The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2015

24 JULY-AUGUST 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL “3. Loss of merit-based incentives —failure to motivate and to maintain high morale when career advancement depends not on professional merit, but mainly on personal networking and political affiliations. Low morale inevitably develops when either Civil Service or Foreign Service employees see short- term, non-career appointees with less institutional knowledge moving into rungs above them on the career ladder.” We recommend a righting of the balance. For example, at least one of the two Deputy Secretaries of State and the under secretary for political affairs should be drawn from the Foreign Service. We also recommend changes to the Deputy’s Commit- tee, which makes career ambassadorial nominations to the Sec- retary, and a restoration of the stature of the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources to the level required for ensuring a strong, professional Service. A second problem of politicization is the increase in political appointees at ever-lower levels in the department. Of particular concern is the tailoring of new appointments in the Civil Service to meet the qualifications of political friends, who then become a permanent part of the Civil Service. This practice needs to stop. A third problem is the appointment of non-career ambas- sadors on the basis of their political contributions rather than their qualifications. We recognize that there have been out- standing ambassadors from outside the career Foreign Service, and we support the continuation of that practice. What we oppose is the blatant sale of offices to the unqualified in contra- vention of the law. With this in mind, we recommend that the Foreign Service Act of 1980 be tightened to include a prohibition on appoint- ments based on bundling, as well as direct political contribu- tions, and that a cap of 10 percent be legislatively imposed on non-career appointments. Required by Law, but Clearly Not State Practice Congress, in a series of laws extending over nearly a century, has held that our nation requires a professional Foreign Service. DESIGNEDBYJEFFLAU