American Diplomacy Project Phase II - Midterm Report

The ASU Washington Diplomatic Roundtable is a quarterly event hosted by the University’s Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab. Following its launch in January this year, this is the second Roundtable dedicated to ASU’s engagement in support of the modernization of U.S. diplomacy.

The Phase II project team, in collaboration with the Una Chapman Cox Foundation and ASU, is assembling detailed blueprints for four critical areas of Foreign Service reform. At this event at the midpoint of the effort, team leaders provided a brief progress update and took audience questions.

1. Mission and Mandate - led by Ambassador Michael C. Polt, ASU Ambassador-in-Residence and former U.S. Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro and Estonia.

2. Professional Education and Training Priorities - led by Ambassador Dan Smith, former Director of the Foreign Service Institute, and Ambassador Joyce Barr, former Assistant Secretary of State for Administration.

3. A Modern and Flexible Personnel System - led by Ambassador Jo Ellen Powell, former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Resources.

4. Establishment of a Diplomatic Reserve Corps – led by Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, former Under Secretary of State for Management.

Under the Co-Chairmanship of Ambassadors Marc Grossman and Marcie Ries, the Project is headed by Executive Director, Ambassador Charles Ray. Ambassadors Grossman and Ries were co-authors of the Phase I report, A Foreign Service for the 21st Century, which was sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and also in collaboration with the Cox Foundation. Ambassador Ray is a trustee and chair of the Africa Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.