One of the great advantages of being in the Foreign Service is the opportunity to live abroad, learn new languages,…
A Battle of Wills in Berlin, 1959
Throughout the Cold War, Berlin was one of the main battlegrounds for the psychological warfare between the United States and the…
House Un-American: Foreign-Born Wives of American Diplomats
Before World War II, there was a concern, particularly with upper-level Foreign Service officers like Ambassador William C. Bullitt, regarding…
The 1991 Madrid Peace Conference
The Madrid Peace Conference, held from October 30 to November 1, 1991, marked the first time that Israeli leaders negotiated…
Putin, The Early Years
From his crackdown on domestic opposition to his decision to invade Crimea and bomb U.S.-backed rebels in Syria, Vladimir Putin…
Windshield Tour of a Military Coup in Benin
The small Western African country of Benin (formerly Dahomey) has had a turbulent post-colonial history. Since gaining independence from the…
Eyes of the Dragon — Under Surveillance in China
The extent of the surveillance operations of the Soviet KGB is legendary, but the Soviet Union was not the only…
An Opportunity Lost — The 1991 Iraqi Uprising
In the days following the decimation of the Iraqi Army during Operation Desert Storm, groups of Iraqi minorities, specifically the…
Drug-Sniffing Mongooses and Other Tales of the Sri Lankan Civil War
In July 1983, tensions increased between Tamil minority separatists and the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka, erupting into civil war.…
Day of Atonement, Day of Animosity – The 1973 Yom Kippur War
For Egypt and Syria, the 1967 Six-Day War was a bitter defeat at the hands of long-time foe Israel. They wanted to…