Deprofessionalizing the State Department Is a Threat to National Security
by Ambassador (Ret.) Dennis Jett

January 24, 2025, JUST SECURITY

Among the flurry of executive orders on President Donald Trump’s very busy first day were those aimed at employees of the government over which he now presides. He froze hiring, forbade most remote work, and gave his staff the highest-level security clearance without the normal background checks required. But his most far reaching step was the resurrection of Schedule F, which he previously implemented in the final weeks of his first term. Now called Schedule Policy/Career, but instituted via reinstatement of the Schedule F order, the policy reverses long-standing norms around the professionalization of government employees, which began in 1883 with the Pendleton Act.

Changes in norms around a professionalized diplomatic service go beyond the schedule reclassification. Normally career diplomats make up 70 percent of America’s ambassadors, with the remaining posts filled with political appointees who often include donors or other political allies. During Trump’s first time in office, only 56 percent of ambassadors were career diplomats, a lower figure than for any president in at least the last half century.

One reason for the continuation of senior staff across administrations is because it takes time to build the human capital required, and an experienced diplomatic corps is an essential national security asset. Diplomacy is not just attending cocktail parties and not paying parking tickets. It requires in-depth knowledge, language skills, and other attributes that enable the State Department to persuade foreign leaders that what the United States wants them to do is in their interests as well as America’s.

The hard power of the military can quickly be overstretched and overutilized. The soft power of persuasion coming from effective diplomacy is therefore essential. Gutting the State Department and replacing loyal and hardworking people with those selected only for their ideology removes the tools the United States must have to effectively deal with foreign policy problems in a complex world.