U.S. Ambassador Cynthia Stroum Called "Bullying, Hostile" in State Department Investigation

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Obama Administration

Cynthia Stroum.

(Credit: luxembourg.usembassy.gov)

One way that presidents reward their biggest donors is by offering them plum ambassadorships. Which is why it wasn't surprising when the Obama administration tapped Cynthia Stroum to be U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.

Stroum, a businesswoman and philanthropist, had been a major bundler for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, raising more than half a million dollars for the then-candidate.

It appears that her fundraising abilities did not translate to diplomatic success, however: According to a scathing State Department probe out Thursday (PDF), Stroum was seen by most employees as "aggressive, bullying, hostile and intimidating."

The probe found that Stroum's "confrontational management style," staffing problems and "the absence of a sense of direction" have brought much of the Luxembourg embassy "to a state of dysfunction."

Things got so bad, the report says, that staffers asked for transfers to Afghanistan and Iraq due in part to "a climate of acute stress" at the embassy.

"Since the Ambassador's confirmation, most of the senior staff, including two deputy chiefs of mission (DCM) and two section chiefs, has either curtailed or volunteered for service in Kabul and Baghdad," the report says. "Other U.S. staff members have also departed early. At the time of the inspection, additional members of staff were contemplating curtailing. The OIG team believes and in some cases knows for certain that these early departures are because of the Ambassador's management style."

The report found that Stroum "has followed a pattern of public criticism of colleagues...who have not performed to her satisfaction."

And it says that, counter to regulations, "At the end of FY 2010, the mission scrambled to use up its representational funding by bulk purchasing $3,400 in wine and liquor."

Stroum left the embassy last month, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family in Seattle; as Politico notes, she acknowledged that her time had been "challenging" but said she "loved the work and am tremendously proud of what we have accomplished during my tenure."

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by Therealulsterman March 5, 2011 8:08 PM EST: Please tell me that you all know that BradleyWhite is Ulsterman, and that Ulsterman writes fake political articles on a site called Triond?; Reply to this comment


by univmd February 8, 2011 2:47 PM EST: Sad commentary -- but not on anyone but the Ambassador. There was a reason why she was assigned the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as opposed to the Court of King James.

I'm very familiar with the State Department and the Foreign Service. This type of ambassador does not last very long and they are usually recalled if they cannot keep the support of their staff. Its hard to see how someone assigned to Luxembourg can be tremendously proud of accomplishments when there are no real extraordinary mission objectives. As a political appointee, she should have just sat back and enjoyed her assignment without riding her people. If it had gone well, she probably would have been moved up a notch to somewhere in Africa where there could be some useful objectives and she could have learned something and contributed. But, given her background, it is unlikely that she would have been placed in an area of real substance.

I once inspected a post where a staffmember came to me IN TEARS because the ambassador was tearing the place up and would not let up on this individual. Usually the careerist Deputy Chief, if he has any "gazungas", would interpose himself between the ambassador and the staff -- at least until the next inspection, when the ambassador would be written up and then, in due course, he would be reassigned to Washington and his fate (usually retirement/separation). At that point, political appointee or careeerist (yeah, it happens even among them), the ambassador would get the message and he may be (or maybe not) a little humbled by the realization that there are limits to his authority. He would learn the realm to which he was assigned is inhabited with other principalities, none of them necessarily having the plantation slaves he perceives them to be. It's a hard lesson to learn that the title ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary is a vestige of a bygone era and, in the modern age of instant communications among heads of state or bureaucrats, it is a title no longer necessary, or reflective of reality. Evidently, this political appointee was asleep during the ambassador's seminar or she felt herself too important to attend the indoctrination. Usually, but not in all cases, a person rises in the service or in private endeavors, only after realizing that you have to earn the support of your staff and not make enemies of them.

