There’s never a dull moment in the life of a USAID social anthropologist! The foreign service can indeed present a…
Senegal’s Locust Plague in the late 1980s
The year is 1986. A Senegalese farmer walks out in his field a short while after the drought season has…
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…
Modern American Diplomacy
The Modern American Diplomacy Podcast, produced by ADST and supported by the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, provides in-depth stories and…
Yellow Rain in Southeast Asia: Bee Pollen or Deadly Weapon?
The 1925 Geneva Protocol put in place a worldwide ban on chemical weapons, but the necessity and handling of such…
Environmental Diplomacy: The United States and Russia in the Arctic
A desolate landscape and frozen ocean seems like an unlikely place for the scene of major world events and geopolitical…
The Variety of a Foreign Service Career: Bananas, Beaches, and a Plane
Robert Reis, a longtime State Department official, is a perfect example of how far one can come from the American…
A Foreign Service Spouse on a Mission: Combating Human Trafficking in Greece
Whether being assigned to a new post, taking on a new position, or learning a new language, the careers of…
The Last Days Before the Fall of Saigon: Evacuating Vietnamese Refugees
The Fall of Saigon is perhaps one of the most infamous moments of the Vietnam War. Following the fall of…
Making Lasting Impressions: Biden Vice Presidential Visits to Iraq and Mongolia
A vice presidential visit is a major diplomatic event. These visits can either be part of a crisis management strategy,…