You Can’t Fire Diplomacy

Layoffs at State and trusting the pendulum to swing back

Last Friday, over 1,300 State Department employees were fired. Some of my friends were among them; others were spared. But they felt the pain all the same.

The Losses

I spent ten years at State. It shaped so much of who I am. The amazing colleague who called me to be my best self. The privilege of representing the values of my country in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The everyday people and government officials that taught me about true partnership and hubris (my own and America’s).

Watching these layoffs unfold over the last few weeks and attending a mentor’s recent early retirement has left me angry and sad. Sad for the people who’ve lost their jobs. Angry at how cruelly it was done and for what this will cost America and the world.

The Swing Back

And yet I keep returning to something I wrote in Psychology Today earlier this year, the power of Trusting the Pendulum Swing.

The flippant dismissal of people who’ve spent decades defending our national security. The absurd, illegal firing of US Institute of Peace staff this weekend. The dismantling of USAID. The disdain for the core tenets of global cooperation and diplomacy.

Yes it’s dark. But suffering is not the end of the story. This chapter is also setting the stage for the counter movement, the revival of diplomacy.

You Can’t Fire Diplomacy

I know it’s hard to see right now, especially if you’ve been directly affected. But we need to resist despair, trust in our goodness and our capacity to reinvent ourselves. The pendulum will swing back, and when it does we will need to be ready to lead, again.

Diplomacy still matters, even if those in the White House or Foggy Bottom have forgotten. They can cut jobs. They can gut institutions. But let’s not give them the power to undo the meaning of this work.

Because they definitely don’t have the power to prevent the pendulum from swinging back.

What helps you trust the pendulum these days? I’d love to hear.