Same Old Song

It was in more-in-exhaustion-than-in-anger that I read Foreign Policy's account of a significant report from the State Department's Inspector General on the sad state of the Bureau of African Affairs. It's awful to hear that things aren't going well, and I can imagine that African postings might be more difficult than many to fill. Elizabeth Dickinson writes:

[The report] cites inadequate staffing, declining morale, lack of qualified job candidates, and a failure to mentor young officers as key shortcomings. "There is no bureau that is more difficult to staff overseas than AF," the report reads. OIG attributes the difficulty to perceptions about the poor quality of living abroad and insufficient hardship or danger pay. Hence, positions in Africa often remain vacant or are filled with candidates without the necessary experience. Meanwhile, demands on embassy staff have only ballooned: "Embassy platforms are collapsing under the weight of new programs and staffing without corresponding resources to provide the services required," the report says. There is, for example, just one financial economist and one international economic position mandated within the bureau's economic team, rending State "an unequal partner in discussions" with other U.S. branches and multilateral institutions.

But the idea that this problem only extends to the Africa Bureau, or that this is a relatively new problem is a somewhat dangerous assumption.