The Foreign Service Journal - December 2017

36 DECEMBER 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL always the most cost-effective tool in the national security tool- kit. Most insurgencies don’t end with a signed peace agree- ment; they just fade away. This has been the case in the Casamance. A de facto ceasefire began a few months after my arrival, and it still holds while negotiations continue. A few hundred rebels have left the fight and started the disarmament and demobilization process. Several thousand refugees have returned to their homes. Reconstruction and development aid have surged. With the Casamance burden lightened, Senegal’s highly professional military forces were able to continue their partici- pation in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa. They joined other West African countries in restoring demo- cratic governance to The Gambia after its president refused to abide by election results, and sent an Army battalion plus police forces to support the French-led operation in Mali that is blocking a threatened takeover of that country by jihadi extremist groups. It is rare to hear praise for U.S. diplomacy from the lips of a French professor, especially when it involves Francophone Africa. Thus the remarks of Prof. Jean-Claude Marut, the world’s leading academic expert on the conflict, at a 2015 semi- nar, “The Role of American Diplomacy in the Casamance Cri- sis,” were especially gratifying: “American diplomacy achieved its objective ... thanks to their mediation offer together with the appointment of a Casamance representative. …The American involvement inspired more confidence, due to the weight of American diplomacy ... it enabled the financing of the [rebel] delegations that traveled to the Rome negotiations ... [and it led to] a ceasefire that is still in place. …The Americans supported demining. They facilitated the return of refugees, and they brought The Gambia [which had protected the rebels] back into the game.” We did not restore peace to the Casamance. President Sall, the Senegalese government and the people of the region deserve credit for that. But our support was vital to the success of Senegal’s Casamance peace initiative. James R. Bullington, an FSO for 27 years, served in Vietnam, Thai- land, Burma, Chad and Benin, as well as in Washington, D.C. He was dean of the State Department Senior Seminar and served as ambassador to Burundi from 1983 to 1986. More on this project can be found in the book by Jim and his wife, Tuy-Cam, Expeditionary Diplomacy in Action: Supporting the Casamance Peace Initiative (CreateSpace, 2015). Assistance after a Severe Earthquake Mexico 2017 • By Alex Mahoney On Sept. 19, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck approximately 75 miles fromMexico City, killing more than 355 people, injuring at least 6,000 others and damaging about 44,000 buildings across the region. It was the same day that a deadly earthquake had struck the city 32 years before, and less than two weeks after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake shook the southern coast of Mexico. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance—which leads the U.S. govern- ment’s response to international disasters—immediately stood up a response team in Washington, D.C., to coordinate activities in support of the government of Mexico. At first we didn’t know if we would be responding, for one of the criteria for USAID to assist to with an international disaster is that the affected government must either request U.S. government assistance or be willing to accept it. Since 2002, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance has worked with Mexican disaster authorities to strengthen their search-and-rescue capacity. USAID supported training exer- cises for first responders, as well as for instructors, who have now trained more than 1,300 firefighters and first responders on search-and-rescue techniques. Because the Mexican government has its own robust disaster response capabilities, it seldom asks for additional assistance from the United States. However, after the Sept. 19 earthquake, in addition to mobilizing its own national resources to respond to the disaster, the government of Mexico accepted the U.S. government’s offer of assistance. Members of USAID’s elite disaster response team took part in a 24-hour effort to search a collapsed office building. PHOTOSCOURTESYOFALEXMAHONEY