After the 2001 ouster of the Taliban from Afghanistan, the United States and its allies found themselves in a country devastated by a series of wars. This book looks at how, working with their Afghan counterparts, they engaged in a complex effort to rebuild security, development, and governance, all while...
As a British colony Americans relied on the far-flung British consular system to take care of their sailors and merchants. But after the Revolution they had to scramble to create an American service. While the U.S. diplomatic establishment was confined by protocol to the major capitals of the world, U.S....
An intimate glimpse into life in the diplomatic corps, recalling pre-World War II London, Moscow during the early days of the Cold War, and Taiwan after the split from Mao Tse-tung's China.
The life story of John Kormann, an adventurous diplomat, soldier, and intelligence officer, offers an inside view of significant events of the twentieth century. Following engaging boyhood experiences, paratrooper training, and combat in Europe in World War II, Special agent Kormann goes behind the lines to apprehend Nazi war criminals...
From the moment Pakistan gained its independence in 1947, its relations with the United States have careened between intimate partnership and enormous friction — reflecting the ups and downs of global and regional geopolitics and disparate national interests. Although the Cold War is over, Pakistan retains strategic importance for Washington,...
As deputy to the U.S. ambassador in Rwanda, Joyce E. Leader witnessed the tumultuous prelude to genocide—a period of political wrangling, human rights abuses, and many levels of ominous, ever-escalating violence. From Hope to Horror offers her insider’s account of the nation’s efforts to move toward democracy and peace and...
Defiant Diplomacy depicts the extraordinary life of diplomat Henrik de Kauffmann (1888–1963), a major figure in U.S.-Danish relations during World War II and the first decades of the Cold War as Denmark’s envoy to Washington.
The book highlights the dramatic story of Kauffmann’s courageous decision, after Nazi Germany seized his homeland...
Jane C. Loeffler, a scholar in architectural history and American civilization, extensively researched the history and politics of U.S. embassy design and building, focusing on the years following World War II. These high-profile, often controversial structures––projections abroad of American art, culture, and political philosophy––have formed the settings for the conduct of...
In 2001 Helen Lyman began writing about the more humorous incidents she witnessed as the wife of an American diplomat. She observed the overseas life with a somewhat detached and wry view, through the prism of someone who never thought of herself as being born to the trappings of diplomatic...
In A Professional Foreigner (Potomac Books/U of Nebraska Press), volume #74 in the Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, Ambassador Edward Marks describes his life as a workaday American professional diplomat, including several close encounters with the U.S. military. Serving primarily in Africa and Asia, Marks was present during the era of...