1 The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign ...

I look back on the nature of training for a foreign service career, and I would say that
insofar as the Foreign Service encourages growth, particularly intellectual growth and
experience, it is a wonderful career; insofar as it's porous, that is, you can go in and out, I
think it's healthy – the best of the American system. It's the envy of the world in many
ways, the whole idea of being able to leave and come back into the foreign service, even
though it certainly is the opposite of a formal career system that's been established.
However, that, in my view is the real system. The career system as usually described in
entrance brochures is not the reality. It's only a partial reality.
Q: Well, it's interested how many Foreign Service officers crop up in things like Jerry
Bremer in Iraq, but just by their experiences and intellectual ability do keep popping up
in various places.
MILLER: Oh, sure. But if you make an analysis of the career assignments, obviously
some assignments are much better than others. If you go to SS, the Staff of the Secretary
of State, as a junior officer, that is a platform for advancement in the diplomatic-political
world, if that's what you're interested in. You have a better chance.
Q: The secretariat, yes.
MILLER: You have a better chance than if you do not.
Q: Oh, absolutely, also to be an aide, of a principal.
MILLER: Absolutely. So the official rhetoric about the career doesn't admit to those
things openly, although that's the reality.
Q: Well, I hope what we've done here, it may take the government decades, but the
people, they can analyze careers from what we've accumulated and people's experiences,
and maybe translate this into passing knowledge onto the next generation of American
diplomats.
MILLER: Well, I think so. I think what you're doing is very important, because it
encourages reflection on just the questions we spoke of in the last few minutes. But I can
see a great value coming out of the more focused views of people who could presently
improve the career system, like my friend Tom Pickering. I put a lot of weight on him
because he has done the most in the way of his formal career, and he still has a role to
play, I think, in suggesting ways things could be done.
I'll give you one example. When he was undersecretary, he sent out an ukase that said,
"When you've received a demarche from Washington, you can change it as you think best
to get the message across." He knew exactly what he was doing, because after a demarche
would come out written by the desk officer and would be cleared up the line, and would
be cast in terms of the most offensive kind of...
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