http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/index/ en U.S. Department of State 2012-02-11T15:54:03+00:00
Along the lines of supporting the peacekeeping initiatives put forth by the President there needs to be a change in DoS structure to better facilitate those needs. As we have seen over the past few years or so there has been a blending of DoD and DoS duties in the ongoing developments of public diplomacy. There is a need for the Department of State to transform its dogmatic pre-Cold War structure to better answer the demands of the 21st Century. With that, I suggest a further blending of DoD and DoS. The test bed for this is the fledgling Africa Command but could be done on a global level.
The Defense Department utililizes regional commanders or Combatant Commanders (CCOM) to direct DoD operations in 6 different areas across the globe. Often times, these Combatant Commanders are viewed as the senior U.S. representative in the regions they cover. This may have the effect of putting U.S. ambassadors covering their separate nations in a secondary role or, at least seen as less important than the CCOM.

I suggest making an ambassador position that parallels the CCOM, and coloacting them with the Combatant Commander. Those ambassadors need to be staffed to handle to political side of "Embassy work". Duties such as Consular activities should still be handled at the individual embassies but a link in this ever-regionalized world needs to be focused and synchronized together. This could be done with Regional Ambassadors. These regional ambassadors would be different than the Regional Undersecretary's of State. Unlike the Regional desks that primarily work on policy issues and work primarily in Washington, a Regional Ambassador would be a direct conduit for the new Civilian Response Teams and ensure that they are supported for their specific missions.

Obviously there are some problems with this set-up and the first one being the Chain of Command with DoS. Is it Constitutional to have country Ambassadors answer to a regional Ambassador since Constitutionally Ambassadors are appointed and report directly to the President? Since most smaller Embassies and their Ambassador answers to the SecState not the President there is a precedence for a Regional Ambassador. Without that power, the position of Regional Ambassador would be useless.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/training_peacekeepers/ Mon Oct 05, 2009