Hitting Bottom in Foggy Bottom

[Tom Odom]

This one from Foreign Policy caught my eye this AM on the SWJ Blog

Another report by the State Department's inspector general this year described severe and broad dysfunction within the Africa bureau, while ignoring -- perhaps considering it a given -- the lack of departmentwide integration and leadership in operations. Examples of the dysfunction range from not providing public diplomacy personnel with computers capable of reading interoffice memos to a failure to effectively work with the new Africa Command.

Why am I not surprised?

By necessity, the Defense Department has stepped in where State Department has tuned out: Foggy Bottom relies on Pentagon funding and even personnel for basic operations central to its mission. For example, the Defense Department now performs much strategic communications work traditionally the purview of the State Department. In Somalia, for example, the State Department's budget for public diplomacy is $30,000. The Pentagon's is $600,000. And, in the State Department's bureaucratic wisdom, the $30,000 does not even belong to its undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs.

And roger as I serve as a POLAD