THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 15 prevented millions of HIV infections in more than 50 countries, along the way garnering strong bipartisan support. The program was easily reauthorized in 2008, 2013, and 2018; but in 2023, a small group of Republican U.S. representatives began using reauthorization of PEPFAR to argue against access to abortion. Federal officials say abortion services are not provided under the program. According to Time magazine, global health practitioners and advocates “worry that even if PEPFAR is eventually reauthorized, the uncertainty created both by Congress missing the deadline and by the fading of bipartisan support for the program could ultimately increase costs and inefficiencies as well as harm U.S. diplomatic interests.” The program relies on multiyear contracts to make large-scale purchases of antiviral medications at affordable prices; the predictability of the program’s funding “facilitates longer-term investments that build resilience in health systems at the heart of eliminating HIV and battling other infectious diseases, such as COVID19, malaria, tuberculosis, and Ebola,” according to American Progress. A spokesperson from the National Security Council told Time that PEPFAR is important to U.S. foreign relations, particularly with African nations, saying: “This departure from 20 years of strong support could open the door for Russia and China in the Africa region.” Additionally, says Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at Kaiser Family Foundation, if PEPFAR is not funded, “it would just change the game around what has been one of the few government programs that has been incredibly successful. The symbolic effect of it not being able to withstand that pressure could have repercussions down the road.” Arms Control Agreement Collapses On Nov. 7, 2023, the United States announced its decision to suspend its obligations under the Cold War–era Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). The decision followed Moscow’s withdrawal from the treaty hours earlier. All NATO member countries froze their participation in response because, according to NATO, “a situation whereby Allied State Parties abide by the Treaty, while Russia does not, would be unsustainable.” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “Russia’s withdrawal is The newcomer to any well-regulated and oldestablished organization is always a bewildered creature. The rosiest pledge of a college fraternity, the newest shavetail in the infantry, the most untutored vice consul are alike in their blushing self-consciousness and patent helplessness. Their frame of mind is comparable to that of a man who has jumped from a balloon, and, noticing with some perturbation the rapid approach of the earth, wonders if his new parachute is going to work. … It is of the worst period of all that I wish to speak—that interregnum en route from Washington to the first post—because it is the one most neglected by those who are in a position to reminisce. Many have spoken and written and afterwards laughed about the hushed moment when the roll-call of doomsday is read, the assignments. But that is tense, dramatic and fleeting. You return to your chamber and either kick over the table with joy or search for a stray grain of strychnine, as the case may be. An hour later, you are back to normal. This other matter, this voyage to an unknown fate, is more quietly and effectively troublesome, more difficult to appreciate and analyze. An hour in a steamer-chair comes to my mind with peculiar vividness. The deck was deserted. A scudding wind swept the gray mist over the water. From where I sat, enveloped in rugs, I could see the bows rising and falling with that rocking-chair movement peculiar to a small boat in a heavy sea, and at each downward plunge, my heart nestled closer to the bottommost floating rib. —Written by “a consular neophyte” in the January 1924 American Consular Bulletin (precursor to the FSJ). The Hour Before Dawn 100 Years Ago not expected to have any practical impact on its force posture, given Moscow’s failure to abide by its CFE Treaty obligations since 2007. However, its withdrawal signals a further effort by Moscow to undermine decades of progress made towards building transparency and cooperative approaches to security in Europe.” The CFE was signed in 1990 and ratified two years later with the goal of ensuring peace by preventing Cold War rivals from massing troops along their mutual borders. n This edition of Talking Points was compiled by Donna Scaramastra Gorman.
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