I think it probably makes sense to change the title of the post for efficiency reasons (I.e., “don’t bother reading if you aren’t American”), but not because I think it contributes to EA being a more “globally welcoming and inclusive movement,” which I feel like is a less significant issue/concern here. (Yes, the argument seems to be that without saying “American EAs” the implied assumption is that all EAs are American, but I don’t think that’s a strong vibe; at the very least, I wouldn’t imply that the post shows hypocrisy in EA)
I agree on the efficiency reason as well, good point.
However, as a non-American EA, I think its worth me pointing out that this type of thing is an example of the US-centric status quo in the community which does alienate and frustrate us non-US EAs (I know this is true for many of us, having been speaking and thinking about this frustration with other non-US EAs for about 6 years).
Thanks for the feedback. I actually would like the article to be considered by non-US citizens to consider joining their own Foreign Service. I was deciding between making the article more generalizable vs U.S. centric. I made the title more U.S. centric for efficiency/sorting purposes but have added a paragraph of my estimate for other countries’ diplomacy careers at the very top. Overall, I think the scale of staffing size makes smaller countries’ diplomatic careers competitive, despite the varying geopolitical influence of other countries.
Thank you for changing the title—I think it is more helpful overall now, and addresses the concerns I raised. BUT in addition to that, you added that note underneath it which not just addresses the point, but also raises an interesting consideration regarding non-US EAs working in diplomacy in their own countries, which I hadn’t thought about and I think bolsters your overall point considerably. Well done !
That’s really interesting, as an American who has been active in EA in the US and Europe I usually felt that England had an outsized weighting on EA stuff, not the U.S.
I think it probably makes sense to change the title of the post for efficiency reasons (I.e., “don’t bother reading if you aren’t American”), but not because I think it contributes to EA being a more “globally welcoming and inclusive movement,” which I feel like is a less significant issue/concern here. (Yes, the argument seems to be that without saying “American EAs” the implied assumption is that all EAs are American, but I don’t think that’s a strong vibe; at the very least, I wouldn’t imply that the post shows hypocrisy in EA)
I agree on the efficiency reason as well, good point.
However, as a non-American EA, I think its worth me pointing out that this type of thing is an example of the US-centric status quo in the community which does alienate and frustrate us non-US EAs (I know this is true for many of us, having been speaking and thinking about this frustration with other non-US EAs for about 6 years).
Thanks for the feedback. I actually would like the article to be considered by non-US citizens to consider joining their own Foreign Service. I was deciding between making the article more generalizable vs U.S. centric. I made the title more U.S. centric for efficiency/sorting purposes but have added a paragraph of my estimate for other countries’ diplomacy careers at the very top. Overall, I think the scale of staffing size makes smaller countries’ diplomatic careers competitive, despite the varying geopolitical influence of other countries.
Thank you for changing the title—I think it is more helpful overall now, and addresses the concerns I raised. BUT in addition to that, you added that note underneath it which not just addresses the point, but also raises an interesting consideration regarding non-US EAs working in diplomacy in their own countries, which I hadn’t thought about and I think bolsters your overall point considerably. Well done !
That’s really interesting, as an American who has been active in EA in the US and Europe I usually felt that England had an outsized weighting on EA stuff, not the U.S.
Yeah I think I should have been more accurate, I think by saying “US EAs” I really meant “US, EU, and UK EAs”