Kelly Adams-Smith spent nearly three decades in the U.S. Foreign Service alongside her husband, moving up through the ranks across Europe. In 2024, she was nominated as ambassador to Moldova, a career pinnacle that promised to put her language skills, economic training, and regional expertise to use. Then came February 2025, and her nomination was withdrawn with the rest of a cohort of senior career officers. With no other positions offered and the Foreign Service's up-or-out promotion system leaving no room for retreat, Adams-Smith joined thousands heading for the exits.
Around 2,000 diplomats have left the State Department over the past year through layoffs and forced retirements, according to the American Foreign Service Association. That exodus from a workforce of roughly 13,000 represents a severe drain of institutional knowledge, crisis management experience, and specialized language capabilities built at considerable taxpayer expense. Current and former officials warn the timing could not be worse.
Elizabeth Horst served across multiple administrations in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Europe. She pointed to a stark reality: without experienced diplomats embedded in embassies, America loses the infrastructure to protect citizens abroad and safeguard business interests that fuel American jobs. "It's that day-to-day commerce that lots of American jobs rely on, and people don't feel that immediately, but it is going to have a long-term impact," she said.
The scale of the leadership void is staggering. More than half of all U.S. ambassadorships worldwide remain vacant, including posts in Moldova, Ukraine, and across the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola outbreak declared a public health emergency has no ambassador-level U.S. presence. Julie Davis, who has been managing the Kyiv embassy while also serving as ambassador to Cyprus, announced she will retire next month.
The departures began early in the new administration when dozens of ambassadorial nominations for career senior officers were withdrawn. By December, nearly 30 career ambassadors already serving in the field were recalled. Those brought back faced a brutal choice: find another assignment within 90 days under the Foreign Service Act of 1980, or forced retirement. The available positions did not match their skills or seniority.
Senior State Department officials described a vetting process unprecedented in scope and depth. Political scrutiny extended beyond the applying officer to family members, with social media posts and campaign donations subject to examination. "The message to those people was very clear. There's no place for you," one former official said.
The contrast with prior administrations is sharp. During Trump's first term, career diplomats filled more than half of ambassadorial nominations. Today, less than 8% of the administration's ambassador-level nominees come from the career Foreign Service. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott framed the shift as a policy choice: the administration has the prerogative to select ambassadors, and the transition from the prior administration was expected.
The practical consequences emerged quickly. In the Middle East, where the U.S. navigates ongoing tensions with Iran and regional allies, half of American missions lack formal ambassadors. Pakistan and Qatar, critical mediators in U.S.-Iran negotiations, have no ambassadors. When Iran retaliated across the region in March, the evacuation of stranded Americans proved chaotic. Diplomats involved in the operation attributed the confusion to the absence of empowered leadership at key posts.
In Africa, more than 75% of countries have no ambassador. The continent faces an Ebola crisis while the U.S. lacks ambassadors to the African Union and has no staffed regional bureau for African Affairs.
Current operations fill some gaps with career officers serving as "chargé d'affaires," but these temporary arrangements strip ambassadors of formal presidential and congressional blessing, reducing their influence and access to host governments. "When the administration doesn't put even its own people into these embassies, who it trusts, those embassies are just out of the loop," one former official explained.
Beyond staffing, the administration has rewritten the Foreign Service's evaluation and promotion rules. A new bell curve limits the percentage of officers receiving top performance ratings, potentially throttling advancement and forcing early retirements. Promotions now hinge on criteria placing "fidelity" at the top of desired traits. Career diplomat Mark Lambert, who retired after decades in Asia policy, warned that tying success to loyalty corrupts the institution's core function. "The Foreign Service is like the military, you take an oath to the Constitution," he said. "You have people who've served loyally to presidents and to secretaries of state, irrespective of political party, because that loyalty is to the Constitution."
The removal of seasoned experts from negotiations compounds the strain. Senior career officers have been largely absent from high-level talks in Russia and the Middle East as administration officials navigate complex diplomacy without traditional diplomatic guidance.
Pigott said the State Department has confidence in its workforce and emphasized that the reorganization places regional bureaus and embassies in position to impact policy. He also noted that the department mobilized an Ebola response within 24 hours and moved swiftly to safeguard Americans abroad using various evacuation methods.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The State Department cannot do its job when the people best equipped to do it are being forced out the door, and the message from leadership is clear: expertise matters less than alignment."
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