Low-level and only trade.

Also, when Javier Solana (of all people) became Spain's foreign minister he came from the ministry of education and had no diplomatic experience.

Nor did Joschka Fischer and now Guido Westerwelle in Germany when getting the job. But that was not tokenism, that was (self-imagined) alpha males wrangling for top jobs.

As for Ashton, just your bilingual column about Zapatero points to tokenism as a main motivation for selecting her. But, look, don't misunderstand: from the little I know, I agree with you that she is an able person, and I hope she'll grow into the job just like into her previous (or like Solana and Fischer grew, and hopefully Westerwelle will grow into theirs).

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}