The Foreign Service Journal, March 2007

“Our decentralization effort in Iraq will require a more decentralized presence,” explained Sec. Rice in her testi- mony. “We must continue to get civilians and diplomats out of our embassy, out of the capital and into the field, all across the country. The mechanism to do this is the PRT. We currently have 10 PRTs deployed across Iraq, seven American and three coalition-led. Building on this exist- ing presence, we plan to expand from 10 to at least 18 teams. For example, we will have six PRTs in Baghdad, not just one. We will go from one team in Anbar province to three — in Fallujah, Ramadi and al Qaim. These PRTs will closely share responsibilities and reflect an unprece- dented unity of civilian and military effort.” Summing up the goal of the expanded mission, she said that “Our expanded PRT presence will be a powerful tool to empower Iraq’s reformers and responsible leaders in their struggle against violent extremism.” When asked about the role of the Foreign Service in counterinsurgency efforts, Stephenson said that coun- terinsurgency work is “20 percent military and 80 percent everything else. The Foreign Service brings the strategic vision to the picture.” Staffing PRTs The civilian surge plan calls for about 390 civilians to “augment” the current PRT program. The initial announcement sent shock waves through the Foreign Service, causing employees at all levels to wonder where an additional 390 Foreign Service members would be found to staff such positions, given the already over- stretched personnel system. The reality of the civilian surge plan will be less dra- matic for Foreign Service personnel, however. There will be a Foreign Service component to the surge, which for most of the 10 new PRTs will consist of one Senior FS or FS-1 level officer from State to be team leader and one officer from USAID to be a senior development adviser. Initially, USAID, which is to play a greater role in the next phase of PRT development, was to provide about 90 of the new PRT members, but as the plans have evolved and F O C U S M A R C H 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35