The US and Slovenia: A Conversation with the US Ambassador to Slovenia, Jamie Harpootlian

Dr. Noah Charney: Hello, welcome and dobrodošli to Feel Slovenia, the podcast. In each episode, we will explore what I have called the world's best country. Meeting locals, traveling, eating, and getting to know the very best of Slovenia.  This podcast is written and hosted by me, Dr. Noah Charney, and is brought to you by the Slovenia Tourist Board in this special episode.

To celebrate July 4th America's Independence Day, we spoke with Jamie Lindler Harpootlian, the US Ambassador to Slovenia. What does the ambassador love about Slovenia? Find out in this exclusive chat that took place at the ambassador's residence.  The history of U. S. Slovenia relations is relatively recent given Slovenia's modern statehood began with its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. 

The United States swiftly recognized Slovenia on the 7th of April 1992, establishing formal diplomatic relations shortly thereafter. This early recognition laid the groundwork for a strong bilateral relationship.  Throughout the 1990s, Slovenia pursued integration into Western political, economic, and security structures, a goal strongly supported by the United States. 

Slovenia joined the Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and subsequently worked towards NATO membership, which it achieved in 2004.  The U. S. backed Slovenia's NATO bid, seeing the country as a stabilizing force in Southeast Europe and a reliable partner.  Economic relations also developed, with American companies investing in Slovenia and bilateral trade expanding.

The U. S. saw Slovenia as a gateway to the broader Central and European markets, and Due to its strategic location and stable political environment, the cultural and educational exchanges have also flourished, fostering mutual understanding and people to people connections. The Fulbright program, for instance, has facilitated academic exchanges that enhance bilateral ties. 

The U. S. continues to support Slovenia's role in regional stability and its contributions to international organizations. But let's be honest, Slovenia is considered a highly desirable destination for those working in the diplomatic sector. I mean, it's beautiful, welcoming, and above all, safe.  I've chatted with several diplomats who have told me that the Slovenia gig is one of the toughest to get because it's so calm and charming everyone wants it.

Ambassador Harpootlian has a pretty sweet gig. I had last seen the ambassador at the grand opening of Dobre Novice, a multi-site art exhibit in and around Kamnik that features 25 international artists, including several Americans. We caught up at the official ambassadorial residence, which I must say is lovely, and it comes with its own chef, which is even lovelier.

And he made us snickerdoodle cookies, which I tried not to eat while conducting this interview.  

It was great to have you at the opening of the Dobre Novice exhibit. That's where I saw you last a few days ago. This is a major contemporary art exhibit featuring more than 25 artists, including some Americans, with works displayed at both Arboretum Volčji Potok and the nearby medieval town of Kamnik, which is actually my adopted hometown. 

Maybe it's such an easy question to begin with, but what did you like about the exhibit? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: I love so many things about it, but I especially love the fact that it was at the Arboretum and we opened the exhibit on a beautiful spring day and the bulbs were popping and the grass was green. And it was just a gorgeous day and I love the fact that it combined American artists and many artists from Europe. 

The other thing, of course, the art itself was amazing and it was so varied in terms of the mediums that were used. Everything from recycled plastics and fabrics and electronics to traditional painting and lithographs. So, it's a fascinating exhibit. And of course it opened at the Arboretum. 

The first thing that I saw as I was approaching the area where everyone was seated were these giant red plastic covered sculptures, what we call monumental, large bears, penguins, completely out of proportion and scale. And at first I thought, that's so playful and friendly.

And then I realized that they were all carrying plastic bottles on their backs. And I understood the message about them being endangered, um, and the effect of plastic on our planet. So, for me, this is a subject that's very interesting. The combination of art. And the idea of protecting our environment to combine those two concepts is really very rewarding. And it was a great day. I love being there and I really appreciate the invitation to be there. It was nice that you shared some words at the opening as well. I enjoyed that. And let me take a moment to thank Matthew McQuarrie for curating it. He did an amazing job and there's interactive art. There are pieces hanging on the wall that you can play like a musical instrument.  Buttons you push and things move and lights flash. And I just really appreciate the way he brought all those pieces to life in this, in this exhibit in Kamnik, which is a beautiful town.  So, I encourage everyone to go see it. 

