Thank you for joining us today. We have a very special guest who's going to help us unravel a whole host of interesting things, really helping connect Hawaii to the world because he is a local Hawaiian who has recently stepped down from a position with the U.S. Foreign Service that is many years as a U.S. diplomat back in Hawaii now and I'm speaking of none other than Patrick Bronco. I'm joined today by Patrick. Patrick, thank you for coming and welcome to Global Connections. It's great to see you. It's great to see you too Dr. Horace. It's been a while. Yes and listen I'm just you know for some of our listeners who will know you, you've had a storied past but we have maybe a few who may not know as much but I want to just give a quick snapshot of some of your background. I know you grew up in Hawaii a graduate of the Kamehameha schools and then your undergraduate studies at Hawaii Pacific University where I had the privilege of getting to know you there long ago but from that you went on to initially do some graduate studies. Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, B.C., one of the, really the premier elite international relations graduate program and weaved in there. We'll talk about some of these. You had some important experiences but more to the point you would join the U.S. Foreign Service as a young Foreign Service Officer the diplomatic corps of the U.S. government and a number of duties. I'll never forget you know as a young student you were studying all about East Asia and Korea and Korean language. You had studies abroad there and so on and where does Uncle Sam send you? He puts you on a plane and sends you to Bogota, Colombia which amazing and for me a special because years ago I had the opportunity to spend a year living there when I was doing my PhD studies quite some time back but I'm delighted because it helped you both gain a quick snapshot understanding of Latin American culture of the Spanish language and so I'd like to take a moment and maybe tell us a little bit about well a couple things we're going to cover we're going to talk about issues of diplomacy on one hand your own sort of trajectory and how different things you did along the way that helped prepare you for that and then more importantly here you are now in your life making a big life change a switch to come back to help give back to the community and to really see yourself entering the you know the political fray at the moment as a campaign for office in the house the state legislature and beyond that I think you offer us some valuable lessons of what did you learn while you had this experience abroad so let me stop there maybe first ask you tell us a little bit more about your formation your background you know you're from Hawaii as I already mentioned why don't you add a little more context to that tell us about yourself. Sure first off I want to say thank you it's a real pleasure to be on the show especially with Dr. Horiz you've been a great mentor to me and I'm very very thankful for you yeah so local boy born and raised in Hawaii fourth generation from Kailua actually I had the great pleasure of studying at Kamehameha schools and I received a full ride to study at Hawaii Pacific University where I saw Dr. Horiz and I actually owe Dr. Horiz probably the start to my diplomatic track when I was at HPU I was studying Korean language and Dr. Horiz sent out an email to me encouraging me to apply for the state department critical language scholarship which is a program that the state department puts out no you don't have to give back anything but they just want Americans studying critical languages around the world Korean Arabic Farsi languages that are very important to us through in foreign relations and so I was able to get one of these scholarships and I studied in Seoul for one summer I had already studied abroad there but I got to study in another city which was interesting and more intensive language training yes exactly it was it was basically eight hours a day of Korean language and so and it was also like in Seoul a lot of people do speak English so you get by a little bit but out in the the Korean countryside everyone only speaks Korean so it's really forced sometimes it's important you got to go in a place like that where you are fully immersed because as you said maybe in the capital of Seoul today it's a global city you have more of this Korean English you know people that are knowing you as a as an expat as a foreigner they'll speak you in English to practice theirs so from there this was still your early period right after your undergraduate studies you made your way over with an additional fellowship this time exactly to Johns Hopkins right yep so I graduated 2009 from HPU and as everyone know 2008 the financial crisis no jobs but I remember from my orientation that there was an opportunity called the congressman wrangle international affairs fellowship and so yeah congressman wrangle was a longtime african-american congressman that was in new york and he would travel all around the world and they always thought he was the driver so what he realized was that the face of american diplomacy wasn't truly reflective of the diversity of our country and it's not just ethnic diversity but regional diversity gender diversity state department traditionally is notorious for not being not being diverse so he created this program that recruited students across the country 20 of us in our cohort they paid for our masters and our internships so I studied at johns hopkins university um school of advanced international studies and I received my masters in international relation to the focus in economics and Korean studies and then I went on from there to intern on the hill with congressman filial mava enga from american samoa as well as uh do an internship in embassy soul in the public affairs division and after I graduated I entered the foreign service at 25 the first from hawai to receive this honor fantastic and of course I think it's well the johns hopkins school of course the main campuses we know it's in balkmore but this specialized school with graduate school in international studies