Down in Generation Gap: The Junior Foreign Service Officer Looks at the System

Abstract

Junior Foreign Service officers share the restless frustration of today's young Americans. They are much more action-oriented than senior officers and have organized to seek redress of grievances. They are especially critical of the State Department's administrative methods and would support constructive reform. They bring to the Foreign Service the recent graduate's appreciation for the possibilities of technological innovation and quantitative analytical techniques. The postwar generation views the United States and its world role idealistically, but modestly. Many junior officers question the relevancy of some foreign policy dogma, but are conscious of their inability to effect change. They would more easily accept their current remoteness from responsibility if their experience with the Foreign Service, and especially with senior officers, were more reassuring as to the prospects of spiritual survival and eventual accession to positions of meaningful authority.