The presidential election of November 7, 2000 was one of the most memorable – and controversial – in the history…
Seeking a Peace Settlement with Shimon Peres, Hawk and Dove
The passing of Israeli statesman Shimon Peres on September 28, 2016 was deeply felt by U.S. diplomats who had worked…
“The Cold War Was Truly Over” — The 1986 Reykjavik Summit
After the 1985 Geneva Summit, where President Ronald Reagan and leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, met for the first…
“The Wild West” — Peshawar and the Afghan Mujahedeen
In the late 1970s, the USSR had been supporting the Afghan government in its fight against rebels, who had made considerable…
When Archaeology Meets Diplomacy: The Dig at Herculaneum
When Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 AD, it famously engulfed the Roman town of Pompeii and, less famously, the…
Brexit — Now What?
The decision by referendum of the British electorate to depart the European Union — after a campaign in which facts…
Anwar Sadat and the Camp David Negotiations
The Camp David Accords, which were negotiated over a period of twelve days in 1978 between Egyptian, Israeli, and American…
Resolving the Czechoslovak Gold Dispute
As the Third Reich annexed the Sudetenland and Poland and the German war machine pushed through the Eastern Front towards…
Bad Blood: The Sino-Soviet Split and the U.S. Normalization with China
In the 1960s, in the depths of the Cold War, the world was viewed in terms of a zero-sum game:…
When Friends Spy on Friends: The Case of Jonathan Pollard
Former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard delivered over 800 highly classified documents to the Israeli government over a 17-month…