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

Scottish Centre for Global History

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 dominated; between 2018 and 2021 he was a consultant on Guatemala for Millicom LLC.

The son of Foreign Service officer George McFarland, Stephen grew up in central Texas, Latin America, and the Middle East. He is a graduate of Yale University, the Air War College, and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (Security Studies). He and his wife have four sons. He enjoys playing soccer, hiking, diving, and reading history.

Image: Stephen McFarland with FMLN/ERP leadership and U.S. journalist Phil Bronstein in Perquin, El Salvador, April 1990.

Copyright © Donna De Cesare, 1990. All rights by permission of photographer only; https://moody.utexas.edu/faculty/donna-decesare