A Change of Tune for the Ambassador in Kuwait City

A few of his boxes are still traveling by cargo across the Atlantic, in order to complete the lengthy move from Buenos Aires to Kuwait City. Waiting for them there is Giuseppe Scognamiglio, born in 1967, former Consul General in the Argentine capital, and for a few weeks now, the new Italian Ambassador to Kuwait. Formerly a navy officer, with previous diplomatic posts in Havana and Cairo, as well as at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, Scognamiglio is working as Italy's top representative in a foreign country for the first time. A milestone in a career that started decades ago: «Before attending Bocconi, I was persuaded I would become an orchestra director (he has a diploma in piano); even when I chose economics and business administration I wasn't thinking about a diplomatic career. But then my interest in diplomatic relations grew after graduating and completing the military service in the Italian Navy, and then it became clear that's what I wanted to do" says the new ambassador.

Does an economics degree change the approach to international relations, with respect to a more traditional curriculum in political science and law?
It's an important value added. The role of the ambassador increasingly involves managerial duties, so having an education in business administration is useful. Business organization, human resources, budgeting are all precious skills which are not really mastered in other fields of higher education. Political analysis, knowledge of institutions, and the ability of creating and maintaining relations are still at the heart of a diplomat's job. But in today's world, the job description of a top diplomat is to be the ambassador of the nation's economy and companies, so it pertains to my role to also promote the Made in Italy abroad, fostering trade and providing incentives for international business.

Havana, Cairo, Buenos Aires: the sequence of the cities where you worked as a diplomat gives a sense of a profession that is both extremely attractive and by definition nomadic. What kind of personal attitudes does one need to be able to withstand the effects the job has on family life and personal relations?
Whoever works as a diplomat has the privilege of traveling a lot, and especially of knowing a country first hand, not as a tourist, but by plunging deep into its heart, its institutional, cultural, artistic, economic life. However, it's also true that every major change in life entail death and rebirth, like the Arabian Phoenix. Moving from one capital to the other, you bring a baggage of experience, but lose a lot of personal contacts, although they are now easier to maintain thanks to Internet and social networks. But for long, being dispatched to another country meant sinking a wealth of relations to start anew. I remember how hard it was when I was dispatched to Cuba and the Web was unavailable. Communications were few and very slow. Just to make an international call, you had to pay six dollars a minute... Keeping relationships was hard, all kinds of relations...

Are you really ever ready for a job centered on personal relations which are fairly unpredictable?
In international relations, the spit between academia and the professional world is more markede. Experience is pretty much everything: working in diplomacy means respecting protocol and formalities, which are fact quite substantial. Also during seemingly informal occasions, like cocktail parties, meetings, celebrations, each gesture made is message sent on behalf of the country you represent. You must be an ambassador 24/7, but without this preventing your spontaneity, because the final objective is to create veritable relations and trustworthy relationships.

In this respect, Italy and Kuwait traditionally have good diplomatic relations, strengthened by the Italian support against the Iraqi invasion of 1990-91. Does this mean you have an easy job?
Well, it's my first post as ambassador, maybe they wanted to give me an auspicious start. Indeed, there is a capital of sympathy toward our country in Kuwait. Italians are not very good about understanding this kind of things, and we may have neglected this country in the recent past. Now the time has come for our relations to grow, because Kuwait offers ample opportunities on the economic front. The government has an ambitious plan to boost the domestic economy and renew its infrastructure. We should not be intimidated by lack of resources or contacts; what we need to do first and foremost is to strengthen our political dialogue.

In fact, your predecessor was active in negotiating the agreement, about to be closed, for the sale of Typhoon Eurofighter jets by Finmeccanica to the country's armed forces.
Without diplomatic relations you would never get to business agreements of this importance, especially in countries like Kuwait where institutional dialogue is seen as part of business negotiations. Even if the agreement for the Eurofighters will be signed by Finmeccanica, it is actually an accord between the two governments. Sure, we are not ICE, the Italian Institute of Foreign Trade: our primary job is not to boost exports of Italian firms. However, also for SMEs, it is important to show that you have the Italian government behind you in dealings with foreign business partners.

Before arriving in Kuwait City, you headed the biggest Italian Consulate abroad, that of Buenos Aires. What's the difference between being Consul in a big diplomatic mission and Ambassador in a relatively small one?
Working in Buenos Aires was exhilarating. Consular work is different, because you really have to manage operations in order to make the office work in the best possible way. And there we really had a big office, where we had to serve the general public in several ways. Often, we did fundraising events and initiatives. We were very creative in organizing concerts and fairs that brought the Italian community in close contact with local companies, sponsors, institutions. Each personal file you take in your hand contains somebody's life, with its minor or major problems. A Consul is kind of a mix between a Mayor and an Archbishop.

Considering that the Mayor of Buenos Aires Mauricio Macrì is now President of Argentina, and that the previous Archbishop, Jorge Bergoglio, became Pope Francis, Scognamiglio should be optimistic about his career prospects...