That's great. It was a monumental effort on his part, too, bringing together the local township, the tourist board, also the national tourist folks, Arboretum, some galleries in town, and it took a little coordination to get everyone on the same page, which was very impressive that he managed to pull it off.

Dr. Noah Charney: It worked. Now, we're sitting in the U. S. Embassy today, and there's wonderful art around, and there's Um, and the U. S. Embassy often supports art projects, um, and you also helped with the Dobro Novice exhibit, which was really very kind. And I noticed that you have a great eye for art, because I think you got to pick some of the pieces that are at the U.S. Embassy. Am I right about that? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: I did, yes. 

Dr. Noah Charney: That must have been super fun. So did you get like a catalog or how does that work? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Well for me, I had about um, 10 days to do it. It was still in sort of a COVID,  end of COVID era. We were masking and the state department was trying to limit contact. So we did a lot of this over the internet and they basically said, You know, look, you're in South Carolina, they're amazing artists in South Carolina, because at first I was like, oh, I love this artist from Texas. And I love this artist from San Francisco. And they were like, you know, we're going to have to ship it. It's expensive.  Try to focus on South Carolina. So, I basically went out and visited galleries and museums and met with people who actually I already knew in my community who were in the art world and got their advice.

And I ended up with a collection that focuses again on the importance of protecting nature. But also, I have some abstract pieces that are, I'm looking at one right now over your shoulder that everyone loves and it evokes emotion. And that to me is the real power of art is to be able to reach the human soul and hopefully with a subject like climate change, maybe change some minds and motivate people to take action to protect our planet. 

Dr. Noah Charney: That's a great sentiment. And it makes me want to ask more generally, how are arts and culture effective and important parts of a diplomatic mission?  

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Well, as I was saying, art can affect us in very subtle but powerful ways. It can create an emotional experience. And, I think diplomatically, the most important tool that it has is the ability to create empathy in the viewer.

And for a diplomat, empathy is incredibly important. Not sympathy, but empathy. The ability to put yourself in the shoes of another person and to think about how that person lives, what their problems are, what do they need? And art has the ability to do that. 

Dr. Noah Charney: The role of supporting the arts is one of the things that the U.S. Embassy does, supporting projects like Dobro Novice. Is that something that goes around at all embassies around the world? Is that part of the U. S. foreign policy to support local cultural projects if they involve Americans or support the local art scene? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Absolutely. I, I haven't been in every country of the world, but I talked to my fellow ambassadors, and they also participated in the Art in Embassies program, which has been ongoing since the early 1960s.

And, the idea is to share American art, put the art in embassies and chanceries around the world so that the public can see what other American artists are doing. I'm thinking of a friend of mine who's in Poland. His art collection focuses on dance.  Another friend in Portugal has a collection that focuses on democracy.

They're all-important values to Americans and to people around the world. I think it's a great way to communicate and I will never forget the night that we unveiled this exhibit and people were walking around the house and looking at it and I was sort of eavesdropping on the conversations that people were having, and it was doing exactly what I hoped, prompting conversations and evoking emotions. It was a great night. 

Dr. Noah Charney: The public perception of what diplomats do, varies, but we've all seen movies and I'm sure it's not quite as exciting as the movie suggests, but can you go through what does an average day look like for you as ambassador? Because we think of you swooping in to solve political crises, but thankfully we live in a country that doesn't really have them. 

