The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

V.P. VOICE: FCS BY CHARLES FORD FCS at a Quarter-Century: Have We Met Expectations? 4 AFSA NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2004 PUSH FOR AUTHORIZATION BILL Iraq Vets Urge Funding for Difficult Diplomacy BY KRISTOFER LOFGREN, EDITORIAL INTERN A FSA President John Limbert and ConsularOfficer BethPayne, both of whom recently returned from Iraq, were featured speakers at a June 17 AFSA press briefing at which they high- lighted the challenges that ForeignService personnel face in Iraq today. Amb. Limbert and Ms. Payne called on the Senate to pass the State authorization bill inorder to give ForeignService personnel the support necessary to contribute to the reconstructionof Iraq inaproductiveway. Limbert recently returned from a three-month assignment in Iraq and Payne served as a consular officer in Iraq fromJune2003 toApril 2004. Bothoffered starkaccounts of thedangers they encoun- tered in Iraq, which included several rock- et attacks. Payne provided a brief account of her work and offered a poignant reminder of the dangers that Foreign Service person- nel face each day. She recalled giving aid toawoundedcolleagueafter a rocket attack onher hotel (forwhich she earned ahero- ism award). Payne described the securi- ty situation in Iraq for members of the Foreign Service as “Russian roulette, not as a game, but as your work.” Nevertheless, bothLimbert andPayne expressed their determination to see Iraq Beth Payne showing slides from Iraq. Mikkela Thompson D uring our lastmeetingwithmanagement to review the year’s accomplishments, we congratulatedourselves on the approval of important newpolicy documents. Bill Crawford and I presented an agenda for our second and final year as AFSA representatives that included support for major reformof thehumanresources office. Then talk turned toplan- ning for the agency’s silver anniversary in2005. While this ini- tial discussion focused on planning a celebratory program, I believe the silver anniversary alsooffers us the opportunity for more serious introspection. Have we met the expectations of the policy-makers who saw the need for an independent foreign affairs agency to better promote U.S. com- mercial interests abroad? In terms of the quality of overall management of the agency by Commerce, it is hard tobe generous. Despite recent achievements resulting fromhardworkand strength- enedcooperationbetweenAFSAandmanagement, the systemic challenges facing a small foreign affairs agency in a large domestic Cabinet department appear insurmountable. The facts are striking. Almost all of the current members of our Senior Foreign Service will retire within three years. Almost a third of all officers are untenured or retiring. Rising costs have created pressures to restruc- ture or close overseas offices. Despite these challenges, I am not aware of a strategic plan for recruitment, training or staffing overseas missions. Staffing of the Office of Foreign Service Human Resources has been allowed to fall to historically low levels. In July, OFSHR had one staff member to serve 99 Foreign Service employees, while the ratiowas 1 to 48 in the department’s parent trade agency. The Foreign Service personnel office has been chronically understaffed and under- graded and has never found a comfortable home at Commerce. Unacceptable service has been the result. Selection Board results that used to take a few weeks to approve now languish for ninemonths. With enthusiastic AFSA support, over a year agoman- agement developed a plan to improve basic service, yet the department has not allowed it to go forward. Staffing levels have declined further, as has morale. In terms of FCS programs and services, there is no doubt that our business clients aremore satisfied than before. But they cry out for amore strategic approach in a world wherenational interest and the interestsof global companies arenot the sameas theywere 25years ago. With11director generals in24years, it is nowonder that our vision is firm- ly locked into the rear-viewmirror. Guidance for determining the national interest for regulatorypolicyadvocacyandnewprograms for service exports and investment aredes- perately needed if we are to be as energized and effective in the future as we have been in the past. FCS was created as a key component of the trade agenda of its day, but it no longer plays that central role. We must rethink and retool our approach to ensure that commercial diplomacy once again has a central role in the national trade agenda. As US&FCSmakes plans to celebrate an anniversary next year, I welcome thoughts onboth the celebration itself, aswell as the answer to the questionof whether the agency has lived up to the expectations that called for its creation in 1980. ▫ In terms of the quality of overall management of the agency by Commerce, it is hard to be generous.