The Biden administration has inherited an overworked, understaffed State Department with a foreign service that is smaller than it was in 2016 and struggles to reflect national diversity. In recent years, moreover, morale has precipitously dipped: The State Department, previously ranked the third best place to work among large agencies in the federal government, fell to the bottom five in 2019. Compounding the problem, Foreign Service Officer Test applications, an approximate gauge of interest in diplomatic careers, recently reached the lowest point since 2008.
At the same time, modern diplomacy has become far more complicated and technical, expanding the work the State Department is tasked with beyond its traditional remit. To name just a few crises, COVID-19 and global warming highlight the need for scientific and specialized expertise in U.S. diplomacy.