is washington dc where you're really in the hub of everything it's very well connected to the policy world and obviously as you get plugged into that through this through this wrangle fellowship you are in a way on a fast track into the foreign service so you get into the foreign service uh and tell us a little bit about that experience because how many years did you fill in you did tours in several places i know in Venezuela as well and then in Pakistan perhaps uh tell us briefly what what was the the range of places that you did in your foreign service career so um normally in in the foreign service you move posts every two to three years I was in for seven years and I actually did five posts which isn't it wasn't normal but uh um I like change I like uh moving at a fast pace and I like those hard jobs so I was very fortunate uh with my Korean language and all of my east asia studies the foreign service sent me to Colombia Colombia South America as my first tour um which was an amazing experience for me because it was right before the um the signing of the peace accord when I was there was during um the time of there was still the guerrilla warfare between the Colombian government and the FARC and it's still going on with the ELN today but it was a fascinating time to be there because the U.S. is heavily involved in Colombia we have a saying that um Mexico is our most important relationship but Colombia is our best relationship and that's why we have a lot of U.S. personnel U.S. diplomatic service there in Colombia to help this country who was basically on the brink of being a failed drug state to now is one of the fastest growing economies in South America and it's a strong regional power for us. Absolutely no and in Colombia I had the privilege I lived there myself in the early 90s and of the time when it was going through some tough times but you were able to be there witnessing this important uh you know political transition negotiating a long I mean literally a 50-year guerrilla war uh and it brought the Nobel Peace Prize to the Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos so a lot of attention and you got to see again both internally the work that challenges the difficulty with the excitement you know people solving their problems peacefully rather than through violence and war we need to see more of that in the world and you know you were able to witness it tell us from there you had from there some other pretty tough duty to take you to the middle east of I recall uh where else did you go? So after Colombia I was actually supposed to go to embassy Seoul but they asked for volunteers to go to U.S. embassy Islamabad in Pakistan and so I actually volunteered I was like why not my thought process was I had already lived in Seoul for about two years already and you know I joined the foreign service to see the world not to repeat to countries that I had already lived in and so I had the opportunity go to embassy Islamabad and within your first two tours in the foreign service you have to do a visa tour and so I that was your visa tour that was my visa tour where I was on the line actually doing immigrant visas and um kind of if you're familiar with the show 90 day fiance I was the guy on the other side of the line that was approving these fiance visas and astonishing I mean just the literally the seconds that you spend having to very quickly evaluate and use your best judgment to determine is this good or is there a red flag or two that you have to say no you're you're you've got persons lives right in your hands there you're determining whether they're going to have a ticket to come to the U.S. or not and absolutely in Pakistan it's critical as well because you know there are terrorist groups in in Pakistan so it's very important that we evaluated very to a very strict guideline who actually received us visas to enter the United States and making a bad decision could have traumatic consequences by letting some you know a bad person and let's say but the reality of course is all around the world frankly including Pakistan the vast majority of people coming have a very legitimate purpose are they're contributing they're doing good you know people to people exchange or tourism or investment but of course we live in a world where yes there are those bad hombres who may be taking advantage of it but this is as you said an important part of any young diplomat one of the first tours that you do must be the consular services representing American interest deciding the visas and so on um and of course Pakistan is in this time that you went a hardship duty so you went for a less time right I think one year only one year um one year uh you basically lived your life we lived um how do I say it was we lived in the basically worked in the compound yes and actually I was there during a time where actually you lived off the compound oh so you had to make the journey every year every day but always a armored vehicle picked you up every day your house was uh um actually the wall was 12 feet tall um it had barbed wire um around the top but I remember one time face timing with my parents and my parents were like show us the view outside your window and I showed them and my parents were like you sure you're in Pakistan and not in prison like it was it was uh literally a bunker of course a high security and so but I had an amazing time there it was it helped me grow a lot it helped me understand um you know being in the foreign service it does if you don't have a family you you're on your own right you're out there and you have to build your own community and so it did help me grow and then the added pressure of being in um I don't want to say it's a conflict zone but in a zone that's uh extremely there's high pressure in Pakistan and so it did um and the stakes are very high I mean the issues are very important you can't be fooling around uh you know the options and choices that a U.S. government policy makes can have consequences and and it's also it's a very large country and population-wise there's a lot of complexity uh and I know I've encountered through a lot of my own educational exchanges