THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY-JUNE 2026 29 Truman and the State Department pressed ahead with a reform of Germany’s currency even though Stalin blockaded Berlin. The United States was so committed to economic recovery that it launched the first airlift of supplies to Berlin. During the decades since the Marshall Plan, the U.S.-led international economic system needed maintenance and updates to remain vibrant. State Department officers stepped forward whenever the system was tested by unexpected trials. • The first oil shock of 1973–1974, inflicted by the Organization of Arab Oil Exporting Countries (OAPEC), plunged the world into recession. OAPEC intended to pressure the United States to stop supporting Israel after Egypt attacked it in the Yom Kippur War. Tom Enders, then assistant secretary of State for economic and business affairs, led efforts to establish a counter cartel of oil consuming countries, the International Energy Agency (IEA), that aligned consumers’ policies and established a system for sharing oil when supplies are disrupted. The IEA proved its value in 1978, when the Iranian Revolution brought a second damaging oil supply disruption. • During the Carter and Bush (41) administrations, State Department officers, working with the Department of Transportation, reinforced the global economic system by creating the “Open Skies” framework for international travel of passengers and cargo, laying the foundation for just-in-time delivery of components for complex modern supply chains. • State Department officers worked with the U.S. Treasury to prevent the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and similar financial crises in Latin America and Europe, from disrupting the global economy. • State Department officers and the Justice Department negotiated the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in 1997 to strengthen the legitimacy of the international trade and investment system. Former Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State George Shultz often observed that officials in the State Department and Treasury intrinsically understand the vital importance of the global systems on which security and prosperity depend.
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