For years, The Foreign Service Journal has regularly published a “Speaking Out” column: a forum where contributing authors can voice concerns and generally weigh in on a variety of Foreign Service issues. We are pleased to present an archive of these columns in one central location.
- In the Corridors—Where Culture, Reputation, and DEIA Meet by Tanesha T. Dillard (March 2023)
- Schedule F—Let’s Deprofessionalize Government and Make America Irrelevant Again by Dennis Jett (January-February 2023)
- “Winning the Competition for Talent”—The Case for Expanding the Diplomat in Residence Program by Brendan Rivage-Seul (December 2022)
- Why the State Department Needs an Office of Diplomatic Gaming by Robert Domaingue (November 2022)
- WikiLeaks Damage Lives On: The Case of Marafa Hamidou Yaya by Niels Marquardt (October 2022)
- Democracy as a Vocation by José M. Garzón (September 2022)
- Serbia and Russia and the Coming Balkan Storm by Denis Rajic and Marko Attila Hoare (July-August 2022)
- iMatch—Ready for Takeoff? by Ubah Khasimuddin (June 2022)
- On Our Own—Diplomats Deserve Equal Access to Reproductive Health Services by Andrea Capellán (May 2022)
- No One Was Listening: Russia, 1992 by Kristen K. Loken (April 2022)
- Time to Bring Back Legations Headed by Diplomatic Agents? by Gerald Loftus and Stuart Denyer (March 2022)
- A Paradigm Shift for Diversity by Lia Miller, Ana Escrogima and Christina Tilghman (November 2021)
- Knowledge Management @ State: It’s not the technology. It’s the people. by Yomaris Macdonald, Lourdes Cue, Timothy Haynes, Jennifer L. Smith and Benjamin A. Tietz (October 2021)
- The Remonstrating Official by Ted Osius (September 2021)
- A U.S.-German Look at the Essentials for Modern Diplomacy by Mirko Kruppa and Kenneth Kero-Mentz (July-August 2021)
- The Case Against Political Ambassadors by Edward L. Peck (June 2021)
- How the 1619 Project Can Help Public Diplomacy by John Fer (May 2021)
- Resilience Leadership by Josh Glazeroff (April 2021)
- On State Reform by Dennis Jett (March 2021)
- Food & Fun, or Debt & Despair? The Commissary Crisis and the Future of Employee Associations by Llywelyn Graeme (December 2020)
- Female, (Won’t) Curtail & Yale: Waiting to Exhale by Samantha Jackson, Ayanda Francis-Gao, Lisa-Felicia Akorli, Aja Kennedy, Annah Mwendar-Chaba and Tessa Henry (November 2020)
- Stop Shipping Your Personal Vehicle! by Warren Leishman (October 2020)
- Why “27 Years and Out” Should Be Retired by Ted Craig (September 2020)
- Changing Mindsets on Race at State by P. Michael McKinley (July-August 2020)
- Lessons from Silicon Valley: Practical Suggestions for a Modern Workplace by Andrew R. Moore (June 2020)
- The Diplomat and the State by Christopher W. Smith (May 2020)
- Breaking Away from “Born, Not Made” by Andrea Susana Martinez Donnally and Christina T. Le (April 2020)
- Integrity First by Alan Larson (March 2020)
- Truth and Honor by Harry Kopp (January-February 2020)
- In Support of Professional Nonpartisan Diplomacy (December 2019)
- Preventing Domestic Violence Is Our Shared Responsibility by Leslie Bassett (November 2019)
- There Is No “Complacent State” by Andrew Kelly (October 2019)
- How to Strengthen Human Rights Diplomacy by Samuel C. Downing (September 2019)
- Reforming State’s Personnel System Could Work This Time by Ronald E. Neumann (July-August 2019)
- Afghanistan: Rightsizing Expectations by Annie Pforzheimer (June 2019)
- Straight Talk on Bidding: What You Need to Know Before Trying for That Heavily Bid Job by Paul Poletes (April 2019)
- Compassion Fatigue in the Foreign Service by Kovia Gratzon-Erskine (March 2019)
- Improving the Economic Career Track by Virginia Bennett (January-February 2019)
- A Worldwide FSN Association at State: Advancing a Practical Dream by Eddy Olislaeger (December 2018)
- Radically Simple Ideas for a Better State: Foreign Service 2.0 by JC Windham (November 2018)
- What Is It We’re Doing Again? Time to Rethink How the State Department Communicates by Peter Lohman (October 2018)
