Foreign Service Nationals: The Unsung Pillars of American Foreign Policy — And the Silence That Betrays Them

For more than sixty years, since John F. Kennedy formally established USAID in 1961, the United States has built its global leadership not just through military might, but through partnership. Republican and Democratic administrations alike understood that foreign assistance was not charity — it was a strategic investment in global stability, prosperity, and America’s credibility in the world.

At the center of it all — in war zones, in failing states, in regions where democracy hangs by a thread — have been Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs).

They are not just employees of USAID; they are its foundation. They are the strategists behind America’s most successful foreign assistance programs — the architects of clean water initiatives in Africa, democracy-strengthening efforts in Latin America, and public health breakthroughs in Eastern Europe.

And yet, as the dismantling of USAID moves forward, their fate remains unspoken.

They have not yet been fired. But they will be.

Thousands of FSNs — many of whom have spent decades serving America’s foreign policy goals — will soon find themselves jobless, without protection, and without even the dignity of recognition.

For their loyalty and expertise, for the risks they have taken in hostile political environments, for the decades they have spent keeping American development efforts alive in some of the world’s most challenging regions — they will receive nothing.

Their sacrifices have been erased from the conversation.

And if the United States turns its back on them, it will not just be a moral failure. It will be a catastrophe for America’s credibility, for global stability, and for the very principles we claim to defend.

Foreign Service Nationals: America’s Most Trusted Experts Abroad

Foreign Service Nationals are not simply administrative staff. They design, manage, and oversee America’s most critical foreign assistance programs.

They operate in authoritarian regimes, fragile democracies, and conflict zones where their very affiliation with the United States places them — and their families — at risk.

• They are the watchdogs ensuring that American taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately, rather than lost to corrupt elites and authoritarian governments.
• They design programs that fight government corruption, protect election integrity, and strengthen free media — work that, in many countries, could put their lives in danger.
• They are the quiet force behind global health breakthroughs — ensuring that USAID’s HIV prevention, maternal health, and vaccine initiatives are implemented effectively and reach millions.
• Many of them were once practitioners themselves — infectious disease researchers, medical doctors, former university professors, and experts in governance and policy — before they became the designers of some of America’s most effective foreign assistance programs.
• Unlike Foreign Service Officers — who rotate every few years — FSNs provide the institutional memory and continuity that keeps American foreign aid functioning. They have been there long before American officials arrived and stayed long after they left.
• Andrew Natsios, USAID Administrator under President George W. Bush, described FSNs as “the backbone of the agency.” In a 2025 Congressional hearing, he told lawmakers that many FSNs rose to the highest levels of leadership in their home countries after working for USAID.
• The first female president of Costa Rica was a USAID FSN for ten years and earned a master’s degree through a USAID scholarship.
• •Alejandro Toledo, the first Quechua-speaking president of Peru, earned a Ph.D. at Stanford while his wife worked as a USAID FSN.
• Two former FSNs in Macedonia went on to be elected to Parliament, crediting their time at USAID for preparing them for public service.
• These are not bureaucrats. They are the quiet architects of democracy and development around the world — the very people America claims to support.

They Operate in the Most Dangerous Places — When No One Else Can

They do this despite the risks:

• In autocratic regimes, FSNs have been harassed, surveilled, and interrogated because of their work for the United States.
• In countries experiencing democratic backsliding, FSNs have been the ones pushing back against state corruption, often making themselves targets in the process.
• In failing states, FSNs have kept USAID programs running even after American officials were forced to evacuate, ensuring that development efforts continued when they were needed most.

We have seen this story before.

• When American forces left Vietnam, the South Vietnamese who had worked alongside U.S. officials were hunted, imprisoned, or forced to flee.
• When Kabul fell in 2021, Afghan interpreters and civil society workers who had spent years risking their lives for the promise of a better future were left scrambling for a way out.
• The Foreign Service Nationals of USAID are watching in silence, knowing that they could be next.

A Humanitarian Crisis That Washington Refuses to Discuss

Some will argue that the U.S. government will simply follow the labor laws of each country as FSNs are terminated.

That is not good enough.

USAID has not just operated in stable, democratic countries with strong labor protections. It has operated in authoritarian states, fragile economies, and places where workers have no unions, no legal recourse, and no safety net.

And in those places, it was the United States — not the host government — that ensured FSNs were treated fairly.

• USAID provided livable wages in countries where workers were often exploited.
• USAID provided healthcare and pensions where no public system existed.
• USAID ensured that local employees were treated with dignity and fairness — values their own governments often did not uphold.

Now, that entire safety net is vanishing.

• FSNs in low-income countries will be thrown into extreme poverty overnight.
• FSNs in authoritarian regimes may find themselves blacklisted, unemployable, or even targeted for their work with the United States.
• FSNs in war-torn regions — who have kept embassies running when Americans had to evacuate — will have no protection at all.

This is not just an economic crisis for them — it is a human crisis.

And not a single U.S. leader has stepped forward to address it.

Not the White House. Not the Senate. Not even the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The backbone of American foreign assistance is being discarded without a word.

The Dismantling of USAID: A Strategic and Moral Disaster

The consequences of this abandonment will not be temporary.

• Health programs will collapse — HIV/AIDS prevention, maternal health care, and vaccine programs will lose the experts who have run them for years.
• Education programs will vanish — Millions of children in fragile states will be left without schools, without books, without teachers.
• Anti-corruption and governance initiatives will cease — Handing unchecked power back to regimes that have long sought to eliminate them.

And what will be left?

A world where American foreign assistance no longer carries weight, no longer holds credibility, no longer means anything.

America Does Not Abandon Its Own. It Must Not Start Now.

The Foreign Service Nationals of USAID are still working.

They have not yet been fired. But they will be.

They are watching in silence, waiting to see if the country they dedicated their lives to will even acknowledge them.

This is not just about jobs. This is about whether the United States keeps its word to those who have served it faithfully.

• Congress must act immediately to ensure that FSNs are not abandoned without severance, pension protection, or transition assistance.
• Senior U.S. leaders must publicly recognize their contributions and provide a real plan for their futures.
• FSNs at risk due to their work in authoritarian states must be offered pathways to protection.

We claim to be a nation that values loyalty, service, and partnership.

If we fail the FSNs — if we allow them to be discarded like an afterthought — we will send a message to the world that those who serve the United States cannot count on the United States to stand by them.

And that message will not be forgotten.

• They stood by us in war zones, when the work was dangerous and the stakes were high.
• They stood by us in failing states, when governance collapsed and our presence mattered most.
• They stood by us in the hardest moments of America’s global engagement — when even Americans had to leave, they stayed.

Now, the question is simple:

Will we stand by them? Or will we let them be forgotten?