You probably have less exciting, um, daily routine, but can you walk us through what that would be like? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: I can. But let me first say there is no day that's exactly like the prior day.  Every day is different. And that's one reason I love this job and it's, it's challenging, but it's really interesting, interesting. Like most people, my day starts with coffee and I start scrolling through my phone, looking at my email. I check cables coming from Washington to make sure there's nothing urgent.  And that's important. I also have a team of people who do the same thing for me. So by the time I get to the embassy, they are prepared to give me press briefs  and to talk about what teams are doing that week.So I get a little update on what we're doing. And then I usually leave the embassy. I try to get out. I love to get on the road, visit with businesses, government leaders. I love getting out and, you know, I've been to all kinds of factories and I've met with mayors. I've met with school children. Every day is different, but it involves, you know, these face to face communications and meeting people, getting to know what's on their minds and what's important to them and hopefully to make connections. Between the United States and Slovenia. I mean, if I can make a connection, a business-to-business connection, I've had a good day.

Dr. Noah Charney: I'm intrigued. How does one become an ambassador and how does one train for it? Is there like a, a training protocol? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: There is, there is a training facility across the Potomac from Washington, DC called the Foreign Service Institute. And it's a, it's like a college campus. It's very large. And they teach everything from language skills to how to be an ambassador and what to expect in that role. 

And I had a fantastic time there.  There were about 30 of us, both politically appointed ambassadors and Foreign Service career ambassadors. So, it was great having the combination we learned from each other. And I have nothing but good memories about that.  

I will say, being a politically appointed ambassador, there's a lot to learn, but they did a good job. I don't know if my team will agree with that, but  I think they did a good job, but you know, life is unpredictable and this job is unpredictable. You know, for example, I arrived on February 14th.  President Pahor gave me the credentials to actually start acting as an ambassador on the 17th of February 2022, which was one week before Putin invaded Ukraine. 

While Washington had been watching the situation, hardly anyone expected that to happen.  So, and that has consumed a lot of my time. Wasn't part of the plan. 

Dr. Noah Charney: When you're training as an ambassador, um, what are the sort of things that they teach you if it's not like a state secret? In addition to that, you mentioned the language training. 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: No, it's not a secret. Uh, you know, first of all, they teach you about the State Department and all the different bureaus and how they function and interact with each other. They have a hierarchical chart that is enormous.  And I still don't know all the acronyms.

It was really funny that we, the politically appointed ambassadors in the class, voted, and we said, from now on, when you use an acronym, we're going to sit in the class, and we all had like pink cards, and we could raise our pink cards. Whenever they said an acronym that we didn't understand and they had a sandwich board in the front of the room where they would go, Oh, okay.

And then they would write out the words to describe the acronym. And it was like, every three minutes we were raising our pink cards to try and understand, what they were talking about, because there's a lot of jargon that they use.  So, we learn literally about how the structure of the state department, we learn about the priorities of our own host countries and what our focuses should be. We get a little bit of media training. We also go through some murder boards, we call them, to be prepared to address the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and answer their questions because we're appointed by the president, but we have to also get the consent of the Senate.

Dr. Noah Charney: Okay. Murder board sounds very dramatic. It is. 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: It was really, really scary, but it turned out that it wasn't scary in the end. 

Dr. Noah Charney: Okay. Good. What about the, um, the language training? Is there some sort of extra special technique that isn't normally taught to, to the general public when they do language training for ambassadorial positions?

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Well, unfortunately, because we were still in the time of COVID, um, they did not do language training for us. Um, I kept asking about it because I really wanted at a minimum to be able to pronounce people's names to say the names of towns, to understand the phonetics of the language. And after I got back to South Carolina and was packing and preparing to leave, I got a call and they said, well, if you'd like to have some language training, we could do some by zoom.

I literally had like five classes and we talked a lot about phonetics, but also she was really helpful because I asked things like are Slovenians on time, or are they like the Italians, where you say 7 o'clock and they come at 8, or will they be there at 7 o'clock on the dot?

Do they like to eat early or do they like to eat late? And she helped me with a lot of those cultural questions.  

