Signed in Ottawa, Canada on December 3, 1997, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer…
Get While the Getting’s Good: Departing Communist China
The decision to close an embassy and order departure of diplomatic personnel is a signal of last resort that bilateral…
China’s Fight for Tiny Islands — The Taiwan Straits Crises, 1954-58
Recent disagreements over Beijing’s claim to the South China Seas (in which a tribunal constituted under the UN Convention on the…
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Evacuating Liberia, 1990
Being caught up in violent political upheaval and forced to evacuate is among the risks of diplomatic service, as at…
Spain’s Post-Franco Emergence from Dictatorship to Democracy
Spanish leader Francisco Franco died November 20, 1975 at the age of 82 after 36 years in power, first as…
George Shultz: “Your Country is the United States”
George P. Shultz was Secretary of State for President Reagan from 1982 to 1989, the longest such tenure since Dean…
Naming Names: U.S. Embassy Jakarta and Indonesian Purges 1965-1966
An article by an American reporter alleged that the U.S. embassy in Jakarta played a role in the Indonesian massacres…
A Front Row Seat to the 1975 Coup d’Etat in Chad
Throughout the 1970s, trouble was brewing in Chad. President François (N’Garta) Tombalbaye was the first president of Chad following its…
Death of an AUB President and Father of a Future NBA Coach
He was a brilliant scholar who focused on the Middle East and whose books were widely read by Arabists. His…
The Saur Revolution: Prelude to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
The government of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan came to a violent end in what was called the Saur Revolution…