US Department of State

Invited by Auburn University to give a public lecture soon after 911, the talk traced the history of the word “equality” from the time of slave-owner Jefferson drafting the Declaration of Independence to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" arguing for the equality of all Americans irrespective of colour.

The Quran advocates equality; only piety distinguishes one from the other: "O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware" [Quran 49:13].

Hence, the talk argued that after 911, in a unipolar world with the United States' defence spending almost half of global military expenditures,, “equality” ought to encompass Americans and non-Americans; i.e. the equality of all humankind. In other words, the mission of The U.S. Department of State that “leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity” ought to take into account the interests of Non-Americans, their safety and economic prosperity. If not, Foreign Affairs decisions flowing from 911 were in the danger of succumbing to hubris.

Note: The text in the the poster, other than Title & Abstract, was provided by Auburn University, Alabama.

In retrospect, the talk, sponsored by the Breeden Eminent Scholar Fund and the College of Liberal Arts,  is dedicated to the memory of my host Dr. David Edwin Harrell, Jr., Daniel Breeden Eminent Scholar at Auburn University February 22, 1930 – March 15, 2021. I will always treasure his endorsement.

Over the past two decades, periodic strategic reviews have become a mainstay of U.S. national security policy making, as government officials have instituted quadrennial reviews at all of the major national security agencies. The outcomes of these reviews may influence whether or not the government is prepared for important challenges. Yet we have known little about whether quadrennial reviews lead the government to do anything differently. In this article I evaluate the outcomes of several quadrennial reviews by national security agencies, analyze the factors that have shaped their outcomes, and consider the value of formal strategic reviews more generally. I find that, in the absence of significant presidential involvement, quadrennial reviews rarely generate major strategy shifts or transformational reforms, but these reviews can help the leaders of agencies institutionalize their priorities by creating bureaucratic buy-in for incremental policy and organizational changes.

Over the past two decades, major strategic reviews have become a mainstay of U.S. national security policy making. In 1996, Congress mandated that the Defense Department conduct a Quadrennial Defense Review every four years. Since then, quadrennial reviews have also been instituted in the U.S. intelligence community and at the State Department and Homeland Security Department. The outcomes of these reviews, which typically involve many hundreds of government personnel in months of intensive bureaucratic activity, may influence whether or not the government is prepared for important challenges. Yet we know little about whether the reviews lead the government to do anything differently. In this paper I evaluate the impact of several quadrennial reviews by U.S. national security agencies, analyze the factors that have shaped and constrained their impact, and consider the value of formal strategic reviews more generally. I find that, in the absence of significant presidential involvement, formal reviews rarely generate major strategy shifts, but these reviews are not generally a waste of time. Their principal effect on government activity is to help the leaders of agencies institutionalize their priorities by creating bureaucratic buy-in for incremental policy and organizational changes.

Em abril de 1942, Carleton W. Washburne (1889-1968), um educador estadunidense, desembarcou na Colômbia. Aquela não era uma viagem qualquer, era o começo de uma missão de estudo sobre a educação sul-americana comissionada pelo Departamento de Estado dos EUA que duraria quatro meses e meio e incluiria no itinerário Equador, Chile, Paraguai e Brasil. Washburne também não era um educador qualquer, era conhecido internacionalmente desde os anos 1920 devido às experiências educacionais que conduziu em Winnetka, Illinois. Além disso, na época da excursão ocupava a presidência da Progressive Education Association (PEA). O presente capítulo toma os escritos de Washburne sobre essa viagem como objeto de estudo com o objetivo de identificar as representações constituídas sobre a educação sul-americana em suas narrativas e explorar as conexões com a política de boa vizinhança que tais escritos, aliados ao contexto da época, permitem abstrair.

