Would you be willing to hire a potential foreign intelligence agent if it meant direct access to an antagonistic, elusive…
“Not Treated as Beyond the Pale:” Cold War Nuclear Options to Respond to a Soviet Bloc Invasion
The mid-nineteen seventies are often considered a time of détente (the easing of tensions) between the United States and the…
Employment Opportunities
ADST Office Manager (Office Manager Position Description (PDF)) The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST), a small nonprofit with a…
Thanksgiving: How U.S. Diplomats Celebrate an American Tradition Around the World
Gobble, gobble! Thanksgiving is a unique American holiday — one that U.S. embassies, foreign service families, and American expats of…
Spy vs. Spy: The Yin-he Incident and U.S.-China Intelligence Rivalry
Was the intelligence correct? Was the U.S. being set up? These were questions facing John Tkacik when the United States…
Rich in Oil and Rich in Corruption — Nigeria in the Early 1970s
Oil boomed. Revenue skyrocketed. So did political corruption, economic dependency, and environmental degradation. The dramatic spike in oil production in…
Building a Personal Relationship: The U.S. Ambassador and President of Senegal
It was nearing 11 o’clock at night when the phone rang. “How was the speech?” Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas was surprised…
Stirrings of Islamic Militancy in Nigeria: An Ambassador’s Recollections
When Thomas Pickering was Ambassador to Nigeria in 1980-83, he witnessed the stirrings of Islamic militancy and other transformations of…
Spies and Prostitutes: Memories of a Visa Officer in Post-WWII Greece
In post-World War II Greece, U.S. consular officers met all kinds of people—from suspected spies to prostitutes. Don Gelber was…
Freezing in the Dark: the First Years of the USAID Mission in Ukraine
Using candles for light, huddling into the warmest room, tapping into government telephone lines to make calls—these were the conditions…