The United States Foreign Service, now in its 102^nd year, represents America at more than 270 U.S. embassies, consulates, and other missions around the world. It is the only U.S. civilian government entity that is globally deployed with an enduring physical presence in almost every country in the world, creating an enormous competitive advantage for America and Americans from all walks of life. On this Foreign Service Day, I’d like to reflect on the lives of these thousands of career professional who chose to live and work abroad for the majority of their government service, often with their families.

My Foreign Service Family

I grew up in one such family. My father served with the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), America’s public relations arm, from 1955 to 1979 in Latin America, Europe, and Washington DC. This was the Cold War, when the United States had emerged from World War II as the leader of the free world, facing off against the USSR.  As a representative of one of the twelve original member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, my father’s mission was to “win hearts and minds for democracy.” 

The privilege of the assignment came with sacrifices. When you serve at the pleasure of the government, you go where you are needed and when you are asked. We lived thousands of miles from family and friends. My mother packed and unpacked home ten times in my father’s career. My sister and I knew no home town. Like many raised in this peripatetic life, I identify as a Third Culture Kid, a blend of my parents’ home country and the vestiges of Venezuela, Italy, Colombia, and Spain. 

Our Foreign Service life wasn’t without risk. A Venezuelan dictator flew into exile over our house in Caracas in 1958 while a revolution broke out. Eighteen sticks of dynamite were discovered outside my father’s office in the Bogotá Embassy in 1965. My family’s home address in Rome was found to be in the possession of the Red Brigade terrorist group in 1975.

The Increased Risks for Today’s Foreign Service Families

The risks have continued to grow for today’s Foreign Service families. The ease with which my sister and I played in our Colombian neighborhood has been overcome by security measures that by and large cordon off Embassy families in guarded compounds.

The increased danger in Foreign Service assignments more often splits families, with the spouse and children living in a separate county from the diplomat for the duration. More frequent global tensions have necessitated emergency evacuations, the most recent of which was in the Middle East when America attacked Iran. I couldn’t help but think of my own family during those dangerous days.

A Diminished American Diplomatic Presence Abroad

President Trump’s go-it-alone chaos in the Iran war has thrust the United States and its representatives into a dangerously isolated position. Far from being the help he promised to the Iranian protesters, Trump’s genocidal threats have made our country reviled while also strengthening the repressive regime’s hold over Iran. He has zero interest in “winning hearts and minds for democracy.” 

Trump’s disparaging of our NATO allies over their understandable reluctance to help open the Strait of Hormuz—a problem he alone created by attacking Iran without notifying our allies, and without the support of Congress or of the American electorate—has frayed the Alliance to a breaking point. His continued obsession over controlling Greenland only adds fuel to the fire. 

The shuttering of the US Agency for International Development last year removed critical funding of humanitarian aid for millions in the developing world, undermining global stability and eroding America’s “soft power.”

With its layoff of more than 1,300 State Department employees in 2025, the Trump administration decimated the very bench strength that we now need to broker peace negotiations in the Middle East and to reassure countries around the globe that we can still be counted on as a trusted ally. 

All of which makes the work of today’s diplomatic community more critical than ever on this Foreign Service Day.