Hannah Gurman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231158725
- eISBN:
- 9780231530354
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231158725.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
This introductory chapter presents an overview of the evolution of the diplomatic establishment in the State Department in the United States. The last sixty years has seen the history of the State ...
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This introductory chapter presents an overview of the evolution of the diplomatic establishment in the State Department in the United States. The last sixty years has seen the history of the State Department threaded with the frustrations of diplomats who felt ignored and undervalued. High posts have typically been filled by political cronies who lacked professional expertise in foreign affairs. Thus, the American diplomatic establishment has remained extremely small and dysfunctional. Reforms began in the 1880s with the passage of Civil Service Reform, or Pendleton Act, which sought to transform the federal government into a modern merit-based bureaucracy. However, these initiatives were only partially successful, as evidenced by problems that plagued diplomatic corps in the late 1920s and 1930s—presidential antagonism, congressional isolationism, and economic disaster—which reflected the structure and culture of the institution in the ensuing decades.Less
This introductory chapter presents an overview of the evolution of the diplomatic establishment in the State Department in the United States. The last sixty years has seen the history of the State Department threaded with the frustrations of diplomats who felt ignored and undervalued. High posts have typically been filled by political cronies who lacked professional expertise in foreign affairs. Thus, the American diplomatic establishment has remained extremely small and dysfunctional. Reforms began in the 1880s with the passage of Civil Service Reform, or Pendleton Act, which sought to transform the federal government into a modern merit-based bureaucracy. However, these initiatives were only partially successful, as evidenced by problems that plagued diplomatic corps in the late 1920s and 1930s—presidential antagonism, congressional isolationism, and economic disaster—which reflected the structure and culture of the institution in the ensuing decades.
Hannah Gurman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231158725
- eISBN:
- 9780231530354
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231158725.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
This concluding chapter first claims the semblance between the prophetic tradition and the dissenting tradition of the U.S. diplomatic establishment. The power of the prophecy is at least partly ...
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This concluding chapter first claims the semblance between the prophetic tradition and the dissenting tradition of the U.S. diplomatic establishment. The power of the prophecy is at least partly embedded in the power of the word itself. Dissenting diplomats increasingly identified their message with the time-honored traditions that shaped the diplomatic establishment. However, upon the resignation of notable dissenters such as George Kennan, Jack Service, John Davies, and George Wildman Ball, the claim has been put to question. The chapter then considers a number of books, articles, and public appearances that show how their broader criticisms of the U.S. foreign policy set the current ideological and expansionist agenda against their own realist visions.Less
This concluding chapter first claims the semblance between the prophetic tradition and the dissenting tradition of the U.S. diplomatic establishment. The power of the prophecy is at least partly embedded in the power of the word itself. Dissenting diplomats increasingly identified their message with the time-honored traditions that shaped the diplomatic establishment. However, upon the resignation of notable dissenters such as George Kennan, Jack Service, John Davies, and George Wildman Ball, the claim has been put to question. The chapter then considers a number of books, articles, and public appearances that show how their broader criticisms of the U.S. foreign policy set the current ideological and expansionist agenda against their own realist visions.
