The Foreign Service Journal, May 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2015 37 across the highway, the American School had put itself back into operation within days. Sure, there was still credible threat report- ing—but we saw very little violence. Nearby, our posts in Morocco were still open, as was the embassy in Cairo, surely a more danger- ous place. The net effect of this continued security-first posture was to reduce the U.S. government’s presence and operational effective- ness in Tunisia at a crucial time. What program outreach we were doing was largely in the hands of NGOs, who could bring in staff and program support without an explicit green light fromM. The embassy’s public library (Information Resource Cen- ter) was essentially closed to the general public, both because advance clearance through the RSO was required for access and because the space itself had been requisitioned as the embassy’s training classroom. The public affairs section’s multipurpose room had likewise been taken over by temporary security staff. Since even routine access for outside visitors required 24-hour advance notice, I often met contacts at cafés just beyond the barbed-wire barriers. Barbed wire atop and alongside high blank walls, running parallel to one of the country’s main highways, gave the embassy compound the look of a federal penitentiary. Once, I suggested to the construction folks that we use cactus (a traditional Tunisian security barrier) in place of the concertina wire, and add color- ful “Info-USA” panels on the side of the perimeter wall facing the highway. The cactus, I was told, would be too expensive. (Com- pared to the overall cost of maintaining that huge compound on top of a reclaimed swamp?) The murals? Maybe, someday. (If anyone from the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations is read- ing this, please consider!) Before I left for home in July 2013, I managed to hold one suc- cessful representational event—at a hotel. Shortly after that, at the embassy’s Fourth of July reception, I heard the ambassador assure a small and tightly controlled assembly that the United States would “never be chased from Tunisia” and that we were “there to stay.” I hope he’s right about that, but the temporary closure of 19 U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide the next month in response to various security concerns was not encouraging. JIM BULLOCK “Fortress America” looms along Tunis’ main highway, with high blank walls awaiting concertina wire, in 2013.