The State Division introduced Wednesday that it’s modifying the Overseas Service Officer Take a look at to mirror the international coverage objectives of the Trump administration and meet “the challenges of the twenty first century.”
Beneath the brand new steering, the examination is now revised to emphasise “benefit within the choice course of” by eliminating questions “meant to check alignment with the variety, fairness, and inclusion agenda.”
“The Trump administration is modernizing the Overseas Service to organize America’s diplomats to advocate for our nationwide curiosity on a dynamically altering world stage,” Tommy Pigott, the Division’s deputy spokesperson, stated in an announcement. “On this revamped program, Overseas Service Officers will likely be skilled in essential abilities like public talking and negotiation and have interaction with worldwide relations concept on subjects starting from industrial diplomacy to grand technique. The State Division encourages the various patriotic People from throughout the nation trying to serve their nation to use to affix the Overseas Service.”
The nation’s oldest cupboard company additionally introduced that the Qualification Analysis Panel, which evaluations and ranks candidates’ recordsdata on weeks-long evaluations, is being changed by a written examination take a look at, arguing that “the power to suppose critically and write clear prose continues to be an important talent for Overseas Service Officers.”
The Division’s onboarding program for incoming international service officers, known as A-100, will likely be modified to coach commissioned officers on “diplomatic historical past and America First international coverage” lectures, that includes speeches and writings from early presidents George Washington, John Quincy Adams and James Monroe, picks from the Federalist Papers, and works from Chilly Conflict-era diplomat George Kennan, “Conflict of Civilization” creator Samuel Huntington and “America First” architect Angelo Codevilla.
“Overseas Service Officers will now obtain substantive content material on coverage and tradecraft, which incorporates lectures on diplomatic historical past and America First international coverage,” the Division added.
The brand new onboarding format will change resilience workouts, akin to a “90-minute exercise that required individuals to throw objects right into a bucket whereas blindfolded.”
“A-100 will embrace lectures on worldwide relations, together with on financial technique, industrial diplomacy, and grand technique, in addition to coaching on public talking, negotiation, and management,” it defined.
The revamp follows a collection of government orders ditching DEI initiatives signed into legislation by President Trump since his second inauguration final yr. A 2025 directive tasked Secretary of State Marco Rubio with sustaining “an distinctive workforce of patriots” to successfully implement the administration’s international coverage objectives.
The Division introduced final fall that it had deliberate to revamp the international service examination and section out DEI-related questionnaires. It later eliminated private narrative essay necessities and discontinued the situational judgement part.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who served as Secretary of State within the Biden administration, backed DEI packages in Washington’s diplomatic arm and appointed a chief DEI officer. “The State Division has the respect of representing the American individuals to the world,” Blinken stated in 2021. “To try this properly, we should recruit and retain a workforce that really displays America. Variety and inclusion make us stronger, smarter, extra artistic, and extra progressive.”
