Diplomacy should be treated as a necessity in this era of geopolitical challenges, but is it? As far as the U.S. Department of State (DOS) goes, it seems that the Trump administration prefers hard power over soft power foreign policy. This time, oddly enough, the telltale sign of excessive Department of Defense (DOD) funding isn’t the only signal for an administrations change of strategy.
In conjunction with a $65 billion increased investment in the DOD, President Trump in his 2018 budget proposal also requested significant cuts to DOS funding. When Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State, was asked if he supported these cuts he attempted to rationalize them, asserting that Trump’s deal-making prowess will result in reduced conflict, which connects to a reduced need for diplomacy. Even if Tillerson ignores this reasoning’s flagrant contradiction of the logic behind increased DOD funding, no one can explain away the larger issue: a lack of appointments to the DOS.
The Partnership for Public Service and the Washington Post, in their report of Trump administration appointees, noted that “as of July 31, Trump has nominated 255 people out of the more than 1,100 positions requiring Senate confirmation, and the Senate has confirmed just 51 of those nominees.” Former State Department official Eliot Cohen noted the gravity of this impact on the DOS, furthering that “without regional and functional bureaus led by competent assistant secretaries [the U.S. will] have zombie diplomacy.” Even if the need for diplomacy shrinks, fundamentally necessary DOS officials are still some of our first lines of communication with other nations and the U.S. is already feeling the impact of the reduced dialogue.
For instance, Crystal Nix-Hines, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) envoy left the DOS in January, and no new appointee has filled the vacancy. Carmel Shama HaCohen, Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, vocalized how this lack of appointments harms U.S. international relations, saying that “[our effort] to kill a resolution Israel [disliked] might have succeeded had a U.S. official of [high] caliber been on site.” The absence of envoys, in essence, harms our efforts meant to defend Israel and, by extension, reduces the positivity of U.S. Israel relations.
This issue hits even closer to Florida in the cases of Cuba and multiple other Latin American nations. Cuba, only 330 miles from Miami, currently has a comparatively better situation with our interim envoy: Scott Hamilton. To his credit, Hamilton has a wealth of experience as a career diplomat, former Deputy Chief at the Cuban embassy and former Director of the Office of Central American Affairs. However, the operative word in his description is interim; he is supposed to be temporary but hasn’t been changed out for two months. This situation is a painful demonstration of the issue; Hamilton is ideal for the position, yet, since he hasn’t been officially nominated or approved, we show with our inaction that our diplomatic ties with nations outside of Trump’s primary interests aren’t worth his time.
Trump is the type of president that deals with a small number of significant issues. However, when he turns a blind eye to a substantial number of smaller issues, they metastasize in their degree of danger. What’s hard to understand is how he avoids the waiting gaze of the 58 nations and international organizations that have a chargé d’affaires ad interim all of which, like Hamilton, are supposed to be temporary stand ins.
If ignoring these appointees is equivalent to ignoring the concerns of the nations they’re meant to interact with, then ignoring DOS officials that report directly to Tillerson spells disaster even more so. Seven of these officials are acting which, again, is supposed to mean that they’re temporary. Startlingly among these officials: Ted Lyng of the Office of Global Food Security and Thomas Debass of the Office of Global Partnerships. When food security and global partnerships are tertiary interests within the Trump administration’s foreign policy framework, there’s a problem. But hey, at least they have acting leaders; many of these positions which are supposed to report directly to Tillerson are vacant. Diplomatic posts which intend to emphasize nonpartisan goals of U.S. foreign policy including our representative to the Arctic Council along with the leader of the DOS Office of International Labor Affairs are among these critical vacancies.
Instead of focusing on the obvious impact of Trump’s ignorance, it’s important to use this opportunity to delve into his thoughts and recognize that his inaction is really an intentional act of prioritization. In other words, he’s showing that he values the petty issues which he bombards Twitter about more than the legitimate concerns of his allies. Let’s just hope that, through this turmoil, our friends remain friendly.
Photo by Benjamin Milgram
