A lack of due process, serious disorganization, and inadequate representation. This was the state of affairs of Foreign Service labor…
Operation Sapphire: Nuclear Diplomacy in Kazakhstan
Working with nuclear materials is, by its very nature, volatile. Carrying out diplomacy over nuclear materials is even more so.…
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…
After Dayton: Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Bosnia
The Dayton Accords peace agreement represents one of the most pivotal of its time. Signed on November 21, 1995 at…
Money for Secrets: Making a Deal with a KGB Agent
Benedict Arnold. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Mir Jafar. All of these individuals have something in common: they all betrayed their…
Did President Clinton Try to Renounce his U.S. Citizenship?—Investigating the Presidential Scandal
The Vietnam War was one of the most contentious political issues in the United States during the 1960s and early…
Living Through History with a Historian—Witnessing Monumental Societal Change in the Soviet Union from the 60s to the 90s
American diplomats and their families abroad become accustomed to living through exciting or harrowing events; but occasionally their lives provide…
Fighting Where the “Wango-Wango Bird Couldn’t Get”—U.S. Diplomats and the Ecuador-Peru Boundary Dispute
In 1895, the United States intervened in a long-standing border dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela, forcing its resolution—and forcing…
Family First: On the Struggles of Familial Medical Clearances
The barriers to entry to the Foreign Service start off high and do not taper off. Individuals pass through written…
“Dealing with Ships is a Different World”—Maritime Difficulties in the Azores
The work of a Foreign Service Officer is rarely quiet or uneventful, and often involves navigating tricky relationships between the…