THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 15 It is not easy always ... for an American to live and to work abroad—in a time when our motives are frequently distrusted and misunderstood, when our best-meant actions are condemned, and when even our national honesty is so unjustly attacked. It is in such times that we must show ourselves calm and considered. —George S. Messersmith, consul general, Antwerp, Thanksgiving Day address, November 26, 1925, in the November 1926 edition of the American Foreign Service Journal. Podcast of the Month: America at 250: Due Diligence The appearance of a particular site or podcast is for information only and does not constitute an endorsement. A new, limited-run radio show and podcast launched in June with a stated goal of examining important constitutional issues in historical context while avoiding the divisive tone common to political talk radio. America @ 250: Due Diligence is co-hosted by Steven L. Herman, executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation at the University of Mississippi, a former VOA White House bureau chief, and AFSA Governing Board representative, and Bill Bernardoni, an Illinois-based radio producer and former campaign manager and political consultant. The weekly, hour-long program features guests from across the political spectrum and airs on roughly 50 AM and FM stations. A weekly extended version is available on podcast platforms. The program runs through the end of the nation’s semiquincentennial year. Serving Abroad 100 Years Ago Foreign Service officers to ambassadorial positions, political nominees continue to dominate the overall picture. AFSA remains concerned that the balance between career and political appointments is inconsistent with both the spirit and intent of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, which states that “positions as chief of mission should normally be accorded to career members of the Service, though circumstances will warrant appointments from time to time of qualified individuals who are not career members of the Service.” As quoted in an August 6 Washington Post story, AFSA President John Dinkelman said of the lopsided focus on political appointees: “There’s a place for the benefactor on the hospital board. The problem comes when the benefactors outnumber the surgeons in the operating room.” AFSA will continue to monitor nominations, confirmations, vacancies, and the career-versus-political ratio as the administration’s ambassadorial appointments proceed. State Department Releases 2026-2030 Strategic Plan The State Department has released its Agency Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030, laying out six overarching goals under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “America First” framework. The document, dated to the current administration’s second term, replaces the department’s prior strategic planning approach with one centered on sovereignty, hemispheric primacy, and economic leverage. In his foreword, Rubio writes that the plan marks a “rapid return to a pragmatic diplomacy” after what he calls 35 years of a bipartisan consensus that elevated multilateralism and the rules-based order above U.S. national interests. Rubio argues that domestic strength must come first and frames border security and reindustrialization as prerequisites for a “powerful global presence” abroad. The plan’s six goals range widely. Goal 1, U.S. National Sovereignty, commits the department to tightened visa and immigration screening, expanded use of the “public charge” ineligibility standard, and pushback against international bodies, including a reduced U.S. role at the United Nations and opposition to its 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 2 introduces what the document calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” an expansion of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine aimed at countering and reversing competitors’ influence in the Western Hemisphere, strengthening strategic partnerships therein, and suppressing narco-terrorist gangs and cartels, which the plan designates foreign terrorist organizations.
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