ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the relative success or failure of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to meet these challenges and draw some comparisons to the experience of other foreign ministries. The FCO has been successful in resisting the reform proposals of reviews into overseas representation. The department has illustrated a willingness to alter its international structure rather than risk losing lead authority to other departments. The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) was founded in 1953 and involved the transfer of agricultural attaches from the State Department to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The FAS and USDA also play an important role in international negotiations over trade issues and issues of food safety and development. In response the challenges from domestic departments, the State Department has followed a similar pattern of internal reorganization to the FCO to reflect the growth of international organizations, NGOs and multilateral issues.
