Leaderless and without navigators to direct it, the ship of American diplomacy is adrift in the fog.
But while the Senate deserves criticism for not yet approving CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as America’s chief diplomat, that’s far from the only malady afflicting the Department of State.
The Trump administration bears blame itself for its continuing failure to appoint talented officials to crucial roles at the department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters.
Today, aside from acting Secretary of State John Sullivan and the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Heather Nauert, the department’s senior ranks are either vacant or staffed by career personnel serving in acting capacities. At the next rung down, the assistant secretary level, only one Trump appointee is in office.
Who is to blame?
Well, one senior administration official names Tillerson as the primary culprit: “The long list of vacancies is embarrassing. It’s hampered the department’s work, and world leaders have taken notice.” This sentiment matches what we have heard from foreign diplomats in Washington. One major allied ambassador lamented to us that the absence of senior department officials has made it hard to engage constructively.
Regardless, Tillerson is now gone and Trump now has responsibility for dragging the department out of the fog.
We recognize that the vast majority of civil service, foreign service, and specialty State Department officers are talented patriots. They deserve respect and gratitude for their decision to represent the nation abroad. But without direction from political appointees dedicated to the Trump administration’s agenda, these officers lack mission clarity. In turn, they cannot effectively implement the day-to-day work of diplomacy.
The result is rendered in lost opportunities to strengthen the strategic partnership with India, advance economic-peace building efforts in Afghanistan, and consolidate vulnerable allies in capitals like Baghdad, Beirut, Kiev, and Tallinn.
So what should be done?
First, the Senate needs to confirm Pompeo.
Then, Trump and Pompeo must subjugate their egos in favor of national interest. At present, too many talented, willing-to-serve conservative foreign policy professionals are barred from appointment at Foggy Bottom for having previously criticized the president. There is a ludicrous pettiness in imprisoning effective diplomacy for social media feeds and past articles in slight of Trump’s name.
We understand Trump’s frustration at the disdain he received from many officials during his 2016 campaign, but now his priorities have changed. Now, after all, the buck of responsibility and the measure of success stops at his desk. In the national interest, those individuals who have changed their views and are now prepared to serve Trump loyally, deserve a second chance.
To that end, the president, his new national security adviser John Bolton, and Pompeo must decide what is more important: effecting Trump’s foreign policy agenda or basking in the vacuum of true believers. They should remember that U.S. diplomatic history records few heroes who stayed home.
Next, Trump and Pompeo should pick up the phone and engage young career diplomats in harnessing the diplomatic wind. While the two conservatives are not popular with many in the liberal-leaning department, they would win quick favor by empowering those who were underutilized by Tillerson and, previously, John Kerry’s control-freak management style. We are confident of this, because it is exactly how Pompeo won favor at the CIA.