特朗普政府草案要求对国务院进行彻底改革
【中美创新时报2025 年 4 月 21 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）据美国官员和文件副本称，特朗普政府行政命令草案提议对国务院进行大规模重组，包括取消几乎所有的非洲业务，并关闭非洲大陆各地的大使馆和领事馆。《纽约时报》记者Edward Wong对此作了下述报道。
草案还要求削减国务院总部负责处理气候变化和难民问题以及民主和人权问题的办公室。
目前尚不清楚该文件的编写者是谁，也不清楚其反映的国务院重组内部辩论处于哪个阶段。这是近期几份提议国务院改革的文件之一，政府内部每天都在就可能采取的行动进行讨论。
官员们表示，最近几周，美国官员们已经就其中一些想法进行了讨论，但目前尚不清楚这些想法将在多大程度上被采纳，以及草案的积极程度。
如果特朗普总统决定签署行政命令，其部分内容可能会在白宫最终审查之前或之前发生变化。
国务卿马尔科·卢比奥在这篇文章发表后在社交媒体上发表了一篇简短评论，称其为“假新闻”。目前没有迹象表明卢比奥或其高级助手已签署该文件，尽管他们一直在致力于国务院的重组。
在本文发表前的周日凌晨，美国国务院和白宫国家安全委员会均未回应置评请求，其中包括询问特朗普是否会签署这样的行政命令。
据《纽约时报》获得的行政命令草案副本显示，该行政命令旨在对国务院进行“严格的重组”，并“精简任务执行”，同时减少“浪费、欺诈和滥用”。该命令称，国务院应在10月1日之前完成这些调整。
草案中提出的一些改革方案需要通知国会，而且无疑会受到议员的质疑，其中包括大规模关闭外交使团和总部机构，以及对外交使团进行全面改革。如果官员们试图将这些方案付诸实施，其中很大一部分可能会面临诉讼。
周日下午，众议院外交事务委员会民主党高级议员、纽约州众议员格雷戈里·米克斯在社交媒体上发帖称：“无论这份行政令草案的部分内容是否会送到特朗普的办公桌上，已经很明显，本届政府决心彻底摧毁美国国务院，并让美国的外交和发展能力陷入瘫痪。”
该文件于周六开始在美国现任和前任外交官及其他官员中流传。
据熟悉该计划的现任和前任美国官员透露，国务院的重大结构性改革将伴随裁员计划，裁减职业外交官（即外交服务官员）和通常在国务院华盛顿总部工作的公务员。他们表示，国务院将开始让大量员工带薪休假，并发出解雇通知。
该行政命令草案要求终止对有志于担任外交官的人员的外交服务考试，并列出了新的招聘标准，其中包括“与总统的外交政策愿景保持一致”。
草案称，该部门必须大大扩展人工智能的使用范围，以协助起草文件，并进行“政策制定和审查”以及“运营规划”。
拟议的重组将取消帮助世界大部分地区制定和颁布政策的区域局。
草案称，这些职能将由四个“军团”承担：欧亚军团，包括欧洲、俄罗斯和中亚；中东军团，包括阿拉伯国家、伊朗、巴基斯坦和阿富汗；拉丁美洲军团，包括中美洲、南美洲和加勒比地区；印度-太平洋军团，包括东亚、东南亚、印度、孟加拉国、斯里兰卡、尼泊尔、不丹和马尔代夫。
提议中最激烈的改革之一是取消负责监督撒哈拉以南非洲政策的非洲事务局。取而代之的是一个规模小得多的非洲事务特使办公室，该办公室将向国家安全委员会汇报。该办公室将重点关注少数几个问题，包括“协调反恐行动”和“关键自然资源的战略性开采和贸易”。
草案还表示，所有位于撒哈拉以南非洲地区的“非必要”大使馆和领事馆将于10月1日前关闭。文件称，外交官将被派往非洲执行“有针对性的、以任务为导向的部署”。
草案称，加拿大事务将被纳入卢比奥领导下的新北美事务办公室，并由“大幅精简的团队”负责管理。该部门还将大幅缩减美国驻安大略省渥太华大使馆的规模。
该部门将裁撤一个负责监督民主和人权问题的局、一个负责处理难民和移民问题的局以及一个负责与国际组织合作的局。负责前两个局的副部长职位将被裁撤。公共外交和公共事务副部长办公室也将被裁撤。
该部门还将取消气候问题特使的职位。
备忘录草案称，该部门将设立一个新的高级职位，即负责消除跨国威胁的副部长，以监督禁毒政策和其他问题。
人道主义援助局将吸收美国国际开发署的剩余机构，该机构在过去两个月里遭到卢比奥和特朗普政府其他成员的破坏。
备忘录称，至于人员方面，国防部需要从“目前过时且混乱的通才全球轮换模式转向更智能、更具战略性、区域专业化的职业服务框架，以最大限度地发挥专业知识”。
这意味着想要进入外交部门的人会在申请过程中选择他们想在哪个地区机构工作。
草案称，该部门将向外交官和公务员提供买断合同，有效期至 9 月 30 日。
美国国务院约有8万名雇员，其中5万名是驻外的美国公民。其余约1.4万名是受过培训、在海外轮岗的外交官，被称为外交官和专家；还有1.3万名是主要在华盛顿工作的公务员。
该草案还要求缩小富布赖特奖学金的资助范围，使其仅颁发给攻读国家安全领域硕士研究的学生。
声明还表示，外交部将终止与历史悠久的黑人院校霍华德大学（Howard University）的合同，该合同旨在招募即将终止的兰格尔（Rangel）和皮克林（Pickering）奖学金候选人。这些奖学金的目标是帮助来自代表性不足群体的学生在毕业后尽快获得进入外交部门的机会。
这份行政命令草案是最近几天政府内部流传的几份内部文件之一，这些文件列出了国务院的拟议改革。另一份备忘录概述了下一财年国务院预算削减近50%的提议。还有一份内部备忘录提议削减10个大使馆和17个领事馆。
