The Foreign Service Journal, February 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2013 21 THE HIDDENCOSTS OF OUTSOURCING DIPLOMACY AND DEVELOPMENT FOCUS OUTSOURCING Outsourcing broad aspects of State and USAID’s engagement with the world has become the new normal. But should it be? BY AL L I SON STANGER T he United States has now spent around two trillion dollars on an 11-year-long war on ter- ror. It is tempting to believe we can eliminate additional losses by simply declaring it over, but the costs of pursuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not just been financial. To pursue those missions, American diplomacy and devel- opment functions have been outsourced in unprecedented ways over the past decade. In using the term “outsourcing,” I refer to the increased reliance on contracts and grants to do the work of government, which correlates with a higher percentage of contractors in the State Department’s total work force. Outsourcing involves the transfer of jobs from the public to the private sector, where the work may be done by corpora- tions, nonprofit organizations or hybrid entities. The unin- tended consequences of that policy shift will pose challenges for the civilian side of foreign policy long after the last soldier has come home.