Why I despair of improvement at the State Department

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 5:03 PM Share

Would you like to see the State Department become more effective? Then read this:

The Department needs additional foreign service officers. They need them so they can send their people back to school in mid-career on a scale comparable to the advanced educational training provided by the Pentagon for its career people...In short, they need help and an opportunity to prepare for the roles that they must be able to fill."

That was written in 1978 by retired Lt. Gen. James Gavin, best known as the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in the latter half of World War II. It is in the concluding paragraphs of his terrific memoir On to Berlin, which I just recently finished reading. It struck me as a particularly candid book, especially in its discussion of Operation Market Garden.

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EXPLORE:STATE DEPARTMENT, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

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TYRTAIOS

6:13 PM ET

June 24, 2009

Ambassador Gavin

I wonder if the late LtGen's remarks came about from his experience as our Ambassador to France in the early 60's?

Our Embassy in Paris has one of the largest detachments of Marine Security Guards (MSG) on the Marine Corps/State Dept. program. My former battalion Sergeant Major had been a young MSG in Paris when Gavin was chief of mission, and stated the LtGen always found time to stop briefly to say hello.

Fascinatingly, the Foreign Service was threatening it's FSO's with involuntary postings to Iraq a couple of years ago because State couldn't get any volunteers - one complained, "we have families to worry about!"

GARYC

4:22 AM ET

June 25, 2009

Drop Zone Sicily

One of the best WW2 stories I ever read was about Gavin and another Paratrooper wandering around lost after jumping into Sicily, running into a drunk Italian soldier and taking him prisoner. Gavin decided it would be a good idea to cut the mans belt so he could not run away, but the Italian thought he was about to be castrated and in the ensuing struggle kicked both Gavin and the other paratroopers ass and then ran away. Truth is stranger than fiction.

IDMAJ

1:37 PM ET

June 25, 2009

FYI

FYI, There's a big push at Leavenworth (CGSC, not the prison!) to bring in more interagency types to add depth to the curriculum. From what I understand, the Army is offering up officers to fill positions at State so that their personnel can attend CGSC. To me its a win-win solution. More foreign service officers get to see how the Army works and more Army officers get a feel for diplomacy.

NSA47

4:03 PM ET

June 25, 2009

sigh

imagine a military officer accepting a temporary O-5 or O-6 commanding officer from the interagency as part if this exchange.

an example of how the military thinks it's helping and it's "win-win" to offer up some of its vast reserves of bodies. CGSC and other PME institutions are training, working a billet at State or other interagency office is a job. While it's great the officer goes back to his/her unit with a new understanding, it's not an even exchange.

bottom line -- get the funding to replace FSOs with FSOs. that's win-win.

TIMRCARPENTER

2:24 PM ET

June 25, 2009

Then give us the money!

BEENTHERE

5:37 PM ET

June 25, 2009

Leading Change

I don't suppose it's mere coincidence that another commander of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, LTG Bill Caldwell, saw the wisdom in Gavin's words and launched the program that IDMAJ refers to above? That program has achieved great success in a relatively short (less than two years) period of time - the agencies that have participated would not share NSA47's opinion, although most agree that the real solution is to fund interagency education appropriately.

Where Tom really strikes a chord is in highlighting the "change" in agencies such as State that does not really equate to real change. Hiring the bodies off the street is only one part of the equation. Without a professional education system (DoD's model is but one example), true success remains elusive. And that education MUST be interagency in nature or we'll never see the type of interaction among the agencies we need now and in the future. Maybe it's time that groups like Jim Locher's Project for National Security Reform had the full attention of our leaders -- maybe it's time for an overhaul of our national security apparatus along the lines of the National Security Act of 1947 or Goldwater-Nichols?

The program at Fort Leavenworth is a great example of the type of change the administration promised in November. A program that looks to the future and makes strides today to develop the types of leaders we'll need most in the future. A program that's growing interagency leaders side-by-side with young military and civilian officers from around the world.

NSA47

5:46 PM ET

June 25, 2009

actually

State and interagency folks have been part of PME programs for a while -- this is nothing new. However, interagency folks don't always get rewarded for training (it's seen as lost time often) and they usually don't get housing or TDY like their uniformed brethren.

The two issues you mention are linked -- State and other civilian agencies have more people who want to go to the PME course (especially once housing, career concerns and other inequities are addressed) but can't afford to send that many because of existing shortages. So you need more bodies off the street -- and with 20,000 applicants a year to the FS, it's mostly cherry picking.

BEENTHERE

6:14 PM ET

June 25, 2009

Changing Culture

While this is true -- the non-military agencies have participated in PME for some time -- the difference in the program highlighted by IDMAJ is that issues such as housing and relocation have been addressed. When you include the exchange of a mid-grade military officer to "backfill" the individual attending the school, the program becomes a lot more attractive. In many ways, this is a "win-win" for both agencies.

However, when an agency doesn't support or enocurage professional education (or training), that raises another issue altogether, one that Tom is highlighting for us here. Field experience alone does not make for a rounded professional in any agency -- DoD, CIA, and others realized that long ago and have worked diligently toward a system that "incentivized" professional development, often under the oversight of Congress.

So, the question to be answered is this: do we wait for agencies such as State to develop a culture that supports professional education and training, or do we leverage Congress to compel them to change their culture, and resource them appropriately to sustain that culture shift?

BEENTHERE

6:15 PM ET

June 25, 2009

Changing Culture

However, when an agency doesn't support or encourage professional education (or training), that raises another issue altogether, one that Tom is highlighting for us here. Field experience alone does not make for a rounded professional in any agency -- DoD, CIA, and others realized that long ago and have worked diligently toward a system that "incentivized" professional development, often under the oversight of Congress.

TOM RICKS

9:28 PM ET

June 25, 2009

Gavin's book

Gavin has this incident in his book but tells it slightly differently. But yeah, the Italian did get away, which didn't worry him, as their orders were to focus on the Germans.

I wish I'd read his book before I stood on Biazza Ridge in southern Sicily a couple of years ago.