The sudden dismissal of several senior officials has left a gaping hole at the heart of US diplomacy: ‘The machinery is still there, but no one’s in the cockpit’

Thomas Countryman was on his way to Rome for an international meeting on nuclear weapons on Wednesday when he found out he had been summarily removed from his position. The senior diplomat turned around and got on the first flight back to Washington.

It was a sudden and unceremonious end to 35 years as a foreign service officer, the last four months of it as the acting undersecretary for arms control and international security. But Countryman was not alone. The Trump White House carried out an abrupt purge of the state department’s senior leadership last week, removing key officials from posts that are essential to the day-to-day running of the department and US missions abroad.

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The purge has left a gaping hole at the heart of US diplomacy: the incoming secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has yet to be confirmed and the Trump team has not named candidates to fill several levels of leadership under him. Its only nominations so far have been ambassadors to China and Israel. All further nominees to senior posts will take months of security vetting and confirmation.

It is not clear whether Tillerson, a former chief executive of the ExxonMobil oil company, had been informed of the purge. When he does arrive on “Mahogany Row”, he will find a line of empty offices along the wood-panelled seventh floor of the state department, where its leadership works.

“As a career diplomat, I experienced many transitions and never saw anything like this dangerous purge of public servants now underway at State,” former ambassador Laura Kennedy tweeted.

The motives behind the sudden wave of sackings are unclear. Some of the outgoing diplomats saw it as one more sign of chaos from a new administration that is desperately short of experience. Others saw it as a wrecking operation, aimed at debilitating the state department at a time of upheaval: while the White House planned its ban on entry for people from a list of Muslim countries, and while Trump frames a new foreign policy before Tillerson arrives in his post.

In the past, the state department has been asked to set up early foreign contacts for an incoming administration. This time however it has been bypassed, and Trump’s immediate circle of Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Reince Priebus are making their own calls. The state department was not asked for help arranging Theresa May’s visit, according to a former official.

Countryman’s position was especially sensitive. He was acting as “undersecretary T”, the official required to sign off on US arms sales or security assistance abroad, and the person charged with negotiating, implementing and verifying international arms control agreements and international security.

“The world doesn’t stop turning just because there is a new US administration,” said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security advocacy group. “There is an entire global arms regime to maintain. Without US leadership, decisions won’t get made or will get taken in ways that harm our national security. The machinery is still there [in the state department], but there is no one in the cockpit.”

Among the other top officials to be removed from their positions were Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary for management; Michele Bond, who was in charge of US consuls around the world; Joyce Barr, assistant secretary of state for administration; and Gentry Smith, the head of the office on foreign missions.

David Robinson, the assistant secretary of state for conflict stabilisation operations, also received a letter telling him to pack up his desk and leave, according to Jon Finer, who was John Kerry’s chief of staff.

All were long-serving career officials who had been promoted to high rank equivalent to political appointees. The acting state department spokesman, Mark Toner, pointed out that as political appointees they were routinely expected to submit their resignations.

Although that is true, it is also customary for such officials to stay in positions until their replacements are ready to step in, for the sake of continuity. In this case, there are no replacements on the horizon.

The second fact that distinguishes the Trump purge from previous transitions was the abrupt nature with which it was carried out, giving officials who had dedicated lives to the foreign service just a few days to clear their desks.

“This is no way to treat people who have served under Democrats and Republicans, who have been unstintingly loyal to their country and their government,” said Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs in the last Bush administration. “They deserve respect for their service to the country, especially in the manner in which they are asked to leave.”

According to state department officials who have just left, those in leadership roles had submitted their formal resignations to the Trump transition team well before the inauguration. But the team appeared to have ignored those letters until Wednesday, when instructions appear to have come from the White House to act on them.

The transition team Trump has sent to the state department has shown little interest in policy issues. Departments covering large regions of the world say they have had no contact with his representatives.

When Daniel Baer, the former US ambassador to the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, was preparing to leave this month, he offered to visit Washington to brief the transition team. Such briefings are part of an outgoing ambassador’s duties – they are laid out in the state department’s foreign affairs manual – and there were sensitive issues to discuss, including the upcoming renewal of the team monitoring the Ukraine conflict. Baer was told his parting advice would not be required.

“I worry about a know-nothing approach to foreign policy,” he said. “The whole thing can’t be done by shooting from the hip. There is a responsibility you have to the citizens you are governing to make an effort to have the information on which decisions are made.

“If I were in the transition, I would not want to scatter 60 ambassadors to the winds. I would want to hear what is going on in their regions, I would want to know where the bodies are buried.”