The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016 15 We have been presented with two options and we need to choose. We either condemn our planet to further destruction or we save it. Those are our stark choices. —Prime Minister of Saint Lucia Kenny Anthony, from his address to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes in Paris on Nov. 30. Contemporary Quote UK Boosts BBC World Service Funding T he British government has announced that it will increase fund- ing for BBCWorld Service, the world’s largest international broadcaster, by $437 million over the next few years. This is a dramatic reversal in policy from 2010, when the new Conservative government decided to cut World Service funding completely, leaving the BBC to absorb the cost and fund itself through the money paid by the British public for television licenses. According to BBC News, “the govern- ment will provide £34 million in 2016-2017 and £85 million per year from 2017 to 2018” and onwards for services related to the Internet, television and radio. Comparable to Voice of America in the United States, BBCWorld Service is a valuable soft-power tool in British public diplomacy efforts. The increase in funding comes from a revamping of the soft-power strategy of the British Foreign Office, which is hoping to reach countries with “democratic deficits.”The goal is to increase global access to information, especially in countries where authoritar- ian governments make information dis- semination difficult. BBC Director General Lord Tony Hall has pointed out that this is “the single big- gest increase in the World Service budget ever committed by any government.”The World Service is one of the U.K.’s most important cultural exports, he adds, “and The Case of the Oldsters T he Foreign Service as now constituted has no real Reserve Corps. The employees bearing the “Reserve Officer” designation are in fact on active and quasi-permanent duty and are not a “reserve,” in the accepted sense of that word, upon which the Department of State can draw to beef up its operations during critical situation or for special operations where some additional talent or skill is temporarily required. It is proposed that the department seek legislation which would permit it to organize a true Emergency Reserve Corps composed of individuals, not in active ser- vice, possessing special skills and talents which might be drawn upon when the national interest so requires. One obvious source for this Emergency Reserve Corps would be former Foreign Service officers who have retired or resigned for personal reasons and who still maintain their skills and know-how, now largely going to waste. Under this proposal when an FSO retires or leaves the service under conditions in which he could still render valuable service to the nation in times of need, he would be offered a commission in the Foreign Ser- vice Emergency Reserve Corps in the highest grade he held while on active service. His skills, special contacts and know-how would then be IBM’d, his security clearance would be kept current and, to the extent possible, he would be kept up-to-date on his special- ties, either by short periods of active duty or by correspondence courses, etc. In this way his special contributions would be pre- evaluated and known to officers in active operations both in the department and the field. This would constitute a very valuable addition to the total manpower pool of the foreign affairs establishment. Emergency Reserve com- missions would, of course, also be offered to selected individuals who have served with the other closely related foreign affairs agencies such as USIA and USAID. This would give the Secretary great flexibility in tap- ping a very valuable and highly skilled manpower source which is now largely dissipated. —Leon B. Poullada, from “A Foreign Service Training Corps?” in the February 1966 FSJ . 50 Years Ago