The Foreign Service Journal - November 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2017 17 Visa Services Suspended in Turkey At the beginning of October, the United States and Turkey suspended all non-immigrant visa services for travel between the two countries, effectively blocking U.S. citizens from traveling to Turkey, and vice versa. More than 37,000 U.S. nationals traveled to Turkey in 2016. “Recent events have forced the United States government to reassess the commitment of the government of Turkey to the security of the U.S. mis- sion and personnel,” said a statement released by U.S. Embassy Ankara. The recent row appears to stem from the arrest in Istanbul of a locally employed (LE) staff member there who was alleged to have links to U.S.-based opposition cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who is facing extradition from the United States for alleged crimes related to the failed coup in Turkey in July 2016.The U.S. consulate in Istanbul said it was “deeply disturbed” by the employee’s arrest, the second U.S. government employee to be arrested in Turkey this year. Diplomatic ties between the United States and Turkey were already fraught, hitting a low point in May with an incident involving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail assaulting protestors outside the Turk- ish ambassador’s residence in Wash- ington, D.C., sending nine people to the hospital. Survey Finds Americans Disagree with President on Foreign Policy On Oct. 5, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released the results of a survey showing that the majority of Americans disagree with the direction the president is taking on foreign policy. The 2017 Chicago Council Survey, conducted roughly six months into the Trump administration, showed that the administration’s criticism of trade deals and calls to withhold U.S. security guarantees from allies unless they pay for our support only appeal to a small group of Trump supporters, defined by the survey as those Americans with a “very favorable view” of the president. “Our survey finds most Americans favor an active U.S. role in the world, supporting trade, staying in inter- national agreements and standing steadfastly behind U.S. alliance commit- ments,” said Ivo H. Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. About 2,000 Americans were inter- viewed for the survey, which found that most people, with the exception of the president’s core supporters, prefer “the type of foreign policy that has been typical of U.S. administrations, be they Republican or Democrat, since World War II.” Participants rated maintaining exist- ing alliances as the most effective for- eign policy tool, with 49 percent saying such alliances are “very effective.” The survey also found that Ameri- cans overwhelmingly support interna- tional trade, with a record 78 percent saying that international trade is good for U.S. consumers, 72 percent agreeing that it is good for the U.S. economy and 57 percent saying trade is good “for job creation.” Sixty-two percent of Americans continue to favor U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, down from 71 percent in the 2016 survey. The analysis in the report is based on data conducted by GfK Custom