The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2022 17 “We’re operating in an incredibly diverse world,” he said. “The idea that we wouldn’t take the fact that we are one of the most diverse countries in the world and use that in our work shortchanges us.” The Secretary reminded the audience that starting in the next rating cycle, which begins in April 2023, advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) will be part of the promotion criteria for State personnel. Secretary Blinken described the department’s efforts to integrate equity as “more like turning an aircraft carrier than flipping a switch; it takes sustained effort. There must be a cultural shift.” Deputy Secretary McKeon added that he would also like to see the department moving beyond performative actions to concrete plans. “We need to be thought- ful and innovative in how we put this into practice” here in Washington, D.C., as well as overseas, he said. “Which com- munities are not usually engaged by our missions and consulates? Are we only talking to elite communities abroad? How can we leverage our diplomatic engagements to ensure they are repre- sentative of all segments of society?” Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstan- ley said her office recently launched its first DEIA climate survey, which garnered the participation of a third of the department’s workforce. The findings will provide her team with the disag- gregated data and insights required to inform their work. She also noted that, when reviewing the State Department’s action plan, the Office of Personnel Management said it was significantly more robust than plans submitted by other agencies. “They were impressed with the over 30 department offices and bureaus who contributed,” she said. “Now on to the next phase: implementation.” Au Revoir, Professional French Diplomacy? O n June 2, French diplomats went on strike for the first time in nearly 20 years to protest budget cuts and reforms proposed by President Emmanuel Macron that will transform the structure of diplomatic careers when they go into effect in 2023. In what some are calling the end of France’s professional diplomacy, the mea- sures would create a new body of state administrators in which senior civil ser- vants will no longer be linked to a specific administration, France24 reported in June. Instead, diplomats will be placed in a large pool from all branches of public service, encouraged to switch to other ministries and forced to compete with outsiders for diplomatic posts. The reforms would also merge and gradually phase out the two historic bodies of French diplomacy: ambas- sadors and foreign affairs advisers. One of the presumed goals of the change is to modernize and diversify the country’s dip- lomatic corps, created in the 16th century and seen by some in the government as an elitist institution. France currently has the world’s third- largest diplomatic corps behind the U.S. and China, with about 1,800 diplomats among a total of about 13,500 officials working at the foreign ministry. The proposed plan is said to affect about 800 diplomats. At overseas posts around the world, including Washington, D.C., numerous diplomats and some ambassadors partici- pated in the daylong strike, according to the Associated Press. In a commentary published in Le Monde in early June, a group of 500 F rench diplomats wrote: “We risk the disap- pearance of our professional diplomacy. Today, [diplomatic] agents … are con- vinced it is the very existence of the minis- try that is now being put into question.” They also warned of “the risks of such a decision, which will allow appoint- ments of convenience to the detriment of competence and will result in a loss of expertise and a vocational crisis.” On July 19, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna— herself a career diplomat—announced to the Senate that the planned reforms will not be suspended in response to the backlash. She suggested that unspecified “guarantees” would be obtained to reas- sure concerned diplomats, French news outlet Marianne reported in July. Afghanistan Now J ust weeks before the one-year anniversary of the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Spe- cial Inspector General for Afghanistan Diplomacy is a process, not an event. It’s the non-quantifiable art of building relationships for issues you do not yet know you’re going to have and being able to have conversations in ways people will understand. —Ambassador (ret.) Barbara Bodine, director of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, speaking as part of an online panel discussion during the launch of the federally mandated State Department Learning Agenda on June 30. Contemporary Quote