On October 18, 2021 America lost a remarkable leader and public servant. Colin Powell served as the highest ranking soldier,…
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…
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…
Gas Masks and Sealed Rooms: Serving in Israel During the Gulf War
The First Gulf War. The Persian Gulf War. Desert Storm and Desert Shield. All of these titles and operation names…
Operation Sapphire: Nuclear Diplomacy in Kazakhstan
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…