State of Disrepair

Fixing the Culture and Practices of the State Department

Kori N. Schake

• Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780817914547
• eBook ISBN: 9780817914561
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Kori Schake shows how the deficiencies in focus, education, and programmatic proficiency impede the work of the State Department and suggests how investing in those areas could make the agency significantly more successful at building stable and prosperous democratic governments around the world. She explains why, instead of burdening the US military with yet another inherently civilian function, work should focus on bringing those agencies of the government whose job it is to provide development assistance up to the standard of success that our military has achieved. Schake presents a vision of what a successful State Department should look like and seeks to build support for creating it—a State Department that makes possible the projection of US civilian power as well as US military force.

INDEX

Abdulmutallab, Umar Farouk, 106–7, 128

accountability

for Christmas 2009 bombing attempt, 107

in education, 119

“engagement in the process,” 39–40

exhortation rather than, 80–81

metrics for, 79–80, 80–81, 130, 131

need for, 2, 11–13, 16, 110

for negotiation and visas, 105

politicization as, 94

providing for, 79–80, 98–99, 108, 131, 137

QDDR and, 98–99, 131

reputation through, 12, 72, 93, 131

self-assessment for, 12, 17–18, 135

Acheson, Dean, 18–19, 44

Adams, John, 17–18, 121, 150n4

Afghanistan, 1, 112–13

civilian and military performance in, 2, 27, 95–96, 139

danger of operating in, 25–26

development in, 1–2

expanded diplomacy in, 68

governance issues in, 6–7

interlocutors preferred by government of, 26–27

Iraq and, 54

military service, promotion and, 48–49

personnel requirements in, 96, 151n46

Provincial Reconstruction Teams in, 6

resource allocation in, 28, 31

SCRS and, 65

State changed by, 123–24

amateurs, government of, 97

ambassadors. See diplomats

American Academy of Diplomacy

description by, 26, 43, 60

recommendation by, 32, 97, 133, 148n71

Amos, James, 44

analysis

importance of, 45, 104, 138

weakness in, 103, 151n3

Armitage, Richard, 16

Armstrong, Matt, 26

authority, loss of

in 1886, 64–65, 150n4

in cabinet, 22

consequences of, 22–23

as metric, 91

from self-definition, 24

to USTR, 22

in World War II, 21

back-office support, 40–41

Berlin Crisis, 150n9

budget. See funding

Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, 81

Bush, George H. W., 49

Bush, George W., 84, 101

foreign assistance and, 73–74

interagency performance under, 12

Strategic Framework Agreement of, 53

USAID autonomy curtailed by, 23

businesslike approach, 13, 16, 112, 132–33, 135

cables, classified, 69

Caslen, Robert, 58

...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Nature of the Problem
• Atrophy of Diplomatic Power
• Missed Opportunity
• Possibilities
• Program
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• About the Author
• Index