NPR Interview: Ambassador Appointments and Trump

I was interviewed by NPR's Michele Kelemen on Morning Edition regarding ambassadorial appointments at the U.S. Department of State. We discussed questions about whether President-elect Trump will appoint too many political appointees rather than career Foreign Service Officers to help US embassies overseas.

Give it a listen:

I’ve written before about why we should care about politically appointed diplomats:

“The issue implies some tradeoffs. It can be boiled down to a choice between control and competence. On the one hand, presidents rely on political appointees to implement the agendas that got them elected, and political responsiveness to the electorate is a vital democratic principle. The American people deserve a government that is responsive.

On the other hand, empowering long-serving career officials ensures the most experienced officials are influential in the policy process and incentivizes the development of expertise through a career in government service. Research suggests the merit-based system improves performance of the bureaucracy by cultivating valuable expertise.”

As I explain to NPR, "one could make too much of this just being a Trump effect. I think there's a broader issue here of the Foreign Service's authority, supposedly as being an elite institution of foreign policymakers within our national security establishment, but they haven't been able to play that role for decades, and I think that that's a shame."

My work aims to try to break this pattern. The State Department has a poor reputation for policy effectiveness, and I think career diplomats and civil servants need to do a better job of advancing presidential (and congressional) priorities by improving the quality of the policymaking process.