AP Photo State’s Afghanistan-Pakistan envoy leaves, spurring confusion about U.S. diplomacy in region

The State Department unit that deals with Afghanistan and Pakistan has lost its top official and its fate is uncertain, even as President Donald Trump weighs increasing U.S. military presence in the region.

The development has spawned confusion inside and outside the State Department about the future of the section known as the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, or SRAP.


Diplomats were initially led to believe that SRAP was being shut effective Friday and absorbed into the South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau of the State Department, which has seen its own leadership decimated. But late Friday evening, hours after POLITICO and other news outlets pressed for comment, and as criticism mounted, State Department spokeswomen Heather Nauert announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had not yet decided what to do about SRAP.

Nauert confirmed, however, that Friday was the last day in office for Laurel Miller, the acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Separately, sources confirmed that Friday was also the last day for a top Miller aide, Jonathan Carpenter, the acting principal deputy. People affiliated with SRAP held an impromptu farewell Friday afternoon, believing the unit would soon be part of the South and Central Asian bureau.

But in her statement, Nauert said the State Department will “maintain the Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs Offices, which currently report to the Office of the Special Representative, to address policy concerns and our bilateral relationship with these two key countries. The secretary has not made a decision about the future of the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

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It was not clear who would lead the SRAP office now that Miller is gone. Nauert did not directly say Miller won’t be replaced. But Tillerson has indicated he is unhappy with the number of special envoys and plans to reduce them.

The decision to phase out SRAP first came under then-President Barack Obama and the expectation was that its duties would over time be transferred to the regional bureau. A U.S. diplomat familiar with the situation said Tillerson and his staff had been repeatedly warned about SRAP’s coming phase-out and the need to transfer the policy portfolios in a proper way.

But the secretary of state appeared in no hurry to facilitate the transfer. Now, U.S. officials and other observers worry that the changes under Tillerson leave unclear who is responsible for handling diplomacy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan at a very sensitive time.

“What is alarming from a policy perspective is that the transfer of function is not clear,” the U.S. diplomat said. “We’ve long planned for SRAP to go away, but the intention was for the policy to be transferred responsibly.”

Added a State Department official familiar with the situation: “There is uncertainty about the leadership of the regional bureau given recent departures.”

Overall, the developments underscore the rapid erosion of leadership at the State Department under Trump and Tillerson and the potentially damaging effects it could have on U.S. diplomatic efforts. Trump and Tillerson have failed to fill numerous leadership positions across the State Department. The South and Central Asian Affairs bureau in particular has seen unusually high levels of top staff departures. Unlike other regional bureaus, it does not even have an acting assistant secretary overseeing it.

With no special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in place, it’s not certain who will hold the overall responsibility for overseeing the many relationships built with Afghan and Pakistani diplomatic counterparts. Such relationships need constant tending and can fade quickly.

Although there presumably will still be staffers, such as office directors, dealing with both countries, those positions do not carry as much weight as those of higher ranks. Even if one of those officials were named to a higher rank on an acting basis, he or she would still have limited sway over setting long-term policy.

Dan Feldman, a former special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, noted that the reduction in the U.S. diplomatic ranks comes as talks continue about surging U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, where the Taliban still threaten the U.S.-backed central government. Instead of beefing up U.S. diplomatic efforts, it appears the military will dominate the process.

“If the goal of that military surge is to help energize a negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan, which even military leadership acknowledges is the only long-term sustainable resolution there, how can that be accomplished with a neutered State Department?” Feldman said.

Tillerson is looking at ways to restructure the entire State Department and has indicated that one reason so many positions have been left unfilled is because he’d prefer to reorganize the building before filling all the roles. The Trump administration’s budget plan envisions a roughly 30 percent cut to the State Department, so there’s anticipation that Tillerson will try to cut many positions. In any case, because many of State’s leadership roles require Senate confirmation, it could be well into 2018 before the department’s top levels are filled out.

The South and Central Asian Affairs bureau is a good illustration of how stretched State officials are.

The U.S. diplomat familiar with the SRAP issue said the highest-ranking official at the moment in the bureau is the acting principal deputy assistant secretary, Howard Vanvranken, whose background is more in management than policy. The man who had been serving as the bureau’s acting assistant secretary, William Todd, was transferred earlier this month to help run State’s human resources bureau, which has also seen leadership turnover. The regional bureau’s Web page lists only one serving deputy assistant secretary, and he deals with Central Asian countries.