The Foreign Service Journal, February 2005

• All the hardware for modern IT is now installed and on a four-year replacement cycle. All desks are finally linked worldwide. Information security is greatly enhanced. A new, robust, state-of-the-art message and archiving system (SMART) is being tested to do away with yesteryear’s inadequate telegrams and their risky distribu- tion and storage. • The new Overseas Buildings Office has completed 13 safe, secure, functional buildings in two years and under budget. Twenty-six more are on the way. This con- trasts with the pre-2002 rate of about one building per year. Congress and OMB have praised OBO effusively. Security upgrades have thwarted terrorist attacks at sever- al posts. • The Deputy Secretary personally chairs the senior reviews of the bureaus’ Performance Plans (policy-relat- ed budgets) and the bureaus, in turn, hold ambassadors accountable for their Mission Performance Plans. • The senior reviews include USAID. There is a first-ever, five-year Joint State-USAID Strategic Plan. And the new State-USAID Joint Management Councils, one for policy and one for management oper- ations, are running effectively • There are experiments with “virtual posts” which aid “right-sizing” and public diplomacy (15 of them as of October 2004). • Administrative operations at six embassies have qualified for ISO 9000 certification, a point of pride, efficiency and service. The goal is to certify for ISO 9000 all administrative functions at all posts, meaning that all administrative functions at all posts meet ISO (International Organization for Standardization) crite- ria for certification for administrative excellence. • Visa operations use new IT systems and rigorously carry out post-9/11 security requirements — some- times to the detriment of other U.S. programs and interests, despite energetic leadership efforts to main- tain “open doors” along with “secure borders.” Vulnerabilities Many of the management improvements are institu- tionally well-rooted, partly because the new Foreign Service cohorts will demand that they stay. But many are vulnerable in a budget crisis, and others require more work. Key tasks: 1. State must maintain its partnership with Con- gress. Secretary Powell has been the critical actor in this regard, but he also has enabled his senior and mid- level subordinates to carry much of the load. This prac- tice must continue. 2. Integration of public diplomacy into the policy process is still deficient. Experimentation on multiple fronts is needed to make the public diplomacy function more effective. Ideas include training, expansion of the ways public diplomacy officers relate to the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, and aggressive action to make public diplomacy a part of all policy development. 3. State’s public affairs efforts need to go beyond explaining current policies to the public. They need to engage the public on a sustained basis regarding what the Department of State is and what its people do, espe- cially overseas, as a way to build public confidence in the institution and confidence in the policies it is explaining and carrying out. 4. Diplomatic readiness is incomplete, budget out- looks are grim, and there are new needs: positions to replace those reprogrammed from diplomatic readiness to cover Iraq and Afghanistan; positions to provide surge capacity for crises; and positions to staff the new, congres- sionally-proposed [Office of the] Coordinator for Stabilization and Reconstruction. State should develop a ready reserve of active-duty personnel who have strong secondary skills in critical fields, plus a select cadre of recallable retirees with like skills. Continuous attention to the recruitment system is needed to remain competitive. And State must protect its training resources, including those for hard language and leadership/management training, from raids to cover operational emergencies. Sending people abroad without the requisite training is like deploying soldiers without weapons. 5. State must update its overseas consular staffing F O C U S 20 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 Ambassador Thomas D. Boyatt is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Council, and has served at various times since 1970 as AFSA Governing Board president, vice president, treasurer and retiree representative. An FSO from 1959 until 1985, he served as ambassador to Colombia and Upper Volta (now Burkino Faso) and chargé d’affaires in Chile, in addition to postings in Nicosia, Luxembourg and Antofagasta (Chile). In Washington, he served on the staff of the under secretary of Treasury, as assistant to the assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, and as director of the Office of Cypriot Affairs, among other positions.