A U.S. army tank manned by a defecting soldier crashed straight through a Berlin Wall checkpoint manned by Russian troops.…
Rivalry in the Southeast: Preah Vihear Temple Dispute Between Cambodia and Thailand
Foreign Service Officer Thomas Donohue served in both continental and archipelagic Southeast Asia during a tumultuous period in which countries…
Drowning in a Strawberry Ice Cream Soda: Life as a Diplomat in the Philippines
World powers, including the United States, have long considered the Philippines to be of strategic importance. The entire landmass of…
“Dining is the Soul of Diplomacy”
Lord Palmerston, a former British prime minister and three time foreign minister, once famously noted, “Dining is the soul of…
Reflections on a Career: Health and Population in East Africa
Victor Masbayi was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1951; he lived there with his family throughout his undergraduate college education…
The Last Ones Left: Inside the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
With a simple “good luck” from President Richard Nixon, Ambassador Joseph Farland set out to Pakistan, unsure of what to…
Back to Back—U.S. and Honduran Election Highlights
While U.S. politics can be contentious, American elections themselves tend to run smoothly. Usually, voters cast their ballots, numbers are…
The U.S. Response to the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia
The Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami of 2004 killed over 275,000 people in 14 different countries. In Aceh, Indonesia alone,…
The Felix Bloch Affair: An Unsolved Case of Cold War Espionage
In 1989, French counterintelligence agents watched Felix Bloch as he dined in Paris with known Soviet spy “Pierre Bart.” Bloch…
Kwame Nkrumah and the United States — A Tumultuous Relationship
Ghana and the United States have historically boasted a close friendship, partnering together in exchange programs, trade, and development initiatives.…