America needs a strong foreign service; instead, we’re in retreat

Foreign Service Officers and specialists of the U.S. Department of State come from every corner of society, including right here in the Central Valley of California.

When I was a student at University of the Pacific during the 1960s, a distinguished alumnus encouraged me to follow in his footsteps. That was Richard F. Pedersen, who was serving as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Pederson was urging me toward a career in diplomacy, promoting and protecting the interests of the United States and its citizens around the world.

Today, the dedicated men and women of the U.S. Foreign Service serve at more than 240 posts around the world, including in war zones. They aid Americans traveling abroad, open markets for U.S. businesses, try to resolve international conflicts peacefully and work with other countries to fight international crime, combat the spread of disease and much, much more.

The Congressional authorization bill notes that their work is “critical to the projection of American power and leadership worldwide … without which Americans would be less safe, our economic power would be diminished.”

The administration of President Donald Trump insists that it is seeking to bolster America’s presence in the world, including by making the State Department and the Foreign Service stronger. Sadly, recent actions by the administration are having the opposite effect.

At every level, ranks of the U.S. Foreign Service are being ravaged, with the damage most severe among top leadership. Since the beginning of the year, the State Department has lost some 40 percent of its career Ambassadors (the civilian equivalent of four-star generals), and many more of those in roles that are “three-star” equivalents.

At lower levels, promotions are down and attrition is up. At entry-level, a self-imposed hiring freeze has slowed the intake of new talent to about one-quarter of last year’s level. Given a largely blocked career-entry path, the number of young Americans applying to take the entrance exam has fallen by half.

California might be a long way from Washington, D.C., but having an effective career service, with lots of Californians in it, is vitally important for us in perhaps the most globally connected state in this nation.

The bottom line: the ranks of our most experienced career professionals are being decimated, while the career paths to replace those hard-earned diplomatic, cultural and language skills are being severely constricted and America’s interests are being put in peril for years to come.

Why, and to what end, is this happening?

With bipartisan support, Congress rejected drastic cuts to the State Department budget, with the Senate labeling those proposed cuts a “doctrine of retreat.”

Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a former Marine general, recently stated “the more we put into the State Department’s diplomacy ... the less we have to put into a military budget.”

Mattis understands that in a world of increasing complexity, threat and opportunity, diplomacy is a vital and lower-cost way to advance America’s interests.

I spent 21 years as a diplomat before returning to the Valley to teach at UOP. I can attest that the Foreign Service is a politically neutral institution. Its women and men are dedicated to serving the national interest by promoting the policies of our democratically elected leaders. It needs support to carry out that work now and for years to come.

We are grateful to efforts in Congress to sustain the work of the Department of State and urge fellow Californians to express their support to their elected representatives and in public for maintaining a strong Foreign Service.

This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 11:03 AM with the headline "America needs a strong foreign service; instead, we’re in retreat."