State Dept. announces ‘reforms’ to foreign service test and inclusion of ‘America First’ curriculum for orientation

(CNN) — The US State Department on Wednesday announced a series of changes to the US foreign service test with a specific focus on eliminating alleged “diversity, equity, and inclusion” as the Trump administration attempts to reshape the diplomatic corps.

In its statement announcing the changes, which also includes new curriculum for diplomats’ orientation process, the State Department called on “patriotic Americans” to apply.

“Applicants will be tested on American history, foreign policy concepts, and logical reasoning, while questions intended to test alignment with ideological agendas have been eliminated,” a statement from the State Department. A separate fact sheet said it had removed questions on the written test related to “the diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda.”

The announcement has sparked concern about the possible politicization of personnel who serve as the face of the United States overseas. It follows broader changes at the US State Department unveiled last year that moved to align the agency with the administration’s priorities and worldview.

The recruitment effort comes after the department fired nearly 250 foreign service officers last year and drove out scores of other experienced diplomats, including ambassadors.

“None of this happens in a vacuum,” said John Dinkelman, the president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA). “This is on the tail end of a year of considerable disruption, where you’ve literally flushed out thousands of individuals from the Foreign Service and from foreign affairs.”

“You’re scrambling to try to rebuild a diplomatic corps, which, frankly, is going to be a bunch of new entry-level officers who are easily malleable into the ways that you want them to go, at the expense of having had some strong veterans out there with tremendous geographic, regional and functional experience who are now on the sidelines or even out of the picture,” he said.

The fact sheet from the State Department said the foreign service onboarding program, A100, has also been “transformed.”

“Foreign Service Officers will now receive substantive content on policy and tradecraft, which includes lectures on diplomatic history and America First foreign policy,” it noted, referencing President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy framework.

The State Department did not provide CNN with examples of questions it viewed as problematic on the foreign service exam when asked. However, an article from the conservative outlet the Daily Caller pointed to questions about the number of an applicant’s immediate friends that “have a first language other than English” and how often applicants “socialized with members of different ethnic and cultural groups” or “seek out activities with diverse ethnic and cultural groups.”

Such questions could be expected on the past exams, Dinkelman said.

The US diplomatic corps has historically had the reputation of being “pale, male, and Yale,” referencing a largely White, male, and Ivy League educated group. Under the Biden administration, there were efforts to promote diversity at the US’ oldest cabinet agency. Trump, on the first day of his second term, ordered an end to DEI programs in the federal government, and the Trump administration has aggressively targeted alleged DEI initiatives.

In a statement, AFSA noted that it took issue with the claim that the previous exam included “questions intended to test alignment with ideological agendas.”

“We see a far greater risk that political ideology could now be introduced into the selection process,” said the organization, which served as the union for foreign service officers.

“The Trump administration is modernizing the Foreign Service to prepare America’s diplomats to advocate for our national interest on a dynamically changing world stage,” State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

Dinkelman, who was an A100 instructor for more than five years, told CNN that “it is not normal to inject what are so blatantly administration-specific agenda items into orientation.”

The fact sheet released Wednesday noted that “the onboarding program now features required and recommended readings on American history and international relations, including speeches and writings from George Washington, John Quincy Adams, and James Monroe, selections from the Federalist Papers, and works from George Kennan, Angelo Codevilla, and Samuel Huntington.”

“Lecture content concerning bureaucratic tedium has been reduced to a minimum,” it said. However, Dinkelman noted that such lessons in bureaucracy are needed to adequately prepare personnel who have never worked for the State Department, or perhaps even the US government, in the past.

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