Many issue areas most prioritized by EA – biosecurity, pandemic response, artificial intelligence – remain neglected within the State Department. If you can introduce a more rational, long termist perspective into an often short-sighted policy process, the marginal impact of your presence can be quite significant.
How easy is it to go against the grain like that? Are there not institutional pressures to focus on short-term considerations?
There are definitely institutional pressures to focus on short-term considerations, especially for those offices that play bigger roles in quickly-evolving bilateral and multilateral issues. The more technical offices (also called functional bureaus) that have subject matter experts working on longer term strategic issues, and being called on to review the quicker/shorter-term considerations. These tend to have a higher number of Civil Service employees who are in the office for decades (unlike Foreign Service who are in a specific position for 1-3 years), making longterm considerations easier. Overall, I don’t think State suffers as much from an emphasis on short-term considerations as other Departments might since the bulk of State’s work isn’t focused on partisan issues or dependent on election cycles.
How easy is it to go against the grain like that? Are there not institutional pressures to focus on short-term considerations?
There are definitely institutional pressures to focus on short-term considerations, especially for those offices that play bigger roles in quickly-evolving bilateral and multilateral issues. The more technical offices (also called functional bureaus) that have subject matter experts working on longer term strategic issues, and being called on to review the quicker/shorter-term considerations. These tend to have a higher number of Civil Service employees who are in the office for decades (unlike Foreign Service who are in a specific position for 1-3 years), making longterm considerations easier. Overall, I don’t think State suffers as much from an emphasis on short-term considerations as other Departments might since the bulk of State’s work isn’t focused on partisan issues or dependent on election cycles.