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
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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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