The Foreign Service Journal, December 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2018 83 Working in Sri Lanka to Increase U.S. National Security THE MARK PALMER AWARD FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF DEMOCRACY KELLY ANNE BI LL INGSLEY AFSA NEWS AFSA EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE AWARDS too passive; she outlined a series of steps to diminish Chinese influence and ensure U.S. strategic interests. Her reporting was read in mis- sions around the world and in Washington, launching an interagency effort to identify levers of influence that could combat the threat of Chi- nese expansion in the Indian Ocean. Ms. Billingsley also shep- herded negotiations with the Sri Lankan government on a 2015 resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council calling for transitional justice for human rights abuses that occurred during Sri Lanka’s civil war and a 2017 renewal of that resolution. Ms. Billingsley oversaw the design and implementation strategy for the first resolu- tion. She advised the U.S. ambassador on language in the resolution’s text, worked with contacts to ensure that they were moving forward strategically, and directed her section to produce thorough reporting on government and public reactions. The resolu- tion passed, resulting in Sri Lankan government commit- ments to accountability and national reconciliation. When the resolution was due to expire with many key commitments still unfin- ished, prospects for a new resolution were dim: Tamil activists called for a new, Kelly Anne Billingsley receives the 2018 Mark Palmer Award for her work to push back on China’s encroachment on Sri Lankan democracy and sovereignty, while also promoting U.S. political objectives with the post-war Sri Lankan government on national reconciliation, human rights, protection of democratic institutions and account- ability for past human rights abuses. As political counselor at Embassy Colombo, Ms. Bill- ingsley understood the need to challenge China’s plans in Sri Lanka. She sounded alarms through high-impact reporting to Washington and engaged the embassy’s network to bolster concern domestically. Ms. Billingsley authored a series of cables explaining how China sought to subvert democratic freedoms by backing the repressive for- mer dictatorship, ensnaring Sri Lanka in debt bondage by financing poorly conceived infrastructure projects and, in the case of the country’s strategic southern port, offering to buy out the proj- ect when Sri Lanka couldn’t make the payments. Nearly two years before the new U.S. National Secu- rity Strategy articulated this challenge, Ms. Billingsley argued that U.S. policy was more punitive resolution, while Sinhalese nationalists wanted no resolution at all. Ms. Billingsley persuaded the new U.S. administration to sponsor a resolution reaf- firming the 2015 commit- ments. She worked to draft acceptable language and negotiated the 2017 resolu- tion’s text with senior Sri Lankan officials. She traveled to Geneva to gain the support of Tamil diaspora groups, human rights organizations and country delegations. The resolution was co- sponsored by Sri Lanka, the United States and others, passed by consensus in the UNHRC, and was accepted by nearly all interest groups. It will help move Sri Lanka beyond its ethnic divisions into a just, peaceful and reconciled society—the pre- dominant U.S. foreign policy goal in Sri Lanka. Ms. Billingsley is a native of Birmingham, Alabama, and a graduate of the University of Florida and the London School of Economics, where she earned a master’s degree in international relations. She joined the Foreign Service in 2003 and has served in Frankfurt, Dakar, Moscow and Colombo. She has also served as Iraq desk officer, special assistant for Iraq transition, and as Sri Lanka and Maldives desk officer. Ms. Billingsley is currently a student at the National Defense University’s Dwight D. Eisenhower School. She is married to Financial Management Officer Steven Bennett and has three chil- dren. n Kelly Anne Billingsley, third from right, serving as control officer for a congressional delegation led by Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) in February 2017. COURTESYOFKELLYANNEBILLINGSLEY