Elizabeth Shackelford and Josh Paul on Dissent and Diplomacy

The Dickey Center had the pleasure of hosting two former U.S. officials in conversation about their choices to resign their State Department positions as a form of dissent with US policy. Josh Paul, former director in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned in the fall of 2023 in protest over U.S. government arms policy towards Israel. He spoke with our current Magro Fellow Elizabeth Shackelford, who resigned as a career U.S. Foreign Service officer in 2017 in protest over the Trump administration's policies in Africa on human rights and diplomacy. Paul visited with Shackelford's INTS15 class on Violence and Security and with Professor Kathleen Powers' GOVT85.39 class on Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. 

Shackelford and Paul also sat down for extended conversations with the Dickey Center's War & Peace Fellows, representatives from Dartmouth student government, faculty and students from Middle Eastern Studies and the Jewish Studies Program, as well as the student editors of World Outlook, Dartmouth's Undergraduate Journal for international affairs. 

Those broad ranging conversations touched on leadership and integrity, values and cultures, and the fundamental choices that career officials make in implementing U.S. policy, including when they disagree with the U.S. position. The two former foreign policy officials described the challenge of recognizing that the goals you had hoped to further with your work were being undermined by the policies you were being asked to carry out. Or, as Shackelford put it, "you realize you're doing more harm than good." 

Elizabeth Shackelford is currently the Magro Family Distinguished Visitors in International Affairs with the Dickey Center. She served as a career diplomat in the U.S. State Department, with postings in Warsaw, Poland, South Sudan, Somalia, and Washington, D.C. Her outstanding work in South Sudan during the civil war earned her the prestigious Barbara Watson Award for Consular Excellence.

She gained international recognition for her principled resignation, which sparked important discussions about diplomacy and governance. That led to her book, The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age, which chronicles the challenges facing US foreign policy in the modern world. 

Prior to his resignation in October, Josh Paul spent more than 11 years working as a Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which is responsible for U.S. defense diplomacy, security assistance, and arms transfers. He previously worked on security sector reform in both Iraq and the West Bank, with additional roles in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Army Staff, and as a Congressional staffer for Representative Steve Israel (D-NY). 

These discussions were part of the Dickey Center's Dissent & Democracy Initiative which aims to highlight the ways in which dissent over international affairs contributes to healthy democracies, and engages Dartmouth students with individuals who courageously take the risk to speak and act out against anti-democratic movements.