Ambassador Jamie Harpootlian returns from Slovenia to help elect a 'diplomat to the White House' (2024)

COLUMBIA— It was Feb. 17, 2022, when Jamie Harpootlian— a longtime attorney and wife of Columbia Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian— formally presented her credentials to Slovenian President Borut Pahor to become the 11th ambassador to the small, peaceful central European nation.

Just one week later, thousands of Russian troops would spill into Ukraine, upending European security and plunging western civilization into its most fraught geopolitical trial since World War II.

The war, Harpootlian said in an interview at her Wales Garden home Aug. 9, would capture most of her attention as a new ambassador seeking to solidify America's presence in a country she called a "beacon of stability" in a region facing increasingly tumultuous times.

Slovenia, Harpootlian said, needed to know it had a partner, not just in holding off the threat to nearby Ukraine, but to all of the Balkan states, which sit on the front lines of the tensions between East and West.

"It's very important to Slovenia that we dampen the hostilities that are going on in that region right now," she said.

This month, Harpootlian announced she would be leaving the office to return to the United States, ending a two-and-a-half year run as the nation's chief envoy to the country amid multiple accomplishments, including assembling the largest visiting delegation of Congress to Slovenia in its 33-year history, as well as a role in negotiating the high-profile release of several American prisoners from Russian captivity.

But her work, she said, is not finished.

While President Joe Biden, who nominated her to become ambassador, was considered by Slovenians to be a reliable partner in international affairs, many there are anxious about rhetoric from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to reduce U.S. involvement in Eastern Europe, and give greater leeway to Russian interests.

After Biden exited from the presidential race last month, Harpootlian, whose family has long been close with the Bidens, says she wants to do everything she can to ensure Trump does not become president: a role she couldn't play as a U.S. ambassador.

"An ambassador is a diplomat, not a politician," she said. "We're prohibited by the Hatch Act from engaging in partisan politics. And I wanted very much to do my role to make sure that the person who is in the White House understands the importance of diplomacy."

Slovenia, she said, helped her understand that.

Founded in 1992 in the unwinding of socialist Yugoslavia, Slovenia was once considered among the most liberal communist states, a place whose very history was forged from discontent toward socialist and, long before that, fascist rule by Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini's Italy.

During World War II, its people lent support to American troops there (the story of which made Harpootlian visibly tearful) and, even today, the scars of the world's largest conflict remain clear and visible in both Slovenia's landscapes and its memory.

Trump, who will face Vice President Kamala Harris in November's elections, has pledged to end the war in Ukraine through diplomacy and compromise. But many believe there is no opportunity to broker a peace deal without capitulation to Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has saidpeace would be brokered only if Ukraine gave up the entirety of four regions Putin's government claims to have annexed.

"It's disconcerting to Europeans when they hear Trump praising dictators," Harpootlian said. "When he says things like, 'I want to have a quick end to the war in Ukraine,' they are trying to discern that means. Does that mean Ukraine just lays down its weapons? Because all that's going to do is invite an occupation."

Europeans care about maintaining U.S. support. Harpootlian now wants to help make voters care, too.

The United States has already contributed more than $55 billion to the Ukrainian war effort since the Russian invasion. And entering the summer, popular support for continuing U.S. aid remains split on partisan lines.

Beginning Aug. 19, Harpootlian says she plans to attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to talk with party leaders and see what she can do to support Harris' campaign for president. And, like she's done in the past, potentially help fundraise for their campaign.

"I want to see a diplomat in the White House," she said.