The Foreign Service Journal, December 2022

28 DECEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AWP: Well, the accomplishments were few and far between. NEA was mostly crisis management in the wake of the War on Terror and the Arab Spring, which had caused widespread unrest throughout the Middle East. Much of the bureau’s time was spent mitigating the effects of the civil war in Syria, the civil war in Yemen, and the spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). ON RISK MANAGEMENT FSJ: In your 2019 article “We Have to Be There” you argued: “We can’t prevent conflicts, export our products, protect our citizens, or improve human rights if we aren’t there. Staying safe cannot be our highest priority. Our highest priority must be to advance the interests of the United States with a knowledge- able, aggressive, and consistent presence overseas.” As part of his modernization effort, Secretary Antony Blinken says he wants to prioritize risk management (as opposed to risk avoidance). Do you think the State Department has made progress in this area since you wrote that? What remains to be done? AWP: I know there has been a lot of debate about getting our people back into the field, but progress has been slow. U.S. embassies for Yemen and Libya are still located in third coun- tries; the American consulate in Basra is still closed. Embassies in the Horn of Africa were drawn down because of regional con- flicts. Kyiv was reopened with a limited staff under considerable congressional and public pressure. If anything, COVID-19 aggra- vated our withdrawal from the world as staffing was reduced. Now it takes 857 days to get a tourist visa in Bogotá, arguably one of our closest allies, with predictable impacts on business and tourism. So we are not only not getting our people out to talk to foreigners but also not facilitating routine tourism and business travel, as well. ON THE PROFESSION FSJ: When did you first join AFSA? AWP: I joined in 1981. I was on the Governing Board for a while in the mid-1990s. FSJ: How can AFSA provide the most value? AWP: AFSA has been instrumental in securing rights and ben- efits for the Foreign Service in Congress and in the State Depart- ment. It provides a venue to address personnel changes, reform, and issues of fairness, like raising money to cover legal fees for members. AFSA’s attorneys provide important balance in the sys- temwhen they assist employees with grievances or disputes. Ambassador Anne Patterson sits with Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf after presenting credentials, July 31, 2007. COURTESYOFANNEPATTERSON REUTERS/ALAMY Ambassador to Pakistan Patterson answers questions from the press during a meeting with former prime minister and then– opposition leader Benazir Bhutto at her residence in Karachi, Nov. 19, 2007.