diplomacy 
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SOURCE: Foreign Policy
4/16/2023
New Official Bio Claims Big Role for Secretary of State George Shultz in Ending the Cold War
Philip Taubman's new biography portays Shultz as a key figure in pushing Reagan to move closer to Soviet leadership, albeit one who was content to work in the background.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
1/12/2023
Why George Kennan Thought He Failed His Biggest Challenge
by Patrick Iber
After urging the United States to firmly oppose the expansion of Soviet influence as a way of bringing the USSR's internal weaknesses to the forefront, Kennan grew disillusioned at the militarized tack later versions of "containment" took. A new book revisits and challenges canonical studies of the diplomatic thinker.
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SOURCE: New York Times
12/6/2022
Don Luce, Activist Against Vietnam War, Dies at 88
Luce helped expose the torture and human rights abuses carried out by the government of South Vietnam, and campaigned against the war after being expelled from South Vietnam as an aid worker.
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10/9/2022
What the Cuban Missile Crisis Teaches Us about Ending the Ukraine War
by Walter G. Moss
Many people have invoked JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis as a reminder of the need for toughness in international confrontation. The equally vital but less popular lesson is that creative leadership is just as important.
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9/4/2022
Is it Deja Vu All Over Again with "Appeasing Dictators," or Time for A New Lens?
by Charles Spicer
Invoking Chamberlain and appeasement is never a particularly useful response to an international crisis. Do the efforts, albeit unsuccessful, of a small group of British diplomatic outsiders to "civilize" leading Nazis, point in a better direction?
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
6/1/2022
Shirley Temple Black's Second Act as a Diplomat
An unpublished memoir of her late life, recently released to the Smithsonian, shows how Shirley Temple Black worked to thwart pervasive sexism in the diplomatic arena while advocating for a global environmental awareness.
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SOURCE: The Guardian
5/25/2022
Biden's Remarks on Taiwan are Potentially Dangerous Provocation to China
by Stephen Wertheim
In itself, Biden's statement about defending Taiwan doesn't raise any possibilities that the Chinese military hasn't already considered. But it does threaten the American posture of "strategic ambiguity" that underlies diplomatic discussions.
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4/24/2022
Why I Can't Wave a Ukrainian Flag – A Dissenting Teach-In on Russia's Invasion
by Daniel Herman
"If Americans who fly Ukrainian flags actually want to help Ukrainians, they would be well advised to support diplomatic negotiations rather than limitless flows of weaponry."
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
4/19/2022
Moving Beyond Sanctions to End the War in Ukraine
by Alfred McCoy
"While the world waits for the other combat boot to drop hard, it’s already worth considering where the West went wrong in its efforts to end this war, while exploring whether anything potentially effective is still available to slow the carnage."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
4/18/2022
Is International Cooperation Possible?
by Tiziana Stella and Campbell Craig
The United Nations system, based on the sovereignty of nations, is increasingly inadequate to the global problems facing humanity. There are other international traditions that can guide a better world order.
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SOURCE: The Conversation
4/4/2022
In Ukraine, the US Likely to Follow Kissinger's Example and Disappoint Idealists
by Jeffrey Fields
"From tacit support of the murderous dictator Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War to Washington’s close relationship with brutal human rights abuser Saudi Arabia, the U.S. frequently chooses to put its own interest ahead of its professed values."
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SOURCE: Foreign Policy
3/28/2022
Madeleine Albright Had Warned the World about Putin
Madeleine Albright's path to being Secretary of State began with her experiences fleeing Prague twice – to escape both Nazism and Stalinism.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
2/20/2022
There are No Chamberlains Here
by Anne Applebaum
80 years after the infamous Munich meetings, NATO leaders are united in opposition to Russian aggression, but Ukraine leaders wonder what more must happen before triggering a decisive response.
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2/20/2022
Martin Indyk Writes the Palestinians Out of the History of Kissinger's Middle East Diplomacy
by James R. Stocker
Martin Indyk’s new work offers a vivid portrait of the former Secretary of State’s Arab-Israeli diplomacy, but he completely misses one of the most important parts of this policy – the Palestinians.
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2/13/2022
A Tale of Two Olympics: Changed China in a Changed World
by Joe Renouard
Since the 2008 Beijing games, the People's Republic of China's vastly increased global economic power and the COVID pandemic have changed the core narrative around the current winter games. It remains to be seen whether the Olympics will signal a turn back to openness or the intransigence of a confident world power.
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SOURCE: Forward
12/3/2021
The US Must Not Repeat the Error of Allowing at Totalitarian Regime to Use the Olympics for PR
by Rafael Medoff
Despite the famed victories of sprinter Jesse Owens, the 1936 Olympics were a victory for Hitler, polishing his regime's image as concerns rose about the persecution of Jews. Amid Chinese persecution of Uyghurs, the US should reconsider participation.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
11/29/2021
Isaac Chotiner Interviews Martin Indyk about Henry Kissinger
Does Martin Indyk's new book on Henry Kissinger, who is a personal friend, have enough critical distance between subject and author, asks interviewer Isaac Chotiner.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
10/13/2021
Review: The Schemes and Ambitions of Joseph P. Kennedy
by Alexis Coe
A new book locates the origin of the "Kennedy Curse" in the ruthless ambition and ego of patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy.
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9/12/2021
The Missed Lesson of Vietnam: Plan for Unconditional Victory or Don't Intervene at All
by James D. Robenalt
Comparisons between American withdrawal from Vietnam and Afghanistan miss a key point: failure was overwhelmingly likely from the beginning because, if the United States was unwilling or unable to secure unconditional surrender, time was on the side of its foes.
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7/4/2021
Could Wilson have Ended the Great War Two Years Earlier? Zelikow's "Road Less Traveled" Reviewed
by James Thornton Harris
Philip Zelikow's book is a provocative and contrarian argument that Woodrow Wilson missed a chance to end the first world war in 1916.
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