Harvard Kennedy School’s Future of Diplomacy Project Launches Initiative to Modernize U.S. Foreign Service for the 21st Century

Cambridge, Massachusetts – The Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center this week launched a new initiative, The American Diplomacy Project: A Foreign Service for the 21st Century.

The goal of the American Diplomacy Project is to produce a nonpartisan report on how the White House, both parties in Congress, the State Department leadership, and concerned citizens can lead an effort to rebuild the Foreign Service for the next half-century. The report will be released following the November U.S. presidential election.

Congress created the modern Foreign Service nearly a century ago in 1924 and took steps to renew it in 1946 and 1980. It has been four decades since a serious and sustained effort has been made to consider the mission, purpose, administration, and future of the Foreign Service. Given the dramatic changes since then – the end of the Cold War, 9/11, the Information and Digital revolutions, and the current Coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis – the Future of Diplomacy Project believes it is time to launch a national discussion about the purpose and future of the nation’s diplomatic corps.

Since 9/11, successive Republican and Democratic administrations succeeded in rebuilding and renewing the U.S. military and Intelligence community and in creating the Department of Homeland Security in response to the new and serious challenges our country faces around the world.  Americans should now turn to revitalize and rebuild another vital institution that protects and advances our national security—the State Department and the Foreign Service. 

During the next eight months, the project leaders will conduct a series of conferences and discussions – starting online during the COVID-19 crisis – with current and former Administration officials, members of Congress, members of the Foreign Service at all levels, retired Foreign Service Officers, business, civic, and religious leaders, and citizens across America to solicit ideas and reforms to rebuild the Foreign Service for the future. 

This new initiative intends to address the serious challenges the Foreign Service has faced during administrations of both parties, including inadequate budgetary support to train and sustain the nation’s diplomats, increased politicization of the Foreign Service, and the need to recruit and retain the very best women and men from every part of the country and every ethnic and religious group.

This project will be led by four retired career Foreign Service Officers who have more than a century of diplomatic service among them: Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School; Ambassador Marc Grossman, Vice Chairman of the Cohen Group; Ambassador Nancy McEldowney, Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service; and Ambassador Marcie Ries who is a Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Kennedy School. 

For more information about the project, please contact marcieries@hks.harvard.edu.