Transformational Diplomacy

meaning, we are going to transform your apartment overlooking the Seine into a gated compound on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria.

The shift at the State Department begins. It's fine for us, given our geographical interests, but I'm sure there are alot of people wondering just how they can hold on to their job in Bern, Switzerland and not end up in Monrovia.


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."

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....