THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 11 A Life of Challenge and Adventure 50 Years Ago Generalizing from the 220 answers received and from the statistical analysis reported above, it seems that Foreign Service wives as a group are hardy and self-sufficient with a positive orientation toward the Foreign Service way of life. Many enjoy the life just because it is adventurous and challenging. As some of them expressed it, “There is no substitute for being there, smelling the smells, hearing the sounds …” —Katharine Gratwick Baker in “Mobility and Foreign Service Wives” in the February 1976 edition of The Foreign Service Journal. the U.S. health system underperforms on life expectancy and maternal mortality, which proves that financial outlays alone do not produce strong outcomes. Critics warn that the strategy’s shift to bilateral agreements comes amid deep disruptions caused by earlier aid cuts and the dismantling of USAID. Many NGOs have already reduced or closed programs, raising doubts about whether health ministries alone can maintain services. As one senior aid worker told CNN, activities now labeled “overhead” are often “the things that make the essential functions work.” Analysts also note the strategy’s narrow focus on a limited set of diseases and its more transactional posture. Concerns include long-term data-sharing requirements that may advantage U.S. industry and the risk that poorer countries will struggle to meet compact terms. One official told CNN the approach “feels like we’re leaning into” the kind of highly transactional aid model the United States has historically criticized abroad. U.S. Designates European Leftist Groups as Terrorist Organizations The Trump administration has designated four far-left European groups as “specially designated global terrorists,” with plans to formally add them to the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list later this month. U.S. officials accuse members of the groups—Antifa Ost (Germany), the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece), and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greece)—of fomenting violent attacks across Europe. The move is part of what the State Department described as a global campaign to target “antifa [anti-fascist] groups across the globe.” Jason Blazakis, the former head of the State Department office that oversees FTO designations, noted that the four groups “wouldn’t really typically merit an FTO designation because they hadn’t been responsible for fatalities,” adding that they lack the capability associated with organizations such as ISIS or al-Qaida. The designations carry sanctions risk for U.S. individuals or entities that engage with the groups. But analysts say the move appears aimed less at European militancy than at domestic politics. “The administration has really been interested lately in identifying domestic terrorists in connection with antifa,” NPR’s Odette Yousef reported, even though antifa in the United States is a decentralized movement without formal leadership. As journalist Patrick Strickland observed, ties between U.S. and European anti-fascist groups amount mostly to “putting out a statement in solidarity,” far from the “material support” required for terrorism prosecutions. Rubio Agrees to Return MS-13 Informants to El Salvador An October 2025 Washington Post investigation reveals that Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed to return nine MS-13 leaders in U.S. custody, including several protected informants, to El Salvador as part of a deal to secure access to the country’s CECOT (Centro de Confinamineto del Terrorismo, or Terrorism Confinement Center) megaprison for U.S. deportation operations. In an interview with NPR, Washington Post reporter John Hudson noted that “a core part of an informant relationship is that the United States says … we’re not going to turn around and send you to the very government that you are giving us information about.” Reneging on that protection, he added, risks undermining years of U.S. law-enforcement work and damaging the government’s ability to recruit future informants. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele sought custody of the nine men in part because several had provided information about alleged secret dealings between his administration and MS-13. For the Trump administration, the agreement helped facilitate the transfer of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants through El Salvador as part of its broader deportation strategy. As of December 1, 2025, only one of the nine men had been returned to El Salvador, with legal challenges preventing additional transfers. A federal judge has questioned the government’s lack of transparency around the agreement and raised concerns about potential torture or disappearance if the remaining detainees are deported.
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