The Foreign Service Journal, May 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2022 15 Percentages of evacuated overseas staff, by region, from Jan. 2020 through Dec. 2020. lived in one-month leases and moved frequently while stateside. Although the global evacuation lasted a total of 270 days, staff were only eligible to depart post within the first 54 days. As a result, staff in regions that experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases after the 54th day of the policy—during early May 2020— could not participate. While State’s approach was under- standable given the evolving nature of the pandemic, said Jason Bair, lead author on the report and GAO’s director of international affairs and trade, it made the process “much more difficult and so much more stressful.” The 64-page GAO report concludes with six recommendations, including that State review its global evacuation policies, maintain timely communication with other agencies present overseas, develop a plan to track overseas telework and develop a procedure to ensure collection of lessons learned. State agreed with five of the recom- mendations and partially agreed with one: ensuring timely communication with interagency partners during crises. The department said it already has a mechanism to share information, the Washington Liaison Group. But since that mechanism existed during the pandemic and both GAO and State’s own COVID-19 Interim Review iden- tified problems with interagency communication, State acknowl- edged, further action is still necessary. Slow Going on Confirmations A s of this writing in early April, the Senate has confirmed 21 ambas- sadors and senior officials at the foreign affairs agencies since our last update (see the March 2022 FSJ ). Among those confirmed are five career Foreign Service ambassadors (for Honduras, Malawi, Ghana, Pakistan and Madagascar/Comoros), eight appointees from outside the Foreign Service (for Jamaica, Holy See, Germany, Portu- gal, Greece, Iraq, Finland and the U.N. T he FSJ digital archive special col- lections contain vital and fascinat- ing diplomatic history on a range of foreign policy issues and regions from the viewpoint of the foreign policy practitioner. Drawn from the pages of our magazine over the past 100-plus years, the articles gathered in the special collections trace major geopo- litical events and debates from expert and insider perspectives. These can help readers piece together the history and significance of rapidly evolving situations today. Now of heightened pertinency, the “Russia, Soviet Union and Ukraine” special collection, for exam- ple, highlights FSJ articles that date as far back as 1934, when a State Department press officer discussed the normalization of U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. This compilation from the digital archive provides nearly a century of context for the current crisis and sheds light on the roots of Kremlin irredentism. In addition to regional features, the special collections page also contains bundles of articles focused on issues such as tradecraft, dissent, diversity, reform, career and family, economic diplomacy, political appointees, human rights and many more. Site of the Month: FSJ Special Collections (afsa.org/fsj-special-collections#Russia) The appearance of a particular site or podcast is for information only and does not constitute an endorsement.