Before World War II, there was a concern, particularly with upper-level Foreign Service officers like Ambassador William C. Bullitt, regarding…
Drug-Sniffing Mongooses and Other Tales of the Sri Lankan Civil War
In July 1983, tensions increased between Tamil minority separatists and the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka, erupting into civil war.…
A Dissident for Dinner — George H.W. Bush’s Ill-Fated Banquet in China
An essential part of being an ambassador is knowing how to push the envelope when it comes to dealing with…
Ambassador to a Small World
Back to Memoirs and Occasional Papers Ambassador to a Small World is a highly personal portrait of Chad from the…
Mari-Luci Jaramillo: Shoemaker’s Daughter to Madame Ambassador
Mari-Luci Jaramillo, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1977-1980, rose from poverty in New Mexico to a life of diplomacy and…
Demystifying the Interagency Process: The Ambassador’s Role
“He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike — it won’t be a…
King of Jordan and of the Go-Kart Racing Circuit
Prince Hussein bin Talal, who became King of Jordan following the assassination of his grandfather and the abdication of his…
Tracking the Elusive Moment — A Guide for New Interns
We Summer 2015 interns (Jake, Lora, Sunder, Jen, Avneet, Collin, Rachelle, and Claire), as the most productive ADST interns of all…
Opening an Embassy in the Land of Genghis Khan
Getting a new embassy up and running is a tremendous task, especially when the host city has an annual average…
Frenemies: Warm Encounters with Cold War Soviets
Just because the war between the two superpowers was cold didn’t mean that relations between U.S. and Soviet diplomats had…