a lot of Pakistanis again who are you know brilliant teachers educators doing important stuff through the Fulbright program exchanging you know scholars and it's remarkable we often have this image from the media that it's all just everything is a war in violence everybody's a terrorist the fact is 99 percent of the people the more are doing you know amazing stuff and and and we have uh we have to appreciate that and of course as a foreign service officer you get to you have to do that you have to interact with the population the local host country in every way now Patrick pretty soon we're going to be coming up on a short break but what I want to do um you know we'll continue finishing you some of your other tours of Venezuela more recently and then Washington D.C. where you also had some some you know invaluable work experience but what I'd like us to take away and maybe some of our listeners can appreciate are what are some of the skills and competencies lessons the takeaways that are going to help you as you continue in life and now coming back to Hawaii you know what type of things are going to give you uh I don't know you know the ability to bring even as simple as you know how people do thing in different do things in different places often you have a broader view than you might if you only grew up and never left Hawaii so you bring I think a set of insights your own grounding and value as a local boy you know Hawaiian heritage with your background um you also have a different way of seeing the world so we're going to take a short break right now Patrick I want us to continue our conversation our viewers come join us back here in just a quick minute after this short break I'm Carlos Guad as your host here on Global Connections and we're joined today by Patrick Bronco thank you very much and we'll be right back after this short message Aloha I'm Keisha King host of Crossroads in Learning on Think Tech Hawaii on Crossroads in Learning our guests and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country you can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich enliven and educate we are streamed live on Think Tech bi-weekly at 4 p.m. on Mondays thanks so much for watching our show we look forward to seeing you then Aloha Global Connections I'm your host Carlos Guades and I'm joined today by Patrick Bronco and Patrick is a recent foreign service officer with the U.S. diplomatic service the diplomatic corps but a local boy from Hawaii who has now come back and he's taking on some new challenges but Patrick let's finish briefly we've been we've been talking a little about your experience as a you know diplomat in various places from Colombia and South America Pakistan and in Pakistan as I recall you were working directly with the ambassador what was your role in that in that place you were doing counselor services but maybe it was after that tell us again how it continues so I was I was doing counselor services during the the normal work hour and there was an opportunity for young officers one of the key parts of as as many of people know it bureaucracy is understanding where where the head where everything comes to the point and that's the ambassador's office in an embassy and especially in a large embassy like Pakistan which has thousands of people there was an opportunity for us young diplomats to actually work after hours in the ambassador's office so I would go in after my shift would finish up four on the visa line and then I would work from five to about nine o'clock actually in the ambassador's office and there I got to see how all federal agencies because embassy Pakistan Islamabad is so large there's almost 40 different federal agencies all submitting information all submitting memos up and it was my job to review make sure they're appropriate and to do some coordination work as well between the various sections to make sure that we have an aligned consistent American policy when it comes to Pakistan and so I did that and after that I was able to then parlay that into a position back in Washington in the office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan this office is usually unique because within state department they subdivided into regions there's an assistant secretary for Latin America and assistant secretary for East Asian Pacific Pacific but because of the unique relationship we have with Afghanistan and Pakistan those two countries were actually taken out and given to a lead special negotiator that was at the assistant secretary level and so I was one of his special assistants and because I had lived in Pakistan I understood that nexus of it but as far as understanding bureaucracy in DC understanding how the building works and develops policy and then making sure we can implement that abroad in Afghanistan and Pakistan was unique so I had the opportunity to join the ambassador at the time to all of his abroad trips in Afghanistan Pakistan Saudi Arabia and making sure our coalition was strong that was excuse me the work that I was doing to make sure that we had a very consistent effective policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan now you mentioned of course in Islamabad a big big embassy as many other places are you were in Bogota maybe not as big but still substantial frankly in many of these places you literally have a you could say it's an entire country or really the all entire government so many agencies represented so many issues agriculture educational you know military on and on but more importantly that the embassy itself really is the entire government in in one setting right it's a little town it's like a little federal government town and you know even if you work let's say in Washington DC which is the big headquarters I mean it's so much larger and diverse you don't have uh under one roof let's say and so I think you're your insight from working in a place like that and you mentioned coordination that's of course a lot of what's going on trying to bring together the many many pieces of this puzzle I wonder battery if you know from that experience now as you've come back to reflect on it what would you say are