God & Apple Pie: Religious Myths and Visions of America
by Christopher Buck
Kingston, NY: Educator's International Press, 2015

Contents
Introduction, by J. Gordon Melton
Chapter 1: America: Nation and Notion
Chapter 2: Native American Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 3: Protestant Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 4: The Christian Right’s Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 5: Catholic Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 6: Jewish Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 7: Mormon Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 8: Christian Identity Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 9: Black Muslim Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 10: Contemporary Muslim Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 11: Buddhist Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 12: Baha’i Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 13: Conclusion: How Minority Faiths Redefined America’s World Role

Two sample chapters (by publisher's permission):
1.  Native American Myths and Visions of America (Chapter 2)
2.  Black Muslim Myths and Visions of America (Chapter 9)

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/God-Apple-Pie-Religious-Visions/dp/1891928155/

Introduction by J. Gordon Melton,
Distinguished Professor of American Religious History, Baylor University

Far from being an interesting additional topic for the religious dilettante, the discussion around the theological reality that is America, periodically bursts forth as an important item on the nation's agenda, from the place of prayer services in the White House, to the issuance of an annual government report on religious persecution, to the rise of contemporary terrorism. As one traces radical Islam, for example, one arrives at the writings of one Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian who spent some of his younger years in America, and came away with his own vision of a country mired in sin and decadence. He would posit America as the image of everything he hoped to escape in promoting the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, in all honesty, I must admit that over the years as I encountered all of the intriguing, even fascinating, ideas about America in the great cosmic scheme of things, I never got around to systematically gathering the different visions and trying to make sense of them in any detailed fashion. Thus, I have been more than happy to receive, and now with this modest introduction, pass along to my scholarly colleagues and the reading public the work of Christopher Buck.

During his years of observation and research, Buck has surveyed the spectrum of visions of America that have energized and motivated the America's religious community, and has selected from among them a sample that both (1) represents the spectrum of opinion about America and its importance, and (2) highlights the more important visions of America that have shaped and are continuing to shape the way we understand this country we call home. His work calls us to become self-conscious about the assumptions we use in our day-to-day movements that massage the ways we approach our neighbors, our colleagues at work, and the politicians for whom we vote.

Buck begins with the visions of America present at the founding of the nation, aspects of which still strongly permeate the culture today, and have found a new home among conservative Protestants in their innovative idea of Christian America. Amid the Protestant context, we often forget the role of the Roman Catholic Church, which became the largest religious body in America in the 1840s and is now three times larger than its nearest competitor. At the end of the nineteenth century, a controversy on Americanism would erupt around Catholic visions of their place in a changing world that would drive it from participation in the nation's public square for a half-century, and molded its reentrance after World War II.

And then there are all the other-than-Christian religions, from Ahmadiyya Muslims to Zoroastrians, all of which possess their its own vision of America that shapes their appropriation of life in the United States and guides their development as their place in the nation was challenged, then accepted, and most recently affirmed and even celebrated by the nation as a whole. We have watched as Buddhists have carved out a place as cultural peacemakers, Muslims have struggled with separation of religion and government, and Baha'is have tried to understand the communication of their founder, Baha'u'llah, with the presidents of the Americas collectively, and with 'Abdu'l-Baha's statements about the destiny of America in particular. All of this occurs in the ebb and flow of religious life. One day we envision the possible unity of America's religions only to be thrown up against the many harsh divisions, which motivates us once more to seek realms of agreement, which again highlights the array of issues that can drive wedges between those who accept the label "American" as part of their self-identity.

In conclusion, I can, as a scholar, reflect on the contribution that this book, Religious Myths and Visions of America: God and Apple Pie, is making to our understanding of the American mosaic and how various segments of the religious community have found their way to being American. As an informed citizen I welcome its information that allows me to empathize with and make informed decisions relative to those with whom I might align (or oppose) as I sally forth in the public square. And on a personal level, I welcome the author's invitation for me to meet anew the residents of my neighborhood, those who shop in the same stores I do, send their children to the same schools my grandchildren attend, and diligently work toward their own appropriation of the American dream.

J. Gordon Melton
Distinguished Professor of American Religious History
Baylor University

January 2015 — This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

This paper will conduct a detail analyze on Freemasonry's symbolism codified to The Great Seal of the United States obverse and reverse sides, The Apotheosis of George Washington, The Centennial Great Seal of 1882, The Capitol Building and the mapping out of Washington DC.

