2026-05-16T15:00:50.902Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/16/politics/global-crises-state-department-cuts
在全球各地持续不断的外交政策危机以及特朗普政府努力达成协议结束与伊朗战争之际，美国国务院上周通过一封简短、不带人情味的邮件，正式解雇了近250名外交事务官员。
邮件中写道：“你的裁员离职将于今日生效。再次感谢你为国务院服务。”
这些始于去年7月的裁员行动还影响了1000多名文职官员，多个前官员表示，被裁撤的办公室原本可以就伊朗战争提供指导，而这场战争正对美国和全球经济造成严重影响。国务院一贯坚称，裁员是为了消除冗余岗位，关键议题的相关工作得到了保留并转移到了其他办公室。
除了解雇事件外，数十名拥有数十年经验的资深外交事务官员已经退休。近十几名接受CNN采访的前官员表示，特朗普政府显然没有为职业外交官提供包括大使职位在内的晋升或外派任务，在“不晋升就离职”的制度下，他们别无选择。
“选择离职的人数达到了前所未有的规模，”在外交部门工作36年后退休的大卫·科斯特兰奇克说道。美国外交协会估计，去年约有2000名外交事务官员离开国务院。
与此同时，全球范围内有100多个大使职位尚未经过参议院确认，包括中东、乌克兰和俄罗斯等地的职位，这使得美国远远落后于中国等竞争对手。
而最敏感的外交谈判，比如结束伊朗战争和结束乌克兰冲突等棘手议题，正由总统唐纳德·特朗普的商业伙伴和家人主导，往往没有配备具备地区专业知识的经验丰富的外交官团队。
综合来看，这些行动被前外交官描述为系统性掏空国务院，而国务卿马可·卢比奥在就职首日曾承诺要强化国务院。尽管该机构已经开始招聘新外交官，但前官员表示，经验丰富的人员流失将对美国当前及未来多年的影响力投射和优先事项落实能力产生深远影响。
“我认为历史学家回顾这段时期时，会将其视为美国自行造成的重大非被迫错误之一，”前职业大使约翰·巴斯告诉CNN。
国务院发言人汤米·皮戈特表示，国务院正在被掏空的说法是“虚假的”，而数百名经验丰富的外交官流失会影响美国落实优先事项能力的说法是“毫无根据的”。
“我们的重组消除了冗余岗位，通过减少不必要的官僚主义精简了工作流程，并赋予了我们的外交团队权力，”他在谈及国务院内部的全面改革时说道。
皮戈特表示：“裁员不会对我们应对行动、规划以及为美国民众服务的执行能力产生任何负面影响。”
“事实上，我们能够更快、更有效地做出响应，这正是此次重组的全部意义——赋予外勤人员权力，同时让我们能够以‘切合实际的速度’推进工作，”他声称。
埃里克·霍尔姆格伦曾是一名职业外交事务官员，曾在包括俄罗斯和墨西哥在内的全球多地工作。他在国务院的最后一项职务是担任中东和亚洲能源外交办公室主任，该办公室负责能源安全、能源获取、关键矿产资源事务，并与私营企业开展合作。
作为重组的一部分，他所在的能源资源局整个被撤销，他的办公室全体员工都被解雇，他告诉CNN。
皮戈特表示，能源资源局的“关键职能”已被转移到经济、能源和商业事务局。众议院外交事务委员会上周投票通过了两党法案，旨在恢复“能源安全与外交局”。
霍尔姆格伦指出，该局及其工作人员的工作本可以为政府就伊朗危机提供建议，也可以为与其有合作关系的行业伙伴提供帮助。
例如，他表示，他的办公室的工作重点之一是“大幅增加伊朗运送原油的难度”——这在当前战争期间是关键的利益所在。
他告诉CNN，他的办公室“动用了所有可用的政策工具，试图帮助应对伊朗问题并削弱该政权”。他们本可以就管理“霍尔木兹海峡要道”发出进一步警告。目前该要道的航运已陷入混乱，推高了燃油价格，并威胁造成人道主义灾难，全球许多地区因此无法获得关键的化肥供应。
霍尔姆格伦表示，他的办公室还致力于实现伊拉克的能源供应多元化，该国严重依赖伊朗能源进口，并且该局有一整个团队与私营企业合作，包括“为美国企业达成120亿美元的合同……帮助伊拉克开发本国能源资源”。
皮戈特告诉CNN，国务院的“能源政策团队表现比以往任何时候都更好”，经济、能源和商业事务局“正在与盟友和伙伴协调释放战略石油储备，以应对伊朗的袭击”。
前官员认为，在美国努力撤离滞留在中东的美国人、应对伊朗战争最初几周的危机时，他们本可以利用职业员工的专业知识和机构经验，包括那些被裁员或退休的人员。
今年3月，国务院驳斥了裁员影响其向滞留在中东的美国公民提供援助或领事业务的说法，并表示“数百名经验丰富的人员”正在参与帮助美国公民的专项工作组。
