The American Academy of Diplomacy

08/26/2023

Happy National Dog Day! We’re excited to share some of the dogs who were adopted by our members at their missions and in their travels. Here are some of the coolest

08/25/2023

Do the political climates of foreign nations and how they relate to U.S. interests excite you? Listen to Amb. Thomas Miller and DIR Jason Vorderstrasse discuss everything you need to know about being an FSO in the Political career track:
https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/program/virtual-panels-on-the-fso-career-tracks/

08/24/2023

Ambassador Gordon Gray, former U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia is reading Shadi Hamid's "The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea," which discusses U.S. foreign policy’s “democratic dilemma” in the Middle East.

08/22/2023

Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich, former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and National Intelligence Officer for Europe, is reading The Newspaper Axis, about the American and English WWII-era media executives who used their publications to enable Hi**er. Thanks for sharing, Amb Kauzlarich!

08/21/2023

24 hours news TV totally changed the State Department comms staple, the cable. Listen to the latest episode of American Diplomat to hear about how new tech can create opportunities for better diplomacy.

24 hours news TV totally changed the State Department comms staple, the cable. Pete hopped on the “wireless” to save a democracy and Amb. John Feeley connected with Panamanians using ridiculous (but very sweet) Facebook videos.  Disruptive technologies including AI will never replace human trus...

08/21/2023

It’s Monday, which means we’re bringing you another ! This week, we are highlighting Ambassador Jo Ellen Powell, a career diplomat who spent 37 years in the Foreign Service. She has served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Resources, U.S. Ambassador to Mauritania, and Consul General in Frankfurt, Germany. She grew up in a Foreign Service family, living in Panama, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, India, Iran, and Laos. Her father, John Millard Powell, was a diplomatic courier and later administrative officer. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to support the effectiveness and professionalism of the United States Foreign Service.

📸1: One of my early assignments was to Beirut. In April 1983, our embassy was attacked, with massive loss of life. Our neighbors at the British Embassy made room for our reduced presence in Lebanon and we were guarded by a reinforced platoon of Marines. Travel in and out of post was via U.S. military helicopter, with the landing zone on the sidewalk in front of the Corniche and our bombed embassy building.

📸2: My Foreign Service life began early, as my father was in the Foreign Service. For my mother, Jeddah was a very long way from Kentucky! I can’t remember a time when I did not want to follow in their footsteps.

📸 3: In March 2013, Mauritania hosted a multinational military exercise led by the U.S. Africa Commend (AFRICOM). I joined AFRICOM General Carter Ham and Mauritanian chief of defense forces (now president of Mauritania) Mohamed Ould Ghazwani on a visit to Nema, on the Mauritanian border with Mali, to observe preparations for the exercise and to visit the large refugee camp at Mbera, the temporary home of some 90,000 Malians who had fled the fighting in the homeland.

📸 4: Taking the oath of office is always a solemn and moving occasion. On October 29, 2010, I was sworn in as Ambassador to Mauritania by Under Secretary Pat Kennedy in the Treaty Room of the Department, with family and friends in attendance.

📸 5: Embassy Nouakchott turned out to welcome a brief visit by former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton. As far as I know, this was the first and only visit by a former U.S. president to Mauritania.

08/18/2023

If you’re passionate about building people-to-people ties, showcasing US culture, and explaining US policy, maybe the Public Diplomacy career track is right for you! Swipe through to see why public diplomacy work makes for a great career, but don’t just take it from us, listen to the experts: Public Diplomacy Officers, Ambassador Thomas Dougherty & Diplomat in Residence South Florida, Mignon Houston as they discuss their career track. https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/program/virtual-panels-on-the-fso-career-tracks/

08/17/2023

Ambassador Ries, former U.S. Ambassador to Greece and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, is reading The Last Honest Man. The book, he summarizes, is “the story of Frank Church, his career and how he came to be strongly against the Vietnam war and U.S. "imperialism" generally, despite representing the conservative state of Idaho, and the Church Committee, which investigated the abuses of the CIA and the FBI.” Thanks for sharing, Amb Ries!

08/16/2023

In this episode of American Diplomat, Ambassador Kevin Whitaker shares his knowledge of the populist president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who has imprisoned thousands and violated human rights brazenly in the name of curbing violence and bringing security to the people of his country. Pete Romero asks, is Bukele an authoritarian demagogue or savior? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

08/15/2023

Ambassador Ray, former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs, is reading The Oxford History of the American West. The book, he says, is “a compact history of America's 'Wild West' with a lot of background information that doesn't usually get mentioned in texts or movies about the region or the historical era.” Happy reading!

