44 OCTOBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The Peace Corps is coming back to the region as well. Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga again have Peace Corps volunteers; Vanuatu will have volunteers later this year, and Palau will see their return in 2025. USAID is also expanding its presence across the region, as are other U.S. agencies and departments. These are important steps. Making Rhetoric Real It is important to acknowledge, however, that while the COFA agreements are a huge step forward, many of the other announcements and plans for increasing U.S. engagement in the Pacific Islands remain contingent on additional funding. As Bill Burns wrote in the March/April 2024 edition of Foreign Affairs: “Priorities aren’t real unless budgets reflect them.” Leaders in the Pacific have observed that despite pledges of more than $8 billion in U.S. assistance since 2022, much of this funding has still not arrived in the region. As I have written elsewhere, U.S. overpromising and underdelivering is a real risk to American credibility in the Pacific. Our newly announced embassies in the region, for now at least and for the foreseeable future, are not full-service posts. For example, these tiny posts, staffed with one or two officers on temporary duty, are not equipped currently to provide the consular services that are so important to Americans and host- country nationals alike in these distant and remote locations. Rather, they are small, micro posts, similar to “Presence Posts” that were established in other parts of the world in past years. Filling these few positions has proven difficult because these jobs have not been seen (with some justification) as career enhancing, even if they can be career enriching. While these posts are not high threat in terms of the potential for terrorism or violence, this is somewhat misleading because rising crime is a concern even in the islands. A number of these countries have experienced political unrest. Further, access to health services and education and opportunities for spousal employment can be limited at the small island posts. Even our embassies in the Pacific are undersized, though they do now have more staff, interagency presence in the country teams, and additional new resources. Still, the discrepancies with larger U.S. missions in the IndoPacific can add to the perception that the Pacific Islands do not matter as much to the U.S. government. These real or perceived “slights” can be significant in a region where there is competition for allegiance and to be the partner of choice. The islands are located far from Washington, but they follow closely what is happening in our government. They pay attention to budget discussions and inside-the-Beltway policy machinations and issues like appointments and staffing charts. These governments have noticed that while there used to be a director at the National Security Council solely responsible for Oceania, At the ribbon cutting ceremony for U.S. Embassy Koror’s solar energy project on April 12, 2022, from left: U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Ambassador John Hennessey-Niland, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Secretary John Kerry, Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr., and Paramount Chief Reklai Raphael Bao Ngirmang. U.S. EMBASSY KOROR
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