OPIA Blog

In times of economic turmoil and great uncertainty in the United States, many are turning to an unlikely source for employment: The Foreign Service.

Because of new funding authorized by a supplemental war funding bill and requests from the State Department to fund 1,500 new positions, 800 of which are foreign service, there appears to be a new demand in the government.

Although not everyone is made for the foreign service because of the stress of the job, the constant traveling and moving or the potential threat of serious conflict, the career can be incredibly rewarding.

“…career diplomats like Ronald E. Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan who now heads the American Academy of Diplomacy, called it the best job in the world. “I enjoy what I’m doing now but it’s nothing like working on foreign policy,” he said. “In my 37 years of service I may have gone home tired or frustrated with how a decision came out, but I never went home and asked myself if what I was working on was worthwhile.””

Once in the foreign service, individuals follow very structured paths their first couple of years. “New Foreign Service officers at the State Department choose one of five career tracks: consular affairs, economic affairs, management affairs, political affairs or diplomacy. No matter the track, all entry-level officers spend their first several years working in a consulate, interviewing applicants for United States visas and working with American citizens who need their help.”

To read more about potential the foreign service, read the article.

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, one of the leading progressive legal organizations in the United States, is making ground in the Obama Administration, according to a Washington Post article.

Eric Holder, an ACS board member, has been nominated to the position of attorney general. Multiple other ACS board members and attorneys with ACS have also been mentioned as potential appointees for other posts within the Obama administration.

The wind change is not just important for ACS, but for the change of political thinking within the White House. “”What that means is that the organization’s core function of developing and promulgating legal ideas and social policy will have a more receptive audience than it has had in the past eight years,” said Paul M. Smith, a District lawyer who is chairman of the ACS board.”

How receptive the Obama administration will be to ACS and its legal philosophy is still unclear. As the article goes on to explain, “While it is clear that ACS will achieve a new level of influence in the Obama administration, it remains to be seen how persuasive Obama will find any specific suggestions. On the campaign trail, his view of the law was often elusive. He has talked about the importance of judges having broad experience. But he has also praised the Supreme Court decision striking down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban, a ruling that many progressive lawyers did not like. Obama also disagreed with the court’s decision that the death penalty may not be applied to child rapists, a case in which the court’s most conservative members dissented.”

Only time will tell what impact ACS will have in government.

To read the full article, click on this link.