On the heels of reports of high-profile exits from Tillerson's department, low morale among career officials, and an almost-certainly-doomed proposal from Tillerson to slash the State budget by 30 percent, the fate of envoys looked like one more example of Tillerson's “gutting” State—and with it America's ability to conduct diplomacy.
But it turns out America's own diplomats have long been critical of special envoys, and have recommended their elimination in the past. And the debate reveals something about the mechanisms of American foreign policy, how it is conducted, and the clash between career foreign-service officials and special envoys, who are seen as circumventing the diplomatic process./p>
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