Official says America sees country as a partner
By Ewan Fergus

IF there were times when America's consul in Edinburgh despaired of selling the Bush administration to sceptical Scots she won't admit it. In diplomacy, however, what is unsaid is often as important as words spoken.

And as Lisa Vickers, principal officer at the US consulate in Edinburgh, prepares to leave her post for a spell of academia in New England, she tactfully side-steps the Bush question, opting to focus on the "different way" the Obama administration is doing business abroad.

"President Obama has made it pretty clear that we really want to engage with countries on a variety of different issues in a slightly different way," she says in her cultured San Franciscan drawl.

"I just received my traditional Fourth of July message from President Obama, the gist of it was we are a country that doesn't give up, we try hard and we never sit back and rest on our laurels otherwise we'd never have become anything other than 13 colonies. We're not going to stop now when we're facing a war on two fronts and a recession.

"We'll continue to engage and work very closely with the world in order for all of us to pull out of this and be better than what we were."

There's no mistaking the conciliatory tone, often conspicuous by its absence during the Bush years.

Vickers bristles when asked if her job was made easier when Obama swept to victory and made America cool again. "I don't think we ever stopped being cool," she says. "But I think that there's a renewed interest in the US and there's a lot of interest in Obama and what he's doing and his policies. I think it's very exciting right now and it's an exciting time to be an American diplomat.

"I've served under four administrations. President Obama has a different perspective and a different style, but many of the policies that the previous administration had in place, he hasn't come in and thrown those out wholesale. He has changed government policy on stem cell research, and has made science and technology cool again. We are all eagerly awaiting what will happen in Copenhagen in December at the UN climate change conference."

It is a measure of how much has changed in America that their officials bring up issues such as climate change. Vickers, a 45-year-old career diplomat of almost 20 years' experience, leaves Edinburgh to become a fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She departs, she says, with a heavy heart and is clearly enamoured with Scotland, a nation where the US has had a permanent diplomatic presence since 1798.

Is that affection for Scotland still shared by her fellow Americans? You bet. "Edinburgh is a wonderful city and Scotland is truly a bonnie country. I'm finding it very hard to leave.

"I think Americans are as fond of Scotland as they have ever been. Connections between Scotland and the US are profound and long-standing.

"There's a real affection for Scotland, not only for brand-Scotland, the tartan, whisky and shortbread, but also what Scotland is today - a world-leader in renewable energies, in biotechnologies, and I think the US increasingly is looking at Scotland as a partner. Scotland has some specific research and selling points on renewables, biotechnologies and bio-medical industries that are very attractive to US investors."

And is she confident that America can once again foster a reciprocal affection around the globe?

"We live in a world that relies very heavily on partnership and teamwork," she declares. "I think it's also a matter of working with partners and other countries which have shared interests and shared values to resolve problems that affect us all. The recession, for example, isn't a US-UK recession. It's worldwide.

"We all need to work together. I think we will because we all have the same interests at heart. We all want jobs and homes and our families to be happy and healthy and for our children to be well educated. That's a worldwide aspiration."

This diplomat might be leaving, but it seems the fresh air will continue to blow through the corridors of the US consulate in Regent Terrace.