The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2026

4 JULY-AUGUST 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 20 Unfinished Work: Why a Healthy Democracy Is Essential to Our Foreign Policy By Jennifer L. Davis 25 A National Security Council Out of Balance By Kelly Adams-Smith 30 When America Falls Silent: The Strategic Costs of Dismantling VOA By Elez Biberaj July-August 2026 Volume 103, No. 4 ON THE COVER: Design by Nathan Putens. 34 Are We Seeing the Reemergence of the Spoils System? By Steve Adams-Smith 38 The Invention of U.S. Diplomacy By Tom Selinger 42 The Past Is Never Past: How State Historians Tell America’s Foreign Policy Story By Lynette Evans-Tiernan and James Graham Wilson FOCUS ON THE U.S. IN THE WORLD AT 250

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=