All too often in the State Department, people can lose hope that their efforts matter and come to believe that…
Operation Winter Warmth – Helping Armenia in Its Darkest Hour
When Armenia gained its independence after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, it was in dire straits. It was…
Rebel With a Cause — Struggling with the Armenian Genocide
2015 marks the 100th anniversary of what a number of international organizations, countries, and even some U.S. states formally recognize…
Wives and Women in the Foreign Service: The Creation of the Family Liaison Office
A 1957 State Department publication of “Suggestions for Wives from Other Foreign Service Wives” introduced the idea that the main…
Diplomatic Insecurity: The State Department Leaves the U.S. Embassy in Morocco in Peril
Threats against embassies are an ongoing concern that heads of mission, especially in certain parts of the world like the…
“Our Man is Inside” — The U.S. Ambassador, Kidnapped at a Reception
In Latin America, the mid to late 20th Century was a time characterized by military governments, guerrilla movements, and intense political…
Rehabilitating Former Child Soldiers in Mozambique
Mozambique in the 1980s was a country in the midst of a bloody civil war, when at least 100,000 people…
Yemen and the War on Terror
The ongoing political tumult in Yemen threatens to undermine the country as well as American counterterrorism efforts in the region.…
Suicide Bombers and the Rapper M.I.A. — The Sad Legacy of the Sri Lankan Civil War
Artistic inspiration, such as it is, can come from the most unexpected of places. Case in point, Grammy-nominated one-hit wonder…
Resigning Over the Conflict in El Salvador
Central America in the 1980s became a proxy battleground as the United States supported right-wing leaders against leftist socialist guerrillas…