Fortress magazine issue 2 winter2016 ambassador dr bernal 17feb16

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Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal talks about

the Influence of small states on Superpowers By Christene King Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal with Former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell (Jamaican parents) | Photo: richardbernal.net

“B

12

eing ambassador of Jamaica to the United States

“It’s being able to convince people, persuade, get

of America was not a job, it was a calling. It was a

along, find commonalities…its people skills; you have to have

privilege to serve in the knowledge that service is its own

some substance. I’ll give you an example,” which he says is

reward.” Those are the words of Dr. Richard Bernal in his third

noted in The Influence of Small States on Superpowers,

book, The Influence of Small States on Superpowers.

soon to be launched in Jamaica.

He documents that what he knows of diplomacy, he

“There is a man, he had served in all the ‘hot spots’

learnt from working with the brilliant, charismatic and remarkably

and they put him in charge of preparing the case for whether

persuasive Michael Manley, the late Prime Minister of Jamaica

countries were doing enough to cooperate with the US on

and a fellow Jamaica College past student, on international

narcotics. He had decertified Mexico and Belize and he was

economic issues, especially the deliberations and the reports of

tough. One day he called me and he said, there is this piece

the South Commission and the Economic Policy Committee of

of legislation that has been outstanding for years and Jamaica

the Socialist International.

should have done it.

According to Bernal, in 1990, then Foreign Minister

“When I spoke to him I said, you know something, as

David Coore, QC took an economist and made him into a

Ambassador I could and should sit here and give you a good

diplomat when he was offered the post of Ambassador to the US

plausible explanation as to why we have not done it yet, but I

and to the Organisation of American States (OAS). However,

agree with you, it’s long overdue… I am going to get it done. I

Richard Bernal considered himself tailor-made for the position

went back to my office and called the then Prime Minister, and

being an international economist specialising in economics and

called (minister) K.D Knight and said listen man, we don’t want

debt, university lecturer, worked in the private sector, was well

to be decertified and this is a big thing. In about two months they

known and trusted, and knows and helped to formulate policy.

had done it (the legislation).”

In fact, he said, “You can’t learn diplomacy. After the

“That built trust and it also said that I had the access,

science of diplomacy, there is the art. You either have it as a

so when we were coming for a Summit in the Caribbean, we

person or you don’t, because it comes down to (savvy) people

were completing our Shiprider agreement; we had issues but we

skills.”

got what we wanted.” ➜

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Building relations

In his own words

Dr. Richard Bernal spoke of the very influential Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, III, a personal friend of the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson ‘Bill’ Clinton, advisor to Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W Bush and Bill Clinton’s former White House chief of staff. “He and I just got along. He and Sir George in Washington launched Bernal’s book about a month ago. McLarty wrote the glowing preface in which he said, “that some will find in the book a “how-to” guide for an ambitious ambassador in Washington.” In what McLarty described as “Ambassador Bernal’s compelling narrative, “The Influence of Small States on Superpowers; Jamaica and US Foreign Policy" is a record of Ambassador Bernal’s time in Washington as Jamaica’s senior envoy. The monumental study offers informative observances on how small nations can influence the foreign policy actions of much larger countries on specific issues of importance. McLarty also noted that during the 1990’s, Jamaica did play an important role in helping to shape US policy toward the Caribbean Basin, and Richard Bernal was a critical reason for that success. Bernal’s book, he wrote, “reminds us how much can be

Published by Lexington Books

achieved when small states and superpowers find ways to work

He explains how The Influence of Small States

together. It is an important contribution to our understanding of

Influence on Superpowers, which he has been working on for

regional politics, economics, history and international relations

15 years, came about. Ambassador Bernal says when I want

and a useful guide for the future.”

to learn about a subject or prepare myself on a subject, I write a

On reflection, Richard Bernal said that when “McLarty

note or a paper, and put down all the thoughts. Why? When you

heard that I was going to be doing the launch in Washington, he

write you have a greater degree of precision and accuracy (and

said he wanted to be involved. He came and he gave me the

it reinforces learning) than when you read and understand... I

laudatory thing (praises).”

write down these things, it means that whenever I want it, it’s

Bernal “went to Washington with the attitude, that I can

there.”

do this. This is like selling bank products. And I am selling

“International relations theory tells you that small

Jamaica. You have to convince people, you have to show the

countries cannot have any influence and I am saying this book

commonalities and you have to find the interest… You have to

challenges that. I am saying if you know what you are doing

find those points of interest and you have to study each man.

even with the US superpower you can influence a superpower

Some guys have no connection with the Caribbean but they

if you know what you are doing. So what the book does is to

believe in trade… you use every means necessary.” These

provide three case studies of how Jamaica was able to influence

things and more, he says, are in the book.

