{{redirect-distinguish|Clientism|Clientelism}}
'''Clientitis''' (also called '''clientism'''<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lq_i3wpmBWUC&q=clientism+clientitis&pg=PA156 |title=Behind the disappearances: Argentina's dirty war against human rights and the United Nations |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1990 |accessdate=2013-05-08 |page=156 |chapter=The Carter Years |isbn=0812213130 |archive-date=2021-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222056/https://books.google.com/books?id=lq_i3wpmBWUC&q=clientism+clientitis&pg=PA156 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l4SoDU_daVoC&q=clientitis+congress&pg=PA87|title=Turf War: The Clinton Administration And Northern Ireland|author=Timothy J. Lynch|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|year=2004|isbn=0754642941|accessdate=2013-05-08|page=87|archive-date=2021-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222057/https://books.google.com/books?id=l4SoDU_daVoC&q=clientitis+congress&pg=PA87|url-status=live}}</ref> or '''localitis'''<ref name="kaplan">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S7z0JF08sCgC&q=clientitis+localitis&pg=PA122|title=Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1995|author=Robert D. Kaplan|accessdate=2013-05-08|page=122|chapter=The Arabists|isbn=1439108706|archive-date=2021-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222057/https://books.google.com/books?id=S7z0JF08sCgC&q=clientitis+localitis&pg=PA122|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="meyer" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Chas W. |author-link=Charles W. Freeman Jr. |url=https://archive.org/details/diplomatsdiction0000free/page/42/mode/2up |title=The Diplomat's Dictionary |publisher=United States Institute of Peace Press |others=Foreword by Ervin J. Rokke |year=1997 |isbn=1-878379-66-6 |edition=Revised |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |page=43 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>) is the alleged tendency of resident in-country staff of an organization to regard the officials and people of the host country as "clients".
==Overview== This condition can be found in business, military, or government. The term ''clientitis'' is somewhat similar to the phrases "gone native" or "going native", and may have its origins in the 19th century when small diplomatic missions were staffed by long-term expatriates with distant connections to their home country. In the 20th and 21st centuries, rapid communication with home ministries, and frequent rotations of staff, have made the term anachronistic and less relevant in a modern diplomatic context.
A hypothetical example of clientitis would be a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) or foreign diplomat, serving overseas at an Embassy, who drifts into a mode of rationalizing and defending the actions of the host country government. In such an example, the officer has come to view the officials and government workers of the host country government as the persons he is serving. Former USUN Ambassador John Bolton has used this term disparagingly to describe the culture of the US State Department,<ref>{{cite web |work=The American Spectator |date=November 6, 2007 |first=Phillip |last=Klein |url=https://spectator.org/10133_john-bolton-newsmaker-breakfast/ |title= John Bolton Newsmaker Breakfast |access-date=July 8, 2022 }}</ref> but the available public record shows little genuine evidence of modern diplomatic clientitis.
An example from business would be a representative for a company living in another nation, representing that company to the host nation and other institutions in that country. A business representative suffering clientitis would defend the host country government and operating environment as if those were his employers.<ref>{{Citation| last=Baker| first=George| title=The Tortilla Curtain, or Why Home Office Communications Fail| url=http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/politics/tortcurt.html| access-date=2007-11-07| archive-date=2007-11-10| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110012731/http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/politics/tortcurt.html| url-status=live}} example given of an American business representative resident in Mexico suffering clientitis</ref> A military example would be a defense attaché who identifies reflexively with the host country's military establishment.
