The Foreign Service Journal, April 2013

the Foreign Service journal | april 2013 39 being reported in newspaper articles and quoted in congres- sional hearings. The outpouring of support from our col- leagues at home and around the world reinforced our belief that we could help bring about a modernized and strengthened Department of State. It also may have served as a safety valve for expressing pent-up feelings of irritation and abandonment. A Lasting Legacy Nearly 13 years later, the collective memory of the SOS for DOS campaign has faded, and its impact has been diluted with time. But several aspects of that effort may have enduring value. First, the SOS call for change and reform challenged the department’s employees to recognize and accept their role in advocating for change and embracing subsequent reforms. We didn’t just complain about deficiencies and dysfunction, but sought to address and solve those problems. As many of the original supporters of the campaign have moved up the career ladder to senior, influential positions, they will have new scope for that drive and commitment to championing change. Second, SOS for DOS is an instructive model for the large influx of new personnel over the past 10 years. Many of them are probably unaware of the “Young Turk” tradition that was so much a part of the Foreign Service in the late 20th century, and set the stage for our initiative. Third, the campaign sent a loud message that the State Department needed forceful leadership. To be successful, a Secretary of State must be adept at dealing with both foreign policy issues and the organizational complexities of budget, finance and personnel despite the demands of constant travel and international crises. Our initiative highlighted the fact that a Secretary of State cannot focus on policy issues to the exclusion of organizational ones, but must provide leadership in both spheres. Sec. Powell “got it,” and our hope was that his successors would, too. The extent to which they did can certainly be debated. But at a minimum, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should be commended for overseeing the production of the depart- ment’s first-ever Quadrennial Diplomatic and Development Our campaign symbol was a small, notched blue ribbon, inscribed with “SOS for DOS.”