Defense has more musicians than State has diplomats
JOE RAEDLE/Getty Images David J. Kilcullen, a senior advisor to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq, makes the following observation in a big-think paper that’s making the rounds: At present, the U.S. defense budget accounts for approximately half of total global defense spending, while the U.S. armed forces employ about 1.68 million uniformed members. By comparison, ...
JOE RAEDLE/Getty Images
David J. Kilcullen, a senior advisor to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq, makes the following observation in a big-think paper that’s making the rounds:
At present, the U.S. defense budget accounts for approximately half of total global defense spending, while the U.S. armed forces employ about 1.68 million uniformed members. By comparison, the State Department employs about 6,000 foreign service officers, while the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has about 2,000. In other words, the Department of Defense is about 210 times larger than USAID and State combined—there are substantially more people employed as musicians in Defense bands than in the entire foreign service. [my emphasis]
I hope they like John Philip Sousa in foreign capitals.
More from Foreign Policy


At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment
Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.


How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China
As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.


What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal
Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.


Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust
Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.