A unified stance by NATO members and Gorbachev’s realization that it was better to go to global zero than to…
“Years of Lead” — Domestic Terrorism and Italy’s Red Brigades
Beginning in 1970 and spanning over a decade, the “Brigate Rosse” (Red Brigades) and other smaller groups incited a wave…
A Bum Rap for April Glaspie — Saddam and the Start of the Iraq War
In the summer of 1990, concerns were growing that Saddam Hussein, who was massing troops near the border with Kuwait, was…
Winning the Peace – USAID and the Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Contras
In the 1980s, one of the focal points of U.S. foreign policy was the rise of leftist militants throughout the…
Iraq’s Rocky Road to Recovery Post-Saddam
In the wake of the U.S.-led Coalition Forces invasion of Iraq in March, 2003 and dissolution of the Ba’ath Party,…
Combining Forces to Counter Terrorism — The Birth of S/CT
U.S. inter-agency coordination on countering terrorism was limited, for bureaucratic and technical reasons, prior to the mid-1980s. As hijackings and…
Julia Chang Bloch’s Whole-of-Mission Approach in Nepal
In 1990, Nepal’s centuries-long history of monarchical rule and more recent autocratic substitutes were finally brought to an end in…
At War with Colombian Drug Barons
The worldwide increase in demand for recreational drugs in the 1960s and 1970s prompted drug barons in Colombia to ramp…
Georgia and The Rose Revolution
Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union in April 1991, and problems and instability arose almost immediately. The first President…
Taking the Chill off the Cold War: The First Reagan-Gorbachev Summit
The Geneva Summit of 1985 was the first meeting between President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev to talk about the arms…