- I serve on another committee, the Banking Committee, which has a very keen interest in the terrorism financing/money laundering issue, which incidentally the 9/11 commissioners recently issued a report card on what was being done to implement various aspects of their recommendation and the only area where they gave an A grade was on terrorism financing and money laundering so we're pushing very hard on that front.  But even more broadly if you could just tell us a bit about how we're doing on the terrorism fight in each of these countries.

Mr. Godec, why don't we start with you I guess.

MR. GODEC:  Senator, Tunisia has been and continues to be a committed ally in the war on terror.

They have done quite a bit with us on a number of different fronts. For example, with respect to the movement of so-called foreign fighters, really terrorists and insurgents, out of Tunisia and toward Iraq they have been good about sharing information and cooperating with us in stopping that flow.  I understand that in terrorism finance, that area as well, that they have shared information with us and continue to do so.

In general growing out of the Tunisian experience, really the attack on the island -- the synagogue on the island of Jerba just after September 11th, they have been galvanized and concerned about this problem so they have been very strongly supportive of our efforts in this area and have worked cooperatively in a number of fronts including, as I said, finance and the movement of foreign fighters.

They are very concerned in general about the threat from Islamic militants and they take it very seriously.  So I would tell you, Senator, that I think that they have been very good allies on this issue and worked very closely with us.
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SEN. SARBANES:  Okay, very good.

Well, Mr. Chairman, as I said, there's another engagement.  I do want to commend both of our nominees for a distinguished record of service in the Foreign Service that has brought them to this point where they've been nominated to be ambassadors to two very important countries.  I think we have the longest diplomatic relationship with Tunisia that we have with any country in the world. Over in the Foreign Relations Committee room in the Capitol there's an exhibit up on the wall that quotes from the initial arrangement with Tunisia, back in 17
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MR. GODEC:  Ninety-seven -- 1797, Senator, yes.
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SEN. CHAFEE:  Thank you, Mr. Ford.

Mr. Godec, you want to take us on a tour of the region?

MR. GODEC:  Certainly, Mr. Chairman.  Mr. Chairman, I think with respect to Tunisia I would start out saying that Tunisia very much aspires to play a strong regional role as a gateway to Africa, to the Maghreb, to Europe, to play sort of an integrating role, a crossroads as it were much as it did in the ancient past for the region.  It's a role that they played to some degree during the Cold War period.  It's been diminished somewhat with recent developments but it's something they hope to do again in the future.

They're focused at the moment on economic and social development areas, and those frankly are areas because of Tunisia's own strength that it could play a strong role, that it would be an ideal candidate to do that.  They've been working to revive the Arab Maghreb Union. The appointment of a former foreign minister from Tunisia to that body I think is going to help them.  There are many specific projects that they're undertaking including the encouraging of hundreds of small projects, economic projects, business projects with their neighbors which have been I think very positive.

Talking a little bit about some specific circumstances, Tunisia has been a strong supporter of peacekeeping efforts and they have contributed peacekeeping troops in the Congo, in Cote d'Ivoire, along the Ethiopia-Eritrean border, so they've been very strongly supportive of peacekeeping generally.  We've talked to them in the past about other possibilities including Sudan and they have indicated strongly that they do want to play a helpful moderating role in the case of that particular conflict.

With respect to Iraq, Tunisia very much shares our goal of an Iraq that is stable, secure and united.  They've continued to maintain a diplomatic presence in Baghdad throughout the period of the last three years and they continue to work to moderate Arab League positions.  And fundamentally what I would tell you about Tunisia and its role across the region is that it has sought to play that moderating role.  It has sought to take positions which espoused non- violence and the importance of peaceful solutions.

In the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestine-Israel issues in particular, they 've also played a moderating role.  But they've even been out to some degree in the lead a little bit of some of their neighbors.  Tunisia has been very clear that violence is not the solution to the conflict in that area and they've assisted the United States and others in promoting dialogue over the course of many years.

Tunisia does not enforce the Arab League boycott against Israel. In fact trade between Israel and Tunisia is up considerably last year. President Ben Ali invited Prime Minister Sharon to attend the world summit, the information summit.  Although he did not attend, the foreign minister from Israel did attend and it was a very public welcoming.  Tunisia has also invited and encouraged tourists from Israel and from the Jewish faith to come to Tunisia to visit places like the synagogue at Jerba.  So they have played a strong forward
leaning role with respect to the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis, the Palestinians and Israel.

I would underscore that I would, if confirmed as ambassador, encourage Tunisia to continue to show leadership and to press a little bit further in terms of normalizing relations with Israel and think that this is an area where they can continue to contribute.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

SEN. CHAFEE:  Thank you, and I hope that it continues that voice of moderation in the Arab world in these difficult times from Tunisia and Algeria. I believe that Tunisia had an interest section in Israel and it's only recently been closed and maybe with your work it can be reopened and that Tunisia was involved with hosting the PLO as their headquarters back from 1982 to 1993.  So they have been deeply involved despite a separation of geography in that issue. 

I would hope you'd have swift confirmation and great success in your new postings and thank you for your time here and best of good fortune.

MR. GODEC:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

MR. FORD:  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

SEN. CHAFEE:  The hearing is closed.