An internal document reviewed by NR specifies that entry-level employees, to advance in their careers, must now do everything they can to promote DEI.
Members of America’s diplomatic corps will now be expected to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles, the State Department recently announced.
An internal document obtained exclusively by National Review provides further detail on how State Department officials must now promote and advance DEI principles to receive tenure and promotions. While that document details uncontroversial promotion criteria, such as ensuring respectful behavior in the workplace, the specific focus on DEI echoes the language of left-leaning activists.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced last week that the department had finalized its “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Strategic Plan,” which was mandated by a Biden executive order. “This strategic plan ensures we have the best team representing the American people abroad because it embodies and celebrates the full diversity and excellence of our country,” said Blinken in a statement, which specified that State would make certain data on various identity groups in its workforce more readily accessible.
A separate document released by State says that the plan, which applies to the next five years, establishes “the advancement of DEIA as an element for all employees as part of their job performance criteria, career advancement opportunities, and senior performance pay.”
According to an internal, unreleased document reviewed by NR, entry-level employees, to advance in their careers, must now do everything they can to promote DEI principles. The document, called “Decision Criteria for Tenure and Promotion in the Foreign Service,” explains that employees must treat their colleagues with respect, while also specifying that they are expected to promote equity-focused principles — the subject of contentious political and cultural debates.
Entry-level employees and those at higher levels are now expected to “[take] advantage of opportunities to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in interactions with colleagues and interlocutors,” in addition to proactively seeking “feedback to improve one’s own self-awareness with respect to promoting inclusivity in the workplace.”
Foreign-service officers in middle management are similarly expected to “[advance] diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in words and actions.” They must also recognize “that unconscious biases can affect decisions and actions and [take] steps to identify and mitigate them in the evaluation of others’ performance.” Senior-level foreign-service members, meanwhile, are expected to abide by standards that those at lower levels do, while also mentoring others to do the same.
The State Department has in recent months worked to implement President Biden’s executive orders on equity and other identity-focused topics. In 2021, Blinken appointed the department’s first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer. Earlier this year, State released an “equity action plan” detailing its work on “embedding equity into foreign affairs work.” This included the creation of a controversial new post, the special representative for racial equity and justice, which congressional Republicans are investigating.
A State Department spokesperson directed NR to its fact sheet on the DEIA strategic plan and did not comment further on the matter.