The Foreign Service Journal, April 2004

A P R I L 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23 Rebuilding Capacity With the DRI When Secretary of State Colin Powell initiated the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative in 2001, the State Department had more than 600 vacant Civil Service positions and a deficit of more than 400 mid-level Foreign Service generalists and 300 mid-level specialists. Responding to that situation, the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative is a three- year plan to hire 1,158 additional staff over attrition for the department. The DRI aims not only to cover the staffing gaps but to enable the department to respond to crises and new priorities and to provide employees with appropriate training. As the accompanying charts from the Office of the Special Coordinator for Diplomatic Readiness show, in its first two years the DRI has succeeded in cutting Civil Service vacancies by almost two- thirds and significantly boosting the intake of Foreign Service specialists and general- ists. Monthly Diplomatic Readiness Task Force meetings bring together all the ele- ments of the human resources system to coordinate and streamline the entire hiring process, from recruitment to testing and evaluation, security and medical clear- ances, assignment to first post, and orienta- tion, language and professional training at the Foreign Service Institute. State’s 2004-2009 Strategic Plan pledges to continue the DRI. – Susan Maitra F O C U S