THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY-JUNE 2026 19 tainty have disrupted routines and created emotional and logistical challenges. These experiences align with broader concerns about the weakening, and at times adversarial, nature of structures that once offered predictability to foreign affairs professionals and their families. In this environment, AAFSW has remained a reliable point of connection, helping families manage stress, access resources, and maintain community. Domestic pressures compounded these global challenges. Some of our activities that previously operated with consistent schedules now require flexibility and swift adjustments. Our programs, including AAFSW’s planned 2026 Women’s History Month event, have been excluded from the accepted “new norm” because they are perceived as being linked to DEI initiatives. Collaboration with sister organizations and careful coordination have been essential in maintaining core activities, underscoring the stabilizing role community groups play when institutional processes feel uneven or unclear. The cancellation of the 2025 Secretary of State Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad (SOSA) ceremony, a long- standing tradition honoring exceptional volunteer work overseas, demonstrates how even highly respected programs face interruptions. The delay in issuing certificates to awardees, despite the efforts of volunteers and staff, reflects broader operational strain across the foreign affairs ecosystem. While disappointing, it highlights the need for resilient networks that can adapt and continue recognizing service in meaningful ways. Personal stories reveal how these pressures shape daily life: families displaced by conflict seeking clarity; spouses and partners reaching out during moments of crisis; our volunteers adjusting plans to support others. Noteworthy is the outpouring of support, from virtual groups of more than 100 participants to volunteers greeting evacuees at Dulles Airport, that has been a powerful reminder of the community’s strength and generosity. As these disruptions accumulate, they raise an important question about whether the department understands the human impact on those who serve. The foreign affairs workforce already balances a demanding and often fragile equilibrium. Rapid shifts or uncoordinated decisions act as forcing pressures. They create volatility, fragment networks, and strain the community. Recognizing the cumulative effect of these pressures is essential to sustaining the people who sustain the mission. —Celine Ford, AAFSW president The views expressed here are solely those of the author. Foreign Service Youth Foundation Protecting Family Members Since 1989, the Foreign Service Youth Foundation (FSYF) has worked to support young people across the U.S. foreign affairs community to thrive as they grow up in an always-challenging internationally mobile environment and to adapt as they transition between the U.S. and posts abroad. We are a mission-focused, independent, nonpolitical nonprofit that aims to encourage resilience, foster camaraderie, and celebrate achievements in and among our Third Country Kids and to support their families. This mission, like much else in the professional U.S. foreign affairs community, has been negatively affected by a year of abrupt transitions, unanticipated international moves, and policy and ideology-related concerns about job security affecting the families who are dedicated to serving the U.S. and the American people abroad. Young people in those families often face some of the most difficult consequences of this situation, including abrupt, midyear school changes (often across continents), loss of local friends and peers, and anxiety-fueling uncertainty about the future. There is no question everyone wants the most capable people representing the U.S. abroad, but to get the best out of any professional, it is essential that the welfare of their families—and especially their children—is considered and supported. FSYF calls on the administration and foreign affairs leadership across the board to work together to more fully address the human and family consequences of personnel actions and policy decisions to enable those professionals to excel on behalf of all Americans. —Paul Sutphin, FSYF president n The foreign affairs workforce already balances a demanding and often fragile equilibrium. Rapid shifts or uncoordinated decisions act as forcing pressures.
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