16 DECEMBER 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL he was considered the author of the president’s “pivot to Asia” strategy. He is chairman and CEO of The Asia Group, which he founded in 2013, and a co-founder of the Center for a New American Security, a think tank launched in 2007. If confirmed, he will replace Victoria Nuland, who has been Acting Deputy Secretary since the retirement of Wendy Sherman in July 2023. Nonemergency Personnel Leave Iraq On Oct. 20, the State Department ordered all nonemergency personnel and family members to depart from the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil. The Iraq Travel Advisory was updated to reflect this status, stating: “Do not travel to Iraq due to terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, and Mission Iraq’s limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens.” The change was made after multiple drone attacks on U.S. military forces in Iraq and Syria on Oct. 18 injured at least 20 U.S. servicemembers. An American Olson also confessed that during his tenure as the U.S. consul general in Dubai, he did not report that the emir of Dubai had gifted his mother-in-law $60,000 of jewelry. And he told FBI agents that while serving in Pakistan, he asked a Pakistani American businessman to pay $25,000 to his mistress, whom he later married, so she could attend graduate school in New York. In court Olson said of his illegal activities: “I did step over the line. It was a mistake.” Campbell Is New Pick for Deputy Job On Nov. 1, President Biden announced his nomination of Kurt M. Campbell for the post of Deputy Secretary of State. Campbell currently serves as White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs at the National Security Council. During the Obama administration, he was assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 2009 to 2013, where AFSPA AFSPA.org/fsbp AFSPA.org/dental Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program www.Fepblue.org/covered Clements Worldwide Clements.com/fsj FEDS Protection FedsProtection.com Property Specialists, Inc. PropertySpecialistsinc.com Promax Management PromaxManagement.com Richey Property Management RicheyPM.com/foreignservice State Department Federal Credit Union SDFCU.com Windecker Financial Planning, LLC. www.WindeckerFP.com WJD Management WJDpm.com It Doesn’t Make Sense When I say to people in New Hampshire, “One person can hold up all of those [nominations],” they say, “You guys are crazy, why do you allow that to happen?” And I can’t explain that. It doesn’t make sense. —Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) speaking to Andrew Desiderio at Punchbowl News on Oct. 18. No Substitute for an Ambassador The urgency to confirm this highly qualified nominee [Jack Lew] has never been greater. Israel is at war, and the United States needs an experienced, Senate-confirmed ambassador on the ground working hand in hand with our Israeli partners. The U.S. team at Mission Israel is the best in the field, but there is no substitute for a Senate-confirmed ambassador. —Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement at the SFRC hearing on Oct. 25. HEARD ON THE HILL JOSH
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