Mike Pompeo, the CIA director who President Trump has designated to become secretary of state, has a positive reform agenda for Foggy Bottom. It begins with Pompeo’s plan to appoint talented individuals to the State Department’s vacant leadership positions.
This matters because former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, made a huge error in attempting to control all elements of policy. Their arrogance meant that foreign diplomats were unable to work effectively with the United States because they had no one to talk to.
It also meant the neglect of U.S. diplomacy in critical nations like Afghanistan.
Indeed, consider that the under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs is among one of the many State Department vacancies Pompeo must now fill. You might have thought Tillerson would have appointed someone to that role by now in order to confront ongoing challenges posed by Iran and North Korea.
Regardless, filling the gaps will give Pompeo the means to ensure lower-ranking diplomats have the direction and oversight necessary to fulfill the president’s foreign policy agenda.
The secretary of state designee also deserves credit for his commitment to get foreign service officers out into the field serving the nation’s political, economic, and moral interests abroad. At present, the State Department’s bloated middle management structure puts obstacles in the way of diplomats who want to go beyond the wire and do their jobs.
As he did at the CIA, however, Pompeo can address this challenge by authorizing junior diplomats to take on more risks and responsibilities. Doing so wouldn’t just serve U.S. diplomacy, it would also boost morale.
Ultimately, Pompeo may not succeed at the State Department even if he wins approval from the Senate. But in terms of the reforms that he proposed on Thursday, he couldn’t do too much better.
