The Foreign Service Journal, September 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2015 31 committee for about eight years, publishing books on diplomacy and organizing conferences around the country. FSJ: Some of our readers may not be familiar with your involvement with the Nelson B. Delavan Foundation. Can you explain how that operates? WCH: Nelson B. Delavan, my father-in-law, was a self-made man. He went to Cornell but never finished, because the First World War intervened. He came back from France and studied engineering, but never completed a degree. Instead, he started a machine tool business in his basement; it grew into a company that made precision nozzles for agricultural spray equipment, fuel burners and other equipment. When World War II began, it made nozzles for jet engines, and the company just took off. When it was sold, after his death, my mother-in-law was persuaded to use a part of the proceeds to start a small founda- tion in his name. We use it to promote and support institutions we care about, in animal welfare and particularly diplomacy and foreign policy, such as AFSA, AAD, the Association for Diplo- matic Studies and Training, and American Diplomacy Publish- ers. The Delavan Foundation is modest compared to other such organizations; many of our donations are $5,000 or less. But we’re able to do good in the world, and it’s fun. FSJ: You’re also a longtime supporter of the Senior Living Foundation, correct? WCH: Right, I didn’t mention that one. The need there obvi- ously grows each year, but for now the SLF is keeping up with the demand and we feel it does not need significant help from Delavan. The rank and file of the Foreign Service has really come through in terms of donations, plus we’ve had a few important bequests from former diplomats. FSJ: And you’re also chairman of the U.S. Diplomacy Center Foundation. WCH: Yes, that’s where most of my time has gone during the last four or five years: working to open the United States Diplo- macy Center. FSJ: How is that progressing? WCH: Pretty well, thanks to excellent, consistent support from Under Secretary for Management Pat Kennedy and most recent Secretaries of State. Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright are very positive; Colin Powell, a little less so, maybe, but in favor of it. And James Baker has been a huge supporter. Henry Kissinger has advised. And we have this remarkable woman, Elizabeth Bagley, a former ambassador who is a gifted fundraiser and has worked hard for the center. FSJ: Presumably last fall’s groundbreaking ceremony mobi- lized a lot of support for this effort. WCH: Actually, it didn’t result in as many donations as we’d hoped. But we’re pushing forward. FSJ: Great. Let me change course a bit here and ask about the American Academy of Diplomacy’s recent report, “American Diplomacy at Risk,” which highlights some of the challenges faced by today’s diplomatic corps. As an AAD board member, you’re no doubt aware that the report itself has incited some controversy, some really interesting discussion. Why is there a sense that the Foreign Service is being downgraded? WCH: The controversy is not within the Academy. No. Maybe you’d see this as controversy if you are a senior manager of the State Department or are accused of undermining America’s professional diplomatic service. The ADAR report is based on hard fact. Colin Powell set out early on to try to erase the substantial differences between the Foreign Service and Civil Service. He changed the name of the Foreign Service Lounge to Foreign Affairs Lounge and Foreign Service Day to Foreign Affairs Day. Then it gradually took a really extreme form, such as not using the title “Foreign Service officer” anymore. The fact that the title “Foreign Service officer” was established by law in the Foreign Service Act does not seem to deter the department. This has occurred at the same time as a growing politiciza- tion of the State Department, with dramatically more non-career appointees occupying positions traditionally held by Foreign Service officers, both at senior policy-making levels and more junior levels. So the career diplomatic service is playing a declin- ing role in the diplomacy of the United States. FSJ: So if we could boil it down, what are the main solutions to this problem? WCH: First, increased investment in professional formation and development of the Foreign Service. As I mentioned before, Foreign Service competence is down because people don’t have time or cannot be made available to go through training. And the training that does exist is not what it should be. That’s very important. One reason there isn’t a high proportion of career Foreign Service officers in under secretary and assistant secretary posi-