FS Blog, SuitUpFSO, 2016 July 18. I have returned successfully from Afghanistan to Indonesia to provide support to the Mission before moving to my next assignment in Thailand. I found Afghans to be resilient people and I hope my time there will make some meaningful difference as they continue against with strife and conflict. I look forward however to new challenges to come.A colleague of mine will sometimes admit to seeing her work in the Foreign Service, and particularly of USAID, in a comparison to Starfleet of the Star Trek universe. Thinking on this and with the pending release of the next Star Trek film, I felt this was an interesting concept to consider.
The Star Trek mission is one of exploration and adventure.
Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.However, the themes in Star Trek often involve humanitarian and diplomatic challenges with a healthy mix of issues such as human rights, racism, economics, and politics.
USAID's mission has a similar vein as follows:
We partner to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity.The joint mission of State Department and USAID is:
To shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world, and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere.Personnel of USAID undertake 1, 2, or 4-year tours versus Star Trek's 5-year voyages, and the work involves meeting foreign government and host country people to learn their culture, perspectives, and languages while addressing very local issues such as economic development, governance and rights, or environmental issues. USAID also frequently works in the more challenging developing countries with ways of living very different than that of the United States fitting the aspect of exploration and adventure.
But a key component to the comparison is the sense of community and togetherness, in cases called "esprit de corps", of the foreign service. It's having a common purpose and circumstance where this small group of Americans are bound together in the Mission to achieve the objectives of our programs in strange and faraway lands.
Of course, there are many contrasts like how Starfleet is more of a United Nations organization but USAID is representing a single nation, albeit the US is a nation made up of a conglomerate of ethnicities and people with backgrounds from all over the world. But I think there are still some strong, similar threads to the analogy.
Comparing the foreign service and Star Trek is a fun exercise that really helps highlight to me some of the most interesting aspects I find in the profession. The camaraderie, the sense of mission, the travel to new and exciting places, and the challenge and adventure in trying to understand and make a difference for other people.
Well enough that. I don't think this analogy was too highly illogical and I'm done givin' her all she's got.
