U.S. diplomats will have to serve in dangerous posts

Beginning next year, career diplomats will be required to serve in some of the world's most dangerous and demanding posts if they want to advance in the professional ranks, the director general of the Foreign Service said Tuesday, describing a range of new policies that the State Department is implementing in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A third or so of Foreign Service officers, about 2,400 people, are serving in locations that the State Department defines as hardship or dangerous, meaning that access to educational, medical and infrastructural facilities is limited, or that employees are in greater personal danger from indigenous threats. State wants to build its roster of diplomats who have worked in hot spots, so now all Foreign Service officers will be expected to take such an assignment during the mid-point of their careers, said Ambassador Robert Pearson, director general and the State Department's director of human resources.

"[Sept. 11] was the catalyst for this," as well as other measures the Foreign Service is taking to broaden the skills and experiences of its career workforce, Pearson said. "The world is changing," he said, noting that almost half of U.S. foreign posts are now rated at greater levels of hardship than they were in years past. Examples include the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad or stations in Islamabad, Pakistan, Pearson said.

The new requirement is part of a broader strategy to change the career development of diplomats, Pearson said. The Foreign Service will continue an emphasis on leadership and management training, which was ushered in by Secretary of State Colin Powell, and will create more opportunities for its officers to learn languages, Pearson said. To emphasize the shifting focus of America's foreign policy, Pearson noted that, this fall, the Foreign Service Institute will be teaching more classes in Arabic than in Spanish, the fourth most commonly spoken language in the world.

The service also has launched a new diplomatic reserve initiative. Rather than set aside a specific number of diplomats to use in times of crisis, however, the service is cataloging the skills of its current workforce, as well as those of other civil servants in the State Department, so that it can tap them in times of need.

To help in that effort, State is using a new computer database that categorizes employees by job skills rather than title. With a system initially developed by NASA for its personnel, State officials can now find employees around the world using more than 250 criteria, and call upon them to fill critical gaps or respond to crises as they arise, Pearson said. For example, using the new system, officials could identify in a few hours those diplomats with experience working in the Balkans or who speak Serbo-Croat, Pearson said. Before the introduction of the automated system, that process could take weeks, he said.

The Foreign Service is shifting its priorities to world hot spots in other ways. State has established a new Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, which is the government's lead agency for responding to crises in failed, failing or post-conflict states. And because the service is placing more demands on its diplomats, it will enhance services for spouses and family members who may travel abroad, as well, or remain in the United States.

Specifically, Pearson said the Foreign Service wants to increase job opportunities for spouses living abroad. Right now, about one-third of spouses work in the countries where their family is stationed. Pearson said the department would like to see half working, and so has entered into talks with multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations about starting job-matching and placement programs.

In response to 9/11, the Foreign Service received a surge in applications from young people who expressed interest in taking dangerous or difficult assignments, Pearson said. Nearly 40,000 people signed up to take the Foreign Service exam, a prerequisite for entering the diplomatic corps, in 2000. This year, about 36,000 signed up.

Since 2000, the Foreign Service has taken in about 3,000 new employees, Pearson said. That has helped State beat back an employee deficit, which during the 1990s imperiled the department's ability to field the next generation of U.S. diplomats.