The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2017 19 also of the men and women in uniform and throughout our intelligence agencies who have seen firsthand the indispens- able role the U.S. Agency for International Development and other development agencies play in preventing and mitigat- ing crisis and conflict. What the Moment Demands of Us We need to guard against those illu- sions. We shouldn’t want to find our- selves a few years down the road with hollow institutions. Now is not the time to hunker down and wait for the world’s troubles to pass. We can either try to shape an international landscape that addresses the ills upending societies and regions and protects our values and interests, or watch as it is shaped for us by other powers and other players with starkly different visions for the century unfolding before us. Now more than ever, we need Ameri- can diplomacy to open markets, expand exports overseas and ensure a level and high-quality playing field for American companies. We need to enhance—not roll back—cooperation to combat terror- ists, reduce nuclear weapons and prevent their proliferation, and ease the eco- nomic troubles and unresolved conflicts on which violent extremists feed. Now more than ever, we need Ameri- can diplomacy to support the rule of law and advance a wider agenda of better global health, better opportunities for women, better prospects for food and water security, and better possibilities for dealing effectively with climate and energy challenges. Now more than ever, we need American diplomacy to tend partner- ships, alliances and coalitions. They are what set us apart from lonelier powers like China and Russia. We need to help write new rules of the road to maximize the promise of technological innovation while mitigating its risks. And we need to pursue tough-minded engagement with our adversaries—a mark of American strength and confidence, not weakness. Now more than ever, we need to recruit and invest in the talent and patriotism of young Americans eager for the opportunity to serve their country as diplomats and development profes- sionals. Turning them away today will prove to be a devastating self-inflicted wound from which it will take decades to recover. And now more than ever, all of us have a role to play in making the case for American diplomacy—not just to admire the problem or carp from the sidelines, or worse yet, as I already find myself doing, boring those still laboring in the depart- ment with stories of how things worked when giants walked the earth. We need to be a source of ideas and initiative and encouragement, and sometimes honest concerns, as well as active and committed advocates for the profession and the department to which we and our families dedicated so much of our lives. I am often reminded these days of Winston Churchill’s saying that the thing he liked best about Americans was that they always did the right thing in the end—they just liked to exhaust all the alternatives first. While I worry a lot that we will spend inordinate amounts of time over the next few years exhausting all the alternatives, I remain hopeful that we can still get this right, and still ensure the priority for American diplomacy that our country needs, that this moment in history requires. And I will always remain deeply proud to have shared with all of you the remarkable experience of being an American diplomat. n