Some Observations about Foreign Service Reform

The committee structures required are elaborate, the exchange of information necessitated is extensive, and the daily conflict between different agencies over priorities is exhausting and distracting. Where such close coordination offers only marginal benefits-as is the case with educational, cultural, and long-range informational programs-an effort to achieve it is undesirable, and can cause unnecessary trouble. So far as the higher level of coordination is concerned-long-range policy coordinationthis is generally a matter that takes care of itself unless a very powerful department of the government (e.g., Defense) is involved. An independent Board of Directors, in charge of a Foundation for Cultural Relations, is not likely to launch a large program of action with a country which has, for example, broken diplomatic relations with the United States. The members of the Board will realize that they have to explain themselves to the President and Congress, and while they may exercise discretion within the framework of existing policy, they are not likely to follow a course 180 degrees away from such policy. Besides, if they do, the Secretary of State has, of course, the residual right, as the President's chief foreign policy officer, to veto such action. No special grant of authority is needed for him to be able to take such action. Finally, the kind of coordination that is likely to be most fruitful in the fields of foreign cultural and informational policy can probably best be achieved if agencies with a distinctive responsibility for these fields, and staffed by professionals appropriately trained, conduct the coordinating activities. Twenty-five or more federal agencies are now in this field, by explicit intention or by indirection. Such political direction as they need can be supplied by maintaining liaison, through an Assistant Secretary for Cultural Affairs, with the Department of State. Broadly speaking, the coordinating function of this officer would be to advise those directly in charge of cultural programs where to make their major efforts. But the pooling of resources, the determination of what to do, and the marshalling of the necessary professional knowledge and skills, are coordinating functions that can probably be conducted more efficiently by officials working elsewhere than in the fire department setting of the State Department. Presently existing ideas and bureaucratic arrangements have shown themselves inadequate with respect to the fruitful coordination of international educational, cultural, and informational programs. There is little reason to suppose that they can be made to work simply by reaffirming their validity more strongly. The coordination that is needed requires a new idea of coordination and new organizational instrumentalities for achieving it

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