08/14/2023

This , we are honoring the life of Ambassador Steven McGann, who passed away in May of this year. McGann, a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Minister-Counselor, was Ambassador to the Republics of Fiji, Nauru, Kiribati, the Kingdom of Tonga and Tuvalu (2008-11). Ambassador McGann also was assigned as Charge d’affaires (ad interim) of the United States Embassy in Dili, Timor-Leste (2014). He previously served as the Deputy Commandant of the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University (NDU).

At the Department of State, McGann’s assignments included Director for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Director for Asia/Near East, Bureau for Population, Migration and Refugees and Deputy Director for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Bureau of South Asia Affairs. McGann also served two tours at the US Mission to the United Nations covering issues in the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council. Ambassador McGann’s overseas assignments included Taiwan, Zaire, South Africa, Australia and Kenya. Ambassador McGann also served on the boards of the Women’s Refugee Commission, the United Nations Association-National Capital Area and Diplomats and Consular Officers Retired (DACOR).

📸 1: Ambassador McGann pictured with Secretary Blinken.
📸 2: Ambassador McGann welcoming Adm. Mike Mullen to the Kingdom of Tonga
📸 3: Ambassador McGann at a 2021 diversity and diplomacy in the State Department panel discussion, pictured with Irvin Hicks Jr. and Ambassador Charles Ray
📸 4: In 2011, Ambassador McGann was part of a U.S. delegation led by Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, second from right. The delegation visited nations throughout the South Pacific to engage in discussions to enhance bilateral political, economic and security relations in the region.

08/11/2023

Interested in directly impacting the lives of Americans abroad? If you answered yes, maybe a career as a Consular Officer is the one for you. See why consular work makes for a great career, but don’t just take it from us, listen to the experts: Consular Officers, Ambassador Michele Bond & Diplomat in Residence Midwest, Ron Packowitz as they discuss their career track. https://lnkd.in/g7dwFK9u

08/10/2023

Ambassador Harrop, former U.S. Ambassador to Guinea, Kenya, the Seychelles, Zaire (the Congo), and Israel, is reading Mussolini in Myth and Memory: The First Totalitarian Dictator, a biography of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his autocracy. Thanks for the recommendation, Amb. Harrop!

08/09/2023

“What happens in vodka stays in vodka!”

Ambassador Dick Hoagland shares his stories drinking with the Soviets before the dissolve of the Union and the drinking habits, table toasts, and group saunas he found himself partaking in! Why were the Uzbeks gossiped about at the dinner table? What was in the famous memo Amb Hoagland sent back to Washington? Listen to In Vodka Veritas to find out, and tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

08/08/2023

Happy National Cat Day! Today we’re highlighting some of our favorite , who’ve lived with our members all around the world!

📸1: Ambassador Tracey Jacobsen’s Kosovan kitties, Peja and Prizren
📸2: Ambassador Atul Keshap’s cat, Joni Mitchell Kitty.
📸3: Ambassador Brian Carlson’s former Serbian tomcat, Dingbat.
📸4: FSO Megan McPhee’s jetsetting cat, Lark.

08/07/2023

Welcome back to another ! This week, we are highlighting Ambassador Nancy Jo Powell, who retired from the Foreign Service in 2014 with the rank of Career Ambassador. In her 37 year career, Amb Powell served as ambassador to Uganda, Ghana, Pakistan Nepal, and India. She also served as Director General of the Foreign Service, Director of Human Resources, National Intelligence Officer for South Asia at the National Intelligence Council, and the State Department Senior Coordinator for Avian Influenza. Amb Powell left 12 different posts in her career, and says that the “constant refrain of goodbyes” as “co-workers came and went” was one of the most challenging parts of the Foreign Service.

📸1: Nepal, 1980. From left to right: Prakash Gurung, Consular FSN; Flo Tanabe, DCM OMS; Nancy Powell, Vice Consul. This picture was taken during a ten-day trek along the Everest trail. The trek was inspired by a “successful trip by car along the India-Nepal border, to expand consular contacts with local officials, and encourage direct communication about Americans needing assistance.” On the trail, Amb Powell met “those operating the short-wave radios, policing the trail, offering hospitality, and providing limited medical care.”

📸2: Togo, 1990. Pictured here are Togolese and US officials participating in a US-Africa Trade Mission, “the first of many, many opportunities to promote US business in Africa and South Asia.” Amb Powell (second from right) says “my first week in Togo as a first-time Deputy Chief Mission included becoming Charge on day 4 and head of a US trade mission on day 7.” To her left is Warren Weinstein, at that time an official with OPIC and later an aid worker in Pakistan, who was taken hostage by Al-Qaeda in 2011 and killed in a 2015 drone strike.

