The Foreign Service Journal, March 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2017 27 DEPARTMENTOFSTATE the U.S. embassy suddenly had to establish new office space, and thus reopened the old chancery compound that had been vacated a year earlier. This work required technical setup by DS security engineering officers. Commercial flights were disrupted even as DS diplomatic couriers had tomove critical equipment and diplomatic pouch loads into and throughout the region. The CDC began placing hundreds of health care staff in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone; and the Department of Defense deployed 3,000 personnel to build medical centers in Liberia. With the help of the United States act- ing in concert with local authorities and international partners, the world staved off a potential pandemic that, left unchecked, could have hadmore disastrous consequences. Other Risks, Other Challenges Meanwhile, a growing number of seemingly unrelated or loosely related trends are piling up, with pervasive negative con- sequences for American and global security. For example: Oil prices: Volatile crude oil prices are well below the average of the past two decades at roughly $50 a barrel in the final weeks of 2016, a 50-percent cut in prices from as recently as 2014. This severely strains the finances and the social structures of oil- producing nations, many of which budget for oil revenue at $70 a barrel. These nations often lack economic diversity and use their petro-earnings as a social lubricant. Population growth and the youth bulge: Decades of global humanitarian work have had a dramatic impact on world popula- tions. According to United Nations data, infant mortality in 1965 was an appalling 100 out of every 1,000 infants born. Today, thanks to health, sanitation, economic and medical programs, that figure is closer to 37 out of 1,000. Hundreds of millions of people are alive today who, a generation ago, might have died in infancy. This means enormous growth in populations under the age of 25, most of themwith extensive access to global informa- tion via social media. Climate change: Regardless of what causes climate change, it places more stress on fragile economies. Throughout human history, people could pack up and move somewhere else if local conditions changed. Our modern nation-state borders are Our embassies and missions are more essential than ever. At the same time, diplomacy has evolved into much more than formal office calls. The Diplomatic Security Memorial, dedicated in 2015, is located in the lobby of DS headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The memorial honors all who lost their lives in the line of duty while in service to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The names include host-nation security personnel, employees of DS, military personnel assigned to or supporting DS and contracted security personnel.