The Foreign Service Journal, November 2009

N O V E M 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 7 world. But the GAO found that State failed to meet its own goals. Though the number of offices and senior executives were cut, overall ex- ecutive staff numbers increased, while overlap and poor matching of workload to staff size persisted. The GAO sus- pects that the bulk of continued over- lap is due to a failure to define bureau roles or follow established procedures in their mergers. The GAO itself had created a report outlining standard procedure for such actions in 2002 ( www.gao.gov/new.items/d03669.p df ); but few, if any, of the steps out- lined were employed by State. Inspectors saw little hope for im- proving the agencies in their current incarnations, favoring a return to the drawing board. The report recom- mends that State either fully overhaul the process and create two new and separate arms control and nonprolifer- ation agencies, or gradually pursue or- ganizational changes within the existing agency structure. The full report is available at www. gao.gov/products/GAO-09-738. New Poll Shows Diplomats Are People, Too A new opinion poll, whose comple- tion was announced Aug. 19, could change the way high-level diplomacy is done inWashington, D.C. The poll, ti- tled “Washington in the Eyes of the In- ternational Community,” was conduct- ed by The Washington Diplomat and APCO Worldwide, a global communi- cations consultancy. It sought to assess the views of foreign diplomats serving in Washington on issues of importance to the United States and the world. Survey questions focused on broad issues: What are the top three global challenges? Where should the Obama administration focus its attention? What was the most/least effective for- eign policy move by the Bush adminis- tration? The results revealed striking similarities between the concerns of foreign ambassadors and American voters, as well as a hopeful perspective on the new U.S. administration ( www. washingtondiplomat.com/August% 202009/a6_08_09.html ). Of the 184 ambassadors receiving a copy of the poll, 27 completed it, for a response rate of 15 percent — re- spectable for a first effort. APCO says that the response rate by region closely mirrored the overall response rate. There is no way to know whether or not the response rate was shared through all levels of development, in- come or several other important fac- tors, however. Neither does APCO define what it considers to constitute a region of the world. Bill Dalbec, senior vice president of APCO Insight (APCO Worldwide’s opinion research branch), acknowl- edges that the survey was not all that it could have been, but hopes it will be- come an annual event. Devinda Subasinghe, Sri Lankan ambassador to the United States from 2002 to 2005 and a member of APCO’s international advisory council, sees the poll as a potentially powerful diplo- matic tool. “We have 180 ambassadors in this town, and everyone’s competing for the attention of a very small group of individuals,” says Subasinghe. “This is one way for the ambassadors to ex- press their opinions and get them heard without being attributed.” For more information, visit APCO’s press page at www.apcoworlwide. com . The Great African Blame Game Acting State Department Inspector General Harold Geisel has come under attack from many at State over his August report on State’s Bureau of African Affairs ( http://thecable.fore ignpolicy.com/category/topic/aids ) . The report acknowledges that AF faces substantial pressures and has insuffi- cient resources. But it describes the bur- eau, especially under previous manage- ment, as woefully inadequate and some- times downright incompetent. The harsh language directed to- ward past officials and operations has left some department Africa hands feeling persecuted by Geisel. One for- mer senior State official complained to Foreign Policy that the report is “a massive slam” against Jendayi Frazer, the former Bush administration assis- tant secretary for African affairs. C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... H ow best to organize the State Department and the American Foreign Service is a problem which is still open. It will come to the fore, from time to time, for one or more reasons, such as these: New developments or increased complexities in international relations will make it necessary to streamline the current organization; the inauguration of new programs will necessitate a decision as to how they shall be adminis- tered; and new brooms, arriving in the department, will find ways of sweeping corners which have suffered previously from neglect. — William Gerber, “Organizational Reform since World War II,” November 1959 FSJ.