本文最初发表于《纽约时报》。
题图：一名行人走过华盛顿特区美国国务院总部前Al Drago/Bloomberg
附原英文报道：
Trump administration draft order calls for drastic overhaul of State Department
By Edward Wong New York Times,Updated April 20, 2025
A pedestrian passes in front of the US State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C.Al Drago/Bloomberg
A draft of a Trump administration executive order proposes a drastic restructuring of the State Department that includes eliminating almost all of its Africa operations and shutting down embassies and consulates across the continent, according to US officials and a copy of the document.
The draft also calls for cutting offices at State Department headquarters that address climate change and refugee issues, as well as democracy and human rights concerns.
It was not immediately clear who had compiled the document or what stage of internal debates over a restructuring of the State Department it reflected. It is one of several recent documents proposing changes to the department, and internal administration conversations take place daily on possible actions.
Some of the ideas have been debated among US officials in recent weeks, though it is unclear to what degree they would be adopted or how active the draft is, officials said.
Elements of the draft executive order could change before final White House review or before President Trump signs it, if he decides to do so.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote a short comment on social media after this article was published calling it “fake news.” There are no indications that Rubio or his top aides have signed off on the document, though they have been working on a reorganization of the State Department.
Neither the State Department nor the White House National Security Council replied to requests for comment early Sunday before this article was published, including a question asking whether Trump would sign such an executive order.
The purpose of the executive order is to impose “a disciplined reorganization” of the State Department and “streamline mission delivery” while cutting “waste, fraud and abuse,” according to a copy of the draft order obtained by The New York Times. The order says the department is supposed to make the changes by Oct. 1.
