Veteran diplomats are alarmed by a leaked doc: showing how Tillerson is grabbing power....
Every day it gets worse in America!
POLITICOVerified account @politico 15h15 hours ago
Veteran diplomats are alarmed by a leaked document showing how Tillerson is trying to centralize decision making http://politi.co/2zfnuvd
Leaked document shows Tillerson power play
A leaked document shows how the secretary of state is trying to centralize foreign policy decision making, alarming veteran diplomats.
By Michael Grunwald
A leaked State Department document is alarming diplomats and others who say it shows the accumulation of power among a small and unaccountable group of senior aides to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
The chart, obtained by POLITICO, illustrates the growing influence of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, which traditionally has served as an in-house think tank but which Tillerson heavily relies upon for day-to-day decision making. Critics already complain that the office — led by Brian Hook, a powerful Tillerson aide not subject to Senate confirmation — accepts too little input from career diplomats, and the chart, which lays out a method to craft foreign policy, shows no explicit role for them.
The chart appears to show a top-down approach in which ideas emanate from the secretary’s inner circle rather than bubbling up from diverse sources, such as foreign service officers in the field. More than half a dozen current and former U.S. officials who have seen the document said it reveals an unusual level of control and oversight by the Policy Planning Staff, which is known in diplomatic circles as S/P.
Several current and former U.S. officials warned that the new approach, called the Policy Planning Process, or “P3,” increases the risk of poor, uninformed policy choices on everything from terrorism in Africa to human rights issues at a perilous time in international relations. It could also further demoralize career State Department staffers who already feel marginalized by Tillerson and President Donald Trump.
“This says to me that they are developing a new foreign policy structure that is designed to largely ignore those who know these regions and who know these issues," said Brett Bruen, a former State Department official who served under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
The chart suggests “a power grab by a small cabal of Tillerson aides,” added a senior Democratic congressional aide. “Making policy with a token effort to engage policy experts is a recipe for disaster and further evidence that the political forces in this administration will do anything they can to dismantle the State Department.”..................................
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