Life in the Foreign Service extends far beyond the office, following its officers into all realms of existence abroad, at…
Introducing American Culture to Tokyoites
Renate Coleshill was born in Germany and went on to work for the U.S. Foreign Service in a number of…

An Expropriation Saga in Peru
For many Latin American states, expropriation has been a hammer in the toolbox of land or labor reform. For the…

Do You Hear the People Sing?—Democratic Promotion in Haiti, Mozambique, and Iraq
E Pluribus Unum. The average American will unwittingly encounter these very words on a daily basis and hardly give them…

9/11 Terror Attacks: A Consular Officer’s Perspective on Visas and Government Intelligence
September 11, 2001 marked one of the worst ever terror attacks on American soil. Two hijacked planes crashed into and…

From Les Misérables to Good Americans: One Ambassador’s Fight to Secure Refugee Status for Romanian Dissidents
They were doctors, professors, and, in some cases, even peasants. The one thing they all had in common, however, was…

Effects of Poverty on Women’s Rights in 1990s Kenya
For women in the 1990s, Kenya was a difficult place to live. For those who came from wealthier families and…

Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction: Establishment of the United Nations Special Commission
Following the 1990–1991 Gulf War, the United Nations wanted to prevent any further aggression, and feared that Iraq had developed…

Fiscal Relief in a Tumultuous Time—The Paris Club in the Nineties
At the end of World War II, Argentina was entrenched in debt and on the verge of defaulting to its…

An Unpopular Opinion: Tex Harris and the Yacyretá Dam Project in Argentina
To directly defy orders from one’s superiors undoubtedly takes nerve and, above all, conviction and belief in doing the right…