Our Ailing Embassies

The world’s richest, most powerful, most internationally visible country has an overseas diplomatic presence that is approaching “a state of crisis.” The United States’ embassies and related facilities are in many cases antiquated and shabby, and computer networks are absurdly inefficient. Some missions are overstaffed while others lack adequate personnel.

These are some of the findings of the independent Overseas Presence Advisory Panel, asked earlier this year by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to assess the status of diplomatic efforts abroad. The panel’s findings are an indictment of this country’s failure to adjust its overseas operations to the post-Cold War era and to put adequate resources behind U.S. diplomacy.

The United States maintains 252 diplomatic posts in 160 countries. More than 14,000 Americans, representing 30 federal agencies, are assigned to these missions. About three-fourths work for the State Department or the Pentagon. Embassies and consulates are the eyes and ears of diplomacy and security and commercial interests abroad. They are also the face the United States presents to the world. Dilapidated buildings, overcrowding, antiquated administrative procedures and poor communications systems--lacking even e-mail capability--sap effectiveness. And they are an international embarrassment.

The panel urges spending an additional $500 million to $600 million to upgrade and modernize physical facilities. Some of that cost could be recouped by downsizing missions in countries where, since the end of the Cold War, a large American presence is no longer needed. Other savings could come from having some administrative functions performed regionally or transferred to Washington.

A one-year outlay of $200 million, the panel says, could set up an Internet-based system that would let missions communicate efficiently with each other. These expenditures would be in addition to the $14 billion for security improvements called for in the wake of last year’s bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

It won’t be easy getting a Congress notorious for its lack of an informed global outlook to acknowledge the dire status of U.S. diplomatic missions abroad and approve remedial funding. The Clinton administration’s task is to remind Congress of how much those posts contribute to the nation’s security and economic well-being and ultimately affect every congressional district in the land.