Mills, born 1959 in Louisiana, received a B.A. from Georgetown University, a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, and an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University. He worked as an attorney in Washington prior to entering the US Foreign Service. He has served as a diplomat in France, Russia, Ireland, Pakistan, Malta and at the UN. Before becoming ambassador to Armenia in 2015, he most recently was deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon from 2012 to 2014.
Ramen started off the conversation between the two ambassadors by asking what cultural diplomacy is and how it fits into their work as ambassadors.
Mills first declared that it is not handing out copies of books like Moby Dick or Little Women to people around the world, since people can in today’s globalized environment easily have access to American culture directly. He said, “I think it kind of sells itself.”
There are, however, two ways in which the US embassy uses American culture in its work, according to Mills. First, it can be used to promote goals or values. He gave the example of promoting understanding of the rights of the disabled. A grant from Ramen’s Bureau allowed the translation of a book into Armenian called Wonder, which is about a young boy facing life with a facial deformity. The embassy distributed it to schools in Armenia, brought in school children to talk about the book, and developed a curriculum that school teachers could use to talk about this book in their schools. This was a use of culture to promote a reform or value in Armenia, which the Armenian government also supported.