Dr. Noah Charney: You arrive as ambassador, do you have top priorities? And do you have a sort of wish list of things to do during your tenure? Or is that shift so much that it's hard to say? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Well, again, I get back to the fact that Putin  invaded one of his neighbors,  Ukraine, and that was something that took precedence. 

Almost the day that I got here, but my top priority remains the same, which is to strengthen American ties with Slovenia. Through the democratic values that we share. For example, things like developing a media that's free and without manipulation that is one of the bedrock values of democracy. And before I even came to Slovenia, it was important to me to make sure that media was not overly concentrated, that the journalists were able to do their work without interference. And, so it, that's, that's remains a priority. I also want to support Slovenia in things like its safety and security in Europe, the unity that we share with NATO, and the enlargement of the EU in the Western Balkans. Those are Slovenia priorities, and they're also our priorities. It comes down to just making connections where we can, expanding business opportunities and connections. And, you know, one thing I've seen, Noah, is that this country has incredible aptitude at what I call science. Okay. Basically science, you know, exacting, really demanding scientific endeavors.

And, I love to be able to help them with that and emerging technologies. So it's not just one thing, but overarching, I would say, democratic values, freedom. 

Dr. Noah Charney: Now that you've been two years plus, in your role as ambassador, what are your main takeaways over your time so far? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Something I've learned, and it's something I've learned over time, is that Slovenia has, the people of Slovenia have an incredible talent and capacity.

To master exacting scientific endeavors, whether it's space, robotics, nuclear physics, biochemistry, precision instrumentation. This is a country of a little over 2 million people, and it has two satellites in space. I find that astonishing and I see an incredible potential, which is. Certainly, Sloveniais using that potential right now, but I think the sky's the limit. I think there is more for Slovenia in its future in emerging technology. So, I would say that is the main takeaway. And it's something that I message back to Washington and with businesses that I meet with all the time.  

Dr. Noah Charney: So, I've called Slovenia the world's best country, and since this is a Slovenian tourism podcast and you're in politics, you're not allowed to disagree with the statement. With that in mind, would you agree with the statement?

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Would I agree with it? Absolutely.  Of course I would agree with it. And let me tell you why. Slovenia has everything you could possibly want.  Everywhere you look, there's beauty. I've never looked, I've never seen a piece of trash. I've never seen, anything that I found, unappealing about this country. And the other thing that is remarkable is that the country has made all of that beauty accessible. So, there are hundreds of miles of bike trails, hiking trails, you can access all of these very easily. You don't have to drive very far.

You can actually just walk out your front door and get on a hiking trail. So that's unusual in the United States. For most cities, you've got to get, get in your car and you're surrounded by concrete. But Slovenia's nature is very accessible. I would say. You know, hiking, skiing, pristine, clear, turquoise waters, Lake Bled, the River Soča, there's so many things to explore.

And I would add to that, really friendly people who don't mind speaking English. Now, there's some countries you can go to and they're sort of insulted that you're not speaking their language. Slovenians are very proud of their language, but they're also polite and they don't mind speaking English. So, it's very helpful for those of us who have not mastered it.

And don't let me leave out the wineries, world-class wineries, amazing food. The history of Slovenia is fascinating. And, of course, geographically it sits at the crossroads of Europe and Central Europe. I've had a lot of Americans come and visit and stay with me here at the residence. And every one of them falls in love with this country. I've had people say, you know, why, why don't we move our business over here? And I'm like, but you can, this is something we can talk about. Um, they're like, well, we can, we can work during the morning and go fly fishing in the afternoon. I said, exactly. It's just. Really an amazing country. And I love the way that Slovenians take care of nature. We cut our grass in America every week. Slovenians love the grass grow and the weeds grow and the dandelions grow so they can feed the bees.  And I find that such a charming tradition and in a stark, it stands in stark contrast to what we do in the United States. 

Dr. Noah Charney: At one of your embassy events, I remember meeting some of your friends who had come over to visit. And I was curious, where do you recommend to your friends when they're coming to stay with you, and they're going to do some day trips, is there some places on your hit list that you recommend that they visit?

