The Army Specialized Training Program: Gateway to the Foreign Service by Curtis F. Jones America’s unreadiness for World War II was systemic. At Bowdoin College, student attitudes mirrored the national pattern. As late as the fall of 1941, a number … Read more

We make available the following commentary, previously presented on the People-Centered Development Forum’s web page, with the permission of the author. Dr. Korten, a specialist in international business and development, received his MBA and PhD degrees at Stanford University after … Read more

The Editor has adapted this historical comment from his “The Typewriter: ‘One of the Greatest Benefits to Humanity’?,” originally published in the Foreign Service Journal, Feb. 1990, 40-43. Typewriter c. 1873 Technology and Foreign Affairs: The Case of the Typewriter … Read more

Retired Foreign Service officer Ed Williams, a member of this journal’s Editorial Advisory Board, resides between escort interpreting trips at Fearrington Village, NC. Depends on How You Interpret It By J. Edgar Williams For the past several years, since I … Read more

The Purple Captain’s Final Voyage by Gene Schmiel Harbor at Mombasa, Kenya Dealing with deceased Americans overseas was the one part of consular work which I, always more comfortable writing political analyses or trying to obtain information from a source … Read more

We present herewith a paper adapted from a talk delivered by Professor Davis at a seminar of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies held at the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, on September 10, 1997. The author, who … Read more

Dr. Friedman received his Ph.D. in the History of International Relations at Michigan State University. He teaches at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan, and conducts a graduate historiography seminar for Central Michigan University. Portions of this article appeared … Read more

By Charles S. Gordon During my early USAID assignments in Asia and Africa, I was frequently exposed to European diplomatic colleagues, who, it struck me, spent an unseemly amount of time thinking about, discussing, and planning for their future retirement. … Read more

  American “Diplomacy”: Ambassadors, Senators, and the System   Once upon a time, the United States appointed its chief diplomatic representatives abroad — its ministers in the old days and its ambassadors in the twentieth century — from among its … Read more

Jim Roush, retired from the U.S. Agency for International Development, serves as a senior associate with the consulting firm Development Associates of Arlington, Virginia. He participated in the evaluation of two USAID/El Salvador projects designed to further the 1992 Peace … Read more

A Bit of Boasting . . .  Signs of Intelligent Life Out There! by Frank Crigler J o d i e   F o s t e r, the single-minded, highly unconventional astronomer in the film “Contact,” relies more heavily … Read more

Dr. McIntyre, retired from the Foreign Service after more than twenty-three years abroad, lives with his wife Jessie in Chapel Hill, NC. During the Second World War, he was awarded a Bronze Star for his service as an infantry battalion … Read more

Remembering VietnamFollowing is the first in a series of personal reminiscences by U.S. Foreign Service personnel who served in Vietnam, primarily during the United States’ heavy involvement in the war. The series, developed by Editorial Advisory Board member Bart Moon, … Read more

Editorial Corner We believe it possibly useful and interesting for our readers to know something about the backgrounds of the members of American Diplomacy’s editorial review board and staff. Holding that thought, for what it may be worth, we have … Read more

By Francis Underhill “Indonesians live in ‘rubber time.’“ I first became aware that time has a cultural dimension when I was assigned to our consulate in the city of Medan on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, my first non-European post … Read more

American Diplomacy takes pleasure in offering to its readers an article of considerable interpretive importance by the military historian Alex Roland. Prepared for and presented at the Summary Conference on the Study of War held in June 1997 under the … Read more

A century-long era without a major war, as from the Congress of Vienna to the Guns of August, it has not been. We have seen, nonetheless, a blessedly long run of international peace between the major powers in our own … Read more

German Security Policy in the 1990s By Robert H. Dorff Introduction1 he foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) has been “exceptional” from the time the country was founded in 1949. This exceptionalism has been well documented and … Read more

Editor’s note: The following commentary, prepared under the auspices of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia, Pa., fits well into the category of controversial inquiry offered by Curt Jones in the previous ‘issue’ of American Diplomacy. Jones, a former senior … Read more

At long last, American Diplomacy finds itself in the happy position of being able to announce the following 1972 DUBIOUS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS for personnel of the American Embassy, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. as screened, judged, and selected by Jack L. Nixon This … Read more