Interview: Reflections on a U.S. Foreign Service Career in Latin America and the Middle East with Stephen McFarland

In this interview, Stephen McFarland shares his experiences and reflections on his life in diplomacy. We discuss his experiences in Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Iraq among other places.

Stephen McFarland is a retired ambassador who served in the U.S. Foreign Service for over 37 years, largely in countries engaged in or emerging from conflict. He had 10 posts in Central and South America, and he also served in Iraq, where he led a provincial reconstruction team in a Marine regiment conducting counterinsurgency operations in Al Anbar during the 2007 surge. Later he headed Embassy Kabul’s law enforcement and rule of law efforts in 2012-2013. After retirement, in 2015-17 he led a USAID justice project in Colombia’s conflict zones, accompanying local officials as they returned to areas the guerrillas had d ...