The administration of US President Donald Trump has begun a major reorganisation of the State Department aimed at reducing duplication and eliminating programmes that the White House believes are not in the national interest. According to Reuters, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on 22 April.
“This approach will strengthen the agency’s effectiveness at all levels – from headquarters to overseas missions,” Rubio said. Region-specific functions will be consolidated to make them more efficient, redundant units will be eliminated, and programmes that are not mandated by law and do not align with US foreign policy priorities will be closed, he said.
As part of the reform, the State Department’s Office of Civil Security, Human Rights and Democracy will now be led by a coordinator for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs.
Rubio, who heads the significantly reorganised USAID in recent months, has been sharply critical of the State Department’s current structure, saying “it has become bloated, bureaucratised and incapable of fulfilling its core diplomatic missions in a new era of great power rivalry”.
The reform follows Trump’s February executive order to reorganise the US Foreign Service. In March, administration officials reported preparations to close nearly a dozen consulates. However, Rubio’s statement did not mention the imminent closure of any U.S. diplomatic missions.