Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s announcement of a major reorganization of the State Department this week was meant to signal a leaner foreign policy machine, removing layers of bureaucracy that he says slowed down quick action in a crisis-ridden world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But critics are warning that the Trump administration is kneecapping America\u2019s influence on the international stage, having already gutted U.S. foreign policy tools including U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Voice of America and offices focused on economic development abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is that we are eliminating some of our strongest assets,\u201d said Esther Brimmer, senior fellow in global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations and who served as assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be that some of these changes actually are helpful and bring together people who’ve been in different cones of the department, but we’ll have to see in the implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tibor Nagy, who returned to retirement after four months serving as undersecretary for management under Rubio, said he was \u201cgung-ho\u201d about the secretary\u2019s reorganization, even as he\u2019s criticized the manner of the shut-down of USAID, which he called chaotic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been with the State Department since 1978 and spent most of that time in the field in Africa, but of course, it’s given me an opportunity to see the State Department’s evolution. And the larger it got and the more bureaus that were established, the more dysfunctional it became,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rubio\u2019s reorganization, which was announced on Tuesday, included eliminating 132 offices and transitioning 137 other offices to other locations within the agency \u2014 a move even critics concede may deliver some needed streamlining around policy development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to shake my head that the single issue bureaus, whenever an important policy piece made it through the rounds, they would do what I came to call a Christmas tree, they would want to hang their ornament on it,\u201d Nagy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rubio, in an interview with The Free Press\u2019s “Honestly with Bari Weiss” Podcast<\/a>, said the reorganization is meant to bring \u201cstability, some organizational streamlining that allows us to further foreign policy in a way that balances all of the things we have to take into consideration when we pursue foreign policy, and we can deliver it efficiently and fast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Among the biggest changes Rubio announced was the elimination of the undersecretary for civilian security, democracy, and human rights \u2014 the so-called \u201cJ\u201d bureau in State Department parlance \u2014 with the seven offices under its authority either renamed, moved to regional bureaus or eliminated.\u00a0<\/p>\n The J bureau is being reimagined as Office of the Coordinator of Foreign and Humanitarian Affairs. It will coordinate foreign assistance, but regional bureaus will disperse aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n This comes after the near-elimination of USAID, the $40 billion humanitarian arm of the agency. The administration says the remaining 10 percent of USAID programs are merging into the State Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTaken together, these changes deprioritize human rights, equity, health, and civilian protection, circumscribing the remit of U.S. diplomacy and sidelining core American values,\u201d Dani Schulkin, Tess Bridgeman and Andrew Miller, wrote in an analysis<\/a> for the online policy journal Just Security. The authors most recently served in different capacities in the Biden administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s latest reorganization is not just a reshuffle. It\u2019s a realignment of diplomatic priorities, one that seems set to constrain U.S. soft power, reduce institutional capacity on human rights, and centralize messaging under fewer leadership nodes.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubio pushed back against that line of criticism, saying that remaining foreign assistance, human rights advocacy, democracy promotion and global criminal justice will be better served under specific regional bureaus \u2014 seven offices that span Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, the Western Hemisphere and international organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still going to be involved in those things, caring about human rights, but it\u2019s going to be run at the embassy and regional level, not out of some office in Washington, D.C. that has that title,\u201d Rubio said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just not realistic foreign policy in today\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n Brimmer, from the Council on Foreign Relations, said some of the reorganization makes sense, empowering the regional bureaus, moving certain law enforcement activities and creating an emerging threats bureau under the auspices of the Arms Control and International Security.\u00a0<\/p>\n But she raised concern about issues siloed into regional categories but are important in linking countries together \u2014 such as democracy and human rights \u2014 when the languages and locations are different.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States has been a leading proponent of the idea that democracy and human rights actually helps security and stability. It’s harder to manage these issues that are larger, if the structure is not correct, and that’s where I have concerns,” she said. \u201cHow they implement this will matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Nagy agreed it\u2019s too soon to judge the effectiveness of Rubio\u2019s shakeup.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of it is we’re cleaning up, but part of that is going to be seen, I don’t think it can be anticipated because the functions remain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo at the end of the day, the question is going to be: How effectively are those policies implemented?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Concerns about the State reorganization are compounded by ongoing anger over other major cuts on the foreign policy front. These include the effective closure of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which funded thousands of journalists in places with little to no independent media, and Millennium Challenge Corporation, which invested in development projects in poor but stable countries, with an eye toward boxing out Chinese influence.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are also rumored cuts coming to the State Department\u2019s workforce and footprint both at home and overseas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Proposals are reportedly circulating of cutting the State\u2019s domestic staff by 15 percent. At the start of the year, the administration put in place a hiring freeze, canceled the February foreign service exam and suspended testing for Foreign Service Specialist Candidates and for its Consular Fellows Program candidates, Politico reported in February<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n