The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

Mette Beecroft, wife of a former ambassador and a past president of the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide, puts it: “This is a man of great human- ity who has a lot of hard decisions to make.” Many in the Foreign Service may hope that once the Iraq War is over, things will eventually return to normal. Staples bears the burden of delivering an un- welcome message: Don’t count on it. These changes are not a purely wartime phe- nomenon, but the new norm. “All of this is not about Iraq,” he says. “This is the way we will do business in the longer term.” Staples has nothing but confidence in the Foreign Service to meet the challenge of recruiting top talent and continuing to draw many more highly qualified applicants than it could ever hire. He is not only a cheerleader but a true believer, it would seem. But might a little more concern be warranted? Patricia Ryan, another former AAFSW president, thinks so. “It’s a nasty, difficult situation,” she says, referring to the growing number of unaccompanied posts in dangerous parts of the world. “If it continues for many years, I believe it could reduce the depart- ment’s ability to retain people.” Only time will tell, of course, whether retention rates drop or applicants for Foreign Service positions decline in either number or quality. As yet, Staples says, nothing of the kind has occurred. It may never. Still, there’s a palpable anxiety within the Service about the changes transformational diplomacy is bringing. Already, a largely up-or-out system prevails within the Foreign Service, and turnover is not only normal, but encouraged. The instability such trends portend, many fear, could potentially threaten the effectiveness of the Foreign Service as a critical component of the foreign policymaking apparatus. Few are more worried about that possibility than Steve Kashkett, State Department vice president of the American Foreign Service Association. Responding to concerns expressed by thousands of members in world- wide opinion polls conducted by AFSA, he has raised questions about whether the shift will truly make the Foreign Service more relevant and effective. In Kashkett’s view, “we in the Foreign Service already go where we are told and do what is asked of us, but most of us still hope that our hands-on expertise and unique insights will give us a voice in the foreign policymaking process.” Many members increasingly re- sent being treated as mere “foot soldiers.” Kashkett fears that, if the State Department places value only on those who have an expeditionary mind-set and whose main qualification is willingness to serve in the hardest, unaccompanied posts, it risks “failing to attract and retain the brightest foreign-policy thinkers and the young diplomats who can become the policy analysts and formulators of the future, some of whom may well be expert in regions of the world far from Iraq and Afghanistan.” In an AFSA survey of more than 3,400 Foreign Service members conducted last year, two in three respondents said they were either “very” or “some- what” concerned that the voice of Foreign Service careerists was not being heard in policymaking. Of those who said they’d be reluctant to serve in Iraq, nearly half said they disagreed with the Bush adminis- tration’s policy there. “There is a perception out there,” says Kashkett, “that the analysis and counsel of career diplomats are unwelcome, if they openly ques- tion existing policy decisions.” Staples, of course, doesn’t see it that way. It’s anoth- er instance, he says, of too much being read into the Iraq situation and the consequent muddling of the transfor- mational diplomacy shift. He insists that the department foresees no move to a military-style diplomatic corps, nor hiring more short-timers. Well-trained, veteran diplomats are what the department now has, and will continue to need, he says. A Military Model? But don’t fault the skeptics. The Bush administra- tion has made it clear that it views the military as the ideal in government service, precisely because of its flexibility, discipline and willingness to follow orders without question. F O C U S 22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 7 Director General Staples insists that service in Iraq, Afghanistan and other critical-needs countries does not ensure a promotion in and of itself.