Tag: Europe and Eurasia

Foreign Service Accounts from the Oral History Archives (ADST.ORG) In this issue, we offer two more ADST segments focusing on U.S. international development stories, one on the Marshall Plan and another from USAID officer Carol Peasley. -The Economic Cooperation Act, … Read more

Cold War Humor, 1953
What Goes Up Must Come Down
“We Found Ourselves Living in the Midst of a Battlefield”

Review by John M. Handley
Harry & Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership that Created the Free World. By Lawrence J. Haas Potomac Books, University of Nebraska Press, April 2016. ISBN: 9 781612 348124

by Amb. Michael W. Cotter (ret.) The media is full of information about the conflict in Afghanistan. Some of the coverage supports the Trump administration’s plan to increase the U.S. military presence in that country; some of it is opposed. … Read more

by Amb. W. Robert Pearson (ret.) Russia and Turkey are dancing a complicated pas de deux—for separate and common reasons. The happy couple has captivated global attention. There are reasons today to anticipate greater collaboration between Turkey and Russia in … Read more

by Lóránd Ujházi1 Because of the current migration crisis the central organizations of the Catholic Church were forced to reflect upon more directly about the humanitarian, pastoral and policy aspects of the refugee issue. However, neither the annual speeches delivered … Read more

Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professorship at UNC-Chapel Hill Prof. Klaus W Larres KRASNO EVENTS SERIES November 8, 2017 Dear Friends and Colleagues, It is a great pleasure sending you the video links to our recent events. Further below, please find links to … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

John Lothrop Motley The Witty US Minister to Vienna Chapter 1 of Foreign Vistas: Stories from a Life in the Foreign Service by William Sommers If success in the diplomat’s trade were based solely on education, language facility, mastery of … Read more

Did He Violate the President’s Instructions?
Chapter 2 of Foreign Vistas: Stories from a Life in the Foreign Service
by William Sommers

by Jon Dorschner

by Robert Baker Vienna was snowed in when I first visited there in 1972. Twenty years later I was back in Vienna to relax and to direct the Regional Program Office’ excellent staff. Then Moscow melted and the Office had … Read more

by Peter Bridges Back in the late 1950s, when Stalin was not long gone and the Soviet state remained our militarily powerful and dangerous adversary, the State Department’s basic office for dealing with the Russians was a Soviet desk composed … Read more

by William Sommers Budapest During the 2009 holidays I sent a greeting card—along with a short poem—to an old friend—Andras Baltazar—in Budapest with whom I worked on local environmental projects in Hungary in the early 90s. I wasn’t sure that … Read more

by Mirco Reimer “In the 1990s, we thought we had the magic formula for everything. We were rich and invincible, and even Germany was expected to do what we wanted” – Stephen M. Walt, professor at Harvard University, on the … Read more

by Bob BakerVienna was snowed in when I first visited there in 1974. Twenty years later I was back in Vienna to relax and to direct the Regional Program Office’ excellent staff. Then Moscow melted and the Office had huge … Read more

by William Sommers

By Erik Brattberg, resident fellow, the Atlantic Council http://nationalinterest.org/feature/could-the-ukraine-crisis-reboot-nato-10279 Reviewed by James L. Abrahamson, contributing editor Writing for the National Interest, Brattberg sees the crisis brought on by Russia’s seizure of Crimea as “both a tremendous challenge and a tremendous … Read more

By Ambassador (Ret) Thomas Pickering Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05E2_Vkt5KI&list=UUPssYbwV8FFSw_ZbhBV5X3Q Review by Michael W. Cotter The Richard N. Krasno Distinguished Professorship in History & International Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, now held by Professor Klaus Larres, hosts a … Read more