I fully agree with what the other witnesses said, that increasing the budget for the foreign service would be good. However, let me speak for my own bailiwick just for a second and recommend that if foreign affairs had a certain budget, it could do what the Department of National Defence has been doing for 50 years, which is giving awards and supporting academic research outside the department. This would make sure we have a new generation of future diplomats trained in universities and increase the possibility for academics to act as consultants for the department.
It's very successful at the Department of National Defence, but foreign affairs never accepted to do the same or saw the need to do the same.