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Diplomats and Foreign Service Officers also do tours of duty. It's a limited period of service at an outpost.

• JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  Isn't that to mitigate the issue of 'going native', where the officer starts to identify with locals instead of the people they represent?
  • GabrielF00 11y ago
    I don't think so, or at least I don't think that's the primary reason. I think the idea is to have people develop a breadth of experience working on different types of problems and in different countries. If you're a specialist in, say, the Middle East, it's good for your career and for State if you have experience in a variety of different countries in the region. I think they also try to have foreign service officers do different types of jobs (aside from technical jobs like communications specialists, who always do the same thing) for instance, I think most of the foreign service officers have to do a consular rotation where they're working with people on passport or immigration or travel issues rather than on political or economic issues.
  • walshemj 11y ago
    It's also to provide career progression and to prevent burnout some postings are hardship ones and quite gruelling.