Culture Clashes within State Dept.
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John Burgess | Tuesday, February 21, 2006 |
Today’s Washington Post has an article, Administration Critics Chafe at State Dept. Shuffle that refers nicely back to my post yesterday about the different cultures within State. The article shows an instance of genuine friction between career employees and political appointees, though it doesn’t really distinguish between Foreign Service Officers and General Service employees in the offices. It’s my experience with several of the sections within INR that they are staffed predominantly by GS employees.
There’s not enough information in the piece to decipher exactly what’s going on. One group, the career staff, believes it is being politically purged–legally and bureaucratically, but still purged. There are allegations that this is being done to get the office “on message,” but there’s no real support for that in the piece. Political appointees are cast as the heavies, though that’s not very well supported either.
My read is that this is a clash in which both sides are not very pleased with the other and are looking for excuses to explain their behaviors.
About the Author: Former US Foreign Service Officer serving predominantly in the Middle East. Probably best defined as an East Coast Conservative.
After studying at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, I worked in the private sector, in newspapers, advertising, and retail. I joined the US Information Agency in 1979, studied Arabic and French, and had assignments in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, the UK, India, and two in Saudi Arabia.
I blog about Saudi Arabia, the importance of US-Saudi relations, and efforts toward reform in that country at Crossroads Arabia.
I believe that Saudi Arabia is of critical importance to the US, not only for oil, but for political, diplomatic, and strategic security reasons. It is far too important to leave to ignorant or ill-informed commentary.
I receive no Saudi funding for my work.
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Well, yes, if you were to read this article in a vacuum with no knowledge of the last 5 years in America, it would be very difficult to infer what might be going on.
Because there's been no evidence of this White House putting politics first and policy nowhere.
Policy "nowhere", Anderson?
Breathe, my pasty friend: breathe!
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