The Foreign Service Blues

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace

Author(s): Cecile Shea

Research Area: Government

Keywords: Military Spending; Baghdad; Foreign Policy

Type: Report

Coverage: Iraq

Abstract:

The media claims that the Foreign Service was somehow failing to meet its obligations in Baghdad, but the truth is the opposite. The Foreign Service's has nothing to do with any reluctance to support the U.S. mission in Iraq. The findings of a 2007 American Foreign Services Association survey, completed by 4,300 members of the 11,500 workforce, demonstrate the respondents' primary concerns. The top three concerns of the respondents were the substantial pay cut all but the most senior Foreign Service members absorb when they transfer overseas, discrepancies in "locality pay" for workers, and concerns regarding "family friendliness."