The Kurds have had a long and troubled history in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein tens of thousands of Kurds were…
How to Handle a Crisis – Ambassador Edition
As part of its Ambassadorial Seminar, the Foreign Service Institute gives each of the participants a copy of “This Worked…
The Strange Case of Ngo Dinh Can
It sounds like a scene out of a movie: a corrupt dictator attempts to flee the country with the help…
Death of an FSO, As Remembered by His Widow
Dennis Keogh had been Political Counselor in South Africa from 1980-83 and made 25 trips to Namibia. In the spring…
The Downing of KAL Flight 007
On August 30, 1983, a Boeing 747, Korean Airlines 007 took off for Seoul from New York’s John F. Kennedy…
Consular Tales from Croatia — The Good, The Bad, and the Bianca Jagger
The Bosnian War spanned from April 1992 to December 1995 and was a result of ethnic tensions that boiled over…
A Unified Diplomatic Service for the 21st Century, Part III
The unusually strong response to Stephanie Kinney’s piece on the lack of core values within the Foreign Service — by far…
Up or Out — The Challenges of the State Department Personnel System
The United States Department of State is not the monolithic entity it may at first appear to be. The lack…
Transnistria — Moldovan Land Under Russian Control
The Transnistria region in Moldova is a Cold War relic. Along with Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan and South Ossetia in Georgia, it is…
My Lai — Atrocity and Cover-up in the Midst of Vietnam
On March 16, 1968, in what was one of the most shocking incidents of the Vietnam War and in the…