The Foreign Service Journal, September 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2018 9 reform plan for this endlessly examined institution? What did we learn from the latest effort and the ones before that? Where does the State Department go from here? The focus this month, “Beyond the Redesign: Can State Deliver?” takes up this line of inquiry. In his “Blue-Ribbon Blues,” Harry Kopp looks back at 60 years of reform efforts and studies to try to understand why so many good (and some bad) ideas go nowhere. FSO Matt Boland presents a roadmap for effective strategic planning and imple - mentation , arguing that U.S. missions already have the tools for getting to suc- cessful outcomes, they just need to pick them up and use them. Then in “E-Hell: Is There a Way Out?” Ambassador (ret.) Jay Anania, a former acting chief information officer for the department, lays out what’s wrong with State IT—the perennial topic to end all perennial topics—and how top-level sustained commitment could lead to significant improvements. Ambassador (ret.) Barbara Bodine, director of Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, offers the view from campus on human capital with “Who Is the Future of the Foreign Service?” And, goodness, there was a lot to choose from the FSJ archive on reform and the future of the Foreign Service. The excerpts from LETTER FROM THE EDITOR The State of State BY SHAWN DORMAN I t’s August 15 as I write this note, and I’ve just come back from hosting a table at lunch with the 194th A-100 class, a glorious group of 82 bright and shining Foreign Service officers. They had Flag Day last Friday and are busy reading up on the posts around the world they will call home for the next two years: Mumbai, Jakarta, Shanghai, Chengdu, Bishkek, Tijuana, Dar es Salaam… And just last week we got to welcome the 148th, a new class of 89 Foreign Service specialists. Foreign Service hiring has resumed, and not a moment too soon. There is diplomatic work to do, and the pipeline of new hires has finally started to flow again. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifted the hiring freeze on family member employment on his first day on the job, another good sign for the future of the Foreign Service. The loss of dozens of senior-level diplomats during the last 18 months— some of the best mentors for this next generation—will be felt for years. But the renewal has begun. The new A-100 class even named itself the “Resurgent 194th.” You won’t hear anyone utter the words “Redesign” or “Impact Initiative” in the halls of the State Department today. It’s as if that most recent reform project never hap- pened. But as any observer of the state of State must ask, what was that? And what’s the next signature Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal. 1950 to 2015 are a reminder that there may, indeed, be nothing new under the sun. This month’s Message from the Hill comes from Representative Joa - quin Castro (D-Texas), who calls for a strengthened Foreign Service and con- gressional support for greater investment in “rebuilding this venerable American institution” at a time of complex and growing challenges. Ambassador (ret.) Tom Armbruster takes us on an environmental diplomacy journey to the Marshall Islands. We then visit Camp David, circa 1978, with retired FSO Frank Finver as he helps out during peace talks that led to the signing of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel—40 years ago this month. Finally, the discussion of support (and lack thereof) for FS children with special needs continues in Letters-Plus, with an inside look at what’s gone wrong in what former State child psychologist James Brush calls “The Demise of MED’s Child and Family Program.” As always, we want to hear from you, so please send letters to the editor and submissions on topics of current concern. And don’t forget to help cel- ebrate the FSJ centennial by sharing (to journal@afsa.org ) a photo of yourself or a friend with the Journal wherever you are. n What did we learn from the latest reform effort? Where does State go from here?