A primary purpose of public diplomacy is to promote the interests of the United States. Public diplomacy officers on the frontlines of diplomacy represent the public face of U.S. embassies, often communicating and building cultural relations with people in the host country from all walks of life. One way they engage foreign audiences is through […]

The Romanian Führer. The West’s “favorite communist.” Both of these descriptions have been used to describe Nicolae Ceaușescu, the rapacious Romanian dictator of twenty-four years. Ceaușescu rose up through the Communist Party ranks in post World War II Romania, becoming party general secretary in 1965 and eventually obtaining the presidency in 1967. Despite later being […]

When Vice President Biden sat next to then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at a dinner in 2012, Xi asked Biden why he held human rights in such high regard. Vice President Biden responded with a cool confidence that it was part of American foreign policy’s “DNA”—a non-negotiable value of the United States. Throughout his […]

A vice presidential visit is a major diplomatic event. These visits can either be part of a crisis management strategy, or be used to cement diplomatic relations with countries that have just begun to gain prominence on the international stage. During his years as vice president, now-President Joe Biden traveled to many countries, making an […]

The ADST team joins many others in the foreign affairs community in condemning recent attacks on our democracy and welcoming the upcoming peaceful transfer of power. As current or former diplomats, we swore a sacred oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This includes […]

The First Gulf War. The Persian Gulf War. Desert Storm and Desert Shield. All of these titles and operation names are associated with the same war, the first major U.S. military action since the Vietnam War. During the 1980s, while at war with Iran, the Iraqi government borrowed heavily from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to […]

Working with nuclear materials is, by its very nature, volatile. Carrying out diplomacy over nuclear materials is even more so. The 1990s posed a particularly fragile moment as the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving nuclear successor states in its wake. In particular, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan emerged onto the global scene equipped with weapons and […]

The inauspicious rise of Joseph McCarthy began in 1950, when the Wisconsin senator was asked to give a speech at the Ohio County Republican Women’s Club. Until then McCarthy had had a mediocre political career. But that day, despite the humble venue, he managed to give a speech that would catapult him to new heights […]

Benedict Arnold. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Mir Jafar. All of these individuals have something in common: they all betrayed their countries. Even with the passage of time, an air of notoriety still clings to their names. Defection occurs in all countries and is fueled by the desire for money, power, or fame. Defection can also […]

The Vietnam War was one of the most contentious political issues in the United States during the 1960s and early 1970s. Anti-war protests calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces erupted from coast to coast and only intensified with time. The protests were led by frustrated college students who, being of the legal draft […]