It’s not just the army that is hurting for recruits.
Moral is low, deployments are to high-risk areas (Kabul, Baghdad, Khartoum, anyone?), and not enough foreign service staff or auxiliary positions (language instruction, etc.) are being hired to fill spots created by a shift in diplomats from Europe (largely) to the Middle East (generally).
The situation in numbers:
Over the last two years, the Bush administration failed to anticipate the rising need for foreign service personnel in global hot spots, including Baghdad, where about 200 foreign service officers work in a 1,000-person embassy, the largest in the world, the council said.
At the same time, Congress has rejected the administration’s requests for additional personnel in the last two budgets, the council said.
About 200 foreign service jobs abroad are unfilled, according to the report, and about 900 other training slots needed to give diplomats language and other job skills have not yet been created. The foreign service has about 9,000 employees.
This comes after the State Department tinkered with their sacred admissions formula, the Foreign Service Exam, to focus on a new “Total Candidate Formula” (real name). This, in the minds of some foreign service officers, could have a dumbing down/politicizing effect on the admissions process.
From the WaPo article cited above: But some career officers and foreign policy types worry that the new hiring process could dumb down or politicize the Foreign Service, whose reputation for selectivity helps make it one of government’s most desirable career paths.
Well, at least the Foreign Service hasn’t breached the depths to which the U.S. Armed Services have gone.
