Overview
- The administration ordered more than two dozen career Foreign Service ambassadors home from posts across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America in recent days.
- AFSA called the mass recall unprecedented in the modern Foreign Service and described abrupt phone notifications to diplomats as highly irregular.
- A senior State Department official characterized the recalls as a standard process, while the department has not outlined a clear plan for replacements.
- The senators said the removals push vacant ambassadorial posts to well over 100, cautioning that reduced senior presence could advantage China and Russia in key regions such as the Indo-Pacific, Africa, the Balkans and Latin America.
- The appeal comes after a broader State Department shake-up this year, including a Trump-directed foreign service revamp and workforce cuts exceeding 11 percent following more than 1,300 dismissals.