Democratic Candidates Policies How Sen. Elizabeth Warren would bolster U.S. diplomacy

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a plan to rebuild the State Department, which she said had suffered a "toxic combination of malice and neglect” as the Trump administration imposed hiring freezes and proposed slashing its budget.

Warren described her strategy as “diplomacy-first,” saying she hopes to ensure the State Department can rival the Pentagon, which Warren noted is nearly 40 times bigger and which she said speaks to a U.S. pattern of defaulting to military action.


“Our foreign policy should not be run out of the Pentagon,” she wrote. “Under a Warren administration, it won’t be.”

What would the plan do?

The first part of Warren’s plan is about expanding the State Department, including doubling the size of the foreign service and opening new diplomatic posts in under-served areas. She calls for building a stronger foundation for diplomacy and recruiting by installing diplomatic equivalents of ROTC programs across American universities, doubling the size of the Peace Corps, and creating more scholarships for language and data-science programs.

Warren pledges to improve the diversity and growth opportunities of the foreign service by correcting employment records for those fired or forced to resign because of their sexual identity and by recruiting at minority-serving institutions, such as historically black colleges and universities. She proposes a core professional development curriculum, expanded parental leave options and preferential postings.

The second part of the plan is rooted in changing who gets the highest-level diplomatic jobs. “For $2 million, you can become Ambassador to the United Nations,” she said of the status quo in which major campaign donors often get top diplomatic posts. Warren promises not to give positions to rich donors or bundlers and wrote that the most senior positions in the State Department, at least one deputy secretary position and the director general of the foreign service would always be experienced career ambassadors.

How would it work?

It's unclear how Warren would pay for an expanded State Department or whether the Senate, currently led by Republicans, would go along with her strategy.

What have other Democrats proposed?

The Massachusetts senator is the first to come out with a targeted plan for the State Department.

