Story highlights Stephen Akard has been tapped to be director general of the foreign service

It's a post that traditionally goes to diplomats with 25 to 30 years of experience and at least one ambassadorship

Washington (CNN) Former diplomats are raising concerns about a White House nomination to the State Department, saying it represents the politicization of the diplomatic agency that many of them argue is already being undermined by the Trump administration.

Stephen Akard, who previously worked at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation under then-Gov. Mike Pence, has been tapped to be director general of the foreign service, a post that traditionally goes to diplomats with 25 to 30 years of experience and at least one ambassadorship.

Akard, who spent eight years at the State Department more than a decade ago, doesn't meet that grade, say former diplomats who have written to lawmakers asking them to oppose the nomination, arguing that it undermines a system that's supposed to be merit-based.

"While Mr. Akard is technically eligible for the position, to confirm someone who had less than a decade in the Foreign Service would be like making a former Army Captain the Chief of Staff of the Army, the equivalent of a four-star general," says the October 31 letter from the American Academy of Diplomacy.

"Oppose the nomination"

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