📸3: Pakistan, 2003. Pictured here is Amb Powell with Assistant Secretary Christina Rocca and a local school mom. Amb Powell says this “low-cost USAID initiative to paint local schools turned out to be a public relations triumph as we attracted senior Pakistani and American officials to join mission teams who encouraged local support for their schools.”

08/07/2023

As judicial reforms threaten to hamper an independent Supreme Court in Israel, AAD member Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer argues that "what used to be creeping annexation of the occupied territories...is now galloping annexation."

***

08/04/2023

Have you ever heard of the Kuala Lumpur Hostage Crisis? Well, did you know that the lead negotiator of the crisis was an Academy member? Read on to learn more about this week’s .

in 1975, AAD member Robert Dillon, then Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia, was in the building when 5 members of the militant Japanese Red Army stormed the 9th floor and took 53 people hostage. Over the ensuing 4-day hostage crisis, Dillon oversaw negotiations of a prisoner exchange. Read more from https://adst.org/2013/07/terror-on-the-9th-floor-the-kuala-lumpur-hostage-crisis/

08/03/2023

Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich, former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and National Intelligence Officer for Europe, is reading The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, which covers the bold recovery program launched to revive western Europe after WWII. Happy reading!

08/02/2023

It is bittersweet that we announce that the American Diplomat podcast has found a new home with the Arizona State University (ASU) family, resident at its Washington-based campus, The Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab. Under the Academy’s leadership, the podcast has reached over 1 million downloads, and we can’t wait to see where they grow from there.

08/01/2023

Happy birthday to our Summer Intern, Josh Ford! Thanks for all your hard work this semester!

07/31/2023

That’s a wrap on the Summer Reads for July! Thank you to our awesome members who participated and shared what they’re reading this month, from biographies to historical texts to international relations theory. We hope you enjoyed the reads this month, and we’ll be back with more book recommendations from our members in August!

07/30/2023

Happy from the American Academy of Diplomacy! To celebrate we’re sharing some of our favorite moments between Academy members and friends. Whether they served overseas or managed an international crisis together, our members have plenty of stories of friendship to share. Swipe to see our best reunions.

07/28/2023

Have you heard of the State Department Authorization Act of 2022?
Welcome back to another ! On December 16, 2022, Congress passed the State Department Authorization Act of 2022 within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY23. This included the long-awaited passage of the Accountability Review Board reform, an issue the Academy had been pushing for over 2 years! This legislation is very significant to supporting operations in the U.S. Foreign Service, and supports the effort to get diplomats out of fortress embassies. The State Department Authorization Act is a critical part of guiding the work of America’s diplomats and ensuring the proper oversight of the State Department.

The Academy worked particularly closely with the offices of SFRC Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez, SFRC Ranking Member Sen. James Risch, Sen. Chris Murphy, Rep. Sara Jacobs, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, HFAC Chairman Gregory Meeks, and HFAC Ranking Member Michael McCaul.

07/27/2023

Ambassador Davies, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations International Organizations in Vienna, Special Representative for North Korea Policy, and Ambassador to Thailand, is reading The Revolutionary by Stacy Schiff, a biography of Founding Father Samuel Adams. Thanks for the recommendation, Amb Davies!

07/25/2023

On July 25, 1983, exactly 40 years ago, the American Academy of Diplomacy was officially incorporated as an organization. This date is imprinted on our Articles of Incorporation and is, therefore, our official birth date. So, TODAY WE ARE TURNING 40!

We invite you to help us mark this momentous occasion by contributing to the Academy’s 40th anniversary blitz fundraiser in the link in our bio. Proceeds will support the AAD's mission to strengthen American diplomacy and enhance public appreciation of its critical role in global affairs. Thank you for your support—and here’s to 40 MORE!

07/24/2023

Yesterday, we celebrated National Parents’ Day, where we highlighted our members whose parents were also diplomats:

📸 AAD President Ambassador Ronald Neumann sits with his father, Ambassador Robert G. Neumann, former ambassador to Afghanistan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. It was taken in 1994, just after Amb. Ronald Neumann was confirmed as ambassador to Algeria.

📸 John Millard Powell, a career Department of State employee, is Ambassador Jo Ellen Powell’s father! This 1948 article identifies Mr. Powell as a diplomatic courier injured in a Bogota riot.

07/21/2023

Do you know what ambassadors and their embassies actually do?

