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At Tillerson’s State Department, Seven of Nine Top Jobs Are Empty
Diplomacy has existed since the beginning of the human race. The act of conducting negotiations between two persons or two nations is essential to the upkeep of international affairs. Among the many functions of diplomacy include preventing war and violence, and fortifying relations between two nations.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has spent much of his first year trying to manage crises with North Korea, Syria, Iran and Venezuela. But he's largely alone at the highest levels of the State Department.... seven of the top nine jobs at the department [are] empty. Those vacant posts include positions overseeing the agency's role in U.S. trade policy, stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, refugee issues and efforts to counter human trafficking.
Diplomacy is most importantly used to complete a specific agenda. Therefore without diplomacy, much of the world’s affairs would be abolished, international organizations would not exist, and above all the world would be at a constant state of war. It is for diplomacy that certain countries can exist in harmony.
....the pool of qualified nominees for top jobs is thin after the administration ruled out jobs for Republican foreign policy experts who opposed Trump during the election.
Morale at the department that was first led by Thomas Jefferson is also low, as [senior career diplomat Tom] Shannon joins an exodus of experienced diplomats. The U.S. ambassador to Panama quit last month, saying he could no longer represent the president.
The functioning of diplomacy is influenced by a complicated combination of different interrelated factors. Yet we have unfilled positions with a president and secretary of state who are "in over their head" beyond comprehension.
The departures mark a new stage in the broken and increasingly contentious relationship between Tillerson and much of his department’s work force..... concern among diplomats about his aloofness and lack of communication.... the secretary’s focus on efficiency and reorganization over policy provoked off-the-record anger. Now the estrangement is in the open, as diplomats going out the door make their feelings known and members of Congress raise questions about the impact of their leaving.
A survey of State Department employees last Summer were clear:
According to the [Wall Street] Journal, workers said in the survey that they worry Trump and Tillerson don't understand the role of the State Department in foreign policy. “People question if these two groups understand the role the Department of State plays in forwarding the interests of the United States in the world,” it reads.
In November, Democratic members of the House Foreign Relations Committee cited “the exodus of more than 100 senior Foreign Service officers from the State Department since January,” and expressed concern about “what appears to be the intentional hollowing-out of our senior diplomatic ranks.”
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, sent a similar letter, telling Mr. Tillerson that “America’s diplomatic power is being weakened internally as complex global crises are growing externally.”
This is terrifying.
This is dangerous.
This is barely reported.
Source:
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-state-department-vacancies/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/us/politics/state-department-tillerson.html