UNITED STATES
The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo (pictured) has embarked on a charm offensive with his own staff, nearly doubling the number of promotions of diplomats as he seeks to restore trust largely destroyed by his predecessor, Rex Tillerson.
Since taking over in April, Mr Pompeo has lavished attention on diplomats demoralised by Mr Tillerson’s distant management style, reluctance to consult in-house experts and inability to get personnel choices through President, Donald Trump’s White House.
Officials said the charm offensive by the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) includes resuming the hiring of diplomats’ family members when posted abroad, cheerleading emails to staff about his travels and a push to replenish the top ranks of American diplomacy.
The most tangible signs of Mr Pompeo’s efforts are the State Department promotion lists, which show he has sharply increased the number of diplomats promoted to three of the top four ranks.
The State Department had no immediate comment on the data.
An official who declined to be identified said the final number of promotions for fiscal year 2018, which ends on 30 September, could exceed those published over the past few weeks.
This was because the lists did not include some people recommended for promotion who had yet to complete mandatory career management programs.
Mr Tillerson, who cut promotions in six out of the seven top ranks, said at the time he did so because of earlier hiring surges and because the Agency’s “position base” would “contract over the next couple of years”.
That decision, and Mr Tillerson’s embrace of a roughly 30 per cent budget cut that President Trump proposed but Congress largely rejected, angered many Department employees.
Mr Tillerson, whom Trump fired via tweet on 13 March, argued in a speech last year that he had inherited an Agency budget that was at a record high and was unsustainable.
Sources said Mr Pompeo had brought some assets to his new role, notably a good rapport with President Trump, an insider’s grasp of Congress and deeper understanding of the Federal bureaucracy from his CIA service.
Washington, DC, 18 September 2018
