36 JULY-AUGUST 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL reaffirmed the selection of Foreign Service officers based on merit; • 1954, when lingering staffing challenges led Secretary John Foster Dulles to appoint the Wriston Committee (John Wriston was president of Brown University) to make recommendations to “strengthen the effectiveness of the professional service”; • 1955 to 1957, when department officials and Foreign Service officers traveled the country to promote interest in the Foreign Service, eventually giving written exams in 65 cities in the United States and abroad and the oral exam in 23; and • the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s (and not concluding until the 2000s) when, in response to widespread criticism that the Foreign Service was overwhelmingly male and white, the department faced—and lost—class action lawsuits brought by women such as Alison Palmer and Marguerite Cooper and Black diplomats such as Walter J. Thomas. A Truly American Foreign Service In the latter half of the 20th century, the written and oral exams remained highly competitive but also imperfect. The department endeavored to bring more rigor and scrutiny to the exams and was acutely aware of the directives of the Foreign Service Act of 1980: “The members of the Foreign Service should be representative of the American people, aware of the principles and history of the United States and informed of current concerns and trends in American life, knowledge of the affairs, cultures, and languages of other countries.” The act reaffirmed admission to the Foreign Service through an “impartial and rigorous examination.” The 1980 act also tasked the Board of Examiners with periodic review of the examination process to test for adverse impact against any population of Americans and called for examinations that are “valid in relation to job performance.” As the department tracked and analyzed successful applicants and received feedback from outside parties, the oral exam was partially “unblindfolded” during the George W. Bush administration and under the leadership of Secretary Colin Powell. Previously, examiners did not know the backgrounds of candidates. During the oral assessment, examiners began asking about candidates’ experience and motivation to join the Foreign Service. Candidates cited military and Peace Corps experience, language proficiency, a commitment to public service, familiarity with different regions of the world, and knowledge about different cultures and religions. The Gold Standard of Assessments During this period, the Una Chapman Cox Foundation commissioned a McKinsey and Company study of the department’s hiring process. McKinsey concluded: “The Department’s oral assessment is the gold standard of interview processes. The Department is at the cutting edge; the Foreign Service sets a standard for anybody else wanting to conduct one of these kinds of screens.” McKinsey’s one criticism was the lack of a “total candidate review,” including the candidate’s education and work history. As noted, the hiring process had been blind to such factors following the Palmer discrimination suit, but the McKinsey recommendation further emphasized the need for the department to develop a total candidate review procedure. That review ultimately resulted in the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP), which would assess candidates after the written exam and before they could move to the oral assessment. In 2007 the new QEP helped determine the number of written exam passers (the written exam was now known as the FSOT) who would advance to the oral exam (the Foreign Service Oral/Officer Assessment, or FSOA). Because BEX had established a new hurdle in the exam process—in the form of the QEP—the quality of candidates taking the FSOA improved. Candidates with military service, business acumen, and relevant leadership experience were demonstrating that the FSOT and QEP vetting were delivering the highest-quality candidates with the most relevant Foreign Service experience and skills to the BEX assessors during the FSOA. Data also revealed that as those with more experience passed at higher rates, the average age of incoming Foreign Service officers increased. In addition, the 2020s brought one final significant change to the FSOA. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BEX initially halted all in-person assessments. Eventually, using lessons learned from numerous pandemic-necessitated adaptations, BEX moved the FSOA to an entirely virtual format, an innovation that also made the FSOA much more accessible by eliminating the requirement for applicants to pay for trips to Washington or other cities where the FSOA was conducted. More than 90 percent of ambassadorships have gone to political appointees in the past year.
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