Diversity Thursday

Bay of Fundy tides are whack

Like the great North American philosopher, Ferris Bueller said:

This is the new acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness (USD P&R) Darin Selnick on Wednesday afternoon:

The Department of State’s DEIA Strategic Plan is still up. You can, for now, read it here if you want to get a flavor of such documents. If they delete it, I have it here for safekeeping.

Just ~20 months ago, we had this:

For those who are not familiar with The Truman Center, just Google the names listed above. They’re not liberal, they are left and rabidly partisan. I mean, “…Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging (DEIAB) lens to nonproliferation and nuclear security policymaking…“… really. If they didn’t exist, we’d have to create them, bless their hearts.

By the way, if these are the new rules, don’t forget (R) gets to play this way too. I’m not sure there is a right-wing equivalent of The Truman Center, but maybe The Claremont Institute can come up with something.

I know it feels like a lot longer, but President Trump has only been back in the Oval Office a month. He has some but not all of his full time players in the game. Once he does, expect a lot more action in this area. They are only picking the low-hanging fruit right now on a very tall and vigorous tree.

The knock-on effect is being felt already all through defense related areas. The DEI brand is radioactive. Even more than that, its worst players overplayed their hand one time too many and enemies accumulated. Their threats still held teeth, but you could feel the shift some time in 2023 their tried and true intimidation tactics were not working as well as they once did. In the time arc from SCOTUS rulings to the 2024 election results, the calculus shifted. The math on the incentives and disincentives flipped and now organizations see an opening to do what they have wanted to do for a long time.

There is a window to escape from this socio-political movement, and they are taking it.

It isn’t just the bad actors in the DEI space that are getting hit. True believers—well-meaning people in the DEI and DEI-adjacent spaces—will feel the tide recede after years, even decades, of consistent government and industry support. That age has passed.

One example you can find of how this is being felt in the field is in an article in Breaking Defense by Valerie Insinna and Michael Marrow, DEI, DOA: How the defense industry is racing to bury its diversity efforts.

A month ahead of the #NatSecGirlSquad conference in March, organizer Maggie Feldman-Piltch is facing a problem that has been unprecedented in her 10 years of putting on the event.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 21 executive order, which directs federal contractors to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, there has been radio silence from defense companies who previously bought exhibit space, underwrote meals and otherwise sponsored the conference.

“Nobody,” she said, “is returning emails.”

Back when the natsec right and left still talked to each other on a regular basis, Maggie and I had a few back and forths on small topics, and I am familiar with her, NSGS and many of those who have supported it over the years. I may disagree with some of their policy positions, but you cannot discount the hard work Maggie and her team have invested in this project over the last decade. They have quite a few successes under their belt, but the ground has shifted.

I can’t stop thinking about those in industry who are rudely ignoring her emails. That is, in many ways, the larger story.

At best it is just rude. As I’ve said before, the past is the past, no reason to pretend it never happened. If someone/thing once supported something in the past, but for whatever reason can’t now, be an adult and tell those you can no longer support. Don’t be middle-schoolish and ghost them. Talk to them as adults.

Last year at the conference NSGS had:

Here’s the ask that no one is returning emails about. This seems about right for this kind of conference for sponsorship levels.

The calendar is liberally—no pun intended—sprinkled with conferences, organizations, and meetings that are DEI/DEIA/DEIAB, or could be DEI/DEIA/DEIAB-adjacent, many of which have run for years, some even decades..

That differential equation with incentives and disincentives variables has changed as the tides have shifted. That world has changed, and everyone will have to change with it.

Remember, we’re only a month in. There is a lot more to follow. Everyone—regardless of your stance on DEI or DEI-adjacent issues—must take a clear-eyed view of the shifting landscape and adjust your 2025 plans accordingly.

Also, along the way, let’s treat each other with at least neutral respect. If someone gets exceptionally personal or mean, that’s different—but that’s not the case here. Business is business. Adults understand it. Return the email. Pick up the phone. It is a challenging year for everyone.