State Dept. Mismanaged, Report Says

In a scathing report, a nonpartisan task force warned Monday that the United States will soon face serious dangers and enormous costs because its foreign policy establishment has not come to terms with global changes a full decade after the Cold War ended.

At the heart of the problem, the task force said, is a State Department in a serious state of disrepair and plagued by “long-term mismanagement, antiquated equipment and dilapidated and insecure facilities.”

“No government bureaucracy is in greater need of reform than the Department of State,” it said.

The report is the work of a panel chaired by Frank C. Carlucci, a former Defense secretary, national security advisor and retired career foreign service officer. The task force was created to assess America’s foreign policy capability and develop an action plan for the new administration. It was co-sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, both of which are independent think tanks.

If the “downward spiral” is not reversed, the prospect of relying on military force to protect U.S. national interests will increase because Washington will be less capable of avoiding, managing or resolving crises through the use of statecraft, the report predicted.

The State Department is inadequate in mission, organization and skills, the task force said. Personnel policies have left about 700 diplomatic positions unfilled--a staffing shortfall of 15%, the report said. More than 90% of overseas posts are equipped with obsolete equipment to handle classified communications, and 88% of all embassies don’t meet basic security standards. A quarter of all diplomatic posts are seriously overcrowded.

The problems “render U.S. foreign policy increasingly ill-equipped to shape and respond to the realities and challenges of the 21st century. Failure to address these shortcomings will prompt significant negative consequences that will undercut national security,” the report said.

The task force argues that revitalization of America’s foreign policy establishment will require a presidential directive declaring that the secretary of State, not the national security advisor, is the principal architect and spokesperson on foreign policy. Such an order should also declare reform of the State Department to be a national security priority because, the report said, diplomacy has become an even more essential tool to promote U.S. interests overseas as societies are transformed in the post-Cold War era.

Previous attempts at reform were no more than a series of “half-hearted, selective and ultimately insufficient half-steps,” the report said.

One effort that backfired was the merging of the U.S. Information Agency into the State Department, according to an addendum by individual members of the task force. The combination has failed to enhance U.S. outreach overseas, said Robert E. Hunter, a former North Atlantic Treaty Organization ambassador now at the Rand Corp.

As a result of botched reforms, Congress has been reluctant to appropriate resources needed to carry out American diplomacy, viewing the State Department as flawed, wasteful and virtually irreparable.

The Bush administration appears to be taking the task force’s advice seriously. At his Senate confirmation hearing, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell pledged that reforms would be a priority.

In one of his first consultations since taking office last week, Powell discussed the report’s findings and recommendations at length with Carlucci. The two men worked together at the White House during the Reagan administration, Carlucci as national security advisor and Powell as his deputy.

At his first town hall meeting with State Department staff members Thursday, Powell said he had already begun corralling congressional support for funds that would allow him to improve department facilities and increase compensation. “I am going to fight for you,” he told them.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Monday said he welcomed the report and its proposals. “We look forward to seeing how they can be implemented in terms of actually getting the sustained support for foreign affairs that we all think we need,” he said.