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The article presents the author's opinion on the U.S. diplomacy in relation to employees and workload and the effects of the Global Repositioning Program (GRP). The author states that the GRP robbed many positions out of Western Europe thereby increasing the problem of short staff and had a manageable effect on workload. He comments that the concept of transformational diplomacy is good but operational realities overseas prevent it from having any serious relevance.

Several letters to the editor are presented regarding topics related to the U.S. Foreign Service including lack of commitment by some people to the mission and job at hand, allowing a foreign service policy to be announced first through a press leak, and the responsibilities of the Foreign Service Department.

The article takes a look on the insights of various foreign service officers (FSOs) concerning the issues over Foreign Service Iraq assignments. According to one FSO, he was dismayed on the directed assignment policy for Iraq staffing. It stresses that with Iraq assignment issue, its time for all concerned to recognize that no other agency can substitute for the State Department. Moreover, one FSO also expresses that he wanted to support the directed assignments

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to previous articles related to the American foreign service, including comments regarding the role of the press and highest echelons, new counterinsurgency doctrines such as the pacification program in Vietnam, and the Foreign Service recruitment and promotion system.