Here I analyze Freemasonry ongoing enterprise of codifying esoteric symbols into the streets and monuments of Washington DC.  Most of the symbols I discuss have never been videoed or written about by previous authors or film makers.

The USA Mexico Multistate COIL Program (MCP) sought to increase inter-university collaboration between academic institutions in Mexico and the USA by building new connections between students, professors, and institutions.  The State University of New York’s (SUNY) Center for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL Center), along with SUNY’s Office for Latin America and the SUNY Office of Global Affairs, has been developing a networked array of COIL-based collaborative teaching partnerships in Mexico since 2013.  The SUNY COIL Network is a parallel network of 27 SUNY universities and colleges that have engaged the COIL Center to work with their faculty and staff to embed COIL into their courses and curriculum.  The U.S. Mexico COIL Program was initiated with grant funding and expertise from the USA Embassy in Mexico City to underwrite an expansion of the network of partnerships and COIL course exchanges between students in both countries.  The U.S. Embassy invited 18 Mexican universities to develop new co-taught COIL courses with SUNY, and other U.S. based institutions, subsidizing the costs of course development and travel.  The U.S. Mexico Multistate COIL Program was cooperative grant from the U.S. Department of State under the Fulbright-Hays Program (Grant# S-LMAQM-15-CA-021) and an initiative of the US-Mexico Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation, and Research (FOBESII).

The diplomatic effort to get Chen Guangcheng out of China is worth looking at for several reasons: the brilliance of the strategy, the tactics and the risk. Using information gleaned from newspapers and other periodicals this paper encapsulates that effort.

This article focuses on the manner in which Kazakh refugees who had fled from Xinjiang in 1949 and 1950 attracted American interest. These refugees were housed in refugee camps in Srinagar and finally immigrated to Turkey. American aid was extended to them through missionaries and by an anthropologist. Simultaneously , however, the involvement of the Americans caused the politicization of the Ka-zakh refugees with respect to Kashmir-related issues. American interests at the local level were highlighted by Adlai Stevenson's visit. J. Hall Paxton, the ex-American consul to Urumqi, maintained his attention on the Xinjiang refugees. This article considers the correspondence exchanged between Paxton and the Uyghur refugees who arrived in Srinagar earlier as a model of his efforts to include Kazakh migrants within America's favor. This attention stemmed from both humanitarian interest and, more importantly, the strategic value of the refugees. Paxton's appeal to Washington resulted in the adaption of the United States Escapee Program to incorporate Kazakh refugees, enabling their migration to Turkey. However, this program intended to utilize qualified escapees in covert operations. For the Americans, the Kazakh refugees represented the possibility of fulfilling their "political, psychological and intelligence" purposes, and could be considered as candidates for "Phase B" of America's operations against Soviet Russia.

The 2019 Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting, published each year by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (ACPD) per its congressional mandate, assesses the major Public Diplomacy (PD) and global media activities conducted by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Based on data collected from the State Department’s Public Diplomacy bureaus and offices, the Public Affairs Sections at U.S. embassies worldwide, and the USAGM, the report serves as a unique reference document, highlighting public diplomacy strategies and resources used to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. The report also serves as a platform for innovation, assuring that USG public diplomacy initiatives remain effective in an increasingly competitive global information environment.
https://www.state.gov/2019-comprehensive-annual-report-on-public-diplomacy-and-international-broadcasting/

This article argues that U.S. occupations in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua,
and Haiti in the first third of the twentieth century lasted as long as
they did for political reasons. U.S. military commanders disagreed with civilians
in the State Department partly because of a lack of both policy guidance
and interdepartmental coordination. In addition, State grew more sensitive
than Navy to negative public opinion both foreign and domestic and to
national political strategy. Marines, meanwhile, were more driven to reform
the societies they occupied but also less sensitive to their own abuses, to
changing norms, and to geopolitical reasons for ending occupations.

