The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022 13 tive, professional dissent more broadly throughout the department.” The Dissent Channel was established by Secretary of State William P. Rogers in 1971 in response to concerns that dissent- ing opinions were suppressed or ignored during the VietnamWar. Also that year, the right of FSOs to dissent was explicitly codified in the Foreign Affairs Manual. According to rules outlined there, messages sent to the Dissent Channel are reviewed by Policy Planning staffers, must be acknowledged within two days and must receive a response within 30 to 60 days. Notable dissent in the past includes a 1992 cable protesting the U.S. failure to act during the Bosnian genocide, which is credited with helping lead to the Dayton Accords. Power Shares USAID Agenda A dministrator Samantha Power presented her vision for transform- ing USAID during a celebration of the agency’s 60th anniversary at Georgetown University on Nov. 4. In her speech, titled “A New Vision for Global Development,” Power addressed the problems facing the agency and high- lighted her proposed fixes. She went into more details during a subsequent AFSA Inside Diplomacy event the same day (see page 55) . The 9,000-person staff of USAID is not diverse enough, she said. The solution requires a new diversity, equity and inclu- sion strategy and recruiting events geared to Black and Hispanic students. USAID aims to increase its budget for paid internships by nearly 700 percent, she said, “because we know that unpaid internships can be a barrier to entry for candidates from underrepresented com- munities.” The agency will also bring on a chief diversity officer. To combat workforce depletion, Power will seek to increase career staffing over the next four years, recruit diverse candi- dates and prioritize staff equity. “Our most recent class of Foreign Ser- vice officers is our most diverse class ever,” the Administrator said, “and as we staff up, we’ve got to break that record year after year.” Power also pointed out that local aid groups and businesses that partner with USAID need more support; over the last decade, the amount of USAID dollars going to local partners increased only from 4 percent to 6 percent. Moving forward, the agency plans to provide at least a quarter of its funds directly to local partners. Through this funding boost, Power When an ambassador is confirmed, that person goes out with the endorsement of both the president of the United States and the U.S. Senate. That’s powerful; that holds a lot of weight. If you’re a foreign government, you know that this person represents our country—two branches of government. We’ve got a lot of diplomacy to do in this very messy world right now, and without an ambassador, we don’t have the coordinating function that the ambassador has to play. We’re tying both our hands behind our back. —AFSA President Eric Rubin, in an interview with PBS NewsHour, Dec. 14, 2021. Contemporary Quote