Neither Fish Nor Fowl, but Not Toast AFSA has represented the Foreign Service for more than 100 years. Since the 1970s, we have been both a union and a professional association, a comfortable role appreciated by our members in multiple agencies. Part of that comfort stems from so many Governing Board members over the years having been in senior management positions—ambassadors, assistant and deputy assistant secretaries (DAS), office directors, counselors, and heads of embassy divisions—before volunteering to serve as AFSA leaders. From my own experience as a DAS and as acting Director General, working with AFSA at that time on promotion precepts and other interests through many vectors. Our Office of General Counsel is not only litigating cases but also working through other avenues to combat unfair labor practices and executive actions in contravention of the Foreign Service Act. Our communications team does a fabulous job of educating the public about the importance of our work. AFSA President John Dinkelman and other Governing Board members have made numerous appearances in the press, further proliferating this message. And you, our alumni, have done a great job with opeds and networking to spread the word even further. As alumni and retirees, you help us through your messaging and interaction. RETIREE VP VOICE | BY JOHN O’KEEFE AFSA NEWS Contact: okeefe@afsa.org policies affecting the Foreign Service provided useful ideas to effectuate our work and ensure fairness in our treatment of colleagues. The current administration is attempting to undermine that deeply productive relationship at the State Department. We remain both the professional organization and the union for other foreign affairs agencies and continue to work constructively with their leadership, with some exceptions. We are also challenging the change in status at State and elsewhere through multiple court cases. Despite the hostility directed at our union by some senior leaders in the department, we continue to stand up for our members’ When our legislative director visits members of Congress, legislative staff, and others on the Hill, the engine of information has an effect. Members of Congress learn from us: We are deeply nonpartisan. Our work and our mission are to look after U.S. interests, help Americans in trouble abroad, and assist our businesses in foreign markets. So our success on the Hill in ensuring your benefits are not reduced depends on both sides of the aisle seeing the Foreign Service as it is—deeply invested in our country’s welfare, often at personal risk to us and our families. Please keep up your good work in letting your communities know of the Foreign Service’s sacrifices, work, and commitment to the United States. n 64 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL State VP Continued from page 62 of the department and the Foreign Service as they are now—the bad and the good. Without a complete record of where we’ve landed, it will be difficult to restore and reimagine the department when the opportunity comes. In the meantime, I will take heart knowing the seriousness with which each of you honors your oath—an oath to the U.S. Constitution rather than to any one president. As for me, I will keep working from the outside (and through AFSA) to protect and defend the nonpartisan, meritocratic Foreign Service that all Americans deserve. n American—and this isn’t just rhetoric. In one of the crueler turns, colleagues who devoted much of their careers to resettling refugees of every race, ethnicity, and religion now find themselves allowed to help, in practice, only one community: white Afrikaners. What message does the department send to its many first- and second-generation American employees when it establishes an “Office of Remigration”? Are we included in the call to go back to where we’ve come from? What does that say to the thousands of locally employed staff who serve alongside us around the world, some of whom hope one day to immigrate to the United States? When you couple the white nationalist rhetoric with the elimination of DEIA and the end of employee affinity groups, it feels an awful lot like we’ve gone back decades, in less than two years, from a State Department that welcomed all its employees to one that values white people only. While I, like many others lately, have left the department, I recognize that most of you reading this will stay, for a variety of reasons. Some of you must. Some of you want to continue nobly serving the American people. And some of you welcome the department’s new direction. Whatever your reasons, one thing I’ve observed over the past year is that many of us, myself included, have become compartmentalized. When things are this chaotic, it’s natural to keep your head down and focus on what’s within your own orbit. As we move forward as a Foreign Service community, I encourage everyone to step back and see the full picture
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