The Foreign Service Journal, April 2014

12 APRIL 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A FSA has kept track of ambassadorial appointments for a very long time, but the possibilities that online data collection and presentation bring enabled us to kick our efforts into high gear in 2009. This issue is of signifi- cant concern to our members and, increasingly, to the public at large. Our tracker began with a very basic—and mostly ad hoc—collection of statistics on the numbers of career and political ambassadors in the Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. Our figures were not entirely accurate, however, due to a paucity of data. With the start of the Barack Obama administration in January 2009, we re-energized the project. Thanks to the fantastic online collection of the Office of the Histo- rian at the Department of State, accurate information on ambassadors through history has become much easier to gather. So began a venture that has grown in breadth and depth over the past five years. Our chart shows the current ambassador or ambassa- dor-designate to each country and international organi- zation, totaling 187 positions. It goes into considerable detail: Is the individual a career or political appointee? Has each been confirmed or is the nomination still pend- ing? Have they had a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee? A bio is attached to each listing for additional information. Once this basic chart had been established, we updated our information and added the George W. Bush administration. Recently, we added a new chart that separates out Pres. Obama’s second-term appointments; those data are the source of much of the media attention this issue has received lately. With this refined data, our statistics became more reliable. We also have charts on each country going back to 1960 and each continent going back to 1960 (no sur- prises in the data on Western Europe and the Caribbean). Our most recent update looks at the number of female ambassadors in each country since the start of diplo- matic relations with the United States. Last year, as AFSA began looking more seriously at the increasing politicization of positions at the Department of State, we began tracking career vs. political appointee statistics on deputy secretaries, under secretaries and assistant secretaries of State, as well as directors, coor- dinators and chiefs of major offices. As we go to press, we are compiling data on senior positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which we hope to post later this year. This project is a constant work in progress, and we invite you to keep up with the evolving picture. –Ásgeir Sigfússon, AFSA Director of New Media SITE OF THE MONTH: AFSA’s Ambassador Tracker (www.afsa.org/ambassadors ) larly the pages containing the guidelines and our statistics on ambassadorial nominations (see “Site of the Month,” p.12)—saw a surge in visits in February, tallying more than 28,000 hits. —Á sgeir Sigfússon, AFSA Director of New Media “Pay-to-Play” Ambassador Issue Receives International Attention T he most controversial of President Obama’s 2014 ambassadorial draft picks received intense media scrutiny in the countries to which they are being appointed following their nomination hearings. More surprising, however, the issues surrounding the U.S. ambassadorial nomination process were covered prominently in the press in at least 31 countries, including Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Lebanon, Japan, Qatar, New Zealand, Germany, Indo- nesia, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Russia, Taiwan, Oman and Iceland. The Budapest Times writes that Colleen Bell, a businesswoman and Hollywood producer, “earned her new career move” as U.S. ambassador to Hungary by raising some $2.1 mil- lion for President Obama’s reelection campaign. Hungary “does not seem to be at the forefront of American diplo- matic thinking,” the article states, noting that the post has been vacant for six months, and adding: “Other countries, which use career diplomats, not political appointees, usually have little or no gap between ambassadors to Hungary.” Both the Buenos Aires Herald and La Nación questioned the qualifications of Noah Bryson Mamet, the ambassadorial nominee for Argentina, citing the fact