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), through which they are invited to express constructive criticism of government policy. The Dissent Channel was established in the 1970s.

Submissions through the Dissent Channel circulate to senior State Department officials; under department regulations, diplomats who submit dissent cables are supposed to be protected from retaliation or reprisal.

The Dissent Channel was established in 1971, as a response to concerns that dissenting opinions and constructive criticism were suppressed or ignored during the Vietnam War. Secretary of State William P. Rogers created the system. In February 1971, the right of Foreign Service officers to dissent was explicitly codified in the Foreign Affairs Manual.

The Dissent Channel is reserved for "...consideration of responsible dissenting and alternative views on substantive foreign policy issues that cannot be communicated in a full and timely manner through regular operating channels or procedures." Use of the channel is reserved for dissenting or alternative views on policy concerns; views on "management, administrative, or personnel issues that are not significantly related to matters of substantive foreign policy may not be communicated through the Dissent Channel." Messages sent to the Dissent Channel are distributed to senior members of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, must be acknowledged within 2 days, and must receive a response within 30–60 days.

Diplomats who write such dissent cables are supposed to be protected from retaliation or reprisal. The Foreign Affairs Manual provides that "[f]reedom from reprisal for Dissent Channel users is strictly enforced." Nevertheless, many U.S. diplomats fear to use the channel for fear of retaliation.

From 1971 to 2011, there were 123 dissent cables. The most dissent cables sent in a single year came in 1977, when 28 dissent cables were filed "under the Carter Administration, which everyone agrees created an atmosphere in which use of the channel was encouraged—or at least not stigmatized." After Ronald Reagan became president, the number of dissent cables declined sharply, to 15 in 1981 and just five in 1982. 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.

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