An Evolving Foreign Service

Ambassador Quainton was definitely my favorite guest so far. As someone with an interest in the foreign service as well as just getting out to see the world, it was amazing to meet a man who had transparently done it all. However, his essay, while I believe it to be true, gave me some pause about my ability to break into the foreign service and not to be tucked into some niche never to be heard from again. Ambassador Quainton admitted that his having served on all seven continents was an oddity, but from hearing him speak and reading his essay, it seems as if we are headed towards a time when serving in more than one country may be outside the norm.

This brings me to the idea of specialization. It's at the heart of capitalism and it reaching its tentacles into nearly every other aspect of our culture. Why not? It makes sense that if each person can be the best at some very specialized area, then as a country, we can be the best across the board. Quainton argued that this specialization would have to be the future of the foreign service if it is to keep up in the developing world of technology. True as this may be, the idea of the renaissance man (or woman) derived from an age of enlightenment for a reason. Specialization, despite breeding excellence in one area, tends to breed incomprehensible incompetence in other areas. It seems odd that while most businesses are searching for a liberal arts education for their employees, that the foreign service should begin to do the opposite.

Clearly the intention of Ambassador Quainton was not to approach one extreme or another, but to imply certain necessity for certain new and finely tuned skills in the foreign service if it is to survive. And who can blame him? This truth is clearly the case in nearly every industry that wishes to survive in a changing world, it must evolve.