The article argues the need to put in place institutional structures that fosters the participation of young people in political and governance processes. This argument is premised on the appreciation of the youth bulge on the continent and the need to leverage this huge resource for the transformation of public services and political processes on the continent. Through a Nigerian lens, the author draws inferences from global and continental (African) experiences to support his argument. The article concludes that there are several comparable lessons on the continent that can be emulated.

A 2014 essay directed to the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, calling for reform of the State Department.  It "must do what any corporation, university, or state government must do when budgets are short — stop doing things that are less vital, in order to free up funds for new, higher priorities. Those priorities must now include a hard look at the Department and the Foreign Service, aiming for reform and professionalization. A maverick Presidential candidate once spoke of 'looking under the hood.'  It’s good advice."

Responses to COVID-19 are affected by the challenging environment of a contested global information space, where facts, logic, and even science compete with disinformation, malign narratives, conspiracy theories and propaganda.  In the charged information environment, many state and nonstate actors are in motion, but Russia and China are the pacing threats. Public messaging is paralleled by hidden disinformation -- coordinated influence campaigns. This is an annotated version of an article in the July-August, 2020, issue of Foreign Service Journal.

When Marine Corps Lieutenant General Jan Huly spoke, all listened.  This article contrasts Huly's direct and colorful speaking style with the more careful and judicious "State Department" manner of speaking.  "I discovered through the years that the best way for me to communicate was to try to encourage people to want to listen closely," he said.

Andrzej Mania, Marcin Grabowski, U.S. Department of State in the U.S. Policy towards the People’s Republic of China in the First Barack Obama Presidential Term (2009-2013), in: M. Pietraś, H. Dumała, B. Surmacz, A. Ziętek (eds.), Theory and Practice of International Relations: Intellectual Heritage of Professor Ziemowit Jacek Pietras, University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska Press, Lublin 2014, pp. 389-404

Az 1945 utáni magyarországi politikatörténetben, a kommunista rendszer stabilizálásáról szóló narratívában hangsúlyos szerepet tölt be az 1949-es választás. Jelen írás ennek nyugati recepcióját mutatja be, a budapesti amerikai nagykövetség úti beszámolói alapján. A követségi hivatalnokok és tolmácsaik számára a fő cél az átlagember megszólaltatása volt. Az így létrejött forrásegyüttes több szempontból is különleges: kortárs, közvetlen élményekből, benyomásokból származó nyugati megfigyelésekről olvashatunk bennük, melyek sajátos törésben, többszörös áttétellel, de 1949 májusának hétköznapi magyar véleményeit, vélekedéseit, sejtéseit közvetítik. A korban idehaza meghatározó marxista–leninista ideológia nyelve helyett itt ennek ellenpárját figyelhetjük meg működés közben: az úti beszámolók a kommunistaellenes hangulatot, megnyilvánulásokat próbálták megragadni, mivel az információgyűjtés feltételezhető szándéka a rendszer gyenge pontjainak feltérképezése volt. A fókusz áthelyeződik e dokumentumokban: a hagyományosnak tekinthető fővároscentrikusság és a pártok, politikusok által dominált interpretáció helyét a vidéki Magyarország ismeretlen állampolgárainak egy olyan időpontban rögzített megszólalásai veszik át, amikor az újfajta berendezkedés tényét, kereteit még nem feltétlenül fogadták el automatikusan a beszélők.

Public Diplomacy – a nation's planned presentation of its people, society, government, and policies directly to people in another country – is diplomacy's equal partner.  The work of the U.S. Information Service in Korea through the 1980s relied on American Centers, circulating libraries, sponsorship of English, films, exhibits, performances, programs for students, press relations, and exchanges.  This model has changed under the influence of Korea's own economic and educational development, the end of the Cold War, the Government Performance Results Act, the consolidation of the U.S. Information Agency into the Department of State, and reduced funding.  Other factors include new patterns of trade, shifting international alignments, mobilized groups that mount intense opinion campaigns, tensions caused by war, assertive nationalism, disinformation, the social media, conspiracy theories, the vulnerability of centers as soft targets for terrorism, and extreme religious values.  All these can now overwhelm the gentle, long-term bridge-building of traditional Public Diplomacy programs, and they prompt issues-based "moving the needle" support of foreign policy initiatives.  New concepts and program modalities are needed.
[This speech originally appeared as a "Commentary" on the website of the Public Diplomacy Council, "Discussing Public Diplomacy in Korea," but it is no longer available on the web.]

