海角大神

With two weeks until Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 transition team has issued an unusual order in the history of US foreign service: a blanket mandate that all politically appointed听US ambassadors , as several US diplomats told The New York Times and Politico.

While being told to pack their bags at the end of an administration is par for the course, the lack of a grace period, or case-by-case exceptions, could prove worrisome, diplomacy experts say, if it left听top US embassies without ambassadors for months.

鈥淚t is clearly understood among American ambassadors that when there's a change in the administration, they do not automatically stay on as ambassadors,鈥� Alan Henrikson, a retired professor and former chair of the diplomatic studies program at Tufts University鈥檚 Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, tells 海角大神. 鈥淏ut the abruptness of insisting that by Inauguration Day they leave their posts, especially in the present context when there's a result of the American election 鈥撎齮here's widespread anxiety about dramatic changes in the American foreign policies and relationships. It just simply increases the concerns abroad.鈥�

The New York Times reports that the State Department informed all political appointees the day after the election to submit their resignations effective Jan. 20, but the directive still听 to figure out their next steps.

鈥淪ome of the ambassadors really thought they could stay, so there's a little bit of a scramble now,鈥澨齛n anonymous State Department official told Politico. 鈥淭hey're mostly resigned to it now.鈥�

According to Nicholas Burns, a retired career diplomat who is now a professor of diplomacy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, it has been a tradition for all presidents to ask political appointees to leave their posts.

But most presidents and secretaries of State have made exceptions, he tells the Monitor.

鈥淭hat [there would be no exception] struck me as a little bit peremptory听and a little bit unwise,鈥� says Ambassador Burns, who also serves on Secretary of State John Kerry鈥檚 Foreign Affairs Policy advisory board. 鈥淚t seems in the interest of the Trump administration to have the highest level of representation in some of our key diplomatic posts.鈥�

There are two types of ambassadors 鈥� politically appointed and career diplomats 鈥� but their responsibilities are the same:听to represent US interests and values abroad while interpreting the policies of the host countries.

鈥淓very ambassador, politically appointed or a career person, serves at the will of the president,鈥� Dr. Henrikson says. 鈥淭hese are presidential appointments which have to be confirmed by the Senate.鈥�

Henrikson says the only distinction between the two is that some political appointees win their appointments largely through contributions to the political campaigns of the president in power 鈥� a common practice for presidents from both parties. Mr. Obama, for example,听has听 to ambassadorships, according to Slate.

Yet there is not necessarily a difference听in political appointees鈥� competence compared to a career diplomat's, Henrikson says. They usually come to the position with related experience and knowledge, from business ties to language skills.

Mr. Trump has so far chosen lawyer David Friedman as his ambassador to Israel, a pick some have criticized for , and听Iowa governor Terry Branstad, who has a longstanding friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as his pick for China.听Neither nominee has diplomatic experience.

But with many observers anxious to see whether Trump will make changes to policy in key regions, from Eastern Europe to the Pacific,听the Trump administration's interests could be better served if they were a little bit more flexible about offering a grace period, Burns says.听

鈥淲e have a politically appointed ambassador to China, and China is perhaps our key relationship around the world 鈥� it's a problematic one,鈥澨鼴urns says. 鈥淪o to go months without an ambassador to China is probably not a good idea.鈥�

A charg茅 d鈥檃ffaires, a role usually held by a designated senior career foreign service officer, will maintain the functions of the embassy while the nominated ambassador goes through Senate confirmation.听But this arrangement is not ideal, Henrikson says.

鈥淎 charge-d'affair, they're usually not in the position to do anything other than to maintain continuity,鈥� Henrikson says. 鈥淭hat is to say, they're very unlikely to be given themselves, individually, any kind of instructions to negotiate something new. They really want just to maintain, I wouldn't say the status-quo necessarily, but to maintain things progressing as they have been.鈥澨