WP: Diplomats Will Be Shifted to Hot Spots

[Rose Siding]

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."

As part of the change in priorities, Rice announced that diplomats will not be promoted into the senior ranks unless they accept assignments in dangerous posts, gain expertise in at least two regions and are fluent in two foreign languages, citing Chinese, Urdu and Arabic as a few preferred examples.
...
Separately, today Rice plans to unveil a restructuring of U.S. foreign assistance, including announcing the nomination of Randall L. Tobias as the new administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Officials said Rice plans to elevate the USAID post, giving Tobias -- a former Eli Lilly chief executive who now heads the administration's global AIDS relief program -- an office and a planning staff in the State Department. Rice will designate Tobias as having a rank equivalent of deputy secretary of state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801937.html

[liveoaktx]

1. VIDEO-Scary, Scary, Scary

Transformational Democracy
http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/2006/RiceFutureofDiplomacyTransformationalDemocracy.asx

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

11. Nice try, Condaliesalot.

The diplomats/Bush cronies will never stand for this.

(Edit: this was already kicked.)

[mike_c]

2. sauron's eye is focusing elsewhere in the empire

[Suich]

3. Oh, horse feathers...like this is really going to happen.

Somehow the idea of the US diplomat to, say, Italy or France, getting sent to Iran or Syria, doesn't sound at all plausible.

And the "foreign language" requirement is pure BS!

[newswolf56]

4. Fascist or not, the requirement for fluency in two foreign languages...

is the most vital and radical change ever imposed on the U.S. diplomatic corps. Alone among the great nations, U.S. diplomats are archetypes of our national ignorance, arrogantly indifferent (if not overtly hostile) to local customs, smugly refusing to learn the languages of the nations in which they are stationed. Note in this context the (true) scene in Syriana in which the Arab prince notes that Chinese diplomats have taken the time and trouble to learn Arabic -- something that (until the Rice edict) no U.S. diplomat would ever take the "trouble" (exactly now the diplomats themselves think of it) to do. The Ugly American, the brutally true Lederer/Burdick novel, made a similar point in 1958, and in its aftermath, Eisenhower attempted a Rice-like reform. But the diplos are so well connected -- so high up on the corporate hog -- they kept the reforms from happening. Be interesting to see if the same thing happens again: my guess is Rice's demands, like Eisenhower's before her, will eventually come to nothing.

[Journeyman]

5. Unfortunately, you're probably correct. . .

that this edict will come to nought, though I agree the requirement to know at least one language other than English is paramount to any effective foreign policy objective -- even George W's, where the diplomats have to work twice as hard since their boss doesn't know his own language.

[Demeter]

6. Diplomats Will Be Shifted to Hot Spots--WaPost

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801937.html?referrer=email

Diplomats Will Be Shifted to Hot Spots
Rice Also Plans to Elevate USAID Chief

By Glenn Kessler and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 19, 2006; Page A01

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."

Rice noted that the United States has nearly as many State Department personnel in Germany -- which has 82 million people -- as in India, with 1 billion people. As a first step, 100 jobs in Europe and Washington will be immediately shifted to expanded embassies in countries such as India, China and Lebanon. Many of these diplomats had been scheduled to rotate into coveted posts in European capitals this summer, and the sudden change in assignment has caused some distress, State Department officials said.

Officials said that ultimately as many as one-third of the 6,400 Foreign Service positions could be affected in the coming years.

SO WHO HAS PISSED OFF MISS THANG? WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH ALL THOSE PATRONAGE APPOINTMENTS? WHAT ABOUT THE KIDNAPPING OF DIPLOMATS MOVED INTO ONE-MAN MISSIONS ON THE STREETS? WHAT ABOUT THE DETERIORATION OF RELATIONS WITH THOSE CIVILIZED NATIONS WHO ARE STILL TALKING TO US?

[Demeter]

7. The Plot Thickens!

Some lazy editor combined the above with this little nugget:

"Separately, today Rice plans to unveil a restructuring of U.S. foreign assistance, including announcing the nomination of Randall L. Tobias as the new administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Officials said Rice plans to elevate the USAID post, giving Tobias -- a former Eli Lilly chief executive who now heads the administration's global AIDS relief program -- an office and a planning staff in the State Department. Rice will designate Tobias as having a rank equivalent of deputy secretary of state.

Anticipating such a change, some outside the government have warned that it could result in a greater politicization of foreign assistance. "We're concerned that the same priority won't be given to long-term development as resources are siphoned to support shorter-term diplomatic or military objectives," said Jim Bishop, a senior officer of InterAction, the largest coalition of non-governmental U.S. aid groups.

Rice has described the notion of transformational diplomacy as a shift from merely reporting on events to influencing them to foster the growth of democratic states worldwide.

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."


Who wants to be a diplomat (target for terrorists)? Is this the answer to the falling recruitment levels at the military?

[bemildred]

9. You know that's interesting. Won't that make all these guys easy targets?

Would a few dead diplomats help pump up the War on Terror?

[Che_Nuevara]

12. Also, troubled nationals abroad

can't take sanctuary in a one-man diplomatic shack.

More hostages taken, more people to bomb?

[bemildred]

8. This has nothing to do with weeding out troublemakers, nothing ... nt

[wordpix]

10. *'s cronies in diplomatic positions in Europe won't want to go & actually

work for a living

[thebigidea]

13. I'm sure it'll be as successssssfull as Rumsfeld's "tranformational" crap

lighter, more agile forces with a smaller footprint! Shit, we're gonna revolutionize the way wars are fought!

(oh... fuck...)

[UpInArms]

14. "Political hijack" fear over US aid shake-up (Rice "reorganizing" world)

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b6750782-8926-11da-94a6-0000779e2340.html

The Bush administration on Thursday appointed Randall Tobias, a retired pharmaceuticals executive, to the powerful new position of director of foreign assistance, in a move officials said would subordinate US overseas aid programmes to the broader policy objectives of government.

Mr Tobias, a big donor to the Republican party who heads the US global anti-HIV/Aids campaign, will run a combined $19bn (€16bn, £11bn) budget and also replace Andrew Natsios as head of USAID, the US agency for international development.

“The resources we commit must empower developing countries to strengthen security, to consolidate democracy, to increase trade and investment, and to improve the lives of their people,” Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said in announcing the overhaul of how the US runs its aid bureaucracy.

Mr Tobias’s appointment requires Senate approval. He will have a rank equivalent to deputy secretary of state and report to Ms Rice, who is driving what she calls “transformational diplomacy” with the aim of changing the world.

But development organisations are concerned that USAID, created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, will lose its independence and that development assistance will become hijacked by a short-term political agenda driven by the “war on terror”.

...more...

(edited to fix subject line)

[stillcool]

15. Tit for tat.....or

the Reagan Iran/Contra redux.

[SpiralHawk]

16. "You scratch my Gannon, and I'll scratch yours." BushCo culture of

corruption.