THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 13 Talking Points offers a snapshot of recent developments affecting the Foreign Service. The items in this edition were finalized for publication on July 31, 2026. strategy, but one Ugandan lawyer told ProPublica it’s “the essence of digital colonialism.” More than a dozen African countries have signed memoranda of understanding since late 2025, including Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, though full agreement terms have largely not been made public. Zambia and Zimbabwe have pushed back on proposed terms. Zambia objected to conditions tied to access to its critical mineral reserves in exchange for HIV funding through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), while Zimbabwe withdrew from talks after the United States sought epidemiological data and biological samples without offering reciprocal access to resulting vaccines or treatments. Data privacy experts who reviewed several agreements said the terms lack standard safeguards limiting data use and retention, raising the risk that anonymized health records could later be exposed or reidentified. Kenya’s agreement, the first signed, has drawn a domestic lawsuit alleging it violates citizens’ data privacy rights; a Kenyan court has allowed implementation to proceed while the case continues. The State Department has said all data sharing complies with recipient countries’ laws and involves no personally identifiable information. Red Scare Redux Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened officials from more than 60 countries at the department on July 16 for a ministerial focused on what the administration describes as a resurgence of far-left political violence worldwide. The “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism” extends the administration’s push to apply counterterrorism tools to left-wing movements, particularly antifa, the decentralized far-left movement that was designated a domestic terrorist organization in 2025. Rubio pressed for coordinated international intelligence-sharing, describing the threat as transnational, and said additional foreign terrorist organization designations are forthcoming. The department already designated four European groups as foreign terrorist organizations in November 2025. Eleven Democratic lawmakers, in a letter sent to Rubio ahead of the summit, questioned whether the initiative’s focus on left-wing groups risked sweeping in lawful protest activity and political opponents, and called for a threat assessment they characterized as less politically driven. A department official said the ministerial’s scope reflected where officials assess the threat to be most acute. The Deep End State By Brian Aggeler
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