The Foreign Service Journal, February 2006

are already classified as “greater hardship.” The department already offers incentives in the form of R&R leave and onward assignment preferences to those who serve in front-line posts, but there are financial and logistical limits on what more it can do along those lines. Understandably, McKinsey does not offer any rad- ical solution to the annual problem of recruiting 700 “vol- unteers” for these jobs. However, I foresee attempts to solve the problem by striking at the heart of the current assignment system; several recent trial balloons have already been launched in the media suggesting that directed assignments are in the offing. I fear that as the number of volunteers for this 3-D duty diminishes, department leadership will be sorely tempted to alter the core of the Foreign Service — pro- motions based solely on the quality of performance, regardless of where performed. The political leadership does not necessarily have the best interests of the Service at heart; its primary goal is to implement administration policy, at whatever cost. If they thought promising pro- motions to volunteers for front-line duty would work, I don’t doubt for a New York minute it would be tried. Personally, I would rather see directed assignments than witness the destruction of the Foreign Service as a system based on merit. The McKinsey report describes the challenge of staffing front-line posts as a part of transformational diplo- macy. But beyond that, the consultants seem as perplexed as many of us in the Foreign Service are about what Secretary Rice actually means when she uses that term. True, she told the consultants that she wants State to be “even more active in promoting the development of democratic institutions, the reduction of poverty and dis- ease and the elimination of terrorism and violence.” But that definition doesn’t satisfy either McKinsey or me; after all, how are those goals any different than the ones pur- sued by traditional diplomacy? No wonder the consul- tants encountered a widespread belief within the depart- ment that transformational diplomacy boils down to staffing Iraq and Afghanistan and future front-line posts. F O C U S F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 43 Interim Accommodations for Corporate and Government Markets Apartments, Townhouses & Single Family Homes “FOR THE EXECUTIVE ON THE MOVE” h finder5@IX.netcom.com Locations throughout Northern Virginia and D.C. Units fully furnished, equipped and accessorized Many “Walk to Metro” locations Pet Friendly 5105-L Backlick Road, Annandale, Virginia Tel: (703) 354-4070 Fax: (703) 642-3619 Executive Lodging Alternatives