Foreign service officers are often subject to circumstances beyond their control. Such was the case when a diplomatic quarrel occurred…
The Iran Hostage Crisis: Diplomatic Drama and Legal Innovation
Next to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, the Iranian seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 and…
A Look Back—First Director of the Population, Refugees, and Migrations Bureau
The Biden administration nominated Ambassador Julieta Valls Noyes to serve as assistant secretary of state for the department’s Bureau of…
Modern American Diplomacy
The Modern American Diplomacy Podcast, produced by ADST and supported by the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, provides in-depth stories and…
Environmental Diplomacy: The United States and Russia in the Arctic
A desolate landscape and frozen ocean seems like an unlikely place for the scene of major world events and geopolitical…
Grains, Cows, and the End of the Cold War
The end of the Cold War is sometimes thought about as a dramatic and rapid event marked by the fall…
In the Heat of the Cold War: Diplomats in a Divided Germany
Ever since the Foreign Service’s infancy, Foreign Service spouses have traveled with their partners to all corners of the world,…
Folk Songs and Fellowship: The Power of Music in the Labor Movement
Organized labor holds power in the histories of countries all across the world, coming to the forefront as a political…
“Coincidence is God Acting Anonymously!”—Faith in Service
Life can sometimes be unpredictable in the Foreign Service. Serving as a development officer may perhaps be even more unpredictable,…
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.…