The Foreign Service Journal, May 2019

8 MAY 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL to December 2018, the number of Career Ministers (three-star equivalents) fell from 33 to 19; Minister Counselors (two-star equivalents) fell from 470 to 376; and the number of Counselors (one-star equiva- lents) fell from 459 to 391. In his interview, Bill Burns neatly draws the connection between senior vacancies and depleted ranks: “There are too many senior vacancies, and too few opportuni- ties for career professionals.” As I explain to members of Congress, the media and the public when I talk about the state of State, these two issues—unprecedented senior vacancies and depleted senior ranks—are interconnected. The best way to retain top talent, especially in a mission-driven organiza- tion like the U.S. Foreign Service, is to give that top talent a mission, to assign senior officers to senior positions. Leave highly talented officers on the sidelines for too long, and they will, reluctantly, decide that it is time to move on. The vacancies are, as national atten- tion to the issue suggests, an immediate problem: Vacant senior positions weaken State, the Foreign Service and embassies, and undermine operational effectiveness all around the world. And they also fuel the problem of depleted senior Foreign Service ranks at State, encouraging still more highly talented and deeply expe- rienced officers to give up and depart, further weakening the corps. Opportunities for career profession- als are further squeezed by extraordinary numbers of political appointees filling senior positions. Only one assistant secretary position is currently filled by a career FSO, and only half of current ambassadors are drawn from the career Foreign Service, when the historical norm is closer to 70 percent. So howdo other leading diplomatic ser- vices deal with this challenge?They don’t! Reporting on a comparative study of eight leading diplomatic services that AFSA sponsored to glean best prac- tices, Jeremi Suri and Robert Hutchings observe: “In all eight countries, ambassa - dorial posts are almost entirely reserved for career diplomats. Most ambassadors to key posts have prior experience as ambassadors, speak the local language fluently and have served in senior levels in their home ministries.” Suri and Hutchings conclude: “The United States is an extreme outlier in the number of political appointees who serve as ambassadors and senior leaders in the State Department.” In addition to reducing opportunities for career diplomats, the extraordinary number of political appointees presents other challenges for “a career foreign service, characterized by excellence and professionalism,” which Congress man- dated in the Foreign Service Act of 1980 as “essential in the national interest to assist the President and the Secretary of State in conducting the foreign affairs of the United States.” Such a Foreign Service, I often say, must operate above the partisan fray. Yet Amb. Burns warns that “a particularly pernicious practice has surfaced, in which individual mid-level employees are black- listed because they worked on controver- sial issues in the previous administration.” This practice extends to the senior ranks and is yet another factor contribut- ing to the depleted leadership bench. Career professionals who were particu- larly effective in achieving the foreign policy goals of the previous administra- tion might also be, if given the chance, particularly effective at achieving a new administration’s foreign policy goals. Sidelining effective career profession- als is hardly a recipe for building a strong institution. What is more, the practice, Burns observes in response to a question about falling interest in the FSO test, con- tributes to “a pretty uninspiring recruit- ment campaign.” As hard as it is to read that State is “gutted,” I remain grateful that national attention continues to be paid to the state of American diplomacy. Amb. Burns ends his interview by quoting de Tocqueville: “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.” Like Burns, I wish our institution were not being so severely tested, but I would still bet on us to repair our faults and rebound. n • Four out of six under secretary positions are not filled; only two are (P and T). • Nine out of 24 assistant secretary positions are not filled, including four of the six geographic bureaus (EAP, NEA, SCA, EUR); the latter two do not have a nominee. • 28 ambassador positions are vacant and have no nominee, including Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Jordan, Pakistan, Panama, Qatar, Singa- pore, Thailand and the United Nations. • At least 20 additional ambassador positions are vacant, but a nominee has been announced; Egypt, El Salvador, Ireland, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are among them. • At USAID, only four of 11 Senate-confirmed appointees are in place. • Only one career FSO is serving at the under secretary level (Hale/P) and one at the assistant secretary level (Perez/DGHR). BY THE NUMBERS