The Foreign Service Journal, February 2009

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 59 Something for Everyone Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the U.S. Foreign Service Harry W. Kopp and Charles A. Gillespie, Washington, D.C., 2008, $26.95, paperback, 266 pages. R EVIEWED BY J OHN B ROWN Rare are the books that can appeal to several audiences, but Career Diplo- macy: Life and Work in the U.S. For- eign Service is one of them. Former Foreign Service officers HarryW. Kopp and Charles A. Gillespie have given us a crisp, often witty, overview of the diplomatic profession, complete with a useful glossary and bibliography. Based on a large number of interviews (in- cluding with this reviewer, I should dis- close), this volume should be of interest to the general reading public, aspiring diplomats and practicing FSOs alike. The general reading public — and not only in the United States — will benefit from the book’s succinct expla- nation of what the U.S. Foreign Serv- ice is all about. According to Kopp and Gillespie, it has a triple mission: repre- sentation, operations and policy. Rep- resentation means that “[O]n behalf of the United States, the Foreign Service talks, listens, reports, analyzes, cajoles, persuades, threatens, debates and, above all, negotiates.” Operations is “dealing every day with host govern- ments and populations, running U.S. programs, executing U.S. laws, giving effect to U.S. policies, offering protec- tion to American citizens and support- ing the full U.S. official civilian pres- ence overseas.” And policy “involves advising the officials who define na- tional interests and decide what re- sources should be deployed to secure them.” Kopp and Gillespie acknowl- edge, however, that American diplo- mats have rarely achieved the influ- ence over policy enjoyed by their counterparts in other nations. For persons unfamiliar with the U.S. Foreign Service, the volume’s his- torical overview of American diplomacy will be valuable. It summarizes how the U.S. diplomatic corps evolved from a function carried out by “amateurs and entrepreneurs” in the 19th century to a professional service, beginning with the enactment of the Rogers Act on May 24, 1924. The subsequent develop- ment of the Foreign Service, including its increased focus on embassies’ secu- rity and the opening of its ranks to women and minorities, is described in just the right amount of detail. Aspiring diplomats will be enlight- ened by the sections of the book that dealing with the State Department Foreign Service examination process, assignments and promotions, and its five generalist career tracks (consular, economic, management, political and public diplomacy). The 12-page docu- ment titled “Foreign Service Core Pre- cepts (July 2007),” provided in Ap- pendix B, is a useful reminder to po- tential Foreign Service officers that much will be demanded of them, al- though the requirements are described in rather general terms. For instance, regarding leadership skills at the entry level, an FSO “takes initiative to go be- yond assigned tasks; identifies prob- lems and proposes creative solutions; seeks to improve job and organization performance.” Mindful of the tendency for many Foreign Service personnel to be unin- terested in budgetary matters, the au- thors underscore the need to under- stand the congressional appropriations process. They also provide a clear ex- planation of administrative procedures that often appear incomprehensible even to seasoned Foggy Bottom veter- ans. Interagency conflict and coordi- nation are other important subjects that receive their due. Kopp and Gillespie deal objectively with current challenges facing the Ser- vice, including stabilization and recon- struction in Iraq and Secretary Rice’s call for “transformational diplomacy,” which makes changing other societies “a more explicit and important goal of American diplomacy.” Kopp and Gillespie provide a clear explanation of topics that often appear incomprehensible even to seasoned Foggy Bottom veterans. B OOKS