Michael: Week 9 – March 28 to April 1

During my 9th week at the Mission to the European Union I continued on the Early Alerts, sat in on a brainstorming meeting for an upcoming conference, attended parts of a USEU 'Town Hall' meeting led by the Ambassador, and heard parts of a digital conference between students in Afghanistan and various officials from the State Department.

This week Libya still received the bulk of our attention for the Early Alerts, but for the first time in a while it was bumped from being the top story on Tuesday by sections on the reactions in Europe to President Obama's speech on the Libya intervention. In the background each day were protests in Syria, where protests have been gaining strength amidst strong crackdowns by the government. Our Libya coverage focused on divides within NATO, particularly over the question of whether to arm the Libyan rebels, and some continued speculation over the overall endgame in Libya.

Otherwise, on Monday I observed a discussion between the Media Hub and the USEU Mission’s press office on how to cover a State Department’s official who will be participating in a conference during the EU’s refugee resettlement awareness day, with the aim of discussing the US’s long-standing experience with refugee resettlement programs. Officials from the two press departments discussed what themes to cover, what the primary message for video clips should be, and the logistics of when/how to interview people at the conference, as there is only a few small windows of opportunity when we can pull a person aside (lunch breaks, etc). Not having a media background myself I only observed the meeting, but it was fascinating to see what kinds of questions media people tackle while preparing for interviews – it’s certainly not a simple affair.

Wednesday I sat in on parts of a USEU Town Hall meeting led by the Ambassador and attended by a large audience of Mission employees. The Ambassador discussed the situation in Washington and other internal issues concerning employees at the Mission. Just being an intern most of what was discussed was not relevant to me, but nevertheless it was useful for the Early Alerts to get a sense of what policies and topics are being most discussed in Washington.

On Thursday, I attended part of a digital conference between students in Afghanistan and various officials from the State Department. The quality of the call wasn't the best, but I did get a sense of some of the person-to-person diplomacy conducted by the State Department.