--- title: U.S. Foreign Service: Lacking in Diversity description: The U.S. foreign service is too white, clinical trials for aid to the poor, the specter of Iraq's sectarian war after Ramadi, and more. canonical: https://time.com/3886084/us-foreign-service-diversity/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-19T16:01:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:25.173Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How the U.S. Foreign Service Lacks Diversity og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/3886084/us-foreign-service-diversity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the U.S. Foreign Service Lacks Diversity twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How the U.S. Foreign Service Lacks Diversity by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 19, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 19, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Two top diplomats have a message about America’s foreign service: It’s “too white.”**](http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/18/the-foreign-service-is-too-white-wed-know-were-top-diplomats/) By Thomas R. Pickering and Edward J. Perkins in the Washington Post **2\.** [**Can we ‘test’ strategies against poverty like we test new medicines?**](http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/05/15/406757551/what-it-takes-to-lift-families-out-of-poverty) By Michaeleen Doucleff in Goats and Soda by NPR **3\.** [**Here’s why the fall of one town to ISIS might push Iraq toward total sectarian war.**](http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-real-problem-in-iraq?mbid=rss) By Dexter Filkins in the New Yorker **4\.** [**When HIV patients drop out of care, they die. Kenya found a way to prevent that.**](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2015-05/uoc--mhk051515.php) By the University of California San Francisco **5\.** [**We can end the illegal sex trade.**](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/we-can-end-the-worlds-oldest-profession-117922.html#.VVso85NViko) By Jimmy Carter and Swanee Hunt in Politico  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3886084/us-foreign-service-diversity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3886084/us-foreign-service-diversity/"},"headline":"How the U.S. Foreign Service Lacks Diversity","datePublished":"2015-05-19T16:01:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:25.173Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/3886084/us-foreign-service-diversity/","keywords":["Innovation","Foreign Policy","Iraq","Prostitution","HIV","trafficking"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3886084/us-foreign-service-diversity/","name":"How the U.S. Foreign Service Lacks Diversity"}}]}] ```