在整个地区乃至全球，经参议院确认的美国大使职位出现了严重空缺。根据美国外交协会的数据，截至周二，195个大使职位中有115个尚未填补。
多名前官员告诉CNN，在许多国家，如果使馆负责人不是经确认的大使，他们可能无法接触到该国政府的高层官员。
当被问及大量大使职位空缺的问题时，皮戈特表示：“总统有权决定谁在全球代表美国人民和利益。”
“从拜登时代的大使岗位上过渡并非新闻，也不应令人意外，”他说。去年12月，国务院召回了至少24名在拜登政府期间任职的职业大使。
“国务院有信心能够与世界各地的 counterparts 沟通，并推进国家利益，”他说。“在没有参议院批准的大使的使馆中，经验丰富的临时代办将领导使团。”
忠诚优先于专业知识与经验
许多前官员指出，本届政府在关键外交危机中基本排斥职业人员参与，转而依赖一小圈子亲信顾问。
前官员表示，正如巴斯所言，对经验的漠视和对“忠诚”的偏好，营造了一种旨在驱赶职业人员离职，或让留任者心生恐惧的环境。
多名官员告诉CNN，用于现任外交官晋升的年度评估体系已经修改，加入了“忠于”政府政策的条款。多名官员还表示，目前评估采用了钟形曲线分布，这可能会进一步阻碍晋升，因为它限制了获得高分的人数。
“很多工作表现非常出色的人最终只能被评为中等水平，因为我们被迫采用这种基于钟形曲线的统计限制，”另一名前职业外交官说道。
皮戈特表示，“员工绩效考核体系的重新调整已经讨论了多年，早就该进行了。”
“在卢比奥国务卿的领导下，这次调整经过深思熟虑，借鉴了整个政府的最佳实践，使评估真正能够衡量工作表现，”他说。“这一评估过程将确保外交事务员工通过这些数据驱动的评估，更好地找到符合自身优势的岗位，为国务院服务。”
“我们有一个根本目标：落实特朗普总统的‘美国优先’外交政策，让我们的国家更安全、更强大、更繁荣，”他指出。
即使是希望留任的高级职业外交官，也没有可用的职位。根据1980年《外交服务法》，驻外大使有90天时间寻找其他外派任务或退休。
“他们正再次试图利用这一点迫使人们退休，因为那些仍能工作或仍想工作的人找不到职位，”这名前职业外交官说道。
在国务院内部，通常由高级外交官担任的常驻教学职位已被取消。在总部，许多助理国务卿职位一直空缺，或由未经确认的高级局级官员填补，其中一些人是本·富兰克林奖学金项目的研究员，该组织致力于“推进基于国家利益、美国主权和安全边界的传统美国外交”。
“本届政府希望外勤领域的专业人员只会唯命是从，不会对决策提出反对，也不会提供不同的观点，”曾担任美国驻阿富汗、土耳其和格鲁吉亚大使的巴斯说道。
然而，“恰恰是这种专业知识，曾帮助我们避免犯下更大的错误，”他告诉CNN。
而这种专业知识并非轻易可以替代。曾在全球各地任职并担任参谋长联席会议主席外交政策顾问的科斯特兰奇克表示，退休和裁员是“浪费美国政府和纳税人数十年来在培训、海外工作方面对我们的投入”。
“外交服务是一种学徒制职业。你不能随便从外部空降人员。外交工作需要在实地积累多年的技能，”瑞安·利哈说道，他在中东度过了23年外交生涯，随后被解雇。
他指出，除了华盛顿特区之外，这种掏空效应最终可能会影响普通美国人。
“大多数美国人对外交服务没有强烈的看法，因为他们很少直接与我们接触——我们在他们的日常生活中基本是隐形的，”利哈说道。“但我们对这个国家的繁荣有着深远的影响：我们谈判的贸易协定、我们在海外推广的美国企业、我们在危机升级前化解的危机、我们为陷入困境的海外公民提供的帮助。”
As global crises multiply, scores of US diplomats say they have been forced out
2026-05-16T15:00:50.902Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/16/politics/global-crises-state-department-cuts
Amid ongoing foreign policy crises around the globe and as the Trump administration struggles to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, the State Department last week finalized the firings of nearly 250 foreign service officers in a brief, impersonal email.
