The Foreign Service Journal, March 2021

34 MARCH 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL leadership abilities. Among career diplomats (and retirees), there are many superb candidates. For those former ambassadors who present their credentials this time, a good question to ask is: “What did you do to pro- mote and advance the FSOs of color who worked for you?” That should help remove the chaff from the wheat. Nicole Conn is a retired FSO who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Let’s See the New Leadership I would like to request that the new administration send out the official leadership photos as soon as possible. I will feel much better seeing these each day as I enter a federal building to work. The photos are symbols of democracy in action, of our commitment to support all changes of administration over my 32-year government career. I am so proud to be an American, proud of what we can do. Diane G. Corbin is a Foreign Service office management specialist rover working in the front office of U.S. Embassy Guatemala City. Improve Implementation of “Deal Teams” The concept of creating embassy “deal teams” to provide improved support to U.S. commercial and trade activities abroad is valuable, but implementation is fatally flawed. Since retiring seven years ago, I have been the country man- ager in Mozambique for a large U.S. engineering and construc- tion firm and worked for a private investment bank that focuses on power and infrastructure projects in Europe and Africa. In this work I have learned how little I understood about the needs and perspectives of U.S. business while on active duty. I took seriously the charge in my letters of instruction from the president to promote U.S. business and achieved some significant successes. However, I now realize that I was under- prepared to understand how the private sector thinks about investments, analyzes opportunities and risks, and reaches investment decisions. And I had no more than a vague grasp of the complexities of project finance. I would recommend two specific steps to make the “deal team” concept more effective: First, an intense short-term course for all officers on foreign trade, foreign investment and project finance, including, if possible, a monthlong “internship” at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the Com- merce Department, the Department of Agriculture, the Export- Import Bank of the U.S. or a private-sector financial institution. Second, I recommend increased opportunities for one- or two-year “excursion tours” in the private sector or at one of the U.S. government trade and finance institutions. FSOs don’t have to become experts in these subjects, but they do need to be familiar with the basic concepts if they are to promote U.S. busi- ness effectively. For these recommendations to take root, the promotion precepts must emphasize the value of this training and urge promotion boards to recognize it as an important element of demonstrating the ability to perform at higher levels. Christopher Dell, a retired FSO, lives in Washington, D.C. Emphasize Historical Literacy in Training One specific recommendation for the new administration is to expand training to include greater emphasis on historical literacy for Foreign Service professionals before serving at overseas posts. Generations of diplomats have underscored the need for more training. Take a look at how the military prepares its foreign area officers (FAOs), posting them, as the FAO program website describes, for “one year of in-country immersion at a site somewhere within their assigned region,” and requiring them to “attend a fully-funded graduate program and earn a master’s degree with a focus on their assigned region.” Appeals for the equivalent Foreign Service education have gone unheeded, branded as too expensive. A training float is not new; it already exists for language learning. But no matter how important speaking in the foreign language is to conducting the breadth of diplomacy, it is not sufficient. In-depth background on the host nation is also essential. Yet beyond a short introduc- tory area studies course that covers an entire region and all the current issues facing the United States, acquiring that is left to the individual. Such training should specifically incorporate a greater focus on the study of history—of the events and people that shaped the identity of the country, of the relationship between the United States and that country, of competing historical under- standings of significant events. Far too many times throughout my career, I engaged foreign counterparts better versed than I was in the historical complex- ity of a situation, leaving me at a disadvantage in advocating U.S. interests. Far too often I encountered contentious incidents