On June 25, 1996 a truck containing an estimated 5,000-pound bomb drove to the northern perimeter of the Khobar Towers…
Yemen and the War on Terror
The ongoing political tumult in Yemen threatens to undermine the country as well as American counterterrorism efforts in the region.…
Vietnam, A Look Back
The Vietnam War remains one of the most contentious foreign policy issues in American history. U.S. military involvement was initially…
Bill Burns, A Consummate Diplomat
William Joseph Burns, known as Bill to his colleagues, stepped down as Deputy Secretary of State in October 2014 after…
The Collapse of Order in the Middle East
Will Rogers once observed that “when you get into trouble 5,000 miles from home, you’ve got to have been looking…
The Iran Hostage Crisis — “I had very little faith in my government protecting me”
On November 4, 1979, some 3000 radical Iranian students protested at the U.S. embassy. The embassy had been taken over…
The Middle East Cauldron
Edward “Skip” Gnehm served as Ambassador to Kuwait shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, from 1991 to 1994, and…
Dealing with a Reunified Germany
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the long-awaited reunification between East and West Germany began. A…
Ten Principles of Operational Diplomacy: A Framework by Paul Kreutzer
The operational level of foreign policy is the essential crucible for the formulation of diplomatic approaches to international challenges. This…
ADST is On the Air!
(From Left to Right): The U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, after a bomb attack in 1983; Marine Corps Sgt. Clayton…