20 MARCH 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL education over the course of their careers, the State Department has fallen behind. The current structure provides minimal training beyond language acquisition and initial onboarding, with only intermittent specialized courses (often virtual) throughout a diplomat’s career. This leaves our diplomats underprepared to navigate the complexity of modern diplomacy and leadership challenges. To address the gap, I recommend a fundamental rethinking and overhaul of the State Department’s training programs. Specifically, there should be a continuous, structured learning path that spans a diplomat’s entire career. This should include mandatory courses on leadership, strategic analysis, negotiation skills, and crisis management, as well as ongoing opportunities to engage in scenario-based training that reflects the evolving global context. An investment in career-long professional education is an investment in the future of U.S. diplomacy. It ensures that our diplomats are equipped not only with the technical skills to manage foreign policy issues but also with the leadership and management capabilities required to think strategically, collaborate effectively, and influence outcomes. By building a more professionalized Foreign Service, the U.S. will be better positioned to confront future global challenges and effectively advocate for its interests on the world stage. A comprehensive and forward-thinking approach to diplomatic training will strengthen the State Department and enable U.S. diplomacy to remain agile, effective, and influential in an increasingly complex world. Jessica Kuhn State Department FSO U.S. Embassy Buenos Aires Energize Commercial Diplomacy Assisting U.S. companies to win business overseas can advance broader foreign policy goals while delivering jobs and opportunity to American workers. Commercial successes also show the American people how their foreign affairs agencies make a tangible impact on their communities. State can work more closely with Commerce, USDA, U.S. export financing agencies, and others to identify strategic deals and sectors where U.S. solutions can benefit the U.S. economy and advance broader foreign policy goals. Senior leaders can build on the 2019 Championing American Business through Diplomacy Act (CABDA) by making support for U.S. business a priority not only for economic sections and Foreign Commercial Service teams, but also for consular, public affairs, regional security, management, and other mission sections and agencies with touchpoints in the host-country economy and business circles. State and Commerce can strengthen tools and resources for small and medium-sized U.S. businesses—and the U.S. states and cities that support them—to expand overseas markets and attract international investment. At overseas posts, chiefs of mission can energize “Deal Teams” to allocate post resources to priority commercial opportunities and create systems to ensure fair, ethical, and accountable support for U.S. companies —both large and small—to win strategic deals and generate American jobs. Thomas “Toby” Wolf State Department FSO Arlington, Virginia Make Creativity the Norm For the past two years, I have been advising a PhD candidate, Andy Carlson, whose thesis deals with creativity during crisis in government. Carlson frames his work with two events. He points, first, to the Apollo 13 “Houston, we have a problem” challenge as an example where a bureaucracy overrode convention and successfully unleashed creativity to achieve the near impossible. At the other extreme, he cites the Mann Gulch fire, where 13 smoke jumpers perished fighting a fire in Montana, largely because they blindly followed conventional protocols. Working with Carlson has made me reflect on my 35-year career in public service and the times when creativity was unleashed and when it was suppressed. I have observed that to keep up with a constantly changing global landscape and with a selective hiring process, State Department personnel are naturally proactive and creative. But unleashing that creativity requires giving it a place to land. Secretary Rubio in his confirmation hearing said “the State Department has to be a source of creative ideas” to take the lead on policy issues. In the field this could come from routinizing creative ideas through front channel reporting. When one officer I worked with wanted to send a Dissent Channel message about a controversial
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