The Foreign Service Journal, December 2021

AFSA NEWS 70 DECEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Inside Diplomacy Event 20 Years Later: The Legacy of 9/11 The Sept. 11 attacks changed many things about America, including how we conduct our foreign policy, observed AFSA President Eric Rubin in opening remarks at the latest Inside Diplomacy event, held virtually on Sept. 22. Ambassador Rubin hosted Ambassador Anne Patterson, former assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, and Ambassador Ron- ald E. Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, to examine the legacy of post-9/11 global engagement two decades later and to consider how foreign affairs agencies have been affected. Amb. Neumann noted that U.S. foreign policy has taken on a new orientation since 2001. “It’s very difficult for people now to remember the absolute fear in which those early months and years took place,” he recalled. “The [George W.] Bush administra- tion didn’t know what other threats there might be, which engendered a heavy counter- terrorism policy.” Amb. Patterson also spoke of efforts to keep the U.S. safe from further attack in the years after 9/11, and how those efforts—which she commended for their suc- cess—redirected resources from other foreign policy priorities, such as immigra- tion reform and competition from China. “This had a structural impact on the Foreign Ser- vice,” she observed. “First, it absorbed the personnel increases that Secretary [Colin] Powell and Deputy Secretary [Richard] Armitage had gotten from Congress at considerable cost. The sec- ond [impact] was the further distortion of the personnel system in the Foreign Service with one-year tours and man- datory tours in war zones. “A lot of problems with implementation stemmed from extremely rapid turn- over,” Patterson continued, “and not just with State but also with USAID, CIA and DOD. Throughout the war on terror, we didn’t have the right people in the right posts for long enough.” While risk aversion is not a new issue in the Foreign Service, she said, it’s been a significant issue since the Inman Report and the wave of terrorist attacks on diplomatic premises in the early 1980s. Fear of political blowback heightened this disinclination to engage on the ground, particularly after the 2012 Benghazi attack. “We were afraid to talk to people in places that were dangerous. We lost track of important trends. We couldn’t get outside our fortress embassies, and now the Chinese have more mis- sions overseas than we do,” Patterson said. “Fortunately, the risk prob- lem is now being recognized,” she added. “There is a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity to focus on the structural reform of the Foreign Service.” Amb. Rubin agreed that there’s a need for introspec- tion in U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Amb. Neumann, who served as chief of mission in Kabul from 2005 to 2007 and has returned to the country repeatedly in the years since, expressed concern that 20 years of effort in the region are being oversimplified in current analyses to the point that it becomes difficult to create a basis for learning. He believes that in seeking lessons, the Foreign Service must confront tough questions arising from U.S. experience overseas. “The one-year tour is a mistake for the conduct of policy,” he said. “One does not learn enough; one has too short a period to be effective. But that poses huge issues for families. The starting point is: How do you bring to bear your best expertise on any given issue? In theory, the Foreign Service is worldwide- available, but in practice we are extremely loath to make anyone go anywhere they don’t want to go. We need to rethink the question of duty, to examine tactics.” Amb. Patterson added that it’s important not to draw the wrong lessons from Afghanistan and other civil- military operations. “Here’s one: that nation-building is a failure,” she said. “It’s not always a failure, and we’re going to have to do more of it, so we might as well learn to do it better.” She advocated for prepar- ing to meet the challenges of the future through skill development, training and professional education. “We need to get back to the basics in the Foreign Ser- vice. There are opportunities for a global Foreign Service to reinforce our position all over the world.” Inside Diplomacy is a new series of discussions that explore current national secu- rity issues as they relate to foreign policy and the profes- sion of the Foreign Service. Members can visit afsa. org/videos to view the complete conversation and previous Inside Diplomacy sessions. n Ambassador (ret.) Anne Patterson and Ambassador (ret.) Ronald E. Neumann discuss the effects of 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy. AFSA/JULIAWOHLERS