Foreign Service

Five Decades on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy

James Dobbins

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Year: 2017
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780815730200
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A behind the scenes look at 50 years of US diplomacy.
From Vietnam in the 1960s to Afghanistan in this decade, James Dobbins was on the frontlines of American diplomacy and worked to advance U.S. national interests in some of the world's most difficult and troubled arenas.
In Foreign Service, Dobbins takes the reader behind the scenes at the Vietnam peace talks, the darkest days of the Cold War, the reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, and Somalia. He provides a thoughtful insider's account of all these ventures, analyzes the sources of both success and failure, and provides incisive portraits of many of the chief actors.
Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama turned repeatedly to Dobbins as a diplomatic trouble-shooter with the right instincts and experience to help find solutions for seemingly irresolvable problems. Foreign Service vividly captures why they did.

Index

Note: JD indicates Jim Dobbins in this index.

Abdullah, Abdullah, 240–42, 249, 252, 255, 291–95

Abel, Rudolf, 95

Able Archer (NATO exercise), 80

Acting assistant secretary of State Department, 101–02

Action Direct (French terrorist group), 91

Adams, Alvin, 41

Adelman, Ken, 82

Afghanistan: American embassy in, 251–53, 271; army reformation in, 255, 257; bilateral security agreement (BSA) and, 280, 285–89, 295; Bonn Declaration, 246–50; Brahimi (Bonn) conference on, 237, 239, 241, 243, 245–50; British troops in, 241; Bush (G. W.) administration’s lack of interest in, 258–59; Carter administration supporting anti-communist insurgents in, 298; civilian deaths from U.S. military maneuvers, 254, 259; communication methods in, 252; coup d’état by Abdullah in reaction to presidential election in, 294; government redevelopment in, 256; High Peace Council established, 272; interagency management of issues of, JD in charge of, 254–56; international peacekeeping force proposed for, 235, 246–47, 256; JD as special envoy to (G. W. Bush administration), 233–50; JD reflections on, 301–02; JD trips to, 240–52; loya jirga review and endorsement of BSA draft, 287; Marshall Plan for, 259; nation-building diplomacy in, xi, 302; NATO in, 267, 271; negotiated peace opportunities in, 271–72; Northern Alliance in, 234, 236, 238–42, 247; Obama comparing to Vietnam, 288–89; Obama plans for troop withdrawal, 268; pre-9/11 conflict in, 235; presidential elections in, 271, 289, 291–96; Provincial Reconstruction Team and, 256–57; reconstruction investment and efforts in, 255–56; Rumsfeld trip to, 252–53; security sector, Geneva meeting on funding and training for, 258; Soviet withdrawal from, 97; Taliban peace talks, 271–74, 278; U.S. troop levels in, under Obama, 288–89. See also Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (May 2013–July 2014)

Africa Bureau, 139

Africa interventions, 53–54, 141–44. See also specific countries

Agricultural trade issues, 130

Ahtisaari, Martti, 192, 194, 197, 220–21

Aidid, Mohamed Farrah, 137–39, 141

Air Force One, 126, 177, 179

Al-Attiyah, Khalid, 278–79

Albania, 118–19, 189, 190, 194, 256

Albright, Madele...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• One: Pacific Youth
• Two: Apprenticeship
• Three: The Seventh Floor
• Four: Provincial Interlude
• Five: On Turtle Bay
• Six: Upstairs
• Seven: Downstairs
• Eight: Postgraduate Studies
• Nine: Missile Diplomacy
• Ten: A Small Town in Germany
• Eleven: A World Reordered
• Twelve: And Disordered Anew
• Thirteen: From Community to Union
• Fourteen: Black Hawk Down
• Photographs
• Fifteen: Entering Haiti
• Sixteen: Exiting Haiti
• Seventeen: A Lesson in Divided Government
• Eighteen: Hemispheric Interlude
• Nineteen: War in Kosovo
• Twenty: Peace in Kosovo
• Twenty-One: The Fall of Milosevic
• Twenty-Two: Mending Transatlantic Relations
• Twenty-Three: A New Administration
• Twenty-Four: Another War, Another Assignment
• Twenty-Five: Losing the Peace: Afghanistan
• Twenty-Six: Losing the Peace: Iraq
• Twenty-Seven: Afghanistan Again
• Twenty-Eight: Reflections
• Index