Foreign Affairs Budget of the Future: Fixing a Hollow Service
The United States is engaged in a long-term struggle with Islamic fundamentalism, while simultaneously coping with the impact of globalization, failed and failing states, and a plethora of issues that demand US involvement and presence around the world. If ever there was a time that US diplomacy needed sufficient people and resources to meet pressing foreign policy challenges, it is now.
Although America faces many complex foreign policy challenges, several recent studies have found that the US State Department, USAID, and the Foreign Service do not have the human and financial resources to appropriately respond to them. The US State Department has seen its human and financial resources reduced 30-50 percent since the end of the Cold War. To adress this, The American Academy of Diplomacy has undertaken a major study that will build upon the findings of previous studies to detail exactly what budget is needed to enable the State Department and the Foreign Service to accomplish their missions in classic diplomacy, public diplomacy, development diplomacy, and crisis response. Drawing from work to be completed by the Henry L. Stimson Center, the Academy will publically launch this report in the fall of 2008. Thereafter, the Academy will engage in a nation-wide public education program aimed at supporting action to correct the hollowing out of the Foreign Service that has occurred since the end of the Cold War. The Academy thanks the Una Chapman Cox Foundation for its generous support of this project.
A major component of this project is educational outreach to the US Congress, the media, and the public to explain the realities of the State Department and Foreign Service today, and how those institutions can be strengthened to make American diplomacy more effective. To date, Congress has shown much interest in this forthcoming report. The Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia held a hearing to discuss it further on July 17, 2008, entitled: A Domestic Crisis with Global Implications: Reviewing the Human Capital Crisis at the State Department. The Committee heard testimonies from Ambassador Ronald Neumann, appearing on behalf of Ambassador Thomas Boyatt, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Budget Project, and John Naland, President of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), also a member of the Foreign Affairs Budget Project's Advisory Group. To access the written testimonies, please see the links below.
Advisory Group
The Advisory Group of the Foreign Affairs Budget Project provides conceptual guideance to the drafting of the report, sets the tone and objectives of the study, and draws from the considerable experience of the Group's members to guide the project and research team at the Henry L. Stimson Center.
Read biographies of Advisory Group Members
Red Team
The Red Team of the Foreign Affairs Budget Project was created to critique the assumptions underlying the methodology of the report, and thereby strengthen the study through a rigorious process of evaluation and feedback.
Read biographies of Red Team Members
In the News
> Officials call for dramatic boost in State Department staff (Government Executive.com)
> State seeks additional funding to hire Foreign Service officers (Federal Times.com)
Related Materials
> Read the testimony of the Honorable Thomas D. Boyatt
> Read the oral statement prepared by Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann
> Read the testimony of John Naland