- Diversity: Not Just a Cause for the Underrepresented by Jay Porter (September 2018)
- Two Ears, One Mouth, Two Hands: Diplomacy 101 by Jason Criss Howk (June 2018)
- What State Should Bring to the Table: Cultural and Language Expertise by Phil Skotte (May 2018)
- Respect, Trust and Partnership: Keeping Diplomacy on Course in Troubling Times by Ted Osius (April 2018)
- Families with Special Needs Kids Need Support by Kathi Silva (March 2018)
- Applying Behavioral Economics to the State Department by Rob Kirk (January-February 2018)
- Religious Diversity Benefits the State Department by Phil Skotte (December 2017)
- Owning Leadership by Michael Pelletier (November 2017)
- Decision-Making in Times of Uncertainty by Charles Ray (October 2017)
- How to Get More Bang for Our FSI Buck: Engaging Foreign Diplomats and Diasporas by Michael Rosenthal (September 2017)
- The Value and Purpose of American Diplomacy by William J. Burns (July-August 2017)
- The Golden Rule of Professionalism by Matt Tompkins (June 2017)
- Digital Diplomacy: Will State Ever Take the Plunge? by Amelia Shaw (May 2017)
- Why We Need a Better Intranet and How to Get It by Bradley Meacham (April 2017)
- With Deep Regret... by TJ Lunardi (March 2017)
- Why U.S. Ambassadors Should Be Career Professionals by Edward L. Peck (January-February 2017)
- Why USAID's New Approach to Development Assistance is Stalled by Thomas Dichter (December 2016)
- Getting Beyond Bureaucratese - Why Writing Like Robots Damages U.S. Interests by Paul Poletes (November 2016)
- Safeguarding a Nonpartisan Foreign Service by Matthew V. Tompkins (October 2016)
- Neglecting World's Fairs Doesn't Make Them Go Away, So Let's Do It Right by Beatrice Camp (September 2016)
- Reforming Entry-Level Assignments by Andrew Kelly (July-August 2016)
- Supporting FS Families with Special Needs Children by Maureen Danzot and Mark R. Evans (June 2016)
- Hippocrates and Hobbes, Assad and ISIS by Raymond Smith (May 2016)
- The Department of State: Mission and Vision Examined by Edward Marks (April 2016)
- More Hemingway, Less Kafka, Please by Matthew Keene (March 2016)
- Retiree Access, Step by Step by Mary Ellen Gilroy (January-February 2016)
- Proving Public Diplomacy Programs Work by James Rider (December 2015)
- The Trouble with the Lawyers List by James Ehrman (November 2015)
- Seeking Parity Between the Civil and Foreign Services by Larry W. Roeder, Jr. (October 2015)
- The State Department Needs to Reevaluate Its Use of 360-Degree Reviews by William Bent (September 2015)
- America Needs a Professional Foreign Service by Charles A. Ray (July-August 2015)
- Employee Plus One: Marriage and the War for Talent by Michael Guest (June 2015)
- A Strategic Approach to Public Diplomacy by Joe B. Johnson (May 2015)
- Citizenship and Unwed Border Mothers: The Misfortune of Geography by Amelia Shaw (April 2015)
- A Glass Half Full by David T. Jones (March 2015)
- Defining Diplomacy by Edward Marks (January-February 2015)
- Twitter is a Cocktail Party, Not a Press Conference (or, Social Media for Reporting Officers) by Wren Elhai (December 2014)
- What Specialists Want You to Know compiled by Francesca Kelly (October 2014)
- 'Up or Out' is Harming American Foreign Policy by George B. Lambrakis (September 2014)
- How to Get Better Ambassadors by Dennis Jett (July-August 2014)
- Publishing in the Foreign Service by Yaniv Barzilai (June 2014)
- Getting State and the Foreign Service Back in the Game by Robert Hunter (May 2014)
- Bring Back the Powell Fellows Program by Tyler Sparks (April 2014)
- Hispanic Representation at USAID: Why So Low for So Long? by José Garzón (March 2014)
- Protecting the Realm: The Past Must Be Prologue by Timothy Lawson (Jan/Feb 2014)
- A Plea for Greater Teamwork in the Foreign Service by George B. Lambrakis (December 2013)
- Keeping Faith with State’s Wounded Warriors by Juliet Wurr (November 2013)
- Iran and the United States: Getting to Yes by George B. Lambrakis (June 2013)
- It’s Time to Update the Threashhold Review by Brian T. Neubert (May 2013)
