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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Offers Advice to Georgetown Students

The former ambassador to Ukraine spoke to the Georgetown community about her memoir, diversity in the U.S. State Department and what a career in foreign policy looks like.

Marie Yovanovitch, who served as ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to 2019, reflected on her memoir “Lessons from the Edge,” at the Oct. 5 webinar hosted by the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. The memoir details Yovanovitch’s experience testifying before Congress during the first impeachment of former president Donald Trump after he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s involvement with Ukraine energy company Burisma.   

Following her testimony, Trump recalled Yovanovitch from her post in May 2019. Prior to her recall, Yovanovitch told three House committees that Trump had pressured the State Department to remove her from her role at the embassy.

Despite Trump’s accusations of disloyalty, Yovanovitch has won numerous awards for her contributions to U.S. foreign service — she earned the Senior Foreign Service Performance Award eight times, the state department’s Superior Honor Award nine times, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award twice, the Secretary’s Diplomacy for Freedom Award, the PEN/Benenson Courage Award in 2020 and the Trainor Award for Excellence in the Conduct of Diplomacy from Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in 2020.

Georgetown University SFS | Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine offered foreign service career advice to Georgetown undergraduate and graduate students.

Yovanovitch said her interest in international affairs stemmed from hearing stories about her parents’ upbringing in the Soviet Union during World War II.

“My parents had always said we were fortunate to grow up in the United States, given the freedoms that this democracy provided us,” Yovanovitch said at the event. “They knew what it was like to not live in freedom, and so they said we needed to give back. And so a career in foreign service and diplomacy, national security was a way of giving back, while also doing what I was most passionate about, what I was most interested in.”

In 1993, Yovanovitch served as a junior foreign service officer in Moscow during a clash between Russian President Boris Yelstin and the Russian Parliament over Yelstin’s attempt to dissolve the legislative body, an action that extended beyond his constitutional limits.

Being in a constantly evolving political environment in Moscow shaped her love for foreign service, Yovanovitch said.  

“I would lie in bed before the alarm clock went off, I would think, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen today.’ I knew it was not going to be the day that I had imagined and planned for the day before, and while that may be somebody’s nightmare out there, but for me, it was just important and exciting,” Yovanovitch said. “That’s what I would say to people considering careers in the foreign service or national security, that you can make a difference from the very beginning.”

Yovanovitch also served as the deputy director of the Russia Desk in the U.S. Department of State from 1998-2000 and spoke about her struggles with sexism as a negotiator.

“In many places around the world, including, frankly, in the United States, there is discrimination still, not just against women, but against all sorts of minorities,” Yovanovitch said. “It’s difficult to deal with, particularly in a foreign environment, because in a foreign environment, you can’t say, ‘Hey, Mr. President, that’s an inappropriate comment. Don’t touch me like that.’ You can’t do that.”

Despite doubting her competency, officials still had to recognize the authority afforded to her by her position as a representative of the U.S., according to Yovanovitch.

“At the end of the day, whether you are an American woman or minority in the United States, whoever you are, if you are overseas and representing the United States, most countries are going to deal with you because you are a conduit to the United States and you speak for the United States,” Yovanovitch said. “Because overseas, we’re not just individuals, we are representing the flag and the people.”

In her three-year tenure as ambassador to Ukraine, Yovanovitch focused on addressing issues of corruption, instability and poverty in former Soviet states. 

Yovanovitch said the war in Ukraine is an issue that is close to her heart.

“I was in Ukraine about three weeks ago for a conference that was very short, somewhat sweet, also somewhat sorrowful,” Yovanovitch said. “But what impressed me is perhaps not something new to your audience, which is the continued courage of the Ukrainian people, the commitment to the cause and their confidence that they were going to win.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions pose an urgent threat not only to Ukraine but to democracy as a whole, according to Yovanovitch.

“Our prosperity would be at risk, our security would certainly be at risk and even liberty around the world would be at risk because he would be going in there and trying to undermine it at every turn, as he has tried to do in the United States itself,” Yovanovitch said. “So for me, this is the test of our times. I’ve never seen a challenge like this in my career or in my life. And I think we really need to step up.”

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