The Soviet Union, in Churchill’s famous words, was a “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”; as such it made…
Lincoln Gordon
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy Lincoln Gordon: Architect of Cold War Foreign Policy ––University Press of Kentucky, 2015 After World…
Poison as a Weapon in Putin’s Russia
Russia’s tumultuous history is replete with backstabbing — sometimes literal — where the powerful would seek their vengeance with a…
The Light at the End of the Tunnel — Surviving a Nazi POW Camp
Fredrick Irving’s plane was shot down over Magyarovar, Hungary during World War II. Right after hitting the ground, three Hungarian farmers…
Cosa Nostra: U.S. Diplomacy and the Italian Mafia, 1954-1992
The Mafia in American culture is a source of inspiration for books, movies, and television. The Godfather, The Sopranos, a…
Rehabilitating Former Child Soldiers in Mozambique
Mozambique in the 1980s was a country in the midst of a bloody civil war, when at least 100,000 people…
Evacuating Uganda — With Style
From 1971-1979, Uganda was under the control of the mercurial Idi Amin, one of the most brutal military dictators ever…
The Palmer Case and the Changing Role of Women in the Foreign Service
There have been a number of prominent women who have served in the State Department over the past century: Francis…
Averell Harriman, The Old Crocodile of Diplomacy
W. Averell Harriman was one of the more prominent public figures of the 20th Century, holding major positions in diplomacy,…
Negotiating the Dayton Peace Accords
During the 1990s, the world witnessed the worst conflict since the end of World War II. The conflict began after…