The Foreign Service Journal, March 2023

24 MARCH 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL We are encouraged that some of the reforms we advocated have been adopted. for new frontiers such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, space, and the Arctic are among the challenges that must be met by focused and vigorous American diplomacy. U.S. diplomacy and U.S. diplomats played a critical role, for example, in forging the strong and united Western response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. We said then, and we repeat today: We are proud of the men and women, Foreign Service and Civil Service, who serve our great country abroad. But America’s representatives need more support. We said that our nation’s diplomatic service “was facing one of the most profound crises in its long and proud history.” It was “underfunded and understaffed and in need of stronger career and non-career leadership.” Its record on diversity and inclusion did not match its aspirations. We argued that the Foreign Service needed an honest self-assessment of an internal culture that is often an impediment to indi- vidual and organizational success. The conclusions we shared then were based on work we had done with Nick Burns, now U.S. ambassador to China, for the November 2020 report, A U.S. Diplomatic Service for the 21st Century , published by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs with the participation of the Una Chapman Cox Foundation and individual donors. In that nonpartisan report, we presented 10 actions to reimagine the U.S. Foreign Service. We focused on reform of everything from the Foreign Service mission and mandate to the need for more professional education and training, more modern personnel management, a relentless focus on diversity and inclusion, reexamination of the Foreign Service’s culture, a surge capacity in major crises with a reserve corps, and a new name, the United States Diplomatic Service, to reflect more accurately the mission and better connect dip- lomats to the American people. As we had hoped, the report sparked plenty of discussion. Many recognized that 40 years after passage of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, which provides the structure of the current Foreign Service, it was the right time to identify what about the Foreign Service needed to be upgraded, modernized, or changed to meet contemporary challenges. In a speech in October 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined his thinking on reform of diplomacy. Groups large and small, including several embassies, the World Affairs Council of America, several bipartisan groups of Hill staff, and AFSA, invited us to discuss our ideas. We are encouraged that some of the reforms we advocated have been adopted. They include: appointment of a State Depart- ment coordinator for diversity and inclusion, a down payment on a training “float” or complement, paid internships that will broaden the socioeconomic base of future applicants, more lead- ership positions for career officers through incorporating deputy assistant secretary positions in the open assignments process, new parameters for risk management, and plans for career-long education for both the Foreign Service and Civil Service. Phase II—Not a “Report” After the positive response to the Belfer report, our conversations with members of the outgoing Trump and incoming Biden administrations, current and retired members of the Foreign Service, impor- tant groups like AFSA, and members of Congress and staff, we decided that in a Phase II effort we would focus on four achievable, affordable, urgently needed, high-impact recommendations. The Cox Foundation again agreed to participate. Arizona State University’s Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab became our institutional home and provided crucial sup- port, as did the American Academy of Diplomacy. Phase II turned out to be not a “report” at all. Our Blueprints for a More Modern U.S. Diplomatic Service , released last Sep- tember, are detailed plans, drafted by retired ambassadors with decades of experience, ready to be implemented as specific reforms. Each one includes proposed legislative or regula- tory language written by an experienced legislative drafter. We appreciate the support AFSA has shown for the Blueprints in the FSJ .