The Foreign Service Journal, October 2006

Dancing on the Titanic I just read David T. Jones’ Speak- ing Out column, “Run, Lemmings, Run” (July-August FSJ ). I say, “Hear, hear!” for some of the clearest think- ing on this topic in quite a while. I’ve seen a lot of changes in the Foreign Service since joining in 1981, with an increasing flood of them since 2001. So many of the latest changes, though, are encouraging the Service to turn into a scrambling heap of self- focused, short-term opportunists — almost to the point that the outsourc- ing of the whole institution to some yet-to-be-established subsidiary of some yet-to-be-named corporation wouldn’t come as a great surprise. At least such a move would be con- sistent with current trends. Mr. Jones’ comparison of the way cultural evolution is handled in the Defense Department as opposed to State reminds me of a conversation I overheard in the 1980s. I was at a small embassy in the Middle East that had just gone through a traumat- ic three years under an atrocious political ambassador (who’d had no prior government or corporate man- agement experience). An FSO was explaining to a Navy officer from a visiting ship why the career Foreign Service has difficulty with political ambassadors. The FSO put it rather adroitly: “Look at it this way: You’ve been in the Navy for 15 years and are on the verge of becoming captain of your first ship. Instead of getting the nod, however, the Navy sends in a political donor or friend of the administration to be captain. You become the exec- utive officer instead, and have to try and make the political captain look good. Wouldn’t you have a problem with that? Plus, you’re serving under someone who is learning on the job.” The Navy officer nodded. To stay with the maritime analogy, Mr. Jones’ insightful observations O C T O B E R 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 7 L E T T E R S