Why I despair of improvement at the State Department
Would you like to see the State Department become more effective? Then read this: The Department needs additional foreign service officers. They need them so they can send their people back to school in mid-career on a scale comparable to the advanced educational training provided by the Pentagon for its career people…In short, they need ...
Would you like to see the State Department become more effective? Then read this:
Would you like to see the State Department become more effective? Then read this:
The Department needs additional foreign service officers. They need them so they can send their people back to school in mid-career on a scale comparable to the advanced educational training provided by the Pentagon for its career people…In short, they need help and an opportunity to prepare for the roles that they must be able to fill.”
That was written in 1978 by retired Lt. Gen. James Gavin, best known as the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in the latter half of World War II. It is in the concluding paragraphs of his terrific memoir On to Berlin, which I just recently finished reading. It struck me as a particularly candid book, especially in its discussion of Operation Market Garden.
Wikimedia Commons
More from Foreign Policy


A New Multilateralism
How the United States can rejuvenate the global institutions it created.


America Prepares for a Pacific War With China It Doesn’t Want
Embedded with U.S. forces in the Pacific, I saw the dilemmas of deterrence firsthand.


The Endless Frustration of Chinese Diplomacy
Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish.


The End of America’s Middle East
The region’s four major countries have all forfeited Washington’s trust.