Condi Shaking Up the Foreign Service Ranks
By Denise Best | Related entries in In The NewsTransformational diplomacy – the approach described sure makes a lot of sense.
After all, the world power dynamics sure have changed dramatically over the past twenty years especially.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that she will shift hundreds of Foreign Service positions from Europe and Washington to difficult assignments in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere as part of a broad restructuring of the diplomatic corps that she has dubbed “transformational diplomacy.”
The State Department’s culture of deployment and ideas about career advancement must alter now that the Cold War is over and the United States is battling transnational threats of terrorism, drug smuggling and disease, Rice said in a speech at Georgetown University. “The greatest threats now emerge more within states than between them,” she said. “The fundamental character of regimes now matters more than the international distribution of power.”
Perhaps a change in the old foreign affairs formula will allow identification and diffusion of hot spot areas before they reach a critical response stage.
Under the plan outlined yesterday, Rice will expand the U.S. presence by encouraging the spread of new one-person diplomatic outposts, now located in a few cities such as Alexandria, Egypt, and Medan, Indonesia. “There are nearly 200 cities worldwide with over 1 million people in which the United States has no formal diplomatic presence,” Rice said. “This is where the action is today.”
The move is intended to bring U.S. diplomats — now often barricaded in fortified embassies — closer to the mood in the streets.
The State Department will also expand the use of interactive Web sites maintained by diplomats to communicate with foreign citizens, promote the creation of rapid-reaction forces to deal with regional problems and seek to work more closely with military officers to promote the stability of nations after conflicts, Rice said.
Yes, appears to be a sound strategic direction …
Now, just what the heck does the job description of a U.S. diplomat look like?
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