The Foreign Service Journal, September 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2014 21 And many of them will necessarily be tied to the politics of the administration then in power, often recruited tempo- rarily at the top. Getting senior FSOs among such policymakers—valuable and necessary as that is—can never be the central aim of any system guiding as big a popu- lation as the entire Foreign Service, whose main function is to provide the It is stupid to throw away Foreign Service expertise in regular, predetermined numbers just as those officials are making their greatest contributions. seeds from which those foreign policies should grow. Modest Support Our innovative, impatient, ebullient country can well afford to continue the employment of senior career Foreign Service officials who have, through long experience, developed understanding of the views of other governments and their people, views that often differ from ours. It is stupid to throw away such expertise in regular, predetermined numbers just as those officials are mak- ing their greatest contributions. Ameri- can foreign policy lurches enough as it is. We must not deprive it of even this modest support. n