US foreign policy.

Dr. Bernal emphasises that diplomacy “is about

“It shows you the moving parts: suppose you

building relations with substance, influence, trust and what

wanted to get trade policies you have the White House, the

this book says, if you operate smart in Washington, you can

State Department, The Office of the United States Trade

influence because the system is open.”

Representative (USTR), the business community, the

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Dr. Bernal also said he wrote The Influence of Small States on Superpowers because he felt it is history that should be told and there are lessons that might help other people. It was not an ego trip. I hope it’s useful,” he quips.

Looking into the future Ambassador

Bernal

has

served

under

the

administration of three US presidents – George Bush I, Bill Clinton and George Bush II. He said he did not stay long for the Former P.M. of Jamaica, Michael Manley, with Dr. Richard Bernal (past students of Jamaica College (JC)) | Photo: richardbernal.net

Caribbean community, the think tanks and so on…and you have to move all these parts to get what you want. So it documents that and it says that if you are smart, you can get this done. “What the last chapter does is to say, why was Jamaica able to do this? I say one thing about Jamaicans that some people are not going to like, but it’s there, Jamaicans have audacity. It’s the feeling that they can do it. That’s the first step to doing anything. “If you look at our foreign policy, it’s not just Michael Manley challenging the International Economic Order; former Prime Minister Edward Seaga was Jamaica’s first visitor to President Ronald Regan and helped to start the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). Before that former Prime Minister, the late Hugh Shearer, went and his first statement to the UN suggested the International Human Rights Law. Norman Manley’s government (we were not even independent then) was the first country in the world, to ban imports from South Africa. We have this tradition! “So the tradition was, ‘we can do this.’ Then I set out the facts: you have to have a good political leader, you have to have a lobbyist, you have to have a strategy, you need an ambassador suitable to the task, you need a good embassy staff…all these things go into getting success. So what the book says is that it can be done, and here are the case studies, here is how it was done and here is why it was done. That’s what the book does.” “I have a lot of references in the book because I meticulously documented everything. And of course, there are things that only I know. If I tell you that when Michael Manley met with President George Bush I, and so and so happened, it’s because I was there. The book is not biographical, it’s not about me, it is about a process and I was part of the process.

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latter, “the Lord looked down on me and I left in August 2011, a week before 9/11.” Richard Bernal himself likes to look into the future. According to him, “the next big thing for China is not loans to do infrastructural projects, it is direct foreign investment. They are the second biggest source, and I have already written a paper on that so whenever that issue breaks…I am prepared,” he said. Preparation is very important to the astute ambassador. He never wants to be unprepared. “You are competing in the world … you go in to win, but if you are to lose it’s not for being unprepared.” Dr. Bernal says you can lose because you do not have as much money or because they know more than you know; or something “but not for lack of preparation. You can lose because you are not as good.” He wrote his first book on the People’s Republic of China (China) because he saw the country emerging. First it was an interest and I read up about China and the global economy. Then I said, what does this mean for the Caribbean? …Everything I read was about Latin America, so if I am going to know about the Caribbean, I am going to have to pull together some original work and that’s how it started. Economic policy has to be continuously recalibrated, he says, because the only thing you can be sure about in the world is change; change is the only constant and it happens rapidly for reasons; technology, competition, innovation, and because sometimes things just go along. “Why economies fail and governments fail is when they don’t respond quickly enough but if they are really astute, they don’t respond, they are proactive,” he pointed out. “Apple Inc. is the success it is not that they respond to what consumers want; they create demand, they invent an entirely new thing. I am just saying you have to innovate, you have to be constant; if you run fast, you fall behind; you have to run faster! You have to make an assessment of what you can do and work on that.” ➜

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Innovation “Jamaica cannot produce banana as cheaply as some other places, so bananas is not going to be it anymore. But maybe we can produce the best coffee in the entire world. You have to look for what you can do.

Look at offshore financial

services; it’s something in which scale is not important. “What you have to find in Jamaica is something that suits what we have. It can’t be large scale. It must be something that involves human capital and ingenuity. That’s where we are going to get ahead… Switzerland has been making watches forever, but if they were still making the old windup watch they would be dead. They are making watches still because they are innovative. So you have to innovate continuously.”

Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal addressing the Organization of the American States (OAS). His wife Margaret is nearby. | Photo credit: richardbernal.net

Loves learning A man who loves learning, Bernal says that his father,

To many people, including Richard Bernal, Jamaica

Frank Bernal, published books, and that may have had an

seems to be always playing catch-up because we take too

influence in “making me think that I can publish books. I love

long to respond. In a small economy, he says, you have firms

learning,” he reiterated. “And I read a lot, a lot…”

that are small by global standards and their natural response

He told the story of when he was in Sixth Form (Grades

is risk aversion. They would rather lobby the government for

12 & 13) at Jamaica College (JC), a prestigious all-boys high

protection to keep the market than to say look, let me innovate.

school, and read the six-volume classic work on English history

They are not genuine firms. They are individual enterprise and

of the 1900’s. It was 200 pages each and, “I read the whole

they have no genuine (desire).

thing one summer.”

“Marx says, A capitalist is driven by capital... he is

Ambassador Bernal also spoke of when leaving JC, he

imbued and taken over, his accumulation is continuous. Here,

wrote an article in the Public Opinion about ‘Why China feared

they get the right size house, and they have two cars and they are

Taiwan’. It didn’t come out until he was a student at University of

comfortable.” But they won’t increase production from 100 to 400.

the West Indies (UWI), but as he said, “I was reading all that stuff

Firms, he says, are the answer. The environment has

from then. I am avidly interested in a lot of topics. I like writing.”

to be created in which ideas can translate into projects, and come

Neither of the ambassador’s parents, Franklin nor

to fruition along with financing. Jamaica is not short on ideas.

Kathleen Bernal went to university. Frank made a significant contribution to the visual culture of independent Jamaica. In 1962, he designed national symbols – the Jamaican Coat of Arms, the National bird, flower and tree. Recently, the Birds of Jamaica author and self-taught artist received Jamaica’s Silver Musgrave Medal. Kathleen was an insurance claims administrator. The family lived in Mona Heights in St. Andrew and he (Richard) used to go on the University’s campus grounds to ride his bicycle along with friends who were children of professors and lecturers. So going to UWI was just natural for him. He said he heard his father talk about university with such longing and respect…“It’s like I had to get a degree for him.” On his father’s verandah Richard was exposed as a

Former Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Dr. Richard Bernal (past students of Jamaica College (JC)) | Photo: richardbernal.net

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little kid just hanging around listening to luminaries such as Don Mills (economist, Jamaica's diplomat emeritus and chairman ➜

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of the UN Security Council), G. Arthur Brown (former Bank of

you have age groups over 35, over 40, over 50. You have to win

Jamaica Governor and alternate Governor of the World Bank),

some tournaments and you have to train.”

Sir Edgerton Richardson (Jamaica's first representative to the

Bernal considers himself a unique person in that

United Nations and its former Ambassador to Washington),

everywhere he goes he gets along with everybody. This he

A.E.T. Henry (a BBC-trained journalist who became the first head

says began in high school where he held leadership positions.

of the Government’s Public Relations Office (forerunner of the

“Bernal, you do it because you’re the only person who talks with

Jamaica Information Service), Ashton Wright (former permanent

everyone including the gay guy.” At one point he even made a

secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister and diplomat) and

valiant attempt for a student athlete to be reinstated. He has

the Marsh brothers who both became judges of the high court.

made some good friends all his life. He enjoys Jamaican foods

He said they were all imbued about independence, federation,

such as a good jerked pork, ackee and saltfish, bun and cheese,

building the country so that the young Bernal just absorbed it by

patty, roti… and the list goes on.

osmosis. “That’s why I am not in the private sector. I am more

Ambassador

is

in the public sector,” he added.

married to Margaret, a Nottingham-

Unique person

trained sociologist, cultural heritage specialist and poet. Together they

Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, who is currently the

have two sons – Brian, an architect,

Counselor for Jamaica in the Inter-American Development Bank

and Darren, an assistant professor

(IADB), has hobbies. He listens to music … a lot of jazz. He is a

of psychology, and daughter-in-law

sports fan and an avid squash player. He says he played twice in the US National Open. “I didn’t get very far but to get in there you have to win tournaments. You see, they make it easier as

Guila, an architect. The Bernals are Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal at his home

proud grandparents of Nile and Elle. ❚

"castaway" | Nicole Brown Photography Fisherman's Boat waits expectantly to go to sea for catch of the day at Boston Beach, Portland

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Bernal

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