The Foreign Service Journal, April 2021

28 APRIL 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL to go into the office in person to access the classified systems, attend a meeting or for whatever other essential reason, have mostly done so on a case-by-case basis, as needed. A scattered few have come to the office by choice, finding it easier to focus on their work in a physical space and location that does not double as home. Broadly speaking, our internal work has continued apace, though with the added and now familiar challenges of manag- ing from afar, juggling telework with unexpected parenting tasks and maintaining team cohesion. Certain advantages of working virtually, like the time saved by no longer having to commute to and fromWashington, D.C., or the embassy or consulate every day, are hard to deny. Without a doubt, effective new technol- ogy platforms that enable virtual meetings and engagements have helped keep our diplomatic activities going, preventing the kind of collapse into paralysis that might have occurred had we confronted a similar challenge even a decade ago. Our outward-facing work has continued, too, at least those aspects that were already well established with a defined structure and schedule. At the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States, we used WhatsApp, Zoom and Webex for most informal coordination with other member-state missions and OAS entities, and found we were able to get a lot done in that way. Even Kudo, the somewhat unwieldy virtual plat- form that the OAS itself used for official engagements requir- ing simultaneous interpretation in more than one language, seemed to work well after the early kinks were ironed out. Importantly, however, most of us had interacted together in countless in-person discussions and meetings prior to the onset of the pandemic, and so we knew one another well. Because we had that built-in familiarity and trust, the transi- tion to virtual coordination took place relatively smoothly and, in fact, with almost surprising ease. Getting Off the Ground … and Across the Finish Line That fact turns out to be one of the rubs of virtual diplo- macy: Drawing from previously established personal networks is much easier than trying to start from scratch. One foreign diplomat in Washington says he feels lucky to have arrived more than a year before the pandemic started because he was able to use the network of personal contacts and relationships he had built up before the curtain fell on in-person diplomacy; as a result, he says, he has taken the crisis in stride and gotten some good work done. Another D.C.-based diplomat (an equally engaging and personable chap, we must add) has a different story that makes the same point. Because he arrived with his family in Wash- ington just before the pandemic broke, he has had a hard time simply getting off the blocks. Ten months later, frustrated by having to be at home, unable to pound the pavement to build his personal and professional network, mostly doing meetings by Zoom, he acknowledges: “I know ‘so and so’ at that agency, embassy or institution, but not much more. I may have some contacts, but I have no real relationships and certainly no new friendships.” Breaking through an impasse or bringing an issue to closure is equally difficult to do from a distance. At the OAS, the previ- ously scheduled March 20, 2020, Special General Assembly to elect the next secretary general is a case in point. There was no pre-certified mechanism to conduct such a formal vote by virtual means, so we knew it needed to be done in person before it was too late. To preempt a move by several member states to use the pandemic as a pretext to paralyze the OAS by blocking the vote, the United States worked with key partners to push through the pockets of resistance to carry out this one final “in-person” meeting in accordance with health and safety standards then in place. Importantly, that “in-person” General Assembly ensured the organization’s ability to continue its work by virtual means ever since. Indeed, it helped kick off a series of intensive coor- dination meetings, all conducted virtually, that ultimately led to a consensus agreement to hold official OAS meetings and even the next annual General Assembly in a virtual setting. Not coincidentally, most of these meetings focused on the priority importance of forging a regionwide response to the pandemic. In the absence of that decisive in-person assembly, however, the organization and its member states might well have lan- guished in pandemic paralysis for a good while. Challenges and Adjustments Overseas Overseas challenges have differed significantly according to position and role. Consular officers’ visa adjudications and rou- tine U.S. citizen services requiring in-person engagement largely halted. This activity was supplanted, during those dramatic early weeks, by the extraordinary emergency effort to repatriate tens of thousands of U.S. citizens and issue emergency visas to travelers with humanitarian needs or to those assisting the U.S. fight against COVID-19. Management officers and specialists acquired new expertise in local labor laws, supply chain logistics and COVID-19 testing protocols. Office managers and IT professionals masterfully shepherded the transition to new online platforms for entire sections. Public