State of Disrepair: Fixing the Culture and Practices of the State Department by Kori N. Schake

Author:Kori N. Schake [Schake, Kori N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780817914561
Google: LJH8IMyAUYMC
Goodreads: 16718898
Publisher: Hoover Press
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Failure to Prioritize and Evaluate

The QDDR commits to change the way State does business in four areas, most prominently “adapting to the landscape of 21st century diplomacy” with “issues becoming more interconnected and solutions requiring ever greater cooperation.” It identifies seven increasing threats: terrorism, nuclear proliferation, disruptions to the global economy, climate change, cyber attacks, transnational crime, and disease pandemics. These are reasonable enough; where the review is inadequate is tracking from identification of these threats to prioritization of activity for the department.

And truthfully, these trends have been at the forefront of national security thinking for at least a decade. Are we really still explaining that the cold war has ended?19 While perhaps understandable in the first review of its kind at State, the QDDR discredits itself somewhat by treating as new the very elements it ought to have been grappling with—and has been grappling with—for some time.

Even where the report identifies interesting and important trends, such as the world’s largest economies no longer being its richest and therefore development taking on increased importance, the QDDR does not connect its analysis to changes in activity. If developing economies become some of the international system’s largest, does that mean we should continue development projects with our economic competitors?

Having diagnosed dramatic changes in the geopolitical landscape, the QDDR commits to having it both ways: “While we increase our engagement with emerging powers and centers of influence, we will also deepen our longstanding U.S. alliances and partnerships—Europe, Asia, and the Middle East—which will remain vital to helping secure and advance U.S. interests.”20 It is the glib “everything is important” feel of the QDDR that makes it of questionable use as a planning document.

Interestingly, the QDDR contains a section on “the national context” in its overview of the geopolitical landscape. Discouragingly, this focuses on the need for increased resources and blandishments of how much more cost-effectively State plans to employ its resources. A sample exhortation is: “it is imperative to recognize that taxpayers’ dollars spent on diplomacy and development—even in relatively modest amounts—can and do promote U.S. prosperity and minimize the need for larger expenditures and costs down the road.”21 These pieties are asserted rather than proven, and therefore unlikely to persuade State’s critics.

Even more importantly, State excuses itself from the responsibility of building support in the public and, crucially, on Capitol Hill. State Department officials often bemoan the lack of congressional interest in diplomacy and development, but they never connect that to their salesmanship of the activity. By contrast, DOD matches very carefully the interests of Congress members and their staffs to activities the department is engaged in, provides information on economic and security issues of interest in congressional constituencies, and provides leadership opportunities for members.

The State Department simply does not think creatively about how to involve members of Congress in the activities of the department and how to build members’ constituent interests into the program. A country with as rich an immigrant tapestry as ours has natural linkages to practically every country

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