20 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL As Secretary Rubio presses ahead with his reorganization of the State Department, insights from a central player in State’s previous reform effort give food for thought. BY MAREN BROOKS Maren Brooks was a civil servant in the State Department from 1997 to 2008 (with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs until 2006 and as a special assistant to the under secretary for political affairs her last two years). She then served at the National Counterterrorism Center and, subsequently, the National Security Council, and in 2017 left government. She returned to the State Department in 2021 as a senior adviser to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. Her most recent job in government was as the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for irregular warfare and counterterrorism from January 2023 to January 2025. When taking office in 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken inherited a department that was weak and demoralized from the previous administration’s hiring freeze, the pandemic, and bad managers. Blinken had a vision for modernizing the Department of State. Using existing reports (from the Council on Foreign Relations and the Belfer Center, for example) that provided a road map on needed reforms for the department, Secretary Blinken and his leadership team, in particular then–Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Brian McKeon, developed an agenda for modernizing the department, which the Secretary outlined in October of that year in a speech at the Foreign Service Institute. Secretary Blinken’s agenda for modernization encompassed five pillars: ensuring the capacity and expertise within the department to confront the critical missions of today and in the future; promoting initiative and innovation across the Foreign The CHALLENGES of Reorganizing the State Department THE FUTURE OF THE FOREIGN SERVICE FOCUS
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