Inspection of the U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

What OIG Inspected
OIG inspected the executive direction and policy and program implementation of the U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

What OIG Recommends
OIG made 4 recommendations to the U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In its comments on the draft report, the mission concurred with 3 recommendations and neither agreed nor disagreed with 1 recommendation. OIG considers all 4 recommendations resolved. The mission’s response to each recommendation, and OIG’s reply, can be found in the Recommendations section of this report. The mission’s formal response is reprinted in its entirety in Appendix B.

What OIG Found

• The Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission led the U.S. Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in a professional and collaborative manner.
• The Ambassador made herself accessible to mission personnel in a variety of ways. Department of Defense personnel at the mission praised the Ambassador for her focus on working collaboratively with them.
• The Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission recognized that mission staff worked long hours and looked for ways to restore work-life balance, but efforts to increase staffing were only partially successful.
• The mission’s workload increased significantly with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission led the mission in achieving significant foreign policy successes to gain North Atlantic Treaty Organization support for Ukraine.
• The Ambassador worked with her counterpart at the U.S. Mission to the European Union to improve coordination between the two missions.
• The Political Section staff contributed to the advancement of key mission priorities, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s support for Ukraine and the alliance’s adoption of a new strategy document, known as the Strategic Concept.
• The Public Diplomacy Section assisted the Ambassador in conducting meaningful and far-reaching press and public engagements.
• Spotlight on Success: The Public Diplomacy Section responded to Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine with innovative visual social media products to combat Russia’s disinformation, educate skeptical audiences about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and reinforce the transatlantic alliance.