Most divorces do not end well, and those between countries tend to be the messiest of all. The dissolution of…
Disposition in Diplomacy
Bureaucracies are often considered dry and difficult to navigate. However, every organization is only as good as the people who…
Duty and Danger: Escaping the Burning U.S. Embassy in 1979 Libya
On December 2nd, 1979, thousands of anti-American demonstrators attacked the U.S. Embassy; protesters broke down the door and set fires…
“Encouraging” Soviet Workmen in 1984—Vodka, Cigarettes, and Snow Plowing in Soviet Russia
The currency of Soviet Russia was the ruble—or was it? When General Services Officer Robert Weisberg was posted to the…
Combating the flow of Foreign Fighters affiliated with the Islamic State
The rapid ascent of ISIS in 2013-16 was fueled by a flow of “foreign fighters” from across the Middle East,…
Rebuilding Iraq after the Second Gulf War: Lewis Lucke
In January 2003, the U. S. Government established the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) to act as a…
When One of “The Murrow Boys” Became a Foreign Service Wife
Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson was the only female member of the original generation of CBS Radio war correspondents known as…
Getting the U.S. President to Write to the President of Guatemala About Human Rights (Hint – It’s Who You Know)
With the end of the Cold War, the U.S. began to put greater emphasis on enforcing its policy of protecting…
Chipping Away at Czechoslovak Communism: The Helsinki Final Act and Charter 77
The Solidarity Movement. Perestroika and Glasnost. The fall of the Berlin Wall. All of these movements, policies, or events had…
Establishing an Escape Network in Post-War Hungary
Throughout most of World War II, Hungary operated in conjunction with the Axis Powers and actively contributed to the Nazi…