Imagine this: It is 1987, you are the president of the United States of America, your country is one of…
Eye on the World: A Life in International Service
“One of the most respected and versatile diplomats of his generation, four-time ambassador Anthony Quainton provides a detailed and colorful…
A Jack of All Trades: Working Without Foreign Service Nationals in Moscow
Foreign service officers are often subject to circumstances beyond their control. Such was the case when a diplomatic quarrel occurred…
A Public Diplomacy Career: Touring Astronauts, Saving Battleships, and More
Diplomatic history is a fascinating field full of peace conferences, negotiations, and summits; but it also includes dozens of other…
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…
Development in South Asia and Latin America: USAID in the ‘90s
There’s never a dull moment in the life of a USAID social anthropologist! The foreign service can indeed present a…
U.S.-Russia Competition in Ukraine in the ‘90s
This moment is one of four in a series about Russia, Ukraine, and U.S. relations in a world of post-Ukrainian…
Commemorating Colin Powell
On October 18, 2021 America lost a remarkable leader and public servant. Colin Powell served as the highest ranking soldier,…
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…
“I Get It:” Experiential Learning in Ecuadorian Narcotics Control
In the late eighties, drug trafficking into the United States from Latin America came into the spotlight with Reagan’s War…