26 MARCH 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL President Donald Trump and Secretary-designate Marco Rubio can make improvements starting on Jan. 20, such as: • Establish a laser-like focus on outcompeting China across emerging domains (e.g., space, cyberspace, undersea, polar regions) and issue areas, especially artificial intelligence. • “Upskill” Foreign Service officers to attain the greater technical and cultural fluency required for this competition (the partnership between the Foreign Service Institute and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy is an example). • Articulate a body of professional knowledge (“doctrine” or “tradecraft”) for U.S. diplomats and ensconce it in training. The new FSI provost position and the proposal for a State-funded research and development center are opportunities to support this work. • Consider closing FSO billets to create a training float “out of hide.” Reprioritize workload at posts, and fill critical gaps with Civil Service excursions, interagency detailees, and limited noncareer appointments (LNAs), all of which bring new talent and perspectives into missions. • Reinstate and lengthen A-100 orientation (up to four months) so that it imparts critical skills to all officers rather than serving as a barely adequate bureaucratic orientation. • Expand pathways for critical language-trained recruits, especially in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Farsi, and Arabic. • Normalize entry-level officer (ELO) rotational assignments to ensure generalists receive maximum exposure to work in all cones in two posts and/or Washington during the first five years of their careers. • Extend most non-ELO tours by one year. • Strengthen merit principles in recruitment, promotion, and assignments. • Return the Foreign Service Officer Assessment (FSOA) to an in-person exercise. • Consolidate fellowships into a single ROTC-style program for recruiting top talent directly from universities. • Expand opportunities for both paid and unpaid internships. • Institute an under secretary for consular affairs, border security, and migration who would oversee the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA); the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM); the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP); and the special envoy for hostage affairs (SPEHA), along with any other current or future offices that fit within this remit. These measures would represent good, practical first steps toward a more effective, leaner, more flexible, strategic, and representative Foreign Service capable of advancing core U.S. interests in an era of intensifying great power competition and accelerating technological complexity. The imperatives of our current global moment, and the results of November’s election, demand nothing less. Drew Peterson Former State Department FSO Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Promote Based on Skill My suggestion for the new administration is as follows: DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) was added as a precept to the employee evaluation report (EER) process. End it! The results were ineffective and just used as a talking point, but it was never a real initiative. It just took up more time during a time of year when real projects need attention. If the Department of State wants real inclusion, stop leaning toward the promotion of women to the exclusion of men. The stats show that all across the board, women are promoted at a higher rate than men. This, in my opinion, is the fault of the DEIA effort. Promote people based on their skill, not their race or gender. Darrin K. Brown State Department Information Systems Officer U.S. Embassy Manama Prioritize Religious Accommodations Over the past few years, the State Department has made great strides in the field of religious accommodations at the workplace. I encourage you to support this important work with institutionalized resources. The three faith-based employee organizations (EOs) at the department have made significant contributions in this space. The Muslim, Jewish, and Christian affinity groups pushed to codify the first-ever policy on how to request religious accommodations, including a new addition to the FAM (3 FAM 1530) and an ALDAC. We have hosted events to raise awareness and published guides for navigating major religious observances. We have built alliances with other EOs and collaborated with offices across the department to bring attention to the issue. Our work led to the establishment of a dedicated reflection space for employees to use for meditation or prayer at the Harry S Truman Building. The Muslim EO took further initiative to document the first-ever repository of department-
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