Some of the proposed changes outlined in the draft document would require congressional notification and no doubt be challenged by lawmakers, including mass closures of diplomatic missions and headquarter bureaus, as well as an overhaul of the diplomatic corps. Substantial parts, if officials tried to enact them, are likely to face lawsuits.
On Sunday afternoon, Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a social media post: “Whether parts of this draft EO ever reach Trump’s desk, it’s already clear this administration is determined to gut the @StateDept and run American diplomacy and development capabilities into the ground.”
The document began circulating among current and former US diplomats and other officials Saturday.
Major structural changes to the State Department would be accompanied by efforts to lay off both career diplomats, known as foreign service officers, and civil service employees, who usually work in the department’s headquarters in Washington, said current and former US officials familiar with the plans. The department would begin putting large numbers of workers on paid leave and sending out notices of termination, they said.
The draft executive order calls for ending the foreign service exam for aspiring diplomats, and it lays out new hiring criteria that includes “alignment with the president’s foreign policy vision.”
The draft says the department must greatly expand its use of artificial intelligence to help draft documents, and to undertake “policy development and review” and “operational planning.”
The proposed reorganization would get rid of regional bureaus that help make and enact policy in large parts of the world.
Instead, the draft says, those functions would fall under four “corps”: Eurasia Corps, consisting of Europe, Russia, and Central Asia; Mid-East Corps, consisting of Arab nations, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; Latin America Corps, consisting of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean; and Indo-Pacific Corps, consisting of East Asia, Southeast Asia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives.
One of the most drastic proposed changes is to eliminate the bureau of African affairs, which oversees policy in sub-Saharan Africa. It would be replaced by a much smaller special envoy office for African affairs that would report to the National Security Council. The office would focus on a handful of issues, including “coordinated counterterrorism operations” and “strategic extraction and trade of critical natural resources.”
The draft also said all “nonessential” embassies and consulates in sub-Saharan Africa would be closed by Oct. 1. Diplomats would be sent to Africa on “targeted, mission-driven deployments,” the document said.
Canadian operations would be put into a new North American affairs office under Rubio’s authority, and it would be run by a “significantly reduced team,” the draft said. The department would also severely shrink the US Embassy in Ottawa, Ontario.
The department would eliminate a bureau overseeing democracy and human rights issues; one that handles refugees and migration; and another that works with international organizations. The undersecretary position overseeing the first two bureaus would be cut. So would the office of the undersecretary of public diplomacy and public affairs.
The department would also get rid of the position of the special envoy for climate.
The department would establish a new senior position, the undersecretary for transnational threat elimination, to oversee counternarcotics policy and other issues, the draft memo said.
The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance would absorb the remnants of the US Agency for International Development, which has been gutted over the past two months by Rubio and other members of the Trump administration.
As for personnel, the memo said, the department needs to move from its “current outdated and disorganized generalist global rotation model to a smarter, strategic, regionally specialized career service framework to maximize expertise.”
That means people trying to get into the Foreign Service would choose during the application process which regional corps they want to work in.
The department would offer buyouts to foreign service and civil service officers until Sept. 30, the draft said.
The State Department has about 80,000 employees, with 50,000 of those being local citizens abroad. Of the rest, about 14,000 are trained diplomats who rotate overseas, called foreign service officers and specialists, and 13,000 are members of the civil service who work mostly out of Washington.
The draft order also calls for narrowing Fulbright scholarships so that they are given only to students doing master’s-level studies in national security matters.
And it says the department will end its contract with Howard University, a historically Black institution, to recruit candidates for the Rangel and Pickering fellowships, which are to be terminated. The goal of those fellowships has been to help students from underrepresented groups get a chance at entering the Foreign Service soon after graduation.
The draft executive order is one of several internal documents that have circulated in the administration in recent days laying out proposed changes to the State Department. Another memo outlines a proposed cut of nearly 50 percent to the agency’s budget in the next fiscal year. Yet another internal memo proposes cutting 10 embassies and 17 consulates.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
