US embassy cable - 05PARIS3193

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 003193 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR ECA/PE/V/R/E (CAROL GRABAUSKAS; STEVE TAYLOR); 
EUR/PPD (LILLIAN DEVALCOURT) 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OEXC, SCUL, FR 
SUBJECT: FY 2006 IVLP- NOMINATION AND PART I BIODATA FOR MR. 
DAMIEN CONARE - PRINCIPAL CANDIDATE FOR INDIVIDUAL PROGRAM. 
 
REF: 
 
START FIXED-FORMAT TEXT (PLEASE DO NOT EDIT): 
: The following data is in a fixed format which enables 
: automated processing in Washington and should not be 
: edited except by means of the Post-EVDB software. 
EXPORT-SOURCE: POST-EVDB 
VERSION: 3.0.7 
POST-EMAIL: PaillardS@state.gov 
TRANSMITTING-POST: PAS Paris 
TRANSMITTING-POST-ID: 14544 
EXPORT-TYPE: BIO DATA 
START NOMINATION: 
ECA-OFFICE: E/VGE 
PROG-AGENCY-NAME: 
POST-PROJ-ID: 286 
ECA-PROJ-NO: 
PROJ-NAME: FY 2006 - INDIVIDUAL Program - Damien Conare 
START MEMO PROJ-DESC: 
 
END MEMO PROJ-DESC: 
PROJ-TYPE: Individual 
PROG-TYPE: IV Grant Visitor 
FY: 2006 
DEPART-POST: 
SESSION-DATE: 
RETURN-POST: 
NO-OF-PART: 1 
RANK-ORDER: 14 
START MEMO POST-OBJ: 
 
END MEMO POST-OBJ: 
START MEMO POST-RCMD: 
 
END MEMO POST-RCMD: 
ECA-OFFICE-ID: 1047 
PROG-AGENCY-ID: 
PROJ-TYPE-ID: IND 
PROG-TYPE-ID: 29 
NOMINATING-POST-ID: 14544 
FUNDING-CNTRY-ID: 
STATUS: N 
ORIGINATOR: P 
SUBJ-DISC: Foreign Policy 
START BIO: 
PREFIX: Mr. 
F-NAME: Damien 
M-NAME: 
L-NAME: Conare 
SUFFIX: 
POSITION-CODE: 0 
PRINCIPAL?: Yes 
M-ADDR1: Courrier de la Planete 
M-ADDR2: Domaine Lavalette 
M-ADDR3: 1037, rue Jean-Francois Breton 
M-CITY: Montpellier 
M-STATE: 
M-CNTRY: France 
M-ZONE: 34000 
M-ZIP: 
M-PHONE: + (33) 4.67.45.78.31 
M-FAX: + (33) 4.67.45.78.37 
M-EMAIL: d.conare@wanadoo.fr 
M-CNTRY-ID: FR 
M-ADDRTYPE: B 
GENDER: M 
DOB: 02/23/1971 
MAR-STAT: M 
BIRTH-CITY: Suresnes 
BIRTH-CNTRY: France 
CITIZ-CNTRY: France 
RES-CNTRY: France 
START MEMO POSITION: 
Publishing Manager, "Courrier de la Planete" magazine 
(economics, development, environment), since 1999 
END MEMO POSITION: 
START MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS: 
 
END MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS: 
START MEMO PREV-POSITIONS: 
1998-1999 - Journalist "Circuits Culture" magazine 
(agricultural distribution section) 
1996-1997 - Technical sub-editor "Afrique Agriculture" 
magazine 
1996 - Technical sub-editor "Maison de la Nature" 
END MEMO PREV-POSITIONS: 
START MEMO US-TRAVEL: 
Washington state - 1999 for tourism 
END MEMO US-TRAVEL: 
START MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL: 
Numerous travels in Europe and Africa for tourism and business 
END MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL: 
START MEMO EDUCATION: 
- 1994 - College of Agricultural Engineering (ISTOM, Cergy- 
Pontoise), agronomics, management, agricultural development; 
specialized training in vegetable production at the Larenstein 
International Agricultural College (Deventer, NL) 
- 1992 - Bachelor's degree in biochemistry; specialization in 
vegetable biology 
END MEMO EDUCATION: 
START MEMO MEMBERSHIPS: 
 
END MEMO MEMBERSHIPS: 
START MEMO PUBLICATIONS: 
- Many articles in the magazines he has been working for. 
- Files for UNESCO on sustainable development and GMOs 
(nominee has provided input for UNESCO's educational files 
known as "MOST", a program promoting international, 
comparative and policy-relevant research on contemporary 
social transformation and issues of global importance). 
END MEMO PUBLICATIONS: 
START MEMO SPEC-CONSID: 
 
