2006.04.07: April 7, 2006: Headlines: COS - Korea: Diplomacy: Helena Independent Record: RPCV Bob Swartout is honorary consul for Korea in Montana
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2006.04.07: April 7, 2006: Headlines: COS - Korea: Diplomacy: Helena Independent Record: RPCV Bob Swartout is honorary consul for Korea in Montana
RPCV Bob Swartout is honorary consul for Korea in Montana
Honorary consuls typically are chosen by governments in other countries to serve as citizen ambassadors for the country that has chosen them for this honor. They work in their regular jobs but when called upon for celebrations, introductions or other services, they provide links of grassroots understanding. Not all countries use honorary consuls nor do all states have them.
RPCV Bob Swartout is honorary consul for Korea in Montana
Here and There
By Pat Murdo - 04/07/06
Few in Montana may have experienced a need to follow the New York or Washington, D.C., advice to steer clear of diplomatic license plates. (The drivers have diplomatic immunity if there’s an accident.) For us, the international diplomatic world is foreign, encountered only briefly when ambassadors divert from the nation’s capital or consuls visit from U.S. trade centers.
Yet, there is a home-grown diplomatic world here in the form of honorary consuls who live in Montana and work at their regular jobs but also maintain an international presence for the countries they represent. They don’t have diplomatic license plates but they do have duties and some privileges.
[Excerpt]
Another experienced honorary consul is Bob Swartout, a Carroll College history professor and Asian specialist. Swartout isn’t sure exactly who nominated him to be an honorary consul for South Korea in 1998. But his background made him a good candidate: service in the Peace Corps in South Korea and a two-time Fulbright Fellow who studied in South Korea. Swartout considers the appointment an opportunity to bring two worlds together, the world of the 12th largest economy in the world, South Korea, and the Big Sky Country.
Honorary consuls typically are chosen by governments in other countries to serve as citizen ambassadors for the country that has chosen them for this honor. They work in their regular jobs but when called upon for celebrations, introductions or other services, they provide links of grassroots understanding. Not all countries use honorary consuls nor do all states have them.
Swartout’s diplomatic opportunities include contacts with the thousand or so Montana residents of South Korean descent, who last year formed the Korean Association of Montana. The majority of the Montanans with South Korean ancestry live in Montana’s larger cities: Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, and Bozeman. Churches in these communities often have events to which Swartout is invited.
More official duties include serving as liaison for South Korean government officials who travel to Montana to meet state and local officials. They typically do so once a year. Similarly, once a year Swartout travels to Seattle to meet with the South Korean consul general there and other South Korean honorary consuls from Alaska and Oregon.
A particular honor, Swartout says, came between 2000 and 2003 when he participated in statewide activities that recognized the 50th anniversary of the Korean War and the sacrifices of Montanans who fought in that war. Swartout is serving in his second term and, under South Korean rules, is term-limited after the end of his second 5-year term in 2008.
When this story was posted in April 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Helena Independent Record
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Korea; Diplomacy
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