Congratulations to Patrick Kennedy

Congratulations to Patrick F. Kennedy, winner of the 2022 Director General's Cup for the Foreign Service. Amb Kennedy started his career in 1973 in the Bureau of African Affairs & retired as Under Secretary for Management in 2017. Today we celebrate his exceptional contributions. pic.twitter.com/l2XszbAI5R

— Department of State (@StateDept) May 6, 2022

I miss our former Permanent Undersecretary for Management, who, though he was certainly a micro-manager, was never less than proficient. The same goes for the team he gathered around him. 

He had his detractors. One of his critics complained that you could never get the better of him or his team in a dispute on matters of management because they were always more knowledgable and better prepared than their opponents. Well, if that's the worst you can say of him, then I'm on Team Kennedy. 

The last time I saw him he was already retired but was helping out the ladies at the annual book sale of the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide, which I thought was very nice of him. 

   

The "M" Stands For Machiavelli

Foreign Policy magazine has a profile of Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy: The Bureaucrat at the Center of Hillary’s Scandals.

A few snippets:

"The guy has nine lives" a former diplomat said of Kennedy, who has spent more than 40 years at the State Department. "Everything just bounces off him."

-- Snip --

He's also able to block initiatives he doesn't like through his mastery of the arcane rules and regulations that govern everyday life at the department - some of which he drafted himself.

“Like Stalin, his power comes from his understanding and control over the bureaucracy,” said a former State Department official.

“In dealing with him or his office, they are always presenting you with rules but you don’t know where they come from: some previous secretary, the president, the Congress and so you don’t know how to figure out what would need to be done to get exceptions,” added the official.

I've never been a fan, but this kind of profile is making me warm up to the U/S for M.