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Well, you know, Lake Bled is at the top. Everyone wants to see it. It's magical. It has a castle. It has a fairy tale island with a beautiful church. And the pletna boats are, are just charming and with the oarsmen who take you out there, it's like something out of a fairytale, they absolutely love it.

The ability that it's so accessible, you can swim, you can row, you can stroll around the lake and then hike to vantage points that are absolutely spectacular. I love Vintgar Gorge. I take people there a lot. They love it. That's at the top of the list. But there are other places that I'm fond of.

Jezersko is spectacular. And it's pretty accessible. Vršič Pass, of course, is breathtaking. And the Soča River Valley, Vipava for wineries. Piran is fascinating. My friends think it's really cool that you can be on the Adriatic and also in the Alps in the same day. By American standards, the distances are tiny.

You can really do that in one day. It's so accessible, and I think they're amazed by that. I've taken people truffle hunting, to the caves, to Lipica, to Lake Bled, all in the same day. And, and they're not tired. They can still enjoy a great meal at the end of the day.

Dr. Noah Charney: Speaking of great meals, is there a favorite Slovenian food that you've tried? 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Bled cake. Okay, I can't go wrong with that. Bled cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's what I say. 

Dr. Noah Charney: How about a tradition, some sort of cultural tradition that you've gotten a chance to participate in that was special?

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: Beekeeping is at the top. You know, I love chestnut honey. I've been to Radovljica and to the bee museum there. And then, you know, when I ride around the country, I'm always, you know, spotting beehives and the colorful houses that people make for bees. Beehives. And mushroom foraging. I love, I don't know if you've ever looked at my Instagram, but I literally go around taking pictures of bees and flowers and mushrooms.

I don't know what kind of mushrooms they are, but you know, the brilliant ruby red mushrooms. And then there's a mushroom, I think that's called, um, lawyers cap, that's beautiful. It looks like lace and I've learned to look out for all those things. 

You know, when I first got here, something that was very frustrating for me is the fact that the stores are closed on Sundays. And I couldn't believe it. I thought, wait, we've got all these tourists here and they're dying to spend money and they can't go in the stores. So it made no sense to me, but then I realized this is so Slovenians can spend time with their families.  And that is such a heartwarming, charming idea to me, and I've started watching and I see. You know, families walking together with babies and grandparents and parents taking their kids out, rain or shine, they're out enjoying nature together and having a meal together. And that exemplifies the heart of this country.  

Dr. Noah Charney: I think that's a great place to stop. That was a really lovely sentiment. And thank you for inviting me over to the embassy, to your ambassadorial residence and for spending some time chatting, because I know you don't do this often, so I really appreciate it. 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: You're welcome anytime. And I would just want to point out that I have two of your books. I have Slovenology and I have The Collector of Lives. So, before you leave, I'm going to ask you to sign. 

Dr. Noah Charney: With absolute pleasure. 

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: And also, I have to show you my map of Slovenia. I have undertaken to highlight every place I've been. And it gives me a great sense of achievement, so I'm always trying to highlight new towns. 

Dr. Noah Charney: That's a really cool thing. You can see. I've been from Piran to Lendava. I've been to a lot of cool places.

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: You've done very well. I've covered a lot of territory 

Dr. Noah Charney: Excellent. Okay. And there's more to do.

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: I'm not finished. 

Dr. Noah Charney: Well, hopefully, you're going to get to stick around a while longer because it's been lovely having you as our representative.  

Jamie Lindler Harpootlian: I hope so. We'll see. 

Dr. Noah Charney: It was great to spend some time with the ambassador. And in case you were wondering, her chef makes excellent snickerdoodle cookies, a taste of America.

Hvala and thank you for listening to Feel Slovenia, the podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the Slovenian Tourist Board and was written and presented by Dr. Noah Charney.  Please subscribe to get each new episode and tell all of your friends interested in travel and all things Slovenia. 

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