Haiti is a land of great beauty and of great suffering. The Haitian proverb, bay kou bliye, pote mak sonje…
Crazy Train — A Congolese Victory Tour
What’s a party without prostitutes, undrinkable whiskey, and the best seats in the house, cleared for you at sword-point? Following…
Srebrenica and the Horrors of the Balkan War
The break-up of Yugoslavia caused some of the most heinous human rights violations and ethnic mass killings seen in the…
The Art of China Watching During the Great Leap Forward
From 1958 to 1961, following the anti-rightest crackdown of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao Zedong and the Communist Party launched…
The Berlin Crisis of 1961
In the early years of the Cold War, Berlin repeatedly became the focal point of tension between the U.S. and…
No Nukes for New Zealand — Breakdown of the ANZUS Treaty
In the mid 1980’s, U.S. bilateral relations with New Zealand, a long-time ally in a relatively peaceful corner of the…
Ghana’s Populist Mystic, Jerry Rawlings
Like many leaders throughout Africa, Jerry Rawlings was a paradoxical figure. He could be calculating and ruthless, as when he…
We’re Not in Washington Anymore — Culture Shock in Liberia
Adjusting to a new job position or a new town has its challenges, but moving to another country —on another…
The Iran-Contra Scandal
One of the biggest foreign policy scandals of the last half-century was the Iran-Contra affair, in which the Reagan Administration,…
Jordan, 1970 – An Attack on the Embassy and a Dispute with the King
Jordan is one of the United States’ staunchest allies in the Middle East and has been one of the few…