{"id":61080,"date":"2020-12-07T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T19:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=61080"},"modified":"2020-12-06T21:29:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T10:29:20","slug":"fifty-years-of-foreign-affairs-the-anaemia-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/fifty-years-of-foreign-affairs-the-anaemia-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty years of Foreign Affairs: the anaemia problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Anaemia<\/a>: Lacking enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to the body, making the patient tired and weak. Anaemia can be temporary or long term and can range from mild to severe.<\/em><\/p>\n

For a bureaucracy, money is oxygen and people are blood cells.<\/p>\n

And anaemia has been a recurring affliction for Australia\u2019s Foreign Affairs Department since it was born in November 1970<\/a>, casting off its old moniker, External Affairs.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has grown into a great department of state<\/a>, yet warnings about the impact of anaemia on its work and effectiveness are a persistent motif over 50 years.<\/p>\n

The template for the dire diagnosis was set by the 1986 review of Australia\u2019s overseas representation<\/a>, authored by the department\u2019s secretary, Stuart Harris.<\/p>\n

As a medium-sized country with limited economic and military power, Australia must rely heavily on persuasion to achieve its vital overseas objectives, Harris wrote, yet the \u2018capacity to do this is thin and becoming thinner\u2019. Australia accepted the need \u2018to spend substantially to maintain an orthodox defence capacity\u2019 yet wouldn\u2019t do the same for diplomacy. The pressure on most areas of overseas representation led to Australia\u2019s \u2018falling short of our capacity to achieve some of our international objectives\u2019.<\/p>\n

When the Lowy Institute reported on Australia\u2019s \u2018diplomatic deficit\u2019<\/a> in 2009, it found that DFAT\u2019s overseas missions were \u2018overstretched and hollowed out\u2019. Years of underfunding had diminished the department\u2019s \u2018policy capacity and rendered many overseas missions critically overstretched\u2019. The ever-rising consular workload had displaced \u2018our diplomats\u2019 capacity to contribute to wider national objectives\u2019. By international standards, Australia operated a disproportionately small diplomatic network. And \u2018language skills of DFAT staff have been in decline over the last two decades\u2019.<\/p>\n

Returning to the \u2018diplomatic disrepair\u2019<\/a> case in 2011, Lowy found that Australia\u2019s traditional diplomatic footprint was outdated and inadequate: \u2018Both political parties are to blame. Unless these deficiencies are remedied, our economic, political and security interests could be seriously jeopardised.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Lowy disrepair report revealed that DFAT\u2019s overseas network had shrunk by 37% over two decades ago, despite \u2018massive growth in the Australian public service (60% in 15 years)\u2019. The government should reduce staff numbers in Canberra to get more of our diplomats overseas, the report said, and prevent further erosion of DFAT\u2019s policy and diplomatic capacity by reviewing the way consular services are delivered and funded.<\/p>\n

Parliament\u2019s joint foreign affairs committee concluded in 2012 that DFAT had suffered \u2018chronic underfunding\u2019<\/a> for the previous three decades. The diplomatic network was \u2018seriously deficient\u2019 because of cuts imposed by successive governments: \u2018Australia has the smallest diplomatic network of the G20 countries and sits at 25th in comparison to the 34 nations of the OECD. Australia clearly is punching below its weight.\u2019<\/p>\n

When the Public Service Commission did a capability review<\/a> in 2013, it described DFAT as a \u2018strong and agile\u2019 organisation with \u2018great potential to deliver more to the government and to the Australian community\u2019. So the great department wasn\u2019t quite delivering. \u2018In the view of its own staff and others\u2019, the review reported, \u2018DFAT is more effective at advocacy and delivery than at strategic thinking.\u2019<\/p>\n

The capability review set out the anaemia problem by listing the department\u2019s challenges, expressing them as the obverse of its strengths. The commission\u2019s strengths-versus-challenges list is a description of a department needing to get more oxygen to its blood cells:<\/p>\n