some of the most important takeaway skill sets that you that you learned of course everything from communication but you know cross-cultural relations and dealing with different places now as a Hawaii boy you bring some skill sets to it that in fact the traditional diplomat you know from Yale grew up in Connecticut doesn't quite have uh and so maybe talk a little bit about that what did you bring to the table but also what are your takeaways what are some of the best skills and competencies from your experience when I talk to students who are interested in becoming diplomats I actually say if you're from Hawaii you were raised to be a diplomat from early on here in a multicultural society we understand we know how to interact with other cultures we also know how to learn quickly and implement those those social cultural practices what got more refined for me in the foreign service was the ability to build coalitions but now building coalitions in a non-english speaking country or building coalitions with those who didn't speak your language so body language the way you acted the way you showed up the way you left the way you ate was really important right because that could that's uh you know how do I say indirect signals of how you would how you would implement policies so that was very important when I showed up in Colombia I had seven months of Spanish language training but I still felt like I spoke like a kindergartener and the interesting thing about language training in the foreign service actually is they teach you words like nuclear non-proliferation or environmental policy or economic policy but your ability to maybe tell time or say colors or order food is actually you learn that when you're in the country so those are some life skills that I had to learn which I think is important especially for young students regardless if you want to be a diplomat or not I always encourage students who are in college to study abroad and to study abroad in a country that you do not speak the language or English is not the majority language because you learn life skills the ability to catch a metro to send a letter in a non-English country it teaches you life skills where when you come back home you can navigate so quickly yeah that's right no I mean those are good examples and maybe another aspect in recent years let's say the last 10 or 20 years the US has come under a lot of criticism our involvement in Iraq was controversial even today of course under the Trump administration a lot of you know tense places you have to have this ability to both have a level of humility not be overbearing the ugly American but also respectful of the ways and customs in other places but knowing also that they often have a certain view of the US right the image of the United States and for example Latin America I always tell my class students that they learn in school whether it's in Mexico or Colombia or the long history of US involvement in the region you know many interventions for military government most Americans unless you study Latin American history they never quite know that that the US has some baggage maybe it has a context there but you know beyond that I think you mentioned a very important thing the skills that you brought as someone raised in Hawaii multicultural diversity those you know just the basic survival skills of managing and negotiating that it teaches you humility and appreciation of different cultures right for coming back now I wonder I mean what what would you say are things now that you see Hawaii for a more mature more experienced you know life are there things that you appreciate more are the things that you maybe get frustrated about or are there things that you see as opportunities where Hawaii can you know still keep grounded and it's you know it's it's important cultural base particularly the indigenous Hawaiian culture but also be able to embrace or adapt you know other things going on in the world even there's something related to let's say the way we have a pandemic crisis today or other challenges so what can you share about that as some thoughts? Being abroad and as you know as a native Hawaiian it understood it helped me understand take a different perspective for example in New Zealand the Maori's are treasured by those who are non Maori and actually they uplift Maori's they understand the importance that when Maori's benefit all of New Zealand benefits and that's something I learned here in Hawaii is I feel for for my community sometimes we don't understand the importance of non-Hawaiian allies and that's something that I was I really do believe in and that's something I do want to work in is because we all have an essential place like you Dr. Horace you love Hawaii right you understand you know native Hawaiian rights, native Hawaiian culture and that's something that as we as native Hawaiians need to embrace more so being a diplomat helped me understand that that more also being abroad was economic perspective being in a country like Seoul for example who after the Korean War was was poorer than most African countries who is like the number 13 economy in the world then has very few natural resources it made me think about our economy here in Hawaii and what we can do to benefit Hawaii we have a strategic location you know we are known as the gateway to the Pacific and I want to change that I want to make Hawaii an economic hub a destination for investment a destination for renewable energy recently I told a story in 1887 King Kalakaua electrified Eleni Palace with Thomas Edison it was a technology that was at the forefront of the world I want Hawaii to be at the forefront of the world in energy production we're one of the only states that actually can produce all forms of renewable energy this is a sector that we need to develop and we can show the rest of the world how to do it in a sustainable way and so if I do get elected to the state legislature that's something I desperately want to work on additionally as terms of housing we have a housing crisis here in Hawaii we need 65 000 additional units how are we going to do that and I do understand that the rail is