American Diplomat

Mike Polt, who previously shared his experience in Serbia, shares a contrasting tale of successful adaptation to new circumstances in Estonia.  What can we learn from these two tales?

7 Nov 201922min

Michael Polt shares his perspective on the honored tradition of the State Department dissent channel, and discusses his experience in the former Yugoslavia when he arrived as Ambassador to Serbia in 2...

30 Okt 201927min

Brand new to the job, Lizzie Slater arrives at Embassy Dar es Salaam ready to begin work on embassy communications of every kind. Then the bomb falls. She is buried and seriously injured. But once pul...

24 Okt 201936min

Ambassador Prudence Bushnell puts Marie Yovanovitch's recent testimony on Capitol Hill in the context of the Certificate of Commission for all Foreign Service Officers, emphasizing the integrity, prud...

17 Okt 201931min

The Sequoia: A presidential yacht? A floating icon of American and diplomatic history? A loan gone south? Pete schools Laura on the proper pronoun for a thing of such great beauty (a "she", not an "it...

10 Okt 201920min

We're in LA right now promoting a TV script we've written, inspired by many of AmDip's greatest stories including this one from an interview with Kate Canavan on the many things that can go wrong in T...

1 Okt 201923min

AMLO, or Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico, takes the long view, and so does the Mexican populace, in the face of insults and other perhaps spontaneous diplomatic communiques conveyed b...

25 Sep 201923min

This one went to work in the Lyndon Johnson White House at the tender age of 25, became Johnson's Appointments Secretary (a role now called the Chief of Staff) at 28, and later became a congressman an...

19 Sep 201918min