"The institute was founded by Congress during the Cold War to be an independent think tank dedicated to resolving international conflicts. Last spring, it was seized by the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency, with the help of the D.C. police, even though the building isn't government-owned. The staff-including hundreds of leading specialists on global crises, who advised all branches of government-were fired."
"The takeover coincided with the startling decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and downsize the State Department. Just a few days before Christmas, about thirty ambassadors were recalled from their posts over vague accusations of insufficient loyalty to President Trump's "America First" priorities. Keith Mines, a career diplomat and former vice-president for Latin America at U.S.I.P., told me that "pulling out our whole diplomatic architecture" was a "stunning" change and would severely limit American capabilities during instability abroad."
The U.S. Institute of Peace, founded by Congress during the Cold War to resolve international conflicts, was seized and its staff of specialists were fired despite private ownership. The takeover coincided with a decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and downsize the State Department, and about thirty ambassadors were recalled over vague loyalty accusations tied to "America First" priorities. Pulling out the diplomatic architecture was described as a stunning change that would severely limit American capabilities during instability abroad. Early in the new year, a U.S. military operation to extract Nicolás Maduro and his wife provoked alarm, and leaders from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Spain denounced the intervention as a violation of international law.
Read at The New Yorker
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