The Foreign Service Journal - December 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2017 45 and technology systems employed domestically and at all U.S. overseas missions; and prepares individuals to serve as IT consultants on behalf of their missions. SAIT has three divisions: Enterprise Technology; Research, Learning and Development; and Business Appli- cations. On average, SAIT provides training to more than 6,000 students annually, both overseas and domestically, through classroom and blended-learning opportunities in Arlington, Virginia; at FSI’s Regional Training Centers in Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Manila and Bangkok (that serve all of FSI’s divisions); and via 21 adjunct faculty instructors in 16 countries around the world. The School of Leadership and Management. The State Department’s emphasis on leadership and manage- ment training is closely associated with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who frequently cited the importance of training for his own military career. However, FSI actually founded the Leadership and Management School in 1999, two years before Powell arrived in Foggy Bottom. The School’s core leadership training series consists of mandatory basic, intermediate and advanced courses, as well as the Senior Executive Threshold Seminar for people newly promoted to the Senior Civil Executive Service and Senior Foreign Service. About 6,000 employees a year take at least one of those courses. These are complemented by some 10 electives that focus on specific leadership skills, traits and behaviors. In addi- tion, coverage of leadership and management principles is embedded in the various professional tradecraft courses. LMS also offers a tailored crisis management train- ing program for the United States’ 270 diplomatic posts abroad, sending a team to more than half of them each year; individualized coaching services; and organizational development services to missions, bureaus and other units. The Transition Center. The office that began operations more than 40 years ago as the Overseas Briefing Center is still going strong today as the nucleus of FSI’s multifaceted Transition Center, which serves all U.S. government employ- ees of foreign affairs agencies and their family members preparing for, or returning from, overseas assignments. The Transition Center offers formal courses and programs, as well as non-tuition seminars, briefings and resource fairs—all designed to meet the diverse needs of the foreign affairs community as its members navigate a transitory lifestyle. In addition, the Center conducts retirement planning workshops, and assists personnel returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and other high-threat assignments through its High-Stress Assignment Outbrief Program. Other TC programs include Security Training; a Career Transition Center; and the new Center of Excellence in Foreign Affairs Resilience, designed to help individuals, family members and teams perform at their best, even in high-stress, high- threat environments. —Steven Alan Honley In 1931, FSS was rebranded as the Foreign Service Officers’ Training School, and its mission was expanded to give new per- sonnel intensive training in consular and commercial work after they completed two-year probationary tours overseas. Later, FSOTS assigned small groups of economic and commercial officers to universities for graduate studies. By 1941, State Magazine reported that some 55 officers had completed special training at FSOTS in Arabic, Chinese, Japa- nese, Russian, Turkish and other languages. Just months later, however, State suspended all Foreign Service training programs for the duration of World War II. The Foreign Service Act of 1946 Even before the end of the war, support grew rapidly within the State Department for a reorganization of the Foreign Service to prepare it for a vastly expanded portfolio. Such propos- als, which would help shape the Foreign Service Act of 1946, included calls for the establishment of a permanent school for the comprehensive training of State Department personnel. The March 1946 issue of The American Foreign Service Journal (as the FSJ was then known) summarized its understanding of the likely provisions of the new Foreign Service Act regarding training as follows: “A Foreign Service Institute will be estab- lished to give initial training to officers and employees and to provide in-Service training throughout the whole career of every member of the Service. It is planned that the director of the Insti- tute shall receive the salary of an assistant secretary. Every effort will be made to attract to the staff the very best scholars that the