The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2020

16 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL China’s “ascent to the top spot has been rapid,” Bonnie Bley, Lowy Institute’s lead researcher, said in the report. In 2016, China was in third place behind the United States and France. “China has overtaken the United States to have the largest diplomatic network globally, while U.S. diplomacy has entered a period of limbo,” Bley said. The United States remains the most popular country to host diplomatic mis- sions from other countries. The U.S. is home to 342 diplomatic posts, according to the institute. China is second with 256. Bias in USAID Funding? I n November the investigative journal- ism nonprofit ProPublica published the results of its examination of allegations that U.S. aid has become politicized. ProPublica viewed internal govern- mental emails and conducted interviews with nearly 40 current and former U.S. officials and aid professionals to docu- ment political pressure, particularly from the office of Vice President Mike Pence, on deliberations on U.S. aid in the Middle East. Most contacts spoke on the condi- tion of anonymity. The findings indicate that increas- ingly, allocation decisions are not being governed by career professionals applying a rigorous review of applicants and their capabilities. Instead, the Trump admin- istration is steering funding to Christian when Hurricane Dorian ravaged the Bahamas in September 2019, Manchester loaded up his private jet with supplies and headed for the hard-hit Caribbean country, where he owned a home. The outreach worked—at least at first. Pres. Trump tweeted, “I would also like to thank ‘Papa’ Doug Manchester, hopefully the next ambassador to the Bahamas, for the incredible amount of time, money and passion he has spent on helping to bring safety to the Bahamas.” Three days after that presidential tweet, Republican National Committee Chair- woman Ronna McDaniel hit up Manches- ter in an email (obtained by CBS News) requesting a half-million-dollar donation. According to CBS, Manchester promptly wrote back that while he’s not supposed tomake donations, his wife was sending a $100,000 donation—andmore would fol- low if his confirmation came through. The gambit might have worked had Manchester not copied staffers of two senators who controlled his nomina- tion, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Idaho’s Jim Risch. Sen. Risch alerted the White House, which then asked Manchester to withdraw. He did, whereupon the RNC refunded his wife’s donation. Publicly, the erstwhile ambassador was philosophical about the debacle, telling CBS News: “Hey, listen—politics is politics.” China Takes First Place in Number of Diplomatic Missions Abroad C hina now has the most diplomatic missions in the world, overtaking the United States, according to the Lowy Global Diplomatic Index. The index, released Nov. 27 by the Lowy Institute, an independent Australian think tank, reveals that China has 276 posts worldwide to the United States’ 273. communities in the Middle East. In October, for example, at the behest of political appointees, USAID announced two grants to Iraqi organizations that career officials had previously rejected. One of the groups has no full-time paid staff, no experience with government grants and a financial tie that would typi- cally raise questions in an intense compe- tition for limited funds. These developments have sparked concern among career USAID officials, who worry that the agency risks violating constitutional prohibitions on favoring one religion over another. They also worry that being perceived as favoring Christians could worsen Iraq’s sectarian divides. “There are very deliberate procure- ment guidelines that have developed over a number of years to guard precisely against this kind of behavior,” notes Steven Feldstein, a former State Department and USAID official. When politics intrude on the grant-making process, “you’re dilut- ing the very nature of what development programs ought to accomplish.” Asked for comment, Pence’s press secretary, Katie Waldman, said: “The vice president is always proud to support religious freedom, both here at home and abroad.” This edition of Talking Points was compiled by Cameron Woodworth, Steve Honley and Shawn Dorman. I f we’re serious about reforming our democracy and taking money out of politics, it means eliminating the pay-to-play practices that have dominated diplomatic appointments in both parties. In my administra- tion, only those most-qualified people will be considered for ambassa- dorships and appointments—not wealthy donors or big bundlers. –Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and presidential candidate Julián Castro, Nov. 22. ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL