The Foreign Service Journal, February 2010

A Holiday Gift for USAID After nearly two years in limbo, the U.S. Agency for International Devel- opment started the new year on a pos- itive note. Rajiv Shah, the 36-year-old under secretary at the Department of Agriculture and a former Gates Foun- dation official, was confirmed unani- mously by the Senate on Dec. 24 as the agency’s new administrator. “Restoring USAID’s effectiveness will be my top priority,” Shah had stated in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 1 ( http://foreign.senate.gov ). He pledged “to work with this committee and consult with the broader develop- ment community and those it seeks to impact, to help craft and implement a development strategy that delivers on the president’s and Secretary [of State Hillary Rodham Clinton]’s vision of USAID as the world’s premier devel- opment agency.” While a bipartisan consensus on the need to boost development and diplo- macy has shone a spotlight on USAID, the agency’s direction and autonomy vis-à-vis the State Department have been in dispute, and its skills base has deteriorated over the years due to lack of support. These are just a few of the knotty issues the new administrator will have to tackle right away ( www. csmonitor.com ). Though he is a medical doctor, economist and specialist in food secu- rity, Shah’s relative lack of field experi- ence in development work may be a concern for some. But his dynamism and record as a quick study and confi- dent problem-solver may well make up for this ( www.nationaljournal.com ) . Security and Diplomacy: Conflicting Missions? It is no secret that the mission and responsibilities of the Bureau of Diplo- matic Security have grown significantly over the past decade, in response to new demands on the agency since 9/11. The bureau’s budget has in- creased from about $200 million in 1998 to $1.8 billion in 2008, and its di- rect-hire work force has nearly tripled, from under 1,000 in 1998 to about 3,000 in 2008. Less well-known, however, are the operational challenges DS faces. These issues were the subject of a hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee onDec. 9 that included testimony from Assistant Secretary of State for Diplo- matic Security Eric J. Boswell, Govern- ment Accountability Office Director of International Affairs and Trade Jess Ford, retired FSO and former ambas- sador to Afghanistan Ron Neumann and AFSA President Susan Johnson ( www.hsgac.senate.gov ) . A severe staffing shortage, particu- larly in domestic offices (many of which have a 25-percent vacancy rate), is one of the most critical challenges, according to a November GAO report, “Diplomatic Security’s Recent Growth Warrants Strategic Review” ( www. gao.gov ). Fully 34 percent of DS positions (not including those in Baghdad) are filled with officers whose experience and language skills are below the posi- tion’s grade. Moreover, as of 2008, the 8 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 1 0 C YBERNOTES E ight years into the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. intelligence community is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy. ... Disengaged from peo- ple in the best position to find answers — whether aid workers or Afghan soldiers — U.S. intelligence officers and analysts can do little but shrug in response to high-level decision-makers seeking the knowledge, analysis and information they need to wage a successful counterinsurgency. —Major General Michael Flynn (Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan), in “Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan,” www.cnas.org/node/3924