==Within the US State Department== The State Department's training for newly appointed ambassadors warns of the danger of clientitis,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pqylV44Jx5kC&q=clientitis&pg=PA58|title=Vera and the ambassador: Escape and Return|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2009|accessdate=2013-05-08|page=58|author1=Vera Blinken|author2=Donald Blinken|author2-link=Donald M. Blinken|isbn=978-1438426884|archive-date=2021-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222147/https://books.google.com/books?id=pqylV44Jx5kC&q=clientitis&pg=PA58|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Department rotates FSOs every 2–3 years to avoid it.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/3183666 |jstor=3183666 |title=Debating U.S. Diplomacy |last1=Eizenstat |first1=Stuart E. |last2=Matlock |first2=Jack E. |last3=Laingen |first3=Bruce |last4=Boyatt |first4=Thomas D. |last5=Sisco |first5=Joseph J. |last6=Gallucci |first6=Robert L. |last7=Steele |first7=Robert D. |last8=Crane |first8=Louise K. |journal=Foreign Policy |year=2003 |issue=138 |pages=84–89 }}</ref> During the Nixon administration the State Department's Global Outlook Program (GLOP) attempted to combat clientitis by transferring FSOs to regions outside their area of specialization.<ref name="meyer">{{cite book|last=Meyer|first=Armin|title=Quiet diplomacy: from Cairo to Tokyo in the twilight of imperialism|year=2003|publisher=iUniverse|page=158|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hs0ub0E_-dkC&q=clientitis+transfer&pg=PA158|isbn=9780595301324|access-date=2021-01-23|archive-date=2021-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222147/https://books.google.com/books?id=hs0ub0E_-dkC&q=clientitis+transfer&pg=PA158|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Kennedy|first=Charles Stuart|title=Interview with Ambassador Charles E. Marthinsen|url=http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/mssmisc/mfdip/2007%20txt%20files/2007mar01.txt|work=Foreign Affairs Oral History Project|publisher=The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training|date=18 July 2003|access-date=24 July 2010|archive-date=17 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017212028/http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/mssmisc/mfdip/2007%20txt%20files/2007mar01.txt|url-status=live}}</ref>
Robert D. Kaplan alleges that the problem "became particularly prevalent" among American diplomats in the Middle East because the investment of time needed to learn Arabic and the large number of diplomatic postings where it was spoken meant diplomats could spend their entire career in a single region.<ref name="kaplan" />
Anthony Lake argues that while clientitis is a danger, reflexive accusations of it can deter Foreign Service Officers from providing accurate analysis to policymakers.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmgBeb4TP4gC&q=clientitis+%22most+important%22&pg=PA109 |title=Somoza falling |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2009 |accessdate=2013-05-08 |author=Anthony Lake |page=109 |isbn=978-0395419830 |archive-date=2021-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222115/https://books.google.com/books?id=XmgBeb4TP4gC&q=clientitis+%22most+important%22&pg=PA109 |url-status=live }}</ref> In modern practice, with tight control from Washington or any other home office, and narrow advancement paths requiring deference to career interests, clientitis (as much as appeasement) is an obsolete label for diplomacy, and use of the stereotype may reflect an anti-elitist or unilateralist agenda. In contrast, caustic and realism-based diplomats' analyses, including recently those of former UK Ambassador Kim Darroch and former US Ambassador Michael McFaul, demonstrate diplomats' main purpose in providing unvarnished opinion, at risk of angering the host government.
In the 1990s the phenomenon was seen within the State Department as being particularly acute in El Salvador, reflecting "both the polarization of the country and the highly ideological position of the United States within that polarization."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qv9o4qoOnFEC&q=clientitis&pg=PA277 |title=Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuría and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador |publisher=Temple University Press |date=1994 |accessdate=2013-05-08 |author=Teresa Whitfield |page=227 |isbn=1566392535 |archive-date=2021-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222158/https://books.google.com/books?id=qv9o4qoOnFEC&q=clientitis&pg=PA277 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Revelations about US diplomatic cables however show how "U.S. ambassadors really felt about their host governments and gave an unvarnished view of the inner workings of American diplomacy. [And] sparked diplomatic firestorms across the world that left the State Department reeling."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/09/diplomats-fear-chilling-effect-british-ambassador-snub-kim-darroch-uk/ |title=Diplomats Fear Chilling Effect of British Ambassador's Resignation |access-date=2021-01-23 |archive-date=2020-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123222851/https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/09/diplomats-fear-chilling-effect-british-ambassador-snub-kim-darroch-uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Rather than identifying with host countries, modern diplomats compete with a range of open media and news sources to gain the attention and favor of their home offices, resulting in sharp, opinionated reporting identifying the national interests at stake, potential advantages to be gained, and sometimes writing attention-getting travelogues of local cultural conditions.
In ''To The Secretary'',<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzIGrgEACAAJ |title = To the Secretary: Leaked Embassy Cables and America's Foreign Policy Disconnect|isbn = 9780393246582|last1 = Thompson-Jones|first1 = Mary A.|year = 2016 | publisher=National Geographic Books }}</ref> former diplomat Mary Thompson-Jones "describes several types of cables: official updates, scene setters, biographical profiles, spot reports, daily media reaction and situation reports. "Knowing by instinct when and what to communicate back home is what makes a good diplomat," she writes. "Their reporting must walk a line between loyally carrying out assignments from Washington, while making essential, sometimes contradictory, points to a foreign policy establishment that does not always want to hear them."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://washdiplomat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14790:to-the-secretary-illustrates-importance-of-diplomats-and-american-disconnect&catid=1554:february-2017&Itemid=578 |title=Other Kind of Cable News: 'To The Secretary' Illustrates Importance of Diplomats, and American Disconnect |access-date=2021-01-23 |archive-date=2021-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123222211/https://washdiplomat.com/?Itemid=578&catid=1554%3Afebruary-2017&id=14790%3Ato-the-secretary-illustrates-importance-of-diplomats-and-american-disconnect&option=com_content&view=article |url-status=live }}</ref>
==See also== {{wikt}} *Oikophobia
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:United States Department of State Category:Foreign relations of the United States Category:Diplomacy