The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2006

tsunami hit in 2004. More recently, it enabled State to contribute to the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The department was able to quickly identify officers fluent in lan- guages spoken by minority populations along the Gulf Coast. In February 2006, Rice rec- ognized the importance of training by filling the open slot at the helm of the Foreign Service Institute with Ruth A. Whiteside, a former FSO who had been the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Human Resources. Rice has taken an interest in recasting the training curriculum for Foreign Service employees, shifting coursework at FSI toward public diplomacy and development. She’s also moved to make training more accessible to officers at post through online coursework. Also on the work-force efficiency front, Rice has tasked Under Secretary for Management Fore to redou- ble her efforts to “rightsize” overseas missions by, for example, shifting information technology, human resources and financial management staff out of individ- ual embassies into regional centers. She also envisions regional public diplomacy centers that would be sta- tioned in major embassies for the purpose of responding to negative propaganda, and has requested $351 million to bolster those efforts. As part of the Global Repositioning Initiative, the department is downsizing posts in Europe and the devel- oped world, shifting positions to democratizing countries. Already, more than 100 officers have been repositioned, with more shifts to come. Unfortunately, many of them were moved into new positions in other countries well after being paneled for the job they had bid on; indeed, some of these individuals had already completed most of their language and professional training for that assign- ment. Such experiences only reinforce the accuracy of independent auditor reports that have sometimes ques- tioned State’s follow-through on such initiatives. Hardship and Danger Still, most Foreign Service employees agree with the basic contours of Rice’s strategy. And for the most part, top management has said the right things about ensuring proper levels of security and providing incentives to encour- age work in dangerous parts of the world, while at the same time considering the needs of officers with families. But offi- cers worry that in a tight budget environment, some of the promises will go unmet. With ever-larger numbers of officers shipping out to unac- companied posts, family-separation issues continue to be a major concern. One method the department has used to limit family separations is to shorten terms at extreme- danger posts; but that, some worry, could have a negative impact on diplomacy. At Embassy Baghdad, for instance, the department has had to find a whole new set of recruits every year. Elsewhere, an inspector general report last September, for example, argued that turnover in Pakistan had led to “a lack of continuity in leadership, program management and contacts” that weakened pub- lic diplomacy efforts. At the same time, a May 2005 GAO report concluded that “State has not developed a com- prehensive strategy that clearly identifies safety and secu- rity requirements and resources needed to protect U.S. officials.” Says Kashkett: “I don’t think people have traditionally joined the Foreign Service expecting to spend a good chunk of their careers in dangerous hardship posts, sepa- rated from their families. The biggest challenge for State is to find ways to get people to bid on those posts and to make sure they are safe and are actually able to perform the jobs they are sent there to do.” Thus far, officers have proven willing to accept the challenge, but many wonder how long State can keep it up. It raised spirits, earlier this year, when State moved to boost hardship and danger allowances for service in Iraq and Afghanistan from 25 percent to 35 percent of base pay, the first time allowances had been lifted in decades. In the minds of most officers, the move was long overdue, given the many assignments bunched at the 25-percent level and the special risks associated with serving in countries still immersed in open conflict. But even as the department followed through and C O V E R S T O R Y 28 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 If Foreign Service members are to take on greater program management roles, State must improve the quality of training and give employees the time to make use of it.