Romania in the 1970s was a study in contrasts. Traditionally a rich agricultural breadbasket, its backward economy could not provide…
Escape from the Nazis via the Kindertransport
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, November 9-10, 1938 — SA forces vandalize Jewish-owned stores and synagogues. Five days later, a…
The Middle East Cauldron
Edward “Skip” Gnehm served as Ambassador to Kuwait shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, from 1991 to 1994, and…
Dealing with a Reunified Germany
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the long-awaited reunification between East and West Germany began. A…
Ambassador Skip Gnehm on the Middle East
The Middle East has been a complicated, if not violent, region for millennia, which has only been exacerbated by recent…
The Birth of NAFTA
It has its share of ardent supporters, who see it as a force for positive economic and social change, as…
The Search for Peace in Southern Africa – Oil, Angola, and the Proxy Wars
During the Cold War, the United States and the USSR engaged in a zero-sum game throughout the globe; while mutually…
The 1974 Turkish Intervention in Cyprus
The “Cyprus problem” of ongoing conflict between the Greeks and Turks on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus came to a…
The Whistle-Blower: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
“We were young, we were foolish, we were arrogant, but we were right.” —Daniel Ellsberg The recent issue of NSA…
“There Will be Blood:” The British Recapture the Falklands
The Falklands War began as a tragically misguided game of smoke and mirrors, designed to inflame Argentinian patriotism and redirect…