The Foreign Service Journal, February 2007

12 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 7 Pentagon’s Expanded Reach Puts Strain on Embassies The significantly augmented pres- ence of U.S. military personnel out- side of war zones since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is creating frictions that could undermine U.S. counterterror- ism policy implementation, a staff report for the Senate Foreign Rela- tions Committee released on Dec. 15 states. The report, “Embassies as Command Posts in the Anti-terror Campaign,” also states that some host countries are questioning the growing military component of America’s pro- file overseas. The report is based on interviews conducted in some 20 embassies around the world by six Republican staffers dispatched by then-SFRC Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to examine the relationship between the State Department and Defense De- partment at American embassies. In some countries, such as Yemen and Thailand, strong working relation- ships between the ambassador and military officials were reported. Many other ambassadors felt they had an adequate grasp of military activities in their country, but at least three appeared overwhelmed, according to the report. The latter said they were not adequately informed of the opera- tions the Pentagon was conducting in their countries. In some cases, embassy staff reported, the military had pre-empted decisionmaking. Blurred chains of command and overlapping missions were also found, particularly in the area of information operations. The Pentagon’s three- to four-person “Military Information Support Teams” are now deployed in 18 countries, with plans to expand to 30. The report cites a case of the type of friction that sometimes results: In Mali, military officials wanted to fea- ture a moderate Muslim cleric in a video produced by the embassy, while the embassy’s civilian staff argued that showcasing the cleric’s support for the U.S. would only taint him among the local population. The report’s recommendations include a strengthening of ambass- adors’ hands over military-related activities, consolidation of authority for both civilian and military assistance under the Secretary of State, righting the imbalance of investments in civil- ian and military approaches, and regu- larizing and expanding the State De- partment’s Regional Strategic Initia- tive. The RSI is a program of the Office of the Coordinator for Counter- terrorism to develop flexible regional networks of interconnected country teams to assess threats and develop collaborative strategies and initiatives. The report adds to growing con- cern over the role of the Pentagon in foreign relations. Andrew J. Bacevich, a retired Army colonel who is a pro- fessor of international relations at Boston University, told the New York Times that the report’s warning that the Secretary of State could lose pri- macy over American foreign policy decisions had, in some ways, already come to pass. “That horse has already escaped from the barn,” he warns in reporter Mark Mazzetti’s Dec. 20 arti- cle. “The Secretary of State enjoys no such primacy. The Pentagon has the money and calls the shots.” In his letter of transmittal, Sen. Lugar states that the report is “only the first chapter” in a continuing examination of ways to strengthen the U.S. posture overseas. “There is no country in the world where our nation can afford to send diplomats ill-pre- pared to understand and make the tough choices,” he states. “Nor can we as a Congress continue to undervalue the role of the civilian agencies if we want to ensure that our response to violent extremism is calibrated, sup- ported by an appropriate mix of civil- ian and military tools.” To see the full text of the report, go to www.access.gpo.gov/congress/ senate/senate11cp109.html , where links to committee prints are listed by title. — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor Diplopedia: State’s Pilot Project in Information Sharing Last month we reported on the “Wikipedia” of secrets, “Intellipedia.” But the intelligence agencies aren’t alone in adopting the popular, online, user-generated encyclopedia software to promote collaboration across bur- eaucratic and geographic divides. At State, the Office of eDiplomacy is testing the use of a wiki as an insti- tutional knowledge repository and information-sharing tool. “Diploped- ia” was launched on the department’s secure intranet last year as a one-year pilot project. “Diplopedia” is aimed at capturing the tremendous amount of unique experience and knowledge depart- ment employees carry with them as they rotate through overseas and C YBERNOTES