Going All the Way with Condi
Condi Rice’s tenure as SecState has been competent, if lackluster. Until now. Last week, Condi announced some sweeping changes at State:
* Diplomats can no longer build careers by hiding behind desks in comfy capitals. They’ll have to accept dangerous assignments and serve in hardship posts; develop regional expertise in at least two areas; and speak at least two relevant foreign languages (French waiters need not apply). That ain’t going to make Rice popular with diplos accustomed to rotating between Rome and Northwest D.C. on their way to ambassadorships. Yet, it’s vital if we’re going to convert our failed, 19th-century- model State Department into a useful tool for the 21st century.
* Ouch! Condi really put Paris and Berlin in their places
Unless her immediate successor is her. Surely McCain or Allen or Giuliani would keep her in place – and probably commit to that at the Convention.
good article at the wall street journal opinion page
Hillary’s Plantation
Hillary Clinton reveals her fear of Condi Rice.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007854
I passed this on to someone that I think State would like to attract (recent Ivy League undergrad in History and Middle Eastern Studies, with some Arabic and Japanese). His response:
1) The people she wants can do much better for themselves financially by joining companies, or the CIA and the like if they want government careers.
2) Why would anyone want to build up all that expertise only to be ignored as Condi and Helen Hughes channel Washington think tanks’ ideas? State today looks too much like it did in the Rodgers years when diplomats were simply bag carriers for Kissinger.
The people she wants can do much better for themselves financially by joining companies, or the CIA and the like if they want government careers.
Um, NO. The people Condi wants, want to work at State, and $ means little in their career calculus. Also, sorry to inform your friend – but useful expertise is not gained at school – perhaps most especially in the Ivy League, if my hiring experiences are any indication. I wish your friend well in the private sector, where an egotist’s “being ignored” is at least remunerated nicely.
If you are being moved out into the field, you are being made responsible. A “bag carrier” perfectly describes the legions who sit at their desks in Foggy Bottom, merely punching in and out and then grabbing their pension.
You want responsibility right out the door? Try the military. Or this planned version of State. Not some large company where you won’t make a decision, but, Oh Boy! you can certainly be made responsible!
Going All the Way with Condi
Courtesy of the Vodkapundit:
Condi Rice’s tenure as SecState has been competent, if lackluster. Until now. Last week, Condi announced some sweeping changes at State:
* Diplomats can no longer build careers by hiding behind desks in comfy c…
I say we let her appoint her successor.
Stephen, it might seem lackluster to US, but I read she’s getting the rock star treatment where she goes.
It’s important that the “oppressed” see her.
And she’s smacking down their male heads of state.
We need Diplomad’s access.
How exciting it is right now.
Oh no. Now where will all the Mike heckuva job Brownies go when they need a cush job once they determine that speaking two languages does not include prezeldintese or cronyish.
Maybe State shoud start vigorously recruiting in the retiring-SOCOM and Special OPs pool, rather than the left-wing Socialist/Communist bastions of Academia; starting with an embargo on Georgetown, Berkeley and the Ivys unless the candidate has served overseas in the combat-military first.
Links and Minifeatures 01 23 Monday
Carnivals:
Carnival of Investing Recommended: Interview with B…
“I passed this on to someone that I think State would like to attract (recent Ivy League undergrad in History and Middle Eastern Studies, with some Arabic and Japanese). His response:
1) The people she wants can do much better for themselves financially by joining companies…”
I’m in the management ranks of one of the largest international oil companies in the world — therefore one of the largest companies in the world, period, with operations just about everywhere imaginable. I hate to break this to your friend, but I don’t know of very many companies, including mine, who would have the slightest interest in hiring someone with a degree in History and Middle Eastern Studies. Maybe if your friend gets a technical degree or an MBA or a JD they might be interested — but right now the only thing he’s qualified for is waiting tables… or working at the State Department.
Since he’s apparently still an undergrad, it might be a good idea for you to disabuse him of some peculiar notions he’s developed about the business world. Trust me, he’ll thank you later.
