At the height of the Cold War, with the death toll mounting in Vietnam and the split between the USSR…
Operation Winter Warmth – Helping Armenia in Its Darkest Hour
When Armenia gained its independence after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, it was in dire straits. It was…
Responding to the Threat of Mass Atrocities
Drawing on his experiences as U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Ambassador Princeton Lyman highlights the decision making trade-offs he…
The Irrepressible Prudence Bushnell
As a teenage daughter of a Foreign Service Officer who moved his family from country to country every so often,…
Elinor Constable — “If you want me out of the Foreign Service, you have to fire me”
Elinor Constable had an illustrious career in the State Department from 1955 until 1993, serving not only as Ambassador to…
From Nation-Building to Black Hawk Down: U.S. Peacekeeping in Somalia
Somalia has become synonymous with well-meaning but ill-fated humanitarian intervention. Live television footage of American soldiers being dragged in the…
An Iraq War Dissent
In 2001 Ann Wright served as the first political officer in the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Two years…
A Never-ending Tragedy — The Onset of the AIDS Crisis in Africa
The spread of AIDS in Africa in the 1980s and 90s presented unique challenges for U.S. diplomats suddenly faced with…
The 1969 ‘Soccer War’ Between Honduras and El Salvador
Every four years, the world’s attention turns to the spectacle that is the World Cup. Rivalries can be fierce as…
A House of Cards – The Collapse of Yugoslavia
Over a bloody three years, hundreds of thousands of Europeans were dislocated, imprisoned, raped, tortured, starved and massacred as an…