Foreign Government Employment by Armed Services Retirees

In 2021, the Washington Post filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of State (DOS) for the records associated with retired general and flag officers who had obtained approvals required by federal law for employment with a foreign government. Information released by DOD and DOS was later published in a series of news articles [see Washington Post, “Foreign Servants” (Oct. 18, 2022)].

This paper examines the process through which a retiree of a regular component of an armed service in a military department of the United States (regular retiree) obtains approval to work for a foreign government. This report also contains a review of other federal restrictions that apply to this work.