No. 28 of 108
July 11, 2025
1,300 State Department folx received a Reduction in Force (RIF) notice in their email. That means they’re fired. They are the first tranche of about 3,000 expected to be let go. This is in addition to a reduction of about twenty percent of the diplomatic workforce in the last six months. Functions, initiatives, and operations are also being eliminated. Changes are intended to “focus on the Trump administration’s priorities, such as reducing immigration to the U.S. and promoting the administration’s worldview, with less emphasis on protecting and promoting human rights across the globe.” Removing immigrants from the U.S. continues across the U.S., as does opposition, fallout, and shifts in public opinion.
Diplomacy is called soft power. Perhaps that is why folx who are obsessed with power have a disdain for it… because it is called soft. If we are unable to understand one another, how might we talk with one another? If we are unable to talk with one another – with discernment and purpose – how are we to mutually re-solve the great problems and conflicts? Perhaps that’s the point, if you disdain “soft”. Less intention of mutuality, re-solving, or mutual re-solving, and more intention on forcefully overcoming. Diplomacy in the form of departments, officers, and ministers is structurally weakening across the globe. If soft power is to make a comeback, it will need to be with individuals and communities, small and vastly mighty. It begins with admitting, understanding, embracing our present and future lives as intertwined.
No. 28 of 108