THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 21 Service and Civil Service; taking care of people to deliver a diverse, dynamic, and entrepreneurial workforce; modernizing technology and the use of data; and “reinvigorat[ing] in- person” diplomacy—or said another way, managing risk. Importantly, the reform agenda sought to empower the workforce and bureaus’ leadership to advance the necessary changes, as opposed to bringing in outside consultants. Over the next few years of implementing the agenda, we made important progress. Under the leadership of the Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources and in close partnership with the Secretary’s deputy chief of staff, I identified critical stakeholders within the department who could deliver on the Secretary’s vision. I co-chaired the Modernization Executive Steering Committee, bringing colleagues from Global Talent Management, Budget and Planning, Management Strategy and Solutions, Strategic Planning, Information Resource Management, and the chief data officer’s team, in particular, to identify opportunities and challenges to progress and build mechanisms to track our accomplishments. As I reflect on our efforts, I am proud of what we accomplished, while being all too aware of the ongoing challenges of reform at State. Important Accomplishments Under Secretary Blinken’s leadership, the department launched the Bureau for Cyberspace and Digital Policy, created a new Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, and established the “China House” to help integrate all China policy issues across the department and to better interface with similar constructs in other federal departments and agencies. For the workforce, we implemented a tool to objectively evaluate positions for telework opportunities; launched paid internships (broadening the talent pool through early recruiting); and established a Retention Unit to understand why employees stayed—and why they left—to help inform other workforce reforms. We also launched the Professional Mobility Development Program for civil servants to be able to move to new opportunities more flexibly. State invested in technology, including delivering “tech for life.” Prior to this, employees had to turn in their tech (phones and laptops) every time they changed bureaus or posts. With “tech for life,” the department inched into the 2010s, ensuring that officers could have a single mobile phone number throughout their career. Finally, the department looked for ways to better manage risk. For years, there was low tolerance for risk, especially since the tragic events in Benghazi in 2012, when four diplomatic personnel were killed in the line of duty: Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and security personnel Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. Guided by the modernization efforts, State launched an aggressive engagement with Capitol Hill to allow for more flexibility in where and how we were able to conduct in-person diplomacy. We made important gains in our work on modernization, though we did not make all the changes we had hoped. The most significant challenges we faced were an intense resistance to change in State, a pervasive risk-averse culture, State’s contentious relationship with Congress, and politics. Significant Challenges Resistance to Change. Change is hard. As much as members of the Foreign Service in the Department of State embrace calls for reform of broken and ineffective systems, most of them have figured out how to navigate those systems and are concerned that changes would negatively affect their ability to advance. Changes, including creating more opportunities for civil servants, developing pilot programs for recruiting and hiring FSOs at the mid-level, and finding ways to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce, were met with resistance. Within the Foreign Service, I found a strong culture of “putting in the time.” FSOs take years from their first tour to get to mid-level, and achieving the rank of Senior Foreign Service is even harder. This journey—and the badge of honor one earns for surviving it—can mean a stifling of innovation at more junior levels because they are not considered to have had enough experience to offer new perspectives. As different generations enter the workforce, that resistance to change will create challenges in recruiting and retaining new and top talent. State should survey the career interests and goals of incoming and entry-level Foreign and Civil Service members to inform policies and processes that help with retention and recruitment. Partnering with AFSA, the department We made important gains in our work on modernization, though we did not make all the changes we had hoped.
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