END MEMO SPEC-CONSID: 
FIRST-LANG: French 
ENGL-READ: 4 
ENGL-SPEAK: 4 
ENGL-COMP: 4 
START MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ: 
Because Damien Conare is a member of the far-left who is 
nonetheless open to new ideas, a trip to the U.S. would allow 
him to better understand the reasoning behind U.S. policies, 
the main actors which influence these policies, and the impact 
of grassroots movements. It will further allow him the 
opportunity to make useful contacts for future issues of his 
magazine; contacts who would be going through the same 
experience in the U.S. as he would be and would therefore 
perhaps be likely to contribute pieces that are more fair to 
U.S. policy. Damien Conare's interests relate to international 
relations in agriculture, environment, and development. On all 
these issues, the United States plays an important role on the 
world scene; a better knowledge of the US will lead him to 
better report and take into account American views when 
dealing with themes where misunderstandings between France and 
the U.S. have prevented an open dialogue; these are quite 
prevalent in the fields covered by Conare: Food safety, GMOs, 
climate change, biodiversity, aid. 
END MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ: 
START MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD: 
 
END MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD: 
START MEMO VIS-OBJ: 
 
END MEMO VIS-OBJ: 
START MEMO VIS-REC: 
 
END MEMO VIS-REC: 
NOMINATING-OFFICER: Sylvie Vacheret 
START MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION: 
"The Courrier de la Planete," of which Damien Conare is 
Publishing Manager, is a quarterly magazine that is 
distributed to approximately 3000 experts in international 
economic relations and development issues. It was first 
created in 1991 by an environmental association. Although this 
association has disappeared, the magazine still exists and has 
obtained the support of the French Institute for Sustainable 
Development due to the its quality and serious and balanced 
approach of the issues. Though each issue focuses on a 
different theme, they are nonetheless always related to 
sustainable development and international relations. 
The philosophy behind this publication is that international 
solidarity is not just a matter of words or easy solutions but 
rather is made up of issues that are complex and that one must 
continually discuss and strive to implement. For this reason, 
in nearly every issue "The Courrier de la Planete" publishes 
articles by U.S. authors who come from different political 
backgrounds and represent a variety of professional 
institutions such as the Carnegie Endowment for International 
Peace or Harvard University. 
As publishing manager for this magazine, Damien Conare's 
objective is to better understand all the facets of a specific 
issue and how each policy is arrived at in order to present to 
the readers a definitive explanation of the problem as well as 
the possible solutions. This program would give him a first- 
hand, and more balanced, understanding of the factors that 
shape American foreign and economic policies and expose him to 
the intellectuals and actors in U.S. policy making. This is 
important to promoting U.S. interests because he is a member 
of the political left, which has often been overly critical of 
U.S. policy. By providing him with an opportunity to 
experience U.S. goodwill and explaining to him, in person, the 
factors that influence U.S. policy, he will be imbued with a 
greater understanding and appreciation for why the U.S. 
selects the policies that it does. 
Where will he be in ten years? If this magazine continues to 
be successful and the left comes back to power in France, he 
will take an even more influential role in political circles. 
Yet even if this is not the case, it is important to achieving 
our goals in the economic/ environmental sector to have third 
party supporters whose open-minded approaches to the issues 
facing us are bolstered by clear-minded analyses through a 
widely read publication. 
As a point of reference, the IV we nominated in this same 
group in Montpellier about 15 years ago went on to become an 
influential counselor to former Prime Minister Jospin and is 
now presiding over the French Institute for Sustainable 
Development and holding the title of Director of "Courrier de 
la Planete." 
END MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION: 
NOM-OFF: PA - U.S. Embassy Paris, France 
SPEAKER?: No 
NOTIFY-EMB: No 
MEDIA?: No 
HOME-STAY: No 
HOME-HOSP?: No 
E-I-TYPE: ELEO 
NOMINEE-ID: 573 
PERSON-ID: 472 
BIRTH-CNTRY-ID: FR 
CITIZ-CNTRY-ID: FR 
RES-CNTRY-ID: FR 
FIRST-LANG-ID: FR 
E-I-TYPE-ID: E 
NOM-POST-ID: 14544 
NOM-FUNDING-CNTRY-ID: 0 
NOM-STATUS: N 
DS2019-ACTION: 1 
DS2019-SUBJECT: 
SPONS-FUNDS: 0 
SPONS-AGENCY1: 
USGOVT-AGENCY1: 
US-AGENCY-AMT1: 0 
USGOVT-AGENCY2: 
US-AGENCY-AMT2: 0 
INTL-ORG1: 
INTL-ORG-AMOUNT1: 0 
INTL-ORG2: 
INTL-ORG-AMOUNT2: 0 
VIS-GOVT-AMT: 0 
COMMISSION: 0 
OTHER-AMOUNT: 0 
VIS-AMOUNT: 0 
VIS-CAT: 
END BIO: 
END NOMINATION: 
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  WOLFF