| By Harry Gilmore
The author is dean of current seminars.
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 he Senior Seminar didn’t exist when the Foreign Service Institute was created in 1947. It followed 11 years later as the Senior Officer Course, a nine-month seminar whose purpose, in the words of then-Deputy Undersecretary Crockett, was to give senior foreign policy specialists “an opportunity to step back and look at themselves, to get to know their country again intimately, to reevaluate their opportunities and responsibilities in its service and to think imaginatively about their profession and its problems.” This purpose remains valid today.
Now in its 39th year, the Senior Seminar is the most advanced professional development program available to career foreign policy and national security officials. The goal of the Seminar is to ensure that its participants:
- Enhance their executive skills and more fully realize their leadership potential in preparation for service in demanding, senior positions;
- Gain a deeper appreciation of the ideas and values that define our country and a broader comprehension of the domestic issues, institutions and conditions that shape our foreign relations;
- Better understand major international and national security issues and how policies are developed to address them; and
- Develop a fuller understanding of the role of the U.S. foreign affairs agencies and the Congress in order to improve overall communication, cooperation and coordination.
Each year about 30 senior civilian and military officials are selected to participate in the Senior Seminar. In the current seminar, half come from the Foreign and Civil Service of the Department. They are joined by officers nominated by the Department of Defense, USIA, AID, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the FBI, and the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and National Guard. Officers from other agencies, such as Agriculture, Treasury and Commerce, have also participated in the seminar.
The seminar’s program includes a core curriculum designed by the seminar staff and six major elective themes programmed by the participants in consultation with the seminar’s dean and associate dean.
The curriculum includes modules on negotiations, public speaking and the media, crisis management, resource management, including International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS), diversity management, computer and Internet use and leading change in organizations. The six major elective themes are:
- Leadership and management
- National security,
- The economy and the environment,
- The Constitution and the Congress,
- Crime and the criminal justice system, and
- The state of the nation.
Study trips throughout the United States are a central element of the program. They include five to specific regions and three focused on an in-depth look at each of the military services. These trips illustrate the seminar’s topics by bringing participants into direct contact with current issues facing Americans and with the government and private sector leaders grappling with these issues.
During their study trips, participants engage in public affairs outreach activities, demonstrating to fellow Americans how foreign affairs and national security professionals project U.S. values abroad and promote important U.S. interests.
For more on FSI, also See:
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