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Foreign Service employees stretch their skills for an evolving mission.

Throughout its history, the State Department has demonstrated the ability to transform itself to meet its challenges. At the turn of the 20th century, it forged a foreign policy dedicated to expanding trade and freedom on the seas. During World War II, it restructured for a postwar world. After the Cold War, State shifted resources from communist confrontation to coalition building, including exchanges with the former Soviet states and the international alliance that liberated Kuwait, and tackling global issues such as terrorism and the environment.

The fundamental assets of U.S. diplomacy, then and now, are the 50,000 State Department employees - American and foreign nationals alike - who advocate and advance U.S. interests abroad. Diplomacy is both offense and defense, protecting U.S. citizens and borders while helping to transform the world beyond.

Under the stewardship of Secretary Condoleezza Rice, the department is moving forward with what she calls "transformational diplomacy" to deal with terrorism, strengthen democracy, build prosperity and provide help to those who need it most. It seeks not only to manage problems but to solve them at their source.

Human rights and good governance are essential to peace, development and the defeat of terrorism. The Millennium Challenge Account, building toward $5 billion in development assistance per year, supports countries taking the right steps. President Bush says the account "will be devoted to projects in nations that govern justly, invest in people and encourage economic freedom."

Rice says, "We believe that there is a moral obligation of the strongest to help the weakest, and that is why AIDS [relief] and the Millennium Challenge and all of the things that we're doing in development are so important." The State Department's work after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, which affected a dozen countries, is a prime example.

To anticipate and respond to such crises, State has established an operational readiness reserve of Foreign Service employees who focus their career development on a "major" and a "minor," just as they would at a university. This enables officers to have expertise in at least one area and well-developed experience in another. Every officer and every specialist is a "reservist" for those skills needed in a particular crisis.

Working with the National Security Council, State created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization to manage the U.S. civilian response to crises in failing, failed and post-conflict states. The program involves developing possible intervention scenarios, training employees in crisis management and strengthening interagency cooperation.

The State Department also created an inventory of skills called Employee Profile Plus, which complements service records with a richer picture of competencies. In coordinating tsunami relief in January, the new tool enabled officials to identify in 20 minutes every employee who had experience in Sri Lanka. And for the first time, the department could pinpoint employees with appropriate language and professional skills.

A new career development plan prepares diplomats to meet the challenges of coming decades. It focuses on four core elements: broader work experience, mandatory leadership and management training, increased language or technical competence, and service at a hardship post. The department also is working to expand job opportunities for spouses, improve networking and increase financial benefits for separated families.

The U.S. National Security Strategy says: "The major institutions of American national security were designed in a different era to meet different requirements. All of them must be transformed." The demands of the 21st century are changing the rules of diplomacy, and the State Department is changing with them.

COMMENTS

• This is all well and good. As Director of Human Resources, Mr. Pearson should take a trip to Baghdad and meet with the Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs) who risk their lives every day to show up for work at the Embassy. Having lost two FSN friends, both of whom were targeted and killed because of their association with the United States, serves as an example of the danger these people encounter working on our behalf. I am sure there have been many FSNs taken hostage and/or killed in the same way. What has the State Department done to assuage the situation? While it would not be a difficult task to provide housing in the International Zone for FSNs who feel threatened, the State Department has done nothing. Some FSNs I have spoken to were even willing to pay for this housing, yet even this has not propelled the State Department into action. At a minimum, could we not provide specific badges for these folks allowing them to bypass the long lines and be searched more quickly at checkpoints, so they are not sitting ducks? People blatantly sit outside these checkpoints to watch who comes and goes. Last but not least, is it too much to ask that the families of slain FSNs be compensated in some way when the FSNs die in the line of duty or due to their association with us? All the great things we’re doing in Iraq wouldn’t be possible without these dedicated Iraqis. If the State doesn’t realize this and adapt to the situation at hand, we run the risk of losing these dedicated FSNs. Why would the FSNs continue to risk their lives for us if we can’t even acknowledge the problem, much less devise a solution? Nevertheless, I’m sure with the current conditions in Iraq, there are plenty of others willing to risk their lives for a good paying job. GovExec.com reader Posted August 10, 2005 11:25 AM