On April 22, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a plan to implement across-the-board structural changes to the Department of State to bring the department in line with President Trump’s America First foreign policy agenda in an effort to change an organization that he characterized as “bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition.”
The updated organizational chart eliminates significant structures in some policy areas, particularly those focused on human rights, merges the functions of others to reduce redundancy, and seeks to position the department as leaner and more efficient. While not reflected in the new schematic, reports indicate that the number of bureaus and offices will be reduced 18% and that the department is targeting a 15% staffing reduction.
Working to incorporate the residual functions from the dismantled USAID, the plan reflects an overarching goal of adjusting specific foreign assistance efforts to empower regional bureaus to increase “authority, responsibility, and accountability” in the provision of taxpayer dollars in support of foreign policy objectives. While most of these moves will be implemented by behind-the-scenes actions, repositioning the administration and management of assistance efforts to regional bureaus with a high-level coordinator aims to allow a seamless alignment between policy and non-security foreign assistance.
Key Structural Changes
The new organizational chart reflects a consolidation of economic-focused functions, previously spread across the department under the leadership of the undersecretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment. This includes the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor, the Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology, the Bureau of Global Health and Diplomacy, the Office for Sanctions Coordination and the Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. With a stated purpose of ensuring a “laser-like” focus on expanding and exporting American energy, the Bureau Energy Resources will be folded back into the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, where it was an office until 2011.
Bureaus and offices focused on “Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights,” also known as the “J Family,” are among the policy areas most affected by the changes. In this realm, the plan completely eliminates: the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO), which provides policy recommendations and on-site policy analysis in conflict zones, and the Office of Global Criminal Justice, which advises the secretary of state on issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The Office of Religious Freedom, which promotes religious freedom worldwide as a key component of U.S. foreign policy, the office focused on combatting trafficking in persons, the Office of Global Women’s Issues and the antisemitism envoy will be consolidated along with other functions focused on migration and refugees, human rights and labor. Also included in this new grouping will be efforts to coordinate the administration of U.S. foreign assistance. The plan renames the Office of Foreign Assistance as the Coordinator for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs and will serve a coordinating function for the non-security assistance administered and managed by the regional bureaus.
The plan also creates the Bureau of Emerging Threats under the undersecretary for arms control and international security focused on the consolidation of various policy lines to cohesively address threats related to cyber, artificial intelligence (AI) and space.
Secretary Rubio Comments on Restructuring Plan
As part of the announcement, Secretary Rubio noted the updated organizational framework will “bring the Department into the 21st Century [and] empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to embassies.” Secretary Rubio posted an essay describing the changes, in which he noted that the restructuring targets offices deemed as dysfunctional or otherwise contrary to U.S. interests. Rubio noted that the department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), which was closed earlier in April by Secretary Rubio, engaged with media outlets and platforms “to censor speech it disagreed with, including that of the President of the United States,” framing this as an example of the “underlying bureaucratic culture that prevents the State Department from carrying out an effective foreign policy.”
With respect to the restructuring of foreign aid and the former undersecretary for civilian security, human rights, and democracy, Rubio noted that the expansive domain provided to that bureau provided “a fertile environment for activists to redefine ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’ and to pursue their projects at the taxpayer expense, even when they were in direct conflict with” the goals of the administration. Rubio clarified that the department’s implementation of this restructuring plan would not destroy or remove any offices that are statutorily mandated. The changes outlined by the plan are set to take place in the coming months.
Outlook
The structural changes that remove entire offices largely center on rights-driven and energy-focused functional offices, contradict an earlier leaked restructuring plan the administration was reportedly considering, which would have closed dozens of worldwide embassies and consulates, as well as the Africa Bureau. The plan places greater emphasis on regional offices to carry out department functions, granting them authority over regional foreign aid, among other responsibilities. The restructuring shuffles U.S. diplomatic priorities, de-prioritizing many rights-driven functions to align with the Trump agenda. It also provides clarity as to the administration’s approach to foreign aid in the wake of President Trump’s dissolution of USAID.
On the other hand, high-level department attention and action for issues focused on by bureaus and offices eliminated or folded into others might be harder to register. Previously dedicated front office senior leadership and staffing efforts for issues such as energy security, critical minerals supply chains and religious freedoms will be removed and these policy issues will be absorbed by leadership and staffing teams already fully engaged on other efforts.
The department has yet to publish further details on the specific staffing and funding changes it aims to implement at embassies and consulates around the world, or on the logistics of which staff will be removed or relocated as part of the closing and merging of a variety of State Department offices. However, our sources in the administration emphasize there will be a closure of some consulates in larger countries in an effort to find efficiencies. Some small embassies in the Pacific and in Africa may face closure and see services relocated to “regional hubs” to further streamline operations. The plan reportedly noted that an internal department working group will lead the implementation of the reorganization and develop specific plans for each part of the department by July 1.
