The Foreign Service Journal, December 2007

prints. One rough field estimate is that taking 10 fingerprints instead of two requires an additional minute per applicant. So in a sec- tion that daily processes 500 visa applications, eight more hours a day are needed. This time debt must be met either by adding an eight-hour-a-day position or reduc- ing other tasks in the section. To reduce the existing staff-time deficit, large time lia- bilities need to be removed from the staffing balance sheet. One of the biggest single time-sinks in the Foreign Service is the Employee Evaluation Report and promo- tion process. The current practice consumes two months to produce and five more months to evaluate. It is doubt- ful that the institution is getting a sufficient return on this enormous investment. Two other policies that need to be reconsidered with a view to freeing up staff time are the retirement age of 65 and the time-in-class limits, both of which are legally mandated by Congress. Secretary Rice has called for a more “expeditionary” Foreign Service, and this idea has potential for leveraging staff resources. While technically any force that is over- seas is expeditionary, the concept implies a more self- contained, flexible organization, operating in remote areas. Interestingly, as historical staffing data show, the Foreign Service of the early 20th century could be seen as something of a model. In 1920 we had 413 overseas posts. In 1997 we had just 237. Thus, in the post–Cold War era, a period of increasing complexity with rapid growth in populations, economies and threats, we had fewer posts than we did after World War I. But from 1880 through 1930, the number of employees per post averaged 3.33. By con- trast, from 1950 through 1997, the number of employees per post averaged 61. Similarly, the ratio of domestic to overseas staff has ballooned from .22 in 1910 to 1.55 in 1997. (The ratio went to 1.38 in 1920 and has stayed above that ever since.) Significantly, however, the historical data also high- light the stagnation in absolute numbers of overseas per- sonnel over the long term. Through the turbulence of the last several decades, the number of overseas person- nel has remained flat — fluctuating between about 5,800 and 6,800 from 1960 to 1997. This long-term stagnation underlies the staffing crisis prompted by recent demands from Iraq and Afghanistan. Just Showing Up If we are seeking to free up resources for redeployment in the developing world, to become more expeditionary, the manner in which we organized and operated our posts a hundred years ago should perhaps again become more the rule than the exception. Setting up more American Presence Posts (each with a single mid-level officer supported by one to four locally engaged staff at a regional center), with smaller footprints and lower overhead, achieving more influence through closer integration with local institutions — rather than the trend toward fewer, bigger posts — would better match the goal of a globally positioned, expeditionary Foreign Service. After all, no congressional candidate up for re-election in a contested district would attempt to campaign only fromWashington, D.C., forgoing personal appearances at hometown venues. Likewise, Starbucks would not make a double hazelnut decaf caramel macchiatos in Nebraska for a customer in Manhattan just because overhead is lower in Omaha. Whether one is running for Congress or selling cups of coffee, influence and market share are won at the local level. Presence is the key to influence; small- er, more numerous posts can efficiently deliver that pres- ence. Where the greatest gains can be made in increasing the expeditionary nature of the Foreign Service, howev- er, is not at rough posts in developing countries, but in the cities of the First World. The transformation to an expeditionary force is dependent upon two changes: rely- ing more on private-sector services and making it simpler to obtain those services. While outsourcing is not a panacea for the strategic-level staffing shortfalls, at the tactical, post level, contracting for basic services would obviate the need for positions that duplicate those ser- vices. Legal restrictions and security concerns would, of course, have to be worked through. But generally, in the cities of the First World, stable and complete commercial sectors enable an expeditionary presence. This shift to the private sector for administrative sup- port will not produce the needed gains in efficiency, how- ever, if the existing structure of management controls must also be supported simultaneously. Much of a man- F O C U S 36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 7 We should be no less serious about staying in balance in staffing than we are about funding.