Working with nuclear materials is, by its very nature, volatile. Carrying out diplomacy over nuclear materials is even more so.…
CORDS: A New Pacification Program for Vietnam
The Vietnam War was one of the most challenging and complex conflicts of the Cold War era. As the conflict…
Egypt Before the Arab Spring: Shifting Tides of Democracy and Westernization
The Arab Spring began in late 2010 as a series of anti-government protests throughout several Middle Eastern countries that permanently…
At the Negotiating Table for SALT
U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War were marked by increasing tension. Emerging from WWII as the two strongest countries, competition…
Finding Resilience in the Bombing of the Al Rasheed: Beth Payne in Iraq
Life in the Foreign Service extends far beyond the office, following its officers into all realms of existence abroad, at…
Do You Hear the People Sing?—Democratic Promotion in Haiti, Mozambique, and Iraq
E Pluribus Unum. The average American will unwittingly encounter these very words on a daily basis and hardly give them…
9/11 Terror Attacks: A Consular Officer’s Perspective on Visas and Government Intelligence
September 11, 2001 marked one of the worst ever terror attacks on American soil. Two hijacked planes crashed into and…
The Last Ones Left: Inside the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
With a simple “good luck” from President Richard Nixon, Ambassador Joseph Farland set out to Pakistan, unsure of what to…
The U.S. Response to the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia
The Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami of 2004 killed over 275,000 people in 14 different countries. In Aceh, Indonesia alone,…
The Felix Bloch Affair: An Unsolved Case of Cold War Espionage
In 1989, French counterintelligence agents watched Felix Bloch as he dined in Paris with known Soviet spy “Pierre Bart.” Bloch…