- Unionization, AFSA and the Foreign Service by David T. Jones (April 2013)
- The Value of Fortress Embassies by Nick Pietrowicz (February 2013)
- Facing the Unthinkable: Time for FCS to Merge with State? by Daniel Harris (January 2013)
- Reasons for Hope in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Kristin K. Loken (December 2012)
- Psst! Hey, Buddy, Wanna Buy an Ambassadorship? by Dennis Jett (November 2012)
- Achieving Work-Life Balance at State by Lillian C. Wahl-Tuco (October 2012)
- Overhauling the EER Process by Tyler Sparks (September 2012)
- Purchasing Parity: USAID’s EFM Language Training Policy by Brenden M. Wheeler (April 2012)
- How Data Visualization Can Change Diplomacy by Chris Bronk and Scott Smith (March 2012)
- Implementing the QDDR at Chief-of-Mission Level by Edward Marks (February 2012)
- The Next 50 Years by George F. Jones (January 2012)
- FS Blogging: An Opportunity, Not a Threat by Matt Keene (December 2011)
- Why the Foreign Service Should Be More Like the Army by Jon P. Dorschner (November 2011)
- Not-So-Smart Power by James Stephenson (October 2011)
- Needed: A Professional Specialization in International Organizational Affairs by Edward Marks (Jul/Aug 2011)
- Is the Foreign Service Still a Profession? by George B. Lambrakis (June 2011)
- Building Professional Skills by William P. Schofield (May 2011)
- Out with the Old, In with the New by Bruce K. Byers (April 2011)
- AFSA Members Speak Out on the WikiLeaks Mess (March 2011)
- Welcoming the Disabled to the Foreign Service by Michael Bricker (January 2011)
- U.S. Foreign Economic Assistance in Perspective by Raymond Malley (December 2010)
- Making Provincial Reconstruction Terms More Effective by Patricia Thomson (November 2010)
- Defining the Ideal Diplomat by Marc Grossman (October 2010)
- Recognizing Those Who Have Made a Difference by Edward L. Peck (September 2010)
- Latin America's Latest Victim: The Free Press by Christopher Teal and Silvio Gonzalez (Jul/Aug 2010)
- Diego Garcia: Freedom’s Footprint, or Enduring Injustice? by Gerald Loftus (June 2010)
- Time for State to Get Up To Speed by Tom Casey (May 2010)
- DNA: The Future of Immigrant Visa Processing by Simon Hankinson (April 2010)
- A Real Reset Button for U.S.-Russian Relations by Thompson Buchanan (March 2010)
- Starting the “New Gender Agenda” at Home by Amanda Fernandez (February 2010)
- The Population Bomb is Still Ticking by Michael Fritz (January 2010)
- Restore State’s Office of Public Communications by Alexis Ludwig (December 2009)
- Merge USAID Fully Into State by Raymond Malley (November 2009)
- Public Diplomacy: A View from the Front Line by PDFL Working Group (October 2009)
- Strengthen the Process for Middle East Diplomacy by David T. Jones (September 2009)
- Regaining Relevance: Five Steps to Strengthen State by William I. Bacchus (Jul/Aug 2009)
- EERs: The Forgotten Front in the War for Talent by Jonathan Fritz (June 2009)
- Hope for Gay and Lesbian Foreign Service Employees by Steven Giegerich (May 2009)
- Expanding Language Capacity Through Incentive Pay by Mark Allen (April 2009)
- Twelve Recommendations to Improve the Security Clearance Process by Daniel M. Hirsch (March 2009)
- AFRICOM & SOUTHCOM: Reliquaria from an Earlier Era by David Passage (February 2009)
- Let’s Help “H” Make the Case for State by Stetson Sanders (January 2009)
- It’s Time for State to Educate Senior Officers by Robert B. Newlin (November 2008)
- Mid-Level Hiring and the War for Talent by Kevin D. Stringer (October 2008)
- State’s Wrong Turn on the Information Highway by Scott Rauland (September 2008)
- Where Have All the Senior-Level Women Gone? by Susan Crais Hovanec (June 2008)
- Heading Off More Clashes in the Strait of Hormuz by Benjamin Tua (May 2008)
- Needed: A New Foreign Service Agenda by Alphonse F. La Porta (April 2008)
- Member of Household Policy: Failing Our Families by Michael Guest (March 2008)
- Taking the King’s Shilling by David T. Jones (February 2008)
