Chief State Dept. Science Advisor Resigns 1 Year Early; Tillerson Presiding Over Chaos

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The science and technology adviser to the secretary of State has tendered his resignation, effective next week, Government Executive has learned. The resignation has sparked concern amid some in the science community that the position could be eliminated.

Vaughan Turekian, who began what is usually a three-year term in September 2015, will leave early and start next week as director for Science and Technology for Sustainability at the National Academy of Sciences, according to an email from the NAS executive director of policy and global affairs.

The move comes as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is actively reorganizing the department and functioning with dozens of high-level vacancies.

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Asked whether the scientific community had concerns about Tillerson’s organization, Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said abolishing the science adviser position would be a “self-destructive move. If anything, the adviser's role in the department should be bolstered and expanded,” Aftergood said. “This should be done not for the sake of ‘science’ or scientists, but in order to advance the department's own agenda” in such areas as climate change, energy, environmental protection and economic development.

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http://www.govexec.com/management/2017/07/state-science-adviser-resigns-early-amid-departmental-reorganization/139339/

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Tillerson’s performance is getting the worst grades imaginable across the the political spectrum. Last week, one foreign policy expert called Tillerson, “My so-called Secretary of State” in the Washington Post, describing his effort to execute his strategy as “nothing short of disastrous.”

The National Review describes Tillerson as “increasingly isolated and lacking influence.” A recent New York Magazine headline reads “Secretary of State Gives Up on Diplomacy, Berates White House.” A Foreign Policy headline opines, “Rex Tillerson Might Be The Weakest Secretary Of State Ever.”

A former senior staffer to secretary John Kerry explores, “What Happens When the United States Has No State Department?” He notes Tillerson “is relying almost exclusively on only two aides” and “has left vacant nearly all of the Assistant Secretary slots,” who are key to running the Department. Tillerson’s justification for not filling the positions this year “is that he is in the midst of conducting a major internal review of the department’s operations.”

The result is “policy gridlock,” as the New York Times reported in late June. “Three foreign ambassadors — one from Asia and two from Europe — said they had taken to contacting the National Security Council because the State Department does not return their calls or does not offer substantive answers when it does,” the paper reported.

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https://thinkprogress.org/tillerson-is-as-bad-a-secretary-of-state-as-youd-expect-the-ceo-of-exxon-mobil-to-be-a150206a3b0c

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1. Dismantling the country, efficiently. NT