May 2025

The Editor’s Page

Commentary

Reducing Inequity Globally Will Make America Safer, Stronger, and More Prosperous by Marianne Scott

Netanyahu and the End of the Jewish State by Christopher Datta

Today’s Top National Security Threat?  You’re Looking at It by Karl Stoltz

Eyewitness

Encounters with Bulgarian State Security by Jonathan Rickert

Moments in Diplomacy

“Tex” Harris describes his monumental efforts to document the “disappeared” in Argentina in the 1970s.

https://adst.org/documenting-human-rights-abuses-in-argentinas-dirty-war/

One example, admittedly a dramatic one, about how American diplomats help US citizens in foreign countries.

Links

A timely deep dive into US dependence on China for key raw and processed materials with suggestions for how to lessen that dependence.

https://warontherocks.com/2025/04/a-federal-critical-mineral-processing-initiative-securing-u-s-mineral-independence-from-china/

In the current (April-May) issue of the Foreign Service Journal, Ambassador Ted Osius traces the arc of US-Vietnamese relations from early contacts at the end of World War II through the bitter war of the 1960s-1970s to the current era when, after decades of careful diplomatic work by both countries, cooperation and mutual benefit characterize the relationship.

https://afsa.org/vietnam-and-united-states-way-ahead?utm_campaign=5514649-2025%20FSJ&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–OWip3oKxtW9t64ekcKHFrmcQ_luzl7uIK6AWvMya7TPnTmPnjeul8QSdMzgA1qYARHW3kpL7TX9LXCQLLqEwnG5wmeA&_hsmi=356344458&utm_content=356344458&utm_source=hs_email

In the January-February issue of the Foreign Service Journal, Ambassador Thomas Shannon offers a compelling personal vision of how diplomacy must face the challenges of the current era.

https://afsa.org/liberate-future

From Our Archives

In a time of exceptional stress for our diplomats, we offer a selection of past AD articles that deal with the challenges and options available to them if they disagree with an administration’s policies.  In a bit of déjà vu concerning the possibilities of willing bipartisanship with respect to foreign policy, Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 2008 book offers a guide.   And finally, two links remind us of what patient consistent diplomacy can accomplish, with Vietnam as an example.

https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2019/05/when-a-diplomat-disagrees-with-policy/ by Judith Heimann

https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2020/11/the-dissent-channel/ book review by Robert Whitehead

https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2008/11/america-and-the-world/ AD book review by J. Bullington

https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2023/11/reconciling-with-a-former-enemy-post-war-diplomacy-between-the-us-and-vietnam/ by Justin Ahn