Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review

It seeks to plan on a longer-term basis than the usual year-to-year, appropriations-based practice, and to integrate diplomacy and development missions.

[5][6] Previously the American Academy of Diplomacy had determined that the Secretary of State “lacks the tools – people, competencies, authorities, programs and funding – to execute the President’s foreign policies.”[2] More fundamentally, the department did not even have a methodology in place to know how under-resourced it was.

Global Leadership Coalition commended the creation of the QDDR, calling it "an important step toward elevating and strengthening the civilian-led tools of diplomacy and development.

"[11] The Cato Institute was also skeptical, saying that the model, the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, had produced "a series of vacuous documents that commingle vague, unsubstantiated claims about great historical shifts underway ... with threat inflation.

[13] The first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review was completed in December 2010 and was entitled Leading Through Civilian Power; it was presented by Secretary Clinton and USAID Administrator Shah, to employees of both organizations gathered at a town hall meeting.

[14] The 150-page document outlined three key factors that would affect the State Department in coming years: limited financial resources due to U.S. budgetary constraints and political realities; a rapidly shifting global landscape that features power being spread across many countries and the prevalence of non-national actors; and the ability to respond to problems caused by weak states and incipient or actual conflict with a flexible corps of civilian expertise.

Global Leadership Coalition viewed the release favorably, saying “The QDDR represents a bold step toward implementing a smart-power foreign policy by elevating our civilian power and ensuring effective, results-driven programs.”[15] The review would then go to Congress for its review, upon which prospect State Department officials expressed hopefulness;[17] they also wanted Congress to approve making the QDDR a required, regular part of the State Department process.

[19] In June 2012, Senators John Kerry, Ben Cardin, and Marco Rubio introduced the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review Act of 2012, proposed legislation that would update U.S. foreign policy and assistance programs to reflect the ongoing challenges in the world by setting clear diplomatic and development priorities, assuring that U.S. efforts would be effective and efficient, and clarifying the way progress is evaluated.

[22] In February 2014, Kerry appointed Thomas Perriello to be Special Representative for the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review,[23] and then Kerry announced the public launch of the review in April 2014, with the goal being to "identify emerging policy and management priorities and the organizational capabilities needed to maximize the impact and efficiency of this nation's diplomacy and development investments.