European governments are wondering whether Trump will continue US support for Ukraine and NATO in a conflict with Russia that has partially played in cyberspace. Fick’s team was crucial establishing a process for the rapid delivery of cyber defense assistance to the damaged Ukrainian government.
“I was in Ukraine just before Christmas, I was in Poland, I was in Estonia, kind of up and down on NATO’s eastern flank,” he says, adding that he felt “both a deep desire for the United States to remain engaged and a recognition that European partners have to do their part—which, by the way, they are increasingly doing.”
More broadly, Fick heard “a strong desire among many allies and partners” for the US to continue to side with China and Russia in technology and cyber discussions in international bodies like the UN and the Group of 20.
“Without the United States being deeply involved, you’re going to see the Chinese more deeply involved, you’re going to see the Russians more deeply involved,” Fick says. “There is a pretty broad view [globally] that the US should, for its own interests and those of our allies and partners, remain engaged in multilateral organizations.”
Fick sympathizes with Republicans who view these multilateral organizations as too slow and timid, but wants Trump’s team to “recognize that the alternative is not reduced influence of these organizations; the alternative is simply that they become playgrounds for our competitors and opponents.”
Celebrating “sea change”
Reflecting on his time as the U.S. Cyber Ambassador—in which he spent a total of more than 200 days traveling the world on nearly 80 trips to visit key U.S. allies and partners—Fick is proud of how his team launched a brand new office within State Department, he grew it to about 130 employees and achieved results that he says are transforming digital diplomacy.
One of his greatest achievements was the launch foreign fund for cyber assistance that will support programs for deploying security assistance to allies affected by hacking, subsidizing new undersea cables and training foreign diplomats on cyber issues.
The security assistance project experienced an early test in November when Costa Rica faced another major ransomware attack. “We had people on the plane the next morning, Thanksgiving morning, hands on keyboards along with partners from Costa Rica that night,” says Fick. “It’s unbelievable. It’s a big change in the way we do this and will strengthen our position in supporting these middle-class countries.”
Fick also focused on preparing the Foreign Service for the modern world, fulfilling his goal training at least one tech-savvy diplomat for every foreign embassy (about 237 in total) and successfully lobbied to add digital fluency to the State Department’s criteria for career ambassador positions. He also helped set up a counterbalance to the State in the White House’s Pentagon discussions on foreign technology issues — putting “American diplomacy literally back at the table in the Situation Room on technology issues.”
And then there’s his team’s support for U.S. cyber aid to Ukraine, from security software to satellite communications to cloud migration for vital government data — work he says offers a template for future public-private partnerships for foreign aid.
One final warning
Fick shared his thoughts on China, 5G, artificial intelligence, deterrence and other cyber issues with the Trump transition team and says there is more to do to keep cyber diplomacy “at the forefront” of the nation. But as he prepares to leave government, he has one important piece of advice for the next administration.
“The key is to have biases for action,” he says. “We end up admiring the problem for too long instead of taking the decisive step to solve it… That decisive step may be imperfect, but indecision is a decision, and the world goes on without you.”
In other words: in an era of rapid technological development and increasing geopolitical competition, huge bureaucracies like the State Department sometimes need to be sprung into action.
“The job of leaders in these large organizations,” says Fick, “is to get the organization to change a little faster than it would have done on its own.”