When USAID employee Judith Gilmore was asked to play First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS), it wasn’t because a…
Jakarta on Fire: The May 1998 Riots and Indonesian Revolution
Shawn Dorman watched as Jakarta descended into violent chaos and destruction overtook the city. At the conclusion of the May…
Academic Citations
Scholars around the world use ADST oral histories in books, journal articles, and dissertations. Here is a sampling of works…
George H.W. Bush, American Diplomat
George H.W. Bush was a diplomat before he became the 41st president of the United States. Bush served as U.S.…
Conflict, Cooperation, and Corruption: USAID in Kenya in the 1990s
U.S. policy toward Kenya during the long presidency of Daniel arap Moi (1978-2002) fluctuated between a close Cold War embrace,…
A Problem in Palau: Negotiating Free Association Status with the Micronesian Islands
In a Hawaiian hotel room sat a U.S. ambassador and officials from Palau, peering over details of a treaty to…
A Foe in Need: Famine in North Korea
A disastrous famine struck the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1997. Dubbed “The March of Suffering” by the North…
Embassies: “An Artifact of an Earlier Age?”
Do embassies still matter? Donna Oglesby, a senior official at the United States Information Agency (before it was incorporated into…
Witness to the Arab Spring in Tunisia
In December 2010, Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi proved that it can take just a single moment to spark a…
Warming to the New Administration at the State Department, 1980-1981
Administration transitions, during which power over the federal executive branch is transferred from the sitting president to the president-elect, can…