The Foreign Service Journal, September 2020

66 SEPTEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Big Problems, Big Data and More As COVID-19 spread, conditions changed quickly across the globe—new restrictions and closures were imposed by national governments, airports suspended operations and borders were tightened. The data multiplied fast, as did demands for that infor- mation by senior leadership, the interagency and posts world- wide. Effectively mobilizing resources—not to mention getting people to the right place at the right time, or just in time—hinged on the department’s ability to see the world swiftly, accurately and comprehensively. Given the global scope of the operation, CMS had to rapidly establish a worldwide process to collect and synthesize data. To do this, we collaborated with the Under Secretary for Manage- ment’s Office of Management Strategy and Solutions (M/SS) to create the COVID-19 Data Analytics Team (CDAT), which would serve as the department’s central hub for all coronavirus-related data. CMS and CDAT worked closely to help decision-makers understand where progress was made and determine where resources should be deployed next. This common operating picture ensured we could coordinate flight missions on a short timeline to meet demand. With thou- sands stuck overseas, some with serious health conditions, strik- ing a balance among posts with extraordinarily high demand and our responsibility to smaller posts was tough. Despite the chal- lenges from reduced staffing and suspended operations, embas- sies and consulates worked tirelessly with the task force to ensure all Americans who needed repatriation assistance were helped. On a daily basis, the Repatriation Task Forcemanaged the equivalent of diplomatic gymnastics—gaining flight clearances and maneuvering through locked-down borders, coordinating transport out of remote locations, and keeping track of fluid travel restric- tions—in lockstep coordinationwith officers fromaround the world. Identifying and relieving bottlenecks in the process of get- ting Americans home was a constant challenge, especially in the beginning. On one particular task force shift, department logisti- cians requested help fromU.S. commercial airlines for flights from Peru, which closed its borders with little notice. Thousands of Americans saw their return flights canceled and sought repatria- Given the global scope of the operation, CMS had to rapidly establish a worldwide process to collect and synthesize data. tion while thousands more Peruvians in the United States wished to return. Meanwhile, private citizens from both countries, along with multiple authorities within the U.S. and Peruvian govern- ments, overwhelmed commercial airlines with requests for infor- mation. The task force sought high-level department intervention to harmonize efforts toward a common solution. Better Prepared to Face Future Challenges Task forces serve as incubators of best practices and better pre- pare the State Department for future crises. For instance, from the response to H1N1 and Ebola in 2014, we learned that a pandemic response is often a long-term endeavor that requires a focused engagement that cannot be managed by people still performing their original day jobs; it must extend beyond the operational scope of a task force. In 2020 we acted on those lessons, quickly recognizing that our international response to the coronavirus would need a full-scale coordinated diplomatic, consular, sci- entific and political response and recovery. CMS proposed and established the Coronavirus Global Response Coordination Unit as a standalone office responsible for the department’s long-term policy and COVID-19 coordination efforts. As State’s institutional repository of crisis practices, CMS, part- nering withM/SS, has already begun convening stakeholders across the building, our embassies and consulates, and the interagency to identify which innovations, systems and approaches pioneered during the COVID-19 response can be carried into the future. Task forces also build expertise and relationships. Before 2020, many diplomats may never have directly confronted or responded to a crisis in their respective countries, nor had so much of Washington ever collaborated so widely and extensively at the same time. As the department’s crisis management experts, we’ve witnessed the transformative impact of that. Now, more than ever before, newmuscle memory has been formed, shared and spread globally across dozens of bureaus, offices and posts. The relationships built, tested and reinforced over the past several months within the department, through the interagency, across Capitol Hill and among hundreds of partners and governments, will benefit the American people for generations. Those of us in CMS know the department learns invaluable lessons from each crisis we face. We emerge stronger, better pre- pared and more ready. Responding to the inevitable crises that will emerge over the next year and decade will require not only everything we’ve learned so far, but more. We know our work over the last year, and the 44 years before it, has helped ensure that the department can meet the challenges of tomorrow. We can all be proud of that. n