The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2022 15 TALKING POINTS Confirmations Move Forward at Last S hortly after our last confirmations update went to print in December, the Senate logjam broke, and dozens of nominees were confirmed for both senior positions at the foreign affairs agencies and ambassadorships. The pre-holiday confirmation marathon was expected and welcomed. To further ensure progress through the backlog, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) cut a deal with Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in mid-December to hold a vote in January on Nord Stream 2 sanctions in exchange for Cruz lifting his hold on 32 ambassador nominees. Ultimately, the Senate voted 55-44 to defeat Cruz’s legislation on Jan. 13, but the agreement between the two senators hinged on Schumer holding a vote on the bill, not on its passage. Among those confirmed in December were 21 career members of the Foreign Service for ambassadorships, as well as career FSOs John Bass to be under secre- tary of State for management and Michele Sison to be assistant secretary of State for international organization affairs. In addition, 20 political appointees were confirmed for various roles, includ- ing ambassadors to Japan, Spain, Poland, France and the European Union. The Senate began the new year by swiftly confirming political appointee Anne Witkowsky for the role of assistant secretary of State for conflict and stabili- zation operations. At the time of this writing in mid-Jan- uary, nine senior positions at the Depart- ment of State have nominees who have yet to be confirmed. In addition, four posi- tions do not yet have a nominee, including the crucial position of Inspector General. At USAID, six nominees remain unconfirmed and only one position lacks ing audience identification rather than program selection.” In addition to launching a major revision of the position descriptions for locally employed public diplomacy staff, the PDSI includes a significant restructur- ing of embassy PD sections. It replaces traditional cultural and press functions with performance clusters focused on audience engagement as well as strategic content and resource coordination. ACPD researchers conducted inter- views with more than 100 PD and human resources professionals within the State Department fromMay to July 2021, two- thirds of whomwere serving at missions that had implemented the initiative. In addition, Walker and ACPD Senior Adviser Shawn Baxter conducted 24 focus group discussions with 10 missions and three consulates that had agreed to pro- vide input. These missions represented each of the five regional bureaus in which posts had implemented the initiative. One of the study’s most important findings is how little is known about the PDSI’s strategic intent, let alone its impacts, outside the world of PD practi- tioners. The ACPD hopes its report will help fill this knowledge gap and illumi- nate the PDSI’s transformative potential among stakeholders in the Department of State, as well as in the academic and policy communities. a nominee. The director general of the Foreign Commercial Service has yet to be confirmed, as has the nominee for CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. AFSA is currently tracking 68 ambas- sador vacancies across the globe, only 23 of which have a nominee. Members can follow AFSA’s ambassador tracker for real- time updates at afsa.org/ambassadorlist. Within the State Department, two new positions have been created—that do not require Senate confirmation—to advance human rights work in Afghanistan. On Dec. 29, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed Rina Amiri as special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, and Stephenie Foster as senior adviser for women’s and girls’ issues within the coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts (CARE) team. A Shift in PD Field Practices O n Dec. 30, the U.S. Advisory Com- mission on Public Diplomacy issued a special report on the Public Diplomacy Staffing Initiative: “Putting Audience and Policy First: A Public Diplomacy Paradigm Shift. ” The ACPD is a biparti- san panel Congress created in 1948 to formulate, assess and recommend poli- cies and programs to carry out the public diplomacy (PD) functions vested in U.S. government entities. The PD staffing initiative is one of the most important transformations in public diplomacy operations overseas since the merger of the U.S. Information Agency into the Department of State in 1999, and by April 2021 some 49 U.S. missions had implemented it. “What is transformative about the PDSI,” says ACPD Executive Direc- tor Vivian Walker, “is that, instead of fitting people to existing programs, the PDSI fits programs to people, prioritiz- U.S.ADVISORYCOMMISSIONONPUBLICDIPLOMACY