The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2020 69 Retirees Spotlight Role of Diplomacy in Pandemic Response Charles Ray ■ Washington, D.C. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Foreign Service colleagues, at home and abroad, along with our Civil Service colleagues and foreign national staff, have demonstrated their value to U.S. national security time and time again. Retired members of the Foreign Service have also contributed to the effort in a number of ways, from writing op-eds to participating in symposiums to highlight what is being done now, and what needs to be done in the future to cope with such tragedies. I have been working with Professor Yonah Alexander, director of the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, on a project to highlight the role of diplomacy in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism for the past several years. When the pandemic put a crimp in face-to-face events, Prof. Alexander proposed we use our project to address the role diplomacy plays in crises of this nature. With the assistance of Professor Don Wallace, director of Georgetown University’s International Law Center, and his techni- cal staff, we organized two symposiums via Zoom. The first, “Combating Global Coronavirus: From Isolation to International Cooperation,” was held on March 26 and featured presentations by medical experts. My capstone presentation emphasized the need to increase international cooperation through diplomacy to deal with global crises, using the interna- tional response to the 2014 Ebola crisis as a model. On April 14, we held a second symposium, “Combating Global Coronavirus: A Preliminary Assessment of Past Lessons and Future Outlook.” The presentations frommedical experts included one from retired FSO Ambassador Jimmy Kolker, who served previously as assistant secretary for global affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services and chief of the HIV/ AIDS office at UNICEF in New York. [See Kolker’s article on p. 34. ] Amb. Kolker and I stressed the need for creative, visionary leadership at the highest levels of American diplomacy to work our way out of the current crisis and prepare for the next one. We highlighted the heroic efforts of our Foreign Service and Civil Ser- vice colleagues under arduous conditions, and their dedication to duty despite not always receiving the support of our senior political leadership. Just another example of what the U.S. Foreign Service, active and retired, does to protect U.S. national security interests. The symposiums can be viewed on YouTube at https://bit.ly/ IsolationCooperation and https://bit.ly/PrelimAssessments. Ambassador (ret.) Charles Ray served in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1982 to 2012, with assignments as consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, deputy chief of mission in Freetown and ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe. He also served as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for POW/missing personnel affairs and director of the Defense Depart- ment’s POW/Missing Personnel Office from 2006 to 2009. Rip Van Winkle in Islamabad Michael Nehrbass ■ Pakistan Given Pakistan’s location and population, there was never a question of whether the country would be affected by the pandemic—only a question of when. Many COVID-19 cases in Pakistan are linked to Pakistanis returning from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and Iran. Alas, at least one case stems from a diplomat. In early March of this year, after a leadership conference in Washington, D.C., I was traveling back to Islam- abad and stayed overnight in London. There, with the number of coronavirus cases on the rise, I tried to limit myself to roaming around Kensington Gardens. Inevitably, however, my desire for cask ale and Malay- sian cuisine led to my downfall. I returned to Islamabad on Friday, March 13, worried about work and our family cat, Boi, who had fallen deathly ill while I was away. I felt healthy but under pressure to get to work. International crises bring out the best in the U.S. government; USAID is no exception. Through inter- agency cooperation, USAID/Pakistan had managed to secure $1 million of health funding from supplemental COVID-19 resources and was making a case for more funding (as of early June, it was managing more than $20 million of COVID-19 response funds). U.S. Embassy Islamabad, while always very occupied, seemed exceptionally busy. Author Michael Nehrbass takes a selfie after his second COVID-19 test. MICHAELNEHRBASS