It's not uncommon for staff to curtail to a hard-ship assignment like Afghanistan to get out from under the cruelties of an ambassador running amok. It won't hurt their career and, usually, its the only vacancy available in the system. Regretably, the State Department has been somewhat lacking in teaching appropriate diplomatic leadership, among other things, and preventing the unenlightened from taking ambassadorships foreseeably doomed to failure. BTW, this type of doomed ambassadorship occurs among Republicans as well as Democrats. Its just a personal failing, nothing more.; Reply to this comment


by Bacon_Enthusiast February 8, 2011 12:38 PM EST: This space available.; Reply to this comment


by mecury69 February 8, 2011 11:23 AM EST: She exactly like my boss. Women who can drive a company to a point with their 'style' but fail at the finish. You can't do it alone.

After a while you lose the respect of others and it's the end of the road.

But their ego has been built up so much by the past success they refuse to accept that they need others.

Type A personalities always crash and burn...ALWAYS.; Reply to this comment

by larrryshrine February 7, 2011 6:30 AM EST

by cobiahunter February 6, 2011 4:26 PM EST
One could assume that this leftwing hag got her position in exchange for "personal" favors to Obama, but everyone knows he's a little light in the loafers and doesn't prefer women anymore.

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Your unfounded and absurd comment is simply mean-spirited, catty and untrue. But regarding your "accusation," I suppose it takes one to know one, right? Hey, if you have children, do you teach them to call names and be nasty just like their parent?

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by TheKnowerseeker February 7, 2011 12:51 PM EST: Probably, unfortunately. That's how the incivility continues from generation to generation.


by slappy_mcghee February 7, 2011 7:52 PM EST: I find Larryshrine's comments to be much more hate illed and un-civil than cobiahunter's.
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Of course you do - because you only like the statements you agree with. Why did you even post?

by Rainman13 February 7, 2011 5:50 AM EST

I'm a 60 year old man, political party unimportant. I can't ever remember the Democratic and Republican parties being so outright HOSTILE toward one another. Names like Obama, Pelosi, Bush, Palin, etc...etc...spark an imediate Hostile reaction depending upon your political affiliation. No WONDER we can't get anything done in Washington. CNN News...FOX News...MSNBC...Beck...Limbaugh...If you don't agree with "me" you must be insane, communist, or just plain stupid. Wake up people...for America's sake.

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by TheKnowerseeker February 7, 2011 12:50 PM EST: The moderates have been pushed out by the extremists, and now the extremists are all that's left.


by Uncle_Eccoli February 7, 2011 12:57 PM EST: Not going to happen. This is where capitalism leads us. The 'science' of marketing (read: economic propaganda) has far surpassed the average person's ability to think critically and independently. Absolutely everything is a product now, and there are no qualms about cynically employing lessons learned about human psychology over the past fifty years or so in insinuating messages into the minds of consumers. What's worse is that such practices are tacitly celebrated even by the poor, sad dupes.

by Calendular February 6, 2011 7:13 PM EST

Many governmental agencies engage in last minute "bulk purchases" in order to use representational funding completely-- otherwise, if the funding is NOT used up during a given spending cycle, the department or agency would face likely budget cutting in the next fiscal year on the grounds that the previously allotted budget was too generous.

That practice is simply a fact of common administrative behavior, and would certainly not be unique to any specific embassy, or federal or state agency.

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by TheKnowerseeker February 7, 2011 12:49 PM EST: Perhaps a fix to this behavior would be a fluctuation of funding based upon several years pattern instead of just last year's numbers.

by dpmol February 6, 2011 6:49 PM EST

This is one of the meanest, most vitriolic, nastiest, & saddest threads I have ever read. Not the slightest ounce of civility. What button has this article pushed in all of you?

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by TheKnowerseeker February 7, 2011 12:48 PM EST: I have detested feminist "goddesses" ever since I first had to deal with them in college. (In high school I met their precursor: the diva. Diva + feminist = goddess)


by formrusmcsgt February 6, 2011 6:15 PM EST: Catty....; Reply to this comment

by Clefnotes February 6, 2011 2:35 PM EST

Her rich daddy (owned Seattle Seahawks - Schuck Auto Parts) left her a fortune. She is a political hack who paid her way (Sen. Murray - Sen. Cantwell - Sen. Boxer) into this job. Feminist politics gone wild, what else would you expect from Seattle?

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