MUCH OF OUR national security and foreign policy bureaucracy has been designed to confront an enemy that no longer exists. Today, many of our biggest threats come not from other strong states but from subnational groups such as Al Qaeda or from failing states that create fertile ground from which they operate.
The Pentagon has reacted to the post-9/11 world by enlarging the Special Operations Command and placing greater emphasis on language and cultural education. It's not enough, but it's a beginning -- and it's more than the State Department has done so far. The Foreign Service remains trapped in a framework straight out of the 19th century, producing diplomats whose primary skill is liaison work with other diplomats. That leaves Foggy Bottom woefully ill-equipped to deal with two particularly pressing challenges: public diplomacy and nation-building.
Public diplomacy -- the fancy name for speaking to the populace of foreign countries, not just to their leaders -- is more than ever necessary because of the spread of democracy. Long gone are the days when autocrats such as Otto von Bismarck and Prince Klemens von Metternich could determine their countries' foreign policy pretty much on their own. Nowadays, getting the support of foreign leaders usually requires getting the support of their voters. But, as the run-up to the invasion of Iraq proved, that's not something we're very adept at. Nor, as the aftermath of the invasion showed, are we very good at nation-building. We need a new bureaucracy devoted to this area so that the entire burden doesn't fall on the overstretched armed forces.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has unveiled a number of "transformational diplomacy" initiatives designed to address such shortcomings. Noting that there are nearly as many State Department staffers in Germany (population 82 million) as in India (population 1 billion), she announced transfers from cushy Western embassies to more hardscrabble outposts in the developing world. This will include opening a number of one-person missions in cities of over 1 million people where the U.S. currently has no representation at all. Foreign Service officers will be required to serve in hardship posts in order to get promoted. The State Department is also opening a regional public diplomacy center for the Middle East, staffed by Arabic-speakers, and an Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization, staffed by nation-building experts.
