The Foreign Service Journal, May 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2021 13 its team, including agency Chief of Staff Gideon Maltz. On the ambassador front, The New York Times reported on March 19 that hundreds of political donors and former lawmakers were vying for 35 political ambassador slots, as the administration looks to decrease the number of political appointees in State Department positions. The administration was expected to name its first slate of ambassadorial nominees by mid-April. News on ambas- sadorial appointments is tracked by AFSA at https://afsa.org/list-ambassadorial- appointments. News about the status of top federal positions can be found at https://ourpublicservice.org/political- appointee-tracker/. Power to Address “Gargantuan” Challenges at USAID A t her March 23 Senate confirma- tion hearing, USAID Administrator nominee Samantha Power promised to address what she called four “gargan- tuan” challenges: the COVID-19 pan- demic, climate change, conflict and state collapse, and democratic backsliding. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations testified that COVID-19 has shattered decades of development Contemporary Quote The prevalence, and pervasiveness, of racial discrimination might make the situation look hopeless. But let me be clear: I remain hopeful. I am hopeful because I have seen how communities and countries can enact change. And I have experienced that progress in my own lifetime. —Linda Thomas-Greenfield before the March 19 UN General Assembly Commemorative Meeting for International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. gains, “imperiling progress on everything from food security to gender equality and access to education.” She pledged that USAID would support efforts to improve health infrastructure in developing countries. On climate change, Power said countries are facing a “surge in droughts, storms, food shortages and climate- associated humanitarian emergencies.” She added that USAID can help countries become resilient “while supporting their efforts to reduce carbon emissions.” The world is seeing more conflicts today than at any time since the Cold War, Power said. USAID can help by miti- gating suffering, she said, and “working with U.S. diplomats and our international partners to address the root causes of such crises.” Power said she supports restoration of funds for programs cut by the Trump admin- istration that would address the causes of migration, including violence and corrup- tion, in Central Ameri- can countries. Power also pledged to “urgently address” diversity, equity and inclusion at USAID. Then-USUN Ambassador Samantha Power at the United Nations in 2016. U.S.MISSIONKOREA Speaking Out Against Assignment Restrictions T he March 16 murders of six Asian American women in Atlanta drew attention to the rise of “hate incidents” against members of that demographic in the United States and sparked new attention to long-standing complaints from Asian American Foreign Service personnel that they face security clear- ance discrimination based on ethnicity. In a March 18 Politico article, “Foreigners in Their Own Country: Asian Americans at State Department Confront Discrimination,” Ryan Heath describes the process of “assignment restrictions” at the State Department and the efforts to overturn it. In 2017, AFSA conferred its William R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dis- sent by a Mid-Level Officer on Christina T. Le, Thomas T. Wong, Mariju L. Bofill and Cecilia S. Choi for taking on this issue. Le and Wong, successive presidents of the Asian American Foreign Affairs Association, described their efforts in a September 2017 Foreign Service Journal article, “In Pursuit of Transparency in Assignment Restriction Policies.” Four years later, however, the situa- tion persists. “While we appreciate the department’s efforts to codify an appeals process,” AAFAA president Shirlene Yee