The Economist - USA (2020-11-21)

The EconomistNovember 21st 2020 United States 25

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J

oe biden, the president-elect, wants to

end his country’s “forever wars” and be-

lieves diplomacy should be “the first in-

strument of American power”. He prom-

ises to reinvest in America’s hollowed-out

diplomatic corps, the better to nurture alli-

ances and tackle the global issues of the fu-

ture, such as climate change and great-

power competition. But how to make the

foreign service fit for the future? Two new

reports, one from the Council on Foreign

Relations (cfr), a think-tank, the other the

result of an extensive project at Harvard

University, offer thoughts.

Both say the State Department is in cri-

sis. Its problems stretch back well beyond

the Trump administration but have deep-

ened dramatically under it. Morale is low,

budgets are squeezed and the foreign ser-

vice is suffering from an exodus of talent.

Diplomats’ careers are stymied by the poli-

ticisation of senior posts. For the first time

in a century, not one of the 23 Senate-con-

firmed assistant-secretary positions is a

serving career official, and 43% of ambas-

sadors are political appointees, also a mod-

ern record. The story on diversity is dismal:

in March the Senior Foreign Service was

90% white and 69% male. Only five of 189

ambassadors are African-American (over

their two terms, Barack Obama appointed

46 African-American ambassadors and

George W. Bush had 44). Under Donald

Trump, a quarter-century trend of rising fe-

male ambassadors has gone into reverse.

Remedies, say the reports, need to be

radical. The cfr emphasises immediate

steps an incoming administration can take

to start revitalising the State Department,

from appointing a chief technology officer

to bringing in climate experts and more

Chinese-speakers (the department still has

more Portuguese-speakers than the com-

bined total for Mandarin and Arabic), as

well as issuing a public apology to career

diplomats who have been subjected to po-

litical retaliation. The Harvard report sug-

gests a ten-point action plan for the longer

term, including a new mission and a new

name for the foreign service: the “United

States Diplomatic Service”. Taken together,

the reports offer a rich menu for reform.

A four-course selection for the new ad-

ministration would include, for starters,

an infusion of resources. The Harvard

group recommends a 15% increase in for-

eign-service personnel, to make it possible

to have a “training float” like that of the

Two new reports propose a rich feast of

reforms for America’s foreign service

The future of diplomacy

Altered State

“B

oy didwescrewup.Whata mess!”

Towards the end of his new book,

Charles Koch, the billionaire owner of

Koch Industries, the second-largest

private firm in America, offers this sur-

prising mea culpa. For years he gave

extraordinary sums to Republican cam-

paigns, encouraging partisan confronta-

tion. (He and associates probably guided

over $1bn in political spending in the

past decade). Today he would like readers

to know that he boobed. He says he

picked the “wrong road”.

The wizard from Wichita is too coy to

set out in detail what he, his late brother

David, and their political action commit-

tee, Americans For Prosperity (afp), were

upto.SoonaftertheelectionofBarack

Obama,hewrites,“westartedengaging

directlyinmajorpartyelectoralpolitics”.

Theymostlyfundedenthusiastsforthe

TeaPartymovement.Thisfosteredtribal-

ismandweakenedmoderateRepub-

licans.MrKochnowregretsthatthis

meantmosteffortsatbipartisanco-

operationamountto“asickjoke”.He

worries,too,thatsuchdysfunctionis

pushingyoungsterstofavoursocialism.

Whatisbehindhisadmission?In

“BelieveinPeople”,heclaimshisgoal

was“nottotootmyownhorn”.Yethe

musthavenotedthewidespread,un-

flattering,coverageafterhisbrother

Daviddiedlastyear.The85-year-old

knowshisownreputationistoxiconthe

left,forhishostilitytoObamacareand

ongoingdenialofclimatescience.Hehas

alsoloststandingontheright,where

politiciansmostlypreferthebig-spend-

ingpopulismofDonaldTrump.The

author—whodoesnotmentionthe

president—isdismayedbymostofhis

policies:theincreasesintariffs,the

tendencytopickcorporatefavourites,

thecurtailmentoflegalimmigration.

Hiswritingisa mixoffamilymemoir,

storiesofcorporategooddeedsandcalls

forgovernmenttoshrinksotheneedy

canbettertugattheirbootstraps.The

authorseemstoarguethatphilanthro-

pistsandwell-meaningactivistswilldo

mosttotackleinequality,deathsfrom

despair,fallinglifeexpectancy,racism

andothersocialills.Thatwon’tchange

sceptics’mindsabouthim,butit israre

toheara prominentfigureexpresssuch

bluntregretsforpastactions.Henow

arguesthatpartnership—suchasthe

FirstStepbipartisaneffortshebackedin

2018 toreformthecriminaljusticesys-

tem—achievesmorethanpartyconfron-

tation.Hehasalsostartedsendingsmall-

ersumstoDemocraticcandidates.

MrKochhasnotchangedhisspots

entirely,though.afppouredmillions

intothisyear’selections.Theseinclude

helpgivenrecentlytoDavidPerdue,a

Republicansenatorialcandidateina

run-offinGeorgia.Meanwhiletheafp’s

websitebragsofhowit lobbiedtoget

AmyConeyBarrettinstalledquicklyon

theSupremeCourtlastmonth(toDemo-

craticfury),justasit pushedforBrett

Kavanaughtwoyearsago.A roadonce

takencanbehardtoleaveagain.

MyKochtopusteacher

Political donors

CHICAGO

Charles Koch offers partial regrets for his partisan ways

Before the fiddlers have fled

Poland. The new test “is likely to have a

crushing effect on prospects for new nuc-

lear arms control agreements”, says Laura

Grego of the Union of Concerned Scien-

tists, an advocacy organisation.

“It will also provide motivation (or jus-

tification) for Russia and China to diversify

and grow their nuclear weapons arsenals,”

she adds—the logic being that more mis-

siles will be needed to saturate stiffer de-

fences. China is especially jittery as it has

relatively few land-based icbms.

Ms Grego notes that because the sm-3

interceptor can also take out satellites—

something America demonstrated in

2008—deploying more of them will have

an impact on space security, too. But with

the Iranian and North Korean nuclear pro-

grammes simmering, the incoming Biden

administration is not about to abandon a

flexible seaborne means of shielding its

European and Asian allies. 7