The Foreign Service Journal, December 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2018 31 No problem was ever solved by sitting on the sidelines and complaining. FSJ: How do you see AFSA’s role? REN: AFSA is both a professional organization and a union. Both functions are essential, but there is always going to be ten- sion between them. AFSA has done an outstanding job of push- ing for and defending a better budget in the Congress. They, and particularly AFSA President Barbara Stephenson, deserve great credit for what they have accomplished. FSJ: What would be your advice to college students and recent graduates seeking to enter the Foreign Service or government service more generally? REN: Get in. Work hard. Make a difference. America needs you. Besides, the Foreign Service, about which I can speak the most, offers the chance to do important work with some of the most intellectually impressive and interesting people you’ll ever work with. During 37 years in the Foreign Service I often went home at night with frustration about this or that decision. But never once did I go home and wonder if what I was working on mattered. There are not many careers that offer that. n Under Secretary for Political Affairs David Hale presents AFSA’s Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award to Ambassador Ron Neumann on Oct. 10. AFSA/JOAQUINSOSA