I live in Indonesia, it’s not so bad. They even opened a Ritz Carlton in downtown Jakarta right across the street from the JW Marriott that was car bombed. So ya’ll come on out and pay us a visit.
Brilliant move on the part of my future wife, Condi. Thank God someone in DC actually has the balls to explicitly announce that Europe doesn’t matter anymore.
This is why she must be prez (and I’ll be first hubby). Stick some f—ing Democrat in office in 2 years, and all this is for naught.
Condi Rice Kicks Butt at State
The New York Post has a story on Condi’s proposed house-cleaning for the State Department. Registration required, so you might just want to read Vodka Pundit, who posts some of the bullet points.
Ted B.: “Maybe State should start vigorously recruiting in the retiring-SOCOM and Special OPs pool, rather than the left-wing Socialist/Communist bastions of Academia; starting with an embargo on Georgetown, Berkeley and the Ivys unless the candidate has served overseas in the combat-military first.”
Congratulations, you’ve just excluded George Kennan.
Look, I enjoy Ivy-bashing as much as the next guy (especially because I am an Ivy-leaguer) but past a certain point it just becomes (a) unrealistic (b) ahistorical and (c) insulting to the numerous Ivy leaguers who have served their country honorably.
SA – country of the future
Trevor sent me a link to the Vodkapundit blog with a great quote about South Africa;Condi (Condoleezza Rice) named China, India, South Africa and Brazil as countries of the future.Nice ring about that, country of the future. I also agree about China In…
…he also excludes a massive horde of seat warmers.
With regards to Mr. Kennan, he did a good job, but he also got a lot wrong- that military buildup he opposed was what ultimately bankrupted the Soviets, and expanding NATO was most emphatically not a “strategic blunder of potentially epic proportions.”.
While I do not think any great wisdom comes from having been shot at, I don’t think it comes from having an Ivy League diploma, either.
Going all the way with Condi…
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sounds Nice to me!
Congratulations, you’ve just excluded George Kennan.
Thank Christ!! As mentioned above Kennon was plain wrong on many things. But worse is the cliqueish nature of both the CIA and State. You still have difficulty joining if your not ivy league. Condi’s Reforms are good within State but the dept need to de-emphasze connections in their recruiting as well!
And of course you’ve excluded Jefferson, too. And Madison. And…
Look, rosignol, Jeff, I hope that we’re in violent agreement
on the real issue here: that anti-Ivy prejudice is as senseless as pro-Ivy prejudice.
My objection is simple, and – I would have thought – uncontroversial: America is a huge country with talent to be found in many places. By all means let’s recruit the best and brightest, wherever they may come from.
If they come from Exeter + Yale, fine. If they come from the USMC + UMich, that’s fine too. Embrace excellence.
Ivies are great for social polish, connections, etc.
They are horrendous for ego, as well as for their rather unique practice of grade inflation. Anyone who goes to an Ivy is smart, but their GPA is completely useless. A 4.0 from Cal-Tech is a genius who probably can’t speak with people, while someone who barely graduates from MIT or Cal-Tech (or almost graduates) has more useful skills, is at least as smart, and has much less of an ego problem (unless given a math program, but even then there are right answers, and you just have to out geek them / be right to get respect).
A tech school with business experience and/or military experience is much more useful. The WWII OSS is a great model for spies as well as diplomats. Get insanely smart people from the real world to do interesting things for a few years. That should be the model for all government service: short term service by gifted people with real world experience and accomplishments, rather than career silos from people that can only make a living from government jobs.
A managing partner at a private equity fund scouting investments in China and also funneling information to the CIA should be the model. The denigration of patriotism and the idea of a national project amongst so called “elites” and the academy destroyed any chance of effective diplomacy and intelligence operations. The Brittish managed to use patriotism welded to commerce to create a worldwide empire that included India and the important parts of China by accident.
I also agree that the best way of perpetuating this improvement at State is to have Laura Bush’s choice for President making the appointments.