“I was you 35 years ago,” said John Dinger, now principal deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, “A student at the University of Northern Iowa that didn’t know what I wanted to do with my political science degree.”
Dinger spoke on Wednesday, Nov. 19, in Ball Hall as part of the International Education Week. He spoke about his job in the foreign service section of the State Department and how he got to where he is now.
However, the main point of his session “Where the Heck is Ouagadougou, and why should I care?” was the importance of United States engagement abroad.
“It’s about building relationships, not building things we can touch,” said Dinger.
He spoke on the importance of many things including the Peace Corps to build people-to-people relationships and addressing current world issues such as the ongoing financial crisis and the threat of different nation states.
“If one nation sneezes then the whole world can catch a cold,” said Dinger.
Dinger himself has worked in the government for 34 years and done ambassador work in South Africa, Tokyo, Rio de Jenero and Mongolia. He’s also lived on every continent except Australia and Antartica.
He finished the session by explaining how someone could get involved with the state department.
He then took questions from the audience including questions about the involvement of foreign students, military involvement with the foreign service, and the placement of the transition team since Barack Obama was elected president-elect.
“If you’re interested in foreign affairs, it seems your dream job is the Department of State,” said Dinger.
“I never really cared that much about foreign politics, in fact, I’m only here because one of my friends dragged me along,” said Junior Robert Jordan. “It was actually pretty interesting. I’m prior service military but I didn’t know that they had an office that worked directly with the foreign service.

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