Welcome back to ! In 2000, AAD prepared a collection of personal accounts by senior American ambassadors titled “First Line of Defense”. The relevance of AAD members’ work towards bettering US interests and increasing the welfare of individual American citizens continues to have an enduring impact today. The book’s introduction highlights the changes in international relations brought about by dramatic advances in information technology and transportation, whereas the conclusion discusses the infrastructure of American diplomacy needed to cope with an increasingly complex, disorderly, and dangerous post-Cold War world. So, to answer the question: Do you know what ambassadors and their embassies actually do? Read “First Line of Defense” to find out!

07/20/2023

Ambassador Osius, President & CEO of US-ASEAN Business Council and former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, is reading Imperfect Partners: The United States and Southeast Asia, which explores U.S. foreign policy in the region. Thanks for the recommendation, Amb Osius!

07/20/2023

In a joint statement issued by The American Academy of Diplomacy & Council of American Ambassadors, we call on Congress to issue the visas legally entitled to our diplomatic missions’ local staff. Local staff are crucial to the functioning of US diplomacy and have long been entitled to immigrate to America at the end of their service.

Read the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/gxJjFn95

07/19/2023

In this episode of American Diplomat, Ambassador Charles Rivkin shows how the Foreign Service can gain from a private sector leadership perspective. Ambassador Rivkin served as Ambassador to France and Assistant Secretary of State and is currently CEO of the Motion Picture Association. Listen to the whole episode!

https://lnkd.in/gJjU3CF2

07/18/2023

Ambassador Tefft, former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine and Russia, is reading Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West, which chronicles Vladimir Putin’s rise to power. Thanks for sharing, Amb Tefft!

07/14/2023

What do you know about the Genocide Prevention Task Force?

Today’s focuses on the launch of the Genocide Prevention Task Force in 2007. The Task Force, co-chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, published its report one year later, in December 2008, that put forward concrete recommendations for policymakers on how to prevent future crimes against humanity.

07/13/2023

Ambassador Pearce, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Algeria and Greece, is reading Strangers When We Met, which covers over a century of U.S.-Kuwait relations. Thanks for the recommendation, Amb. Pearce!

07/11/2023

Ambassador Ray, former Ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe, is reading Asia: A Concise History, which covers 3,000 years of Asian history from Mesopotamia to today. Thanks for sharing, Amb Ray!

07/10/2023

Welcome back to another ! This week, we are highlighting Ambassador Kenneth Quinn. Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, assumed the leadership of the World Food Prize Foundation on January 1, 2000, following his retirement from the State Department after a 32 year career in the Foreign Service. During his diplomatic career, Ken Quinn served: as a Rural Development advisor in the Mekong Delta; on the National Security Council staff at the White House; as Narcotics Counselor at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Vienna; for four years as Chairman of the U.S. Inter-agency Task Force on POW/MIAs; and as Director of Iowa SHARES, the humanitarian campaign that sent Iowa doctors, nurses, medical supplies and food to starving Cambodian refugees.

📸 1: This first photo shows Quinn in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 25, 1975, as South Vietnam was collapsing. Quinn was a staff member of the NSC and was serving as interpreter in Vietnamese for President Ford as he received a dire report from visiting officials from Saigon. Immediately after the meeting, the President sent a special mission to Saigon, on which Quinn participated. The war ended just one month later on April 30.

📸 2: As US ambassador in Phnom Penh (1996-99), Quinn had visits from key members of Congress interested in post-war issues such as accounting for POWs and MIA servicemen whose fates were uncertain. Here, Sen. John Kerry and Quinn are greeting King Norodom Sihanouk at the Royal Palace. Quinn and Kerry served in the same small province of SaDec in the Mekong Delta during the War.

📸 3: Taken in 1976, this photo captures Kissinger’s 7th Floor office at the State Department. The other individual in the picture is FSO Ray Smith. Both Quinn and Ray had just been elected President (Ray) and Vice President (Quinn) of the Secretary’s Open Forum, the new internal place where dissent could be openly expressed. Quinn eventually became the only three time recipient of the AFSA Awards for Intellectual Courage and Dissent.

07/07/2023

Do you know the history of AAD's founding?

Today’s focuses on the origins of The Academy, which was created as an organization allowing former diplomatic practitioners to come together to promote high standards of U.S. diplomacy in July 1983.

07/07/2023

07/06/2023

Ambassador Brown, who served as the Ambassador to Ghana, Ivory Coast, and the Congo, is reading Chief of Station, Congo. This political memoir is written by a former CIA spy and chronicles the Congo’s political and military crises in the 1960s. Thanks for the recommendation, Amb. Brown!