Skip to main content

How I Invented the Peace Corps (Sort Of)

September 2018

by Gerald Kamens One morning in March 1959, a top secret policy paper appeared on my boss’s desk at Dwight Eisenhower’s Bureau of the Budget—later reborn as the Office of Management and Budget. Its subject: How to counter the Soviet … Read more

Foreign Service Accounts from the Oral History Archives

September 2018

August marks the 30th anniversary of the Burmese student pro-democracy demonstrations that began on “8/8/88”. The U.S. subsequently withdrew its ambassador in protest of the military regime, beginning a hiatus in relations that lasted until 2012.

Links for Fall 2018

September 2018

Diplomatic Courier | To Infinity and Beyond: Space Diplomacy and the New Space Age National Security Archive | Excessive U.S. sanctions could push Iran “over the brink”: UAE official to U.S. in 1995 STRATFOR  | What If Brexit Happened Without an Exit … Read more

Books of Interest Fall 2018

September 2018

Near Abroad, Thailand, The Road to Unfreedom, US Counterterrorism, In Praise of Blood, The Darkening Web, China’s Great Wall of Debt, The Peace Makers