How much is that ambassador in the window?
Study Puts ‘Cost’ to Landing Embassy Post
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, NYT
It is the unspoken question on every big donor’s lips: How much do I have to give — really — to get appointed to a desirable diplomatic post by the president?
Like all modern presidents before him, President Obama has appointed friends and donors to about 30 percent of diplomatic posts, often in glamorous and safe locales in Europe and Asia. Donors and advisers involved in the diplomatic selection process say that competition for these posts is so tight this year, and Mr. Obama’s network of big donors and bundlers so vast, that those who have raised less than a million dollars are for the most part unlikely to be considered.
Officially, of course, there are no such requirements for would-be ambassadors. But in a recent study, two researchers — Johannes W. Fedderke and Dennis C. Jett, both professors of international relations at Pennsylvania State University — computed theoretical prices for different postings.
Titled “What Price the Court of St. James’s? Political Influences on Ambassadorial Postings of the United States of America,” the paper looks at diplomatic appointments in the Obama administration through January 2011. Dr. Fedderke and Dr. Jett theorize that the most desirable postings are those to countries “that are not obscure, dangerous, poor or of low interest to tourists.” Where “political campaign contributions (financial or otherwise) exercise an influence on the nature of posting received,” the desirability of a posting should correspond to the size of the campaign contribution.
The researchers compared available information on donors’ direct political contributions and “bundling” — money raised on behalf of Mr. Obama by supporters — with data on the national income of host countries, their relative level of safety, and the robustness of their tourist industries.
(More here.)
It is the unspoken question on every big donor’s lips: How much do I have to give — really — to get appointed to a desirable diplomatic post by the president?
Like all modern presidents before him, President Obama has appointed friends and donors to about 30 percent of diplomatic posts, often in glamorous and safe locales in Europe and Asia. Donors and advisers involved in the diplomatic selection process say that competition for these posts is so tight this year, and Mr. Obama’s network of big donors and bundlers so vast, that those who have raised less than a million dollars are for the most part unlikely to be considered.
Officially, of course, there are no such requirements for would-be ambassadors. But in a recent study, two researchers — Johannes W. Fedderke and Dennis C. Jett, both professors of international relations at Pennsylvania State University — computed theoretical prices for different postings.
Titled “What Price the Court of St. James’s? Political Influences on Ambassadorial Postings of the United States of America,” the paper looks at diplomatic appointments in the Obama administration through January 2011. Dr. Fedderke and Dr. Jett theorize that the most desirable postings are those to countries “that are not obscure, dangerous, poor or of low interest to tourists.” Where “political campaign contributions (financial or otherwise) exercise an influence on the nature of posting received,” the desirability of a posting should correspond to the size of the campaign contribution.
The researchers compared available information on donors’ direct political contributions and “bundling” — money raised on behalf of Mr. Obama by supporters — with data on the national income of host countries, their relative level of safety, and the robustness of their tourist industries.
(More here.)
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