controversial here in Hawaii but it's a it's an opportunity in Singapore and Tokyo and Seoul you can wake up in your apartment and be in the rail station within 5 to 10 minutes right and that's something that we need to do we need to promote more high density living all around the the transit orientated development area I always stumble on TOD that's something we need to do and that's something I saw around the world that your countries were able to harness quickly absolutely and even you know the Colombia experience you had I was there in the early 90s and I saw some early mayors some of the admissible leaders who were beginning to strategize and think well if you fast forward to the more recent past and you having lived there they have been very innovative in some of their transportation systems networks very flexible absolutely not so much the hard rail per se but the other type of busing but I think these are the takeaways that again someone like you having gone and had this experience not just the mainland which is typical maybe more common of local Hawaii the students who might go study in the mainland but come back for you it was the world you have seen the world many parts of it Middle East Latin America Asia and coming back to why you bring that insight and the other though you spoke about these kind of ideas of how Hawaii can harness you know for economic opportunity in the end too it has to be done in a way well what I'm getting at here is sustainability and all this sort of green technology but at the end of the day Hawaii is a place where the indigenous culture had long thought about these things it's not new here it's more you know revitalizing what has always been here the early settlers who came you know from Polynesia learned how to make the best use of the land and how to manage it more effectively right and in the process of development modernization we we sort of lose that I think today as a young leader yourself with ideas it's also how you combine that local indigenous you know sort of grounding with modern technology and you know many places have beaches many places have you know wind and energy Hawaii has this special uniqueness of the culture and the people and the people who make up you know beyond the native indigenous Hawaiians who have all come there and adapted and adopted and I guess it is something special as you know it's the it's hard to describe for somebody who doesn't go there but anybody who has experienced Hawaii either living and like you mentioned me I live 20 years there at some point after a few two three years you have to make that decision you either understand appreciate embrace the local culture or else it's going to come around and punch you very hard and you know as someone who did a lot of hiring and decisions to bring people there it's not easy to find that right fit right now maybe as we finish now in the last here a couple of minutes to wind down what other takeaways could you say again as you talk to young leaders you know you mentioned Hawaii's already place but especially in this world we have now both globalization is inevitable it's happening but it's also being pushed back there's a lot of criticism there's a lot of maybe inequality and justice I mean just some final thoughts on what do you think are some of the I don't know skills and ways of thinking that we need to have to solve these future problems because this pandemic is also a game changer we're not going to go back to the old normal we need to see it envision a better future so maybe some final thoughts on your part absolutely just the world is changing around us Hawaii has always gone through a lot of pivotal changes since since since the beginning of its history for our students here I always tell them that we have competitive advantages in that when I was abroad always people always said how calm we are how willing we are to make coalitions and to find solutions that we have this innate hopefulness here and that was something that actually translated extremely well in diplomacy and I think that could be also translated extremely well in our current professional jobs for young students we everyone loves someone from Hawaii I just discovered that and so that's something that we should use when we do a lot of things in Hawaii well we are a multicultural society that people want to come day and day out want to live here and that's something that we we need to use to our advantage but as as young students as young leaders it's also a great way for us to show the world how Hawaii does it and how Hawaii can achieve something something great and we've achieved it here in Hawaii so I really do tell that to students you know play up that you're from Hawaii because it's the best thing be proud of who you are we have a great culture we have a great history and that is something that's very important to us as we go into the future no well thank you for sharing that again those are some great closing thoughts at the end of the day I think it is important that we have like you a leader who knows where you're from and did you know your your early life experience in the islands but after having gone abroad seen the world worked you know and carried on your mission with the foreign service now you're back home helping to you know retool and confront the many challenges we have there but like a good Hawaiian with optimism and with an ability to reach out because none of us can do anything alone you've got to build coalitions and this is what you described it even as a embassy employee you're just part of the bigger team and you have to know that mission and share it but know that you have a larger team helping you the same now you're back home you have a big ohana that you've reconnected with well Patrick let me thank you again for this opportunity to share some thoughts I hope we can reconnect and continue our conversation maybe in some other areas for the next time but on that we're going to close here thank you again Patrick for joining us here global connections I'm your host Carlos Juarez and thank you audience for joining us again and we will pick up next time aloha aloha thank you