Headquarters of the U.S. Department of State. Photo: wiki commons.

Yahoo – President Barack Obama’s fondness for rewarding big donors with plum diplomatic posts overseas made international headlines earlier this year when a few of them embarrassed themselves in confirmation hearings. Now, the association that represents career U.S. diplomats is sounding the alarm about leadership at the very top of the State Department, warning that foreign service professionals are losing ground to “political” picks.

“The world is a mess,” American Foreign Service Association President Bob Silverman told Yahoo News in a telephone interview. “We need our most experienced people – people who have actually managed embassies, who have actually managed international programs – in the mix at the top of the leadership.”

Read full story.