Life can sometimes be unpredictable in the Foreign Service. Serving as a development officer may perhaps be even more unpredictable,…
One Size Fits None—U.S. Reform Dilemmas in South Africa
One reform to fix them all. What could be more ideal than this? Unfortunately, such a dream will forever lie…
National Elections Under Protest
As the United States watches its 2020 election season drag on longer than most presidential elections, the highly charged partisan…
Phoenix from the Ashes—Reform Efforts on the Foreign Assistance Act
In a world as technologically advanced and reliant as ours, one would expect adaptation to be a staple component of…
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…
Let There be Productivity—U.S. Aid Efforts in Europe and India
The world bore witness to an unprecedented degree of violence and destruction in the wake of the Second World War.…
Egypt Before the Arab Spring: Shifting Tides of Democracy and Westernization
The Arab Spring began in late 2010 as a series of anti-government protests throughout several Middle Eastern countries that permanently…
A Diplomat’s Wife in Showa Japan
1930s Japan—a time of emperors, tension in the Pacific, and mysterious unspoken social rules of the Showa Era. When Dorothy…
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…
First India, Next the World: Madhumita Gupta’s Story of Determination and Drive
Madhumita Gupta had a long and successful career serving as a Foreign Service National with the U.S. Agency for International…