32 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL other hand, the next Secretary should shun any career officers who meekly recommend what they think the Secretary wants to hear or who mechanically implement directives without first speaking up about likely negative consequences. Instead, the Secretary should encourage frank, constructive criticism to probe for potential pitfalls and unintended consequences in policy initiatives. Unless these urgent steps are taken to strengthen the diplomatic element of national security, no amount of jetting around the globe by the president or Secretary will restore our nation’s role as the world’s leader in international affairs. Without sufficient numbers of properly resourced and well-trained diplomats and development professionals, America’s engagement with the world will suffer. “Renewing American Diplomacy” by John K. Naland January 2009, President’s Views Barack Obama won the presidency pledging to renew American diplomacy. In so doing, he not only called for changes in substantive foreign policy positions, but also looked beneath the policy superstructure and identified the need to strengthen the platform upon which diplomacy is conducted. For example, he called for increasing Foreign Service staffing at State and USAID. AFSA, of course, completely agrees on the need to fix the staffing deficits that have hobbled our foreign affairs agencies. Toward that end, we look forward to working with President-elect Obama, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, and other incoming officials to obtain the needed resources from Congress. But as candidate Obama and his campaign policy papers made clear, the mere application of more resources will not be sufficient to strengthen America’s international engagement. Instead, our diplomats and development professionals also need increased capabilities. … I am confident that Foreign Service members would welcome a “grand bargain” that coupled a significant expansion of staffing with a reengineering of our personnel system to set new, career-long training requirements. But whether or not such a reform would be universally welcomed, I am convinced that it is necessary. Unless the Foreign Service raises the level of its game by sharpening knowledge, skills and abilities needed to meet the challenges of 21st-century diplomacy and development assistance, the president and Congress may increasingly look elsewhere—including to our already overstretched military—to conduct our nation’s engagement with the world. 2017: BARACK OBAMA TO DONALD J. TRUMP “Dear S: You Can Count on Us” by Barbara Stephenson January-February 2017, President’s Views Congratulations on your appointment to lead the State Department. … In the Foreign Service, you will have a corps of career professionals who are second to none in their grasp of how to get things done in the near and far-flung places where we are deployed. And you can count on us to call it like we see it, to give you our best advice. Sometimes you will love our reports and our advice, as we chart the course for achieving an American goal that you might not have thought possible, might not have seen if you didn’t have members of the Foreign Service on the ground, working in the local language, searching out these opportunities. Sometimes you may not like our reports and advice so much, when we must advise you that something just won’t fly, when even asking would carry a heavy cost. We are hard-wired to give you an unvarnished reality check. It starts with the oath of office we take on entering the Service— to protect and defend the Constitution. … Count on us and use us fully as we support you in delivering the global leadership Americans want and the world needs. December 2008 FSJ.
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