For those who support President’s Obama's posture and believe America should lean away from use of military force, the clear implication is that our nation must rely on diplomacy.  It’s not only that that the U.S. needs “more” diplomacy. We need strong diplomacy. This means that the institutions of American diplomacy – the Foreign Service in particular – need an upgrade, even reform, in a time of grave challenges.

Cultural interchange is "fundamentally reciprocal" and "a matter of give and take. It means influencing and being influenced." These were themes in a speech to the Public Affairs Institute of the University of Virginia on July 8, 1939, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Cultural Relations of the Department of State, Charles A. Thomson. Strikingly, he spoke of "The Profits of Cultural Interchange." Not "benefits," but "profits." This bracing speech will interest all students of Public Diplomacy and U.S. relations with the American republics.

Reviews the 1949 film "State Department File 649," directed by Sam Newfield.  For the U.S. Foreign Service, "State Department File 649" is our cinematic showcase, William Lundigan our star, and Virginia Bruce our Best Actress. It portrays a small consulate team in north China -- opposing a warlord takeover of the area -- as "unsung and unhonored heroes."

Operation Hermes is the dramatic sequel to the satirical novel War Under the Mango Tree. An economic crisis and rioting in the streets threaten to topple the government of the longtime American ally. Amid the turmoil, the country's aging autocrat looks to Beijing for support, raising fears in Washington of a new superpower rivalry emerging in Africa. A mysterious assassination attempt sends rivals scrambling for advantage, each hoping to occupy the executive mansion. With the country's future hanging in the balance, American spies, diplomats, and soldiers race against time and each other to get their candidate into power.

The American Values Framework allows for the creation of a unanimous goal between departments that strengthens partnership and unites federal agencies to protect the country from the inside out. By utilizing the Framework, we reduce wasteful spending by evaluating programs and projects involved in potential wrongdoing and wasteful spending.

Updated 4 February, 2021.
Originally published July 2020.

Orthodox Churches, Eastern and Oriental, are very valuable hitherto unengaged partners for the USG in issues that form the core of US Policy and political thought regarding the Dignity of the Human Person.  Properly engaged and partnered the Orthodox Churches possess the theological foundations, moral motivations, cultural, linguistic, institutional, administrative as well as operational capabilities to fight for the Dignity of the Human Person.  The areas of personal human dignity that are substantially similar between USG and the Orthodox Churches are Freedom of Conscience, the concept of Religious Freedom, and an immutable moral belief that the slavery of a human being is wrong. 
    The Reagan administration established a permanent and rewarding track two dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church by establishing formal diplomatic relations with The Holy See.  The establishment of formal diplomatic relations, during the Reagan Administration, and the Vatican quickly proved to be beneficial and by operational successes, in hindsight, even legendary. This despite the ideological differences between the USG and the Vatican.  The strength of this type of partnership persists beyond the limitations of the regulatory timelines imposed by USG two and four-year election cycles.  The possibility of a strong and similar relationship exists for the USG and the Orthodox Churches.
    Neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, the Orthodox Churches are an enigma to the modern American mind as well as the American historical-cultural perspective. American culture is the result of a Protestant, semi-Calvinist, and anti-Catholic ethos that has contributed to a latent hostility to hierarchical religious institutions and a negative view towards history. It creates suspicion towards Christian societies with longer histories and closer ties between faith and governance than Americans have experienced, One, of the historic US perspectives to be overcome, is that many of the indigenous Orthodox Churches have been on the wrong side of US Foreign and Domestic Policy, often for reasons beyond their control.
    The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches together comprise a family of 400 million people. Thirteen Orthodox Christian national and ethnically based Churches are a significant presence in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Central Asia, East Africa, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Mediterranean.
    Of particular historical note is that until 1991 approximately ninety-five percent of the Orthodox Christians lived under hostile governments. These governments were either Communist or Muslim. The nations that reemerged out of Communism are still finding their footing and grappling with "freedom," the Eastern Orthodox Churches in those countries are no different in that regard. National Orthodox Churches and in particular the Russian Orthodox Church are looking to partner and ally with international bodies to change their national as well as the international landscape. 
    The Policy Issues home page of the US State Department website cites sixteen areas of policy issues.  Establishing and maintaining a permanent, reliable diplomatic vehicle via a Special Envoy between the USG and the leadership of the Orthodox Churches facilitates the USG's interests in at least twelve of its State Department Policy Issues.

This paper examines the question of whether the U.S. State Department's budget should be cut, and if so, by how much. If its budget increased by the same percentage as the increase in GDP since 2000, it would be 43.3 percent smaller than it was in 2016.

Review of "State of Disrepair: Fixing the Culture and Practices of the State Department," by Kori Schake (Hoover Institution Press, 2012).  The "militarization" of American foreign policy "has not come about because the armed forces covet working on diplomacy and development.  It's happened because State proved unequal to its taskings, and missions migrated to the military,"  The author prescribes some strong medicine.

Air Force Colonel John Boyd (1927-1999), "the fighter pilot who changed the art of war," was a key military thinker in the last decades of the 20th century.  In his famous "Patterns of Conflict" brief, he wrote of the need for a "unifying vision."  What we now call “partisanship” in U.S. society is, in my judgment, just one dimension of a nation no longer agreed on its vision (not to mention, its history).

Ayaan Hirsi Ali published a long essay, “A Problem From Heaven: Why the United States Should Back Islam’s Reformation,” in a 2015 issue of Foreign Affairs.  Her article opened a window on the dilemmas faced by Public Diplomacy policymakers after 9/11 and the judgment calls by two Under Secretaries for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes and Judith McHale.  She also asked some fundamental questions.

This article discusses the author's experiences and observations during his one-year detail to the Policy Planning Staff (S/P) of the U.S. State Department from May 2019-May 2020, with responsibility for Western Hemisphere (WHA) and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL).  The work does not seek to praise or criticize specific policies, but to provide balanced and useful insight for scholars, from his particular perspective, into the functioning of the State Department at a unique and important juncture of our history

The democratic and communications revolutions made Public Diplomacy (PD) – conducted by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) during the Cold War, now the work of the State Department's PD "cone" – a significant part of U.S. diplomacy.  Drawing on personal experience:  PD helped persuade Taiwan to end driftnet fishing in the northern Pacific to protect salmon stocks, and PD in China supported its transition from Marxist economics.  PD also supports English learning, organizes exchanges, and promotes study in the U.S. by foreign students.  Increasingly, however, America's relationships with countries like China are shaped by business, trade, commerce, education, Lions and Rotary, and NGOs, reflecting the local and individual initiative at the core of American culture.  PD practitioners used to say they told "America's story" to the world, but since Americans no longer agree on a single story, citizens who engage with those from other countries need to think through America's values and purposes.  PD, moreover, can only be effective when it is paralleled by American diplomatic, military, and economic strength and leadership.

This oral history interview elucidates US foreign policy from the perspective of the first Puerto Rican to work in the US foreign service within the Department of State as a Desk Officer, in UNESCO, National Endowment for Democracy and as Ambassador (Chile, 1994-1998). His views and actions as a citizen from an unincorporated territory owned by the US sheds light on the particular mentalities, visions of the world and agendas that peripheral citizens and ethnic minorities promoted within US hegemonic foreign policy during the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's.

This paper presents research that sought to document how, when, and why three donor agencies — the U.S. Department of State, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) — have adopted the Open Budget Index in language and practice; assesses the contributions of the Open Budget Initiative and its partners to achieving these apparent advocacy successes; and analyzes other factors that may have influenced the decision of these three donors to use the language and methodology advocated by the Open Budget Initiative.  In conclusion, the analysis of the three donor case studies covered in this report shows that the advocacy efforts by the Open Budget Initiative have had varied impact in changing policy debates and guidelines.