Competitive Expertise and Future Diplomacy: Subject-Matter Specialization in Generalist Foreign Mini

cit., p.24.) 6 Competitive Expertise and Future Diplomacy Commission of 1980-1 was preoccupied largely with issues of pay and benefits and not the core mission of the profession, the Senate’s study may truly be the first of its kind in the history of the Canadian foreign service. [...] The purpose of this CIPS report is to highlight the best practices that other foreign ministries have developed, and which could be adapted to the needs of the Canadian diplomatic service as part of a future reform agenda, perhaps in response to the findings of the Senate or of Minister Joly’s Future of Diplomacy initiative. [...] And this is all to the good; our officers thus remain faithful to the spirit of the profession, to the ideal of the honourable man of varied abilities and interests who makes it his duty to apply himself to all aspects of Canadian life that he may represent it abroad with the diversity of resources which is the very essence of his profession.4 Early critics agreed that Cadieux’s fear of ‘excessive. [...] Diplomacy has to interpret that, and the government needs instruments to understand how to get the most out of the next meeting on a given issue from the most important governments at the table, which could be almost anyone.55 In contemplating the merging of the two senior ranks of the French diplomatic service into the general public administration (discussed in a later section), a columnist in L. [...] ENA graduates are quicker to reach the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary, which is the most important step toward the position of ambassador.206 They are also more likely to be chosen for coveted positions as political advisors to the Minister of Foreign Affairs or diplomatic advisors to the President of the Republic or to the Prime Minister.207 Since the early 2000s, however, the collective influe.