Diplomatic cables are the way the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver shares its situational awareness of BC and Yukon's political climate with the rest of U.S. Mission Canada, Washington, D.C., and other government agencies.
From tracking the process of strike negotiations between the B.C. Government and General Employees' Union, assessing Yukon's responses to the opioid epidemic, or breaking down the results of the most recent Vancouver mayoral election, one of my primary responsibilities as an intern in the POLITICAL-ECONOMIC Section of the Consulate was to research, write, and edit these cables.
Every cable starts with research. I started by combing through news articles, press releases, previous cables, and directly reaching out to different sources. I analyzed the information I gathered and synthesized it to craft an objective research base.
Then the writing process begins. Following specific formatting requirements for the State Department, I drafted clear, informative, and concise pieces that were tailored to a specific audience - from specific government agencies to all of Mission Canada.
Then, after rounds of edits within the POL-ECON Section, the clearance process begins - up the chain of my supervisory foreign service officers, to the Consul General, sometimes even as far up as the U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Once cleared, the cable is sent across the whole of the State Department's network, one small part of the massive influx of information that keeps the United States informed of what's happening all around the world.
