The Foreign Service Journal, October 2009

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29 F O C U S O N P U B L I C D I P L OM A C Y PD P RACTITIONERS : S TILL S ECOND -C LASS C ITIZENS hroughout the existence of the U.S. Information Agency (1953-1999), the status of its Foreign Service employees was always somewhat am- biguous. They were first referred to officially as “For- eign Service reserve officers” to distinguish them from the State Department’s Foreign Service officers. Even when they were given the formal title of FSO, an unspo- ken but clear distinction remained in the minds of every- one in the Foreign Service. We assumed that those who were in the political cone would have by far the best chance to reach the highest levels of the career Foreign Service, serving as deputy chief of mission or ambassador. Some economic-cone of- ficers who showed special understanding of political is- sues were also considered to have a chance to be- come ambassador, but it was rare that anyone in the consular or administrative (now management) cone would make it that far. It was even rarer for a USIA officer to make it to DCM or ambassador, and the tiny number who did were usually considered to be tokens. It was assumed that before the Deputy Sec- retary of State sent the list of nominees for ambassador- ships over to the White House for approval, he had asked the assistant secretaries if they could think of a USIA of- ficer to include in the list as a candidate for a small post because he wanted to have some “balance.” USIA officers were quite aware that virtually all the State Department FSOs they worked with side by side at embassies around the world thought that the work they themselves were doing was more important than any- thing a USIA officer might contribute. Traditional diplo- macy — representing the United States officially to the host government by making formal presentations to offi- cials and reporting to Washington on official relations — A TTITUDES WITHIN THE F OREIGN S ERVICE TOWARD PUBLIC DIPLOMACY WORK HAVE NOT WARMED MUCH A DECADE AFTER S TATE ABSORBED USIA. B Y W ILLIAM A. R UGH T William A. Rugh was a Foreign Service officer with USIA from 1964 to 1995, serving as ambassador to Yemen from 1984 to 1987 and to the United Arab Emirates from 1992 to 1995, among many other assignments. Following his retirement from the Foreign Service, he served until 2003 as president of America-Mideast Educational and Train- ing Services, a private, nonprofit organization promoting cooperation between America and the region through ed- ucation, information and development programs. He teaches public diplomacy and writes books and articles about it and other subjects. Doug Ross