24 MARCH 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL deportation orders. Stress early on that vulnerable migrants are being offered financial incentives/stipends to leave voluntarily. 5. Offer additional financial incentives to prospective deportees, including criminals/gang members, as a reward for their help in identifying and arresting human traffickers. Collaborate with the Mexican government to identify and imprison such traffickers within Mexican borders. 6. Work behind the scenes with Mexican authorities to offer both carrots (e.g., enhanced trade benefits) and sticks (e.g., 25 percent or higher tariffs) for their cooperation in facilitating deportations, preventing new illegal migrant entries into the U.S., and tracking down human traffickers and fentanyl/drug smugglers. 7. Similarly, work confidentially with Chinese authorities to offer incentives to facilitate the return of military-age male deportees and others. 8. Replicate Clinton administration agreements with Latin American governments to house expelled migrants on their territory. Repurpose Gitmo, the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, to house migrants (as the Clinton administration did with huge numbers of Haitian migrants who fled the country during a previous time of upheaval in the 1990s). USAID FSO, retired Support Exchanges to Rural America The first Trump administration considered public diplomacy critical to U.S. foreign policy, with an emphasis on peoplefocused and pro-freedom messaging. Continuing to engage foreign audiences to build trust, strengthen ties, and promote cooperation is essential to advancing U.S. interests. Considering the benefits of exchanges with rural America offers a unique perspective on why such initiatives are an essential foreign policy tool. Exchanges through the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) are indispensable to prosperity and national security. Programs that thrived under the first Trump administration include those that engage targeted audiences in such critical areas as economic development, natural resources, and civic engagement. These programs have an equally important effect on host communities that are not usually accorded the opportunities of international exchange, such as those across rural Montana, Arizona, Kansas, and Nebraska. While foreign policy practitioners may primarily think of Montana through the lens of Yellowstone (either the show or the park), consider the importance of our state to national and economic security. Montana is home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of just three U.S. bases that maintains and operates the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Our state has critical minerals including arsenic, antimony, bismuth, gallium, tellurium, tin, and tungsten. We are central to the nation’s food supply as agriculture is Montana’s top industry. And yet, Montana is just 49th in the nation for international student engagement (per Open Doors 2024). Exchanges make an outsized impact in such an underserved area, providing rare opportunities for Montanans to develop cross-cultural competence and a global perspective to better engage in an increasingly globalized society. In addition, the investment of grant funding in our state supports jobs, new international trade opportunities, and revenue through spending on housing, food, and services. At the same time, international exchange participants better understand America’s strength and values through the different perspectives provided by our citizens. In short, effective public diplomacy through exchanges is essential to foreign policy interests: both to influence global audiences and to bolster communities here at home. Deena Mansour Former Public Diplomacy Officer Executive Director, Mansfield Center, University of Montana Missoula, Montana Establish a Global Mega Events Unit The United States has a once-in-a-generation moment to seize the world’s attention with its hosting of the 2026 men’s soccer World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. To fully leverage these political, cultural, and commercial diplomacy opportunities, the State Department needs to create a “Global Mega Events” unit to coordinate the department’s support for these U.S.-hosted sporting events. Such a unit would bring together those working on the essentials of the events—protocol, visas, and security—as well as those coordinating political engagement, cultural promotion, and business attraction. Such coordination is especially necessary for the World Cup, which the United States, Mexico, and Canada are hosting across 16 different cities. This unit could also leverage insights gained from U.S. participation in upcoming world’s fairs by bringing these global mega events together under one roof.
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