The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

18 MAY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Women of Courage Award to Women and Girls of Iran A t a March 8 ceremony honoring 2023 Women of Courage Award recipients, a new award—the Madeleine K. Albright Honorary Group Award—was given to “the women and girl protes- tors of Iran” for their grassroots pro- tests across their country, which were inspired by the brutal killing of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in police custody in Tehran on Sept. 16, 2022. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield presented the award, saying: “Secretary Albright showed so many women, including myself, how to lead with moral clarity and with courage. Her legacy lives on in those still fighting for gender equality and universal human rights. It is fitting public diplomacy section had started using ChatGPT to help locally employed staff with their grammar, spelling, and writing style, reducing the number of hours needed to edit final unclassified products. The cable’s author calls ChatGPT an “indispensable asset” and says the understaffed political/economic section may soon begin using it, as well. A State Department spokesperson told Politico : “We want to go much further in our use of technology, innova- tion, and data to drive foreign policy and solve resource challenges. We encourage our embassies to experiment with using different technologies to best reach their audiences.” Road Deaths a Global “Pandemic,” U.N. Says T he United Nations secretary-gen- eral’s special envoy for road safety visited Washington, D.C., in March to encourage the United States to lead the way in advocating for and investing in road safety. Special Envoy Jean Todt told The Washington Post that 1.3 million people a year die on the world’s roads and another 50 million are injured, calling the problem a “pandemic.” The U.S. road fatality rate is among the highest in the developed world, but Todt says the solu- tion is “pretty simple”: better education and law enforcement, improved road and vehicle quality, and post-crash care. In 2022 alone, three Foreign Service members died while walking or cycling on Washington-area roads: Foreign Ser- vice Officer Shawn O’Donnell, former FSO Timothy Fingarson, and FSO Sarah Langenkamp. (Note: See AFSA President Eric Rubin’s April 2023 FSJ column on raising road safety as a major Foreign Service and AFSA concern.) Foreign Service Quality I want to add my thanks to all the panelists for your ser- vice to our great nation. And I also want to thank your families, as well, because I know they serve alongside you as you’re serving our country, and especially to our members of the Foreign Service. Thank you. I was gov- ernor of Nebraska; I had the opportunity to lead about two trade missions a year around the world. And I’ve got to tell you, every time I was in an embassy, I was very impressed with the quality of people who are represent- ing our country overseas. —Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), SFRC nominations hearing, March 1, 2023. Security Assistance and Human Rights For years the Pentagon has encroached upon the State Department’s vital and statutory role in security assistance, which is a critical tool of foreign policy, which we’ve seen most recently leveraged in Ukraine. This has increasingly untethered our assistance from human rights and American values, which I believe damages our national security interests. —Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), SFRC review of Fiscal Year 2024 State Department budget hearing, March 23, 2023. HEARD ON THE HILL that this award recognizes not just one woman, but the bravery, the fortitude, and collaboration of a whole move- ment.” Other award winners hail from Afghanistan, Argentina, Central African Republic, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Jor- dan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Poland, and Ukraine. ChatGPT Comes to Embassy Conakry C hatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have been all over the news recently—and at least one public diplomacy section is already putting the new tools to use in the office. On March 13, Embassy Conakry sent an unclassified cable that was obtained by Politico , stating that the embassy’s