The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2021 21 institutions could provide new profes- sional development prospects for our career diplomats, allowing them to build core competencies in these key areas. We also need a careerlong program of education and training sustained by a training float reserve capacity like in the U.S. military or as legally prescribed (but not yet implemented) by the German Law on the Foreign Service. In short, we need a career develop- ment system that allows diplomats to design their own regional, thematic and linguistic expertise and career develop- ment path while ensuring that the needs of the service are met. Modernize Management, Support Innovation Next, we must modernize our man- agement practices, eliminating bureau- cratic hurdles and allowing our diplo- mats to more ably take action to combat global challenges. In his book Reinvent- ing Organizations , Frederic Laloux has shown how successful companies working in complex environments rely on agile teams and lean management to act quickly while remaining focused on the key drivers of their overall strategy. In contrast, both the German and U.S. diplomatic corps still have tedious and creativity-stifling bureaucracies with stiff hierarchies that hinder our ability to accomplish the goals of our respec- tive governments. The German Foreign Ministry’s in-house regulations and its “house culture,” for example, foster an excessive use of co-signatures and horizontal coordination long before the hierarchical signoffs even get started. Autocratic regimes lack public accountability or legislative scrutiny and are able to swiftly coordinate ad hoc initiatives, leaving us in the dust. We need to empower our frontline diplomats to take action and more quickly defend our interests against autocratic maneu- vering. We have to accept that a more agile diplomatic service requires more room for individual action-taking and a mandate to delegate the responsibility coming with it. Most importantly, we need data- centric, inclusive and decentralized decision-making processes with fewer clearances before reaching the Minister of Foreign Affairs or Secretary of State. As defenders of the multilateral world order, we must be able to nimbly counter strate- gies of escalation dominance and/or reflexive control to ensure that local pub- lics and host governments are informed and mobilized. The trans-Atlantic partnership and history’s most successful joint secu- rity shield are the foundation for the predictable and stable security environ- ment that is indispensable for Western prosperity and our highly integrated cooperation patterns in North America and Europe. Vastly updating and upgrading our digital capabilities goes hand in hand with eliminating outdated bureaucratic impediments. We’ve seen dramatic improvements over the past year, in no small part thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but more needs to be done. In a digital age, we need to take advan- tage of the collaborative tools now available, such as workflow systems that minimize time spent on one-off memos, Speaking Out is the Journal ’s opinion forum, a place for lively discussion of issues affecting the U.S. Foreign Service and American diplomacy. The views expressed are those of the author; their publication here does not imply endorsement by the American Foreign Service Association. Responses are welcome; send them to journal@afsa.org. and develop solutions, and then we explain these policies to our host-country counterparts, both within and outside government. To best accomplish these goals, we believe both our countries need a diplo- matic corps reflecting more racial, ethnic and professional diversity. This is critical, especially now when barriers to scien- tific, cultural and other exchanges are rising in key regions such as China. Indeed, it is our diverse strengths that allow us to credibly reach nontraditional interlocutors in a world that is increas- ingly driven by civil society, nongovern- mental actors, scientists, business leaders and “new” media. Promote Career Training and Development Complex issues such as climate change, internet governance and nuclear proliferation have increased in breadth and complexity and, typically, need multilateral solutions. One of the Ger- man Foreign Ministry’s 11 divisions, for example, is solely dedicated to E.U. coordination—namely, making sure that the necessary expertise from all federal German ministries can merge into joint government positions to be negotiated into E.U. policies and regulations in Brussels. Multilateral arenas like the United Nations organizations or the World Trade Organization are based on the work of highly specialized legal and practical experts trained in using their diplomatic toolbox for day-to-day negotiations. Traditional diplomatic career paths based on standard two- to three-year rotations must go hand in hand with careers in which some among us special- ize in these emerging, cross-cutting and complex policy matters. Secondments and exchanges with other governmental