The Foreign Service Journal, June 2006

how much it cost the country to keep a lot of other talent out of the process. FSJ: What are the percentages for minorities (African-Americans, His- panics and Asian-Americans)? WRP: We’re recruiting African Americans now at about 19 to 20 per- cent, the highest number ever. We’ve had what I think is a pretty dramatic increase from 2000, when we were recruiting about 13 percent a year. So we’re not only at the highest level ever achieved, but we’ve made significant progress in the last five or six years. We’re less strong in recruiting Hispanics. We really need to make a major effort there. Nowwe’re getting a lot of heritage speakers [people fluent in the language of their forebears], including South Asians. So we’re look- ing at that group as well for recruiting. When we look at promotions, minori- ties and women are being promoted at the same rate as, or slightly faster than, non-minorities. For my purposes, that shows that the system is not discrimi- nating against minorities and women in terms of recruitment or advancement. FSJ: I can remember during the 1990s when it took something like 27 months for a Foreign Service candi- date to go from passing the exam to actual assignment. Do you know how many months it is now? WRP: From the time one takes the exam to when one enters the class it is now about 10 months. But we believe we can actually make it shorter than that. We are making information elec- tronic now in a way that, for example, allows us to [quickly] track the status of every person who has been accept- ed — their medical clearance, their security background check, etc. This tells us where the bottlenecks are so we can work on them. FSJ: You said earlier that “We don’t put an American anywhere unless we think the security concerns are ade- quately addressed.” How, for exam- ple, is this being done in the case of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams being set up throughout Iraq? WRP: For PRTs and our personnel elsewhere in Iraq, Afghanistan and the world, addressing their security con- cerns will remain a top priority. The Secretary pressed for and ob- tained agreement from DOD for pro- tection of the PRT personnel. The details in each location will be worked out in Iraq and in Washington. From my conversations, I know the Secre- tary has a very personal interest in the safety of our people there. FSJ: Would it be fair to say that security concerns are discouraging FSOs from bidding on those jobs and on American Presence Posts? WRP: Every one of us has a right to raise questions about security in our posts and a right to receive clear answers. Knowing the details of the security to be provided will enable the embassy, bureau and assignment offi- cers to answer those questions. People bid or don’t bid for a number of reasons; security should be one of them, but we have the positions filled for this summer, and we expect to fill future ones. FSJ: Historically, in almost any other country as dangerous as Iraq is today, the State Department has moved quickly to reduce the U.S. pre- sence by evacuating personnel or even closing the mission. It has not sought to ramp up staffing. Why is Iraq dif- ferent in this regard? WRP: Iraq is different because the stakes are so much higher. People who have gone there often have said that they wished to make a concrete difference in the lives of ordinary Iraqis and to help a government to form and function effectively. That work cannot be left solely to the mili- J U N E 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53