The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2012

J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 F OCUS ON FSI /FS T RA INING F OSTERING A P ROFESSIONAL F OREIGN S ERVICE chieving adequate staffing and fostering professional development within the Foreign Service are long struggles made worse by the fed- eral deficit. The American Academy of Diplomacy has been deeply engaged in these endeavors and will soon re- turn to the battle with a new study. A year ago, my colleague Robert M. Beecroft reported in these pages on the ongoing advocacy of AAD for con- tinuing professional development at the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the resources required for this to happen (“Taking Diplomatic Professional Education Seriously,” July-August 2011 FSJ ; www.afsa.org/fsj). As he noted, AAD has long been an energetic partner of AFSA and other allies in these efforts. Back in 2008, in collaboration with the Stimson Center and with fund- ing provided by the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, the Academy produced A Foreign Affairs Budget for the Fu- ture , t he first study in decades that related State and USAID’s missions to needed staffing for both services. That study, referred to in the following as the FAB, pro- ceeded on certain basic assumptions: the principle of uni- versality (i.e., a U.S. diplomatic presence in all countries); expanded engagement with nongovernmental actors; and the need to manage a broad base of U.S. interests over- seas, to name but a few. It made specific recommenda- tions for additional staff totaling 1,099 positions to carry out core diplomatic work in the areas of multilateral diplomacy, international law, economics, science and technology, public-private partnerships and interagency coordination. As for training, the report delineated a lamentable gap between the number of language-qualified Foreign Serv- ice officers and the staffing required to meet FS needs, among other problems. To address the shortfall, it rec- ommended the creation of an additional 1,287 training slots, as well as allocation of the resources necessary to support additional training. FAB made extensive recommendations for increases in public diplomacy, going beyond staffing (487 American personnel and 369 Locally Employed Staff) to urge ex- pansion of exchanges, cultural centers and other pro- grams to support public diplomacy overseas. As for S TATE AND USAID SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON PROTECTING RECENT STAFFING GAINS , NOT PROGRAMS , TO COPE WITH BUDGET CUTBACKS . B Y R ONALD E. N EUMANN Ronald E. Neumann, a retired Senior Foreign Service offi- cer, served as ambassador to Algeria, Bahrain and Afghani- stan, among many other assignments. President of the American Academy of Diplomacy since 2007, Ambassador Neumann is the author of The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan (Potomac Press, 2009).