“Your reduction in force separation will be effective today,” part of it read. “Thank you again for your service to the Department.”
Those reductions in force (RIFs), which were initiated last July, also impacted more than 1,000 civil service officers, and saw the firings of entire staffs in offices that former officials say would have been able to provide guidance on the war in Iran, which is having severe consequences for the US and global economy. The State Department has consistently maintained that the RIFs were meant to eliminate redundancies and that work on key issues was maintained and moved to different offices.
Beyond the firings, scores of experienced foreign service officers with decades of experience have retired. Nearly a dozen former officials who spoke with CNN said it is clear that the Trump administration has no upward assignments or promotions, like ambassadorships, available for career diplomats, leaving them with no options in an “up or out” system.
“It was just unprecedented numbers of people choosing to leave,” said David Kostelancik, who retired after 36 years in the foreign service. The American Foreign Service Association estimates that roughly 2,000 foreign service officers left the State Department last year.
Meanwhile, more than 100 ambassador posts around the world, including in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia, do not have a Senate confirmed ambassador, setting the US far behind the likes of adversaries like China.
And the most sensitive diplomatic negotiations, on fraught topics like ending the war in Iran and securing an end to the Ukraine conflict, are being led by business associates and family members of President Donald Trump, often without teams of experienced diplomats with regional expertise.
Taken together, the actions represent what former diplomats say is a systematic hollowing out of the State Department that Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first day pledged to empower. Although the agency has begun hiring new diplomats, the loss of experienced personnel, the former officials say, will have far-reaching consequences for the US’ ability to project power and deliver on its priorities both now and for years to come.
“I think historians will look back on this period as one of the great unforced errors that the United States imposes on itself,” former career ambassador John Bass told CNN.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the idea that the agency was being hollowed out is “false,” and the claim that the loss of hundreds of experienced diplomats will impact US’ ability to deliver on its priorities is “baseless.”
“Our reorganization eliminated redundant positions, streamlined efforts by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, and empowered our diplomatic corps,” he said, referring to the sweeping overhaul within the department.
Pigott said that “the RIF’s are not having any negative impact on our ability to respond to operations, our ability to plan, and our ability to execute in service to Americans.”
“In fact, we have been able to respond quicker and more effectively, which was the entire point of the reorg – to empower personnel in the field while allowing us to move at the ‘speed of relevancy,’” he claimed.
Erik Holmgren was a career foreign service officer who had worked around the world, including in Russia and Mexico. His last assignment at the State Department was serving as Director of the Office for Energy Diplomacy for the Middle East and Asia, which worked on energy security, energy access, critical minerals and with private industry.
The entire Bureau of Energy Resources, which housed the Office of Energy Diplomacy, was eliminated as part of the reorganization. The entire staff in his office was fired, he told CNN.
Pigott said the “critical capabilities” of the Bureau of Energy Resources were moved to the Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs. The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week voted for bipartisan legislation that would revive a “Bureau of Energy Security and Diplomacy.”.
Holmgren noted that the work of the bureau and the experts who worked there would have been highly relevant in helping to advise the administration, as well as industry partners with whom they had relationships, on the crisis with Iran.
For example, he said that one of the focuses of his office was “trying to make it a lot harder for Iran to deliver crude”– something that is of key interest during the war.
His office, he told CNN, was “using all the policy tools we could to try to help deal with Iran and weaken the regime.” And they could have provided further warnings about the need to manage the “chokepoint in Hormuz.” That chokepoint has snarled traffic through the critical strait, driving up fuel prices and threatening humanitarian catastrophe as many parts of the world are cut off from key fertilizer supplies.
Holmgren said his office was also working to diversify the energy supply to Iraq, which relies heavily on Iran, and they had a whole team in the bureau to work with private industry, including on “$12 billion of contracts for US firms to … help Iraq develop their own energy resources.”
Pigott told CNN that the State Department’s “energy policy teams are performing better than ever,” with the Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs Bureau, “coordinating the release of strategic reserves with allies and partners in response to Iran’s attacks.”
