by John C. Long Reprinted with permission from http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/peace-corps-early-days-the-day-the-fbi-came-knocking/ John F. Kennedy founded the Peace Corps shortly after his inauguration to fulfill a promise he’d made to University of Michigan students at a bull session after a presidential campaign speech. … Continued

by Josh Glazeroff On August 18, 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke to this year’s participants in the Department’s internship and fellowship programs (see https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2017/08/273527.htm for full text). His remarks acknowledged a diversity gap at the Department and the … Continued

Angola – O dia-a-dia de um embaixador Angola – an ambassador’s daily diary by Ambassador Antonio Pinto da France Edicao de Livros e Revistas, Lisbon 2004 Translation by Ed Marks Selections From the preface I was the third Portuguese ambassador … Continued

Intraoffice Humor at the National Security Council, September 1973 by David Langbart Poland Celebrates the Sesquicentennial of U.S. Independence, 1926 by David Langbart John Foster Dulles Enters Duty As Secretary of State by David Langbart Theodore Roosevelt Schools the Department of … Continued

Congressional Research Service Report: The Peace Corps: Current Issues Pew Research Report: U.S. Image Suffers LINK to NYT Live Former ambassador recounts tense clash she had with Fidel Castro in 1991 by Vicki Huddleston LINK to Eclectica Back to the Baltics … Continued

by Rachel Ansley Reprinted with permission from The Atlantic Council. http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/reports/state-department-reform-report A new Atlantic Council report (www.atlanticcouncil.org/ publications/reports/ state-department-reform-report) seeks to enhance the US State Department’s effectiveness recommends, among other things, a more results-oriented budget and streamlined foreign aid. A key recommendation is … Continued

by Jon P. Dorschner

The secretary of State’s plan to eliminate or merge several high-profile positions has many supporters. by Krishnadev Calamur Reprinted with permission from The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/tillerson-special-envoys/538377/ When news reports surfaced this week that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson intended to eliminate … Continued

by Elizabeth Knight My professional path has been a winding one, with turns that have taken me places I never imagined. Looking back on over a decade in international development, there is much I have learned and even more that … Continued

by Robert Cox Hamburg, G20, July. Brussels, October. Away from the rioting outside two essential conclusions emerged in Hamburg. First, the core G20 meeting re-affirmed the outcome of the G7 a month earlier that on key issues Europe and the … Continued

by Ambassador (ret.) Robert Pearson The Character of Democracy “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This famous opening line from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is important also for democracies. While Turkey and … Continued

by Marc Grossman Reprinted with permission from the author and YaleGlobal Online. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/increasingly-authoritarian-world-can-people-embrace-enlightenment-20WASHINGTON: Many US Presidents since John F. Kennedy have cited the Enlightenment as the foundation for America’s constitutional system and the values which the United States and the … Continued

by Erika Weinthal

by Amb. Chas W. Freeman, Jr., (USFS, Ret.) Senior Fellow, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University 6 April 2017, Providence, Rhode Island “With appreciation for the assistance of the American Academy of Diplomacy <academy@academyofdiplomacy.org> we offer … Continued

AFSA President’s Views by Barbara Stephenson Reprinted with permission from American Foreign Service Association. http://www.afsa.org/building-enduring-support-foreign-service As I begin my second term as AFSA president, having been elected on a platform of continuing the work begun two years ago by the … Continued

“US-ROK Strategic Forum 2017” On September 5, 2017, the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted the US-Republic of Korea (ROK) Strategic Forum 2017, to discuss and analyze the key issues facing the alliance. Speakers included Michael Green, Richard Armitage, … Continued

LINK | Army Times Future wars will be long, they’ll be fought on the ground, and spec ops won’t save usby Meghann Myers LINK | Peace Corps Worldwide The forgotten role of the Peace Corps in U.S. foreign policy

Why Diplomacy American Academy of Diplomacy by Ronald E. Neumann http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2017/jun/why-diplomacy Permission to reprint courtesy of Ms. Kristin McHugh, Executive Director and It’s essential to the successful pursuit of national security, foreign policy and economic goals. Why should Americans pay … Continued

by Amb. (ret.) William A. Rugh There is an unwritten code of conduct among American diplomats that says they should never say anything that is untrue or inaccurate. They are not required to say everything they know because they must … Continued

by Alison Hodgkins Amid all the controversy over North Korea, Russia, NAFTA, and the Paris Accords, one could argue that President Trump’s continued vacillation over the location of the US mission to Israel is the sole conventional aspect of his … Continued