The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

I recently testified on be- half of AFSA at a Senate sub- committee hearing on “A Review of Diplomatic Readi- ness: Addressing the Staffing and Foreign Language Chal- lenges Facing the Foreign Service.” While the focus was on the State Department, this problem con- cerns all five foreign affairs agencies. As I noted inmy testimony, diplomat- ic readiness goes to the heart of building a strong andprofessional ForeignService that will equip the U.S. to lead in the in- creasingly complex and interdependent world of the 21st century. I would like to share the key findings on mid-level staffing and training problems, and so- licit your views on ways we can address them in both the short and long term. The hearing followed up on ones held in 2006. It was based on Govern- ment Accountability Office reports is- sued earlier this year. The first report, “Additional Steps Needed to Address Continuing Staff- ing and Experience Gaps at Hardship Posts,” focuses on whether State has made progress in addressing these gaps since 2006 and on how effectively it has used incentives to do so. The GAO found a 17-percent average vacancy rate at posts of greatest hardship, twice the rate at non-hardship posts; signifi- cant shortages of mid-level officers at hardship posts, with 34 percent of mid-level generalist positions filled by officers in one- or two-grade “up stretches;” a sharp rise in the number of unaccompa- nied tours since 2006 (from700 to 900); and, overall, 670 positions left unfilled since 2005. The GAO recommends that State make the assignment of experienced of- ficers to hardship posts an explicit pri- ority, and develop and implement a plan to evaluate incentives for hardship post assignments. AFSA concurs in both recommendations. The second GAO report, “Compre- hensive Plan Needed to Address Per- sistent Language Shortfalls,” urges State to evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts to increase language proficiency. Pro- ceeding from the premise that foreign language proficiency is a key skill for ef- fective U.S. diplomacy, this report as- sesses how State is meeting its foreign language requirements, the difficulties it faces, and the extent to which it has a comprehensive strategy to determine and meet such requirements. The report found significant gaps in State’s foreign language capabilities, which “could hinder U.S. overseas op- erations.” Specifically, 31 percent of Foreign Service generalists in language- designated positions did not meet the proficiency requirements. Foreign lan- guage shortfalls persist in areas of strate- gic interest (the Near East, South and Central Asia), where 40 percent of offi- cers in LDPs did not meet require- ments. Gaps are particularly large in Afghanistan and Iraq, where 73 and 57 percent, respectively, of FSOs lacked adequate language skills. Shortfalls in super-critical languages such as Arabic and Chinese have remained at the 2005 level of 39 percent. To address these critical gaps, the re- port recommends that State “develop a comprehensive strategic plan that links all of State’s efforts to meet its foreign language requirements.” AFSA con- curs with this recommendation, as well. There are several ways to address these pressing needs: greater use of re- cent retirees with the right experience and skills tomeet gaps at hardship posts; a requirement to serve at a high-differ- ential (20-percent or higher) hardship post for promotion over the Senior For- eign Service threshold; more opportu- nities for spouses to work at hardship posts, perhaps for other government agencies; more support for families left at home during unaccompanied tours (as the military has in Military One); more “credit” for proficiency in hard and super-hard languages; and greater linkage of language training to career planning. What do you think? Please send your suggestions to me at Johnson@ afsa.org . ■ Susan R. Johnson is the president of the American Foreign Service Association. P RESIDENT ’ S V IEWS Mind the Gap: Addressing FS Readiness B Y S USAN R. J OHNSON D E C 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 5