THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 19 The fact that for the first time since the 19th century, the administration had not (as of early July) nominated a single career Foreign Service officer for an ambassadorship or assistant secretary position speaks volumes about the disrespect for and disregard of our career expertise and experience. This is an unprecedented development in the 101-year history of the modern Foreign Service and offers a pessimistic perspective for Foreign Service career development in coming years. Further, the proposed surge in defense spending, combined with the biggest proportional cuts in spending on diplomacy and development in our nation’s modern history, makes clear where the priorities lie. 5. We won’t soon recover from the devastation of the past six months, and further devastation lies ahead. Mid-level and senior expertise cannot easily be replaced and reconstituted. We can hope that a future president might ask Congress for the authority to bring back career employees who left on good terms and who want to return, but in real life, people move on. The number of those who might want to return is likely to be small. 6. We will not easily recover from the politicization of our nonpartisan, apolitical career Foreign Service. Members of Trump’s inner circle say that the Foreign Service is a hotbed of far-left radicals who hate their country and seek to undermine our elected leaders, but we know this is false. I never once saw a colleague try to undermine or fail to carry out a president’s policy instructions in my 38-plus years in the Service. Not once. The Way Forward All that said, it is incumbent on all of us to do what we can to prevent further destruction and to start thinking now about how we can repair the damage and reconstitute our Service in the future. USAID is never coming back, but development assistance must. The Foreign Service will not soon resemble what it was a mere six months ago; but we know that our country needs diplomacy and needs diplomatic expertise, experience, and talent. And that is what the U.S. Foreign Service has to offer. It is not incumbent on any of us to try to save our country from its elected leadership. Nor is any one of us responsible for the policies established by our leaders. It is a very personal decision whether to stay or to leave, but I would urge my active-duty colleagues to stay if they feel they can do so. The next president is going to need the Foreign Service, and it will be a huge disadvantage if even more of our best talent vanishes ahead of the next election. That said, anyone who is confronted by what they view as an illegal or immoral order must decide whether to carry it out. In the past, it was easy to request reassignment, but that may no longer be an option for most members of the Foreign Service in the current climate. The choice may be stark. It’s a lot easier for someone who already has qualified for full retirement benefits to decide to leave than it would be for someone with less than 20 years of service. At the end of the day, it has to be an individual decision: No one should tell friends and colleagues how to navigate this scary and difficult time. I hope that those who want to stay will be able to stay, RIFs notwithstanding. But I also have enormous respect for those who decide they cannot. Finally, in unity there is strength. If anyone was skeptical about the need for AFSA and for union representation in January, I hope that few are today. AFSA has spoken out forcefully and has won battles that individual employees could not possibly fight. This includes retired members of the Foreign Service as well. Membership is voluntary, but now more than ever active-duty and retired members of the Service need to stick together on the long road ahead. Retired members of the Foreign Service can, of course, choose to remain aloof from the current crisis, but I would argue that in doing so, they are failing to respond to the destruction of their life’s work. Our retired colleagues are free to speak and act in so many ways denied to active-duty employees. I hope more retired members of the Foreign Service will join efforts to save our Service, save our colleagues’ jobs, and save American diplomacy. Unwarranted optimism is not helpful in the current crises that have befallen the Foreign Service and our country generally. But I believe strongly that all is not lost. We must fight to preserve enough of the Foreign Service to enable it to be rebuilt and revived in the (hopefully not too distant) future. Let’s not sugarcoat the bitter realities we face today, but do not let that keep you from fighting for the Service we love, the profession we chose, and the country we have all willingly served with honor and for which many of our colleagues have died. n Speaking Out is the Journal’s opinion forum, a place for lively discussion of issues affecting the U.S. Foreign Service and American diplomacy. The views expressed are those of the author; their publication here does not imply endorsement by the American Foreign Service Association. Responses are welcome; send them to journal@afsa.org.
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