As a spouse of a Foreign Service Officer (FSO), one is exposed to a unique lifestyle in the world of…
The Variety of a Foreign Service Career: Bananas, Beaches, and a Plane
Robert Reis, a longtime State Department official, is a perfect example of how far one can come from the American…
Resolving the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Issue—Treaty of Bangkok
During the 1990s, there were many international agreements created to limit nuclear weapons and the potential consequential effects of deploying…
The Foreign Service at War (Part 2): Rice, Roads, and Winning Hearts and Minds
“Winning hearts and minds” is at the very core of diplomacy. Sometimes that takes place in an embassy or a…
CORDS: A New Pacification Program for Vietnam
The Vietnam War was one of the most challenging and complex conflicts of the Cold War era. As the conflict…
Duty and Danger: A Diplomatic Spouse Recounts Narrow Escapes from Uganda and Cambodia
Louise Keeley waited and worried in neighboring countries when her husband, American diplomat Robert V. “Bob” Keeley, faced the encircling…
John D. Negroponte: A Diplomatic Life of Controversy and Consequence
John D. Negroponte joined the Foreign Service in 1960 and went on to serve as ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines…
Unexploded Ordnance, Spam and Moonshine–Life as Ambassador to Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), sometimes known simply as Micronesia, consists of four states — Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae –…
The Thai-tanic: Responding to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997
Asian countries took a financial hit in 1997, resulting in a crisis that reverberated throughout the world. It began on…
Bad Blood: The Sino-Soviet Split and the U.S. Normalization with China
In the 1960s, in the depths of the Cold War, the world was viewed in terms of a zero-sum game:…