Dissent Channel

The Dissent Channel is a messaging framework open to Foreign Service Officers and other U.S. citizens employed by the United States Department of State and Agency for International Development (USAID),[a] through which they are invited to express constructive criticism of government policy.

For example, a 1992 dissent cable protesting the U.S. failure to act during the Bosnian genocide is credited with helping lead to the Dayton Accords.

The dissent cable with the largest number of signatories, by far, was a 2017 dissent cable condemning President Donald Trump's executive order imposing a travel and immigration ban on the nationals of seven majority-Muslim countries; about 1,000 diplomats are listed as signatories.

Under department regulations, diplomats who submit dissent cables are supposed to be protected from retaliation or reprisal.

[2][3] The Foreign Affairs Manual provides that "[f]reedom from reprisal for Dissent Channel users is strictly enforced.

This decline was due to a feeling in "U.S. embassies around the world ... that the Reagan White House and State Department were not receptive to viewpoints that diverged from the ambassadors' assessments," and that dissenting cables was likely to damage a diplomat's career.

"[32] The National Security Archive at George Washington University has used FOIA to obtain dissent cables.

In 2018, the Archives publicly posted the dissent cables that it had received, along with responses by the State Department Policy Planning Staff, including Anthony Lake, Warren Christopher, and Paul Wolfowitz.