With Shannon`s departure, seven of the top nine jobs at the department will be empty. Those vacant posts include positions overseeing the agency`s role in U. trade policy, stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, refugee issues and efforts to counter human trafficking. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has spent much of his first year trying to manage crises with North Korea, Syria, Iran and Venezuela. But he`s largely alone at the highest levels of the State Department, a problem exacerbated after the senior career diplomat, Tom Shannon, announced on Thursday that he plans to leave for personal reasons.
The State Department and White House have traded accusations over which side is to blame for a shortage of nominations, and Tillerson has said many posts are being filled by capable career officials.
Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs told Bloomberg, “We have really strong foreign service officers serving in an acting capacity in most of those roles and they’ve been doing an excellent job. While we plan to fill the vacancies at the undersecretary and assistant secretary level, the work is being done well.”
But there`s little doubt the pool of qualified nominees for top jobs is thin after the administration ruled out jobs for Republican foreign policy experts who opposed Trump during the election.
Morale at the department that was first led by Thomas Jefferson is also low, as Shannon joins an exodus of experienced diplomats. ambassador to Panama quit last month, saying he could no longer represent the president.
0 comments:
Post a Comment