People: The Squandered Resource

Abstract

There is widespread agreement among the members of the various foreign services of our government that they are not logically organized. Few innovations have been made in their structure in more than forty years, although there has been a major study of one or more of them every two years since World War II. The Foreign Service Act of 1946, drafted by members of the foreign service themselves and containing the only really successful innovations, has not been fully implemented, and the problems of organization and personnel-administration are increasing rapidly with the multiplication of our foreign services and the broader definition of "diplomacy" today. There should be a single Foreign Service of the United States, directed by an independent board analogous to the Civil Service Commission. In this way, uniform policy could best be assured, and an efficient and progressive personnel-administration could be designed to attract and hold good people in an increasingly competitive employment market.