The Foreign Service Journal, June 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2023 19 F SJ : In 20 years will a Foreign Service still be needed? Eagleburger: I don’t know. I can tell you if all the Foreign Service is asked to do is be somebody’s postman, then the future is not bright. But if we still want people who are immersed enough in somebody else’s country and culture that they can give some insights you can’t get from a website, then I think there’s still a major role for the Foreign Service and for diplomacy. It’s a question of nuance. You get into a tight negotiation, you’d like to have somebody who understands the subtleties—that can make a difference. How do you interpret what somebody just said to you?What are their motivations? You can’t get that out of a computer. One question I have: Will the speed at which we now communicate drive out thought? I worry about that a lot. Instant answers to instant problems can get you in a hell of a lot of trouble. — Interview with former Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, winner of AFSA’s 1998 Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award, excerpted from a profile titled, “The FSOWho Did It All: How AFSA Award Winner Larry Eagleburger Went from Career FSO to Secretary of State,” in the June 1998 FSJ. 25 Years Ago The FSOWho Did It All State in (Foggy) Bottom Five I n their recently released annual report on the best places to work in the federal government in 2022, the Partner- ship for Public Service and the Boston Consulting Group ranked the State Department in the bottom five among the largest agencies. State placed 13th out of 17 (tied with the Department of the Navy), which is the same ranking it achieved in 2021. An eval- uation of its subcomponents found that the Bureau of Intelligence and Research had the highest engagement score. Based on employee satisfaction rank- ings governmentwide and at individual departments and agencies, the 2022 data found that NASA holds the number one position, as it did last year, while the intel- ligence community ranks third. Of the 27 midsize agencies, USAID ranks 23rd. The U.S. Agency for Global Media, home of Voice of America, ranks 25th. Meanwhile, after a banner year in 2021, the engagement score for the Foreign Service Institute saw a significant drop, falling from 79.7 to 72.2. Newest to NATO O n April 4, Finland became the 31st and newest member of the trans- Atlantic security alliance. At NATO headquarters in Brussels, Finnish ForeignMinister Pekka Haavisto deposited Finland’s instrument of acces- sion with the U.S. government, represented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Ahead of the flag-raising ceremony, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stolten- berg said in remarks: “I am deeply proud to welcome Finland as a full-fledged member of our alliance, and I look for- ward to also welcoming Sweden as soon as possible.” He noted that Finland’s accession shows the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to “slam NATO’s door shut,” adding: “Instead of less NATO, he has achieved the opposite; more NATO and our door remains firmly open.” Finland’s accession protocol was signed by NATO allies on July 5, 2022, after which all 30 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership. Sweden, which has sought to join the alliance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, continues to have its accession blocked by Hungary and Türkiye. Both Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary-General Stoltenberg have said they aim to secure Swedish mem- bership before July’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The U.S. Needs a Better Publicist I n an April 16 opinion piece for The Washington Post , former Defense Secre- tary Robert Gates argues that the U.S. must improve a crucial nonmilitary instrument of power: telling America’s story. Strategic communications and engagement with foreign publics and leaders are essential to advancing Ameri- can national interests, he writes, but “the country that invented public relations is being out-communicated around the world by an authoritarian Russia and increasingly totalitarian China.” Gates laments the loss of communica- tion know-how when the U.S. Information Agency, then present in 150 countries, was eliminated in 1999. Further, the under secretary position created that year in the