STRATEGIC PLANNING COMES TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT
www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/ columnists/gordon-adams/ strategic-planning-comes-to-the-state-department
By Gordon Adams
Reviewed by J. R. Bullington

Secretary Clinton convened a town hall meeting in the State Department July 10 to announce the launching of a Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. (See transcript of the meeting at: www.unc.edu/depts/ diplomat/item/2009/0709/fsl/fsl_townhall.html.) Although it has gained little notice, this project could mark one of the most significant structural innovations in U.S. foreign policy machinery in many years.
In his column in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Gordon Adams notes that “planning has been a foreign concept in U.S. foreign policy” and goes on to explain the purposes of the QDDR and some of the challenges it must overcome if it is to achieve those purposes. Adams, a professor of international studies at American University and a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, is well qualified to assess this project, having founded the Center for Strategic and Budgeting Assessments and served as the senior national security budget official at the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration.
In announcing the project, Secretary Clinton acknowledged that it is modeled after the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, which she found to be very useful when she was a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The QDDR will examine international challenges and opportunities, define U.S. objectives and priorities, outline strategies, and – most importantly – “put in place the program and budget details that are needed to achieve the Obama administration’s top foreign policy and national security goals.” It reflects the increased emphasis in recent years on non-traditional diplomacy and the “whole-of-government” approach to international affairs as well as the need to strengthen civilian stabilization and reconstruction capacity and integrate it more effectively with the military. The review is to be completed by the end of the year.
Adams hopes the QDDR will help “create a strategic planning and budgeting culture at State/USAID,” and he proposes several critical elements the project must include if it is to be successful:

• Diplomatic planning and development and foreign assistance planning should be “joined at the hip.”
• Planning and budgeting for people and infrastructure should be tied to program planning and funding.
• Realistic budget constraints must be recognized and priorities must be specified – it can’t just be a wish list.
• The process should start with policy guidance from the top but include input from the field.
• It should be tied to other executive branch planning processes, especially those of Defense, and linked to White House/NSC/OMB priorities and guidance.
• It should not be a one-off effort but the beginning of a recurring process, preferably with a Congressional mandate.