American diplomacy has failed because it was deprived of real professionals who understand what is really going on in the world, RIA Novosti political observer Dmitry Kosyrev writes, commenting on the cleansing in the US State Department kicked off by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
"While the American public was satisfied [with the US foreign policy], there was no point in speculating, whether the diplomats understand what is really happening in lots of countries and regions. It was enough that they worked as propagandists and lecture foreign countries and societies on how they should live, while the public in the US took that for granted," Kosyrev noted.
Meanwhile, American diplomats sounded the alarm over what they called "the exodus of more than 100 senior Foreign Service officers from the State Department since January," as The New York Times wrote.
The media outlet referred to the fact that Tillerson vowed to cut the State Department's budget by 31 percent even before he assumed his position. "Mr. Tillerson has frozen most hiring and recently offered a $25,000 buyout in the hopes of pushing nearly 2,000 career diplomats and civil servants to leave by October 2018," the media outlet highlighted.
On the other hand, the RIA Novosti observer cites Stephen M. Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, who pointed out in his op-ed for Foreign Policy that "the cruel fact is that the State Department, and especially the foreign service, has been a neglected institution for a long time and has not been adapted to the realities of 21st-century diplomacy."
Besides the fact that the US "routinely assigns about a third of its ambassadorial positions to unqualified amateurs," over recent years the State Department "has acquired a lot of additional tasks and burdens." While some of positions such as global AIDS coordinator, an assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, an ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism remain unfilled under Trump "it is not obvious that putting someone in these jobs would make US foreign policy more effective," the US academic emphasized.
According to Kosyrev, it is difficult to say "what will happen next with US foreign policy." However, it is important that "the words about the need to change everything have been spoken" and concrete actions have begun.
Meanwhile, US media reported on Thursday that the White House has a plan which would force Tillerson out replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Citing senior administration officials, The New York Times reported that Tillerson will be ousted "perhaps within the next several weeks." The media outlet specified that for his part, Pompeo would be replaced at the CIA by Republican Senator Tom Cotton.
According to the media outlet, "it was not immediately clear whether [US President Donald] Trump has given final approval to the plan," however, it appears that Trump "in general is ready to make a change at the State Department."