Former officials argue that when the US was working to evacuate stranded Americans from the Middle East and navigate the perils of the early weeks of the war in Iran, they could have used the expertise and institutional knowledge of their career staff, including those who had been RIF’d or retired.
In March, the State Department rejected the assertion that the RIFs impacted their assistance to US citizens stranded in the Middle East or to State’s consular operations and said “hundreds of experience personnel” were working on a task force to help Americans.
Throughout the region – and the world – there is a significant absence of confirmed US ambassadors. According to the American Foreign Service Association, 115 of 195 ambassador posts are vacant, as of Tuesday.
In many countries, if the head of an embassy is not a confirmed ambassador, they may not have access to the senior level officials in that government, multiple former officials told CNN.
Asked about the large number of vacant ambassador posts, Pigott said, “The President has the right to determine who represents the American people and interests around the world.”
“The transition away from Biden-era ambassadors is not news nor should it be surprising,” he said. In December, the State Department recalled at least two dozen career ambassadors who were added to their posts during the Biden administration.
“The Department has confidence in our ability to communicate with our counterparts around the world and advance the national interest,” he said. “In those embassies without a Senate-approved ambassador, experienced chargé d’affaires lead the missions.”
‘Fealty’ over expertise and experience
Many former officials noted that the administration has largely spurned the inclusion of career personnel on key diplomatic crises, instead relying on a small circle of trusted advisers.
Former officials say the lack of appreciation for experience and preference for “fealty,” in the words of Bass, has created an environment meant to drive career people to leave – or instill fear in those who remain.
Multiple officials told CNN that the annual evaluation system, which is used for promotions for current diplomats, has changed to include a tenet for “fidelity” to the administration’s policies. Multiple officials also said that there is now a bell curve on the reviews, which is likely to further stymie promotions because it limits how many people can be highly ranked.
“You’re going to have a lot of people who are doing really fantastic work, who are going to end up being sort of mid-ranked because you’re forcing this bell curve statistic limitation on them,” another former career diplomat said.
Pigott said that “the recalibration of the employee performance review system has been under discussion for years and is long overdue.”
“Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, the change was thoughtfully done in a way that mirrors best practices from across the government and makes the reviews actually meaningful in measuring performance,” he said. “This evaluation process will ensure that foreign service employees, through these data-driven evaluations, can better find roles that fit their strengths to help serve the Department.”
“We have one fundamental goal: to implement President Trump’s America First foreign policy to make our nation safer, stronger, and more prosperous,” he noted.
Even for senior career diplomats who want to stay, there are not positions available. Under the Foreign Service Act of 1980, ambassadors overseas have 90 days to find another assignment or retire.
“They’re trying to use that again to force people into retirement, because those folks who are still able to work, or still want to work, they’re not finding positions,” the former career diplomat said.
Within the State Department, positions that normally went to senior diplomats, like resident teaching positions, have been eliminated. At the headquarters, many assistant secretary posts have been left vacant or filled with unconfirmed senior bureau officials, several of whom are fellows in the Ben Franklin Fellowship, an organization committed to “advancing traditional American diplomacy based on national interests, US sovereignty, and secure borders.”
The administration “wants a set of professionals in the field who are only going to do what they’re told, who will not push back on decisions, who are not going to provide alternative viewpoints,” said Bass, who served as a US ambassador to Afghanistan, Turkey, and Georgia.
However, “it’s precisely that kind of expertise that has kept us from making even bigger mistakes,” he told CNN.
And that expertise is not easily replaced. Kostelancik, who served around the world and as a foreign policy adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said that the retirements and RIF’s are a “squandering of the investment that the US government, that the taxpayers, have made in us over decades, in training, in working overseas.”
“The Foreign Service is an apprenticeship profession. You can’t just drop someone in from the outside. Diplomacy requires skills that are built over years, in the field,” said Ryan Gliha, , who spent most of his 23-year career in the foreign service in the Middle East before he was let go.
He noted that beyond Washington, DC, the hollowing out may end up being felt by everyday Americans.
“Most Americans don’t have a strong opinion on the Foreign Service because they rarely interact with us directly — we’re largely invisible to their daily lives,” Gliha said. “But we have a profound effect on this country’s prosperity: the trade deals we negotiate, the American businesses we promote overseas, the crises we defuse before they escalate, the help we provide citizens in trouble abroad.”
