[Mb-civic] Diplomats Will Be Shifted to Hot Spots - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

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; 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."

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.

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.

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.

Although the move stops short of merging USAID with State, it is 
intended to draw the agency closer into the department's fold, the 
officials said. Additionally, the new director will be given broader 
authority over a range of foreign assistance accounts now managed by 
separate entities. "Effectively, this will allow a single person to have 
visibility into these various accounts," a State official said.

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.

But State Department officials described the restructuring as necessary 
to reverse a growing fragmentation of foreign assistance programs in 
recent years and to ensure more effective and focused spending overseas.

The two announcements -- combined with changes announced Tuesday to 
streamline the movement of people and goods across U.S. borders -- are 
intended to fill in the details of Rice's promise to make what she calls 
transformational diplomacy the hallmark of her tenure as secretary of state.

"These proposals are part of the secretary's continuing strategy to 
dramatically increase America's engagement and dialogue with the world," 
said Jim Wilkinson, senior adviser to Rice.

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.

The State Department will also expand the use of interactive Web sites 
maintained by diplomats to communicate with foreign citizens, promote 
the creation of rapid-reaction forces to deal with regional problems and 
seek to work more closely with military officers to promote the 
stability of nations after conflicts, Rice said.

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