The Foreign Service Journal, January 2010

Two welcome recent de- velopments have spotlighted the relationship between the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. One is the long- awaited nomination of Rajiv Shah asUSAIDAdministrator. The other is the progress of the Kerry- Lugar bill on foreign assistance reform, though consensus remains elusive. Before we initiate any major over- haul of development assistance pro- grams and structures, we need a better understanding of the new global situa- tion that we face. To put it bluntly, we do not have a firm enough grasp of it to undertake intelligent reform. Getting on top of these trends should be our pri- ority. Only then can we formulate an ef- fective foreign policy that makes the best possible use of the respective roles that diplomacy and development play in the global arena. Once that conceptual work has been done, we can focus on repairing the fractious organizational relationship be- tween State and USAID. Toward that end, the Obama administration needs to pursue a consultative process that is more inclusive of differing perspectives. This means tapping the views of devel- opment practitioners as well as diplo- mats — past and present, and from all ranks, not just the top policy- makers — and taking con- structive advantage of AFSA, which is representative of, and able to collect, member perspectives. The Quadren- nial Diplomacy andDevelop- ment Review now under way offers a timely process to do just this. We hear a lot about the profound changes marking the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st. Yet only rarely do we see attempts to ex- plore their impact on diplomacy and de- velopment. In particular, the challenges of climate change, energy and food se- curity, and HIV/AIDS and other health issues are global in scope, and are not susceptible to unilateral American ac- tion. This reality impels us to use our resources and leadership to forge re- gional and global multilateral coalitions to address these problems. Moreover, the pace of societal change and the exponential process of globalization have both become so rapid that our very ability to anticipate prob- lems and opportunities has decreased correspondingly. In response to this phenomenon, we need to place a pre- miumon flexibility, communications ca- pacity and knowledge — not just the gathering of information. Equally important is the question of how effective our assistance programs have been. The Marshall Plan still rep- resents one of the few examples of a U.S. development assistance program that has made a real, lasting difference on the ground — and that was six decades ago. Despite the dedication and expertise of countless Foreign Serv- ice professionals, many U.S. assistance programs — particularly the ambitious reconstruction/nationbuilding efforts conducted in Afghanistan and Iraq dur- ing recent years — have failed to meet their targets. There are undoubtedly many possible explanations for these shortcomings, many of them involving local factors, but we cannot address them until we acknowledge them. We needmore thoughtful andmore inclusive discourse on these questions, gathered via a process that actively seeks out as many perspectives from as many stakeholders as possible. Once we have a consensus on how these changes af- fect and reshape the respectivemissions of State and USAID, we can then de- fine requirements in terms of struc- tures, processes and training. Toward that end, if you have views to share, particularly on how these two agencies can work together most effec- tively to promote and protect our long- term national interests, or how AFSA might more efficiently collect and share views and recommendations from pro- fessionals and diplomats in the field, please send them to me (Johnson@ afsa.org) and USAID VP Francisco Zamora ( FZamora@usaid.gov) . We look forward to hearing from you. ■ Susan R. Johnson is the president of the American Foreign Service Association. P RESIDENT ’ S V IEWS The State-USAID Relationship: Measure Twice, Cut Once B Y S USAN R. J OHNSON J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 5