The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

12 MARCH 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL propose a practical solution to a very seri- ous problem. I fervently hope that the State Department is, indeed, moving away from risk avoidance to risk management. I retired from the Foreign Service in 2009 because my parents needed me to be around (they died in 2009 and 2012 at 89 and 92), but I was also disgusted with the risk avoidance strategy in Afghanistan (and other places, but I had chosen Afghanistan for my “expeditionary diplomacy” tour). Luckily, I was stationed most of the time in Kunduz with the Germans, and their rules were less onerous than those emanating from the U.S. embassy in Kabul, so I was able to at least sort of do my job. I would not have been able to do anything of much use had I been stationed in Kabul, and I found out the hard way that if I really wanted to do things, I needed to ask forgiveness rather than permission—like my predecessor did, as permission was never granted! Trudie E. Thompson FSO, retired Rehoboth Beach, Delaware n Share your thoughts about this month’s issue. Submit letters to the editor: journal@afsa.org