- Expeditionary Sidekicks? The Military-Diplomatic Dynamic by Gerald Loftus (December 2007)
- Caution: Iraq is not Vietnam by David Passage (November 2007)
- Six Simple Proposals to Improve Efficiency and Morale by Hollis Summers (September 2007)
- U.S. Diplomacy: Can Science Help? by Kristen M. Lord (July-August 2007)
- Working it Out with the Military: The View from Kabul by Thomas E. Johnson, Jr. (June 2007)
- When Importance is Equated with Danger by Brian T. Neubert (May 2007)
- Time to Overhaul Contact Reporting Requirements by David J. Firestein (April 2007)
- How to Measure an Ambassador by J Michael Cleverley (March 2007)
- The Lost Art of Experimentation by Michael Bricker (February 2007)
- Long Term Senior Interagency Education Could Be Privatized by John Bushnell (January 2007)
- Immigration Policy for the 21st Century by David Searby (December 2006)
- Political Appointees: A Cost-Benefit Analysis by William F. Davnie (November 2006)
- Reaching Out to Muslims by Richard S. Sacks (October 2006)
- Time to Read the U.N.’s Culture of Corruption by Thomas D. Boyatt (September 2006)
- Run, Lemmings, Run by David T. Jones (July-August 2006)
- Iranian Nuclear Weapons: Advantage or Liability? by George B. Lambrakis (June 2006)
- What Are We Training IMSers To Do? by Carl E. Stefan (May 2006)
- Opening Embassies: A New Approach Needed by Joseph Schreiber (April 2006)
- Micromanagement and the Culture of Fear by Llywelyn C. Graeme (March 2006)
- It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Where You Serve by John Allen Quintus (February 2006)
- 25 Years Later, Time for Dialogue with Iran by Bruce Laingen (January 2006)
- Implement Career Development by Reforming the Assignment System by Camille Hill (December 2005)
- Leadership at State by Prudence Bushnell (November 2005)
- Let’s Use International Organizations to Fight Terrorism by Leon Weintraub (October 2005)
- The Truth About Language Instruction at FSI by Marie T. Huhtala (September 2005)
- Making Better Use of Eligible Family Members by Scott I. Danaher (July-August 2005)
- Guideposts for Generalists: The Career Development Program by Josh Glazeroff (June 2005)
- Making a Tragic Mistake in Indonesia by Edmund McWilliams (May 2005)
- Public Diplomacy: What Have We Learned? by Joe Johnson (April 2005)
- In Defense of Foreign Service Reporting by Necia Quast (March 2005)
- Foreign Service Evaluations: A Broken System by Michael C. Gonzales (February 2005)
- Toward A Points-Based Promotion System by Kenneth J. Fairfax (January 2005)
- The Lessons of Darfur by Harry C. Blaney III (December 2004)
- Achieving Full Diversity in the Foreign Service by Ajit Joshi (November 2004)
- A Failure of Imagination by Beatrice A. Camp (October 2004)
- A Cry for Justice by Larry W. Roeder, Jr. (September 2004)
- A Tribute to the Senior Seminar by William Stedman (July-August 2004)
- Saddam Hussein’s Trial: Due Process or Victor’s Justice? by Jason D. Soderblom (May 2004)
- U.S. Diplomacy and Other Sacrifices by John Brady Keisling (March 2004)
- IT: Spending is Not Enough by Joe B. Johnson (February 2004)
- Time to Speak Up for the Voice of America by Myrna Whitworth (January 2004)
- The Foreign Service and the Quality of Intelligence by Charles O. Cecil (December 2003)
- The Middle East Road Map: Going Nowhere Fast by Ronald Spiers (November 2003)
- Religion and Diplomacy by Phil Skotte (October 2003)
- Why Dissent is Important and Resignation Honorable by Ann Wright (September 2003)
- Why I Resigned by John Brown (September 2003)
- Strengthen Diplomacy for the War on Terror by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (July-August 2003)
- Dissent Again by David T. Jones (June 2003)
- Toward a True Israeli-Palestinian Peace by Max M. Kampelman (May 2003)
- Does State Need Volcker-Style Reform? by Anthony C. E. Quainton (April 2003)
- Anti-Nepotism Waivers: Let Them Bake Cake by Gina Willis (March 2003)
- Ambassadors and Post Morale by Tibor P. Nagy, Jr. (February 2003)
- The Courage of Our Convictions by Ken Moskowitz (January 2003)