10 MARCH-APRIL 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL TALKING POINTS Ambassador Tracker AFSA remains vigilant about tracking nominations and confirmations to ambassadorships and other senior positions at the foreign affairs agencies. With the new Senate tactic of confirming large numbers of nominees en bloc, most of those nominated in 2025 were eventually confirmed. Only 12 ambassador nominees were returned to the president at the end of the year. Ominously, the administration nominated only six members of the Foreign Service to ambassadorial posts in 2025: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. All but the nominee to Colombo were confirmed. At the same time, 64 political appointees were nominated for ambassadorships. This 10:1 split is by far the most lopsided AFSA has ever seen and goes squarely against the Foreign Service Act’s requirement that “positions as chief of mission should normally be accorded to career members of the Service, though circumstance will warrant appointments from time to time of qualified individuals who are not career members of the Service.” Thirty nominations have been made to senior positions at the Department of State since January 2025. Only three of those have gone to career diplomats: the positions of under secretary for management; assistant secretary for population, refugees, and migration; and coordinator for counterterrorism. Mass Ambassador Recall Raises Alarm No accounting of nominations and confirmations under this administration is complete without addressing the mass recall of career ambassadors that took place in the last two weeks of 2025. President Trump’s decision to recall ambassadors from more than 30 countries intensified concern on Capitol Hill and within the diplomatic community about the erosion of U.S. diplomatic capacity. According to reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters, the move leaves more than half of U.S. ambassador posts in sub-Saharan Africa vacant and adds to roughly 80 ambassadorial vacancies that already existed before the recall; once the recall is complete, there will be at least 110 ambassador vacancies around the world. Those recalled face an uncertain future in the Service. By law, they will have 90 days to find an onward assignment or face involuntary retirement. AFSA has expressed concern that this unprecedented and unnecessary recall may serve as a backdoor reduction in force of some of the department’s most experienced and capable diplomats. In an appearance on PBS NewsHour on December 23, 2025, AFSA President John Dinkelman described the mass recall as “unprecedented” and “not standard practice,” disputing administration claims that the action is routine. He noted that ambassadors had submitted resignation letters at the start of the administration, as is customary, but most of the resignations by career diplomats were declined, also customary, and those envoys remained on the job, only to be abruptly recalled nearly a year later. It is highly unusual, even unprecedented, for so many ambassadors to be removed a year into a new administration. Dinkelman warned that the move amounts to “taking our star players off the field,” weakening U.S. credibility and the ability to advance policy through sustained, on-the-ground engagement. As of February 10, AFSA had confirmed the recall of 31 ambassadors. Talking Points offers a snapshot of recent developments affecting the Foreign Service. The following items were finalized for publication on February 10, 2026. The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have relied— the WTO, the UN, the COP—the architecture, the very architecture of collective problem-solving are under threat. And as a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions: that they must develop greater strategic autonomy in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains. And this impulse is understandable. A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself, or defend itself has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself. But let’s be clear-eyed about where this leads. A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile, and less sustainable. And there’s another truth: If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate. —Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos, January 20. Contemporary Quote
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