Trimming the fat? Rubio’s US State Department reorganisation

The Bureau for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance will be merged with International Security and Non-proliferation, Energy Resources with the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, while the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons will saddle up with the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

The Office of the Ombudsman will marry the Office of Civil Rights to form the Office of Civil Rights and Ombudsman, while the bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability and the bureau of International Security and Non-proliferation will become the bureau of Arms Control, Non-proliferation, and Stability under the Under Secretary of Arms Control and International Security.

The Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights will go, as will many of the offices and bureaus within that area of responsibility, and the Department's Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy will come under the Economic Growth office.

Skills being lost

Functional bureaux have played a central role in the State Department's management structure and operations. Each office's thematic purpose additionally played a key role in signifying what topics mattered to the US foreign policy agenda, reflecting American values and principles abroad.

Established in 2011 to replace the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilisation, the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilisation Operations (CSO) operated with a quick response capacity to conflict zones by deploying advisors. CSO worked in strategic prevention, conflict resolution, security sector stabilisation, and in countering violent extremism, collaborating with the Department of Defence and USAID.

For instance, it helped Niger weaken armed groups by identifying opportunities for armed actor defections, removing more than 240 former fighters from the combat zone and reducing the capacity of terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islami State, before helping Niger's leaders establish a legal framework and implementation plan for future defectors.

The Office of Global Women's Issues was created in 2009 by then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to ensure women's rights were a US foreign policy concern. Programmes such as the Gender Based Violence Initiative, the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, and the Afghan Women Leadership Initiative are examples of how it advanced US interests through promoting gender equality.

An axe to grind?

The Office of Global Criminal Justice (formerly the Office of War Crimes Issues) was founded in 1997 to help formulate US policy on the prevention, responses to, and accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. It supported courts trying those accused of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Syria, Myanmar, the Central African Republic, and Sudan.

The first Trump administration had suggested closing the Office in July 2017. David Scheffer, the first US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, commented on the decision, saying it "sends a strong signal to perpetrators of mass atrocities that the United States is not watching you anymore." A month later, the administration reversed its decision.

The Office's work with the International Criminal Court could also have been the real problem. Trump has had a fractitious relationship with the ICC, whose investigations into Afghanistan and the Palestinian Territories were seen as a threat to US and Israeli interests. Trump has since sanctioned the ICC and its officials. Interestingly, the first attempt to eliminate the Office was shortly before the ICC Prosecutor was due to release a report on international crimes committed in Afghanistan since 2003.

A question of priorities

The Foreign Service Institute was the main training centre for US personnel working overseas, specialising in language training, leadership, and IT. On 12 February, Trump signed an executive order for Rubio to reorganise the State Department to guarantee the foreign service a "workforce of patriots" ensuring a "faithful implementation of the President's agenda". Failure to do so could result in termination.

According to leaked documents, the foreign service exam will go in favour of a hiring standard based on alignment with Trump's foreign policy views, raising concerns about the abandonment of neutrality within America's professional diplomatic corps.

More generally, the loss of these offices indicates that Trump's foreign policy prioritises military capabilities and economic interests at the expense of American influence in areas like conflict resolution, gender equality promotion, and diplomacy.

Embedding the work of functional bureaux into regional bureaux means losing a dedicated office to prioritise and pursue these issues throughout US foreign policy. Yet 'soft power' is not a Trump administration priority. "We need to be grown-ups," said Rubio in a recent interview. "We have to prioritise (resources) in a mature way."

While the State Department's reorganisation plan does not physically upend the US's presence abroad (as was previously called for in two separate proposals), it will nevertheless have lasting consequences, as the administration tries to adopt a more bilateral, transactional lens to its foreign policy strategy.

The department will lose expertise, networks, contacts, and collective knowledge of thematic issues such as gender-based violence, conflict prevention, civilian protection, human rights, and preventing extremism. In short, the changes show that the US does not seek to implement preventative measures that stave off future conflicts. America's belt-tightening today may mean more trouble tomorrow.