The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2019 21 SPEAKING OUT Reforming State’s Personnel System Could Work This Time BY RONALD E . NEUMANN Ronald E. Neumann is president of the American Academy of Diplomacy. He was ambassador to Algeria, Bahrain and Afghanistan. A merica needs a strong diplo- macy. But this is impeded by problems with rigid personnel systems, staff shortages over- seas, inadequate professional training and dissatisfaction among specialists—all of which are reducing State’s competitive hiring ability. It is not only diplomats who think so, as a recent article, “Managing the National Security Workforce,” by the C en- ter for a New American Security indicates. Still, since the same issues continue year after year, is yet another proposal on how to fix things even worth writing? The American Academy of Diplomacy thinks the answer is yes; the timing may be propitious. Our detailed proposals, which have been vetted by a group of senior former diplomats, are ready to be implemented. We take Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at his word, that he cares about raising standards, morale and teamwork. The new Director General, Ambassador Carol Perez, is looking for new initiatives. Hence, the climate may be more open than in the past. Also, there is still time in this administration, although just barely, to put new initiatives into practice before they die of bureaucratic inertia and the inevitable turmoil of a new term, even if it should be a continuation of the same administration. However, extensive consultations with the unions of the Foreign and Civil Service will be essential if changes are to be accepted, implemented effectively and work to benefit employees, as well as management. Effective American Diplomacy The academy’s new study, “Strength- ening the Department of State,” brought together people with far-reaching experience. The advisory committee included former Directors General and other former senior leaders of the State Department including Bill Burns, Tom Shannon and Roberta Jacobson (who offered Civil Service expertise). And we had input from the deep bench at the Partnership for Public Service, among many others. We began work on this project when Rex Tillerson was Secretary of State, on the assumption that when the depart- ment someday crawled out of the rubble to which he was reducing it, a rebuilding plan would be needed. Secretary Pom- peo’s arrival created a new atmosphere. We decided to refocus on a small number of important problems where we could present ideas in time for use by the cur- rent team. Our focus is effective American diplomacy, which demands a strong State Department based on a strong Foreign and Civil Service. From this start, we delved into four major areas. Foreign Service Officer Staffing One is the shortage of Foreign Service officers overseas. The so-called “Iraq tax” stripped personnel from around the world to staff a surge. It has never been repaid, and many of the positions taken from other posts for staffing Iraq remain vacant or were eliminated. Many of these positions could be filled—without demanding overall staff increases—by, for example, reducing overstaffing in Washington front offices and utilizing positions from offices that are overlayered or have too many deputy assistant secretary (DAS) positions. Foreign Service Specialist Staffing We paid attention to Foreign Service specialists, too. State is falling behind in recruitment for many skills, particularly information technology (IT) positions, at the same time that many long-standing complaints from specialists such as office Our focus is effective American diplomacy, which demands a strong State Department based on a strong Foreign and Civil Service.