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Unnamed State Department official, sworn in earlier, tells staff diplomacy must advance U.S. national interest
Summary
An unnamed official who said they were sworn in earlier by the vice president used a first-day address to Department of State staff to urge that U.S. foreign policy be centered on advancing national interests, strengthen the department's role in policy formulation, and support overseas and locally employed staff.
An unnamed official who said they were sworn in earlier by the vice president told staff at the U.S. Department of State that U.S. foreign policy should be “centered on one thing, and that is the advancement of our national interest.”
The official, speaking on what they described as their first day on the job, said the department should be at the center of how the United States formulates and executes foreign policy and pledged to make it faster and more effective. “We need to be ahead of [a changing world],” the official said.
The remarks tied the department’s mission to day-to-day services for Americans abroad and to broader diplomatic goals. The speaker said that, for many people around the world, ‘‘the men and women who serve us abroad . . . are literally the face of our country’’ and singled out locally employed staff as vital to U.S. missions overseas.
The official emphasized peace as an overriding objective but said diplomacy must not come “at the expense of our national security, never at the expense of our national interests, and never at the expense of our core values.” They also said leaders sometimes face “two bad options” in foreign relations and that the department’s work is to choose the least harmful path.
On the department’s internal role, the official said State should not merely execute policy but help design it: “When the time comes for the principals to gather, or even deputies, I want the Department of State to have the best ideas and the best options available for the president.” They added the department must be a ‘‘21st century agency’’ that moves “at the speed of relevance.”
The speaker said changes they anticipate are not intended to be punitive but are meant to equip the department to meet fast-evolving global challenges. They thanked family members and former congressional colleagues, including Mario Diaz Balart, Congresswoman Lois Frankel and Brian Mast, for attending the event.
The official closed by reiterating a personal commitment to the job and to the department’s staff, saying they were sworn in at about 9:15 a.m. and pledging to work ‘‘harder than anyone ever has at this role.’’
