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Larry Butler of Thomaston is a former U.S. ambassador.
Russia is prevailing against Ukraine. Iran and Israel are essentially in open war threatening a wider conflict in the Middle East. Israel continues its attacks on Gaza, with the civilian casualty count rising while innocents starve. Sudan is wracked by civil war. Russian soldiers recently landed in Niger, displacing American counter terrorism forces. Meanwhile in the Pacific, the United States works with Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and other nations to deter and contain China from attacking Taiwan and North Korea from attacking the south.
While seemingly distant, these developments directly affect us. But, we have a tool that might prevent or manage all that conflict on the other side of two oceans: America’s diplomats, the modern U.S. Foreign Service, which turns 100 on May 24.
16,000 Americans are currently serving in nearly every country on Earth. Your fellow citizens are negotiating and moderating tensions that can turn deadly. They are aiding fellow citizens in trouble abroad, helping Maine businesses find new export markets, protecting our lobster exports to Europe from trade barriers (really!), and serving as frontline aid workers, public health officials, agricultural experts, diplomatic security/law enforcement agents, economists, journalists and more.
For 40 years I was one of them. I joined the Foreign Service from Hampden, came back to Maine on home leave regularly, and finally ended up back here in retirement. When here on vacation, I found it a challenge to explain what I did or who I worked for. One frigid January day on a ski lift near Moosehead, the guy I was huddled with against the wind tried to make conversation, asking where I worked. “State Department,” said I. “How’s Augusta?” he asked. Fine, said I, smart enough not to try to explain the difference between Maine’s Secretary of State and my boss in Washington.
I served in 12 countries, some nice (Ireland!), some in war zones (Iraq), and had the honor of being appointed ambassador (North Macedonia). While life overseas can be glamorous (have you watched “The Diplomat?”), we have more hardship and dangerous postings than “cushy” ones. My most memorable job was in Iraq as the foreign policy advisor to the U.S. commander in Iraq. I helped U.S. troops return home in 2011 and mediated disputes between that country’s Kurdish population and Baghdad. My best job was working with Sen. George Mitchell when I was President Bill Clinton’s staff lead for the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. My most rewarding post was in Finland where I helped sell F-18 fighter jets (creating jobs at home) to the future NATO member.
Today our Foreign Service confronts the challenges of competition with China (including figuring out how to cut off the crime groups operating illegal marijuana grow houses here) and Russia – without going to war, and working to end terrorism and violence in places like Haiti and Africa while seeking to prevent conflict on the Korean peninsula. We work to cope with climate change and terrorism. All of these matter to us Mainers because they are drivers of emigration — there is a reason why so many Africans and others seek safety here. Many more will keep coming if we don’t have the resources to foster prosperity and security over there.
To do this we need help. Maine’s congressional delegation has been terrific in supporting us, but we are in trouble. The State Department has a 13 percent staffing gap and the most recent budget cut us by 6 percent. The erosion of our diplomatic capabilities hurts our ability to address current international concerns and get ahead of inevitable crises.
How does this impact Maine? Aside from working to reduce the causes forcing refugees to leave their homes, our ability to help American businesses will be diminished. This means missed opportunities for new jobs; Maine sold $2.3 billion in goods abroad in 2020 with nearly 37,000 Maine jobs linked to these exports. And tourism. Around 300,000 foreign visitors spent money in Maine in 2022. And, we are the people who issue visas to the seasonal workers who are a mainstay of our summer tourism industry.
The bottom line: diplomacy is cheaper (and more humane) than defense. As a former Secretary of Defense once said, if you cannot fund the State Department, “then I need to buy more ammunition.”
Now is not the time to retreat from the world stage. Instead, let our representatives in Washington know that this centennial year of the Foreign Service is the time to reinvest in diplomacy and fortify the alliances that underpin global stability, protect American interests abroad, promote our values, and most importantly, secure our prosperity.
