State Department Confronts North Korea With Rows of Vacant Positions

Source: Government Executive

The rising tensions between President Trump and the missile-launching government of North Korea are playing out with a State Department that continues to operate with corridors of unfilled leadership jobs.

The Trump White House has made only a third of the nominations needed to fill 130 key jobs at the department, according to a tracking tool from the Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post. Of the 44 nominees, 23 have been confirmed, leaving State with only 8 percent of top positions filled. Missing are a permanent assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, an undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs, and a confirmed ambassador to South Korea

Korean peninsula analyst Harry Krejsa, the Bacevich Fellow at the Center for New American Security, said: “The outstanding number of vacancies throughout the diplomatic and national security apparatus has been really worrying to foreign policy analysts. These are the folks who are the implementers and interpreters of policy and the informers of policy. So far, it looks like the administration is trying to do all three from the White House, creating a lot of incoherence across agencies, and confusion among allies."

“The slow nomination and confirmation of political appointees at the State Department has had a demoralizing effect on our diplomatic corps, and created problems for both the management of the department and for carrying out President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. “Filling [the assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs position] and numerous other critical State Department leadership jobs should be a top White House priority.”

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