American Diplomacy for a New Era: Strengthening Our National Security through the Modernization Agenda – United States Department of State
In October 2021, Secretary Antony J. Blinken laid out his Modernization Agenda, a comprehensive initiative to strengthen American diplomacy and equip the Department of State to meet the challenges of a new era in international affairs. Developed through extensive consultations with the workforce and partners inside and outside of government, the Modernization Agenda focuses on three main lines of effort: ensuring we’re supporting critical missions, strengthening our workforce, and encouraging reasonable risk and innovation. In the three years since, the Department continues to deliver on its goal to curate foreign policy that seizes opportunities and addresses current challenges while recruiting and retaining a workforce that represents every corner of our nation.
- We established the Office of China Coordination also known as “China House,” a whole-of-enterprise approach to strategic competition and diplomatic relations with the PRC.
The Critical Missions line of effort ensures that the workforce and the Department are fit for purpose to meet the challenges of diplomacy in the 21st century.
- To lead our work on digital connectivity, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, the Department launched the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy and created the Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology.
- In the wake of COVID-19, the new Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy enshrines health security as a core component of foreign policymaking and strengthens our ability to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases, including through the creation of the Foreign Ministry Channel for Health Security, and the development of the Pandemic Fund’s five-year strategy.
- To bolster our climate diplomacy, we created a suite of data and analytical tools that gives our diplomats in DC and abroad the information on global climate trends they need to advance U.S. climate priorities. We also created a new cohort of climate officer positions in regional bureaus and overseas posts, with 20 new officers thus far working on climate full-time.
- We’re spearheading economic statecraft that delivers for the American people and builds secure and sustainable economies around the world, from the CHIPS Act’s International Technology Security and Innovation (ITSI) Fund growing global supply chains to the Blue Dot Network mobilizing private financing for emerging markets and the first-ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption.
- We increased our leverage and influence in the United Nations and multilateral system by launching a new Multilateral Strategy and Personnel Office, which paved the way for the United States to assume leadership of six major multilateral organizations and rejoin key institutions, such as the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO.
- We established a Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy, to better connect our foreign policy to the American people. Through the Lewis Local Diplomats program, Department officers are detailed to mayoral or gubernatorial offices around the country, and the newly created Assembly of Local Leaders facilitates domestic engagement on public health, foreign investment, climate resiliency, and more.
The Workforce line of effort ensures that the Department is a model workplace that attracts, trains, and retains top talent, across all hiring types.
- In Fall 2022, the Department transitioned its largest internship program – the Student Internship Program – to a paid internship to help develop the next generation of leaders and foster a workforce that truly represents America. Welcoming talented students from all backgrounds, the Department has hosted more than 1,700 paid interns since then.
- Through the rollout of the virtual-only Foreign Service Officer Test, the transition to a virtual Foreign Service Oral Assessment, and reformed Foreign Service Entry Process to guard against bias, our recruitment is the most accessible and equitable it has ever been. We also implemented the congressionally mandated Lateral Entry Pilot Program (LEEP) in 2024, to close staffing gaps by hiring mid-career professionals with expertise in areas critical to U.S. foreign policy.
- We hired the largest classes of Foreign Service officers in more than a decade, with our new diplomats representing all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and we’ve grown our Civil Service at the highest rate in more than 20 years.
- Through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the appointment of the first-ever Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, the Department released a five-year DEIA strategic plan, launched the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership council, and released a groundbreaking Annual Demographic Baseline Report tracking demographic composition at all levels, ensuring that DEIA efforts are data-driven, strategic, and implemented across the Department.
- We strengthened the Department’s training, core curriculum, and professional development programs, while growing the training float to empower employees to attend dozens of new FSI courses and participate in long-term details that build capacity in 21st century challenges, including first-ever details to UN agencies and fellowships at major academic institutions.
- After a two-year data gathering effort through the newly created Retention Unit, the Department launched its first-ever Talent Retention Plan which provides a framework to address key aspects of the employee experience. This effort resulted in a wide range of initiatives, including a new anti-bullying policy to hold all employees accountable for modeling high standards of conduct and performance, fostering career growth through planning tools and more transparent bidding processes, and strengthening support for employees and families.
- We revitalized the Dissent Channel, so officers at every level can express concerns without fear of retribution and launched the new Policy Ideas Channel to create a platform for fresh thinking, where any member of the workforce can submit their suggestions. We also revived the Open Forum to host candid discussions and constructive dialogues.
The Risk and Innovation line of effort helps us move toward a culture of thoughtful risk awareness and management that enables agility and innovation, making our diplomacy more innovative, effective, and nimble.
- In the last two years, we established five new embassies in the Indo-Pacific – in the Maldives, Tonga, the Seychelles, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands. In two cases, we were able to open our doors in less than 12 months.
- Through the first-ever Enterprise AI Strategy, the Department released AI tools for use in translation, report writing, and data analysis, including StateChat, the Department’s generative AI chatbot, which has saved teams tens of thousands of hours of work.
- Using existing tools and resources, we developed the Operations Response Interagency Online Network (ORION), a new enterprise platform that improved the Department’s ability to monitor, train for, and respond to crises.
More than one million Americans successfully applied to renew their passports through the Online Passport Renewal (OPR) system. OPR allows applicants to securely renew their passports without leaving their homes or putting anything in the mail – a major modernization of government services for the benefit of the American people.
